A major vulnerability affecting older versions of BlackBerry's QNX operating system could allow hackers to gain control of a variety of products, including cars and medical devices. Apparently, some older versions of QNX have a BadAlloc vulnerability, which gives bad actors a way to attack systems remotely. The infiltrators could then execute a denial-of-service attack or execute arbitrary code. BlackBerry, the FDA and US Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have issued advisories about the flaw. According to Politico, though, BlackBerry originally didn't want to go public about it and kept it a secret for months.

The company reportedly told CISA that it didn't believe its OS was affected by BadAlloc, which is a group of memory allocation vulnerabilities Microsoft found in April affecting a wide range of industrial, medical and enterprise networks. A number of companies publicly revealed being affected by the flaw shortly after Microsoft's report came out, but BlackBerry wasn't one of them. Politico says it was CISA that confirmed that some older QNX versions are indeed affected by BadAlloc, and it was the agency that eventually convinced the company to go public.

Apparently, the agency was worried that most QNX users wouldn't even know their systems are affected, because BlackBerry licenses the OS to manufacturers. The company originally wanted to privately reach out to those customers about the issue, but that means end users won't find out unless manufacturers tell them, as well. In the end, CISA was able to convince BlackBerry that a public announcement is the best course of action.

In its notice, BlackBerry said it's "not aware of any exploitation of this vulnerability." Both the company and CISA are advising organizations using QNX for their products to roll out updates that will patch the flaw regardless. The FDA also issued a warning specifically for medical devices running the OS, though it said it wasn't aware of any confirmed events related to BadAlloc.

As part of its ongoing data breach investigation, T-Mobile has confirmed the enormity of the stolen information. Roughly 47.8 million current and former or prospective customers have been affected by the cyberattack on its systems, the carrier confirmed on Wednesday. Of that number, about 7.8 million are current T-Mobile postpaid accounts and the rest are prior or potential users who had applied for credit, the company added in a press release. 

Worryingly, the data includes some personal information including the first and last names, date of birth, SSN, and driver’s license/ID information for a "subset of customers." So far, T-Mobile said it does not have any indication that the stolen files contain phone numbers, account numbers, passwords or financial information.

What's more, the company said about 850,000 active T-Mobile prepaid customers also had their names, phone numbers and account PINs exposed. The affected users do not include Metro by T-Mobile, former Sprint prepaid, or Boost users and T-Mobile said it has reset the PINs on these accounts. In addition, it claimed that "some additional information" from inactive prepaid accounts was accessed through prepaid billing files.

The findings from the carrier's preliminary analysis come just days after it was notified of a data breach. Initially, it was reported that a member of an underground forum claimed to have obtained the data for over 100 million T-Mobile customers. The culprit was reportedly selling information of about 30 million T-Mobile customers for about $270,000 in Bitcoin. 

As part of its compensation and mitigation efforts, T-Mobile is offering affected customers two years of McAfee’s ID Theft Protection Service; recommending all postpaid users change their PIN; and setting up an online resource page. T-Mobile said that it began coordination with law enforcement on Tuesday as its investigation into the data breach — the third such attack it has suffered in the past two years — continues.

The FBI received a tip off about suspicious activity ahead of the Capitol Riot on January 6th from a surprising source. Elliot Carter, a recreational mapmaker, contacted law enforcement after his site about Washington, D.C.'s underground infrastructure witnessed a spike in activity from suspicious websites. His warning eventually made it to the highest ranks of the Capitol Police, according to a new investigation by News4 I.

Normally a mecca for local history buffs, the Washington Tunnels website Carter oversees was flooded with nationwide visitors in the days before the insurrection. A deeper review of the traffic analytics revealed that many of the clicks were coming from hyperlinks shared on anonymous message boards, sites and forums named after militias or firearms, or using Donald Trump’s name. Though the initial interest originated from the deepest and darkest recesses of the web, it eventually transitioned onto popular social media sites, including Twitter.

The Washington Tunnels website itself was a labor of love. Back in 2018, Carter set to work building his online resource of the District's subway and freight rail tunnels, pedestrian passageways, underground steam tunnels and sewage and water pipelines. But, even then he was rebuffed by some government agencies concerned by the security and terrorism risks that could arise from publishing such information online.

Carter's "online tip" to the FBI was mentioned in the US Senate Rules and Homeland Security committees' June 2021 review of the US Capitol insurrection. In a statement to News 4 I, the US Capitol Police said its leadership had been alerted "to the spike in website traffic regarding maps" ahead of the insurrection. But, added that its wider intelligence gathering "didn't reveal [that the expected] large-scale demonstration would become a large-scale attack on the Capitol Building."

Charter Spectrum customers found themselves unable to download the Spectrum TV app from Roku's Channel Store if they hadn't done so before back in December. The two companies were unable to come to an agreement on the renewal of their contract, and it led Roku to pull the app from its store to prevent new downloads. Now, it looks like they were finally able to hammer out a deal that works for both of them, because the Spectrum TV app is back on the Roku Channel Store. All customers need to do to access its live and on-demand content is sign in with their Charter broadband account credentials. 

Back when the app was pulled from the store, Spectrum said Roku didn't accept its offer to renew its contract "despite [its] best efforts." The company then told its customers that they can still access the app through their phones and tablets, as well as on Samsung TV, Apple TV and Xbox. A Roku spokesperson said in a statement, though, that they were "working together to reach a positive and mutually beneficial distribution agreement." 

The companies didn't reveal the details of the new deal, but what's important is that subscribers can now download the Spectrum TV app after eight months. They sent out an email to customers with the note: "We're delighted to share with you that Roku and Charter Communications have renewed our agreement to distribute the Spectrum TV channel on your Roku device."

Customers can find the channels available through the app on the Spectrum website. The list includes Bravo, CNN, CNBC, Fox, NFL, SyFy, NatGeo and HBO Max, though accessibility depends on their subscription. 

Epic Games has released a new limited-time mode in Fortnite called Imposters, allowing players to scratch their Among Us itch without leaving the battle royale. Each match features two teams made up of eight agents and two imposters.

The action takes place in a new interior map called The Bridge. The agents need to complete various tasks to get to the end of the match safely. Naturally, the imposters are there to throw a wrench in that plan. When a dead body is found, everyone who’s still alive convenes to voice their suspicions and vote who they believe committed the crime. In a twist to the proceedings, public voice chat is disabled, and you’ll need to use a quick chat menu and emotes to communicate with anyone who isn’t in your party.

As an imposter, you have a handful of tricks up your sleeve to throw the opposing team off your tracks. You can make both agents and imposters temporarily look like Fortnite’s banana mascot Peely, as well as teleport everyone to a different location on the map. Like in Among Us, you also have the power to freeze the progress of any assignments the other players are working on in and around The Bridge.

For Epic Games, this is its second take on Among Us. At the end of last year, it released The Spy Within, another limited-time mode that saw players divided into teams of eight agents and, in that case, two infiltrators. You can queue to play Imposters once you download the latest Fortnite update. 

Intel is pouring more and more of its energy into its mainstay chip business, and that now means leaving some of its less essential work by the wayside. The company told CRN in a statement that it was "winding down" RealSense and transferring the talent and computer vision tech to efforts that "better support" its core chip businesses. The semiconductor giant will honor existing commitments, but the end is clearly on the horizon.

Questions surfaced about the fate of RealSense after the team's leader, Sagi Ben Moshe, said he was leaving Intel two weeks ago.

RealSense aimed to make computer vision more flexible and accessible. A company or researcher could buy cameras to aid everything from robot navigation through to facial recognition, and there was even a developer-focused phone. It was never a truly mainstream product, though, and ASI VP Kent Tibbils told CRN that there were few customers buying RealSense cameras in any significant quantities. It wasn't really a money-making division, even if the work helped Intel's other teams.

For Intel, there's likely a simpler answer: it wants to cut ballast. CEO Pat Gelsinger wants Intel to reclaim the chipmaking crown, and that means concentrating its resources on design and manufacturing capabilities. No matter how successful RealSense is, it's a potential distraction from Intel's latest strategy.

Google has started a new promotion to entice YouTube Premium users to check out its Stadia Pro subscription. Provided you’re new to the paid service, you can now get a three-month trial to see if cloud gaming is your thing.

First spotted by 9to5Google, the promotion is only available to current YouTube Premium subscribers in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. You can claim the three-month trial until January 31st, 2022, at which point you have until February 14th to redeem the offer. According to the fine print on Google’s website, the promotion is also available to those who currently have a trial to YouTube Premium.

As a Stadia Pro subscriber, you get access to several free titles every month. You can also purchase select games and downloadable content at a discount. But the reason most people get Stadia Pro is to stream the platform’s catalog of games at a 4K resolution with HDR and 5.1 surround sound.

A new test from Twitter will finally allow users to report “misleading” tweets. The company says it’s testing the feature for “some people” in the US, South Korea and Australia. Though only an experiment, it’s a significant step for Twitter which has previously had limited reporting tools for misinformation on its service. 

With the change though, users will now be able to report political and health misinformation, with sub-categories for election and COVID-19 related tweets, according toThe Verge. That tracks with other fact checking and misinformation-busting efforts Twitter has made over the past year and a half. The company has previously introduced labels and PSAs to debunk health and election misinformation on its platform.

At the moment, it’s not clear how reported tweets will be handled. Unlike Facebook, which uses a large network of fact checkers to debunk falsehoods, Twitter’s fact checking initiatives have been more narrowly focused. In a tweet, the company said that users shouldn’t expect the company to respond to every report but the reports “will help us identify trends so that we can improve the speed and scale of our broader misinformation work.” 

Apple has renewed Carpool Karaoke for a fifth season and plans to move the series over to its TV+ service, according to Deadline. The show predates the streaming platform by several years and has been available through Apple Music and the TV app since the company first premiered the project back in 2017.

Both the series and The Late Late Showwith James Corden skit it’s based on have been on hiatus since the start of the pandemic. Once season five gets underway, you’ll find the previous four seasons on Apple TV+ as well. The change should make it easier to find the series since it will live alongside the company’s other original programming.

Like it or not, Google is following Apple and Samsung in ditching included chargers. The company has confirmed to The Verge that the Pixel 6 won't include a charger in the box. Like its peers, Google claims there's just no need — most people already have USB-C chargers, the company says.

The Pixel 5a should be Google's last phone with an in-box power brick. We've asked Google if it can comment on the subject.

While Google didn't touch on this directly, companies have historically justified removing the charger as an eco-friendly move. Apple, Samsung and others can not only produce fewer chargers overall and reduce e-waste, but ship phones in smaller boxes that allow for more devices per shipment (and thus fewer trips).

As critics have observed, though, that advantage is debatable — if you do need to buy a charger, you may create more waste by ordering a charger from another company. Others have speculated that it's a cost-cutting move. Companies can hide (or at least mitigate) rising phone costs by removing a sometimes-redundant accessory.

Either way, your options for included chargers are shrinking. You may have to turn to brands like Xiaomi (which offers a 'free' charger for the Mi 11) if you're determined to get a brick at no extra charge. Otherwise, you'll likely have to resign yourself to buying at least one separate charger to keep your phone topped up.