• Fallout Season 2 Production Has Been Halted Due to Fires in California
    gamingbolt.com
    The recent fires that have broken out across Los Angeles county in California have led to a number of shows halting production. According to Variety, among the shows that have had to stop production is the second season of Amazon Primes Fallout series.The Los Angeles permitting agency for filming, FilmLA, has released a statement, explaining its decision to withdraw permits issued for the production of these shows, which also include Ted, Hacks, and Abbott Elementary. The decision came from instructions issued by the Los Angeles county fire department.The LA County Fire Department has specifically instructed that all permits issued for filming in the communities of Altadena, La Crescenta, La Canada/Flintridge and unincorporated Pasadena are withdrawn. Other permit revocations are possible, said FilmLA in its statement.The first season of the Fallout show made its debut a year ago, and saw quite a bit of success right off the bat. According to reports of the time, the show managed to get more than 5 million views in its first week alone. A couple of weeks later, reports indicated that it had garnered more than 65 million viewers in its first 16 days. A second season for Fallout was quickly greenlit, with filming reportedly having begun back in November.The success of the Fallout show also led to a spike in interest of Bethesdas open-world RPGs: Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4 and Fallout 76.While details about the second season of Fallout have been quite sparse, the ending of the first season indicated that we would be seeing the area surrounding New Vegas in some form. For more details of what we hope to see in the shows second season, here are 10 things we believe it needs.
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  • Cohere just launched North, its biggest AI bet yet for privacy-focused enterprises
    venturebeat.com
    Cohere launches North, a secure enterprise AI platform outperforming Microsoft Copilot and Google Vertex AI in testing, with Royal Bank of Canada among early adopters implementing the technology for regulated industries.Read More
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  • Infinite Reality secures $3bn in funding
    www.gamesindustry.biz
    Infinite Reality secures $3bn in fundingInvestment will allow metaverse firm to grow platform, continue acquisitions and partnershipsImage credit: Infinite Reality News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on Jan. 9, 2025 Metaverse platform Infinite Reality has raised $3 billion in a funding round, bringing the firm's total valuation to $12.25 billion.As reported by GamesBeat, the funding was led by a private investor. Infinite Reality will use this investment to grow its platform and continue acquisitions, partnerships, and product launches."We are absolutely ecstatic to share this news with our customers [and] businesses all over the world," said CEO and co-founder John Acunto."The ability to provide them a platform where they can not only create a great immersive environment, but one where they own their data, own their customer, and own their experience means the world to Infinite Reality."This [fundraising round] allows us to continue investing in our customers as they strive to be active participants in today's technological advancements."
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  • Turkish mobile studio Grand Games secures $30 million investment
    www.gamedeveloper.com
    Chris Kerr, News EditorJanuary 9, 20251 Min ReadImage via Grand GamesMagic Sort and Car Match developer Grand Games has raised $30 million in Series A funding to expand its slate of mobile titles.The Istanbul-based studio has secured the investment just nine months after it was established. Its debut titles have earned over $4 million in gross in-app revenue in under three months.The investment round was led by Balderton Capital with backing from existing investors Bek Ventures (formerly known as Earlybird Digital East), Laton Ventures, and angel investor Mert Gr.Grand Games claims it has hit the ground running by creating original titles rather than cloning existing mobile gamesa strategy it believes is favored by some of its competitors."We are striving to capture the most valuable currency of our players, their time. To do that we focus relentlessly on providing a premium experience with a casual game design, enriched by social elements," said studio leaders in a press release."With two hugely successful titles already under our belt, we're building a multi-studio entertainment powerhouse that evokes genuine emotion and connectionsomething truly unique in the casual gaming world."Grand Games will use the cash injection to scale into global markets including the United States and launch a "flagship genre-defining game" in 2025. The studio expects to expand from 14 employees to more than 40 over the next year.Read more about:FundingAbout the AuthorChris KerrNews Editor, GameDeveloper.comGame Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, andPocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.See more from Chris KerrDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like
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  • Up close with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 FE, an incredibly compact flagship video card
    www.theverge.com
    We might be skeptical of some Nvidias claims, like whether a $549 RTX 5070 will truly deliver the performance of a $1599 RTX 4090. But its almost impossible not to be impressed by the RTX 5090 Founders Edition, where Nvidia fit 575 watts of graphics power, including 21,760 CUDA cores and 32GB of GDDR7 memory, into a video card just two slots wide. It almost has to be seen to be believed, and we sent my colleague Antonio around the CES show floor in Las Vegas in what was initially a fruitless search. No PC manufacturer seemed to have an interactive game demo running on a 5090, much less the two-slot card. But on Wednesday, we finally spotted the real deal at Nvidias offsite event and then some. Its heavy, and the uniquely desirable $2,000 card may wind up being rare, but its here, and it works.RelatedBelow, find our pictures of the relatively compact 5090; its incredibly compact PCB with the Blackwell chip on top; a game demo running on the 5090; a picture of the 5090, 5080, and 5070 Founders Editions side by side; and some examples of just how bulky every other partners cards can be compared to Nvidias own.The card measures 137 x 304 x 40mm two slots wide and roughly 12 inches long. Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
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  • Marvel Rivals Season 1 Global Release Times Confirmed, Maintenance Planned Ahead of Launch
    www.ign.com
    Marvel Rivals developer NetEase Games has confirmed the global release times for the Season 1 update, which sees the arrival of the Fantastic Four.While Marvel Rivals is available across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, NetEase has targeted a simultaneous launch for Season 1, dubbed Eternal Night Falls, on January 10.Season 1 begins with the addition of Invisible Woman and Mister Fantastic, with Human Torch and The Thing arriving in the second half of the season. There are three new maps, special events, and a new Doom Match game mode.The new Battle Pass includes "over double the content" of the Season 0 pass, NetEase said, with the Luxury Pass featuring 10 new costumes for the heroes.The three new maps include Sanctum Sanctorum and Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown, which arrive in the first half of the season, and Central Park, which will be added in the second half.The new Doom Match puts 8-12 players in factions on a single map. Players begin in different parts of the map and earn points by knocking out enemies. Whichever faction includes the top 50% of players wins.NetEase has published the Marvel Rivals Season 1 patch notes early, revealing all the nerfs and buffs coming to the cast of playable characters. When you're done with that, check out official stats that reveal Marvel Rivals' pick and win rates in Quickplay and Competitive modes for Season 0.Marvel Rivals Season 1 Eternal Night Falls global release times1am PST, January 104am EST, January 109am GMT, January 1010am CET, January 10Its worth noting that NetEase plans to bring the Marvel Rivals servers offline for just over two hours ahead of the launch of Season 1 for planned maintenance. During this time players will not be able to access the game.Maintenance Schedule: 11pm PST January 9 to 1.10am PST January 10.The maintenance looks set to bleed into the Season 1 launch time, so players should brace themselves for a delay unless NetEase can bring the maintenance to an end earlier than planned.Marvel Rivals is a smash hit for NetEase, securing 10 million players in just three days and 20 million in two weeks. The free-to-play superhero team-based PvP shooter launched on December 6 across PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, and while Sony and Microsoft do not make player numbers public, Steam makes Valve stats available.On Steam, Marvel Rivals peaked over its launch weekend with 480,990 concurrent players, which was enough to put it in the top five most-played games on Valve's platform. Its the 20th highest concurrent player number ever seen on Steam, ahead of the likes of Helldivers 2, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Destiny 2.Check out IGNs Marvel Rivals Review to find out what we think. And keep an eye on the latest Marvel Rivals codes for free skins, and vote on the strongest Marvel Rivals characters in our community tier list.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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  • DGA and SAG Nominations Shift Oscars 2025 Race
    www.denofgeek.com
    While the New Years barely begun, the contours of its awards race are rapidly coming into focus. Sunday night marked the first major televised awards show of the year with the (surprisingly) re-embraced Golden Globes declaring The Brutalist and Emilia Prez the Best Pictures of the year in separate genres. However, the Golden Globe Foundation consists of fewer than 70 members, nearly all of whom are journalists. Conversely, the Oscars Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is made up of roughly 10,000 people who work within the film industry itself. Which makes organizations like the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America far more interesting bellwethers.Each grouprepresenting actors and directors, respectivelyenjoys overlapping membership with the Academy, and each provides a kind of tea leaves reading for how folks within the Hollywood community feel about this years crop of awards contenders. And wouldnt you know it, both just revealed their nominations for the year in 2024.We wont run on for paragraphs about the full listswhich you can find for SAG here and the DGA herebut the race for the ultimate Oscar prize appears to be coming into focus, particularly when one studies which movies are enjoying the most cross-pollinated support.Indeed, a number of the movies chosen for each groups highest baubleSAGs Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and the DGAs Theatrical Feature Film prizeoverlap. Jacques Audiards Emilia Prez continues to perform well among awards voters after winning the Best Picture Musical or Comedy at the Globes, as the film has now been nominated in the equivalent award by both the SAGs and DGAs. It is also joined by another possible frontrunner (at least according to prognosticators) in Sean Bakers Anora, which is nominated at the top of both guilds shortlist, alongside Edward Bergers Conclave.Whats interesting, though, is that the other perceived frontrunner, and the movie that the Golden Globes called the Best Picture Drama, was snubbed by the SAGs for its Best Ensemble/Picture prize. In fact, Brady Corbets The Brutalist was barely recognized for its ambitions by the acting guild, which also snubbed Guy Pearce in the Best Supporting Actor category and Felicity Jones in the Best Supporting Actress category. The only SAG nomination the film received was Adrien Brody for Best Actoran award he won at the Globes.Meanwhile James Mangolds Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, over-performed beyond the expectations of some prognosticators, earning a best ensemble nomination from SAG and a best director nod from the DGA. Stars Timothe Chalamet, Monica Barbaro, and Edward Norton were also nominated in their respective categories by SAG. The actors guild also elevated Wicked with a nomination for their equivalent of Best Picture while also re-confirming the popularity of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grandes performances in that musical with Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress nominations, respectively. Noticeably absent in either guilds Best Picture equivalent was a nomination for Denis Villeneuves Dune: Part Two or some of the films a lot of folks were hoping to get into DGAs directors shortlist SAGs ensemble choicessay, for example, the fascinating cast of Sing Sing. Coralie Fargeats snubbing for Director at the DGAs for her work on The Substance marks another year where at least the DGA failed to nominate a woman for its top prize. Well see if the Academy follows suit in the Best Director category.While most of the nominated movies mentioned above will probably be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscarswhich these days has a mandatory 10 slots openthe dynamics of who has momentum is constantly shifting. For starters, it would seem the actors guild is less won over by The Brutalist than critics, or for that matter directors. So its worth noting that actors make up the biggest branch of the Academy with about 1,200 members being thespians (or about 1/10th of all voters). Admittedly, plenty of films have won Best Picture at the Oscars and not Outstanding Cast at the SAGs, but seven of the last 10 movies to win the Best Picture Oscar were at least nominated in SAGs best ensemble category. And the only time one of the Best Picture winners wasnt in the last five years was when the largely (and intentionally) unprofessional, non-union cast of Nomadland was snubbed by SAG during the year of COVID.While the DGA nomination for Corbetan award we suspect he will winspeaks to how The Brutalist continues to appeal to filmmakers within the industry, its frontrunner status is far from guaranteed. Conversely, it would seem the industry thinks much more highly of A Complete Unknown than some critics, which might not be surprising since previous musical biopics like even the critically reviled Bohemian Rhapsody have ended up in the Oscars Best Picture category. However, Mangold getting a DGA nomination over the aforementioned Fargeat or, for that matter, Denis Villeneuve for Dune or RaMell Ross for Nickel Boys suggests all three films could be closer to the bubble of a Best Picture snubbing than some might like.Outside of the top prize, its also worth noting that Angelina Jolie was noticeably snubbed from a Best Actress nomination by SAG after being also snubbed by the BAFTAs across the pond. Her chances of getting nominated by the Academy for Best Actress appear to be dwindling, just as Demi Moores are on a rapid ascent. A week ago, I wrote about how there was a chance Moore might be snubbed for Best Actress, but after a magnificent acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, following a surprise win no less, her Best Actress nomination appears secure.Yet lest folks want to dub Moore a possible frontrunner, keep in mind that, again, The Substance was snubbed for SAG and the DGAs highest prize. Additionally, Margaret Qualley was also snubbed in the Best Supporting Actress category by the SAGs despite being considered likely to get in. It seems pretensions against the horror genre still run deep. Also instead of Qualley and Jones in Best Supporting Actress, we saw surprise nominations for Danielle Deadwyler in The Piano Lesson and Jamie Lee Curtis in The Last Showgirl. In fact, The Last Showgirl did remarkably well with the SAGs as Pamela Anderson also got into a surprise nomination for Best Actress, edging out not only Jolie but awards season royalty Nicole Kidman for her work in Babygirl. She also got in over Marianne Jean-Baptiste for a remarkable turn in Hard Truths.It is still early goings, all things considered, with the Oscars themselves not happening until March. However, the Academy finalizes its nominations next week and a narrative seems to be forming around certain films, chief among them being Emilia Prez, Conclave, and maybe Anora (which also saw Yura Borisov happily get into Best Supporting Actor at with the SAGs). For the record, ware not counting out at all The Brutalists chances at being the frontrunner, particularly against something as lascivious as Anora. Were simply noting that despite it winning what is traditionally seen as the Globes best predictor for the Oscar, this race is far from over.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!
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  • AMD does and doesnt credit Apple for its powerful new Ryzan AI Max chips
    9to5mac.com
    You have to feel sorry for Intel at this point. Not only has Apple left its CPUs in the dust, but AMDs new Ryzan AI Max chips claim to do the same to Intels flagship Core Ultra 9 288V.The new chips take the same approach as Apple Silicon in combining CPU, GPU, and unified memory. AMD doesnt credit Apple with the idea, but does admit the chip wouldnt exist without the Cupertino company Engadget reports that the new chips are available with up to 16 CPU cores, 50 graphics cores, and 128GB unified memory. The result, claims AMD, is that it will render 3D graphics more than two-and-a-half times faster than the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V.AMD denies following in Apples footsteps.You might think AMD was taking a bit of inspiration from Apple Silicon, with its powerful CPU cores, graphics and unified memory. But according to VP Joe Macri, AMD was building towards this long before Apple. We were building APUs [chips combining CPUs and Radeon graphics] while Apple was using discrete GPUs. They were usingour discrete GPUs. So I dont credit Apple with coming up with the idea.However, Macri does admit that this latest chip might never have been developed in the first place without Apples influence.Macri gives Apple credit for proving that you dont need discrete graphics to sell people on powerful computers. Many people in the PC industry said, well, if you want graphics, its gotta be discrete graphics because otherwise people will think its bad graphics, he said.Apple proved that buyers dont care about integrated versus discrete, they only care about the performance. That enabled him to win the corporate politics battle needed to get the go-ahead for the development of the Ryzan AI Max.With the success of Apple Silicon, Macri was finally able to get approval to spend a mind boggling amount of money developing the Ryzen AI Max. I always knew, because we were building APUs, and Id been pushing for this big APU forever, that I could build a system that was smaller, faster, and I could give much higher performance at the same power, he said.The first chance to buy a laptop with the new chip will come in the first half of this year, with the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 and ZBook Ultra G1a (seriously, what is going on with PC naming this year?!) among the machines set to be powered by it.Image: AMDAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel
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  • The Publisher of the Journal "Nature" Is Emailing Authors of Scientific Papers, Offering to Sell Them AI Summaries of Their Own Work
    futurism.com
    Springer Nature, the stalwart publisher of scientific journals including the prestigious Natureas well as the nearly 200-year-old magazine Scientific American, is approaching the authors of papers in its journals with AI-generated "Media Kits" to summarize and promote their research.In an email to journal authors obtained by Futurism, Springer told the scientists that its AI tool will "maximize the impact" of their research, saying the $49 package will return "high-quality" outputs for marketing and communication purposes. The publisher's sell for the package hinges on the argument that boiling down complex, jargon-laden research into digestible soundbites for press releases and social media copy can be difficult and time-consuming making it, Springer asserts, a task worth automating."We know how important it is to communicate your research clearly and effectively to both your peers and the broader public, but it can be tedious and time-intensive to create concise and impactful texts for different audiences," reads the email. "Thats why we're excited to introduce our new Media Kit designed to help you expand the reach and impact of your work."Per the email, the package includes a roughly 250-word "plain language summary" designed to "simplify" research for the public; a roughly 300-word "research brief" that offers a "concise summary" for academic and scientific peers; a short, AI-spun audio summary; and social media copy characterized as "ready-to-use content" for promoting work "across platforms."The content, the publisher adds, will be generated using Springer's own "secure, in-house" AI tool.There's a major catch, though: the tool's "high-quality" outputs can't always be trusted. On an accompanying webpage linked in the email, Springer warns that "even the best AI tools make mistakes" and urges authors to painstakingly review the AI's outputs and issue corrections as needed for accuracy and clarity."Before further use," reads the webpage, "review the content carefully and edit it as you see fit, so the final output captures the nuances of your research you want to highlight."Simon Hammann, a food chemist at the University of Hohenheim, Germany and a Springer-published author who received the emailed offer, characterized the AI media bundle as a cash grab."I find it ridiculous,"he toldFuturism. "It's jumping on the AI bandwagon, where we throw AI at about anything, useful or not. I am even more annoyed by the price tag.""I didn't think there was anything left for publishers to monetize (after having authors acquire the funding, do the research, write the paper, do the peer review, and correct the page proofs for free while they take in all the profits), but here I stand corrected," he continued, adding that the "research brief" promised in the package "is essentially the abstract that you're writing anyway usually."Hammann added that researchers might be "left to wonder" what they're "actually paying for, if the publisher doesn't even see promotion of their outputs as their job, but hands that over to researchers as well."To that end with the exception of the audio summary, at least it's unclear what Springer's $49 package is offering authors that much cheaper or free generative AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini models can't."At Springer Nature, we understand how vital it is for researchers to be able to communicate their research to different audiences from colleagues and funders to policymakers and the public. This multi-media content bundle offering high-quality, AI-generated summaries and posts has been developed to help them do just that,"the company said in response to questions about this story. "The content is generated using the support of a secure AI-tool."No memory of the paper is retained or stored or used for training," it continued. "The content bundle is only created when requested by the original author of the publication and can be reviewed and edited by the original author, ensuring that a human is always in the loop."Springer has made numerous forays into AI. The publisher announced last year that it would embrace AI as a tool to drive its business and science,purportedly forward, declaring on its website that "Springer Nature is committed to unlock the potential of AI and other emerging technologies to advance scientific discovery and innovation."That apparent commitment appears to be taking shape right now. Earlier this week, for instance, the massive publishing body announced in a press release that it would be deploying a "new AI-driven tool" crafted to automate "editorial quality checks" and notify editors to "potentially unsuitable manuscripts. The announcement adds that manuscripts may be held back from peer review if the AI tool deems them editorially unfit.At the same time, amid a broader field of scientific publishers grappling with a pipe-clogging onslaught of fake, AI-generated studies being submitted for peer review, Springer has been attempting to keep garbage-quality AI entries at bay via two "bespoke AI tools" designed to detect suspicious language and imagery. (Though Springer claimed in a press release last year that both tools proved effective in pilot testing, AI detection tools are notoriously unreliable.)In other words, Springer's embrace of AI has been a juggling act.On the one hand, it's charging researchers for automated social copy and trying to use AI to expedite the review process. On the other, it's deploying AI systems to detect the unauthorized use of AI by authors.Hammann, meanwhile, noted that the publisher's $49 AI upsell is just one of the ways that Springer promises to help scientists promote their work for a little extra dough, that is."Funnily, Springer Nature emailed me with the opportunity to get a 82 x 52 cm poster for my publication," Hammann recalled. "Only $89."More on science journals and AI: Scientific Article With Insane AI-Generated Images Somehow Passes Peer ReviewShare This Article
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  • MirrorFace Leverages ANEL and NOOPDOOR in Multi-Year Cyberattacks on Japan
    thehackernews.com
    Jan 09, 2025Ravie LakshmananCybersecurity / MalwareJapan's National Police Agency (NPA) and National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NCSC) accused a China-linked threat actor named MirrorFace of orchestrating a persistent attack campaign targeting organizations, businesses, and individuals in the country since 2019.The primary objective of the attack campaign is to steal information related to Japan's national security and advanced technology, the agencies said.MirrorFace, also tracked as Earth Kasha, is assessed to be a sub-group within APT10. It has a track record of systematically striking Japanese entities, often leveraging tools like ANEL, LODEINFO, and NOOPDOOR (aka HiddenFace).Last month, Trend Micro revealed details of a spear-phishing campaign that targeted individuals and organizations in Japan with an aim to deliver ANEL and NOOPDOOR. Other campaigns observed in recent years have also been directed against Taiwan and India.According to NPA and NCSC, attacks mounted by MirrorFace have been broadly categorized into three major campaigns -Campaign A (From December 2019 to July 2023), targeting think tanks, governments, politicians, and media organizations using spear-phishing emails to deliver LODEINFO, NOOPDOOR, and LilimRAT (a custom version of the open-source Lilith RAT)Campaign B (From February to October 2023), targeting semiconductor, manufacturing, communications, academic, and aerospace sectors by exploiting known vulnerabilities in internet-facing Array Networks, Citrix, and Fortinet devices to breach networks to deliver Cobalt Strike Beacon, LODEINFO, and NOOPDOORCampaign C (From June 2024), targeting academia, think tanks, politicians, and media organizations using spear-phishing emails to deliver ANEL.The agencies also noted that they observed instances where the attackers stealthily executed the malicious payloads stored on the host computer within the Windows Sandbox and have communicated with a command-and-control server since at least June 2023."This method allows malware to be executed without being monitored by antivirus software or EDR on the host computer, and when the host computer is shut down or restarted, traces in the Windows Sandbox are erased, so evidence is not left behind," the NPA and NCSC said.Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE
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