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Facebook Bans Accounts of Researchers Investigating its Disinformation Problem

Andrew Orr ·

Facebook has banned the accounts of researchers who were studying the platform’s political ads and disinformation.

The tools were the subject of a long-running standoff between the social network, which claimed scraping violates its terms of service, and the researchers, who argued that more digital advertising transparency is essential to understanding and protecting elections.

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Two Years of Apple Arcade

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple Arcade is fast approaching its second birthday. AppleInsider has a nice overview of where the gaming service sits in the marketplace, how it’s changed, and what some of its hits are.

There are multiple competing viewpoints around how to address gaming on mobile devices like iPhone and iPad. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have all moved in the exact opposite direction of Apple Arcade by offering console-quality titles on mobile. These companies use game streaming as a distribution method rather than on-device downloads. This ensures games will work the same regardless of device performance. Only Netflix seems to be taking the mobile-first route in its gaming service. It plans on launching mobile games that subscribers can play as long as they have an active Netflix subscription. So far, the fledgling streaming services appear to have captured a particular market of gamers. However, Apple Arcade and its mobile-first platform have a much broader market appeal, lower entry price, and a constantly growing library. Apple’s approach also accounts for those who don’t have high-bandwidth internet at their disposal. Rather than needing the internet to play games, Apple Arcade games can be downloaded all at once and played offline.

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Malware Dubbed ‘Raccoon Stealer’ Targets Crypto Wallets

Andrew Orr ·

Researchers at Sophos have been tracking a piece of malware called Raccoon Stealer. A recent update means it can target cryptocurrency wallets.

Raccoon can collect passwords, cookies, and the “autofill” text for websites, including credit card data and other personal identifying information that may be stored by the browser. Thanks to a recent “clipper” update, Raccoon Stealer also now targets cryptocurrency wallets, and can retrieve or drop files on infected systems.