PC Magazine September 2020

The 2016 Presidential election had a number of results that most of us were not expecting. Beyond the obvious, we found out we’d been owned by foreign operatives not only spreading disinformation and sowing discord over our social networking platforms but also attacking our election infrastructure. It seemed almost unbelievable, but the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence report in 2018 confirmed it. From the report: “Russian activities demand renewed attention to vulnerabilities in U.S. voting infrastructure. In 2016, cybersecurity for electoral infrastructure at the state and local level was sorely lacking; for example, voter registration databases were not as secure as they could have been. Aging voting equipment, particularly voting machines that had no paper record of votes, were vulnerable to exploitation by a committed adversary. Despite the focus on this…

Apple is refreshing the 27-inch iMac with Intel’s 10th-generation “Comet Lake” processors, more RAM and storage options, and a better webcam (finally). The new 27-inch iMac starts at the same $1,799 price. But pay more, and you can really turn the product into a powerhouse. For the first time, customers will be able to buy the 27-inch iMac with a 10-core CPU from Intel. The chip—which appears to be a new Core i9 Comet Lake processor—has a 3.6GHz base clock speed that can be boosted up to 5.0GHz. Otherwise, you can settle for a 6-core or 8-core processor from Intel’s Comet Lake family. In addition, Apple has doubled the maximum available RAM from 64GB to 128GB. On the storage front, the company is doing away with the Fusion Drive—a hybrid HDD and…

Are you ready to get to work? Samsung’s new Galaxy Note20 and Galaxy Note20 Ultra phones are refinements on the Galaxy S20 lineup that add an S Pen stylus, fix some notorious camera issues, and link up better with your Windows 10 PC. The Note20 starts at $999, and the Note20 Ultra starts at $1,299. The Galaxy Note20 comes in two main models. First is the $999 Note20, which has a 6.7-inch, 1080p 60Hz screen; 8GB of RAM; 128GB of storage; a 4,300mAh battery; and a camera array similar to the Galaxy S20+ with a main 12MP sensor, a 64MP telephoto sensor that simulates 3x zoom, a 12MP wide-angle sensor, and a 10MP front-facing shooter. Then there’s the fully loaded $1,299 Galaxy Note20 Ultra: It has a 6.9-inch, 2,560-by-1,440, 120Hz screen;…

Electronic medical records are an incredible boon to healthcare. When necessary, doctors can obtain important information such as your allergies, medical history, and known conditions, which can make all the difference in an emergency. But letting that information fall into the wrong hands could be a serious problem. Regulations such as HIPAA aim to promote a super-high standard of security for personal medical information, with massive fines for failure. But a fine for security failure doesn’t necessarily create security success. Doctors and medical organizations rely on software vendors for secure systems, and as we’ve seen, software can be buggy. Worse, the medical organizations don’t have the knowledge to use the secure systems correctly and keep them disconnected from insecure systems. Seth Fogie, Information Security Director for Penn Medicine, performed what he called…

In late July, Donald Trump questioned on Twitter whether the US should delay the presidential election “until people can properly, securely and safely vote.” Were Trump not President of the United States, the tweet might stand as just another example of the misinformation security experts have warned about in the run-up to Nov. 3. To be clear, the US president does not have the authority to change the date of the election (that’s up to Congress), and Trump’s first term ends on Jan. 20, no matter what he tweets. But the issue isn’t the accuracy of what Trump is saying. It’s that his saying it will create confusion going into Election Day and will surely make the job of foreign trolls that much easier. OLD TRICK, NEW TWEETS As far as election meddling…

The Neo Geo Multi Video System, also known as the Neo Geo MVS, had a low-key arcade profile, despite its blaring red-and-white color scheme. Most 1990s-era arcade machines continued the 1980s tradition of flamboyant cabinet art by featuring their in-game characters in larger-than-life fashion. The Neo Geo MVS didn’t do that, and it wasn’t because SNK, the hardware’s manufacturer, had a subdued artistic vision. Neo Geo uprights didn’t feature explosions, speed lines, or brawling figures as adornments because the hardware’s unique design let arcade owners swap new game cartridges into their existing MVS units instead of buying expensive, standalone machines for each title. That imagery was reserved for the relatively small marquee above the CRT monitor. As a result, the Neo Geo’s exterior was nothing. Its guts—a beautiful array of classic…