Archive for July 24, 2020

Cheer Canada on in the Rainbow Six Siege North American Qualifier Tomorrow!

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 24, 2020 by itnerd

The Rainbow Six Siege North American League Canada Division is well underway and approaching it’s 5th playday! By now, it’s no surprise that Mirage Esports have made a name for themselves in the Canada Division and are currently leading the league with a 2-0 win/loss record.

Now it’s time to look outwards at our competition south of the border. Tomorrow, July 25 at 2PM EST, Mirage Esports will face off against their U.S. counterparts Dark Zero Esports. This is the first time in competitive Rainbow Six Siege Esports that a Canadian team faces off against a U.S. team.

It’s time to show that homegrown pride Canadians are so well known for and cheer on Mirage Esports as they attempt to make history in what could possibly be the most important match-up they have faced yet!

Make sure to tune into 📺 https://www.twitch.tv/rainbow6 for all the action!

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Guest Post: ESET Says If You’re Gonna Play, Play Safely

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 24, 2020 by itnerd

Whether it’s enemy soldiers, monsters lurking in the deep or physical features in the surrounding area, there are dangers lurking everywhere in your video game environment.

Those dangers, at the least, can’t cause you any actual harm besides a bruised ego. But there are other hazards when you are gaming that can attack your gaming system and put both you and your equipment at risk. Video game hackers have been known to steal in-game valuables and sell them to other users for real currency, but more worrisome is theft of personal data that could include a record of your phone use or even financial information. 

In many cases, the hacker’s job is made easy because of gamers who eschew the use of protective software and the way most can slow down your computer’s performance or pester you with pop-ups. 

That is something the founders of ESET — who originally developed their passion for computers as gamers — took to heart when developing the NOD32 Antivirus Gamer Edition. Light and unobtrusive, NOD32 runs in the background and doesn’t disrupt your game with pop-ups. Its features include: 

  • Zero Interruptions — Built to run fast, it doesn’t slow down your machine with pop-ups or down time. 
  • Killer Protection — It safely and effectively blocks ransomware, hackers and all of the latest threats. 
  • Easy to Manage — If you are changing or upgrading your computer, simply transfer the license. 
  • Free Help — When needed, a North American-based support team is available on demand. 
  • Developed by Gamers — They know the concerns and hang ups of other programs. NOD32 was built for speed. Guaranteed. 

ESET’s NOD32 Antivirus Gamer Edition is available in Canada at Best Buy. 

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Garmin Pwned By Ransomware…. Athlete Services & Call Center Services Are Down

Posted in Commentary on July 24, 2020 by itnerd

Athletes and wanna-be athletes like me who use Garmin devices like cycling computers and running watches rely on Garmin’s back end service which is Garmin Connect to upload their activities from their devices to places like Strava and Apple Health. That way they can analyze their efforts and plan their training. Plus because Strava has a social component, you can prove to your friends that you were actually out running or cycling.

Well, none of that is happening at the moment because according to Garmin, the Garmin Connect service has an “outage”. And if you try calling their call centers, you won’t get through as they are affected by the same “outage”:

Now you will note that I put the word “outage” in quotes. That’s because they’ve actually been hit by ransomware and they likely don’t want to admit it according to The Guardian:

The company has not officially said it was a ransomware attack. However company employees writing on social media after the incident all described it as such.

The Taiwanese tech news site iThome published an internal memo from Garmin’s IT staff to its Taiwan factories announcing two days of maintenance on Friday and Saturday, which sources told the website was caused by a “virus”.

Garmin also makes car and aviation navigation systems as well, and those services are down too leaving pilots and drivers in limbo. Thus this is very very bad for Garmin to say the least. And bad for Garmin customers like my wife and I. After all, it in’t clear if customer info was stolen for example. Thus when Garmin gets everything up and running again, assuming that they can do so, they have some explaining to do if they ever expect to regain the trust of their customers.

UPDATE: If you have a Garmin running or cycling device and you need to upload your workouts to Strava while Garmin sorts itself out, this video will help you to do that. Because if your workout isn’t on Strava, it didn’t happen:

UPDATE #2: Bleeping Computer has confirmed that Garmin was hit by the “WastedLocker” ransomware. Because of that, I would not expect Garmin systems to be operational anytime soon. Related to this, you can expect Apple Watch, Fitbit and Wahoo sales to skyrocket as a result of this now well publicized incident.

UPDATE #3: As of Monday morning EST, Garmin’s services are now starting to come on line. The key word is starting as there is still significant functionality that isn’t working. But you now seem to be able to log into Garmin Connect and upload workouts. So that’s a start.

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