FBI Warns Of Malware War, Track Santa With Google, & More... [Tech News Digest]

Also, Microsoft Bings Clip Art, buy Girl Scout Cookies online, play Telltale's new Game of Thrones game, and watch the unofficial Yeezus movie.

FBI Warns Of Foreign Cyberattacks

As a former Imageworks employee I'm told my own information was in the Sony hack: A job performance evaluation. Hope it was a good one!

— VFX Soldier (@VFXSoldier) November 26, 2014

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a warning to American businesses to be on the lookout for malicious software targeting their computer networks. The warning comes in the aftermath of the cyberattack on Sony Pictures which resulted in several unreleased movies leaking online.

The Sony hack is described as the "first major destructive cyber attack waged against a company on U.S. soil." The FBI is advising businesses on how to combat any such attack, with the Bureau clearly heavily involved in pinpointing the source of this attack, as well as any possible future attacks.

The report claims the malware used against Sony "overrides all data on hard drives of computers, including the master boot record, which prevents them from booting up." The FBI is officially saying the source of the attack on Sony Picture is currently "unknown," but some have suggested the hackers responsible are working on behalf of North Korea.

Google Launches 2014 Santa Tracker

Google has launched its Santa Tracker homepage for the 2014 holidays, with a whole village for kids (and immature adults) to explore. New features will be revealed every day between now and December 25, with educational games, phone calls from Santa, language lessons and more to be uncovered.

The main feature is, obviously, charting Santa's journey around the world come Christmas. New this year is a small programming lesson which sees you use Javascript to set Santa off on his epic flight. Google's Santa Tracker can be accessed by all manner of different devices, and there is even a Santa Tracker Chrome extension [No Longer Available] for the serious addicts.

Microsoft Bing Images Replaces Clip Art

It's 2014, why are you still making 'logos' with Clipart in Microsoft Word?

— Jared Thompson (@JThompsondesign) November 29, 2014

Microsoft is doing away with Clip Art and replacing it with Bing Image Search. Clip Art has been a staple of Microsoft Office for a long time, but with the collection of royalty-free images looking dated, and people much more likely to search online for usable images instead, Microsoft is moving on.

Bing Image Search will now be built into Microsoft Office, with Creative Commons filters applied to ensure users are presented with images they're free to use commercially. The Official Office Blog post announcing the change seems to have disappeared, but the URL slug suggests this is actually happening. Probably.

Girl Scouts Start Selling Cookies Online

http://youtu.be/4pNFJfGlsd0

Girl Scouts will now be selling cookies online as well as door-to-door and from booths positioned outside supermarkets. This is thanks to the Girl Scouts Of The U.S.A. finally approving Internet selling after years of resisting such a move.

According to The New York Times, every Girl Scout in the country will be offered the chance to sell cookies through the Digital Cookie mobile platform. Potential customers can only buy cookies from an individual Girl Scout if they're directly invited to do so.

The move to digital has already begun in selected areas, with the platform being rolled out nationwide in January. The Girl Scouts Of The U.S.A. already raise $800 million every year from selling cookies, and adding online sales to the mix will only increase that revenue.

Game Of Thrones Game Comes Out Today

http://youtu.be/GRMoVJReI9U

The first official Game of Thrones video game is being released today (Dec. 2, 2014). Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series [Broken URL Removed] will comprise of six episodes, the first of which, Iron from Ice, lands on PC, Mac, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, iOS, and Android, this month.

As with Telltale's The Walking Dead games, the Game of Thrones series brings the source material to life in the form of graphic adventures. The storyline for Iron from Ice will focus on House Forrester, but, as can be seen in the trailer above, some well-known faces also appear.

Watch The Unofficial Kanye West Movie

http://youtu.be/viyxoNf0R8Y

And finally, fans of Kanye West -- there must be a few of you out there -- can now watch a two-hour concert movie from his Yeezus tour, for free, on YouTube. The catch? It's an amateur production, with an official Kanye West concert movie still to come.

This is the work of John Colandra, who spent seven months piecing together clips from the show into one glorious whole. Therefore, we, or at least fans of Kim Kardashian's egomaniacal husband, get to see every performance from the show without having to pay the extortionate asking price the moronic millionaire demands for live shows. [H/T Complex]