Computer News

Things are slowing down out there for the Christmas holiday.

Firefox 84.0.1
4 fixes.
Download | Release Notes

Intel Ethernet Adapter Complete Driver Pack 25.6
Download | Release Notes

The SolarWinds Supply Chain Attack
The full scope of this is still unknown. This is not contained. This is not just standard espionage. If it isn’t an act of war it certainly looks like a prelude to, well, something.

SolarWinds recap: All of the federal agencies caught up in the Orion breach
“The breach was first reported Dec. 13. And since then, the list of confirmed and potential victims within the federal government continues to grow.”
Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, Department of the Treasury, National Institutes of Health

Big tech companies including Intel, Nvidia, and Cisco were all infected during the SolarWinds hack
“Last week, news broke that IT management company SolarWinds had been hacked, possibly by the Russian government, and the US Treasury, Commerce, State, Energy, and Homeland Security departments have been affected — two of which may have had emails stolen as a result of the hack. Other government agencies and many companies are investigating due to SolarWinds’ extensive client list.”

The sheer scale of the SolarWinds attack is sparking big changes to a $134.6 billion cybersecurity industry that already had to transform itself in 2020 (Paywalled)
“In the new world, CISOs have to assume that a breach is always present in the network”

The SolarWinds hack, and the danger of arrogance
“The SolarWinds hack exposed not only vulnerabilities within public and private sector networks, but also the dangers of arrogance. And make no mistake, the U.S. – public and private sector alike, across many sectors – has long suffered from a heavy dose of arrogance…In this latest attack, we’ve been caught flatfooted…America, we’ve been humbled. What matters most, however, is what we do now.”

VMware Flaw a Vector in SolarWinds Breach?
“On Dec. 7, 2020, the NSA said “Russian state-sponsored malicious cyber actors are exploiting a vulnerability in VMware Access and VMware Identity Manager products, allowing the actors access to protected data and abusing federated authentication.”
Brian Krebs has several other interesting posts on this: https://krebsonsecurity.com/

SolarWinds and Supply Chain Attacks: Could it happen to WordPress?
Nice, quick breakdown here.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is Fastest Growing Entry in the Series with Over 2 Million Players to Date
I keep saying I’m gonna buy this…

Facebook and Apple Are Sparring Over Ads, Privacy, and ‘the Free Internet’
Apple: Facebook doesn’t care about privacy.
World: Pot meet kettle.
Facebook: What they said. Wait…What?
Microsoft: Whew, they’re keeping us out of it.
Google: It’s because you’re irrelevant.
38 State Attorney’s General: You’re too relevant.

I Was the Homeland Security Adviser to Trump. We’re Being Hacked.
“The magnitude of this ongoing attack is hard to overstate.
The Russians have had access to a considerable number of important and sensitive networks for six to nine months. The Russian S.V.R. will surely have used its access to further exploit and gain administrative control over the networks it considered priority targets. For those targets, the hackers will have long ago moved past their entry point, covered their tracks and gained what experts call “persistent access,” meaning the ability to infiltrate and control networks in a way that is hard to detect or remove.
While the Russians did not have the time to gain complete control over every network they hacked, they most certainly did gain it over hundreds of them. It will take years to know for certain which networks the Russians control and which ones they just occupy.“

Firefox 84
Some security fixes and the last FF version to support Flash.
Download | Release Notes
Tails and Tor Browser updated too.

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready Drivers 460.89 WHQL
Vulkan Ray Tracing for the Quake II RTX v1.4.0 update.
Download | Release Notes

Be careful this winter!
Yesterday was trash pickup day. I awoke with a headache, sat down with my coffee, and remembered I needed to haul the trash to the curb.
It had rained heavily the day before and temps were in the 20s. I headed out the door in a hurried haze and forgot the steps would be iced over.
It hurts but luckily I’m OK except for bruising. I provide this video as comic relief and a warning to please be careful out there this winter.

Best Cities for Beer Drinkers – 2020 Edition
“we compared 384 cities across the following metrics: total number of breweries, breweries per 100,000 residents, average number of beers per brewery, bars per 100,000 residents and the average price of a pint.”

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready Drivers 460.79 WHQL
“This new Game Ready Driver provides the ultimate gaming experience for Cyberpunk 2077. In addition, this driver provides optimal day-1 support for the official launch of Minecraft with RTX for Windows 10.”
Download | Release Notes

Intel Graphics Windows 10 DCH Drivers
“Playability improvements to reduce stutter in Fortnite on 7th Generation Intel Core™ Processors and higher”
Download & Info

PowerToys v0.27.1
A few fixes.
Download & Info

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Updated
Download | Security Bulletin

Amazon’s new health band is the most invasive tech we’ve ever tested
“Amazon has a new health-tracking bracelet with a microphone and an app that tells you everything that’s wrong with you.
You haven’t exercised or slept enough, reports Amazon’s $65 Halo Band. Your body has too much fat, the Halo’s app shows in a 3-D rendering of your near-naked body.
And even: Your tone of voice is “overbearing” or “irritated,” the Halo determines, after listening through its tiny microphone on your wrist.”
I already have one of these. It’s called a wife.

Windows Updates
Security updates only this month.
20H2 & 2004 – December 8, 2020—KB4592438 (OS Builds 19041.685 and 19042.685)
1909 & 1903 – December 8, 2020—KB4592449 (OS Builds 18362.1256 and 18363.1256)

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.12.1 Optional (WHQL)
Support For: Radeon RX 6900 Series, Cyberpunk 207, 5 other fixes, 11 known issues.
Download | Release Notes
Speaking of the RX 6900 series…
It’s a new release. MSRP is $1000. Nobody has it in stock.
Tom’s Hardware, “Impressive Mainstream Appeal“. Really, a card that MSRP’s at $1000 (U.S.) is mainstream?
Guru3D, “If you are less interested in what Raytracing and DLSS bring to the table, then the 6800/6900 XT with it’s 16GB graphics memory is a recommended choice over the $699 USD GeForce RTX 3080 and that expensive 1499 USD 3090 (not that you can purchase any atm).”

My Football Team Stinks
And it’s been a great season!

Google Chrome Updated
“The Stable channel has been updated to 87.0.4280.88 for Windows, Mac and Linux”
Bunch of fixes.
Download | Release info

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready Drivers 457.51 WHQL
“Includes support for the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GPU”
Download | Release Notes

Intel Wireless Bluetooth for Windows 10
Download & Info

Google Chrome 87
33 security fixes and is supposedly faster and has better power saving.
Download | Release Info
Chrome for Android updated too.

Firefox 83
Over 20 security fixes and supposedly faster.
Download | Release Notes
Tails and Tor Browser updated too.

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.11.2 Optional (WHQL)
Support for Radeon RX 6800 Series and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. A few fixes. I’ve learned to stay away from the “Optional” drivers.
Download | Release Notes

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.9.1 Optional Drivers
A dozen fixes.
Download | Release Notes

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready 456.38 WHQL Driver
“Game Ready for Fortnite RTX…In addition, this release also provides optimal day-1 support for Halo 3: ODST and Mafia: The Definitive Edition.”
Download | Release Notes

Off Topic

Republic of Doyle
“Jake Doyle and his father Malachy run a private investigations agency in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Their cases involve them in all sorts of dealings – not all of them on the right side of the law.”
Been streaming this. Original air date was 2010-2014. It’s on Netflix and Amazon Prime and I’m enjoying it. Lots of guest appearances from stars in shows like Gladiator, Battlestar Galactica, The Orville, Alias, and even a Playmate appear.

U.S. Adult Obesity Rate Tops 42 Percent; Highest Ever Recorded
“The U.S. adult obesity rate passed the 40 percent mark for the first time, standing at 42.4 percent, according to State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America released today by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH). The national adult obesity rate has increased by 26 percent since 2008.”

I don’t listen to Country radio anymore. That genre left me behind long ago. But, this appeared on the internet today…
The Academy of Country Music Awards were last night (awards shows are at the top of my DGAF list) and Eric Church gave one of his gritty, rockin’ country songs a twist. He started it off with Johnny Cash’s Ragged Old Flag. Goosebumps y’all…
(apologies for the Facebook video. If someone see a full quality video posted somewhere else please let me know.)

Eric Church – Stick That In Your Country Song

Samsung SSD Magician 6.2
New features include:
Full Scan in Diagnostic Scan –pause and resume added.
SMART Self-test in Diagnostic Scan –more precise feature for device diagnostic.
Help contents and GUI –reformed for more convenience.
Settings -easier to use with fine-tuning
Download | Install Guide

VMware Player 16
Download | Release Notes

EMDB 3.67
2 releases in 2 weeks. Lots of new stuff.
Download | Release Info

Intel Graphics Windows 10 DCH Drivers
Download | Release Notes

Intel Wifi Drivers
Windows 10 only
Download | Release Notes

CCleaner got updated. Done recommending that. Too many decent alternatives.

Off Topic

Survey finds ‘shocking’ lack of Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Gen Z
Sixty-three percent of those surveyed did not know 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Over half of those thought the toll was under 2 million.
I’ve been to the Dachau camp. The visit was, and is, haunting.