Prepare for another encryption battle: After parliament approved its Online Safety Bill yesterday, the U.K. government is pressuring Meta not to roll out end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on Facebook Messenger and Instagram unless it applies unspecified “safety measures” that the Home Secretary said should allow law enforcement to continue to detect …
Read More »Spokesman confirms Trump Jr.’s X account was hacked
On Wednesday morning, an account on X (formerly Twitter) was hacked. The account falsely reported his father, former president Donald Trump, had died. The post read, “I’m sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away.” “I will run for president in 2024.” In an X post, Trump spokesperson …
Read More »The 1912 English “Missing Link” Fossils Piltdown Man Hoax
In 1912, a British amateur archaeologist announced a major discovery in Piltdown Village, Sussex. While exploring Pleistocene gravel beds, Charles Dawson found a human-like skull fragment and informed the Natural History Museum. Dawson and the museum’s geology keeper, Arthur Smith Woodward, returned to the gravel bed and found more skull …
Read More »After surviving a massive solar explosion, Parker Solar Probe captured it on camera
The Parker Solar Probe flew through one of the largest plasma and magnetic field releases since we began watching the Sun last year, capturing incredible images and footage. Given the impact events like this can have on satellites and Earth, its survival is a testament to NASA’s preparation. Coronal mass …
Read More »“Brainless” Soft Robots Escape Maze Without Human Assistance
They may look like string, but these tiny objects are much more. Although they lack “brains” or computerized intelligence, these robots can move out of complex spaces. In 2022, North Carolina State University’s rotini-like soft robots navigated mazes without human or computer input. The tech uses physical intelligence. Physical intelligence …
Read More »LimeWire buys Midjourney competitor BlueWillow after relaunching as a creator studio
In the Wild West of generative AI, an unlikely cowboy arrives. After closing, LimeWire, once known for music piracy, moved into content creation last year under new owners. To expand, it acquired BlueWillow, a popular generative AI image creation platform that competes with Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. BlueWillow was founded …
Read More »Substack revamps its mobile app for discovery and engagement
On Wednesday, Substack announced a Home experience redesign for its mobile app to improve discovery and engagement. A new top-of-screen reading queue makes it easier to swipe right between posts in the app. The queue lets you quickly share posts in a note or on other social media platforms. The …
Read More »X launches government ID account verification
For paid users, X, formerly Twitter, has implemented government ID-based account verification to prevent impersonation and provide “prioritized support.” Social media partner Au10tix provides identity verification solutions from Israel. The ID verification pop-up says the Au10tix can store this data for 30 days. X’s verification support page says ID verification …
Read More »iOS 17 has new privacy and security features
The much-anticipated iOS 17 update for iPhones arrives today with new and improved security features. Much of the new features protect iPhone owners at higher risk of cyberattacks and spyware, like journalists, activists, and human rights defenders. iOS 17’s anti-web tracking, password storage, and easy sharing of new phishing-resistant passkeys …
Read More »Microsoft AI researchers accidentally leaked terabytes of sensitive data
While publishing a storage bucket of open-source training data on GitHub, Microsoft AI researchers accidentally exposed tens of terabytes of sensitive data, including private keys and passwords. Cloud security startup Wiz told it found Microsoft’s AI research division’s GitHub repository while investigating accidental cloud data exposure. Open source code and …
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