Capcom has confirmed that an unauthorized third party accessed customer data tied to CAPCOM ID, the shared account used for the company's web services and for online play in some of its games. According to Capcom's official notice, a massive 11,774,247 records were affected worldwide, each containing an email address along with the account creation date, last login time, login count, and the IP address from the most recent sign-in. Capcom spotted the suspicious activity on October 19, started blocking it the same day, and reported the incident to the Osaka Prefectural Police and Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission on October 21. A much smaller group of 43 records also exposed dates of birth, gender, country or region, and nicknames.

The attackers changed the login passwords on 196 accounts too, and Capcom has since reset them. A follow-up notice on October 23 adds that the intruder opened the e-Capcom store pages of 19 of those accounts, exposing names, phone numbers, addresses, and purchase history for those customers in Japan. Capcom says it found no sign that customer-set passwords were compromised, and credit card information was not affected. Capcom hasn't said how the attackers got in, only that the method has been identified and dealt with. CAPCOM ID and Capcom's games remain available. The bigger risk now seems to be phishing, so anyone with a CAPCOM ID is advised to treat messages claiming to come from Capcom with suspicion.

Following a similar story relating to PlayStation Account server errors just a few days prior, on the launch of the Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls beta, Xbox has seemingly run into issues during the advanced access launch of Halo: Campaign Evolved. The resulting Xbox outage has resulted in gamers being unable to access core online features, such as account login, game downloads, the Xbox Store and subscriptions, and launching apps on console and mobile. Reportedly, the newly added Xbox Backwards Compatibility feature has also experienced issues during the server outage.

Microsoft, for its part has acknowledged the issues and says it is working on a fix, but, at the time of writing, the outage has already been over 12 hours since the uptick in issue reports on Downdetector. Both this Xbox outage and the previous week's PlayStation outage have come shortly after PlayStation announced that it would stop producing physical games media as soon as 2028, and it is expected that Xbox will follow suit.

Since the launch of the Steam Deck, Valve has poured a lot of effort into not only developing SteamOS but also making the Steam Store and client more user-friendly on handheld devices. Valve's latest Steam Deck Client update builds on this, introducing a number of small changes that make the Steam Deck all the more useful as a console-like gaming experience. Some of the highlights in this latest update include a new optional "Switch to Desktop" button on the login screen—a change that should make the Steam Deck that much easier to user as a docked workstation when necessary. The update also adds a wireless gamepad battery indicator and a low battery level toast notification.

In addition to the aforementioned new UI features, the Steam quick access menu now also houses Steam chat, making in-game socials easier, and there is now a new quick chat feature in Steam Deck and Big Picture mode. Users can access user-configurable quick chats by holding down the view button and selecting the appropriate response. The Steam Deck also now supports Remote Downloads management, allowing you to manage, for example, the downloads on your gaming desktop from the comfort of a couch across the room or the discomfort of an airport across the country. The update also includes a number of bug fixes and UI changes to features like the Steam Input controller customization settings, which can all be viewed in the full update changelog.

One of the biggest pain points for Windows 11 users in recent years is Microsoft's insistence to log into an online account to access Windows 11. Seemingly as part of the Windows team's recent initiative to address community feedback, Microsoft may be moving towards a Windows 11 that no longer requires that online account login at the initial setup. While no official plans have been confirmed, Scott Hanselman, a Microsoft Partner Product Manager and VP of Developer Community, recently hinted at the change in a post on X. This announcement comes after Microsoft revealed plans to improve Windows 11 memory management and the overall user experience.

"Ya I hate that. Working on it," reads Hanselman's response to a comment on a post asking about removing the login requirement on Windows 11. While it's unclear what exactly "working on it" means—it could mean he's actively working on the code to remove the login requirement, or that he's working on convincing higher-ups to commit to the change. Either way, in a recent blog post Microsoft announced that it would be making changes to Windows 11 in the name of delivering a quality user experience, such as returning the ability to move the task bar and removing much of the recent flood of Copilot integrations from certain apps. Microsoft removed the known mechanisms to bypass the online account sign-in requirements in October 2025, citing issues that arose because users would accidentally skip setup screens when using those methods, "causing users to exit OOBE with a device that is not fully configured for use."

If you ever tried the infamous "Update and shut down" option in any Windows build, it often leads to a reboot instead to an actual shutdown. Now, Microsoft has finally fixed this issue starting with Windows 11 25H2 Build 26200.7019 (or 26100.7019 on 24H2). According to the Windows Latest, Microsoft has shipped this broken functionality way back with Windows 10, and has never fixed it since. However, the Windows teams working behind the update have finally managed to ship a working solution with a note stating in Windows 11 experiences that the new build: "Addressed underlying issue which can cause "Update and shutdown" to not actually shut down your PC after updating."

Microsoft has not disclosed the exact cause of the failure, but Windows Latest speculates it might be due to a race condition or an issue within the Windows Servicing Stack. When a user selects "Update and shut down," the operating system must complete two sequential tasks: applying all pending updates and then shutting down the computer. This process isn't straightforward because Windows needs to reboot into an offline servicing phase to replace locked system files, as indicated by the "working on updates" message. After this phase, the machine should power off, but instead, it returns to the login screen. The most likely explanation is that the Servicing Stack either fails to save or never receives the shutdown instruction, with the directive possibly getting lost during the reboot due to a timing conflict or interference from features like Fast Startup.

Microsoft has updated Windows Hello facial recognition to require a compatible color camera, in addition to infrared sensors, for user sign-in. Although this change was announced in April's Patch Tuesday release (KB5055523), many users only noticed the impact when their devices stopped authenticating in dark environments. Previously, Hello relied solely on IR sensors to capture a three-dimensional facial scan, enabling secure logins even in minimal lighting conditions. Microsoft says the new requirement addresses a spoofing vulnerability discovered earlier this year by ensuring that a visible image from the color camera accompanies the IR scan. Early reports have been mixed: some outlets confirm Hello no longer works in darkness, while others find that the glow of a laptop screen can suffice to illuminate the user's face.

A practical workaround involves disabling the color webcam in Device Manager, which forces Hello to revert to IR-only authentication and restores dark-room functionality. Disabling the webcam for video calls is not practical for everyone, particularly for those who need to attend mandatory daily meetings, especially in corporate settings. Fortunately, Windows Hello provides alternative sign-in options. Users can choose to sign in with a PIN, password, or fingerprint, all of which allow for quick and secure access without depending on facial recognition in low-light conditions.

A new security breach is trying to pump the brakes on Path Of Exile 2's overwhelmingly positive late 2024 launch, as a mysterious hack appears to be making the rounds in the new RPG, although the source of the vulnerability is yet to be identified. According to a growing number of posts on the Path of Exile 2 forum, subreddit, and even the game's Steam reviews, players are apparently logging into their PoE 2 accounts only to find that all their loot and gear they've now spent dozens or even hundreds of hours grinding for, has been removed from their accounts. The most alarming thing is that nobody seems to know how these hacks are happening. Some players say they changed their main email address and Steam login passwords days before they were hacked, and most seem to have no Steam 2FA requests, suggesting that there is either a security issue with the Path of Exile 2 game servers or there is some sort of session hijacking happening that is giving bad actors access to player accounts.

Until now, Grinding Gear Games, the developer behind Path of Exile 2, has not openly commented on the hacking incidents, with a single comment from the support team on the forum advising players to email support about it if they encounter such instances. According to the Steam review mentioning an account hacking incident, however, the player managed to track down the hacker on his own, subsequently contacted support and posted about it in the PoE 2 forum, and asked the moderator to assist in preventing the sale of the rest of his goods. This attempt was apparently enough to get the gamer's forum posts removed and put on probation. Meanwhile, the support request was met even more unkindly, with PoE 2 support going so far as to lock him out of his own account. He also isn't alone, with others in the Path of Exile 2 forum reporting that sharing the in-game name of their alleged hacker with support has led to their game account being locked.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, the world's top leading brand of personal computers, now proudly presents the AERO Creator Laptop Series with the 12th Generation Intel Core Processors: AERO 16, AERO 17, and AERO 5. As the concept of the Metaverse blossoms, immersive content has been regarded as a crucial element for Metaverse development, and the Creator Laptops are expected to become extremely popular with their unique positioning: high performance with premium visual experiences. Targeting the Generation-Z creators and in response to the wishes of the massive user base, the GIGABYTE AERO Series product aspires to be a visionary masterpiece that breaks through the new epoch of 16" Creator Laptop as 16:10 4K+ OLED and AmLED display technologies are introduced to the series for the first time, along with the evolution of product designs. Rooted in humanity and heading back to nature, its appearance consists of the pure aesthetics from the integrally formed chassis crafted through CNC technology, and the core tenets are driven by the powerful core performance accompanied by minimalist designs, granting endless splendid wonders to the creators while intensifying the immersion of their creative journey. A trend of laptop replacement is to be expected.

Dutch researcher from the Eindhoven University of Technology has found a new vulnerability in Thunderbolt port that allows attackers with physical access to unlock any PC running Windows or Linux kernel-based OS in less than 5 minutes. The researcher of the university called Björn Ruytenberg found a method which he calls Thunderspy, which can bypass the login screen of any PC. This attack requires physical access to the device, which is, of course, dangerous on its own if left with a person of knowledge. The Thunderbolt port is a fast protocol, and part of the reason why it is so fast is that it partially allows direct access to computer memory. And anything that can access memory directly is a potential vulnerability.

The Thunderspy attack relies on just that. There is a feature built into the Thunderbolt firmware called "Security Level", which disallows access to untrusted devices or even turns off Thunderbolt port altogether. This feature would make the port be a simple USB or display output. However, the researcher has found a way to alter the firmware setting of Thunderbolt control chip in a way so it allows any device to access the PC. This procedure is done without any trace and OS can not detect that there was a change. From there, the magic happens. Using an SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) programmer with a SOP8 clip that connects the pins of the programmer device to the controller, the attacker just runs a script from there. This procedure requires around $400 worth of hardware. Intel already put some protection last year for the Thunderbolt port called Kernel Direct Memory Access Protection, but that feature isn't implemented on PCs manufactured before 2019. And even starting from 2019, not all PC manufacturers implement the feature, so there is a wide group of devices vulnerable to this unfixable attack.

YouTube user TechMax has uploaded a video in which he shows a way to circumvent GeForce Experience's most wanted feature of all time: the mandatory login. One of the least popular features of NVIDIA's most recent GeForce Experience 3.0 update was the introduction of the mandatory logins, meaning that if you didn't, you wouldn't have access to GeForce Experience features, and even the in-app driver update wouldn't be available to you. In case you don't want the green genies to know when you're online, for how long, what hardware you use, and which games you play, and want to make use of the features embedded in NVIDIA's app, watch the video below and follow its steps. You'll need to copy and paste some lines of code, but it shouldn't prove too difficult. You can find the YouTube video below, and a transcript of the steps after the break.