Episode #247: Edwin Kwan: Linux Distributions Vulnerable to Looney Tunables; Katy Craig: Hactivists Enter the Middle-East Fray; Ian Garret: Google Helps Drive the End of Passwords; Marcel Brown: This Day in Tech History.

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The stories we’re covering today:

Marcel Brown: October 10th, 1980. Namco officially transfers rights to Midway for distribution of the games Pac-Man and Rally-X in North America. While the exact date that Pac-Man started shipping to arcades in North America is currently unknown, most sources cite October of 1980.

Edwin Kwan: A new Linux vulnerability, known as the Looney Tunables, impacts most Linux distributions and allows attackers to gain administrative root privileges.

Katy Craig:  In the midst of ongoing clashes between Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces, hacktivist groups have entered the digital battleground.  Cybersecurity experts warn of the growing involvement of threat actor groups in digital attacks on government websites and IT systems.

Ian Garrett: Is this the beginning of the end of passwords as we know them? Google has made the move to make passkeys the default sign-in option for personal Google accounts, simplifying the login process and enhancing security.