Month: January 2025

By Wes Davis, a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020.
When visiting the Internet Archive (www.archive.org) on Wednesday afternoon, The Verge was greeted with a pop-up claiming the site had been hacked. Just after 9PM ET, Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle confirmed the breach and said the website had been defaced with the notification via a JavaScript library.
Here’s what the pop-up said:
Have you ever felt like the Internet Archive runs on sticks and is constantly on the verge of suffering a catastrophic security breach? It just happened. See 31 million of you on HIBP!
HIBP refers to Have I Been Pwned, a website where people can look up whether their information has been published in data leaked from cyberattacks. HIBP operator Troy Hunt confirmed to BleepingComputer that he received a file containing “email addresses, screen names, password change timestamps, Bcrypt-hashed passwords, and other internal data” for 31 million unique email addresses nine days ago and confirmed it was valid by matching data with a user’s account.
A tweet from HIBP said 54 percent of the accounts were already in its database from previous breaches. In posts on his account, Hunt gave further details on the timeline, including contacting the Internet Archive about the breach on October 6th and moving forward with the disclosure process, to today, when the site was defaced and DDoS’d at the same time they were loading the data into HIBP to begin notifying affected users.
After closing the message, the site loaded normally, albeit slowly.
As of 5:30PM ET, the pop-up was gone, but so was the rest of the site, leaving either nothing or a placeholder message saying “Internet Archive services are temporarily offline” and directing visitors to the site’s account on X for updates.
Jason Scott, an archivist and software curator at the Internet Archive, said the site was experiencing a DDoS attack, posting on Mastodon that “according to their twitter, they’re doing it just to do it. Just because they can. No statement, no idea, no demands.”
Later on Wednesday evening, Kahle of the Internet Archive confirmed the breach in a post on X:
What we know: DDOS attack–fended off for now; defacement of our website via JS library; breach of usernames/email/salted-encrypted passwords.
What we’ve done: Disabled the JS library, scrubbing systems, upgrading security.
Will share more as we know it.
An account on X called SN_Blackmeta said it was behind the attack and implied that another attack was planned for tomorrow. The account also posted about DDoSing the site in May, and Scott has previously posted about attacks seemingly aimed at disrupting the Internet Archive.
We’ve reached out to the organization to learn more information.
Update, October 9th: Added information from HIBP and BleepingComputer as well as Brewster Kahle’s confirmation of the breach.
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Google Chrome’s latest update proves its resilience
It’s no surprise Google is desperate to keep Chrome within its stable, pushing back on the DOJ’s campaign to force a sale of the browser. But Chrome is proving itself to be remarkably resilient—just as it is with a new update that’s particularly bad news for Microsoft and its Windows OS.
Microsoft has campaigned hard to switch Chrome users to its Edge browser, taking flak for the nags and ads stitched into Windows itself, including ones that interrupt Chrome installations on a PC. While this has proven broadly ineffective, Microsoft has also deployed a more potent tactic, pushing users to switch to Edge for security reasons, especially within an enterprise environment. As I’ve commented, if users switch to Edge at work perhaps they’ll do the same at home.
Edger default popup in Windows
But while Edge is steadily growing its market share, up more than 2% year-on-year to 13% of the desktop market, the already dominant Chrome was actually growing more quickly as 2024 ended. As picked up by Neowin from Statcounter’s latest numbers, “Chrome opens 2025 with a strong and unreachable 66.88% market share, increasing its market share by 0.5 points in one month and 1.65 points year-over-year.” As such, it seems the Microsoft Windows campaign is just not working.
Desktop Browser Market Share Worldwide (Jan – Dec 2024)
The latest Windows ads pushing users to the Edge cropped up in development just before the holidays, with Windows Latest reporting that “Microsoft Edge won’t stop nagging users to set itself as default on Windows 11.” But while there is clearly some conversion it’s not nearly enough to dent Chrome. I have reached out to both Microsoft and Google for any comments on these latest numbers.
Edge default push
To be fair to Google’s PR team, they have proven themselves to be equally resilient, batting away all manner of recent Chrome headlines—the reversal on tracking cookies, Apple’s fabled ad mimicking The Birds, security warning after security warning, and the unimaginably painful Privacy Sandbox regulatory stalemate. They don’t need to overreact—Chrome’s user base has proven that it cares much more about the browser’s features and performance than its record on privacy and security bugs.
But 2025 could be different—we don’t yet know where the U.S. antitrust campaign will end, and while Apple has jumped to its frenemies defense on Chrome, there’s a lot of ground still to cover. That said, Microsoft has its own concerns here. As Neowin explains, “browser makers and advocacy groups recently sent a letter to the European Commission asking it to subject Edge to DMA regulations and mark Microsoft as a gatekeeper that hurts other businesses with predatory practices.”
Happy new year? Maybe not for long.

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By YANG RAN | China Daily Global | Updated: 2025-01-02 07:36
As green transformation and climate adaptation become more urgent, officials and experts have praised China for its pivotal role in building global climate resilience through South-South cooperation.
During his visit to China in December, Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan’s Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, expressed his appreciation for China’s partnership in tackling climate change. He said Pakistan has greatly benefited from this collaboration, particularly in developing renewable energy capabilities.
“Thanks to our collaboration with China, Pakistan has, for the first time, developed renewable energy capabilities that are crucial for scaling up green energy in our country,” Iqbal told China Daily.
According to the official website of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Secretariat Office, China has completed several renewable energy projects in Pakistan, including a solar park, four wind farms, and two hydropower projects.
“Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. We want to use China’s help to prepare for climate challenges,” Iqbal said. “We hope this collaboration will help make our energy sector more efficient, affordable, and green. China has already provided us with the know-how in renewable energies by helping build these projects.”
Beijing has also helped enhance Pakistan’s ability to prevent and mitigate meteorological disasters. At the third China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Blue Economy Development Cooperation in December, China signed an agreement on building projects for early warning and response to climate-induced disasters in Pakistan.
This cooperation is vital for Pakistan’s northern areas, where glaciers are at risk of melting and generating fatal floods, Iqbal said. The early warning system will be useful in preparing for and mitigating the effects of climate disasters, he added.
Iqbal said South-South cooperation in sharing experiences is important, as many countries facing climate disasters are in the Global South. “China has been at the forefront of helping its partners develop their capacity to face climate challenges, particularly in relief, rescue, and early warning systems,” he said.
By October, China had signed 53 memoranda of understanding for South-South cooperation on climate change with 42 developing countries, and conducted nearly 100 climate change mitigation and adaptation projects.
Zhang Jianyu, chief development officer of the BRI International Green Development Coalition, said Global South nations make relatively low contributions to global emissions. However, they are still in the process of industrializing and have the right to further development, which suggests potential emissions increases.
“Given their significant populations and importance, supporting their green transition is crucial for global climate goals,” Zhang said.
Since 2016, China has provided and mobilized more than 177 billion yuan ($24.25 billion) in climate-related financial support for developing countries, covering a wide range of mitigation and adaptation projects.
Zhang said green financing and technology support for developing countries had accelerated their green transition and helped them industrialize at a lower carbon level. “This process also brings additional benefits such as improved governance, technological advancements, and enhanced public welfare, contributing to achieving sustainable development goals,” he added.
Developing countries also represent a vast potential market. “Investing in this potential green market can boost China’s green industries. This benefit can extend globally, as a larger market can stimulate technological innovation and speed up the advancement of green technologies,” Zhang said.
Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, said many countries from the Global South have abundant renewable energy resources.
“By leveraging China’s renewable energy technology, we can help these nations transition to green energy and achieve the goal of tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030, from a 2022 baseline, as established in the historic UAE Consensus at COP28,” he said.
Ma also highlighted the potential for green economic growth in developing countries through South-South cooperation. “Developing countries are keen on addressing climate change and achieving economic development. China’s experience in these areas can be highly useful,” he said.

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Bay Minette PD investigates man found shot to death in the street  NBC 15 WPMI
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Kingdom Come Deliverance is now available for free on PC through the Epic Games Store  OC3D
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Internet Archive hacked, data breach impacts 31 million users  BleepingComputer
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Well, happy New Year everyone. And here is a special gift for you. Epic Games is currently giving away for free an amazing PC RPG, Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Until January 2nd, 4:00 PM GMT, PC gamers can visit the game’s EGS page and acquire their free copy.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a story-driven open-world RPG that immerses you in an epic adventure in the Holy Roman Empire. Avenge your parents’ death as you battle invading forces, go on game-changing quests, and make influential choices.
The game features a massive realistic open world and a non-linear story as players can solve quests in multiple ways, and face the consequences of your decisions. Moreover, the game comes with a challenging combat system.
Kingdom Come Deliverance was a commercial success for Warhorse Studios. And, right now, the devs are working on its sequel which will come out on February 4th. As such, I suggest getting your free copy and playing its first part until the sequel comes out.
You can go ahead and acquire your free copy from this link.
Have fun!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email

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All 4 Will Ferrell Comedy Movies You Can Stream on Netflix  MovieWeb
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How ETH, SOL, SUI and AAVE could respond to new Bitcoin price ATHs in 2025  Cointelegraph
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