Tag: thousands

A US supercomputer with 8,000 Intel Xeon CPUs and 300TB of RAM is being auctioned — 160th most powerful computer in the world has some maintenance issues though and will cost thousands per day to run

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date May 5, 2024
No Comments on A US supercomputer with 8,000 Intel Xeon CPUs and 300TB of RAM is being auctioned — 160th most powerful computer in the world has some maintenance issues though and will cost thousands per day to run

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The Cheyenne supercomputer, based at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was ranked as the 20th most powerful computer in the world in 2016 – but now it’s up for sale through the US General Services Administration (GSA).

By November 2023, the 5.34-petaflops system’s ranking had slipped to 160th in the world, but it’s still a monster, able to carry out 5.34 quadrillion calculations per second. It has been put to a number of noteworthy purposes in the past, including studying weather phenomena and predicting natural disasters.

The Cheyenne Supercomputer is a monster installation made up of SGI ICE XA modules which comprises of 14 E-Cells, weighing 1,500 lbs each, and 28 water-cooled E-Racks. There are 8,064 Intel “Broadwell” Xeon processors (18-core 2.3GHz E5-2697v4) with a total count of 145,152 cores. In terms of memory, it has 313,344GB of DDR4-2400 ECC single-rank memory and 224 IB Switches. The supercomputer also comes with two air-cooled management racks, each featuring 26 1U servers.

“Repairable”

Howeer, potential buyers do need to be aware of a few issues. Firstly, the unit doesn’t come with fiber optic and CAT5/6 cabling, although the internal DAC cables within each cell are provided and will be “meticulously labeled and packaged in boxes”, and it comes with previously used PGW coolant fluid (around10 gallons per E-cell). It will need to be collected by a professional moving company and the purchaser “assumes responsibility for transferring the racks from the facility onto trucks using their equipment.”

A major red flag is that the supercomputer is worryingly listed as “repairable”. The auction page states “the system is currently experiencing maintenance limitations due to faulty quick disconnects causing water spray. Given the expense and downtime associated with rectifying this issue in the last six months of operation, it’s deemed more detrimental than the anticipated failure rate of compute nodes.

Approximately 1% of nodes experienced failure during this period, primarily attributed to DIMMs with ECC errors, which will remain unrepaired. Additionally, the system will undergo coolant drainage.”

With a couple of days to go before the auction ends, bidding currently stands at $50,085 with the reserve not yet met. Should you wish to buy a piece of supercomputer history, and have the deep pockets required to get it up and running, and the space to house it, you can put in a bid here.

Meta is offering popular Threads users thousands of dollars in bonuses

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date April 30, 2024
No Comments on Meta is offering popular Threads users thousands of dollars in bonuses

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Meta is offering some creators thousands of dollars if they go viral on Threads. The payouts are part of a new invitation-only bonus program that rewards creators who use Meta’s newest app.

An Instagram offers some details. It says creators can earn money “based on the performance of your Threads posts” or “the number of posts you create.” So, go for either quality or quantity, it seems. It appears terms of the bonuses are unique to each creator.

According to on Threads, at least one creator was offered “up to $5,000” for Threads posts or replies with 10,000 views or more. Unfortunately, we can’t see how many views that screenshot has so far, and whether it’s making him money.

While not nearly as high as the $10,000 bonuses Reels creators could earn in the past, it’s still pretty generous, given the lower effort needed to type a Threads missive.

The company refers to it as being in “testing,” but it offers a preview of how Meta may try to boost engagement on the service. It’s the same playbook as Meta on Facebook and Instagram.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

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Just in time for the Olympics.

Peacock just announced it’s raising prices again, less than a year since it did it last. The new price will be $8 per month for Peacock with ads and $14 per month, ad-free. Those prices start on July 18 for new subscribers and August 17 for existing users. The 2024 Summer Olympics is right around the corner, and the streamer will show “every sport and event, including all 329 medal events.” So there’s a reason.

Continue reading.

Apple now has six months to allow competing stores on its tablets.

Apple’s iPad has been added to the list of tech products that must abide by the EU’s DMA rules. The European Commission has officially designated iPadOS as a gatekeeper under the DMA, alongside Apple’s Safari web browser, iOS and the App Store. To ensure iPadOS compliance, Apple will have to allow third parties to interoperate with iPadOS, so that means third-party app stores for those tablets.

Continue reading.

Teens can shop for goods in virtual stores before shipping products to their house.

Walmart’s Discovered experience started out as a way for kids to buy virtual items for Roblox inside the game. But today, that partnership will include a pilot program for teens to buy real-life goods stocked on digital shelves before they’re shipped to your door. Anyone who buys a real-world item will receive a free virtual twin. The first products to benefit from this are a crochet bag from No Boundaries, Onn Bluetooth headphones and a TAL stainless steel tumbler. And we all know: Kids love to show off their stainless steel tumblers.

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Tags Bonuses, dollars, Meta, offering, Popular, thousands, Threads, users

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A critical security flaw could affect thousands of WordPress sites

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date April 22, 2024
No Comments on A critical security flaw could affect thousands of WordPress sites

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Hundreds of thousands of WordPress websites are vulnerable to a critical severity flaw which allows threat actors to upload malware to the site through a bug in a plugin.

As reported by BleepingComputer, Japan’s CERT recently found a critical severity flaw (9.8) in the Forminator plugin, built by WPMU DEV. The flaw, now tracked as CVE-2024-28890, allows threat actors to obtain sensitive information by accessing files on the server.

The researchers also said the flaw could be used to change the contents of the site, mount denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and more.

No evidence of abuse

Forminator is a plugin that allows WordPress operators to add custom contact, feedback, quizzes, surveys, polls, and payment forms. Everything is drag-and-drop and thus user-friendly, and plays well with many other plugins.

WPMU DEV has addressed the issue and released a patch. Users are advised to apply it and bring their Forminator plugin to version 1.29.3 as soon as possible. At press time, the WordPress.org website shows at least 500,000 active downloads, of which 56% run the latest version. That leaves at least 230,000 websites that are possibly still vulnerable.

So far, there is no evidence of CVE-2024-28890 being exploited in the wild, but given its destructive potential, and the simplicity to be abused, chances are abuse is just a matter of time.

While WordPress itself is generally considered a safe platform, its various plugins and add-ons present a unique opportunity for hackers looking for a way in. As a general rule of thumb, WordPress admins are advised to keep the platform, the plugins, themes, and add-ons updated at all times, and to deactivate all of the add-ons that they don’t actively use.

WordPress is the world’s number one website builder platform, with almost half of all websites on the internet being powered by the builder.

Credential spraying from thousands of IP addresses are targeting VPNs, Cisco warns

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date April 18, 2024
No Comments on Credential spraying from thousands of IP addresses are targeting VPNs, Cisco warns

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For a month now, hackers have been mounting a large-scale credential stuffing attack against multiple Virtual Private Network (VPN) instances around the world. At the moment, it’s hard to say who is behind the attack, or what the motives are, but researchers have some clues.

As reported by Ars Technica, Cisco’s Talos security team recently warned of an ongoing campaign in which attackers keep trying more than 2,000 usernames and some 100 passwords against different VPNs. Some of the products in the attackers’ crosshairs include Cisco Secure Firewall VPN, Checkpoint VPN, Fortinet VPN, SonicWall VPN, RD Web Services, Mikrotik, Draytek, and Ubiquiti, however others could be targeted, as well.

The victims are scattered all over the world, and operate in various verticals, prompting the researchers to conclude that the attackers don’t have a preferred target, but are rather casting as wide of a net as possible.

Growing in strength

“Depending on the target environment, successful attacks of this type may lead to unauthorized network access, account lockouts, or denial-of-service conditions,” the researchers said in their report. “The traffic related to these attacks has increased with time and is likely to continue to rise.”

While the evidence is inconclusive, the researchers believe this could be the work of the same threat actor that targeted Cisco a few weeks back. They are basing this assumption on the facts that there are “technical overlaps” in how the attacks were conducted, and that in both instances, the same infrastructure was used. In the Cisco campaign, the goal was reconnaissance, so the speculation is that it’s the same this time around.

The IP addresses found from the previous attack were already added to Cisco’s block list for its VPN, and organizations worried about these attacks are advised to do the same, for any third-party VPN they have deployed.

A 30,000TB tower powered by a 70-year-old technology — Spectra Logic proves that data tape still has a place in an AI world with storage system that can handle thousands of LTO-9 tapes

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Spectra Logic has introduced the Spectra Cube tape library, a cloud-optimized system for on-premise, hybrid cloud, and IaaS environments that is designed to be quickly deployed, dynamically scaled, and easily serviced without tools or downtime.

The Spectra Cube library is managed by the company’s recently announced LumOS library management software, which provides secure local and remote management and monitoring.

The tower is compatible with LTO-6, LTO-7, LTO-8, and LTO-9 technology generations and will reportedly support LTO-10 when it becomes available. LTO-6 support allows users to read old tapes all the way back to LTO-4 with an LTO-6 tape drive. The solution features high tape cartridge exchange performance, a TeraPack Access Port for easy tape handling, and drive interfaces including Fibre Channel and SAS.

Up to 30PB of native capacity

With a capacity-on-demand expansion model, the Spectra Cube allows for additional tape slots and drives to be enabled via software without downtime. The library offers up to 30PB of native capacity and supports up to 16 partitions for shared or multi-tenant environments.

“As cloud data continues to grow rapidly, the escalating costs of public cloud storage have forced a reckoning, leading to significant interest in moving data to more economical locations including on-prem clouds and hybrid clouds,” said Matt Ninesling, senior director of tape portfolio management at Spectra Logic.

“Compared to typical public cloud options, Spectra Cube solutions can cut the costs of cold storage by half or more, while providing better data control and protection from existential threats like ransomware.”

The price of a fully-fledged Spectra Cube library ranges from under $60,000 to over $500,000 depending on configuration, number of tape drives, amount of media, and other additions to the base library.

Thousands of Social Security numbers stolen from government firm

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date April 9, 2024
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Hackers recently stole hundreds of thousands of social security numbers from an American consulting firm, with victims across the US possibly affected.

Greylock McKinnon Associates (GMA) has filed a new report with the Office of the Maine Attorney General, and sent a breach notification email to affected individuals.

In its filing, the company said that 341,650 individuals have had their sensitive data, and Social Security Numbers (SSN), stolen by unidentified threat actors.

Identities unknown

In the letter, seen by TechCrunch, GMA told the victims that it fell prey to a “sophisticated cyberattack” in May last year. In the attack, the threat actors stole people’s names, birth dates, addresses, and Medicare Health Insurance Claim Numbers, which also contained Social Security Numbers associated with a member.

Furthermore, “some” medical information and/or health insurance information was also stolen. While the attack did happen almost a year ago, it was in early February that GMA was notified that it had resulted in the theft of sensitive, personal data. It is unclear why GMA took so long to conclude its investigation of the breach.

GMA is a consulting firm providing litigation support services in civil litigation matters. The data it held was obtained by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) as part of a civil litigation matter, and then passed over to the company. “We received your information in our provision of services to the DOJ in support of that matter,” GMA said in the letter. “DOJ has advised us that you are not the subject of this investigation or the associated litigation matters. The DOJ informed GMA that this incident does not impact your current Medicare benefits or coverage.”

The identity of the attackers, or their motives, remain unknown. No threat actors have assumed responsibility for the attack just yet. It is also no known if the data was grabbed from a specific litigation process.

Thousands of D-Link NAS devices have serious backdoor security issues

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date April 8, 2024
No Comments on Thousands of D-Link NAS devices have serious backdoor security issues

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A high-severity vulnerability has been recently discovered in certain D-Link Network Attached Storage (NAS) instances which could be used to run malicious code, steal sensitive data, and mount denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

Cybersecurity researcher Netsecfish, who discovered the flaw, found multiple instances of D-Link’s NAS devices have an arbitrary command injection flaw in the “system” parameter, and a hardcoded account that can be used to access the device. As a result, hackers can run commands as they please:

“Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the system, potentially leading to unauthorized access to sensitive information, modification of system configurations, or denial of service conditions,” the researcher said.

No patch

The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2024-3273. Apparently, there are roughly 92,000 of these D-Link NAS devices in use today, meaning that the attack surface is relatively large.

Multiple models are affected, including: DNS-320L Version 1.11, Version 1.03.0904.2013, Version 1.01.0702.2013; DNS-325 Version 1.01; DNS-327L Version 1.09, Version 1.00.0409.2013; and DNS-340L Version 1.08.

Unfortunately, the patch is not coming. These devices, D-Link confirmed to BleepingComputer, are way past their end of life, and as such will not be fixed. The company released a security bulletin, and urged its customers to replace the devices with newer versions as soon as possible.

“All D-Link Network Attached storage has been End of Life and of Service Life for many years [and] the resources associated with these products have ceased their development and are no longer supported,” the spokesperson told the publication. “D-Link recommends retiring these products and replacing them with products that receive firmware updates.”

Even those that receive firmware updates should never be exposed to the internet as cybercriminals see them as valuable targets.

This tiny box from Samsung can hold 2TB of a special kind of RAM worth tens of thousands of dollars — CXL Memory Module Box hailed as the future of expansive server memory in the age of AI

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At MemCon 2024, Samsung showcased its latest HBM3E technology, talked about its future HBM4 plans, and unveiled the CXL Memory Module Box, also known as CMM-B, the latest addition to its Compute Express Link (CXL) memory module portfolio.

CMM-B is essentially a memory pooling appliance for rack computing leveraging CXL. It supports disaggregated memory allocation, allowing memory capacity available in remote locations to be shared across multiple servers. Through this, CMM-B enables independent resource allocation in the rack cluster and allows for larger pools of memory to be assigned as needed. With up to 60GB/s bandwidth, Samsung says CMM-B is ideal for applications like AI, in-memory databases, and data analytics.

CMM-B can accommodate eight E3.S form factor CMM-D (PCIe Gen5) memory modules for a total of 2TB. CMM-D memory integrates Samsung’s DRAM technology with the CXL open standard interface to deliver efficient, low-latency connectivity between the CPU and memory expansion devices.

Easy setup

Samsung says the CMM-B integrates seamlessly into Supermicro Plug and Play Rack Scale Solutions, ensuring not only faster productivity but also reduced total cost of ownership (TCO).

The CMM-B module comes pre-installed with Samsung’s Cognos Management Console (SCMC) software, which provides an intuitive interface for quick setup of the Rack-Scale server appliance. This software facilitates dynamic memory allocation, enabling memory to be allocated independently of the server to which it is attached.

During his keynote at MemCon, Jin-Hyeok Choi, Corporate Executive Vice President, Device Solutions Research America – Memory at Samsung Electronics said, “AI innovation cannot continue without memory technology innovation. As the market leader in memory, Samsung is proud to continue advancing innovation – from the industry’s most advanced CMM-B technology, to powerful memory solutions like HBM3E for high-performance computing and demanding AI applications. We are committed to collaborating with our partners and serving our customers to unlock the full potential of the AI era together.”

SuperMicro CMM-B

(Image credit: Samsung)

AT&T resets thousands of user passwords as it confirms breached data was its own after all

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date April 1, 2024
No Comments on AT&T resets thousands of user passwords as it confirms breached data was its own after all

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American telecommunications behemoth AT&T has finally confirmed the authenticity of the 2021 data breach that spilled sensitive user information on the dark web, and has initiated a mass reset of user passcodes.

Roughly three years ago, privacy blog RestorePrivacy broke the news of a hacker selling sensitive data belonging to more than 70 million AT&T customers. The data allegedly contained people’s names, phone numbers, postal addresses, email addresses, social security numbers, and dates of birth.

While AT&T initially denied the breach, saying the data wasn’t from the company, the hacker, going by the name “ShinyHunters” said the organization will likely continue denying until they leak it all.

Mass reset

Surely enough, last month, a seller published the full database, affecting 73 million people – and TechCrunch analyzed the database, confirming its authenticity, and also establishing that it contained user passcodes, prompting a swift alert towards AT&T.

Passcodes are four-digit numbers that work as the second security layer, and are used to access user accounts. Even though they were encrypted, some researchers argued that it is something that can be worked around. Apparently, there is not enough randomness in the encrypted data, which means that in theory, a threat actor could guess the passcode.

It seems the threat is more than just theoretical, as AT&T initiated a mass-reset of the passcodes over the weekend.

“AT&T has launched a robust investigation supported by internal and external cybersecurity experts,” the company said in a statement published on Saturday. “Based on our preliminary analysis, the data set appears to be from 2019 or earlier, impacting approximately 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and approximately 65.4 million former account holders.”

“AT&T does not have evidence of unauthorized access to its systems resulting in exfiltration of the data set,” the statement said.

While the telco did confirm the breach, it says that it still doesn’t know where the data came from, whether it was directly from its servers, or from its vendors.

Japanese scientists close in on petabit-class submarine cable tech set to revolutionize Internet speeds — NEC and NTT managed to shuttle hundreds of terabits over thousands of kilometers thanks to a clever algorithm

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To cope with the demand for international bandwidth almost doubling every two years, Japanese corporations NEC and NTT have successfully trialed a revolutionary submarine cable technology set to drastically enhance internet speeds under the sea.

The transoceanic-class experiment transmitted hundreds of terabits across a staggering 7,280km, a feat made possible through a sophisticated algorithm.

NEC and NTT’s innovative solution uses a 12-core multicore fiber, comprising of 12 optical signal transmission paths within a standard outer diameter optical fiber, a significant enhancement from existing single-core fiber used in submarine cables.

NEC/NTT submarine cable technology — (Image credit: NEC/NTT)

MIMO technology

However, the addition of more cores to an optical fiber presents its own challenges. Interference, or crosstalk, occurs when optical signals leak from one core to another, leading to a degradation in communication quality. This is amplified in long-distance transmission where non-uniformity of delay and loss between signals makes accurate reception difficult.

To overcome these issues, NEC developed an algorithm for demodulating received signals using MIMO technology. This enabled accurate separation and demodulation of high-speed received signals. Concurrently, NTT developed the coupled 12-core multicore fiber optical transmission line which mitigates the effects of non-uniformity in signal delay and loss.

Moving forward, NEC and NTT say they aim to commercialize their research, potentially contributing to the realization of a high-capacity optical submarine cable system and terrestrial core network.

The research team, which recently presented its findings as a highly scored paper at the Technical Conference of OFC 2024 in San Diego, estimates that such systems could operate at hundreds of terabits per second, depending on specific cable designs, potentially heralding the advent of petabit per second class submarine cables.