The Guardian hit by suspected ransomware attack

Prominent news organizations are high-value targets for hackers and it appears that The Guardian is the latest to have fallen victim to an attack. A “serious IT incident” struck the publication on Tuesday evening. “We believe this to be a ransomware attack but are continuing to consider all possibilities,” editor-in-chief Katharine Viner and Guardian Media Group chief executive Anna Bateson told employees in a note. “Our technology teams have been working to deal with all aspects of this incident, with the vast majority of our staff able to work from home as we did during the pandemic.”

Some of The Guardian‘s tech infrastructure and “behind-the-scenes services” have been impacted, according to the publication. Employees were asked to work from home for the remainder of the week. The Guardian has still been able to publish stories on its website and app, and leaders were confident of being able to deliver a print edition on Thursday.

Other news organizations have suffered security breaches in recent months. Fast Company was forced offline for eight days amid a cyberattack that saw hackers deliver obscene push notifications through Apple News. The New York Post, meanwhile, claimed in October that a rogue employee took over its website and Twitter accounts and was the culprit behind racist and sexist posts.

USPS expects to only buy electric delivery vehicles starting in 2026

The United States Postal Service said it expects to buy more than 66,000 electric vehicles by the end of 2028 in a significant change from previous plans. In February, the USPS said it would purchase 5,000 fully electric versions of the Next Generation…

‘Horizon Burning Shores’ will take Aloy to a volcanic Los Angeles on April 19th

Just like its predecessor, Horizon Forbidden West is getting an expansion. As revealed at The Game Awards, the Burning Shores DLC will arrive on April 19th. 

The DLC will pick up from where the sprawling story of Forbidden West left off. It will see Aloy travel to what was once Los Angeles, a region that’s now home to a volcanic archipelago. She’ll be able to explore the area by water or on the back of a Sunwing, a flying mount. Guerrilla Games says you can expect to encounter new characters and adventures. Ultimately, Aloy will have to battle an enormous machine and use all of her skills and abilities to take it down.

Unfortunately for fans who haven’t been able to get their hands on a PS5, Burning Shores won’t be coming to PS4. “To achieve this grand vision technically and creatively, we’ve made the difficult decision to focus all our efforts on making an incredible experience exclusively for the PlayStation 5 console,” Guerrilla said. The studio plans to reveal more details about the DLC in the coming months.

Guerilla has at least one other Horizon project in the works. It will release Horizon Call of the Mountain as a PS VR2 launch title in February.

Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle will share the Pentagon’s $9 billion cloud contract

Over a year after shutting down its previous attempt at modernizing its IT infrastructure, the Department of Defense (DOD) has picked Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle as its new cloud service providers. The Pentagon has awarded the companies separate contracts for the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) project, and according to Reuters, they will have a shared budget ceiling of $9 billion. This initiative is a successor to DOD’s cancelled Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) program that was supposed to connect its different divisions using a single cloud service provider. 

If you’ll recall, the department awarded Microsoft with the $10 billion JEDI contract in 2019. Shortly after that, though, Amazon challenged Microsoft’s victory in court, claiming that the evaluation process had “clear deficiencies, errors and unmistakable bias.” Amazon argued back then that the Pentagon’s decision was based on “egregious errors” and “the result of improper pressure from President Donald J. Trump.” The company accused the former President of launching “repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks” against it in an effort to steer the Pentagon away from giving the JEDI contract to Jeff Bezos, “his perceived political enemy.” 

While the Pentagon’s inspector general office had found no evidence that Trump interfered with the selection process, it also noted that several White House officials did not cooperate with its investigation. In the end, the department chose to cancel the JEDI project because it “no longer meets its needs.” Now, under the JWCC, the Pentagon will work with several vendors for the cloud capabilities and services it needs instead of with just a single one.

The companies’ contracts will run until 2028 and will provide the DOD access to centralized management and distributed control, global accessibility, advanced data analytics and fortified security, among other capabilities. 

The merged HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming service could be simply called ‘Max’

Warner Bros. Discovery will soon combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single streaming service with a new name. Right now, it seems that the frontrunner for the merged platform’s moniker is “Max,” which would ditch the more instantly recognizable part…