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How powerful is enough for AI? Nobody knows, not even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman or Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. That leaves software-first companies like OpenAI and Microsoft in a bind. Much of the technology industry has focused on computing as a major barrier to AI adoption. And while tech companies are scrambling to secure power, their efforts have lagged behind GPU purchases, with Microsoft apparently ordering too many chips for the amount of power it contracted for. “The cycle of supply and demand in this particular case is really unpredictable,” Nadella said on the BG2 podcast. “The biggest problem we…
Peter Williams, former general manager of Trenchent, a division of defense contractor L3Harris that develops surveillance and hacking tools for Western governments, pleaded guilty last week to stealing and selling some of those tools to Russian brokers. Court documents filed in the case, exclusive reporting by TechCrunch, and interviews with Williams’ former colleagues explain how Williams was able to steal highly valuable and sensitive exploits from Trentint. Williams, a 39-year-old Australian national known within the company as “Doogie,” admitted to prosecutors that he stole and sold eight exploits, or “zero days.” A zero-day is a security flaw in software from…
U.S. prosecutors have charged two rogue employees of a cybersecurity firm that specializes in negotiating ransom payments to hackers on behalf of victims with carrying out ransomware attacks themselves. Last month, the Department of Justice indicted Kevin Tyler Martin, who worked as a ransomware negotiator at Digital Mint, and another unnamed employee on charges of computer hacking and extortion in connection with a series of attempted ransomware attacks against at least five U.S.-based companies. Prosecutors also charged a third person, Ryan Clifford Goldberg, a former incident response manager at cybersecurity giant Signia, as part of the scheme. The three are…
Waymo announced Monday that it will launch robotaxi services in Detroit, Las Vegas and San Diego as the Alphabet-owned company accelerates its expansion plans. The announcement marks Waymo’s recent evolution from a self-driving car technology developer to a commercial company. This follows comments from Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 last week, where he said it was imperative for the company to scale. “Expect us to be able to offer one million trips per week by the end of 2026,” Mawakana said at the time. Waymo completed more than 250,000 rides per week as of April. The company…
November 3, 2025Ravi LakshmananCryptocurrency/Threat Intelligence Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a new malicious extension in the Open VSX registry that harbors a remote access Trojan called SleepyDuck. According to John Tuckner of Secure Annex, the extension in question, juan-bianco.solidity-vlang (version 0.0.7), was first published as a completely benign library on October 31, 2025, then reached 14,000 downloads before being updated to version 0.0.8 with new malicious functionality on November 1. “The malware includes sandbox evasion techniques and leverages Ethereum contracts to update command and control addresses in case the original address is deleted,” Tuckner added. We have repeatedly detected campaigns targeting…
Scientists are intentionally triggering earthquakes from tunnels deep underground in the Alps. It may sound like something out of a James Bond movie, but the goal isn’t chaos or destruction. Rather, researchers with the Fault Activation and Earthquake Eruption (FEAR) project are looking for ways to determine the risk of an earthquake before it occurs.Despite increasing monitoring of faults around the world, researchers still do not understand the immediate triggers of earthquakes. We also don’t know what causes some ruptures to occur on short stretches of fault lines, while others occur over many miles, causing larger ruptures. Domenico Giardini, professor…
Comet 3I/ATLAS is the bright white dot in the center of the image, and the dot above it is a star that appears distorted due to the comet’s motion. (Image credit: Qicheng Zhang/Lowell Observatory)Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is once again visible from Earth after zooming in behind the sun, new images reveal.Astronomers used the powerful Discovery Telescope at Lowell Observatory in Arizona on Halloween Friday (October 31) to capture what is believed to be the first post-perihelion optical shot of the interstellar visitor.Qicheng Zhang, a postdoctoral researcher at the observatory, later discovered that the comet was visible even with small telescopes,…
Microsoft announced on Monday at the first annual Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit that it will invest $15.2 billion in the United Arab Emirates over the next four years. This investment includes the first shipment of cutting-edge Nvidia GPUs to the UAE. As part of the deal, the US granted Microsoft a license to export NVIDIA chips to the UAE, a move that positions the country as both a testing ground for US export control diplomacy and a regional hub for US AI influence. The deal allows Microsoft to expand its footprint in the Middle East, a key region in…
Treatments for rare diseases will be overhauled to make it faster and easier to test, manufacture and approve them in the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has announced. A new MHRA paper outlines an ambitious review of rare disease treatments that underpins the UK Government’s Life Sciences Strategy. Central to this reform is addressing the unique barriers that currently prevent life-changing rare disease treatments from being made available to patients, such as low patient numbers and evidence generation challenges, while maintaining patient safety. Current treatments for rare diseases have limitations Around 3.5 million people in the…
November 3, 2025Ravi LakshmananCybercrime/Supply Chain Attack Criminals are increasingly practicing targeting trucking and logistics companies to infect remote monitoring and management (RMM) software and ultimately steal cargo for financial gain. According to Proofpoint, this threat cluster is believed to have been active since at least June 2025 and is said to be working with organized crime groups to infiltrate organizations in the ground transportation industry with the ultimate goal of stealing goods. Food and beverages are the most targeted products for cyber-based robberies. “Stolen cargo will most likely be sold online or shipped overseas,” researchers Ole Villasen and Serena Larsson…