You probably know that it’s easy enough to fake audio and video of someone at this point, so you might think to do a little bit of research if you see, say, Jeff Bezos spouting his love for the newest cryptocurrency on Facebook. But more targeted scam campaigns are sprouting up thanks to “AI” fakery, according to the FBI, and they’re not content to settle for small-scale rug pulls or romance scams. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a public service announcement yesterday, stating that there’s an “ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign” that’s using faked audio to impersonate a senior US official. Exactly who the campaign is impersonating, or who it’s targeting, isn’t made clear. But a little imagination—and perhaps a lack of faith in our elected officials and their appointees—could illustrate some fairly dire scenarios. “One way the actors gain such access is by sending targeted individuals a malicious link under the guise of transitioning to a separate messaging platform,” warns the FBI. It’s a familiar tactic, with romance scammers often trying to get their victims off dating apps and onto something more anonymous like Telegram before pumping them for cash or blackmail material. And recent stories of federal employees and bosses communicating over Signal, or some less savory alternatives, have given these messaging systems a lot of exposure. Presumably, the scammers contact a specific target using an unknown number and pretend to be their boss or some other high-ranking official, using an attached voice message to “prove” their identity. These have become trivially easy to fake, as recently demonstrated when billionaires like “Elon Musk” and “Mark Zuckerberg” started confessing to heinous crimes via the speakers at Silicon Valley crosswalks. “Deepfakes” (i.e., impersonating celebrities via animated video and voice) have now become extremely common online. The FBI recommends the usual protection steps to avoid being hoodwinked: don’t click on sketchy links over text or email, don’t send money (or crypto) to anyone without lots of verification, and use two-factor authentication. One thing I’ve recently done with my family (since my ugly mug is all over TikTok via PCWorld’s short videos) is to establish a secret phrase with my family to give us a way to authenticate each other over voice calls. But with automation tools and hundreds of thousands of potential targets in the US government, it seems inevitable that someone will slip up at some point. Hopefully, federal law enforcement won’t be too busy with other matters to take care of real threats. Read...

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Intel has spent much of its goodwill with customers chasing down bugs: the Spectre and Meltdown bugs it dealt with years ago, as well as the instability that plagued its Raptor Lake processors last year. Now there are additional chapters in each of those stories. You don’t have to do anything — just make sure your PC is patched and up to date. But there will be a price to pay in performance in fixing the latest issue, and one you can’t really do anything about. On May 1, Intel issued yet another microcode update for the Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh processors. Those processors could degrade over time due to elevated operating voltages, Intel said last July. But the recent update was designed to prevent instability on systems “running multiple days with low-activity and lightly-threaded workloads” — or machines that weren’t working at their full capacity. Mitigating that bug, Intel said, will not only solve the problem, but performance fortunately will not be affected. Instead, any variation after applying the patch would be within normal “run-to-run variation,” Intel said. Unfortunately, researchers at ETH Zurich have discovered another bug that affects a number of Intel processors, dating back to the 2018 Skylake architecture. This time, mitigating it will have a significant effect, although the effects will be most pronounced in the much-maligned 11th-gen “Rocket Lake” chips. As noted by Bleeping Computer, the new bug hearkens all the back to 2018, when the Spectre and Meltdown bugs were discovered, affecting the kernel software at the heart of most X86 chips. Though Intel patched out both bugs, researchers at ETH Zurich have discovered that branch target injection attacks (known as a “branch privilege injection”) can again be used against Intel CPUs to leak otherwise protected information. The affected chips include everything from 2018’s Skylake to Raptor Lake. AMD’s Zen 5 and Zen 4 chips are not affected, the researchers found. More information can be found at the ETH Zurich site. Proper security practices usually call for researchers to privately disclose bugs to the manufacturers before they’re released to the public, and the researchers did just that. Intel released microcode to the research team for testing and to confirm the microcode update works. To avoid being preyed upon by either vulnerability, what you need to do remains the same: simply make sure that your PC is properly patched, either via Windows Update or via the firmware updates your PC maker or motherboard maker provides. However, there will be a performance price to pay, too. ETH Zurich said that it won’t be too bad: just a 2.7 percent drop in performance in Alder Lake and 1.6 percent in the 2018 Skylake (Coffee Lake Refresh) chip. If you still own an 11th-gen “Rocket Lake” chips, however, you’re going to pay a price: an estimated 8.3 percent drop in performance. Knocking almost 10 percent off the performance of what was an already subpar chip may mean that it’s time for an upgrade. Read...

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If you’ve been browsing Ethernet cables online you may have seen that they come with names like CAT 5, CAT 6, CAT 7, and CAT 8. And no, we’re not talking about the feline kind of CAT…meow! So, what does all that mean, and is there any difference between these varied Ethernet cables? Defining CAT in Ethernet cables The CAT label in Ethernet cables stands for “category,” which denotes its standard and specification. You can tell which category the cables belong to by the number suffix each one has. The main difference between the different categories is the rated performance of each. They also have different wire configurations and other variations in how they are made, like how tightly they are wound, and some have inner plastic tubing. Just like USB cables, Ethernet cables get faster and more efficient with each successive generation released. That’s great news for gamers looking for faster and more reliable cables for lag-free network gaming. CAT and data transfer speeds CAT 5 and CAT 5e cables are an early generation of Ethernet cable dating back to the early noughties. CAT 5 cables provide data transmission speeds up to 100Mbps at 100MHz whereas CAT 5e cables are slightly superior providing speeds up to 1,000Mbps at 100MHz. That means CAT 5e cables tend to be a little more stable and less prone to lag than CAT 5 cables. Both CAT 5 and CAT 5e cable types are quick enough for most household or work-related network needs, whether that be to hook up multiple PCs or external devices like printers. They’re widely used by small offices, schools ,and colleges for things like hubs, switches, and routers. That said, since the newer CAT 6 cables have come out, gamers and users needing higher data transfer speeds have homed in on these instead. That’s because CAT 6 cables are 10 times quicker. They provide data transfer speeds up to 10Gbps and at frequencies up to 250MHz. These cables also have better shielding to prevent electromagnetic interference, so they are less susceptible to cross talk and noise. That makes them even more stable and very suitable for users that do a lot of video conferencing or that work in the cloud — so they’re ideal for professional workplaces and educational facilities like hospitals or government agencies. Further reading: The best USB-C cables Pixabay In the CAT 6 category, there’s also CAT 6a cables (uncertified CATe cables), which are a step up again in functionality. CAT 6e cables are capable of transferring data at the same 10Gbps as their CAT 6 counterparts, but they support higher frequencies still (up to 500MHz) — so if you’re looking to build a very stable 10Gbps network these cables will provide even more surety against interference and lag during heavy data loads. After CAT 6e comes CAT 7 cables. These Ethernet cables again provide quick transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps but they support even faster frequencies up to 600MHz. The problem with CAT 7 cables, however, is that they were originally made to support GG45 or TERA connectors instead of the more common RJ45 connectors (used in CAT 5, CAT 6, and CAT 6e cables). GG45 and TERA standards were never widely adopted by hardware manufacturers. CAT 7 cables can be used with RJ45 connectors, but doing so relegates their bandwidth back to that of a CAT 6 or CAT 6e cable, so you won’t get the extra bandwidth benefit. In case you were wondering, there are also CAT 8 Ethernet cables, which are the fastest Ethernet cables available today. These cables break the 10Gbps data transfer limit of previous generations by using a 2GHz signal to move data up to 20Gbps or 40Gbps. Because of their very high data transfer speeds and bandwidth, these cables are frequently installed by big businesses like data centers, financial institutions, research institutions, and broadcasting studios that require the very fastest Ethernet connections available. That said, I have also found a few operators offering installation purely for gamers, so their use in gaming is becoming more popular. It’s worth noting that the CAT rating isn’t the only factor in your network speed: cables can handle a given data transmission speed, not provide it. You can plug a CAT6 cable into any router, but if the router’s port only delivers 100Mbps versus 1Gbps, the speed at which data is sent over the cable is only going to be 100Mbps–regardless of what the cable is rated to handle. The ultimate hardwired speed of your network is going to be only as fast as its slowest component.  What Ethernet cable is best for PC gaming? The theoretical answer to that question is of course, a CAT 8 cable. Then again, using a CAT 8 cable isn’t necessarily a practical option for most gamers. It’s speed and bandwidth overkill. You can have a perfectly lag-free gaming experience with an Ethernet cable from a previous generation. Most gamers won’t be able to utilize the quick speeds of a CAT 8 cable because of limiting factors, like the speed of their primary router or modem. The main reason to get one, though, is if you want to future-proof your Ethernet performance. These cables used to be very expensive, but they’re a lot more affordable now, so getting one won’t break the budget. That said, gamers can get away with a CAT 6 or CAT 6e cable just fine, since the fastest PC desktop Ethernet cards only currently support up to a maximum 10Gbps transfer speed (cards like the Asus XG-C100C). In fact, even 1Gbps transfer speeds are quick enough for gaming. CAT 6 and CAT 6e cables are fast enough and provide an excellent balance between performance, reliability, and price. I hope that clears up any confusion around the different types of Ethernet cables. Also be sure to decide on the length of the cable you need before you buy, because the different CAT standards have their own maximum cable lengths. Happy cable hunting! Further reading: Buying a USB-C cable? Beware these 6 crucial gotchas Read...