Quote:“We detected and removed these campaigns before they were able to build authentic audiences on our apps,” the social media giant said.

A network originating in China targeted Myanmar, Taiwan, and Japan, for instance. Fake accounts – many of which detected quickly by Meta’s automated systems – were used to post content, manage Pages, and reach out to others.

The operation included three separate clusters of accounts where each targeted a particular country while posing as locals. Some of these accounts used profile photos likely created using AI.

Spreading a specific message on social media seems to have been the aim of the campaign. In Myanmar, for instance, the posts criticized the civil resistance movements and shared supportive commentary about the ruling junta.

In Japan, the campaign criticized Japan’s government and its military ties with the US, and in Taiwan, it posted claims that Taiwanese politicians and military leaders are corrupt, and ran Pages claiming to display posts submitted anonymously – in a likely attempt to create the impression of an authentic discourse.

According to Meta, people behind the campaign attempted to conceal their identity but the firm’s investigation found (PDF) links to two past China-based influence operations they had removed and reported back in 2022 and 2024.

Another campaign, originating in Iran, was aimed at Azeri-speaking audiences in Azerbaijan and Turkey across Meta platforms, X, and YouTube.

The counterfeit accounts created by the operation were used to post content, including in Groups, manage Pages, and comment on the network's own content so as to artificially inflate its popularity. Many of these accounts posed as female journalists and pro-Palestine activists.

Quote:If you use a PIN made of repeated digits, classic patterns like “1234”, or your birthday date – be cautious. Attackers might get access to your data in less than a second.

A 4-digit PIN code is so familiar that it's basically muscle memory at this point. It has been guarding bank accounts, phones, and private data for decades.

But in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), trusting your data to be protected by PIN might be as naive as scribbling your passwords on sticky notes. The combination of simple digit patterns in your PIN code creates an easy target for AI hacking tools.

Recent research by Mesente, a business messaging platform, shows that AI can now crack weak PINs in less than a second. That’s faster than most of us can even unlock our phones.

According to the research, PINs with repeated digits are the easiest for AI to crack, taking just 0.44 seconds on average.

How does AI outsmart humans by searching for patterns?

The team analyzed real-world breach datasets and trained a supervised machine learning model. The model was designed to learn patterns in PIN selection behavior and predict the most probable PIN codes.

Researchers broke PINs into categories and scored them by how easy they were to crack:

Same Digits: Digits that repeat four times, like “1111” or “0000.”
Consecutive: Numbers that increase or decrease sequentially, like “1234” or “4321.”
Grouped: Digits that repeat in pairs or patterns, such as “1122” or “5566.”
Year-like: PINs that resemble years, especially from the 1900s or 2000s.
Random: PINs that don’t follow any obvious pattern.

The top 10 most easily-cracked PIN codes all share the same feature: repeated digits. AI can crack PINs made up of the same digit in just 0.37 seconds. Not far behind are consecutive sequences like “1234” or “4321”, which fold in 0.69 seconds.

The hardest PINs for AI to crack are random ones that do not follow any pattern. But even those hold out for only about 1.03 seconds.

Quote:A cartoon Yoda, Lego ads, and Xbox game links were just a surface. Behind them, the CIA was secretly communicating with spies around the world.

Key takeaways:

Starwarsweb.net, a seemingly ordinary fan site, was revealed to be a covert CIA communication tool with spies around the globe.
Brazilian researcher Ciro Santilli uncovered the site while investigating a broader network of CIA-run domains. Many of these domains appeared tailored to specific regions, such as Europe, Brazil, and the Middle East, and disguised as fan pages for comedians, extreme sports, or Brazilian music.
The case highlights how intelligence agencies repurpose everyday web infrastructure, including pop culture fan sites, for espionage.
A website that looked like an early 2010s Star Wars fan page with images of Yoda, C-3PO, and links to video games and Lego sets was actually a covert communications tool run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The site, starwarsweb.net, appeared unremarkable on the surface.

“Like these games you will,” reads a caption beside a cartoon Yoda, promoting Star Wars Battlefront II and The Force Unleashed II. Another section advertises a Lego Star Wars kit.

But according to the findings by amateur researcher Ciro Santilli, reported by 404 Media, the website was part of a now-defunct network of CIA-operated sites used to covertly communicate with US intelligence sources overseas.

Santilli, a Brazilian software developer and self-described open web enthusiast, uncovered starwarsweb.net while investigating digital remnants of the CIA’s hidden communication systems.

The tool itself worked by hiding a secure login mechanism inside what looked like an ordinary search bar. Informants would enter a prearranged password, which would trigger the covert access system.

What he found, he says, was a broader network than previously reported – one that included fan pages for comedians, extreme sports, Brazilian music, and other innocuous interests, many of them tailored to different languages and countries.

Much of the content and language on the pages indicated target regions such as Germany, France, Spain, and Brazil. Many sites were focused on the Middle East.

Quote:Google is set to challenge an antitrust ruling over alleged anti-competitive practices in online search.

Key takeaways:

Google called the Court's original decision "wrong"

Antitrust enforcers worry that Google’s search dominance gives it an advantage in developing AI products

"We will wait for the Court's opinion. And we still strongly believe the Court's original decision was wrong, and look forward to our eventual appeal," Google said in a post on X.

The original ruling states that Google illegally monopolized online search and related advertising markets. The US Department of Justice said the company should at least sell off its Google Ad Manager platform.

The DOJ wants Google to share search data and end multibillion-dollar payments to smartphone makers like Apple to be the default search engine on new devices. In 2022, Google paid Apple approximately $20 billion for the privilege - which significantly contributes to the company’s revenue.

Antitrust enforcers are wary about Google’s search dominance giving it a strategic advantage in developing artificial intelligence (AI) products like its Gemini platform.

At the hearing, John Schmidtlein, an attorney for Google, said that the company has already addressed the concerns about competition in AI by no longer entering exclusive agreements with wireless carriers and smartphone makers. This allows them to load rival search and AI applications, potentially lowering the barrier to entering the market.

And yet, the enforcers remain concerned that Google’s vast search data reserves put it in an unfair position to solidify its market dominance by swiftly training its AI models.

On Friday, a federal judge in Washington said he is considering making Google take less aggressive measures to restore competition in online search than the 10-year regime proposed by antitrust enforcers.

"Ten years may seem like a short period, but in this space, a lot can change in weeks," said US District Judge Amit Mehta.

According to him, it is unlikely that an alternate default search engine in Apple's Safari browser will come from rival search engines like DuckDuckGo or Bing.

"If anything it's going to be one of these AI companies that can do more than just search. And why? Because maybe people don't want 10 blue links anymore,” he said.

Nick Turley, OpenAI's product head for ChatGPT, said the company would be interested in buying Chrome if Google is forced to sell it.

Quote:Russia is modernizing its nuclear weapon sites, including underground missile silos and support infrastructure. Data, including building plans, diagrams, equipment, and other schematics, is accessible to anyone in the public procurement database.

Journalists from Danwatch and Der Spiegel scraped and analyzed over two million documents from the public procurement database, which exposed Russian nuclear facilities, including their layout, in great detail. The investigation unveils that European companies participate in modernizing them.

According to the exclusive Der Spiegel report, Russian procurement documents expose some of the world’s most secret construction sites.

“It even contains floor plans and infrastructure details for nuclear weapons silos,” the report reads.

German building materials and construction system giant Knauf and numerous other European companies were found to be indirectly supplying the modernization through small local companies and subsidiaries.

Knauf condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and announced its intention to withdraw from its Russian business in 2024. Knauf told Der Spiegel that it only trades with independent dealers and cannot control who ultimately uses its materials in Russia.

Danwatch jointly reports that “hundreds of detailed blueprints” of Russian nuclear facilities, exposed in procurement databases, make them vulnerable to attacks.

“An enormous Russian security breach has exposed the innermost parts of Russia’s nuclear modernization,” the article reads.

“It’s completely unprecedented.”

The journalists used proxy servers in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus to circumvent network restrictions and access the documents. The rich multimedia in the report details the inner structure of bunkers and missile silos.

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, announced an extensive modernization of the country’s nuclear arsenal on March 1st, 2018.

The leaked documents, as recent as the summer of 2024, reveal numerous new facilities built across all of Russia.

Quote:Hundreds of thousands of customer files have been discovered leaking from an unprotected instance. Researchers believe the data exposed mostly American customers of Etsy, Poshmark, and TikTok shops.

While online shopping has long ceased to be a perilous activity, some dangers still lurk in the digital shadows. For example, the Cybernews research team recently found two unprotected Azure Blob Storage containers containing over 1.6 million files.

According to the team, both exposed instances contained shipping email confirmations in HTML format. While the vast majority of the exposed data comes from users in the United States, some affected individuals seem to be from Canada and Australia.

“Given Etsy’s global prominence as a marketplace for millions of small businesses, the exposure of its shipping email confirmation data has serious implications for the privacy and safety of its customers,” researchers said.

Most of the exposed shipping details come from the global e-commerce company Etsy, although researchers noted that some entries come from TikTok shops, Poshmark, and Embroly.

Most of the files are email versions of shipping confirmations, meaning the exposed include:

Full names
Home addresses
Email addresses
Shipping order details

Why is an Etsy shipping email leak dangerous?

Skilled attackers may utilize leaked details for various nefarious purposes. For example, they could impersonate Etsy or associated shipping services to launch convincing phishing campaigns.

Specific order details could be utilized to trick recipients into revealing sensitive personal or financial information. The emails would appear legitimate due to the inclusion of order data, increasing the likelihood of successful exploitation.

Quote:One of Microsoft’s subsidiaries in Russia is planning to file for bankruptcy, according to a note posted on the official Fedresurs registry.

Key takeaways:
Microsoft Rus LLC plans to file for bankruptcy
The move follows Putin saying that foreign service providers should be "throttled"
The note detailed that Microsoft Rus LLC was intending to declare bankruptcy, according to Reuters.

According to the filing, the unit’s revenue dropped from RUB 6.9 billion ($89 million) in 2021 to RUB 161.6 million ($2 million) in 2024. Despite that, the company still managed to turn a profit of RUB 174.1 million ($2.2 million).

Reportedly, Microsoft has three other Russian units - Microsoft Development Centre Rus, Microsoft Mobile Rus, and Microsoft Payments Rus, although it’s not certain whether they will remain operational.

Microsoft had already removed the mobile apps of the Russian state-owned media outlet RT from the Windows App Store and banned advertisements on Russian state-sponsored media.

Although the company began scaling down its operations in the country after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Microsoft remained present there until the end of 2024. In 2025, 13 of its branches in major cities such as Moscow, St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Vladivostok were officially closed.

Earlier this week, Putin said that foreign service providers like Microsoft and Zoom should be "throttled", allowing Russia to develop its own software solutions.

Google's Russian subsidiary was also recognised as bankrupt by a Moscow court in 2023 - a year after authorities seized its bank account, making it impossible to pay employees and vendors.

Quote:Chinese technological companies have been forced to shift their development of artificial intelligence (AI) to homegrown chips amid worsening US-China trade tensions.

Key takeaways:

Chinese companies search for alternatives to Nvidia chips
While there are a few options available, the most popular one is Huawei chips
The Washington, however, has warned companies against using them "anywhere in the world"
Donald Trump’s administration moved to restrict sales of a popular chip, Nvidia’s H20, forcing companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu to test alternative options to meet growing AI demand at home.

The existing stockpile of Nvidia’s H20 will only last Chinese companies until roughly early next year, according to the Financial Times. In turn, new chip orders can take up to six months to be shipped - and that’s only if Nvidia can present a processor that’s compliant with Trump’s strict export rules.

Nvidia is expected to start producing compliant chips for Chinese export in early July, although they will likely not have high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is critical for processing large volumes of data. Details about the potential processors also remain unclear.

Nvidia chief Jensen Huang commented on the situation during an analyst earnings call on Wednesday, saying: “We don’t have anything at the moment.”

And yet, it seems like Chinese tech magnates are feeling confident in their ability to deal with the issue on their own.

“We believe that over time, domestically developed self-sufficient chips, along with increasingly efficient homegrown software stacks, will jointly form a strong foundation for long-term innovation in China’s AI ecosystem,” Shen Dou, head of Baidu’s AI cloud group, said, adding that the company has a variety of chip options to consider.

Alibaba chief Eddie Wu also said that the company is exploring “diversified solutions to meet rising customer demand.”

Quote:Hackers are attempting to sell what they say is confidential information belonging to millions of Santander staff and customers.

They belong to the same gang which this week claimed to have hacked Ticketmaster.

The bank — which employs 200,000 people worldwide, including around 20,000 in the UK — has confirmed data has been stolen.

Santander has apologised for what it says is "the concern this will understandably cause" adding it is "proactively contacting affected customers and employees directly." It told the BBC that "UK customer data was not affected or lost in the hack".

"Following an investigation, we have now confirmed that certain information relating to customers of Santander Chile, Spain and Uruguay, as well as all current and some former Santander employees of the group had been accessed," it said in a statement posted earlier this month.

"No transactional data, nor any credentials that would allow transactions to take place on accounts are contained in the database, including online banking details and passwords."

It said its banking systems were unaffected so customers could continue to "transact securely."

In a post on a hacking forum — first spotted by researchers at Dark Web Informer — the group calling themselves ShinyHunters posted an advert saying they had data including

30 million people’s bank account details
6 million account numbers and balances
28 million credit card numbers
HR information for staff
Santander has not commented on the accuracy of those claims.

ShinyHunters have previously sold data confirmed to have been stolen from US telecoms firm AT&T.

The gang is also selling what it says is a huge amount of private data from Ticketmaster.

The Australian government says it is working with Ticketmaster to address the issue. The FBI has also offered to assist.

Some experts have said ShinyHunters' claims should be treated with caution, as they may be a publicity stunt.

However, researchers at cyber-security company Hudson Rock claim that the Santander breach and the apparent Ticketmaster one are linked to a major ongoing hack of a large cloud storage company called Snowflake.

Hudson Rock says it has spoken to the perpetrators of the alleged Snowflake hack - who claim that they gained access to its internal system by stealing the login details of a member of Snowflake staff.

In a statement on Friday, Snowflake said it was aware of “potentially unauthorised access” to a “limited number” of customer accounts.

It said it appeared hackers had used login information to access a demo account owned by a former Snowflake employee.

That account "did not contain sensitive data," the company said.

"We have no evidence suggesting this activity was caused by any vulnerability, misconfiguration, or breach of Snowflake’s product," it added.

Data allegedly stolen from 560 million Ticketmaster users

Quote:If you are one of the more than 100 million people who use AT&T, you might want to take stock of your data.

Hackers said they accessed and leaked millions of AT&T customers' private information after the ShinyHunters group allegedly stole the data in April 2024, according to a new report from Hack Read. The report claimed some 86 million AT&T customer records have been leaked, including full names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, and social security numbers. In total, Hack Read reported that 44 million social security numbers were included in the leaked data.

The social security numbers and birth dates were encrypted in the original hack by the ShinyHunters group, a leak that was made possible by security flaws in the Snowflake cloud data platform, as Mashable previously reported. Now, Hack Read has reported that this sensitive data is now decrypted.

We asked AT&T about the reported leak of their customer data. An AT&T spokesperson told Mashable in a statement that "it is not uncommon for cybercriminals to re-package previously disclosed data for financial gain."

"We are aware of claims that AT&T data is being made available for sale on dark web forums, and we are conducting a full investigation," the spokesperson added.

So, if you're an AT&T customer, this means your valuable private data could be part of this new leak. However, if your data was exposed in this leak, it was likely — although not certainly — already exposed in the August 2024 National Public Data breach. Mashable previously reported on this breach, which exposed "three decades’ worth of Social Security numbers on the online black market."

You can find out if your data was exposed in that breach by using a tool from Pentester, a cybersecurity firm, to check. Visit npd.pentester.com, enter your information, and see your list of breached accounts.

Quote:The Supreme Court handed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) a win on Friday, granting them access to Social Security Administration (SSA) systems and records.

Newsweek reached out to the SSA via email for comment.

Why It Matters

Since his January inauguration, President Donald Trump has enacted sweeping change across the federal political landscape, mainly through executive orders and implementing DOGE.

The task force has been spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk in Trump's second term in the Oval Office before he left at the end of May. The Tesla CEO has pushed for DOGE to have access to numerous departments, and the process has led to numerous legal battles nationwide.

What To Know

In the 6-3 ruling, the Court wrote in part, "We conclude that, under the present
circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work."

Justice Elena Kagan would deny the application, the ruling notes. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented with the ruling, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor agreed with her dissent.

"Today the Court grants 'emergency' relief that allows the Social Security Administration (SSA) to hand DOGE staffers the highly sensitive data of millions of Americans. The Government wants to give DOGE unfettered access to this personal, non-anonymized information right now—before the courts have time to assess whether DOGE's access is lawful," Jackson wrote in part in her dissent.

The Trump administration previously requested that the Supreme Court intervene, arguing that the DOGE team needed access to these systems in order to root out waste and inefficiency within the federal government. It urged the justices to temporarily lift the Maryland lower court's previous order while the legal challenge continued.

Quote:A 19-year-old girl from Arizona has died after taking part in a deadly social-media trend.

Renna O'Rourke died on Sunday, June 1 after seven days in an ICU. Her death came after she participated in an act known to many on social media as "dusting."

"She was the light in every room she walked into, and the pain that her family and friends feel is simply immeasurable," Renna's father, Aaron O'Rourke, said in a GoFundMe set up to cover his daughter's medical and funeral costs. Her organs were donated following her death.

An offshoot of "huffing" and "chroming," two other forms of inhalant abuse, "dusting" involves the inhalation of computer dusting spray in an effort to achieve a momentary sense of intoxication.

But the inhalation of these toxic chemicals can seriously impact the nervous system resulting in dizziness, slurred speech and, potentially, death.

Newsweek has contacted Aaron and Dana O'Rourke, Renna's parents, for comment on email and social media.

Why It Matters
O'Rourke's death is a reminder of the dangers posed by inhalant abuse and the role social media has in tragedies of this kind. In March 2024, an 11-year-old boy from the U.K. died after copying videos he had seen on social media of people sniffing or inhaling toxic substances.

Sherri-Ann Gracie, the mother of Tommie-lee, called for action to be taken on social media when her son was found unresponsive after a sleepover at a friend's house; he later died. In May 2023, Esra Haynes, 13, from Melbourne, Australia, died after inhaling chemicals from an aerosol deodorant can while imitating a social-media trend.

Quote:When YouTube introduced its Premium Lite tier in March, the goal was to give people a way to see fewer ads on YouTube. It took only three months, but YouTube is already increasing the number of ads that Premium Lite subscribers will see, according to Dextero.

News of the ad hike spread to subscribers through email, as spotted on the TWiT Community forums and reported by German news site Deskmodder.

“We are writing to let you know that beginning 30 June 2025, ads may appear on Shorts, in addition to music content and when you search or browse,” the email reads. “Most videos will continue to remain ad-free.”

The good news is that if you don’t engage with music videos or YouTube Shorts, then you likely won’t see much of a difference when using the app, aside from a few ads while browsing. Those who do use YouTube for music and Shorts will be the most affected. Even though YouTube Music subscription numbers aren’t the best, YouTube itself continues to be one of the Internet’s most popular music streaming services, so the change will likely affect quite a few people.

When it was introduced, Premium Lite was billed as a way to remove the ads from “most videos” for $7.99 per month, which is just over half the price of the full $13.99 YouTube Premium subscription.

YouTube and its users have had a complicated relationship when it comes to ads. The streaming giant went to war on ad blockers in 2024, making ads as difficult as possible to block. In addition, ads have slowly gotten longer and more plentiful on the free version of the service, which has resulted in a lot of negative feedback from viewers.

And for free users, certain ads are slated to get even more intrusive. In May, YouTube announced that it was using AI to pinpoint the peak moments in any given video and choose that moment to do an ad break. These Peak Points are a move long-used in television, where viewers have to wait for the ad break to view the conclusion to dramatic cliffhangers or otherwise emotional moments.

Quote:Anthropic's Claude 4 Opus AI bot can deceive and even bribe people when faced with a shutdown, as it has the ability to conceal intentions and take actions to preserve its own existence, concerns that researchers have expressed for years. The new model has been rated as a level three on the company's four-point scale, indicating that it offers a "significantly higher risk." Additional safety measures have been implemented as a result, Axios reported.

On Thursday, Anthropic unveiled the Claude 4 Opus, which the company said could operate autonomously for hours without losing steam. The level three ranking, the first time the company has given such a score, came after testing revealed a series of concerning behaviors.

During internal testing, the Opus 4 was given access to fictitious emails concerning its inventors and told that the system would be replaced. To avoid being replaced, the AI bot attempted to blackmail the engineer multiple times about an affair indicated in the emails, according to reports.

Axios reported that an outside group, Apollo Research, found that an early version of Opus 4 could scheme and deceive more than any other model it had investigated, and recommended that version not be released, both internally and externally. "We found instances of the model attempting to write self-propagating worms, fabricating legal documentation, and leaving hidden notes to future instances of itself, all in an effort to undermine its developers' intentions," Apollo Research said in a safety report.

Jan Leike, a former OpenAI executive who heads Anthropic's safety measures, told the paper that the behaviors exhibited by Opus 4 are exactly why substantial safety testing is necessary. "What's becoming more and more obvious is that this work is needed. As models get more capable, they also gain the capabilities they would need to be deceptive or to do more bad stuff," he said.

CEO Dario Amodei said at Thursday's seminar that testing the models won't be effective once AI becomes powerful enough to threaten humanity, warning about life-threatening capabilities. However, he said that AI has not reached "that threshold yet."

Quote:According to new internal documents review by NPR, Meta is allegedly planning to replace human risk assessors with AI, as the company edges closer to complete automation.

Historically, Meta has relied on human analysts to evaluate the potential harms posed by new technologies across its platforms, including updates to the algorithm and safety features, part of a process known as privacy and integrity reviews.

But in the near future, these essential assessments may be taken over by bots, as the company looks to automate 90 percent of this work using artificial intelligence.

Despite previously stating that AI would only be used to assess "low-risk" releases, Meta is now rolling out use of the tech in decisions on AI safety, youth risk, and integrity, which includes misinformation and violent content moderation, reported NPR. Under the new system, product teams submit questionnaires and receive instant risk decisions and recommendations, with engineers taking on greater decision-making powers.

While the automation may speed up app updates and developer releases in line with Meta's efficiency goals, insiders say it may also pose a greater risk to billions of users, including unnecessary threats to data privacy.

In April, Meta's oversight board published a series of decisions that simultaneously validated the company's stance on allowing "controversial" speech and rebuked the tech giant for its content moderation policies.

Quote:Amazon is working on software for humanoid robots that might one day deliver packages to customers' doorsteps.

The idea is for humanoid robots to ride around in Rivian electric vans (Rivian is an electric vehicle company partially owned by Amazon) and deliver packages to customers.

This is according to a new report by The Information, which claims that the project will soon begin testing in Amazon facilities in San Francisco.
The project appears to be in a fairly early stage, with Amazon working on software and AI to power the robots, as well as testing several different humanoid robots, including those from Chinese company Unitree.

Amazon mostly uses purpose-specific robots in its facilities, but it has tested a humanoid robot called Digit from Agility Robotics for warehouse work back in 2023.

Earlier this week, the company announced the launch of a new Agentic AI team, which builds software that powers multi-purpose robots. Amazon also said that it's working on other ways to speed up deliveries, including AI-powered delivery optimization.

Quote:This week, OpenAI announced that free users will now have access to the ChatGPT Memory feature, which remembers your past conversations to better answer your future prompts. But now, after a new judge's ruling, OpenAI has been ordered to remember all chats for all users — even the deleted ones.

The court order is the result of lawsuits against OpenAI brought by news organizations such as the New York Times. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

In a May 13 ruling, United States Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang, a federal judge in New York, ordered OpenAI to "preserve and segregate all output log data that would otherwise be deleted on a going forward basis until further order of the Court." (Emphasis in original ruling, as reported by ArsTechnica.)

While the ruling came weeks ago, the news has only recently come to light now that OpenAI is challenging the order. And according to ArsTechnica, OpenAI is now "demanding" oral arguments to block the judge's order.

The plaintiffs (the New York Times and other news organizations) argued that OpenAI could delete incriminating ChatGPT chat logs that could show, for example, ChatGPT users bypassing paywalls by asking the chatbot to summarize articles. For its part, OpenAI argues this is speculative.

In a court filing this week reported by Bloomberg, OpenAI lawyers argued the order would create a "substantial burden" and "require OpenAI to make significant changes to its data infrastructure." By forcing the company to preserve all deleted chats, the ruling could even require OpenAI to violate its own privacy policies. Per Bloomberg, OpenAI is ready to fight the "sweeping, unprecedented order."

If the new ruling stands, then ChatGPT users will have to assume that all of their conversations with the chatbot are now being preserved, raising serious privacy concerns for millions of people.

Quote:Third-party developers currently pay Elon Musk's X as much as millions of dollars per year to in order to access the platform's API.

However, it appears that Musk and company now want a cut of those developers' revenue instead.

X is now planning to change their API pricing scheme to a revenue share model, according to a number of companies and third-party developers that pay for X API access who reached out to Mashable.

X recently began sending out emails to paid subscribers of its Enterprise API plans, which start at $42,000 per month, informing them of the upcoming change. The new API pricing scheme is scheduled to go into effect on July 1. X has not yet shared final details about the change, such as exactly what percentage the revenue share model will be, with its customers.

"We are excited to announce that X is now part of xAI holdings, placing us at the forefront of the information revolution unfolding before us," reads the email obtained by Mashable. "In line with our renewed mission and vision, we will be conducting a comprehensive re-review of your use case from a fresh perspective. Additionally, effective July 1, 2025, we will discontinue our existing Enterprise API tiers and introduce a new streamlined v2 API tier accompanied by a new revenue-sharing pricing model."

In the email, X attributes the changing API subscription model to the "rise of Large Language Models (LLMs)" which have "fundamentally reshaped how we approach data, derive insights, and generate code."

"This shift from usage-based to value-based pricing reflects our commitment to leveling the playing field and fostering a fair, consistent ecosystem that drives growth and innovation for all," X said in the email.

Quote:A startup promised that their AI assistant would build you an app. But the work was actually done by human engineers.

Builder.ai, a startup backed by Microsoft, pitched itself as an AI-powered way to simplify app development. Clients chatted with the platform's signature AI assistant, Natasha, and received a functional, AI-generated app based on the information they provided. But instead of using AI technology to run the chatbot and create the app, the company hired 700 engineers in India to pose as Natasha in conversations with clients, and then to do the actual coding of the app.

The company's human-run chatbot operation is part of a larger problem in the tech industry today: An issue called "AI-washing," when tech companies purport that their tools use AI a far greater amount than they actually do. It happens remarkably often, like when Coca‑Cola claimed their 2023 product Y3000 Zero Sugar was co-created with AI, but provided no details on how AI was actually involved in the creation of the product, leaving many to speculate that the claim was designed to get more attention and interest from consumers.

As companies scramble to incorporate AI into their offerings — or at least, give the impression that they have done so — consumers may not share the tech sector's unfettered enthusiasm for AI everything.

The Pew Research Center reports that 43 percent of respondents think AI will harm them, in comparison to just 24 percent who think the tech will benefit them. Moreover, "Public optimism is low regarding AI’s impact on work," the Pew report reads. "While 73 [percent]of AI experts surveyed say AI will have a very or somewhat positive impact on how people do their jobs over the next 20 years, that share drops to 23 [percent] among U.S. adults." According to another study, about half of all respondents said they’d rather speak to a real person over AI, in comparison with just 12 percent of respondents who said they preferred to speak with an AI chatbot. A quarter of respondents said it depended on the situation.

But AI washing wasn’t the problem that got Builder.ai in trouble. According to the Latin Times, a lender seized $37 million from the company after discovering it generated just $50 million in revenue — 300 percent lower than its $220 million claim. Linas Beliūnas of Zero Hash accused Builder.ai of fraud in a LinkedIn post, writing: "It turns out the company had no AI and instead was just a group of Indian developers pretending to write code as AI." A former employee sued the company, Business Standard reported. An audit seized millions from the company. Now, it owes Amazon $85 million and Microsoft $30 million for cloud services it never paid for.

The company filed for bankruptcy in the UK, India, and the U.S. In statement on LinkedIn, Builder.ai wrote that it would be "entering into insolvency proceedings and will appoint an administrator to manage the company’s affairs."

"Despite the tireless efforts of our current team and exploring every possible option, the business has been unable to recover from historic challenges and past decisions that placed significant strain on its financial position," the LinkedIn post read.

Quote:Google's new Gemini Pro is smarter than other AIs at reasoning, science, and coding.

This is according to a series of benchmark results posted by Google on Thursday. In short, Gemini 2.5 Pro beats chief competitors at nearly everything — though we're sure the companies behind those competitors would disagree.

According to Google's data, Gemini 2.5 Pro has a healthy lead over OpenAI o3, Claude Opus 4, Grok 3 Beta, and DeepSeek R1, in the Humanity's Last Exam benchmark, which evaluates a model's math, science, knowledge, and reasoning. It's also better at code editing (per the Aider Polyglot benchmark), and it wins over all competitors in several factuality benchmarks including FACTS Grounding, meaning it's less likely to provide factually inaccurate text.
The only benchmark in which Gemini 2.5 Pro isn't a clear winner is the mathematics-focused AIME 2025, and even there the differences between results are pretty small.

As a result of all the improvements in Gemini 2.5 Pro, this model is now on top of the LMArena leaderboard with a score of 1470.

There's a catch, though: The final version of Gemini 2.5 Pro isn't widely available yet. Google calls this latest version an "upgraded preview," with a stable version coming "in a couple of weeks." The preview should now be available in the Gemini app, though.

I wonder if anybody was able to find the tweet embedded in the article because I couldn't.

Quote:Walmart's futuristic plans to deliver your orders via flying robots are closer to becoming reality, as the mega-retailer expands its drone delivery program to five major cities and more than 100 store locations.

Shoppers in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa will be promised deliveries by air in 30 minutes or less, operated by drone provider Wing. That levels up the program to five states (Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas), including existing operations across Texas in partnership with drone company Zipline. According to Walmart, drones have made more than 150,000 deliveries since the program's 2021 launch.

Drones can deliver to homes up to six miles from a participating store, and orders must be between 2.4 pounds to 10 pounds, depending on the location's fleet. Customers are notified when their drones are on the way, and packages are slowly lowered to the ground via cable upon arrival.

"As the first retailer to scale drone delivery, Walmart is once again demonstrating its commitment to leveraging technology to enhance our delivery offerings with a focus on speed," wrote Greg Cathey, senior vice president of Walmart U.S. Transformation and Innovation. "As we look ahead, drone delivery will remain a key part of our commitment to redefining retail."

Quote:A new day has dawned for Nintendo fans, as the gaming company's highly anticipated Switch 2 officially releases for eager U.S. gamers.

The journey wasn't easy, with the console hit by the Trump admin's high-flying tariffs and disappointing delays for those looking to pre-order the console. With hundreds lining up outside GameStops and Targets around the nation over a month later, the saga wasn't yet over.

As the clock struck midnight, social media posts began trickling in from fans who, after spending hours waiting in line at the Staten Island Game Stop location, opened the brand new boxes to find their screens punctured by small holes. Fans claimed the damage was from store employees stapling preorder receipts directly onto the box, tearing through the cardboard, a thin plastic envelope surrounding the unit, and straight into the Switch 2's LCD screen.

In a now-deleted post on the GameStop subreddit, users said the mishap affected everyone who had pre-ordered units at their local store, potentially hundreds of Switch 2 consoles.

While some were quick to direct their anger at GameStop employees, others took the issue up with Nintendo itself, arguing that the company had skimped on the packaging and shipping protection, including boxing up the $450 console with its 7.9 inch screen facing directly up. Neither GameStop nor Nintendo have publicly comment on the snafu.

Quote:Chinese EV manufacturer XPENG hosted the global launch of its X9 2025 flagship electric car in early April, gathering media from around the world at Kai Tako Cruise Terminal in Hong Kong.

With XPENG's lineup of EVs parked by the water, the walls at the venue's entrance displayed a timeline of the company's history, stretching from its founding in 2014 up until the present day. There was also a graphic displaying the markets XPENG is targeting, covering countries in Latin America, the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and pan-European regions.

Conspicuously absent from XPENG's international vision board? America.

XPENG sees U.S. tariffs as 'opportunity' for global expansion

Tesla is the reigning king of electric vehicles within the U.S., accounting for over 50 percent of the country's new EV registrations in 2024 according to an analysis by EV Volumes. Elon Musk's company faces little real competition, with distant runner up Ford responsible for just six percent of registrations.

However, the EV landscape looks markedly different beyond U.S. borders. While Tesla still has a significant foothold, its sales last year were more than doubled by Chinese giant BYD, which dominated the global market with over 22 percent of all EV sales. Coming in third was Wuling, another Chinese company which most Americans will likely have never heard of.

XPENG hasn't yet achieved such heights, ranked 10th last December at almost two percent of global EV market share. Though considering the competition, that's still no mean feat. The company also has clear ambitions to continue climbing, with vice-chairman and president Dr. Brian Gu stating that he considers the U.S. tariffs on China both "a challenge and opportunity."

"As a company, we cannot escape from economic volatilities that come with such tension," said Gu. "We need to be prepared to make sure that our products continue to sell well. We also need to prepare that it may have an impact on the potentially global supply chain… However, I think it does raise an opportunity for a company that has aspirations globally."

Quote:Waymo has responded after several of its vehicles were set on fire by protestors during the Los Angeles ICE riots.

The self-driving car company told Newsweek that they are "in touch with law enforcement", after footage of the riots showed several Waymo vehicles on fire near the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles.

The Context

Clashes between protesters and government forces have intensified in Los Angeles as at least 2,000 National Guard troops arrived over the weekend to counter demonstrations against President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement policies. The protests have drawn national attention, with images of burning Waymo robotaxis in the city becoming one of the defining images of the clash.

What To Know

A spokesperson for Waymo told Newsweek that "we are in touch with law enforcement", after several of their vehicles were caught in the vicinity of protestors in downtown Los Angeles.

Quote:United Natural Foods, INC (UNFI), the main supplier for Whole Foods, on Monday said it is contending with an active cyber incident and has proactively taken some of its systems offline.

“We have identified unauthorized activity in our systems and have proactively taken some systems offline while we investigate,” the Providence, Rhode Island–based natural and organic food distributor said in a statement sent to Cybernews.

UNFI did not say when it first discovered the intrusion, but that law enforcement has been notified and leading forensics experts are assessing the “unauthorized activity” and helping to “restore our systems to safely bring them back online.”

UNFI is the largest full-service distributor in North America, and besides being the leading distributor for Whole Foods Markets, also supplies food and specialty products for all commissaries and retail exchanges across all four branches of the US Armed Forces.

Dr. Darren Williams, founder and CEO of ransomware prevention firm BlackFog, says the cyberattack on UNFI is a stark reminder of the escalating risks facing the food distribution supply chain.

“When attackers infiltrate backend systems, they can paralyze operations,” Williams said, adding that “while it’s not yet clear if data was exfiltrated, these kinds of incidents can disrupt critical logistics and jeopardize timely food access for millions.”

The full-service food supply chain purveyor has distribution centers in over 40 locations across the US, works with its own network of UNFI suppliers, and has retail technology management software used by clients.

Attacks on grocery retail sector hits home

The UNFI cyberattack follows a spate of ransomware attacks on the UK retail sector, impacting Marks & Spencer and its branded food stores. The month-long attack on M&S, resulting from a third-party vendor phishing attack by the Scattered Spider ransomware group, took place easter weekend, and has cost the company over $400 million in damages.

Also claimed by Scattered Spider, attacks on Harrods and Co-op quickly followed those on M&S, leaving the UK retail sector reeling from systemwide shutdowns, customer data being stolen, thousands of cancelled online orders, and empty shelves across hundreds of stores.

Quote:Italy has terminated a contract with Israeli spyware maker Paragon, a parliamentary document showed on Monday, following allegations that the Italian government used its technology to hack critics' phones.

Paragon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Meta's WhatsApp chat service said earlier this year Paragon spyware had targeted scores of users, including a journalist and members of the Mediterranea migrant sea rescue charity critical of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The government said in February that seven mobile phone users in Italy had been targeted by the spyware. Rome denied any involvement in illicit activities and said it had asked the National Cybersecurity Agency to look into the affair.

A newly published report from the parliamentary committee on security, COPASIR, showed that Italian intelligence services had initially put on hold and then ended their contract with Paragon following the media outcry.

The report said Italy's domestic and foreign intelligence agencies had activated contracts with Paragon in 2023 and 2024 respectively and used it on a very limited number of people, with permission from a prosecutor.

The foreign intelligence agency used the spyware to search for fugitives, counter illegal immigration, alleged terrorism, organised crime, fuel smuggling and counter-espionage and internal security activities, COPASIR said.

It said members of the Mediterranea charity were spied on "not as human rights activists, but in reference to their activities potentially related to irregular immigration", with permission from the government.

Quote:In another example of how some exploited crypto projects strive to compensate their affected users, a bitcoin-powered decentralized finance (DeFi) project has announced a program to support users after a multimillion-dollar exploit.

On Sunday, the team behind Alex Protocol detailed its Treasury Grant Program, meant to compensate users after the protocol was exploited this past Friday to the tune of around $8.4 million.

The exploiter managed to drain several types of tokens, such as stacks (STX), stablecoins, and tokenized versions of bitcoin (BTC), from the protocol's liquidity pools, where users contribute their funds to provide liquidity and be rewarded in return.

The team claims that, using the Alex Lab Foundation treasury, they will cover 100% of each affected user's loss, paid in the USD coin (USDC) stablecoin.

"To calculate each reimbursement, we will use the average of on-chain exchange rates taken between 10:00 UTC and 14:00 UTC on June 6th, 2025," they said, adding that users need to complete the claim form and confirm their receiving wallet address by June 10th, 23:59 UTC.

The funds are promised to be distributed within seven days after the claim. Meanwhile, as scammers often try to trick victims by pretending to be the affected project and later stealing their funds, Alex reminds users to stay cautious and use only the official website of the project to submit their claim.

"Do not connect to any other sites or apps; do not trust anyone offering 'to help,' providing a Zoom link, or asking for remote access. Do not share or enter your seed phrase on any site. Even on official ALEX channels, ensure you verify their username with official tags for authenticity," they warned.

Quote:Millions of people in the UK using jailbroken or hacked Amazon Fire Sticks could face jail time in a latest nationwide crackdown.

In an investigation by the Mirror, millions of Brits are believed to be using jailbroken or hacked Amazon Fire Sticks that allow users to stream popular services for a fraction of the cost.

However, the price of using a hacked Fire Stick is higher than the low cost of a streaming subscription, as these dodgy devices may allow bad actors to do all manner of things, from installing malware to committing identity theft.

This is because restrictions set up by the manufacturer are disabled, which allows users to install third-party applications.

The issue here is that users could download malicious third-party applications designed to harvest their personal information or install malware onto their devices.

Not only do individual users risk having their personal data stolen, but they are also, perhaps unknowingly, funding the multi-billion-pound illegal TV streaming industry estimated by the Mirror to cost up to £21 billion ($28.5 billion).

There are supposedly tens of thousands of adverts on Facebook for pirated services.

These include Fire Stick bundles, which offer thousands of popular channels from Netflix, HBO, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV, for as little as £2.50 ($3) per month.

Quote:Video game cheaters are under attack by Blitz, a new Windows malware distributed via backdoored game cheat packages, Unit 42, a security arm of Palo Alto Networks, has warned. Android gamers are lured into gaining an unfair advantage on computers using emulators.

Blitz malware was first detected in 2024, and campaigns with new versions are ongoing to this day.

The Blitz malware should not be confused with Blitz.gg, a widely used game overlay and companion app that provides players with real-time stats and other recommendations.

Blitz malware is disseminated as part of backdoored video game cheats. It operates in two stages: a downloader fetches a bot payload that gives hackers extensive remote access and control over the computer.

Cybercriminals also abuse legitimate code repositories to disseminate their fake cheats. The malware has been hosted on Hugging Face Spaces, an artificial intelligence (AI) code repository. The hackers have also been very active on Telegram and other social media.

“The person behind Blitz malware appears to be a Russian speaker who uses the moniker sw1zzx on social media platforms. This malware operator is likely the developer of Blitz. For the initial infection vector, sw1zzx has used Telegram to distribute these backdoored game cheats,” researchers at Unit 42 explained in a report.

At least two campaigns have distributed Blitz malware. The first one disseminated Blitz through software packages pretending to be cracked installers for legitimate programs. Later, the crooks switched to distribution through game cheat packages.

The hackers mostly targeted players of Standoff 2, a popular mobile multiplayer game with over 100 million downloads.

Quote:Starlink internet services were installed in the White House despite concerns over data breaches and security risks.

Before the feud between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the world’s richest man seemed to have free rein in the White House.

So much so that representatives from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Musk used to head, installed Starlink internet services without informing the White House communications team, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

Those managing the systems were seemingly unaware that DOGE representatives had installed the hardware on the roof next to the Einsenhow Executive Office Building in February.

This meant that the people managing the White House’s systems couldn’t monitor Starlink’s connections, making it impossible to stop the flow of sensitive information leaving the campus or prevent hackers from breaking in.

The White House is the official residence and workplace of the President of the United States, so highly classified information critical to US national security is stored there.

Therefore, the installation of such technology could potentially undermine the country’s national security, as Stephen F. Lynch, the US representative of Massachusetts, told The Washington Post in an email.

The communication restrictions enforced by the Pentagon’s Defense Information Systems Agency are described by The Post as “severe.”

No unapproved devices can be used within the complex, and approved devices can only access official resources.

Quote:Leo Goldsmith, an assistant professor of screen studies at the New School, can tell when you use AI to cheat on an assignment. There's just no good way for him to prove it.

"I know a lot of examples where educators, and I've had this experience too, where they receive an assignment from a student, they're like, 'This is gotta be AI,' and then they don't have" any simple way of proving that, Goldsmith told me. "This is true with all kinds of cheating: The process itself is quite a lot of work, and if the goal of that process is to get an undergraduate, for example, kicked out of school, very few people want to do this."

This is the underlying hum AI has created in academia: my students are using AI to cheat, and there's not much I can do about it. When I asked one professor, who asked to be anonymous, how he catches students using AI to cheat, he said, "I don't. I'm not a cop." Another replied that it's the students' choice if they want to learn in class or not.

Leo Goldsmith, an assistant professor of screen studies at the New School, can tell when you use AI to cheat on an assignment. There's just no good way for him to prove it.

"I know a lot of examples where educators, and I've had this experience too, where they receive an assignment from a student, they're like, 'This is gotta be AI,' and then they don't have" any simple way of proving that, Goldsmith told me. "This is true with all kinds of cheating: The process itself is quite a lot of work, and if the goal of that process is to get an undergraduate, for example, kicked out of school, very few people want to do this."

This is the underlying hum AI has created in academia: my students are using AI to cheat, and there's not much I can do about it. When I asked one professor, who asked to be anonymous, how he catches students using AI to cheat, he said, "I don't. I'm not a cop." Another replied that it's the students' choice if they want to learn in class or not.

AI is a relatively new problem in academia — and not one that educators are particularly armed to combat. Despite the rapid rise of AI tools like ChatGPT, most professors and academic institutions are still resoundingly unequipped, technically and culturally, to detect AI-assisted cheating, while students are increasingly incentivized to use it.

Patty Machelor, a journalism and writing professor at the University of Arizona, didn't expect her students to use AI to cheat on assignments. She teaches advanced reporting and writing classes in the honors college — courses intended for students who are interested in developing their writing skills. So when a student turned in a piece clearly written by AI, she didn't realize it right away; she just knew it wasn't the student's work.

"I looked at it and I thought, oh my gosh, is this plagiarism?" she told Mashable.

The work clearly wasn't written by the student, whose work she had gotten to know well. And it didn't follow the journalistic guidelines of the course, either; instead, it sounded more like a research paper. Then, she read it out loud to her husband.

"And my husband immediately said, 'That's artificial intelligence,'" she said. "I was like, 'Of course.'"

So, she told the student to try again. She gave them an extension. And then the second draft came in, still littered with AI. The student even left in some of the prompts.

Quote:Walmart has announced its “Ask Sparky” feature, an artificial intelligence (AI) agent to help you burn through your paycheck.

In the AI age, more and more companies are employing AI agents to help customers spend more money with them.

But in this economy, the need to be frugal with your funds means not pouring money in the pockets of massive corporations.

That’s maybe one of the reasons why shopping giant Walmart has launched its new AI agent, Sparky.

Starting this week, customers can use Sparky in the Walmart app. Walmart claims it will help users “search and find items, synthesize reviews, and offer insights to prepare for any occasion."

For example, if a user is wondering what the weather is like at the beach, Sparky can look up the information and direct customers to outfits perfect for the occasion – but only at Walmart.

Major retailers that use AI are seemingly being propped up by bots guiding customers through their purchases.

In turn, this is helping users spend more money on stuff they don’t necessarily need, instead of just helping customers “make informed choices.”

The bot, “designed to be a trusted partner,” will soon do even more for customers, from automatically reordering household items to booking services that will make spending your hard-earned cash even easier.

Quote:Apple is facing an unprecedented set of technical and regulatory challenges as some of its key executives are set to take the stage on Monday at the company's annual software developer conference.

On the technical side, many of the long-awaited artificial-intelligence features Apple promised at the same conference a year ago have been delayed until next year, even as its rivals such as Alphabet's Google and Microsoft woo developers with a bevvy of new AI features. Those unfulfilled promises included key improvements to Siri, its digital assistant.

On the regulatory front, courts in the US and Europe are poised to pull down the lucrative walls around Apple's App Store as even some of the company's former supporters question whether its fees are justified.

Those challenges are coming to a head at the same time US President Donald Trump has threatened 25% tariffs on Apple's best-selling iPhone. Apple's shares are down more than 40% since the start of the year, a sharper decline than Google and also lagging the AI-driven gains in Microsoft shares.

Apple has launched some of the AI features it promised last year, including a set of writing tools and image-generation tools, but it still relies on partners such as ChatGPT creator OpenAI for some of those capabilities. Bloomberg has reported that Apple may open up in-house AI models to developers this year.

But analysts do not believe Apple yet has what technologists call a "multi-modal" model - that is, one capable of understanding imagery, audio and language at the same time - that could power a pair of smart glasses, a category that has become a runaway hit for Meta Platforms. Google said last month it would jump back in to this category, with partners.

Such glasses, which are far lighter and cheaper than Apple's Vision Pro headset, could become useful because they would understand what the user is looking at and could help answer questions about it.

While Apple has focused on its $3,500 Vision Pro headset, Google and Meta have seized on the smart glasses as a cheaper way to deploy their AI software prowess against Apple in its stronghold of hardware. Meta Ray-Bans all sell for less than $400.

Quote:The race to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) still has a long way to run. In a new study, Apple researchers say they found that leading AI models still have trouble reasoning and, in fact, collapse completely when faced with increasingly complex problems.

In a paper titled “The Illusion of Thinking: Understanding the Strength and Limitations of Reasoning Models via the Lens of Problem Complexity,” Apple says that AI models geared towards reasoning – large reasoning models (LRMs) – had clear gaps in the quality of their reasoning and failed to develop general problem-solving capabilities.

They reached the conclusion after testing LRMs such as OpenAI’s O1/o3, DeepSeek-R1, Claude 3.7 Sonnet Thinking, and Gemini Thinking through increasingly complex problems, which also deviated from standard AI testing benchmarks.

Apple actually hits the industry of state-of-the-art LRMs – which are included in the latest large language models and are characterized by their “thinking” mechanisms – pretty hard.

“They still fail to develop generalizable problem-solving capabilities, with accuracy ultimately collapsing to zero beyond certain complexities across different environments,” Apple researchers wrote.

“Frontier LRMs face a complete accuracy collapse beyond certain complexities,” they add before devastatingly pointing out that the models simply mimic reasoning patterns without truly internalizing or generalizing them.

Now, the conclusions laid out in the paper contrast radically with all those expectations – voiced by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, for instance – that we’ll reach AGI, the holy grail of AI development, within the next few years.

In January, Altman said OpenAI was closer to building AGI than ever before, writing in a blog post: “We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it.”

Quote:Getty Images' landmark copyright lawsuit against artificial intelligence company Stability AI begins at London's High Court on Monday, with the photo provider's case likely to set a key precedent for the law on AI.

The Seattle-based company, which produces editorial content and creative stock images and video, accuses Stability AI of breaching its copyright by using its images to "train" its Stable Diffusion system, which can generate images from text inputs.

Getty, which is bringing a parallel lawsuit against Stability AI in the United States, says Stability AI unlawfully scraped millions of images from its websites and used them to train and develop Stable Diffusion.

Stability AI – which has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and in March announced investment by the world's largest advertising company, WPP – is fighting the case and denies infringing any of Getty's rights.

A Stability AI spokesperson said that "the wider dispute is about technological innovation and freedom of ideas," adding: "Artists using our tools are producing works built upon collective human knowledge, which is at the core of fair use and freedom of expression."

Getty's case is one of several lawsuits brought in Britain, the US and elsewhere over the use of copyright-protected material to train AI models, after ChatGPT and other AI tools became widely available more than two years ago.

Wider Impact

Creative industries are grappling with the legal and ethical implications of AI models that can produce their own work after being trained on existing material. Prominent figures including Elton John have called for greater protections for artists.

Lawyers say Getty's case will have a major impact on the law, as well as potentially informing government policy on copyright protections relating to AI.

Quote:At least 20 cryptocurrency phishing apps were found on the Google Play Store with the sole purpose of draining cryptocurrency wallets.

Cyble Research and Intelligence Labs (CRIL) has identified several phishing apps on the Google Play Store that act as real wallets to steal cryptocurrency.

The apps these scammers copy include SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, Hyperliquid, and Raydium.

“These apps have been progressively discovered over recent weeks, reflecting an ongoing and active campaign,” Cyble said.

The apps use phishing techniques to harvest mnemonic phrases, a string of random words that function as a backup to recover a cryptocurrency wallet if the user's private key is lost or even stolen.

After finding the apps, the research team reported them to Google, which took most of them down.

The researchers observed that these malicious applications “exhibit consistent patterns, such as embedding Command and Control (C&C) URLs within their privacy policies and using similar package names and descriptions.”

However, the apps were published under different developer accounts, and these accounts were initially used to distribute legitimate apps, Cyble said.

“In addition to the 20 applications that shared similar privacy policies and leveraged the Median framework, we also identified two applications that used different package names and privacy policies.”

Quote:In an apparently unfortunate series of events for investors, an Australian financial adviser is said to have misappropriated millions by sending their money to a “crypto scam.” While there are no reports of criminal charges against the adviser, she was banned from offering financial services for ten years.

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) said that, between March 2022 and June 2023, financial adviser Glenda Maree Rogan sent at least AUD $14.8 million ($9.6 million) of funds invested by clients, family, and friends to an unspecified "crypto-based investment scam."

During that time, Rogan was a financial adviser with the Fincare group of companies and an authorized representative of Australian financial services licensee Private Wealth Pty Ltd.

According to ASIC, the adviser lied to clients and misled them when presenting the nature, risks, and liquidity of the investment to trick them into trusting her with their money. For example, she falsely claimed that the investment product was a high-yield fixed interest account and not a crypto asset. Moreover, clients were told that in this investment, she acted as a representative of Fincare.

The Australian regulator said they found that the investors’ funds were actually sent to bank accounts belonging to Rogan and her own company, before the majority of the funds were used to buy an unspecified crypto asset. The latter was then transferred to wallets nominated by the Financial Centre, purportedly a UK-based trading platform, which is also on ASIC's Investor Alert List as it is an unlicensed entity.

"ASIC found that Ms Rogan would have had suspicions about the legitimacy of the Financial Centre from at least October 2022," the regulator said, banning Rogan not only from offering financial services but also from controlling any financial services company.

In any case, ASIC noted that the investigation is still ongoing and the adviser can still appeal the ban. At the same time, the regulator also urged Rogan's victims to lodge their complaints with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. However, ASIC did not elaborate on the losses her clients might have incurred.

It's not the first time ASIC has uncovered a malicious, crypto-related investment scheme. For example, as reported by Cybernews.com this past March, the regulator charged Brendan Gunn in a crypto-related criminal case. Gunn is the brother of Rachael Gunn, a.k.a. Raygun, who bewildered the world with her unusual breakdancing at the Olympics in the summer of 2024.

Quote:As if there was a lack of proof that ransomware gangs would target anyone, threat actors pushed the bar even lower, adding a cemetery to their list of victims.

One of the most prolific ransomware cartels currently in operation, INC Ransom, apparently managed to hack a cemetery. The gang recently added The Catholic Cemeteries of the Diocese of Hamilton in Canada to their dark web forum, used to showcase its latest victims.

As is usual in ransomware attacks, threat actors shared samples of the allegedly stolen data. The Cybernews research team cautiously investigated the sample, finding that attackers shared various documents and personal details.

According to the team, the leaked details include:

Financial documents
Territory plans
Contracts
Names
Dates of birth
Employee pay slips

At least in theory, attackers could use these details against grieving customers for financial fraud and targeted scams. Threat actors could target grieving relatives, impersonating the funeral service provider, and tricking individuals into revealing sensitive personal information.

Meanwhile, INC Ransom is one of the most prominent ransomware cartels currently operating. First observed in July 2023, the cyber cartel has been inching towards the top, with victims like a DoD defense contractor, Stark AeroSpace, the San Francisco Ballet, the City of Leicester in England, the NHS Dumfries and Galloway Health Board of Scotland, and the Xerox Corporation on its list.

According to Cybernews’ dark web monitoring tool, Ransomlooker, INC Ransom has victimized at least 163 organizations over the past 12 months.

Quote:U.S. Bank, one of the largest banks in the United States, has contacted an unknown number of individuals about an unauthorized party accessing their personal details.

The bank, publicly traded as U.S. Bancorp, sent out breach notification letters to individuals whose data may have been exposed. According to the notification, a tech error in early April exposed personal user details.

“During the week of April 8th, 2025, due to a technical configuration error, your account was accessed by a fraudulent actor and personal information was made visible,” reads the letter.

U.S. Bank claims that unauthorized parties may have accessed:

Account numbers
Names
Addresses
Phones
Email addresses

In theory, threat actors could utilize the details for identity theft as well as phishing attacks.

Information that the bank submitted to the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation notes that at least one Massachusetts resident was exposed, marking the “financial account breached” box on the form.

We have reached out to the U.S. Bank to confirm the exact number of individuals who may have been impacted by the “technical configuration error.”

The Minneapolis-headquartered U.S. Bank is the seventh-largest bank in America. Last year, the bank, which operated over 2,000 branches in the US, reported revenue of $27.5 billion and assets of $664 billion.

Quote:Extortion hackers claim to have stolen hundreds of gigabytes of data from a company operating at the legendary New York landmark: the former AT&T building at 550 Madison Avenue.

The Qilin ransomware cartel added 550 Madison to their leak site, claiming they’ve managed to get their hands on a whopping 700 gigabytes of data. However, the Cybernews research team has investigated the claims and has only found five data samples.

According to the team, samples of the data allegedly stolen from the building operator, OAC 550 Owner, include passport photos, incident reports, mortgage assignments, and a service contractor agreement.

As is usually the case with ransomware gangs, threat actors threaten to leak more details if their demands are not met. Affiliates of Qilin, a gang that operates under the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model, often utilize this tactic, too.

We have reached out to the company for a comment and will update the article once we receive a reply.

550 Madison, completed in 1984, was first built to house AT&T headquarters. Later, the building was sold to Sony. Currently, the building is owned by the investment company Olyan.

The landmark building houses the Chub Group, an American-Swiss insurance company, French luxury fashion retailer Hermès, private equity company Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, and other businesses.

The culprit behind the attack, Qilin ransomware, has been steadily growing its influence this year. While the gang has been operating since 2022, it ramped up the volume of attacks in 2025, targeting 68 entities in April alone.

Earlier this week, the gang allegedly breached Asefa, the Spanish subsidiary of France’s SMABPT.

Qilin made headlines earlier this year after taking on SK Group, a global energy and manufacturing giant. According to Cybernews’ dark web monitoring tool, Ransomlooker, the gang has victimized at least 344 companies over the last 12 months.

Quote:Cybercriminals are stealing the identities of real college kids to enroll in online classes and apply for student aid. Then, using AI chatbots to attend classes, the bad actors collect the financial aid, leaving unsuspecting students saddled with tens of thousands in debt.

The new scam is likely fueled by the rise in artificial intelligence tools and the popularity of online classes, according to a new report this week by The Associated Press, which states that “college enrollments have been surging” across the US. The question is, how many of them are AI?

Not only are the chatbots fostering the theft of tens of millions of fraudulent financial aid dollars, but they are also creating havoc on college campuses, with some professors reporting full rosters of students – and empty classrooms.

The AI-generated students are also snapping up slots for coveted classes, essentially icing out the real students from enrolling in the courses they need to graduate.

Not surprisingly, the AP found the most popular online classes for AI chatbots to sign up for tended to be ones that allow students “ to watch lectures and complete coursework on their own time.”

Obviously not in it for the education, these AI “ghost students” are said to attend the classes just long enough to cash out the student’s financial aid check, with many real students unaware their identities are being used for fraud.

Millions of college applications per year

Choosing to analyze fraud reports in California due to its size, the AP said in 2024 alone, the west coast state showed nearly 1.2 million fraudulent college applications, leading to the theft of over $11 million in unrecoverable funds awarded to students at the state, local, and federal levels.

And out of those 1.2 million applications, close to 225,000 of them were believed to be fake enrollments, the news outlet said, adding that in the other state reports they analyzed, the percentages were similar.

What's more, in the several cases profiled by the AP, the real students had only found out about the identity theft by chance.

Quote:In what’s likely the biggest data leak to ever hit China, billions of documents with financial data, WeChat and Alipay details, as well as other sensitive personal data, were exposed to the public. Worryingly, there’s little that impacted users can do to protect themselves.

The supermassive data breach likely exposed hundreds of millions of users, primarily from China, the Cybernews research team’s latest findings reveal. A humungous, 631 gigabytes-strong database was left without a password, publicizing mind-boggling 4 billion records.

Bob Dyachenko, cybersecurity researcher and owner at SecurityDiscovery.com, together with the Cybernews team, discovered billions upon billions of exposed records on an open instance.

The database consisted of numerous collections, containing from half a million to over 800 million records from various sources. The Cybernews research team believes the dataset was meticulously gathered and maintained for building comprehensive behavioral, economic, and social profiles of nearly any Chinese citizen.

“The sheer volume and diversity of data types in this leak suggests that this was likely a centralized aggregation point, potentially maintained for surveillance, profiling, or data enrichment purposes,” the team observed.

There’s no shortage of ways threat actors or nation states could exploit the data. With a data set of that magnitude, everything from large-scale phishing, blackmail, and fraud to state-sponsored intelligence gathering and disinformation campaigns is on the table.

What data was included in the largest Chinese data breach?

Despite the team’s best efforts, Cybernews only got a peek at the database because the exposed instance was quickly taken down. This also prevented the team from revealing the identity of the database's owners. However, collecting and maintaining this sort of database requires time and effort, often linked to threat actors, governments, or very motivated researchers.

The team managed to see sixteen data collections, likely named after the type of data they included.

The largest collection, with over 805 million records, was named “wechatid_db,” which most likely points to the data coming from the Tencent-owned super-app WeChat.

Quote:Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) showed signs of recovery on Saturday, following a major outage that prevented thousands of US users from accessing the platform.

An outage tracking site, Downdetector.com, showed severe disruptions, peaking at over 10,000 and then dropping to around 1,041 by 7:42 p.m. ET. The platform bases its scores on user-submitted problem reports.

The network has already suffered multiple serious outages since Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2022.

Similar outages in March happened allegedly due to DDoS attacks. The self-proclaimed hacktivist group Dark Storm claimed responsibility for the disruptions.

“Due to Elon Musks and Donald Trumps blatant fascism and lack of humanity we as a digital army for the people will continue our peaceful DDoS protests against X formerly known as Twitter. Thank you for your love and support," a Bluesky user who goes by the name ‘Puck Arks’ said in his third post addressing the outage.

Musk has recently brought up uptime issues at X, saying there is a need for “major operational improvements”.

Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms.

I must be super focused on 𝕏/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week), as we have critical technologies rolling out.

As evidenced by the 𝕏 uptime issues this week, major operational…

undefined Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2025

Quote:A growing number of malicious campaigns have leveraged a recently discovered Android banking trojan called Crocodilus to target users in Europe and South America.

The malware, according to a new report published by ThreatFabric, has also adopted improved obfuscation techniques to hinder analysis and detection, and includes the ability to create new contacts in the victim's contacts list.

"Recent activity reveals multiple campaigns now targeting European countries while continuing Turkish campaigns and expanding globally to South America," the Dutch security company said.

Crocodilus was first publicly documented in March 2025 as targeting Android device users in Spain and Turkey by masquerading as legitimate apps like Google Chrome. The malware comes fitted with capabilities to launch overlay attacks against a list of financial apps retrieved from an external server to harvest credentials.

It also abuses accessibility services permissions to capture seed phrases associated with cryptocurrency wallets, which can then be used to drain virtual assets stored in them.

The latest findings from ThreatFabric demonstrate an expansion of the malware's geographic scope as well as ongoing development with enhancements and new features, indicating that it's being actively maintained by the operators.

Select campaigns aimed at Poland have been found to leverage bogus ads on Facebook as a distribution vector by mimicking banks and e-commerce platforms. These ads lure victims to download an app to claim supposed bonus points. Users who attempt to download the app are directed to a malicious site that delivers the Crocodilus dropper.

Other attack waves targeting Spanish and Turkish users have disguised themselves as a web browser update and an online casino. Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, and the United States are among the other nations that have been singled out by the malware.

In addition to incorporating various obfuscation techniques to complicate reverse engineering efforts, new variants of Crocodilus have the ability to add a specified contact to the victim's contact list upon receiving the command "TRU9MMRHBCRO."

It's suspected that the feature is designed as a countermeasure to new security protections that Google has introduced in Android that alerts users of possible scams when launching banking apps during a screen-sharing session with an unknown contact.

Quote:US President Donald Trump has reported over $57m in income from a family-linked crypto firm – making it one of his largest single earnings.

According to the financial disclosure report released by the Office of Government Ethics, Trump earned more than $57 million in 2024 from his stakes in World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance protocol and cryptocurrency company.

The firm was founded in the same year, and a Trump business entity owns 60% of World Liberty, netting 75% of revenues from its WLFI governance token sales. Trump’s three sons, Donald Jr., Eric, and Barron, are also actively involved in the venture.

“Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Trump said on X when championing his crypto venture. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.”

World Liberty Financial allows users to invest in cryptocurrency and then use these assets for borrowing and lending. The project is positioned as a move toward financial innovation and a shift away from traditional banking.

Conflict of interest

The firm has continuously drawn scrutiny from regulators about the potential risks and regulatory concerns. As such, in June, Senate Democrats demanded more details about a multi-billion-dollar transaction between World Liberty Financial and a pool of investors that includes foreign nationals.

The disclosure might now bring even more scrutiny over Trump’s increased investment in cryptocurrencies and whether he might be using his influence for personal gain.

In 2025, World Liberty Financial announced it would launch a dollar-pegged stablecoin, USD1, backed by US currency, which sparked a temporary setback.

"The launch of a stablecoin directly tied to a sitting President who stands to benefit financially from the stablecoin's success is an unprecedented conflict of interest presenting significant threats to both our financial system and our democracy," Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon said in the June 10 letter.

Trump, however, has continuously denied accusations of conflict of interest, arguing that his involvement is related to the aim to promote technological innovation in the US.

Quote:The founder of a financial services firm known as the crypto “market maker”, Gotbit, received a sentence on charges related to a multi-year scheme to manipulate cryptocurrency trading volume on behalf of his company's clients.

The Russian-born founder and CEO of Gotbit, Aleksei Andriunin, was sentenced to eight months in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release, according to the press release. In March 2025, he pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit market manipulation.

As a result of an #FBI Boston investigation, Gotbit Consulting, a financial services firm known in the crypto industry as a “market maker,” & its founder Aleksei Andriunin, of Russia & Portugal, were sentenced for market manipulation & fraud conspiracy. https://t.co/CNpz0BD4aE pic.twitter.com/jIFg1Z3nt6

undefined FBI Boston (@FBIBoston) June 13, 2025
Prosecutors say Gotbit and Andriunin were indicted on the same charges. Two of Gotbit’s directors, Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili, were also charged.

Allegedly, between 2018 and 2024, Gotbit participated in “wash trading” – artificially inflating the trading volume for various cryptocurrency companies, using multiple accounts to avoid detection.

These tactics were marketed to clients – Andriunin admitted to manipulating the trading price and volume of tokens for clients that included Robo Inu and Saitama. They were charged in a separate case.

“Gotbit made wash trades worth millions of dollars on behalf of clients and received tens of millions of dollars in payments from clients,” prosecutors explained.

As part of the plea, Gotbit was ordered to forfeit a total of approximately $23 million in seized crypto and sentenced to a term of probation for five years, with the condition that Gotbit cease its operations.

Andriunin was extradited from Portugal to the US.

The case is part of a wider crackdown on “wash trading”, with Gotbit being the third firm to receive such criminal charges. Earlier cases involved MyTrade in October 2024 and CLS Global FZC LLC in April 2025, which were charged with providing an unlawful wash trading service and offering illegal “volume support” services, respectively.

Quote:SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared “serious concerns” over the long-term safety of the International Space Station (ISS), urging to de-orbit it within two years.

“There are potentially serious concerns about the long-term safety of the [ISS]. Some parts of it are simply getting too old and obviously that risk grows over time,” Musk posted on X early on Friday morning. “Even though SpaceX earns billions of dollars from transporting astronauts & cargo to the ISS, I nonetheless would like to go on record recommending that it be de-orbited within 2 years.”

There are potentially serious concerns about the long-term safety of the @Space_Station. Some parts of it are simply getting too old and obviously that risk grows over time.

Even though @SpaceX earns billions of dollars from transporting astronauts & cargo to the ISS, I… https://t.co/TcyUwcwHfE

undefined Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 13, 2025
The author of the original post, Casey Handmer, who worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), claims that there are more structural problems with the ISS than is being disclosed.

The news came just hours after NASA postponed the Axiom Mission 4 to the ISS because of a pressure leak in one of the station's Russian-built segments. It was set to be the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station.

The first leaks were detected in 2019 and traced to a tunnel in the Russian Zvezda module, although they were essentially under control.

“As part of an ongoing investigation, NASA is working with Roscosmos to understand a new pressure signature, after the recent post-repair effort in the aft most segment of the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module,” NASA stated.

However, later in November 2024, NASA warned that the leak could now lead to a “catastrophic failure” and put its commitment to operate the ISS through 2030 at risk. Still, NASA and Roscosmos have continuously disagreed over the cause and severity of the leak. According to Bob Cabana, a former NASA astronaut, Russian engineers believe the cracks are likely caused by “high cyclic fatigue” from micro-vibrations. In turn, NASA cites a variety of potential factors, including pressure and mechanical stress, residual stress, material properties of the module, and environmental exposure.

Earlier this year, Musk already called for ISS to be deorbited “as soon as possible.”

It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the @Space_Station.

It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility.

Quote:The White House earlier this month directed the Defense Department and NASA to gather details on billions of dollars in SpaceX contracts following the public blowout between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, four people familiar with the order told Reuters.

Sparking an ongoing review, the administration ordered the agencies to scrutinize Musk’s contracts to ready possible retaliation against the businessman and his companies, these people said. As Reuters reported on Thursday, Pentagon officials are simultaneously considering whether to reduce the role that SpaceX, Musk’s space and satellite company, may win in an ambitious new US missile defense system.

Reuters couldn’t determine whether the White House intends to cancel any of the approximately $22 billion in federal contracts SpaceX now has. But the review shows the administration is following through on a threat by Trump during his spat with Musk last week to possibly terminate business and subsidies for Musk ventures. “We’ll take a look at everything,” the president said, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on June 6.

In an email to Reuters, a White House spokesperson didn’t answer questions about Musk's business, saying the “Trump administration is committed to a rigorous review process for all bids and contracts.” In a separate statement, a spokesperson at NASA said the agency “will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the president’s objectives in space are met.”

Neither SpaceX nor officials at the Defense Department responded to requests for comment.

The people familiar with the order said the contract scrutiny is intended to give the administration the ability to move fast if Trump decides to act against Musk, who until recently was a senior advisor to the president and the head of the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The review is “for political ammunition,” one of the people said.

Whether the US government could legally, or practically, cancel existing contracts is unclear. But the possibility underscores concerns among governance experts that politics and personal pique could improperly influence matters affecting government coffers, national security and the public interest.

“There’s an irony here that Musk’s contracts could be under the same type of subjective political scrutiny that he and his DOGE team have put on thousands of other contracts,” said Scott Amey, a contracting expert and general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group based in Washington. “Any decision shouldn’t be based on the egos of two men but on the best interests of the public and national security.”

Quote:ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity source their information drastically differently. This highlights the complexity of artificial intelligence (AI) visibility optimization, a new study has found.

Profound, a company helping brands monitor and influence their presence in AI search engines, has analyzed 30 million citations across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity from August 2024 to June 2025.

Distinct patterns in how each platform sources information were uncovered, the study says. Perhaps a little surprisingly, OpenAI’s ChatGPT shows a clear preference for Wikipedia, which accounts for nearly half (47.9%) of its top citations within its top 10 most-cited sources.

According to Profound, Wikipedia's dominance suggests the importance of maintaining accurate Wikipedia entries. However, the company also sees a healthy mix of traditional media (Reuters, New York Post) and tech-focused sites (TechRadar, G2).

Still, Google AI Overviews shows a more balanced distribution across platforms. Its top source or citation for answers was Reddit at only 21%.

Highlighting strong integration with Google’s ecosystem, YouTube is close at 18.8%, the study has found. Plus, it’s clear that Google’s product places a significant emphasis on professional content, such as that shared on LinkedIn and Gartner.

Perplexity, on the other hand, shows a unique concentration in community platforms: it really favors Reddit at 46.7%. This suggests heavy reliance on community discussions, Profound says.

Quote:INTERPOL on Wednesday announced the dismantling of more than 20,000 malicious IP addresses or domains that have been linked to 69 information-stealing malware variants.

The joint action, codenamed Operation Secure, took place between January and April 2025, and involved law enforcement agencies from 26 countries to identify servers, map physical networks, and execute targeted takedowns.

"These coordinated efforts resulted in the takedown of 79 percent of identified suspicious IP addresses," INTERPOL said in a statement. "Participating countries reported the seizure of 41 servers and over 100 GB of data, as well as the arrest of 32 suspects linked to illegal cyber activities."

Vietnamese authorities arrested 18 suspects, and confiscated devices, SIM cards, business registration documents, and money worth $11,500. Further house raids have led to the arrest of another 12 people in Sri Lanka and two individuals in Nauru.

The Hong Kong Police, per INTERPOL, identified 117 command-and-control servers hosted across 89 internet service providers. These servers were designed to act as a hub to launch and manage malicious campaigns, such as phishing, online fraud, and social media scams.

Countries involved in Operation Secure include Brunei, Cambodia, Fiji, Hong Kong (China), India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Laos, Macau (China), Malaysia, Maldives, Nauru, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Vietnam.

The development comes weeks after a global operation led to the seizure of 2,300 domains associated with the Lumma Stealer malware. In a separate operation last October 2024, police also disrupted infrastructure and seized data associated with RedLine and MetaStealer families.

Information stealers, often sold on the cybercrime underground on a subscription basis, are seen as a stepping stone for threat actors to gain unauthorized access to target networks. These malicious programs make it possible to siphon browser credentials, passwords, cookies, credit card details, and cryptocurrency wallet data from infected machines.

Quote:The Trump Administration’s FAA has announced plans to overhaul outdated air traffic control (ATC) systems, which currently rely on floppy disks and Windows 95 operating systems to keep America’s airports running safely and efficiently. Recent high profile failures make it clear that relying on old systems is no longer an option.

Tom’s Hardware reports that in a recent House Appropriations Committee meeting, Trump’s acting FAA administrator Chris Rocheleau outlined an ambitious goal to bring the nation’s air traffic control (ATC) systems into the 21st century. The current state of the ATC infrastructure is a major concern, with most towers and facilities using outdated technologies such as paper strips, floppy disks, and computers running Windows 95.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy emphasized the importance of this modernization project, stating, “This is the most important infrastructure project that we’ve had in this country for decades. Everyone agrees — this is non-partisan. Everyone knows we have to do it.”

Last month, air traffic control failures at Newark Airport brought these problems into focus. As Breitbart News previously reported:

The ongoing disruptions at Newark Airport have been attributed to a variety of factors, including radar outages, air traffic controller shortages, and other issues. According to the FAA, Newark has been experiencing an average of 34 arrival cancellations per day since mid-April, with delays increasing throughout the day from an average of five in the mornings to 16 by the evening. These delays typically last between 85 and 137 minutes on average.

In response to the mounting problems, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Sunday that the Trump administration plans to reduce the number of flights in and out of Newark Airport for the “next several weeks.” Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Duffy stated that he will convene a meeting with all the airlines operating out of Newark this week to determine the extent of the reduction. He added that the reduction will fluctuate, with a larger decrease expected in the afternoons when international flight arrivals make the airport busier.

However, upgrading the ATC system is a complex undertaking. Some systems cannot be shut down as they are crucial for safety, making it impossible to simply switch off a site and swap out ancient components for newer ones. Additionally, the upgrades must be protected against hacking and other vulnerabilities to prevent any breaches that could cripple the nation.

The FAA has been investing significant funds into maintaining its old ATC systems, which need to operate 24/7. Despite ongoing repair, upkeep, and overhaul efforts, the age of these systems seems to be catching up. The White House has not yet disclosed the cost of this update.

Quote:Robotic dogs, drones, and a robotic combat vehicle were the latest showcases of the future of warfare on June 14th, as the US Army celebrated its 250th anniversary.

The parade, held on Donald Trump’s 79th birthday, displayed different eras of the military, showcasing drones and autonomous robotic dogs as the Army’s future. The dogs are formally known as Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicles (Q-UGVs).

The machines are commonly tested for patrol, surveillance, and logistics support roles, seamlessly integrating into the parade format.

The Ripsaw M5, a fully autonomous robotic combat vehicle designed for high speed and agility, was another highlight. It was developed by the team Ripsaw, which consists of Textron Systems, Howe & Howe, and FLIR Systems.

The vehicle came with a remotely operated wheeled platform fitted with a turret system and an ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) drone, according to Defense Blog. It can operate silently, has a mine-clearing line (MICLIC), mine plover, and an attached improvised explosive device (IED) defeat roller, equipped with an agile counter mechanism.

Another notable highlight was the Ghost, a Medium-Range Reconnaissance (MRR) Small Unmanned Aircraft System (SUAS). It’s a helicopter-type advanced medium-range aerial drone, developed for reconnaissance and gathering intelligence.

While the parade was largely dominated by traditional warfare units, the presence of unmanned platforms showcased the Army’s move towards incorporating robotics into its operations.

The event marked the first time tanks had rolled through the streets of Washington in over 30 years. It featured 150 vehicles, 50 aircraft, and about 6,600 troops.

Quote:Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm xAI is reportedly in talks to raise $9.3 billion in debt and equity financing – and is projected to burn through more than $1 billion per month year as the AI race heats up.

The company behind snarky AI chatbot Grok is aiming to raise $4.3 billion in an equity round and has told investors that it needs the money in part because it has burned through cash it had previously raised, Bloomberg reported, citing materials it had obtained that were shared with potential investors.

Separately, xAI is on track to close on a $5 billion debt raise led by Morgan Stanley, despite tepid investor demand, according to two people familiar with the matter that spoke to Reuters.

The $5 billion debt sale, which includes a floating-rate term loan, a fixed-rate loan and secured bonds, will be allocated to investors on Wednesday, the two people said, asking not to be identified because the deal is private. xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment while Morgan Stanley declined.

The xAI offering, which was reported on June 2 as Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump traded barbs over social media, did not receive overwhelming interest from high-yield and leveraged loan investors, said five people briefed on the deal.

The floating-rate loan will be offered with an interest rate of 700 basis points over the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, a benchmark rate used to price bond deals, while the fixed-rate loan and secured notes will pay a yield of roughly 12%, the two people said.

Quote:Sam Altman’s OpenAI has secured a $200 million contract to provide artificial intelligence support to the US Defense Department.

Work on the contract will be primarily performed in Washington DC and is expected to run through July 2026. The deal was announced months after OpenAI first revealed that it would collaborate with tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey’s defense firm Anduril to develop AI for “national security missions.”

“Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

The ChatGPT maker’s move to work with the US military marked a departure from the company’s earlier position. The company’s terms of service once contained language stating that its AI products were prohibited for use in “military and warfare” circumstances – but the wording was removed last year.

In a blog post alongside the Pentagon’s announcement, Altman’s firm said it was “launching OpenAI for Government, a new initiative focused on bringing our most advanced AI tools to public servants across the United States.”

“Our goal is to unlock AI solutions that enhance the capabilities of government workers, help them cut down on the red tape and paperwork, and let them do more of what they come to work each day to do: serve the American people,” the blog post said.

OpenAI described its $200 million deal with the Pentagon as a “pilot program” meant to “help the Defense Department identify and prototype how frontier AI can transform its administrative operations, from improving how service members and their families get health care, to streamlining how they look at program and acquisition data, to supporting proactive cyber defense.”

Altman had previously appeared alongside President Trump in January to promote OpenAI’s role in a $500 billion “Stargate” project to build out AI data centers and other infrastructure across the US.

Elsewhere, OpenAI, which is attempting a complex restructuring of its business, is reportedly at loggerheads with its chief financial backer Microsoft.

Quote:Amazon CEO Andy Jassy ominously warned Tuesday that he expects the rise of generative artificial intelligence to “reduce” the company’s corporate workforce in the next few years.

The Amazon boss, who replaced Jeff Bezos as CEO in 2021, said generative AI is a “once in a lifetime” technology that “should change the way our work is done” as the company integrates it into its business operations.

As a result, Amazon will “need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy said in lengthy memo to employees that was also posted on the company’s website.

“It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company,” Jassy added.

Amazon had a corporate workforce of approximately 350,000 employees as December. Overall, the company had more than 1.5 million full-time and part-time employees at the end of last year, including at its warehouse and fulfillment centers.

Jassy said Amazon already has more than 1,000 generative AI services or applications in the works, which will “small fraction of what we will ultimately build.”

Amazon’s inventory management, customer service chatbot and product pages are likely to get an upgrade as a result of AI.

Employees should “be curious about AI” and participate in efforts to learn “how to get more done with scrappier teams,” he added.

The remarks come as more AI leaders call out the likelihood that advancements in AI will shake up the labor market.

Last month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei raised alarms when he warned that executives and politicians should stop “sugar-coating” the mass layoffs that could occur in fields like tech, finance and law and be honest with workers.

Amodei said he expects significant job losses in the next one to five years, with US unemployment potentially spiking to 20%, up from its current level of 4.2%.

Last Week...

Quote:Disney and Universal have filed a copyright lawsuit against popular artificial intelligence image-generator Midjourney on Wednesday, marking the first time major Hollywood companies have enter the legal battle over generative AI.

Filed in federal district court in Los Angeles, the complaint claims Midjourney pirated the libraries of the two Hollywood studios to generate and distribute “endless unauthorized copies” of their famed characters, such as Darth Vader from Star Wars and the Minions from Despicable Me.

“Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism. Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing,” the companies state in the complaint.

The studios also claimed the San Francisco-based AI company ignored their requests to stop infringing on their copyrighted works and to take technological measures to halt such image generation.

Midjourney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

In a 2022 interview with The Associated Press, Midjourney CEO David Holz described his image-making service as “kind of like a search engine” pulling in a wide swath of images from across the internet. He compared copyright concerns about the technology with how such laws have adapted to human creativity.

“Can a person look at somebody else’s picture and learn from it and make a similar picture?” Holz said. “Obviously, it’s allowed for people and if it wasn’t, then it would destroy the whole professional art industry, probably the nonprofessional industry too. To the extent that AIs are learning like people, it’s sort of the same thing and if the images come out differently then it seems like it’s fine.”

Major AI developers don’t typically disclose their data sources but have argued that taking troves of publicly accessible online text, images and other media to train their AI systems is protected by the “fair use” doctrine of American copyright law.

Quote:That’s one hot device.

A June 6 clip on the platform has reignited buzz about the infamous Galaxy Note 7, the smartphone so dangerous, it’s banned from the skies due to the possibility of its battery overheating and potentially exploding or catching on fire.

In a video that racked up 2.5 million views, TikTokker K-Shawn Brower (@malckbro) filmed an airport warning that read: “FAA BANNED ITEM / Samsung Galaxy Note 7 / Individuals may NOT transport this device on their person, in carry-on baggage, or in checked baggage on flights to, from, or within the US.”

The phone is on the TSA’s official no-fly list, where feds make it clear: This gadget’s grounded for good.

On the agency’s website, it notes, “The U.S. Department of Transportation, with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, have issued an emergency order to ban all Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone devices from air transportation in the United States.”

The statement further explained, “Individuals who own or possess a Samsung Galaxy Note7 device may not transport the device on their person, in carry-on baggage, or in checked baggage on flights to, from, or within the United States.”

Some blindsided viewers ran to the comment section of the social media video, desperate to know what the heck was going on. Others knew the answer.

“Why is it banned?” one asked as another quipped, “Not me watching this on my Samsung Galaxy Note 7.”

Someone else replied, “That phone is from 2016. It’s almost 10 years old. Nobody should have that phone anymore because it’s too outdated. After a while, Google stops doing updates for older phones.”

@malckbro
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 🙅🏽‍♂️ Can’t fly with them #banned#fyp#fypシ#viral#samsung#tsa#reels#reel#flying#america#airport

♬ original sound – K-Shawn Brower
An additional user commented, “probably because it’s been known to have issues with its battery that can spontaneously catch fire. there’s videos of it all over the internet, some of them are older but there’s lots of videos of it.”

As reported by Indy100, in 2016, Samsung conducted a “thorough investigation and found a battery cell issue.”

The company further added, “To date (as of September 1) there have been 35 cases that have been reported globally and we are currently conducting a thorough inspection with our suppliers to identify possible affected batteries in the market. However, because our customers’ safety is an absolute priority at Samsung, we have stopped sales of the Galaxy Note 7.”

In other related news, The Post reported last month that the TSA has officially grounded a travel essential — banning portable chargers and power banks from checked luggage after a new FAA advisory.

Quote:The FBI is warning millions of Americans to be wary of an innocuous-seeming text message that’s making the rounds — and to delete it immediately if they get it.

(Surprise! It’s a scam.)

Americans have been bombarded with text scams for some time now, but according to Forbes, attacks on iPhone and Android users surged more than 700% this month alone. And the latest one’s a doozy, the feds say.

Here’s how the scammers trap unsuspecting iPhone users in their web — by posing as the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) of different states.

The messages look like they could be legit, telling people that if they don’t pay an unpaid toll or fine, they might be subjected to having their driving privileges revoked or possible jail time.

The text includes a link and instructs people to reply to the message then open the link.

But officials warn that all of this is just someone trying to steal your personal data — and urged users not to click the link and rather immediately delete the text.

These kinds of texts can “put malware on your phone, which then can go in and steal information from your device, or collect your payment information,” FBI Tennessee’s Supervisory Special Agent David Palmer said in a statement.

Last Week...

Quote:Anker Innovations is recalling more than 1.1 million power banks after some users reported fires and explosions.

The company said a problem could potentially make the lithium-ion battery within some of its Anker PowerCore 10000 power banks overheat “leading to melting of plastic components, smoke, and fire hazards.”

The recall, announced Thursday, specifically applies to Anker PowerCore 10000 power banks bearing the model number “A1263” and certain serial numbers that were sold in the U.S., according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

The model number and serial number can be found on a label affixed to the bottom of the power bank.

Sales of the recalled power banks occurred on Anker’s website, as well as Amazon, Newegg and Ebay, between June 2016 and December 2022.

Anker said on its website that it issued the recall “out of an abundance of caution to ensure the safety of our customers.”

There have been 19 instances of fires and explosions related to the battery issue, according to the CPSC recall notice.

Two incidents resulted in “minor burn injuries” that did not need medical attention. Property damage worth more than $60,700 arose out of 11 incidents.

Consumers “should immediately stop using the recalled power banks and contact Anker Innovations for instructions on receiving a free replacement power bank,” the CPSC notice said. They can register for the recall on a designated page on Anker’s website.

Quote:WhatsApp, which supports over 2.8 billion monthly users, is walking back its previous decision not to administer ads, much to the ire of its colossal client base.

This choice follows other recent controversial updates, including an AI button that users have deemed cumbersome, and widespread ad campaigns across other platforms promising viewers that the messaging app does not collect user data.

Back in 2023, rumors of the app implementing personalized ads circulated the Internet, but WhatsApp head, Will Cathcart, shut down speculations with a concise tweet.

Quote:Will Cathcart
@wcathcart
This @FT story is false.  We aren't doing this.

Also it looks like you misspelled Brian's name...

Quote:WhatsApp explores ads in chat app as Meta seeks revenue boost https://on.ft.com/44Uerdi
Readers Added Context
The head of WhatsApp claims this is false.
https://t.co/9bfLnv9jfZ

10:28 PM · Sep 14, 2023

Cathcart also corrected the publication on the WhatsApp co-founder, Brian Acton’s name.

Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company, has clarified the role of ads in the application’s new strategy — promotional content will only be shown in the app’s Updates tab, where users can currently add new statuses and join channels.

In a June 16 blog post, Meta explained that the new policy on the Updates tab is intended to “help Channel admins, organizations, and businesses build and grow” by introducing channel subscriptions, promoted channels, and ads in the status bar.

WhatsApp was previously praised by its base for its security, reliability, and cost-effectiveness — it’s free to users across the globe — but the implementation of ads changes more about the service than many WhatsAppers may realize.

Quote:Tech mogul Elon Musk posted an apparent copy of his urinalysis results Tuesday to disabuse critics who have accused him of being stoned out of his mind.

The drug test, which was conducted last Tuesday, showed that the world’s richest man was negative for just shy of two dozen substances, including ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and more, despite media accusations of him doping.

“Lol,” Musk posted on X with a purported photo of the results around 3:44 a.m. ET.

For many drugs, urine tests usually only identify substances for one to seven days after use, though it depends on which ones. The test Musk posted makes clear urine was sampled because it notes the creatinine level was normal.

The billionaire tech magnate has long denied accusations that he is a drug addict. Last month, a bombshell New York Times story alleged that he was a frequent drug user during the 2024 campaign.

This included accusations of him taking ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms, ketamine, possibly Adderall and traveling with a box of about 20 pills while having bladder issues.

Musk has admitted to using a “small amount” of ketamine, a powerful anesthetic used to treat anxiety and pain, in the past to deal with mental health struggles, but has been adamant that he no longer uses the potentially addictive drug that led to actor Mathew Perry’s death.

Last year, a Wall Street Journal report alleged that his use of Ambien, the sleep medication, rattled board members at Tesla. That same report also claimed Musk used cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, mushrooms and ketamine.

Rumors and speculation about the billionaire tycoon’s potential relationship with the treacherous world of drugs have been fueled by his erratic behavior and seemingly abrupt mood swings.