Malware is thoroughly unpleasant stuff, and one of the nastiest pieces of malware to exist is the sub-group of ‘ransomware’. Ransomware works by getting into your computer and holding your files hostage, usually by encrypting them or corrupting them in some way – which can only be reversed if you pay the ransom fee and sometimes even then you don’t get 100% of your files back. The Internet can bring some very scary things to your computer, and not always in the way we generally expect it to.

However, recently the people over at Malware Hunter Team came across a ransomware program that was a little bit… different. How so? Well, it too held your files hostage but the price of the ransom was to get a high score on the Lunatic difficulty of an anime shoot-em-up game. No, seriously.

Found a surprising ransomware today: “rensenWare”.
Not asks for any money, but to play a game until you reach a score – and it’s not a joke. pic.twitter.com/Pu53WZFALA

— MalwareHunterTeam (@malwrhunterteam) April 6, 2017

Rensenware, named after the game it wanted you to get the high score in (Touhou Seirensen – Undefined Fantastic Object), challenges unfortunate users who get the malware on their machines to rack up 200 million points on a really hard difficulty level, or lose their access to their files for good.

In case you’re wondering why any malicious person online would set that particular ransom, the story is much simpler than that. The program was created by a Korea-based undergraduate student as a joke, and he then placed the source code onto GitHub – this is how it’s managed to essentially ‘escape’ and get into people’s computers for real. For what it’s worth they’ve quickly managed to build a program to bypass the locks Rensenware sets and have even issued an apology for letting it get out in the first place.

So, the creator of rensenWare created a tool which writes the values to memory which are needed for the decryption.
Also wrote an apology… pic.twitter.com/LrapKv5Dm3

— MalwareHunterTeam (@malwrhunterteam) April 7, 2017

Sometimes reality really can be stranger than fiction. You literally couldn’t make this up.

The humble coffee table. One of the most recognised pieces of furniture there is. Everyone’s living room has one, I’d wager; and whether it’s used to put your coffee and biscuits as you watch TV; as a decorative item; or as something to put your paperwork and other junk on, it’s fair to say that they’re not the most inspiring parts of a room or the most useful. Now, a New York-based firm called StoreBound thinks it’s time the coffee table got a 21st-Century upgrade.

"Designed for a digital lifestyle… the furniture of the future." Thus starts the IndieGoGo pitch for Sobro, a smart coffee table designed to support your connected lifestyle, which at the time of writing has already thrashed its modest $50,000 funding goal, raising $838,055 at the time of writing with a month of the campaign still to run. “We’ve elevated the coffee table from a piece of wood that props up unopened large-format books, to an all-in-one center that connects your powered up life.”

So what IS Sobro?

At its heart, Sobro is a coffee table with an integrated refrigerator drawer, designed to allow you to keep beverages chilled and snacks fresh while still allowing you to use it as an actual surface like a regular table. There are also two side drawers, for storing items that don’t need to be chilled. The top surface of this chunky furniture item is tempered glass, which StoreBound claims is durable and easy to clean, making coasters a thing of the past. But Sobro is more than just a glass-covered work-top with a fridge – this is a true techy delight.

To the left and right sides, the Sobro is equipped with dual Bluetooth-connected speakers, allowing you to pump music into the room from any Bluetooth-connected device with a rich bass and high-quality sound. This can be combined with configurable LED lighting on the underside of the Sobro in order to create a real sense of atmosphere, or bring life to a party. Speaking of configuration, the bottom-right side of the Sobro’s top surface features touch-sensitive controls, through which one can control the Sobro’s audio, lights and drawer temperature; and its Bluetooth connections right from the tabletop – no need for a smartphone and companion app.

Speaking of which, do you find that your smartphone or tablet runs out of juice far too quickly? The Sobro has you covered. With two USB ports on its side, the Sobro can charge two USB-powered devices at the same time. The Sobro also contains two standard power outlets, so even traditional electronics can be plugged in – why not keep your laptop plugged in while you use it? The Sobro gets all its power from a single plug which can be plugged into a wall socket and concealed underneath, allowing you to split a single socket into four seperate power solutions.

StoreBound claim the Sobro’s dimensions and stylish appearance will allow it to fit in wherever you might normally find a coffee table.

Unfortunately, because the Sobro uses 110-Volt American-style outlets, the Sobro is currently only planned to ship to America and Canada. This restriction, however, doesn’t seem to have hampered the product’s reach, with the connected coffee table being backed by almost 1200 IndieGoGo users at the time of writing. Currently, a pledge of $649 or more will buy you one Sobro, but slots are already filling up and once 200 people have claimed this perk, the price will rise to $899 for everyone else. Even this, however is still a 40% saving on the product’s expected retail price of $1499 – so if the sound of a connected coffee table appeals to you, and you live in the USA or Canada, don’t miss your chance!