ReHacked #40: first flight on Mars, quantum telescopes and more.

Don’t forget to share if you like what you read here, subscribe (if not yet) and leave a comment. Thanks.

NSA: Top 5 vulnerabilities actively abused by Russian govt hackers #security

A joint advisory from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warn that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is exploiting five vulnerabilities in attacks against U.S. organizations and interests.

They warn that the Russian SVR is actively exploiting these issues. A high-level version of the list:

• Fortinet FortiOS
• Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite
• Pulse Connect Secure
• Citrix ADC and Gateway
• VMware One Access, Identity Manager, Cloud Foundation, Vrealize Suite

Subscribe to Security Newsletter by Dieter Van der Stock.

#space #technology

Bank of England statement on Central Bank Digital Currency #blockchain #economy

The Bank of England and HM Treasury have today announced the joint creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Taskforce to coordinate the exploration of a potential UK CBDC. A CBDC would be a new form of digital money issued by the Bank of England and for use by households and businesses. It would exist alongside cash and bank deposits, rather than replacing them.

The Government and the Bank of England have not yet made a decision on whether to introduce a CBDC in the UK, and will engage widely with stakeholders on the benefits, risks and practicalities of doing so.

MirkoPC - a full-featured Raspberry Pi desktop computer #hardware

The MirkoPC is so far the closest thing to a full-fledged Raspberry Pi desktop computer. Based on the Compute Module 4, it has a full-size M.2 M-key slot, allowing the Pi to boot from reliable and fast NVMe SSD storage, a built-in headphone amp and line out, 4 USB 2.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, two HDMI ports, and a number of other neat little features.

The Endless Acid Banger - endless acid jam generated in your browser #fun

Discord Ends Deal Talks With Microsoft #internet #economy

Chat startup Discord Inc. has halted talks to sell itself to potential suitors including Microsoft Corp. , according to people familiar with the matter, as it resumes interest in a potential initial public offering down the line.

Microsoft had been in advanced talks to acquire Discord for at least $10 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported last month. Those talks ended without a deal, though it is possible they could be rekindled in the future, some of the people said.

GeekPrank WindowsXP in browser window #fun

Belarusian regime’s thugs shut down Imaguru, the country’s key startup hub #politics #economy #freespeech

After visits by unnamed masked intruders and the cancellation of its lease, Imaguru — the country’s key startup hub, event and co-working space in Minsk — has effectively been shut down by the Lukashenko regime, which has led a brutal crackdown on its own people in recent months. But the company behind the space says it will defy the authorities and continue its activities online.

Quantum Astronomy Could Create Telescopes Hundreds of Kilometers Wide - #science #engineering #space

A few years ago researchers using the radio-based Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) performed an extraordinary observation, the likes of which remains a dream for most other astronomers. The EHT team announced in April 2019 that it had successfully imaged the shadow of a supermassive black hole in a nearby galaxy by combining observations from eight different radio telescopes spread across our planet. This technique, called interferometry, effectively gave the EHT the resolution, or the ability to distinguish sources in the sky, of an Earth-sized telescope. At the optical wavelengths underpinning the gorgeous pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope and many other famed facilities, today’s interferometers can only combine light from instruments that are a few hundred meters apart at most. That may be set to change as astronomers turn to quantum physicists for help to start connecting optical telescopes that are tens, even hundreds, of kilometers away from one another.

Such optical interferometers would rely on advances being made in the field of quantum communications—particularly the development of devices that store the delicate quantum states of photons collected at each telescope. Called quantum hard drives (QHDs), these devices would be physically transported to a centralized location where the data from each telescope would be retrieved and combined with the others to collectively reveal details about some distant celestial object.

If you would like to propose any interesting article for the next ReHacked issue, just hit reply or push this sexy “Leave a comment” button below. It’s a nice way to start a discussion :)

Thanks for reading this digest and remember: we can make it better together, just leave your opinion or suggestions after pressing this button above or simply hit the reply in your e-mail. Oh, and don’t forget - sharing is caring ;) Have a great week!

Dainius