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One day after X went down for hours, security researchers are throwing cold water on Elon Musks 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 wasnt even in the top 20 countries of origin involved. The report also suggests that, despite Musks 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 wouldnt be the first time Musk has blamed an unspecified cyberattack when faced with an embarrassing failure of Xs 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 didnt 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
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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
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In a rare recent example of a product becoming more affordable (rather than moving full-speed in the opposite direction), the popular podcast service Pocket Casts no longer requires a subscription to access its web player and desktop apps. Although the premium tiers are still there for some paywalled features, the only platforms where you can't listen for free are now smartwatches without a paired phone a niche within a niche, if ever there was one. Before Tuesday's announcement, you could listen for free on the Pocket Casts Android and iOS apps, but its web player and desktop apps required a premium subscription starting at $4 monthly or $40 annually. Now, you can check in with your favorite podcasters on your Mac or PC without paying a dime. Although you could already do that on free alternatives like Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube Music, Pocket Casts enthusiasts (including some Engadget staffers) swear by its clean UI, silence trimming and voice boosting features and queue management. Pocket Casts / App Store The Automattic-owned service framed the move as standing up for open podcasting that's freely accessible to anyone, everywhere. "By making our Web Player available to everyone, we're reinforcing our belief that podcasts belong to the people, not corporations," the brand wrote in its announcement post. That's a noble sentiment and one we would love to see more companies embrace. But if we read (perhaps a bit cynically) between the lines, YouTube announced last month that it's passed one billion monthly active podcast viewers, with third-party data showing that it's the most popular podcast service in the US. When combined with Apple's recent addition of a web player for its free podcast service, perhaps Pocket Casts realized it was limiting itself to a diminishing piece of the pie by paywalling everything but its mobile apps. As it stands, Pocket Casts hopes its subscription-gated features will entice some folks into throwing a few bucks its way. The Plus tier adds (deep inhale) a shuffle feature, bookmarks, the ability to preselect chapters, 20GB of cloud storage, watchOS and Wear OS apps (which you can still use for free as long as the content is streaming from your phone) and other goodies like themes, icons and a year of content from Slumber Studios. Meanwhile, the Patron tier offers all that plus early access to features, 100GB of cloud storage, extra icons and, the most important of all, a profile badge. Pocket Casts Plus will set you back $4 monthly or $40 annually, while a Patron subscription costs $10 monthly or $100 annually.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/pocket-casts-makes-its-web-player-and-desktop-apps-usable-without-a-subscription-193035046.html?src=rss
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