October 12 Tech news roundup: Wayback Machine Hacked, Steam Clarifies Game Licenses, and Google Ordered to Open Play Store

Google ordered by court to open up the Play Store to third-parties

Google has lost its appeal against the verdict that was given in the antitrust lawsuit filed by Epic Games. The search giant lost the case last year, but had appealed against the ruling because it did not want to allow third-party payment systems via the Play Store.

A U.S. District Court Judge has ordered Google to remove its restrictions, and allow alternative app stores to access its app catalog. The Mountain View company needs to follow some strict rules for 3 years, and a three-person committee formed by Google and Epic will review technical issues. The restrictions forbid Google from making deals with other app stores to prevent them from competing with its one store. App developers will not be forced to use Google Play Billing, and can direct users to their own websites, where they may offer digital products for a lower price.

Google will appeal the ruling, and will play the security card, claiming that opening up the Play Store to third-party app stores and payment gateways will put Android devices at risk. It also argues that Android and iOS compete with each other in the same market, and that unlike its rival, Android offers users the ability to sideload apps and app stores.

Epic Games CEO, Tim Sweeney called the ruling a big win for app developers, store makers, carriers and manufacturers, and that Android has 3 years to build a competitive ecosystem without Google’s interference.

Kaspersky closes its office in the U.K.

Russian cybersecurity firm, Kaspersky, has announced that it has shut down its office in the United Kingdom. The news comes in the wake of the recent layoff of the company’s operations in the United States a few months ago, which was the result of a complete ban issued by the Country for the company’s alleged links to the Russian Government.

Kaspersky says that it will begin a liquidation of the UK office operations, and redirect its focus towards local business partners, and that this will allow it to improve efficiency in the market. Unlike the ban in the United States, this news will not affect Kaspersky users in the United Kingdom, as the company will continue to provide support through its European staff.

Kaspersky came under fire recently for replacing its antivirus on the computers of its US users, with a relatively unknown product called Ultra AV. On a sidenote, Kaspersky products have been removed from the Play Store, affecting users worldwide.

October 2024 security updates for Windows 10 and Windows 11 released

Microsoft has released the October 2024 security updates for Windows 10 and Windows 11. This is a cumulative update that patches 117 security issues related to Microsoft products, and 4 patches for third-party software.

The update package name for Windows 10 version 22H2 is KB5044273, Windows 11 version 22H2 and 23H2 users get the KB5044285 update, while those on Windows 11 version 24H2 receive the KB5044284 update.

There are some known issues with the updates, including one bug that affects Windows 11 version 24H2, which prevents ARM devices from playing Roblox from the Microsoft Store. The company advises downloading the product from the developer’s website as a temporary workaround for the problem. Notably, this is the last security update for Windows 11 version 22H2 Home and Pro editions. Users on this version will be forced to upgrade to a newer Windows version.

Some users on Windows 11 24H2 say that Windows Cleanup is not deleting the temporary files properly.

Steam starts warning users that they are buying a license, not the game

Steam users who buy a game on the platform are noticing a new warning on the checkout page, aka the shopping cart. The PC game store now states that purchases made on the store grant the user a license for the product on Steam. So, what’s surprising about that? Well, this is essentially a disclaimer that says that the buyer doesn’t own the game.

The reason why Steam displaying this warning is quite obvious, Valve is preparing itself to comply with a new California law that comes into effect in 2025. This law, will require companies to state to the buyer that they do not own the digital content when they buy them.

The DRM-Free store, GOG, on the other hand allows you to own the games that you buy, as it lets you save the offline installers for the games on your PC, which you can use to reinstall the games anytime.

LinkedIn warns users that they are responsible for sharing AI generated content

LinkedIn recently made a controversial change that collects user data without their consent, in order to train its AI. The feature is enabled for all users by default, and will need to be disabled manually.

And now, a new controversy is stirring. LinkedIn has released an update to its Service Agreement, which comes into effect in November 2024, which says that users are responsible for sharing AI generated content on the platform. Users will need to review information, and edit them before sharing them with others. This seems like a move to absolve itself from potential issues that could arise due to users spreading misinformation or harmful content. Microsoft, which owns LinkedIn, made a recent change to its policies as well.

Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine breached and millions of user data stolen

The Internet Archive has been attacked by hackers, who managed to breach the security protocol of the Wayback Machine. This is a bizarre attack, because the service acts as a library that stores archived data including web pages, books, etc., for free. According to some reports, the threat actors managed to steal the email addresses, usernames, password change timestamps, and other data of over 31 million users.

The hackers have shared the data with the popular breach alert service, Have I Been Pawned, which shows users if their data has been compromised. A security expert clarified that the data theft does not reveal the passwords directly, and instead only had Bcrypt-hashed passwords that are one-way salted. So, users need not panic and reset them.

While it is unclear how the Wayback Machine was breached, a hacktivist group called BlackMeta claimed that it had been hitting the Internet Archive with DDos attacks repeatedly.