Techlife News #385

When cyberthieves attacked Empire Industries’ computer network, technology manager Rich Shemanskis could see files in the process of being infected by malicious software. “We were looking at the network, and I noticed it, and another guy noticed it. We’re looking at the files and watching them change,” Shemanskis recalls about the attack three years ago. Shemanskis told staffers to quickly shut down their PCs, which helped limit the malware’s spread, but the company did lose about a day’s worth of work. The saving grace for the Manchester, Connecticut, manufacturer of building materials was it had backed up most of its files. A cyberattack that leads to down time and lost data can be more costly for smaller companies than for larger businesses — an average of $763 per affected computer or other device…

Facebook says it is aware of outages on its platforms including Facebook, Messenger and Instagram and is working to resolve the issue. According to Facebook’s status page , the outages started around 11 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. That page, which calls the problem a “partial outage,” states that Facebook has experienced “increased error rates” since that time. Downdetector.com , a site that monitors site outages, said the Facebook problem affected parts of the U.S., including the East and West Coast; parts of Europe and elsewhere. Both Facebook’s desktop site and app appeared to be affected. Some users saw a message that said Facebook was down for “required maintenance.” Facebook did not say what was causing the outages. Via its Twitter account, Facebook said the outage was not due to a “distributed denial of service”…

AT&T is raising prices for its DirecTV Now streaming TV service, while removing some networks from the cable-like television package. The changes come just weeks after a U.S. appeals court upheld the company’s Time Warner takeover. The Justice Department fought it, arguing it would lead to higher prices. DirecTV Now used to start at $40 a month. The cheapest for new customers will now be $50. Packages will now include the AT&T-owned HBO, but the service is dropping some popular lifestyle and entertainment networks not owned by AT&T, including HGTV, Discovery, Food Network and MTV. DirecTV Now, along with similar services from Hulu, YouTube and others, let people stream regular cable channels over the internet for a monthly fee. Hulu’s Live TV service and Netflix have also raised prices recently.…

There’s always that moment on roller coasters when the lap bar gets locked down and you slowly, agonizingly ride up to the first drop. You know the next few minutes are going to be harrowing — you just don’t know how bad. So here’s a warning about the new animated amusement park film “Wonder Park” — it’s going to be more harrowing than you can imagine. A simple, bucolic beginning with the sunny characters exuberantly crying “Splendiferous!” leads to a post-apocalyptic, violent middle that includes killer plush dolls, deadly giant robots, lava and existential crisis. It then ends on a sickly sweet note. The tonal shifts alone are enough to make you want to hurl. The cynicism and ultra-violence of Paramount’s ”Wonder Park ” undermines some top-notch animation, which includes astonishingly realized…

Captain Marvel possesses superhuman strength, cosmic awareness and, it turns out, the ability to vanquish trolls. Marvel’s “Captain Marvel,” the superhero factory’s first movie fronted solely by a female hero, last weekend notched the sixth largest global opening ever and in five days of release has already sold $524.1 million tickets worldwide, Disney said Wednesday. That was despite the efforts of a vocal minority to sabotage the movie’s release in a campaign to lower audience scores and disseminate false information about the film’s star, Brie Larson. It’s a playbook borrowed from the political realm and brought into the movie theater. And the movies that have drawn such attention have, more times than not, starred women in franchises previously dominated by males. But after similar campaigns against “Ghostbusters” and “The Last Jedi,” Hollywood…

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the military alliance is mulling whether to take action in response to security concerns about Chinese tech giant Huawei. Stoltenberg says some of NATO’s 29 allies have raised concerns about Huawei as they consider investment in 5G communications infrastructure. He said Thursday that “NATO takes these concerns very seriously.” Stoltenberg said the allies “will continue to consult, continue to assess, and look into whether NATO has a role to play.” He refused to speculate on what it might do. The United States is lobbying European and other allies to shun the biggest maker of network technology as their phone carriers invest billions in upgrading to next-generation mobile networks. Huawei denies accusations it might facilitate Chinese spying or is controlled by the ruling Communist Party.…