Hackers deface Russian platforms and smart TVs to display anti-war messages

On the same day Russia celebrated its role in defeating Nazi Germany, many of the country’s online platforms were defaced in protest of the war in Ukraine. The Washington Post reported on Monday that Russians with smart TVs saw channel listings replace…

‘League of Legends’ mockumentary ‘Players’ heads to Paramount+ on June 16th

Paramount+ has released the first trailer for Players, its long-awaited League of Legends mockumentary from American Vandal creators Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda. Set to debut on June 16th, the series centers on Fugitive Gaming, a fictional pro t…

Amazon fired two workers who helped organize its first union

Weeks after its workers won a union election for the first time, Amazon fired two of the employees who were involved in organization efforts. It’s the first time Amazon has forced out workers involved in the union drive since the election win on April 1, according to Motherboard, though it’s not whether the company took these actions in retaliation.

Mat Cusick, a warehouse worker and communications lead for the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), was on COVID-19 leave to care for a loved one when he received notice of his firing on May 3rd, he told the outlet. The reason Amazon gave was that it let go Cusick for “voluntary resignation due to job abandonment.”

Fellow organizer Tristan Dutchin said he was fired four days later for failing to meet productivity targets. “I believe it was retaliatory,” Dutchin, who has been a vocal union advocate in the press, told Motherboard.

Amazon has fired workers on both sides of labor organizing drives at JFK8. In March 2020, the company terminated the employment of Chris Smalls, who led a protest over Amazon’s alleged failure to protect workers from COVID-19. Smalls is now the president of ALU. In April, the company was ordered to reinstate a JFK8 worker who it fired after a protest two years earlier.

Last week, Amazon let go six senior managers who were said to have been involved in the company’s anti-union efforts at JFK8. Amazon said it pushed them out as part of “management changes.” Some believed they were fired as a result of the union’s election win.

Amazon has challenged the election result in court. It has yet to recognize the ALU. Engadget has contacted Amazon for comment.

Clearview AI agrees to limit sales of facial recognition data in the US

Notorious facial recognition company Clearview AI has agreed to permanently halt sales of its massive biometric database to all private companies and individuals in the United States as part of a legal settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union, per court records.

Monday’s announcement marks the close of a two-year legal dispute brought by the ACLU and privacy advocate groups in May of 2020 against the company over allegations that it had violated BIPA, the 2008 Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. This act requires companies to obtain permission before harvesting a person’s biometric information — fingerprints, gait metrics, iris scans and faceprints for example — and empowers users to sue the companies who do not. 

“Fourteen years ago, the ACLU of Illinois led the effort to enact BIPA – a groundbreaking statute to deal with the growing use of sensitive biometric information without any notice and without meaningful consent,” Rebecca Glenberg, staff attorney for the ACLU of Illinois, said in a statement. “BIPA was intended to curb exactly the kind of broad-based surveillance that Clearview’s app enables. Today’s agreement begins to ensure that Clearview complies with the law. This should be a strong signal to other state legislatures to adopt similar statutes.”

In addition to the nationwide private party sales ban, Clearview will not offer any of its services to Illinois local and state law enforcement agencies (as well as all private parties) for the next five years. “This means that within Illinois, Clearview cannot take advantage of BIPA’s exception for government contractors during that time,” the ACLU points out, though Federal agencies, state and local law enforcement departments outside of Illinois will be unaffected. 

That’s not all. Clearview must also end its free trial program for police officers, erect and maintain an opt-out page for Illinois residents, and spend $50,000 advertising it online. The settlement must still be approved by a federal judge before it takes effect.

“By requiring Clearview to comply with Illinois’ pathbreaking biometric privacy law not just in the state, but across the country, this settlement demonstrates that strong privacy laws can provide real protections against abuse,” Nathan Freed Wessler, a deputy director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in Monday’s statement. “Clearview can no longer treat people’s unique biometric identifiers as an unrestricted source of profit. Other companies would be wise to take note, and other states should follow Illinois’ lead in enacting strong biometric privacy laws.” 

Monday’s settlement is the latest in a long line of privacy lawsuits and regulatory actions against the company. Clearview AI was slapped with a €20 million fine by Italian regulators in March and £17 million in November by the UK, both for violations of national data privacy laws. Australia has been investigating the company’s scraping schemes since 2020 and, currently, a small group of US lawmakers are lobbying to ban Federal agencies from using Clearview’s services entirely. But given that the company boasted in February that it had amassed 100 billion images in its “index of faces,” the right to anonymity in America remains deeply in peril.

‘F1 22’ has been redesigned to fit the new Formula 1 era

For the 2022 season, Formula 1 has entered a new era. The sport introduced a new car spec for this year, complete with a new set of regulations that govern how it can be used. There’s a new circuit in the United States as well as a continuation of the …

ASUS brings updated chips and OLED displays to a whole bunch of devices

ASUS is today showing off what it considers to be The Pinnacle of Performance in the form of a whole raft of new laptops. All of them are getting new, more refined industrial design and the more prominent use of ASUS’ Delta-style logo, as well as better thermals. Topping the range is the new Zenbook Pro 16X OLED, a 5.6lb behemoth with a 16-inch, 16:10, 60Hz 4K OLED Dolby Vision and Pantone-validated touchscreen display. Nestled inside the NVIDIA Studio-rated machine is space for a 12th-generation Intel Core CPU, reaching as high as the i9-12900H CPU, which can be paired with an RTX 3060 GPU. ASUS is saying that the most interesting facet about this new machine isn’t the raw brawn on offer, but the fact that it’s now got much more staying power. Its new cooling system, officials claim, will enable the system to burn through a 140W TDP without throttling, while generating just 40db in fan noise.

Image of the new ASUS ZenBook Peo 14 Duo OLED
Daniel Cooper

The model which will, however, catch most people’s eyes is the new, updated, Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED, the one with that cutsey but surprisingly useful second screen. The OLED in its product name refers to a 14.5-inch, 2,8K, 120Hz OLED display up top, which is paired with a 12.7-inch ScreenPad Plus. ASUS says that the ScreenPad Plus is now brighter than its predecessor, with a better auto-tilt which improves cooling. Inside, you’ll be able to order a 12th-generation Core i9-12900H and pair it with an RTX 3050 Ti GPU.

It’s this machine that I’ve been able to play with, briefly, before the announcement, and I’m certainly a fan. The model I was using included a 12th-generation Core i7-12700H with 16GB RAM, but performance seemed to be buttery-smooth. Also, and this might sound reductive, but given just how much is crammed into that body, it’s surprisingly light and small. The only downside, like last year’s model, is that the cramped trackpad takes a long while getting used to, and feels ancient compared to most modern laptops.

As well as the headline acts, ASUS is also adding OLED displays to a number of its other machines, including the 15.6-inch Zenbook Pro 15 Flip OLED, the Zenbook S13 Flip OLED and S13 OLED. You can also now pick up a bigger Zenbook Pro 17, with a 17.3-inch display and the ability to spec for AMD’s Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU paired with an RTX 3050 GPU.

Further down the product line river, the Vivobook series are also getting OLED displays thrown at several devices. That includes Vivibook Pro models in 14.5-, 15.6- and 16-inch sizes, each packing an OLED display and the option to spec a Core i9-12900H or Ryzen 8 6900HX, up to 32GB DDR5 RAM, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti and up to 2TB SSD storage. The Vivobook S series, meanwhile, gets OLED options for its 14.5-, 15- and 16-inch models, which can be specced with Intel Core i7 models paired with Iris Xe or Radeon graphics, depending on your budget and needs.

Image of ASUS Surface-like convertible in a limited edition with art by Philip Colbert.
ASUS

The company is also unloading a Vivobook 13 Slate OLED Artist Edition, versions of its existing 2-in-1 with themed accessories and kickstand covers. The artists in question are Philip Colbert (pictured) and Steven Harrington, the former famous for his pop-art style imagery, the latter working in what’s described as a “contemporary Californian psychedelic-pop aesthetic.”

Many of these laptops will be available at as-yet undetermined dates in the near future, with prices naturally dependent on the many build-to-order options at hand. The Zenbook Pro 16X OLED, when it does arrive, will set you back a minimum of $2,600, while the Zenbook 14 Pro Duo OLED will retail for a minimum of $2,000 when it’s available for order.

A US college is shutting down for good following a ransomware attack

Lincoln College says it will close this week in the wake of a ransomware attack that took months to resolve. While the impact of COVID-19 severely impacted activities such as recruitment and fundraising, the cyberattack seems to have been the tipping point for the Illinois institution.

The college has informed the Illinois Department of Higher Education and Higher Learning Commission that it will permanently close as of May 13th. As NBC News notes, it’s the first US college or university to shut down in part because of a ransomware attack.

Lincoln says it had “record-breaking student enrollment” in fall 2019. However, the pandemic caused a sizable fall in enrollment with some students opting to defer college or take a leave of absence. The college — one of only a few rural schools to qualify as a predominantly Black institution under the Department of Education — said those affected its financial standing.

Last December, Lincoln was hit by a cyberattack, which “thwarted admissions activities and hindered access to all institutional data, creating an unclear picture of fall 2022 enrollment. All systems required for recruitment, retention and fundraising efforts were inoperable,” the college said in a statement posted on its homepage. “Fortunately, no personal identifying information was exposed. Once fully restored in March 2022, the projections displayed significant enrollment shortfalls, requiring a transformational donation or partnership to sustain Lincoln College beyond the current semester.”

Barring a last-minute respite, the one-two punch of the pandemic and a cyberattack have brought an end to a 157-year-old institution. Lincoln says it will help students who aren’t graduating this semester transfer to another college.

Over the last few years, ransomware hackers have attacked other educational facilities, as well as hospitals, game studios, Sinclair Broadcast Group and many other companies and institutions.