Today’s topics include researchers’ look inside the RIG Flash exploit kit, three major car makers complete a deal for the Nokia advanced digital mapping system, a new high-end chip from AMD and an update to Oracle Communications’ operation support system suite that accelerates network-functions virtualization adoption.
The RIG exploit kit is undergoing an evolution to version 3.0 as malware authors seek to infect an increasing volume of victims.
A research team at security vendor Trustwave has managed to infiltrate the RIG ecosystem, which is made up of a command and control system as well as third-party malware developers that use RIG as a service to exploit users.
Arseny Levin, lead security researcher at Trustwave, said the RIG 2.0 code was leaked in February by a disgruntled RIG reseller. With the RIG 3.0 update, the exploit kit authors are now abandoning the reseller model and selling the kit directly.
With self-driving vehicles requiring reliable digital mapping systems, three major German automakers have just purchased the Nokia HERE advanced digital mapping unit to bolster their digital assets in the autonomous car wars.
The three vehicle manufacturers, Audi, BMW and Daimler, will be equal partners in the $3.07 billion acquisition, which was announced on Aug. 3. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016, subject to customary due diligence reviews and regulatory approvals.
Advanced Micro Devices reportedly is developing a high-end chip designed for supercomputers that will include as many as 32 “Zen” processing cores and an unknown number of its upcoming “Greenland” GPUs.
Some of the details of AMD’s “Exascale Heterogeneous Processor” were outlined in a paper submitted to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and first published in the Bits and Chips news site. According to the site, the new accelerated processing unit could hit the market between 2016 and 2017.
Oracle Communications is updating its operation support system suite to help communications service providers more easily design services that span both physical and virtual networks.
The latest release of Oracle Communications’ operational support system portfolio is designed to help service providers be more flexible when it comes to developing and delivering their services on networks that are becoming increasingly dynamic, according to Doug Suriano, the company’s senior vice president and general manager.