is fortune game legit After a sprawling hacking campaign exposed the communications of an unknown number of Americans, U.S. cybersecurity officials are advising people to use encryption in their communications. To safeguard against the risks highlighted by the campaign, which originated in China, federal cybersecurity authorities released an extensive list of security recommendations for U.S. telecom companies — such as Verizon and AT&T — that were targeted. The advice includes one tip we can all put into practice with our phones: “Ensure that traffic is end-to-end encrypted to the maximum extent possible.” End-to-end encryption, also known as E2EE, means that messages are scrambled so that only the sender and recipient can see them. If anyone else intercepts the message, all they will see is garble that can't be unscrambled without the key. Law enforcement officials had until now resisted this type of encryption because it means the technology companies themselves won't be able to look at the messages, nor respond to law enforcement requests to turn the data over. Here's a look at various ways ordinary consumers can use end-to-end encryption: Texting Officials said the hackers targeted the metadata of a large number of customers, including information on the dates, times and recipients of calls and texts. They also managed to see the content from texts from a much smaller number of victims. If you're an iPhone user, information in text messages that you send to someone else who also has an iPhone will be encrypted end-to-end. Just look for the blue text bubbles, which indicate that they are encrypted iMessages. The same goes for Android users sending texts through Google Messages. There will be a lock next to the timestamp on each message to indicate the encryption is on. But there's a weakness. When iPhone and Android users text each other, the messages are encrypted only using Rich Communication Services, an industry standard for instant messaging that replaces the older SMS and MMS standards. Apple has noted that RCS messages “aren’t end-to-end encrypted, which means they’re not protected from a third party reading them while they’re sent between devices.” Samsung, which sells Android smartphones, has also hinted at the issue in a footnote at the bottom of a press release last month on RCS, saying, “Encryption only available for Android to Android communication.” Chat apps To avoid getting caught out when trading texts, experts recommend using encrypted messaging apps. Privacy advocates are big fans of Signal, which applies end-to-end encryption to all messages and voice calls. The independent nonprofit group behind the app promises never to sell, rent or lease customer data and has made its source code publicly available so that it can be audited by anyone to examine it “for security and correctness.” Signal's encryption protocol is so reputable that it has been integrated into rival WhatsApp, so users will enjoy the same level of security protection as Signal, which has a much smaller user base. End-to-end encryption is also the default mode for Facebook Messenger, which like WhatsApp is owned by Meta Platforms. What about Telegram? Telegram is an app that can be used for one-on-one conversations, group chats and broadcast “channels" but contrary to popular perception, it doesn't turn on end-to-end encryption by default. Users have to switch on the option. And it doesn’t work with group chats. Cybersecurity experts have warned people against using Telegram for private communications and pointed out that only its opt-in ‘secret chat’ feature is encrypted from end-to-end. The app also has a reputation for being a haven for scammers and criminal activity, highlighted by founder and CEO Pavel Durov's arrest in France. Making calls Instead of using your phone to make calls through a wireless cellular network, you can make voice calls with Signal and WhatsApp. Both apps encrypt calls with the same technology that they use to encrypt messages. There are other options. If you have an iPhone you can use Facetime for calls, while Android owners can use the Google Fi service, which are both end-to-end encrypted. The only catch with all these options is that, as with using the chat services to send messages, the person on the other end will also have to have the app installed. WhatsApp and Signal users can customize their privacy preferences in the settings, including hiding an IP address during calls to prevent your general location from being guessed. Stay up-to-date on what's happening Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly!

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Zero-bezel iPhone unlikely to arrive by 2026Hunter Sallis poured in 31 points and Wake Forest needed most of those in a 67-57 home victory against Detroit Mercy on Saturday at Winston-Salem, N.C. Davin Cosby had 11 points as the Demon Deacons (6-1) won their second straight since their only loss, which came a week earlier at Xavier. But it wasn't easy as the visiting Titans (3-3) were persistent as they trimmed a 19-point deficit to nine points with plenty of time remaining (5:54). Orlando Lovejoy led the Titans with 15 points and TJ Nadeau had 13 points and nine rebounds off the Detroit Mercy bench despite shooting 1-for-8 on 3-pointers. Jared Lary added 10 points. Wake Forest doubled up the Titans in 3-point production by making 10 compared to Detroit Mercy's five. But the Demon Deacons took more than half of their attempts (61) from beyond the 3-point arc (35). As a result, they were just 9-for-13 on free throws. The Titans also held a 48-31 advantage in rebounding. Some of that might have been attributed to the absence of Wake Forest center Efton Reid III, who has been dealing with migraines. Detroit Mercy trailed 36-23 at halftime, but Wake Forest couldn't put the Titans away. Sallis shot 12-for-18 from the field and made five 3-point shots. He ended up two points shy of his career-high mark. Sallis came through with clutch shots, including a 3-pointer to go up by 12 with 4:59 left. Cosby had three 3-pointers before hitting his lone 2-point basket with 3:33 left to push the lead back to 14. The Titans shot only 5-for-19 on 3-pointers and they checked in at 33.3 percent overall from the field. Detroit Mercy was charged with 14 turnovers compared to only five for Wake Forest. Detroit Mercy was coming off Wednesday night's victory at Ball State. That outcome marked the team's first true road triumph since February 2023, but the Titans couldn't duplicate it. --Field Level Media

PRESS RELEASE BOSTON — December 12, 2024 — Zerto , a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, today announced the launch of the Zerto Cloud Vault, which delivers Zerto’s best-in-class cyber resilience capabilities as a service through managed service providers (MSPs). Zerto’s security-focused MSP partners at launch include Assurestor, Converge, LincolnIT, and Verinext. Built on the capabilities of the Zerto Cyber Resilience Vault, the Zerto Cloud Vault is a cloud-based, fully managed solution that offers logical air-gapping, immutability, and clean room recovery. Ransomware attacks remain a harsh fact of life for most businesses with collective ransomware losses totaling over $1 billion in 2023 alone. This financial toll is exacerbated by the resulting data loss and downtime, with some estimates suggesting upwards of $1 million in losses per hour of downtime for larger businesses. With Zerto Cloud Vault, customers can leverage MSPs that deliver tailored cyber resilience strategies to meet the specific requirements of their organizations. Cloud Vault is the latest offering in HPE’s comprehensive cyber resilience portfolio and complements the existing Zerto Cyber Resilience Vault, which is deployed as a self-hosted, on-premises stack. Zerto Cloud Vault capabilities include: “Zerto’s disaster recovery and cyber resilience solutions offer peace of mind to businesses struggling to combat ransomware attacks,” said Jim O’Dorisio, senior vice president and general manager, HPE Storage. “Leveraging our cyber resilience capabilities, MSPs will be able to bring fully managed Cloud Vault services to even more organizations, helping them thwart the plans of attackers and keep precious business assets safe.” Coupled with the expertise of Zerto’s vetted MSP partners, the hosted Zerto Cloud Vault mitigates the most devastating ransomware scenarios while keeping businesses in compliance with state and federal regulations — reducing the risk of substantial fines or prosecution. Where other solutions offer detrimental lengthy recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs), Zerto Cloud Vault slashes both, minimizing the risks of disruption and allowing businesses to get back on their feet as fast as possible after the inevitable happens. Zerto is a part of HPE’s hybrid cloud business, helping HPE customers protect workloads and data across hybrid IT environments. Partner Quotes “Our Gold Standard for cyber recovery considers a product’s recoverability readiness, non-disruptive testing capability, and speed of data recovery; we found that Zerto substantially delivered on all these points. Combined with Cloud Vault, the protection provided from ransomware attacks was robust and allowed pinpoint recovery faster than any other products evaluated,” said Stephen Young, executive director, Assurestor. “Ransomware attacks are a real threat to the data and operations of organizations of all sizes. Having the ability to offer a cloud vault with Zerto technology gives our clients added protection against ransomware and peace of mind that they can recover successfully,” said John Antimisiaris, executive vice president, LincolnIT. “Some of our clients’ infrastructure protection needs to be kept with a very tight RPO, but they still need some deeper recovery options than simple replication can provide. A cyberattack is seldom clearly understood, even when recovery efforts have begun. Zerto Cloud Vault provides immutable protection history that can be leveraged to find the latest clean point in time for replicated hosts,” said Jeremy Brovage, product engineer and solutions architect, Converge Enterprise Cloud. “Cyberattacks that encrypt data are one of the primary disruptors requiring data recovery. Zerto provides the best tools to recover quickly and with the least data loss in a cloud vault,” said Nick Martino, product manager, managed services, Verinext. Explore the Zerto Cloud Vault and discover how it empowers businesses to safeguard their data and operations: Learn More . About Zerto Zerto, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, empowers customers to run an always-on business by simplifying the protection, recovery, and mobility of on-premises and cloud applications. Zerto eliminates the risk and complexity of modernization and cloud adoption across private, public, and hybrid deployments. The simple, software-only solution uses continuous data protection at scale to solve for ransomware resilience, disaster recovery, and multi-cloud mobility. Zerto is trusted by over 9,500 customers globally, and is powering offerings for Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and more than 350 managed service providers.

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Photo: The Canadian Press This photo provided by Ford shows the 2025 F-150 Raptor R. The Raptor R has a V8 engine and a specialized suspension that helps it stay in control when driving off-road at high speed. (Courtesy of Ford Motor Co. via AP) Just about everyone dreams about cars they wish they could own, and there’s no better time than the holidays to make a list of vehicles you’d love to have in your driveway. The car pros at Edmunds rounded up five of their favorite dream-worthy vehicles. But rather than just list the most outlandish and expensive exotics, they focused on highlighting models that are expensive but not so pricey that it’d be completely unrealistic for you to own one one day. The vehicles are ordered in ascending order of price and include destination fees. Ford F-150 Raptor R Off-road trucks look fantastic and are extremely capable. What truck enthusiast wouldn’t have one topping their wish list? The king of the hill for 2025 is the F-150 Raptor R. The regular Raptor is already impressive, and the R takes it to the next level with a bonkers 720-horsepower supercharged 5.2-liter V8 engine, upgraded Fox dual-value shock absorbers, and massive 37-inch all-terrain tires. An R-specific grille and hood are also part of the R’s upgrades. Thankfully, the Raptor R isn’t all bark and bite. It also has plenty of features to make it a livable truck for daily driving. Standard features include leather upholstery, cooling front seats, a premium sound system, and a surround-view camera to help make this big truck easier to park. Starting Price: $112,825 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Few sedans can match the Mercedes-Benz S-Class for opulence, luxury and prestige. This grand sedan showcases nearly every luxury, technology and performance innovation that Mercedes-Benz has concocted. Everything you touch inside is likely covered in leather, heated, or bathed in disco-worthy ambient light. A novel could be written about all of the S-Class’ luxury and comfort features, but one of the most notable is the E-Active Body Control system. It scans the road surface ahead and adjusts the suspension to deliver the best ride possible. The S-Class also boasts an extensive list of advanced safety features and has an augmented reality head-up display that projects images that appear to float in front of the car. For the ultimate S-Class, get the 791-horsepower AMG S 63 E Performance model. Starting Price: $118,900 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Who needs a European exotic car when the Corvette ZR1 is just as capable? A sports car fanatic’s wish list wouldn’t be right without the ZR1. The new Corvette hit a record-setting top speed of 233 mph, making it the fastest car ever built by an American automaker and the fastest current production car priced under $1 million, according to Chevrolet. The top speed record was possible thanks to the ZR1’s turbocharged 5.5-liter V8 engine that cranks out a staggering 1,064 horsepower. Its carbon-fiber aero package kept it glued to the track by generating over 1,200 pounds of downforce at top speed. Chevrolet also says the ZR1 can accelerate through the quarter mile in less than 10 seconds. We expect the Corvette ZR1 to go on sale in early 2025. Estimated starting price: $150,000 Cadillac Escalade-V Does your wish list include a big and powerful SUV? If it does, the Escalade-V should top it. The big Caddy roars like a muscle car thanks to its supercharged 6.2-liter V8 that churns out 682 horsepower and helps it hit 60 mph in just 4.4 seconds. The Escalade-V also boasts enormous 24-inch wheels and large Brembo brakes that help bring the three-ton SUV to a stop. But the Escalade-V isn’t only about brute power. It also has three rows of seating, plenty of cargo space and offers impressive tech like Super Cruise, a hands-free highway driving system, and an enormous 55-inch curved display that spans the dashboard. Starting Price: $161,990 Lucid Air Sapphire What if we told you there was a car that could outpace almost anything on a drag strip, keep up with high-end sports cars on a racetrack, and be comfortable enough for daily errands? Well, if that sounds amazing, add the Air Sapphire to your dream list. The Air Sapphire is a high-performance electric luxury sedan made by Lucid, an electric vehicle startup. It’s one of the most powerful production cars in the world, producing an astonishing 1,234 horsepower from its three electric motors. Lucid says it has a top speed of 205 mph and can rocket to 60 mph in a mind-numbing 1.9 seconds. You can adjust the vehicle’s setting for exceptional track performance or simply provide a comfortable ride around town. Starting price: $250,500 Edmunds says Even if you can’t afford any of these vehicles, you can still picture one sitting in your driveway or imagine yourself cruising around town in it. And who knows, maybe holiday magic will give you the opportunity to own one in the future.

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