The Ballista botnet is actively exploiting a high-severity remote code execution flaw (CVE-2023-1389) in TP-Link Archer AX-21 routers, infecting over 6,000 devices primarily in Brazil, Poland, the UK, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Tom’s Hardware reports: According to a new report from the Cato CTRL team, the Ballista botnet exploits a remote code execution vulnerability that directly impacts the TP-Link Archer AX-21 router. The botnet can lead to command injection which then makes remote code execution (RCE) possible so that the malware can spread itself across the internet automatically. This high severity security flaw (tracked as CVE-2023-1389) has also been used to spread other malware families as far back as April 2023 when it was used in the Mirai botnet malware attacks. The flaw also linked to the Condi and AndroxGh0st malware attacks.

Ballista’s most recent exploitation attempt was February 17, 2025 and Cato CTRL first detected it on January 10, 2025. Of the thousands of infected devices, the majority of them are concentrated in Brazil, Poland, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Turkey; with the botnet targeting manufacturing, medical/healthcare, services and technology organizations in the United States, Australia, China and Mexico.

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The Remote Desktop app for Windows is (almost) dead; long live the Windows app. Microsoft said on Monday that its legacy Remote Desktop client, which has already been replaced on other platforms, will no longer be supported on Windows after May 27, 2025. But you aren’t losing any functionality here. You can still do tech support for your parents using built-in Windows functionality or the modern Windows app, which is somehow both the simplest and most confusing naming convention Microsoft’s marketing team could have mustered.

“Starting May 27, 2025, the Remote Desktop app for Windows from the Microsoft Store will no longer be supported or available for download and installation,” Microsoft’s Hilary Braun wrote on its Windows IT Pro Blog. “Users must transition to Windows App to ensure continued access to Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop and Microsoft Dev Box.”

The company says connections to Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop and Microsoft Dev Box via the Remote Desktop app from the Microsoft Store will be blocked in the Remote Desktop app on the app’s expiration date of May 27. For all other users, it will continue working but will no longer be supported.

Increasing the confusion, Windows has a built-in Remote Desktop Connection app that will remain the only way to use Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections after May 27. But Microsoft will eventually incorporate that into the Windows app.

As Thurrot.com notes, Microsoft warned that it would eventually replace the Remote Desktop with the Windows app when the operating system’s namesake app launched last fall. The new app even arrived as an update to the Remote Desktop client on Apple’s App Store.

As for the, uh, interestingly named Windows app, the company likely chose that branding because it wants to move Windows increasingly to the cloud. Its Windows 365 service, introduced in 2021, even lets you stream a virtual version of the OS from any device. So, calling the unified app used to access cloud and remote PCs “Windows app” seems maybe slightly less bizarre from that angle.

Still, a Reddit thread from the Windows app’s September launch held some entertaining reactions from the company’s fans. “Microsoft needs to collect all the staff responsible for naming or renaming their products in the past 15 years and shoot them into the sun,” u/AlignedHurdle posted. Meanwhile, u/Shoddy_Eye7866 seized an opportunity to use the Xzibit meme: “Yo dawg, I heard you like Windows, so I took Windows App and put in your Windows so you can Windows while you Windows.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/microsoft-is-phasing-out-its-remote-desktop-app-in-may-211320714.html?src=rss

Blue Ghost is in the midst of spending an entire lunar day on the surface of the Moon, or the equivalent of 14 days on Earth.

iRobot just announced some new Roomba vacuums and they feature interesting capabilities. The Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo Robot is being advertised as “the industry’s first onboard mechanical debris-compacting system.” In other words, it squeezes dust and debris together like, well, a garbage compactor.

This allows users to go eight weeks without having to empty the vacuum. It also eliminates the need for a dedicated debris bin. 

iRobot

Otherwise, the 205 is a full-featured hybrid vacuum/mop. There’s a 4-stage vacuuming system with ClearView LiDAR for improved navigation. The company says this unit offers “250 percent more power-lifting suction and improved cleaning performance” when compared to Roomba 600 series robots.

The Roomba Plus 405 Combo Robot + AutoWash Dock is another hybrid, but this one pays special attention to the mopping capabilities. It includes the company’s new DualClean mop pads that spin at 200 RPM for some extra oomph. It also comes with Roomba’s AutoWash dock, which washes and dries the mop pads on its own. This tech was first used in last year’s Roomba Combo 10 Max. 

iRobot

The company also announced the 505 Combo Robot + AutoWash Dock, which is better at cleaning edges. To coincide with these new products, the Roomba Home app is getting some much-needed upgrades. The redesign should allow for “more intuitive control, the ability to create routines and schedules, access to real-time monitoring of their device and advanced customized cleaning options.”

The Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo Robot starts at $469 and the Roomba Plus 405 Combo Robot + AutoWash Dock costs $800. The 505 costs a whopping $1,000. Preorders go live on March 18 via iRobot or select retailers. The company also announced a new entry-level vacuum called the Roomba 105 that costs $319.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/roombas-irobot-205-robovac-can-go-eight-weeks-without-being-emptied-210014269.html?src=rss

Media Matters for America (MMFA) has a plan to potentially defuse Elon Musk’s “thermonuclear” lawsuits filed so far in three cities around the world, which accuse the nonprofit media watchdog organization of orchestrating a very costly X ad boycott.

On Monday, MMFA filed a complaint in a US district court in San Francisco, alleging that X violated its own terms of service by suing MMFA in Texas, Dublin, and Singapore. According to the TOS, MMFA alleged, X requires any litigation over use of its services to be “brought solely in the federal or state courts located in San Francisco County, California, United States.”

“X Corp.’s decision to file in multiple jurisdictions across the globe is intended to chill Media Matters’ reporting and drive up costs—both of which it has achieved—and it is directly foreclosed by X’s own Terms of Service,” MMFA’s complaint said.

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A pro-corporate libertarian movement is attempting to take over the U.S., with Trump’s help.

The AI industry is doing its best to will “agents”—pieces of AI-driven software that can perform multistep actions on your behalf—into reality. Several tech companies, including Google, have emphasized agentic features recently, and in January, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote that 2025 would be the year AI agents “join the workforce.”

OpenAI is working to make that promise into a reality. On Tuesday, OpenAI unveiled a new “Responses API” designed to help software developers create AI agents that can perform tasks independently using the company’s AI models. The Responses API will eventually replace the current Assistants API, which OpenAI plans to retire in the first half of 2026.

With the new offering, users can develop custom AI agents that scan company files with a file search utility that rapidly checks company databases (with OpenAI promising not to train its models on these files) and navigate websites—similar to functions available through OpenAI’s Operator agent, whose underlying Computer-Using Agent (CUA) model developers can also access to enable automation of tasks like data entry and other operations.

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Take your bets whether you’ll be able to find Nvidia’s lower-end RTX 5060 and RTX 5050 in stock anywhere.

Spain’s government has approved legislation imposing substantial fines of up to 35 million euros or 7% of global turnover on companies that fail to clearly label AI-generated content. Reuters reports: The bill adopts guidelines from the European Union’s landmark AI Act imposing strict transparency obligations on AI systems deemed to be high-risk, Digital Transformation Minister Oscar Lopez told reporters. “AI is a very powerful tool that can be used to improve our lives … or to spread misinformation and attack democracy,” he said. Spain is among the first EU countries to implement the bloc’s rules, considered more comprehensive than the United States’ system that largely relies on voluntary compliance and a patchwork of state regulations. Lopez added that everyone was susceptible to “deepfake” attacks – a term for videos, photographs or audios that have been edited or generated through AI algorithms but are presented as real. […]

The bill also bans other practices, such as the use of subliminal techniques – sounds and images that are imperceptible – to manipulate vulnerable groups. Lopez cited chatbots inciting people with addictions to gamble or toys encouraging children to perform dangerous challenges as examples. It would also prevent organizations from classifying people through their biometric data using AI, rating them based on their behavior or personal traits to grant them access to benefits or assess their risk of committing a crime. However, authorities would still be allowed to use real-time biometric surveillance in public spaces for national security reasons.

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The first-ever published research out of Tinshemet Cave indicates the two human species regularly interacted and shared technologies and customs.

One day after X went down for hours, security researchers are throwing cold water on Elon Musk’s public comments about who might be behind the DDoS attack. On Monday, as X was still struggling to remain online, Musk said in a post that the site had been brought down by a “massive cyberattack” executed by “a large, coordinated group and/or a country.” Later that day, in an interview with Fox News, he said the attack involved “IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.”

He never provided evidence for either claim. But, in a new report from Wired, security researchers offered a very different view on the attack. Security experts interviewed by the publication said that they had seen little evidence that Ukrainian IP addresses played a significant role in the DDoS attack, with one researcher saying the country wasn’t even in the top 20 countries of origin involved.

The report also suggests that, despite Musk’s assertion there were “a lot of resources” involved, X may have inadvertently left its systems susceptible to a DDoS attack like the one that happened Monday. “X origin servers, which respond to web requests, weren’t properly secured behind the company’s Cloudflare DDoS protection and were publicly visible,” Wired writes. “As a result, attackers could target them directly. X has since secured the servers.”

Notably, this wouldn’t be the first time Musk has blamed an unspecified “cyberattack” when faced with an embarrassing failure of X’s systems. Last year, Musk blamed a “massive DDoS attack” for crashing a planned livestream with Donald Trump, who was running for president at the time. Musk never explained how a DDoS attack could bring down only one feature on the site. The Verge later reported that there had been no such attack.

X didn’t respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/security-researchers-arent-buying-musks-spin-on-the-cyberattack-that-took-down-x-203402687.html?src=rss

USAID ordered to destory classified records while DOGE has tried to operate in secret.

The brainchild of digital artist Bennett Waisbren, ‘You Are What You Eat’ is a video series of humanoids made from different foods in the process of eating themselves. That’s something I didn’t think I was going to see today. The internet, am I right? “What about it?” It should require a license to use, like a car. “And do you have a license?” Driver’s or internet? “Either.” Absolutely not.

Want Gemini to add events to your Google Calendar with ease? You’ll have to pay for that.

Apple on Tuesday patched a critical zero-day vulnerability in virtually all iPhones and iPad models it supports and said it may have been exploited in “an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals” using older versions of iOS.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-24201, resides in Webkit, the browser engine driving Safari and all other browsers developed for iPhones and iPads. Devices affected include the iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later. The vulnerability stems from a bug that wrote to out-of-bounds memory locations.

Supplementary fix

“Impact: Maliciously crafted web content may be able to break out of Web Content sandbox,” Apple wrote in a bare-bones advisory. “This is a supplementary fix for an attack that was blocked in iOS 17.2. (Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on versions of iOS before iOS 17.2.)”

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Be sure to add this tool to your arsenal for better, more efficient DIY projects and more.

Electric vehicle company Rivian is rolling out new software today. The lead feature is Enhanced Highway Assist, which controls steering, acceleration, and braking on compatible highways. It relies on an infrared camera in the rearview mirror to ensure that the driver is still paying attention to the road, even though their hands don’t need to be on the wheel. This resource is only rolling out to Rivian’s Gen 2 vehicles; the blog post did not address whether it would also come to Gen 1.

There’s also a new driving mode for Rivian’s Performance Dual-Motor lineup. Rally Mode is now available as one of the Off-Road Mode options. When enabled, the vehicle will provide heightened responses to steering and throttle on a range of terrains. Several Dual-Motor vehicles are also getting the option for a post-purchase performance upgrade that introduces three new drive modes: Rally, Sport and Soft Sand. This performance upgrade is a one-time cost of $5,000.

Both Gen 2 and Gen 1 are getting other elements of the software update. Side mirror auto-tilt when the car is reversing, allowing a driver better visibility of their wheels and the curb when parallel parking, and tire puncture detection are part of the package. Rivian is also adding an option to change wheel type in the mobile app’s Settings menu to receive more-accurate driving range estimates.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/rivians-latest-update-offers-hands-free-highway-driving-201926973.html?src=rss