Author: user
December 15, 2025Ravi LakshmananMalware/Cybercrime Cybersecurity researchers have revealed details of an active phishing campaign targeting a wide range of sectors in Russia with phishing emails delivering Phantom Stealer via malicious ISO optical disk images. The operation, codenamed Operation MoneyMount-ISO by Seqrite Labs, primarily targets finance and accounting organizations, with organizations in the procurement, legal, and payroll sectors emerging as secondary targets. “This campaign leverages fake payment verification lures to deliver phantom information-stealing malware through a multi-step attachment chain,” the cybersecurity firm said. The infection chain begins with a phishing email disguised as a legitimate financial communication, prompting recipients to check…
The European Union has taken a decisive step towards a more sustainable automotive sector, with the European Commission welcoming the interim agreement between the European Parliament and the Council on new regulations covering end-of-life vehicles. The contract represents a major overhaul of how vehicles are designed, manufactured and treated at the end of their useful life, with far-reaching implications for resource efficiency, environmental protection and industrial resilience. Stéphane Séjournet, Executive Vice President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, believes the new regulations will transform Europe’s automotive sector. “The measures adopted today will help create a concrete business case for a Europe-wide…
December 15, 2025Ravi LakshmananRansomware/Cybercrime A pro-Russian hacktivist group known as CyberVolk (also known as GLORIAMIST) has resurfaced with a new ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) product called VolkLocker, which allows users to decrypt files without paying extortion fees, plagued by a testing artifact implementation error. According to SentinelOne, VolkLocker (also known as CyberVolk 2.x) will appear in August 2025 and can target both Windows and Linux systems. Written in Golang. “Operators building new VolkLocker payloads must provide a Bitcoin address, Telegram bot token ID, Telegram chat ID, encryption expiration date, desired file extension, and self-destruct option,” security researcher Jim Walter said in a…
There’s something painfully American about the story of iRobot, the company that taught vacuum cleaners to get around furniture. The company, founded in 1990 in Bedford, Mass., by MIT roboticist Rodney Brooks and his former students Colin Angle and Helen Greiner, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday, ending a 35-year run that took it from the dreams of AI researchers to the floors of home kitchens and, finally, to the tender mercies of Chinese suppliers. Brooks, the founding director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and a resident provocateur in the field of robotics, spent the ’80s…
Fintech startup Mesa has shut down its Home Owner’s Card, which gave cardholders points for mortgage payments. A message on Mesa’s website states that as of Dec. 12, “all Mesa Homeowners Card accounts have been closed,” adding, “All credit cards have been deactivated and are no longer eligible for new purchases or the ability to earn Mesa Points.” Mesa’s FAQ regarding the closure describes it as a “management decision to permanently close the Mesa Homeowners Card program.” TechCrunch reached out to Mesa for additional comment on future plans. The startup launched exactly one year ago in November 2024 with $9.2…
Whether Netflix’s $82.6 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. goes through or not, the deal represents a difficult moment for Hollywood as the entertainment business is increasingly overshadowed by the tech giant. On the latest episode of the Equity Podcast, Kirsten Kolosek and I discussed the deal’s implications for both Netflix and the larger Hollywood ecosystem. Kirsten said this was just the latest move to bring more consolidation into its media business and wondered if it was “too risky” for Netflix. Meanwhile, I discussed a conference call with Netflix executives where Wall Street analysts also seemed to be having a hard…
Welcome to TechCrunch Mobility. A central hub for news and insight on the future of transportation. To receive this in your inbox, sign up for free here. Just click on TechCrunch Mobility. Senior reporter Sean O’Kane stopped by Palo Alto to check out Rivian’s Autonomy and AI Day. According to some insiders, this will be the most important event for the company. I don’t know if it’s okay to classify it that way, but how about having journalists in the field evaluate it? Via Sean after the event (and some of my thoughts sprinkled in as well)… Rivian’s Autonomy &…
Roman concrete is pretty amazing. That is one of the main reasons why we know so much about Roman architecture today. So many structures built by the Romans still survive in some form thanks to their ingenious concrete and construction techniques.But there’s still much we don’t know about how the Romans made concrete so strong and how they constructed their impressive buildings, homes, public baths, bridges, and roads.Scholars have long been anxious for more physical evidence from Roman work sites to provide clues. you may like Now, a new study led by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)…
There has long been a missing chapter in the story of cephalopod evolution. That’s how a squid-like ancestor gave rise to today’s octopus. It turns out that the answer has been floating in the deep ocean all along.The elusive vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis), with its ghostly glowing eyes, eight arms resembling its octopus cousin, and a deep ruby color to match, has finally revealed its genetic secrets.In a study published Nov. 27 in the journal iScience, researchers sequenced the genome of Vampyrotheuthis and found that despite belonging to the order Octopus, its chromosomes still resemble those of squid and cuttlefish.…
simple factsWhat is it: Gamma ray burst GRB 250702BLocation: 8 billion light years away, in the constellation Scutum.Share date: December 8, 2025Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic type of explosion in the universe since the Big Bang, and are detected on average once every day. But what happened on July 2, 2025 was very unusual. NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which has been in orbit around Earth since 2008, has recorded an unusually long-lived GRB that continues to emit in bursts for more than seven hours.Astronomers sprang into action using telescopes around the world to detect the explosion’s afterglow…