A major company can be struggling financially even though it doesn’t show it. This is the case with AI empire OpenAI. This is the company that gave us DALL-E and ChatGPT. Well, OpenAI is burning through money, and it might be looking at bankruptcy if things don’t change.
OpenAI has enjoyed a ton of attention as the company that broke the internet twice (first with DALL-E then with ChatGPT). With the $10 billion investment from Microsoft plus investments from other companies, you’d think that OpenAI has enough funds to make its ambitions come true. Honestly, it might.
However, the issue stems from the money going out. While the company has massive financial backing, it’s still burning through a ton of money just operating. It costs the company about $700,000 a day to run! That number might not be substantial to other major companies, but the issue is that there’s no major way to monetize its services.
There’s the $20/month subscription plan to get additional features. Also, companies pay OpenAI to use its API. This is why so many chatbots are popping up all of a sudden. They pay OpenAI to use its LLM.
However, that doesn’t seem to be enough to turn a profit. The company doesn’t display ads on its website, which would probably be another decent revenue stream.
OpenAI is actually close to bankruptcy
This is a scary time for OpenAI, as the company just isn’t bringing in as much money as it needs to please the investors. Microsoft seemed to take a liking to the company, but at the end of the day, money is money. So far, since ChatGPT hit the internet, OpenAI has burned through more than $540 million.
OpenAI is going to need to find some serious ways to monetize its company and cut costs. If things continue like this, then OpenAI will turn into just about every other tech company nowadays. We’re going to see it raise its prices, laying off people en masse, or both.
Discord.io has confirmed that personally identifiable information of 760,000 members was stolen in a data breach. The third-party Discord service has been shut down for the time being
Discord.io was/is a third party service that enables owners of Discord servers to create customized, personal Discord invites. After a preview of Discord.io’s users database was posted on BreachForums, the owners have decided to shut down all Discord.io services “for the foreseeable future.” Existing premium subscriptions have been canceled and discord.io promised to reach out as soon as possible on an individual basis.
The site confirms that there has been a data breach
The stolen information could include your discord.io username and your Discord ID, your email-address, your billing address, and a salted and hashed password if you signed up in 2018 or earlier. (In 2018 discord.io started to exclusively offer Discord as a login option.)
Payment details are said to be safe because those are stored safely by the payment partners, Stripe and PayPal. Discord.io has confirmed the authenticity of the breach, by an entity acting under the name Akhirah.
It is important to know that Discord is not affiliated with discord.io, a spokesperson from Discord told Stackdiary:
“Discord is not affiliated with Discord.io. We do not share any user information with Discord.io directly and we do not have access to or control of information in Discord.io’s custody.”
Discord has revoked the oauth authentication tokens for any Discord user that has used Discord.io, so that app can no longer perform actions on behalf of those users until they re-authenticate. Affected Discord users should change their passwords and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Open the Discord desktop app or go to discord.com/login and enter your credentials to log in.
Go to the second vertical tab, and then click the gear icon beside the Mute and Deafen options to open user settings.
In the My Account tab, scroll down and click Enable Two-Factor Auth.
Enter your Discord password and open the authenticator app of your choice on your device.
Scan the QR code and enter the six-digit code to enable 2FA. You may want to write down the key and store it in a secure space, in case you should somehow lose access to your account.
Click Enable SMS Authentication to enable 2FA on Discord via SMS.
Data breach
There are some actions you can take if you are, or suspect you may have been, the victim of a data breach.
Check the vendor’s advice. Every breach is different, so check with the vendor to find out what’s happened, and follow any specific advice they offer.
Change your password. You can make a stolen password useless to thieves by changing it. Choose a strong password that you don’t use for anything else. Better yet, let a password manager choose one for you.
Enable two-factor authentication (2FA). If you can, use a FIDO2-compliant hardware key, laptop or phone as your second factor. Some forms of two-factor authentication (2FA) can be phished just as easily as a password. 2FA that relies on a FIDO2 device can’t be phished.
Watch out for fake vendors. The thieves may contact you posing as the vendor. Check the vendor website to see if they are contacting victims, and verify any contacts using a different communication channel.
Take your time. Phishing attacks often impersonate people or brands you know, and use themes that require urgent attention, such as missed deliveries, account suspensions, and security alerts.
We don’t just report on threats—we remove them
Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 launched last month, while the OPPO Find N2 has been around since late last year. The OPPO Find N3 is actually right around the corner, it would seem, as it’s expected to launch earlier this year. In any case, until that happens, we’re left with these two phones. The OPPO Find N2 is still immensely compelling. It is quite different than the Galaxy Z Fold 5, though. That’s why we’ll compare the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OPPO Find N2 in this article.
We’ll first list their specifications, and will then move to compare their designs, displays, performance, battery life, cameras, and audio. There’s a lot to talk about, as they really are different in many ways. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Specs
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 & OPPO Find N2, respectively
– Screen size (main): 7.6-inch Foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X display (120Hz, HDR10+, 1,750 nits) 7.1-inch Foldable LTPO AMOLED (120Hz, HDR10+, 1,550 nits) – Screen Size (cover): 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X (120Hz) 5.54-inch AMOLED (120Hz) – Display resolution (main): 1812 x 2176 1792 x 1920 – Display resolution (cover): 2316 x 904 2120 x 1080 – SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 – RAM: 12GB (LPDDR5X) 12GB/16GB (LPDDR5) – Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB (UFS 4.0) 256GB/512GB (UFS 3.1) – Rear cameras: 50MP (wide, f/1.8 aperture, Dual Pixel PDAF OIS), 12MP (ultrawide, 123-degree FoV), 10MP (telephoto, 3x optical zoom) 50MP (wide, f/1.8 aperture, PDAF, OIS), 48MP (ultrawide, 115-degree FoV), 32MP (telephoto, 2x optical zoom) – Front cameras: 4MP (under display, main display, f/1.8 aperture), 10MP (cover display, f/2.2 aperture) 32MP (main and cover display, f/2.4 aperture) – Battery: 4,400mAh 4,520mAh – Charging: 25W wired, 15W wireless, 4.5W reverse wireless (no charger) 67W wired, 10W reverse wired (charger included) – Dimensions (unfolded): 154.9 x 129.9 x 6.1mm 132.2 x 140.5 x 7.4mm – Dimensions (folded): 154.9 x 67.1 x 13.4mm 132.2 x 72.6 x 14.6mm – Weight: 253 grams 233/237 grams – Connectivity: 5G, LTE, NFC, Wi-Fi, USB Type-C, Bluetooth 5.3 5G, LTE, NFC, Wi-Fi, USB Type-C, Bluetooth 5.3 – Security: Side-facing fingerprint scanner – OS: Android 13 with One UI Android with ColorOS 13 – Price: $1,799 CNY7,999 ($1,152) – Buy: Samsung OPPO (China only)
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OPPO Find N2: Design
Both of these phones are book-style foldables, that’s true. They are taking different approaches to that form factor, though. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is considerably taller, and narrower. When folded, its cover display is really narrower, many would say too narrow. When unfolded, it almost has a square aspect ratio. The OPPO Find N2 has smaller displays in comparison., but its cover display has a more regular aspect ratio, it’s easier to type on, despite the size. When unfolded, the OPPO Find N2 leans towards a horizontal layout.
The two phones do feel considerably different to hold and use. They both do fold flat, while the OPPO Find N2’s crease is considerably less noticeable. The Galaxy Z Fold 5’s is not only more visible, but you’ll also feel it a lot easier (under your finger) than the Find N2’s display crease. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is taller and narrower than the Find N2. It is thinner than the Find N2, though, while being around 20 grams heavier.
Both devices have a centered display camera hole on the cover display. The bezels around that display are quite thin. On the inner display, the Find N2 does have a display camera hole too, in the top-left corner, while the Galaxy Z Fold 5 hides its camera under the display. Both have three cameras on the back, though their designs are different. The devices are made out of metal and glass.
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is IPX8 certified for water resistance, while the Find N2 is not. Both do offer stylus support, and both feel great to fold and unfold. They’re also very easy to unfold due to their designs, and that’s something we appreciate, as it’s not something we can say for all book-style foldables.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OPPO Find N2: Display
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 includes a 7.6-inch 1812 x 2176 main display. That is a Foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. It supports HDR10+ content. It has a peak brightness of 1,750 nits. The cover display on the phone measures 6.2 inches, and it offers a resolution of 2316 x 904. That is also a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel, but it’s not foldable, of course. It has a 120Hz refresh rate, and it’s protected by the Gorilla Glass Victus 2.
The OPPO Find N2, on the other hand, features a 7.1-inch main display. That is a Foldable LTPO AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1782 x 1920. It has a 120Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 1,550 nits. The cover display on the phone measures 5.54 inches, and it’s an AMOLED panel. That display offers a 120Hz refresh rate, and it has a resolution of 2120 x 1080. It has a peak brightness of 1,350 nits, and it’s protected by the Gorilla Glass Victus.
All displays here are great, and each of the two phones has its advantages. The Find N2 has a much less noticeable crease on the main panel, and some people will prefer the more horizontal aspect ratio here. It also has a better aspect ratio on the cover panel. The main display on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 does get a bit brighter, and some people will prefer the under-display camera on that panel, for aesthetic purposes. All displays offer nice, vivid colors, and deep blacks. They also have good viewing angles, and good touch response.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OPPO Find N2: Performance
Samsung’s foldable is fueled by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy SoC. That is basically an overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip. The phone includes 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and UFS 4.0 flash storage. The OPPO Find N2, on the flip side, is fueled by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip. It also includes up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and UFS 3.1 flash storage. Neither phone offers storage expansion, by the way.
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 does have the advantage of having more powerful hardware, but not many people will notice that. The OPPO Find N2 is also quite powerful, and it’s really well optimized. You may notice that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 opens some apps slightly faster, though the difference is negligible. They both can run the most demanding games out there, but that’s where you may see the advantage of the Galaxy Z Fold 5’s hardware.
During day-to-day use, for regular tasks, the differences are basically not noticeable. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 still doesn’t have the most fluid animations out there, but it does run very smoothly, as does the OPPO Find N2. If you’re looking for something more future-proof, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is the better choice. Not only does it have better hardware, but it will also get software updates for longer.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OPPO Find N2: Battery
A 4,400mAh battery sits on the inside of the Galaxy Z Fold 5, while a 4,520mAh unit can be found inside the OPPO Find N2. Not only does the Find N2 has a larger battery, but it also has smaller displays. That has to mean it has better battery life too, right? Well, in this case, it does. The OPPO Find N2 did offer better battery life for us. Your mileage may vary, though, of course, as there are two displays here to think of, in addition to different usage scenarios, different apps that will be in use, different usage habits, and so on.
We managed to get around 7.5 hours of screen-on-time on the OPPO Find N2, at times even 8 hours of screen-on-time. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 did fly under the 7-hour screen-on-time mark most of the time. Based on our experience, the Find N2 does offer better battery life. Do note that we played games only for testing purposes, not during regular days. The two phones were used for pretty much everything else, though.
When it comes to charging, the OPPO Find N2 shames the Galaxy Z Fold 5 when it comes to charging speed. It does not support wireless charging, though. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 supports 25W wired, 15W wireless, and 4.5W reverse wireless charging. The OPPO Find N2 offers support for 67W wired, and 10W reverse wired charging. The Find N2 can be fully charged in around 40 minutes, while it takes the Galaxy Z Fold 5 half an hour to reach 50%. It can reach a full charge in almost an hour and a half. Another thing worth noting is that the Find N2 includes a charger in the box, while the Galaxy Z Fold 5 does not.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs OPPO Find N2: Cameras
Both of these phones have three cameras on the back, and one on each of its displays. A 50-megapixel main camera sits on the Galaxy Z Fold 5, in addition to a 10-megapixel telephoto shooter (3x optical zoom), and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera (123-degree FoV). The OPPO Find N2, on the other hand, has a 50-megapixel main camera, a 48-megapixel ultrawide unit (115-degree FoV), and a 32-megapixel telephoto camera (2x optical zoom).
Having said that, the shots these two phones provide are somewhat different. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 does a really good job during the day, with detailed and sharp images. They do tend to be a bit oversaturated at times, though, and in general, are not really closer to real life. The OPPO Find N2 is a bit closer to that mark, while it also manages to keep the images sharp and detailed. It also provides moodier images in low light.
In low light, both phones do a good job. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 does provide brighter low light shots, and both phones can fire up night mode on their own. Ultrawide cameras are good on both, though we prefer the OPPO Find N2’s, despite its narrower FoV. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 easily wins in the telephoto camera department.
Audio
Both of these smartphones have stereo speakers, and those speakers are good on both. They’re loud enough, and also detailed enough. On top of that, they’re well-balanced. The Galaxy Z Fold 5’s speakers are a bit louder, though, if that’s something you care about.
Neither phone has a 3.5mm headphone jack. So, if you’d like to connect your wired headphones, you’ll need to use a Type-C port that is present on both phones. Bluetooth 5.3 is also supported on both, by the way.
Qualcomm might be considering ditching TSMC and having Samsung manufacture all of its Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chips next year. There have been reports of the company dual-sourcing the production of the chip to the two foundries, but some suggest Samsung will get the whole contract. This change is reportedly because of TSMC’s poor 3nm yield rates. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be Qualcomm’s first 3nm solution.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 may not be dual-sourced, after all
TSMC and Samsung are the world’s two largest semiconductor foundries, in that order. They manufacture chips for the likes of MediaTek and Qualcomm, which are fabless companies (don’t own manufacturing units). Qualcomm has historically switched back and forth between the two foundries to manufacture its flagship Snapdragon chips.
Most recently, it switched from Samsung to TSMC in 2022. The Taiwanese firm produced the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (both 4nm chips) last year. It will also manufacture the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4nm) this year. However, rumors are that Qualcomm plans to dual-source the production of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 (3nm) next year to TSMC and Samsung.
According to previous leaks, TSMC will produce the standard solution, while the Korean firm will get orders for the “for Galaxy” version exclusive to its phones. This seems a fair split considering that Samsung will be able to better optimize the chip for its devices. However, a fresh rumor passed along X/Twitter says Samsung will get the entire manufacturing order for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, including the standard version.
The source claims that TSMC has worse 3nm yield rates (the percentage of usable chips out of the total produced) than Samsung. Moreover, most of its 3nm capacity is reserved for Apple. Qualcomm can only get about 15 percent of the total capacity. This means a potential last-minute supply shortage if TSMC can’t improve its yield rates, which is a big challenge. Qualcomm can’t risk that and is planning to ditch TSMC and move entirely to Samsung. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will debut in late 2024 and will power flagship phones in 2025.
All this said, let us tell you that this information comes from an X/Twitter user who claims to be a “semiconductor research student” studying semiconductor technologies from Taiwan and South Korea, the home countries of TSMC and Samsung, respectively. The source has been sharing insider information about the semiconductor industry for a while now. It remains to be seen how much of this is true, if at all.
An ongoing campaign has resulted in the compromise of multiple LinkedIn accounts. However, the motive behind this campaign remains unclear at this time.
Numerous users have reported instances of their LinkedIn accounts being temporarily locked, hacked, or permanently deleted.
LinkedIn account compromise issue discussed on Social network (Source: Cybrint)
In certain cases, there were also ransom payments requested by threat actors to recover user accounts. As per the Google Trends report, this LinkedIn account compromise has seen a sudden surge in the past 90 days. It also shows several searches for “LinkedIn account hacked” or “LinkedIn account recovery.”
Google Trends Report (Source: Cybrint)
It is suspected that threat actors have gathered data from a LinkedIn Breach and used the data to pick accounts. Threat actors identify accounts without 2FA or use Brute force to hack into accounts having short passwords.
A complete picture of this LinkedIn attack campaign is yet to be revealed. However, Two scenarios have been discovered while attacking user accounts. One of the scenarios is a Temporary account Lock, and the other is a Full Account compromise.
Temporary Account Lock
In this scenario, threat actors attempt to compromise a LinkedIn account that has two-factor authentication enabled with brute force attacks. This results in LinkedIn sending suspicious activity followed by a temporary account lock for a user.
As a method for recovery, Users are requested to verify their accounts, update their passwords for security reasons and regain access to their accounts.
Temporary account lock notification from LinkedIn (Source: Cybrint)
Full Account Compromise
In this scenario, threat actors completely take over victims’ accounts and change their email addresses in order to ensure that victims don’t recover their accounts. The email addresses used for replacing the original email address of these accounts were generated from the rambler[.]ru mail system.
Furthermore, for this type of scenario, there have been reports of demanding ransom as a financial gain ranging between tens of dollars.
Full account compromise with replaced rambler.ru email ID (Source: Cybrint)
Once threat actors gain access to these professional LinkedIn accounts of users, they have several attack vectors, which involve social engineering, manipulation of people, baiting to a malicious link, blackmail, reputational damage, spreading malicious content, and many more.
Cybrint has released a complete report on this LinkedIn attack campaign which provides additional details on this issue.
Mitigation
Users of LinkedIn are recommended to check their account access to see whether they are able to log in to their account and make sure all their information, like email, phone numbers, and others, are genuine and legit.
Changing and deploying a strong password in the LinkedIn account, which is unique and not reused, is recommended. Additionally, 2-step verification can also be implemented to prevent brute force attacks.
We’re waiting on OnePlus to bring us its first foldable. Called the OnePlus Open, this is set to be a powerful device, but it was delayed for a bit. Now, according to Yogesh Brar (via Techradar), it seems that the OnePlus Open could come as early as September.
The OnePlus Open was delayed recently, and it wasn’t because of technical issues. OnePlus’ sister company Oppo had some patent issues with Nokia in Germany. That’s a bummer because, without the delay, it was going to launch in just under two weeks. Now, we don’t know when to expect the phone to come out.
The OnePlus Open might launch as soon as September
When we first heard about the delay, we got wind that it would happen sometime in October. We didn’t get an exact date, and that shows that things are still up in the air with this delay. While Oppo and OnePlus are two entities, they’re both owned by the same company, and they’ve technically merged. So, what happens to Oppo happens to OnePlus.
Right now, we’re in the dark as to when we’ll see the official launch. Brar made a Twitter post about when Oppo and OnePlus are going to launch their devices. It said that the Oppo Find N3 Flip should come at the end of August when the OnePlus Open was supposed to come.
OPPO Find N3 Flip China launch is scheduled for end of August.
OnePlus Open Global launch is expected to happen by late September – early October.
Apparently the delay is not just due to display switch but also due to the Nokia – OPPO royalty case.
As for the OnePlus Open, the post said that this phone should come out in either late September or early October. This puts it either right after the launch of the iPhone 15 or right before the launch of the Pixel 8. While the OnePlus Open isn’t really trying to appeal to the same markets as those phones, it will still be overshadowed by those devices news-wise. Hopefully, that doesn’t have a negative effect on the excitement for this device. Only time will tell if we’ll get this phone sooner or later.
Cord-cutting is all the rage these days, and cable companies have been losing subscribers left and right. So much so, many have not gained subscribers in many years. Typically, more people leave cable then come to cable. However, there is one live TV provider that did add subscribers in the second quarter of 2023 – that’s YouTube TV.
Despite all the backlash about YouTube TV raising prices, and many threatening to go back to Cable, it looks like many are okay with paying $72.99 per month for it. In the second quarter, YouTube TV added 200,000 subscribers. That brings them up to around 6 million total subscribers.
It comes at a rather interesting time for YouTube TV, as they are going to be home to NFL Sunday Ticket this season, and that’s likely why so many people switched to YouTube TV. Though, you don’t need YouTube TV to get NFL Sunday Ticket, it’s available as a standalone purchase through YouTube too.
How did the traditional cable operators fair?
What’s interesting here is that YouTube TV add more subscribers than some cable operators lost. DIRECTV for example is reportedly losing around 400,000 in the quarter, according to the Leichtman Research Group. While other companies have actually reported their earnings for the quarter, so we have more concrete numbers.
Comcast has lost 543,000, Spectrum lost 189,000, DISH lost 294,000, Verizon lost 69,000 and Altice USA lost 68,300 subscribers in the same three-month period.
But it’s not just traditional cable operators losing customers, so are other Live TV providers. Hulu + LIVE TV has lost 100,000, Sling TV lost 97,000 and Fubo lost 118,000 in the same quarter. That means that YouTube TV was the only one to add subscribers in the quarter, and they faired pretty well actually.
Obviously a big part of this is that NFL Sunday Ticket is available, but it’s also a bit cheaper than the competitors. It is cheaper than Hulu + Live TV and Fubo. Not to mention the fact that YouTube TV lets you share with up to five other accounts. While others are starting to crack down on password sharing.
If you ever find yourself in the TV show Wheel of Fortune and your task is to guess “Which mobile app feeds users with short-run audio-visual content?”, you’re gonna have a hard time solving that puzzle. Is it TikTok? Is it Facebook’s/Instagram’s Reels? Could it be Snapchat’s Spotlight? Maybe YouTube Shorts?For there is another one now. YouTube Music is rolling out a new feature called Samples (via 9to5Google).
YouTube’s separate music-centric application has been downloaded more than a billion times and has 4.5/5 review stars from almost 5 million people – the formula has worked nicely for parent company Google. YouTube Music hasn’t seen many changes throughout the years, but this new Samples feature is about to bring a major refresh.
Let’s take a sample
What’s it all about? Samples, as Google puts it, is exclusive only on YouTube Music and offers a way to “Discover new music with a swipe”. It’s placed between the Home and Explore tabs at the bottom of the screen. Wait, what’s the Explore tab for then, if not for discovering new music?Things get a little more specific with Samples. This new feature will be focused on professional, somewhat higher-quality video production in contrast with current Shorts, which are user-generated and on the amateur side.
Samples, in brief, will concentrate on bringing you personalized audio-visual productions from major artists and labels. Samples will not just play you a 30-second music clip from the start, it’s said to bring you the juicy parts of a song, so don’t be surprised if Imagine Dragons’ next hit starts from the middle in your Samples tab. The emphasis will be on polished official music videos, but expect some upbeat excerpts from live shows, too.
Like anything in 2023, Samples will offer this chopped content in a vertical crop, because by the time you manage to turn your phone in landscape, the clip may be very well over. Here’s what it looks like:
The original article says that no ads are to pop up in the Samples feed, both for Premium and free users. Yours truly has updated its YouTube Music app as we’re speaking, but no Samples tab is present at the moment, so an adless free user experience can’t be confirmed at this point. The Samples feature will be available on Android and iOS for users all across the world.Speaking of the Samples feed, it’s going to be personalized to your music tastes, so Dire Straits fans should not be tempted by Cardi B suggestions, but the feature is brand new, so we’ll have to wait and see what Google’s algorithms have in store.
On the usability side, when you give a Sample a like, it will allegedly save the audio version to your existing Liked Music playlist, with “Play” starting the music video in the usual Now Playing UI. A dislike option is not present, since once you see something in Samples and “remove it” by swiping up for the next thing to appear, the swiped-away Sample shouldn’t be shown to you again. The currently playing Sample will loop until you move to the next thing.
The Monti ransomware was found in June 2022 that attracted notice due to its close resemblance to the Conti ransomware, both in name and tactics, drawing attention from cybersecurity experts and organizations.
Monti ransomware group has been observed to employ tactics similar to those of the Conti team, including utilizing their TTPs and leaked source code and tools.
Apart from this, Monti also consistently targeted the companies and posted their breaches to expose their details on a leaked site built by the operators of Monti.
After a two-month gap, the Monti ransomware gang is back again, and now it’s back with a new Linux locker targeting:-
Legal entities
Financial services
Government entities
Healthcare industries
Compared to the previous Linux-based variants, this new encryption tool has several significant differences, as noted by the cybersecurity researchers at Trend Micro.
Monti Ransomware New Linux Variant
With distinct behaviors, this new variant of MONTI (Ransom.Linux.MONTI.THGOCBC) makes use of a different encryptor. While at the moment there are only three security vendors on VirusTotal have identified the sample as malicious.
Besides this, a BinDiff analysis highlights a mere 29% similarity between the new and old variants, in contrast to the older versions’ 99% resemblance to Conti.
Comparison of the old and new Monti variants (Source – Trend Micro)
The latest version of Monti ransomware opts for the “-type=soft” parameter over “–type=hard” when terminating virtual machines, possibly indicating a strategic move to reduce immediate detection.
Moreover, the inclusion of a string ‘MONTI’ followed by a 256-byte sequence tied to the encryption key is one of the new additions to this new variant.
To announce or signify the successful server infiltration, the “/etc/motd, and index.html files” were modified and replaced by the creators of Monti ransomware.
New replaced content of motd (Source – Trend Micro)
Prior to encryption, the ransomware verifies the following conditions:-
If a file’s size is 261 bytes or less
Matching the appended marker
Encryption proceeds as the file remains unencrypted
Monti ransomware verifies the last 261 bytes for the presence of the string “MONTI,” if the first condition isn’t satisfied.
While in this scenario, two instances could occur, and here they are:-
The file will be skipped if this string is detected.
The malware proceeds with the encryption process if the string is not found.
Code snippet to check for the presence of the “MONTI” string (Source – Trend Micro)
Rather than using the Salsa20, this new variant now opted for the AES-256-CTR encryption with OpenSSL’s evp_enc. For files between 1.048MB and 4.19MB, the ransomware encrypts only the initial 100,000 bytes (0xFFFFF) and then adds its infection marker at the file’s end.
Recommendations
Here below, we have mentioned all the recommendations offered by the security analysts:-
The beauty of this connected world is being able to share content between devices and other apps easily. Google Chrome on Android allows you to do this, and the app has its own share sheet. Well, according to 9To5google, Chrome is getting a new share sheet in Android 14, and it will look familiar.
If you don’t know what the share sheet is, it’s the little UI that pops up when you tap on the Share button in an app. It lists all of the different ways that you can share the file or text, and it includes the different apps that you can share it to. The share sheet can look different depending on the Android skin you’re using, but it serves the same purpose.
Chrome is getting a new share sheet in Android 14
The share sheet in Chrome for Android has always looked different compared to the other apps on Android. When you use another app on Android, it would call the default system share sheet. However, Chrome would have its own unique share sheet.
However, that’s going to change with Android 14. Right now, the share sheet in Chrome share sheet shows options for sharing to apps on the top. You’ll see four apps with a More button to access the full list. Under that, you’ll see the option to take a screenshot, take a long screenshot, copy the link, send it to a device, generate a QR code, print the page, etc.
After the change, you’ll see the Chrome-specific options on the top rather than on the bottom. The copy link option will sit next to the link. Also, the regular screenshot option is gone. Under that, you’ll see the list of apps along with the Nearby Share button.
Since this is going to come with Android 14, there’s still a little bit of time to wait for this to come out. We expect to see this change come with Chrome version 116.0.5845.92. Google will push this update through the Play Store when Android 14 U comes out.
The site confirms that there has been a data breach
