Daily Archives: May 23, 2022

Googles Nest Wifi router and remote points are up to $100 off - The Verge Skip to main content clockmore-arrownoyes

Plus, deals on the Nest Hub Max, GoPro Hero 10, Xbox 2TB storage card, and more

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Only the best deals on Verge-approved gadgets get the Verge Deals stamp of approval, so if you're looking for a deal on your next gadget or gift from major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and more, this is the place to be.

There are many ways to get your weekend started right and, unsurprisingly, one of our favorites here at Verge Deals is with some quality tech deals. Teeing off first is the Google Nest Wifi mesh router system. Wellbots has a few different configurations of the Nest Wifi available with special discounts, including the standalone router for just $119 ($50 off when you use code 50VERGE at checkout), the router and one additional Point to extend the mesh network for $189 ($80 off with code 80VERGE), and the router plus two Points for $249 ($100 off with code 100VERGE).

The important thing here is to pick the right setup for your home depending on how much space you need to cover. The Nest Wifi router by itself is rated to cover up to 2,200 square feet, and adding just one Point to the mix extends that to 3,800. A home with a tricky layout or thicker walls may benefit from a Point or two to extend the mesh network, even if its not massive space. Theres a further benefit to adding a Point to the equation each one acts as a smart speaker for playing music, podcasts, and accessing the Google Assistant. So when it comes down to picking which of these Wi-Fi 5-capable setups is just right for you, consider the factors of coverage, convenience, and cost that are right for you. Read our review.

Googles Nest Wifi router and Point extender have an unassuming design. The router has two ethernet ports, while the Point can be used like a smart speaker. Use codes 50VERGE and 80VERGE for discounts at checkout from Wellbots.

Theres a great deal happening on 1Passwords subscription of services. New customers can sign up for one year of 1Passwords password manager service and get 50 percent off an individual plan or 50 percent off a family plan. Both are billed annually, with the family plan offering especially good value if you require more than one account.

The individual plan deal gets you one personal account with access across unlimited devices that costs just $17.94 for the first year of service, as opposed to the regular $36. As for the family plan, you get five accounts for $30 for the first year instead of the usual $60. Weve seen these 1Password deals drop as low as 60 percent off before, so while this one is not the very best it comes pretty close. If youre in need of protecting your personal data with an easy way to generate secure passwords (and we all are), its a good way to go.

1Passwords family subscription grants up to five people individual access to 1Passwords services. Typically $5 a month, this limited-time deal brings the price down to $2 a month for up to a year.

If youve got an Xbox Series X or Series S and you like to keep lots of games installed at once, their built-in storage can start to feel a lot more limiting than it sounds on paper at first. Many AAA-titles are 60GB or more each, with some like Call of Duty Warzone taking up nearly 100GB on its own. Yes, you can plug in a USB hard drive and offload some games into cold storage, but they have to moved back to the internal SSD when its time to play.

So, if you really want more storage, the 2TB Xbox Expansion Card from Seagate, which usually runs $399.99, is currently discounted to $380.90 at Amazon. I know that is still a pretty penny for 2,000GB (or roughly 21 more copies of Call of Duty Warzone), but these little expansion cards rarely go on sale. Theyre also just as fast as the internal storage of the Xbox Series X and S, and they plug into the rear of the console so theres no ugly USB cable and disc drive sitting alongside your Xbox.

Planning a fun getaway or excursion for the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend holiday? If you want something to help you record some memories while doing fun, outdoorsy activities, the GoPro Hero 10 Black with an additional battery and a dual battery charger is down to $399.99 at Amazon.

This is the latest action camera from GoPro, and while it looks a lot like the previous Hero 9, its much faster, thanks to its GP2 processor. The Hero 10 Black captures up to 5.3K 60fps footage and even 120fps slow-mo at 4K resolution. It also maintains that front-facing screen from its predecessor, so framing up your shot when mounting the camera on something like a bike is much easier. One of the few drawbacks to the Hero 10 is its mediocre battery life, but thats one of the reasons this deal is so great for about $400 you get an extra battery included, as well as a dual charger to easily keep both packs topped-up and ready. Read our review.

The GoPro Hero 10 Black offers a new processor making it possible to shoot in 4K resolution at 120 frames per second.

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Google's Nest Wifi router and remote points are up to $100 off - The Verge

Google Cloud unveiled its "SOC of the Future" today at the Google Cloud Security Summit. (Photo ... [+] Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Cybersecurity is a top priority for every organization. At least, it should be. The challenge is that the attack surface is expanding, and the threat landscape is adapting so quickly that it is increasingly difficult to keep up with the sheer volume of threatsnever mind effectively defend against them. At the Google Cloud Security Summit today, Google Cloud revealed plans for a SOC of the Future to help companies address these security challenges.

Google Cloud is a leading cloud platform, but it is also increasingly focused on cybersecurity as well. Google Cloud offers Chroniclea cloud service that enables customers to privately retain, analyze, and search massive amounts of security and network telemetry. Googles very DNA is built around the ability to comprehensively index and accurately search essentially all of the information available online. Chronicle takes that model and applies it specifically to security.

Google Cloud has also been busy investing to extend and enhance its security portfolio. Google Cloud partnered with Cybereasonmarrying Chronicle with the Cybereason Defense Platform to deliver Cybereason XDR powered by Google Cloud. The combination of Chronicle to normalize, index, correlate, and analyze data at scale, with the artificial intelligence and MalOp engine of Cybereason yields a powerful tool for defending against attacks.

Chronicle is not the only trick up Google Clouds sleeve, though. Google Cloud also includes VirusTotal, and the recently acquired SOAR (Security Orchestration Automation and Response) solution Siemplify. This arsenal of tools gives Google Cloud a powerful portfolio for cybersecurity.

That is where the SOC of the Future comes in. SOC, for those who dont know, is an acronym for Security Operations Centerthe heart cybersecurity for most organizations.

The core of this initiative is built around Googles Autonomic Security Operations (ASO). ASO is a collection of products, integrations, blueprints, technical content, and an accelerator program to enable customers to take advantage of Googles security operations expertise. The goal is to transform how people approach security challenges, how workflows are engineered to achieve secure outcomes, and how technologies can be leveraged to maximize their value.

I had a chance to speak with Jess Leroy, Google Cloud's Director of Product Management, about the vision for this initiative. Jess explained, The biggest problem in the industry when it comes to SOCs themselves is really that people have been doing things in a way for a long time now that is really no longer sustainable. The old model just doesn't work.

Why? Two reasons. Volume and speed. Jess shared a few statslike a 600% year-over-year growth in crimeware, and the fact that there is over 100 zettabytes of data out there. Meanwhile, threat actors are increasingly using automation to streamline attacks.

Combine that with more pressure for accountability in the C-suite. Jess noted a Gartner statistic that 75% of CEOs will be personally liable for cybersecurity incidents by 2025. He shared that he speaks to CISOs every week and that he sees growing concern over this.

The SOC of the Future will combine the elements of the Google Cloud security portfolio to help security teams evolve from the traditional SOC model to more modern and more agile security operations. Google Clouds goal is to enable more transparent collaboration between service providers and end customersand ensure every role receives relevant data to ensure fast response.

Part of that is based on telemetry. Jess said that most organizations are only using 30% or 40% of their telemetry. They are not correlating and analyzing all of the databecause they simply dont have a framework capable of doing it. They are making educated guesses based on partial snapshots. Chronicle allows Google Cloud to analyze 100% of the available telemetry.

Siemplify is another key element. The SOAR platform provides the ability to act on the analysis. Customized playbooks automate triage and response, which is crucial for keeping up with the volume of threats organizations face.

The SOC of the Future will do for the current SOC what the DevOps revolution did for the NOC [Network Operations Center], declared Sam Curry, CSO of Cybereason. The focus will be on the mission, and the metrics will reflect thatclosing pathways early and often, getting ahead of bad guys, and getting predictive.

Curry added that with this approach, tactical decisions will be based on risk, and that, The SOC of the Future will be extremely efficient in the use of peoples timewhich is the most valuable commodity.

Svetla Yankova, Google Cloud's Global Head of Customer Experience Engineering, walked me through a demonstration of the offering to show me how it analyzes and triages threats. Not only does it use 100% of the telemetry, but once a threat is detected it also has the ability to go back in time to identify and triage other potential instances of the same threat.

Of course, you can only go back as far as the data youve retained, but Google Cloud retains all of your data for a year by default. Hopefully 12 months is far enough to go back to find the first instance of a threat. If not, you probably have bigger issues.

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Google Cloud Launches SOC Of The Future - Forbes

Some of the finest American journalism is still being done by newspapers, said Adam Symson, president and CEO of The E.W. Scripps Company, one of the largest broadcast news companies in the United States.

And yet, unfortunately, as a result of the economic pressures that the newspaper industry is under, local newspapers in particular are losing their relevance and their reach, Symson said. And as a result of all of the downsizing, our industry is losing a lot of these fine journalists to other careers.

Symson, who became Scripps CEO in August 2017, said he wants to attract and retain the very best journalists. Thats why this week the broadcasting company announced the Scripps Journalism Journey Initiative, a multi-year initiative with Google that would help transition experienced journalists with primarily print news backgrounds into broadcast news careers. Selected journalists will be hired into full-time career positions in Scripps local and national media newsrooms. According to a press release, these positions may include beat/specialty reporter, specialty executive producer, photojournalist, editor/manager, documentary producer and copy editor.

In a written statement, David Brooks, Googles director of global news partnerships, called the initiative a great opportunity to support mid-career journalists looking for new challenges or a new direction to reignite the passion that drove them into journalism in the first place.

Symson said The E.W. Scripps Company has hired many print journalists over the last several years, but a lack of infrastructure to help with the training and development of these journalists has been a barrier to bringing in more. The program promises extensive training and support, including mentoring, job shadowing, hands-on work and individual coaching.

We intend to help the transition around writing skills, around understanding the difference between print writing and broadcast writing, around presentation, as the case may be if the person is going to make the transition to do on-air work. And if theyre not going to do on-air work, understanding the elements of producing pieces for television from a videography perspective, Symson said. We already think a lot of print photojournalists come to our newsrooms with the necessary video skills to be outstanding video journalists. Theres some nuance with the equipment that we use. Theres some understanding of how to work in our medium from a producing-of-the-story perspective, but (theyre) immediately transferable skills.

Asked about whether the company is interested in journalists who have been laid off or who want to transition out of print, Symson said any and all, including reporters, editors, photojournalists, data reporters, specialty reporters, executive editors and managers.

Symson said the creation of this new program has everything to do with the decline of print newspapers. He called the decline problematic because the industry loses journalists with every buyout or job action at a newspaper. He added that he wants to maintain a healthy journalism ecosystem and noted that what has kept some journalists with print backgrounds from joining broadcast newsrooms is the question of developing the skills necessary for the job.

Theyve already got the journalism part down, but they have to have the platform delivery down, he said. And so putting in place the infrastructure to be able to recruit, train and retain mid-career journalists and launch them into careers in Scripps newsrooms is the opportunity.

Applications for the Scripps Journalism Journey Initiative are expected to be available in early summer. Symson said he did not have a salary range for the positions, but emphasized that these are not entry-level roles. He said the range would depend on the market, and a role in management is also different.

To carry out the program, the company is currently hiring a team.

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Why Scripps and Google are recruiting print journalists to broadcast news - Poynter

Tim Cook, Apples chief executive, has a longstanding philosophy that Apple should continue to invest for the future amid a downturn. It more than doubled its staff during the Great Recession and nearly tripled its sales. Lately, it has increased bonuses to some hardware engineers by as much as $200,000, according to Bloomberg.

John Chambers, who steered Cisco Systems through multiple downturns as its former chief executive, said the companies strong businesses and deep pockets could afford them the chance to take risks that would be impractical for smaller competitors. During the 2008 downturn, he said Cisco allowed distressed automakers to pay for technology services with credit at a time when competitors demanded cash. The company risked having to write down $1 billion in inventory, but emerged from the recession as the dominant provider to a healthy auto industry, he said.

Companies break away during downturns, Mr. Chambers said.

Excelling will require disregarding the broader markets gloom, said David Yoffie, a professor at Harvard Business School. He said previous downturns had shown that even the strongest businesses were susceptible to profit pressures and prone to pulling back. Firms get pessimistic like everyone else, he said.

The first test for the biggest companies in tech will be contagion from their peers. Amazons shares in the electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive have plunged more than 65 percent, a $7.6 billion paper loss. Apples services sales are likely to be crimped by a slowdown in advertising by app developers, which rely on venture-capital funding to finance their marketing, analysts say. And start-ups are scrutinizing their spending on cloud services, which will likely slow growth for Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, analysts and cloud executives said.

People are trying to figure out how to spend smartly, said Sam Ramji, the chief strategy officer at DataStax, a data management company.

Regulatory challenges on the horizon could darken the big tech companies prospects, as well. Europes Digital Markets Act, which is expected to become law soon, is designed to increase the openness of tech platforms. Among other things, it could scuttle the estimated $19 billion that Apple collects from Alphabet to make Google the default search engine on iPhones, a change that Bernstein estimates could erase as much as 3 percent of Apples pretax profit.

But the companies are expected to challenge the law in court, potentially tying up the legislation for years. The probability it gets bogged down leaves analysts sticking to their consensus: Big Tech is going to be more powerful. And whats being done about it? Nothing, Mr. Kramer of Arete Research said.

Jason Karaian contributed reporting.

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Big Tech Is Getting Clobbered on Wall Street. Its a Good Time for Them. - The New York Times

NSO Group and its powerful Pegasus malware have dominated the debate over commercial spyware vendors who sell their hacking tools to governments, but researchers and tech companies are increasingly sounding the alarm about activity in the wider surveillance-for-hire industry. As part of this effort, Google's Threat Analysis Group is publishing details on Thursday of three campaigns that used the popular Predator spyware, developed by the North Macedonian firm Cytrox, to target Android users.

In line with findings on Cytrox published in December by researchers at University of Torontos Citizen Lab, TAG saw evidence that state-sponsored actors who bought the Android exploits were located in Egypt, Armenia, Greece, Madagascar, Cte dIvoire, Serbia, Spain, and Indonesia. And there may have been other customers. The hacking tools took advantage of five previously unknown Android vulnerabilities, as well as known flaws that had fixes available but that victims hadnt patched.

It's important to shine some light on the surveillance vendor ecosystem and how these exploits are being sold, says Google TAG director Shane Huntley. We want to reduce the ability of both the vendors and the governments and other actors who buy their products to throw around these dangerous zero-days without any cost. If theres no regulation and no downside to using these capabilities, then youll see it more and more.

The commercial spyware industry has given governments that dont have the funds or expertise to develop their own hacking tools access to an expansive array of products and surveillance services. This allows repressive regimes and law enforcement more broadly to acquire tools that enable them to surveil dissidents, human rights activists, journalists, political opponents, and regular citizens. And while a lot of attention has been focused on spyware that targets Apples iOS, Android is the dominant operating system worldwide and has been facing similar exploitation attempts.

We just want to protect users and find this activity as quickly as possible, Huntley says. We dont think we can find everything all the time, but we can slow these actors down.

TAG says it currently tracks more than 30 surveillance-for-hire vendors that have ranging levels of public presence and offer an array of exploits and surveillance tools. In the three Predator campaigns TAG examined, attackers sent Android users one-time links over email that looked like they had been shortened with a standard URL shortener. The attacks were targeted, focusing on just a few dozen potential victims. If a target clicked on the malicious link, it took them to a malicious page that automatically began deploying the exploits before quickly redirecting them to a legitimate website. On that malicious page, attackers deployed Alien, Android malware designed to load Cytrox's full spyware tool, Predator.

As is the case with iOS, such attacks on Android require exploiting a series of operating system vulnerabilities in sequence. By deploying fixes, operating system makers can break these attack chains, sending spyware vendors back to the drawing board to develop new or modified exploits. But while this makes it more difficult for attackers, the commercial spyware industry has still been able to flourish.

We cant lose sight of the fact that NSO Group or any one of these vendors is just one piece of a broader ecosystem, says John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab. We need collaboration between platforms so that enforcement actions and mitigations cover the full scope of what these commercial players are doing and make it harder for them to continue.

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Google TAG: Cytrox's Predator Spyware Used to Target Android Users - WIRED