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The race to dominate the space economy is no longer the stuff of science fiction, but the defining economic and technological challenge of the 21st century. Recognizing that space is more than just exploration, it also powers life on Earth itself, countries around the world are investing billions of dollars to secure their place in orbit. From satellites that enable global banking and weather forecasting to data that helps farmers manage crops and scientists track climate change, space technology is now powering the systems that keep the world running. Against this backdrop, a new report from the House of Lords…
November 4, 2025Ravi LakshmananArtificial intelligence/vulnerabilities Google’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cybersecurity agent, called Big Sleep, has been credited by Apple with discovering up to five different security flaws in the WebKit component used in the Safari web browser that, if successfully exploited, could cause the browser to crash or corrupt memory. Here is the list of vulnerabilities: CVE-2025-43429 – Buffer overflow vulnerability that could cause an unexpected process crash when processing maliciously crafted web content (resolved with improved bounds checking) CVE-2025-43430 – Unspecified vulnerability that could cause an unexpected process crash when processing maliciously crafted web content (resolved with improved state…
November 4, 2025Ravi LakshmananRansomware/Cybercrime U.S. federal prosecutors have charged the trio with hacking the networks of five U.S. companies with BlackCat (also known as ALPHV) ransomware and extorting them between May and November 2023. Ryan Clifford Goldberg, Kevin Tyler Martin, and an unnamed Florida-based co-conspirator (also known as “Co-conspirator 1”), all U.S. nationals, allegedly used ransomware strains against a Tampa, Florida-based medical device company, a Maryland-based pharmaceutical company, a California-based clinic, a California-based engineering company, and a Virginia-based drone manufacturer. The Chicago Sun-Times first reported on the indictment over the weekend, saying Martin and co-conspirator 1 were employed as ransomware…
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the world’s shared blueprint for ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring prosperity for everyone by 2030. Adopted by all 193 United Nations member states in 2015, the SDGs translate broad ambitions – on poverty, health, education, gender equality, climate and more – into 17 measurable goals with 169 targets and hundreds of indicators. They are universal, as they apply to high-, middle-, and low-income countries, and they are integrated – progress on one goal often depends on progress on others. The SDGs have become the organising framework for governments, investors, civil society,…
simple factsMilestone: Stairs to King Tut’s tomb discoveredWhen: November 4, 1922Location: Valley of the Kings, EgyptPeople: Archeology team led by Howard CarterOn a sunny morning, Egyptian workers were removing sand in the Valley of the Kings when they discovered the remains of stone steps some 4 meters below the tomb of Ramses VI.This sunken staircase would lead to the unplundered tomb of King Tutankhamun, a pharaoh who died as a teenager more than 3,200 years ago.An almost exclusively Egyptian excavation team led by British archaeologist Howard Carter was removing sand near a hut in the Valley of the Kings. Some…
November 4, 2025Ravi LakshmananArtificial intelligence/malware Microsoft has revealed details of a new backdoor called SesameOp that uses the OpenAI Assistants application programming interface (API) for command-and-control (C2) communications. “Instead of relying on traditional techniques, the attackers behind this backdoor are exploiting OpenAI as a C2 channel as a way to covertly communicate and coordinate malicious activity within a compromised environment,” the Microsoft Incident Response Detection and Response Team (DART) said in a technical report published Monday. “To do this, the backdoor component uses the OpenAI Assistants API as a storage or relaying mechanism to retrieve commands, which the malware then…
Andreessen Horowitz is suspending its Talent x Opportunity (TxO) fund and program, according to four sources familiar with the matter, including several of the program’s founders. In 2020, the company announced TxO to support founders who don’t have access to traditional venture networks. Many of TxO’s participants are women and minorities, and overall they receive very little venture capital funding. The fund’s announcement comes amid a wave of support that underrepresented founders received after the killing of George Floyd in 2020. TechCrunch previously reported that the fund was launched with an initial contribution of $2.2 million, with a16z co-founder Ben…
Elad Gil, a prominent individual investor, said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt that AI is one of the most unpredictable technology booms he’s ever seen. Gill has been on the cap tables of virtually every hit company of the past decade, including many of today’s leading AI companies. Still, he believes that over the past year, certain AI markets appear to have been largely filled by market leaders. Even beyond these areas, the vast scope of AI still applies to everyone. “I started investing in generative AI in 2021, and at the time there weren’t that many people paying that…
Lawmakers have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate license plate scanning camera operator Flock Safety for allegedly failing to implement cybersecurity protections that exposed the company’s camera network to hackers and spies. In a letter sent by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) on Wednesday, the lawmakers are asking FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson to investigate why Flock does not mandate the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA), a security protection that prevents malicious access by someone who knows an account owner’s password. According to the letter, Wyden and Krishnamoorthi said that while the company offers its law…
A Japanese industry group representing publishers such as Studio Ghibli sent a letter to OpenAI last week, calling on the AI giant to stop training AI models on copyrighted content without permission. Studio Ghibli, the animation studio behind films like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, is particularly inspired by OpenAI’s generative AI products. When ChatGPT’s native image generator was released in March, it became a common trend for users to ask to recreate their selfies and pet photos in the style of studio movies. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also changed his X profile picture to a “Ghibli-ized” photo. Now…