Author: user
June 24, 2025Ravi LakshmananData Protection/Mobile Security The U.S. House of Representatives has formally banned members of Congressional staff from using WhatsApp on government-issued devices, citing security concerns. Development was first reported by Axios. The decision was motivated by concerns about the security of the app, according to the House Chief Management Officer (CAO). “The Cybersecurity office is considered WhatsApp for users due to the lack of ways to protect user data, the lack of data encryption at rest, and the lack of ways to protect the potential security risks that come with its use,” CAO said in a note according…
The UK government’s industrial strategy has made this step programme a central focus to promote innovation, economic growth and energy safety. The Step Programme is the UK flagship fusion programme aimed at providing prototype fusion power plants by 2040 in West Burton, Nottinghamshire. It will receive £2.5 billion over five years, leading the global race for fusion energy, creating thousands of jobs and act as an anchor for the region’s new industrial ecosystem. Step: A case study of fusion energy The Industrial Strategy features the Step Program as a case study for Fusion Energy Development, along with further workstreams for…
June 24, 2025Ravi LakshmananMalware/Threat Intelligence The Ukrainian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) has warned about a new cyberattack campaign by APT28 (aka UAC-0001) related to Russia, about threat actors using signal chat messages to provide two new malware families called Beardshell and Covenant. BeardShell per CERT-UA is written in C++ and provides the ability to download and run PowerShell scripts, and uploads the results of the execution to a remote server on the ICEDRIVE API. The agency said it first observed Beardshell, along with a screenshot taker named Slimagent, as part of its March-April incident response efforts on Windows computers.…
A group of California neighbors are working to eliminate gas-powered appliances that cause harmful air pollution in the home. The group is an alliance of California Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action, formed after learning about the public health risks created by indoor gas appliances. As Twilight Greenaway explains in Inside Climate News, the “neighborhood scale” or zone decarbonisation move is trying to eliminate gas lines in favour of electrified housing. The idea is supported by Northern California utility Pacific Gas & Electric, and says that “it will help you to electrically use some of the money you use to maintain your…
In his first series on affordability for small homes and housing in Greater Washington, Payton Chong outlines how home prices, which are artificially maintained high by large lot size requirements, can be rapidly reduced by lifting “middle housing missing” and limits to reducing minimum lot sizes. “By demanding some level of land under each house, zoning can ensure that only large and expensive homes are built.” Reducing or eliminating minimum lot sizes and detached single-family requirements “can recreate the starter house market,” Chung says. According to Chung, “We quickly address the needs of middle-income households by allowing small new homes…
ControlPoint Inc. is committed to developing clinical trial tools that improve animal health in companions and producer animals. Respiratory infections pose a significant threat to the health and productivity of both producer and companion animals, costing billions of dollars a year. In the US alone, these infectious diseases will lead to a staggering economic loss of $900 million in the feedlot industry, $1 billion in the pig industry and $3.5 billion devastating during the 2021-2023 avian flu outbreak. Companion animals are also heavily affected, with 5 million dogs coughing in their kennels every year. If it is positive for a…
Do we ignore important data about close mistakes at the intersection of urban mobility and road safety? Today’s city article claims that while many cities are using crash reports to redesign their intersections to improve safety, “one of the key layers of data is often missing: insight into what almost went wrong.” This article assumes that paying close attention to near misses provides a “transformative addition to traditional urban transport planning” and allows planners to understand dangerous intersections before a fatal crash occurs. According to the city today, “To fill this gap, flow analysis by AGC applies high-resolution LIDAR and…
The city of Raleigh, North Carolina, uses digital tools to improve parking availability and seeks feedback from residents and visitors with obstacles and mobility challenges, including access to sidewalks and ease of parking. “On June 16th, Voice collects user input when it scans QR codes posted near designated parking spaces by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in downtown Raleigh and completes a simple investigation,” explains Ashley Silver of Govtech. The data is sent to the Raleigh Parking Department for analysis, allowing rapid identification and correction of problem areas. “Rawley’s IACCESS rollout follows years of efforts to set up ADA-designated…
June 24, 2025Ravi LakshmananCyberspy/Chinese hacker The Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity and the US Federal Investigation Agency (FBI) have issued an advisory warning for cyberattacks mounted by Chinese-linked chloride actors to breach major global communications providers as part of their cyberespionage activities. The attacker utilized the critical Cisco IOS XE software (CVE-2023-20198, CVSS score: 10.0) to access configuration files from three network devices registered with Canadian telecommunications companies in mid-February 2025. The threat actor is also said to have modified at least one file to configure a general Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel, allowing for traffic collection from the network. The targeted…
A legal application filed earlier this month by lawyers representing Openai and Jony Ive’s IO reveals new details about the company’s efforts to build mass market AI hardware devices. The filing is part of a trademark dispute lawsuit filed this month by IYO, a Google-backed hardware startup that develops custom molded earpieces that connect to other devices. Over the weekend, Openai plucked out promotional material related to Jony Ive’s $6.5 billion acquisition of IO startups in order to comply with court orders involved in the lawsuit. Openai says it is fighting allegations of Iyo’s trademark infringement. Last year, Openai executives…