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NATO: 'internet doomsday plan' to reroute subsea internet traffic to satellites if attacked

Anthony Garreffa | Jul 10, 2024 8:16 PM CDT

NATO is preparing most of its undersea internet cables in case of an attack. If communication systems are attacked through hostile actions like a terrorist attack, they'll automatically reroute subsea internet and data traffic to satellites.

NATO: 'internet doomsday plan' to reroute subsea internet traffic to satellites if attacked

Most regular people think internet communications are mostly done through satellite, but it's mostly transmitted through undersea cables, which has forced researchers from the US, Iceland, Sweden, and Switzerland are working with NATO to build a system that would automatically reroute internet data and traffic from subsea cables, to satellite communications if they were attacked.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Science for Peace and Security Programme has approved a grant of up to $433,600 for the $2.5 million project, with research institutions providing in-kind contributions, reporting Bloomberg. Eyup Kuntay Turmus is an advisor and program manager at the NATO program, confirmed the project was recently approved, and told Bloomberg by email that the project will start "very soon".

Continue reading: NATO: 'internet doomsday plan' to reroute subsea internet traffic to satellites if attacked (full post)

South Korean ISP infects 600,000 of its own customers with malware to curb torrent traffic

Kosta Andreadis | Jul 2, 2024 10:02 AM CDT

ISPs or Internet Service Providers are generally not the biggest fans of Torrent traffic on their networks. Popular peer-to-peer traffic accounts for a large percentage of all web traffic, with most Torrents relating to pirated copies of media - games, movies, music, and TV shows. Several ISPs worldwide have resorted to things like throttling or outright blocking specific port traffic to combat the nonstop flow of peer-to-peer data.

South Korean ISP infects 600,000 of its own customers with malware to curb torrent traffic

That's not the case for South Korean ISP KT, which created a new division to interfere with customer data transfers and distribute malware. Yes, an ISP deliberately infected 600,000 of its customers. KT Corporation is one of the largest telecommunication companies in the country, and this was only discovered after a lengthy investigation that began in 2020.

Webhard, a popular Korean cloud service and BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing provider thought it was dealing with malicious hacking attempts when users began reporting issues. However, upon closer inspection, Webhard noticed that all affected users were KT customers.

Continue reading: South Korean ISP infects 600,000 of its own customers with malware to curb torrent traffic (full post)

Internet Archive forced to remove over 500,000 books from its Open Library

Kosta Andreadis | Jun 26, 2024 8:57 AM CDT

The Internet Archive is an invaluable resource, a digital library for the planet that gives people free access to digitized books, magazines, software, music, and even websites (thanks to the Wayback Machine). It preserves humanity's collected works for current and future generations.

Internet Archive forced to remove over 500,000 books from its Open Library

However, thanks to a recent US court decision that ruled in favor of major publishers in a copyright infringement lawsuit, over 500,000 of half a million books are being removed from the Internet Archive's Open Library project. The organization is appealing the decision, but the books cover the works of publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and Wiley - the big boys.

So, many known books are unavailable in the Open Library. The good news is that the verdict doesn't affect the Internet Archive's accessibility program, so the affected books are still available for those with print disabilities.

Continue reading: Internet Archive forced to remove over 500,000 books from its Open Library (full post)

AMD teams with Vindral to showcase 8K 10-bit HDR live streaming with ultra-low latency

Anthony Garreffa | Apr 16, 2024 7:21 PM CDT

AMD partnered with Vindral to show off some incredible 8K 10-bit HDR live streaming technologies on its Alveo hardware, with ultra-low latencies and all viewers in sync at the NAB Show 2024 in Las Vegas.

AMD teams with Vindral to showcase 8K 10-bit HDR live streaming with ultra-low latency

The companies noted that the AV1-powered 8K 10-bit HDR quality live streaming tier, with ultra-low latency and all viewers in sync. The demo at the NAB Show 2024 was running as a full on-premise setup of the Vindral CDN, located locally at NAB in Las Vegas, powered by an Alveo MA35D from AMD.

The two companies have been "working closely" to make a viable implementation, quality-secured, and scalable. Daniel Alinder, CEO at Vindral, said: "After our AV1 initiative, the next obvious step was to look to the next frontier. And that's 8K. Not many devices can display it yet, nor can they decode the video, but as a brand aimed to be ahead of the curve it is an important step for us".

Continue reading: AMD teams with Vindral to showcase 8K 10-bit HDR live streaming with ultra-low latency (full post)

Discord's April Fool loot box video garnered 1.4 billion views in a day by accident

Kosta Andreadis | Apr 3, 2024 1:58 AM CDT

An April Fools' gag can be amusing, cringeworthy, miss the mark, or fall flat in that 'meh' way. In the case of the popular social, chat, and online community platform Discord, its little April Fools was seen by 17% of the world's total population in 24 hours.

Discord's April Fool loot box video garnered 1.4 billion views in a day by accident

Discord's April Fools' gag is a simple joke: a short clip announcing that Loot Boxes are coming to Discord - a funny enough gag that would have been funnier during the height of videogame Loot Boxes, around 2017. You can watch it above.

So, how did this video get 1.4 billion (that's right, billion) views on YouTube, making it one of the most popular videos ever? A figure that makes the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer we all watched in December look like a clip from a niche channel that posts the odd instructional video on how to, I don't know, untangle headphone cables? Apparently, it was a software error.

Continue reading: Discord's April Fool loot box video garnered 1.4 billion views in a day by accident (full post)

Google promises to delete all the user data collected in Incognito mode

Jak Connor | Apr 2, 2024 10:31 AM CDT

A class-action lawsuit launched against Google is forcing the company to promise to delete all of the data it collected through its Incognito web browser.

Google promises to delete all the user data collected in Incognito mode

The lawsuit was filed back in 2020 and required Google to pay $5 billion in damages, but according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Google has decided to instead destroy "billions of data points" it improperly collected. Additionally, the company has said it will update its data collection disclosures and maintain a setting that prevents Chrome's third-party cookies by default for the next five years.

The lawsuit alleged that Google misled Chrome users by telling them its Incognito browser was private despite it still monitoring user activity, which Google pushed back on, saying it informed users that Incognito didn't mean "invisible" and that sites were still able to see their activity. The lawsuit levied federal wiretapping and California privacy laws and asked for $5,000 in damages per user for the alleged offenses. In 2021, Judge Lucy Koh concluded that Google "did not notify" users that the company was still collecting user data in Incognito mode.

Continue reading: Google promises to delete all the user data collected in Incognito mode (full post)

Researchers unveil plan to revolutionize Wi-Fi with new 3D design

Jak Connor | Mar 13, 2024 2:45 AM CDT

For many people around the world home internet connection speeds are a problem, but scientists now believe they can solve this issue and it all has to do with a new chip design.

Researchers unveil plan to revolutionize Wi-Fi with new 3D design

It's likely that people have put together that Wi-Fi connections slow down when there is more devices connected to that specific network, and this same principle applies for even larger networks such as ones provided by cell towers. An example of this is terrible connection speeds, or a lack of connection at sporting events. These rudimentarily called wireless traffic jams, but now researchers have an idea of solving it.

Typical Wi-Fi networks are powered by a "planar" processor, which produces signals at a flat or two-dimensional range. Due to these signals being emitted in a flat range there is a limited number of frequencies, or connections that can pair with the network at any given moment. To solve this researchers have proposed creating a 3D Wi-Fi chip that would enable the hardware to handle multiple frequencies at the same time, significantly reducing the congestion on the network, thus increasing speed.

Continue reading: Researchers unveil plan to revolutionize Wi-Fi with new 3D design (full post)

The world spent 1.3 trillion hours (that's 1,300,000,000,000) on the internet in 2023 alone

Anthony Garreffa | Dec 14, 2023 8:38 PM CST

How many hours did you spend online this year, huh? According to data analyst group Domo, users spent an absolutely astonishing 1,300,000,000,000 -- or 1.3 trillion -- hours online in 2023 alone... and the year isn't even finished yet.

The world spent 1.3 trillion hours (that's 1,300,000,000,000) on the internet in 2023 alone

The statistics are eye-opening, users sent a massive 241 million emails per minute this year, up from 231.4 million in 2022, while people Google searched at 6.3 million queries per minute, which is a 6.7% increase year-over-year.

Domo founder and CEO Josh James explains: "This year's findings reflect the ever-changing and fast-paced digital landscape, which has only been heightened by the rapid popularity of AI models such as ChatGPT. Data drives everything we do, from a quick search online or sending an email to checking the latest headlines on our way to work".

Continue reading: The world spent 1.3 trillion hours (that's 1,300,000,000,000) on the internet in 2023 alone (full post)

Netflix will soon be the first ad-supported streamer to offer downloads

Anthony Garreffa | Nov 1, 2023 10:33 PM CDT

Netflix has been playing around with its ad-supported plan for 12 months now, taking in a considerable amount of feedback from users and its partnership with Microsoft Advertising, and its continuing to evolve the ad-supported tier with downloads in the coming days.

Netflix will soon be the first ad-supported streamer to offer downloads

The streaming giant published a new article explaining its last year in Netflix ads, where it's pointed out that it's enhanced the member experience with upgraded features within their ads plans to include 1080p versus 720p video quality, two concurrent streams, and now downloads will be available "by the end of this week".

Netflix says that every member of their ad-supported plan will be able to download their favorite TV shows and movies, which will make Netflix the first -- and only -- ad-supported streamer to offer downloads. On top of that, the streaming company explained that starting in Q1 2024, their advertisers across the planet will be using their new binge ad (wt) format that has been analyzing the behavior of watching multiple episodes in a row. We'll see streamers enjoying 4 episodes in a row without ads versus the 3 in a row after which you're presented with an ad. That changes in the coming months.

Continue reading: Netflix will soon be the first ad-supported streamer to offer downloads (full post)

Elon Musk reveals X will get two new premium subscriptions soon - one of which ditches the ads

Darren Allan | Oct 20, 2023 11:44 AM CDT

Elon Musk has told us that X - or the social media site formerly known as Twitter, as we prefer to call it (well, it's snappier) - will be getting two new tiers of premium subscriptions.

Elon Musk reveals X will get two new premium subscriptions soon - one of which ditches the ads

As per Musk's tweet, one subscription tier will be pricier, but won't have any adverts, and the other will be cheaper (than the existing $8 plan) and will sport all features, but with no reduction in ads compared to the current level. (The $8 tier will halve ad numbers).

In short, denizens of X will have three choices of how they wish to pay - if they wish to pay a subscription at all.

Continue reading: Elon Musk reveals X will get two new premium subscriptions soon - one of which ditches the ads (full post)

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