Hackers are using Trump’s election fraud conspiracy to break into U.S. government agencies

Hackers are using Trump’s election fraud conspiracy to break into U.S. government agencies

The SolarWinds hackers are at it again.

And they’re weaponizing Donald Trump’s Big Lie to carry out their attacks.

Microsoft is warning of a new “sophisticated” email attack it has uncovered from the Russia-linked actors behind last year’s massive SolarWinds hack, Nobelium. The 2020 attack on the software vendor is considered to be one of the worst data breaches ever.

The new attack, according to the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center, targets U.S. government agencies, military, IT service providers, think tanks, NGOs, telecommunications companies, and health technology and research organizations. Read more…

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Twitch warns creators about a wave of DMCA takedown requests

Twitch warns creators about a wave of DMCA takedown requests

Big changes are coming to Twitch. And the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform doesn’t have a choice.

According to Twitch, the company recently received a massive batch of DMCA takedown requests “with about 1,000 individual claims from music publishers.”

Just got an email about a DMCA takedowns from twitch and apparently the music publishing companys are scanning old VODS and claiming a LOT of stuff from other channels

— RATPARTY (@ratparty_) May 28, 2021

Twitch sent an “important update” via email to its users late Thursday night to warn them about the situation.

The company says that all of the DMCA takedown requests involved video-on-demand content, streams that are saved to the platform to be replayed after the live broadcast. Twitch says that most of the takedown requests target streamers who listen to copyrighted music in the background of their videos while they’re streaming. Read more…

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5 cool things you didn’t know you could do with a Roku

5 cool things you didn't know you could do with a Roku

For many of the millions of people out there with a Roku device, it’s probably little more than a Netflix box. There’s nothing wrong with that, as Roku has always sold its products as a way to stream content from every major service above all else. But there’s so much more you can do.

Thanks to a series of software updates over the years, modern Roku devices can do a bunch of cool things that have very little to do with streaming The Office for the 27th time. Not all of these features are available on every single Roku box, so there’s a good chance you’ve been missing out on at least one of them. Read more…

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The ‘Horizon Forbidden West’ gameplay trailer looks downright breathtaking

The 'Horizon Forbidden West' gameplay trailer looks downright breathtaking

Horizon Zero Dawn was already known for being a beautiful game back in 2017. But the latest gameplay trailer for its sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, shows off what the game engine can do with the added horsepower of a PS5. Check out the 14 minutes of gameplay footage that Sony released during its State of Play on Thursday above. 

The post-apocalyptic robo-dinosaur game does not yet have a confirmed release date, but is slated to launch sometime this year. Read more…

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New, upgraded Nintendo Switch model reportedly set for 2021 release

New, upgraded Nintendo Switch model reportedly set for 2021 release

The existence of a new upcoming Nintendo Switch console model has been one of the worst-kept secrets in video games for months now.

While Nintendo has yet to publicly confirm anything about these new Switch rumors, the latest credible reports claim assembly could begin as early as this summer. The alleged release plan would be for either a September or October 2021 launch, according to the sources familiar with the matter that spoke to Bloomberg News but wished to remain anonymous.

A Nintendo spokesman did not respond in time for publication when Mashable reached out for a request for comment on this latest report, and nor has Nintendo provided any previous statements regarding the slow drip of rumors around a new Switch over the past year. Read more…

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Nearly half of Americans don’t know what ‘fetishization’ is, according to Bumble

Nearly half of Americans don't know what 'fetishization' is, according to Bumble

New research from dating app Bumble shows the disturbing reality of fetishization in the United States: 45 percent of survey respondents don’t have a clear understanding of what the word means as it relates to identities, race, and body type.

The groups most likely to face fetishization were also the most likely to recognize it, according to the survey. One in four Black women and one in six Black men surveyed said they experienced unsolicited fetishization while online dating. A third of American Indian or Alaska Native men experienced such fetishization while dating online, while 21 percent of Asian women and 18 percent of Asian men have. Read more…

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Sega announces new 3D ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ game and ‘Sonic Colors: Ultimate’ remaster

Sega announces new 3D 'Sonic the Hedgehog' game and 'Sonic Colors: Ultimate' remaster

Sega celebrated Sonic the Hedgehog’s 30th anniversary Thursday with a livestream that gifted fans with the announcement of not just one but two major upcoming video game releases. The Sonic Central livestream, a first of its kind and basically like Sega’s version of a Nintendo Direct Mini, was a fever dream of hedgehog-related announcements both big and small. 

One of the biggest reveals was a trailer (which you can watch above) announcing Sonic Colors: Ultimate, a remaster of the 2010 game originally released on Nintendo DS and Wii. The remaster is set to release Sep. 27 on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC (though presumably will also be available on the most recent console generation, the PS5 and Xbox Series X.) Read more…

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PayPal will soon let you exchange Bitcoin across third-party apps

PayPal will soon let you exchange Bitcoin across third-party apps

After years of hesitation, PayPal continues to double down on cryptocurrency.

Soon, PayPal users in the U.S. will be able to transfer, withdraw, and exchange their crypto (like Bitcoin) across popular third-party platforms and digital wallets like Coinbase, the company’s VP of Global Business Development Jose Fernandez da Ponte announced Wednesday at the Consensus 2021 conference. It is yet another step in PayPal’s recent efforts to fully support and become a part of the unwieldy landscape of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.  

For a while, the OG online payment platform resisted crypto, preferring to mostly stick with good old-fashioned IRL money. In 2019, it even backed out of supporting Facebook’s ill-fated Libra project. But in October 2020, PayPal made a big move to embrace digital currency by announcing it would finally allow users to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrencies through its own online wallet service. Then in March 2021, it finally allowed Bitcoin to be used as a form of payment, and the PayPal-owned Venmo app quickly followed suit by permitting users to buy and sell Bitcoin in April. Read more…

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New M. Night Shyamalan trailer for ‘Old’ leaves, uh, lots of questions

New M. Night Shyamalan trailer for  'Old' leaves, uh, lots of questions

Who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks? Well, actually, the trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie Old showcases many of the classic tropes we’ve come to expect from his previous works. Despite having more of a horror flavor than some of his most recent titles (they even got the kid from Hereditary), a magical and unexplainable mystery still remains at the center of this film releasing in theaters on July 23. Read more…

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Watch the Rock and Emily Blunt risk it all in the action-packed ‘Jungle Cruise’ trailer

Watch the Rock and Emily Blunt risk it all in the action-packed 'Jungle Cruise' trailer

Nature truly is healing, because dumb summer blockbusters are back, baby! In the latest Disney vehicle releasing in July 30, there’s what appears to an army of the undead, leopards, lots of unnecessary slow-mo, explosions, and [checks notes] a tank manned by Jesse Plemmons? Whatever the heck it is Emily Blunt and the Rock are getting into on this Amazon river ride, sign us up. 

You can catch Jungle Cruise in theaters or on Disney+ July 30. Read more…

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