Author Archives: Robin Edgar

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Google is clamping down on Android apps that cause excessive battery drain

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It can be tough to know when a phone is on its deathbed or when an app is just being an overt battery hog. Google is going to help users get to the bottom of things, according to a recent Android Developers Blog.

The company just announced the launch of a new metric for app developers that keeps an eye on battery usage. If a developer consistently runs afoul of Google’s battery usage guidelines, a warning will pop up in the Play Store to alert end users.

A Play Store warning.
Google

This metric will keep a particular eye on so-called wake locks, which is when smartphones are prevented from entering sleep mode by battery-hungry apps that want to run background processes when the screen is off. Google says wake locks are a “heavy contributor to battery drain” and has developed a threshold for what is deemed acceptable for apps running in the background.

This threshold “considers a user session excessive if it holds more than two cumulative hours of non-exempt wake locks in a 24 hour period.” There are exemptions if the background process offers “clear user benefits” with examples given of audio playback and user-initiated data transfers.

If a developer doesn’t fix the underlying wake lock issue, they get slapped with a visible warning. The Play Store label says that “this app may use more battery than expected due to high background activity.” That will likely turn off potential downloaders. I certainly wouldn’t pop one of those apps on my phone.

Google will go a step further in some cases, making the offending apps ineligible for certain discovery sections within the Play Store. These rules go into effect on March 1, so we only have a few more months to experience just how quickly an Android phone can go from a full battery to completely dead.

Source: Google is clamping down on Android apps that cause excessive battery drain

Wayland’s Never-Ending Opposition To Multi-Window Positioning

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There are many applications out there that use more than one window, with every modern-day platform and GUI toolkit offering the means for said application to position each of its windows exactly where it wants, and to restore these exactly in the configuration and location where the user saved it for that particular session. All toolkits but one, that is, for the Wayland project keeps shooting down proposals. Most recently merge request #264 for the ext-zones protocol by [Matthias Klumpp] as it descended into a 600+ comments spree.

This follows on an attempt two years prior with MR#247, which was rejected despite laying out sound reasons why the session protocol of Wayland does not cover many situations. In the breakdown video of the new ext-zones protocol discussion by [Brodie Robertson] the sheer absurdity of this whole situation becomes apparent, especially since KDE and others are already working around the Wayland project with their own extensions such as via KWin, which is being used commercially in e.g. the automotive world.

In a January 2024 blog post [Matthias] lays out many of his reasonings and views regarding the topic, with a focus on Linux desktop application usage from a scientific application perspective. When porting a Windows-, X11- or MacOS application to Wayland runs into compatibility issues that may necessitate a complete rewrite or dropping of features, the developer is more likely to stick to X11, to not port to Linux at all, or to use what eventually will amount to Wayland forks that patch around these missing API features.

Meanwhile X11 is definitely getting very long in the tooth, yet without it being a clean drop-in replacement it leaves many developers and end-users less than impressed. Perhaps the Wayland project should focus more on the needs of developers and end-users, and less about what it deems to be the One True Way?

 

Source: Wayland’s Never-Ending Opposition To Multi-Window Positioning | Hackaday

Unfortunately, Windows is not immune to this either!

Meta earns 10% of revenue on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show

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[…]Meta internally projected late last year that it would earn about 10% of its overall annual revenue – or $16 billion – from running advertising for scams and banned goods, internal company documents show.

A cache of previously unreported documents reviewed by Reuters also shows that the social-media giant for at least three years failed to identify and stop an avalanche of ads that exposed Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp’s billions of users to fraudulent e-commerce and investment schemes, illegal online casinos, and the sale of banned medical products.
On average, one December 2024 document notes, the company shows its platforms’ users an estimated 15 billion “higher risk” scam advertisements – those that show clear signs of being fraudulent – every day. Meta earns about $7 billion in annualized revenue from this category of scam ads each year, another late 2024 document states.
Much of the fraud came from marketers acting suspiciously enough to be flagged by Meta’s internal warning systems. But the company only bans advertisers if its automated systems predict the marketers are at least 95% certain to be committing fraud, the documents show. If the company is less certain – but still believes the advertiser is a likely scammer – Meta charges higher ad rates as a penalty, according to the documents. The idea is to dissuade suspect advertisers from placing ads.
[…]
The details of Meta’s confidential self-appraisal are drawn from documents created between 2021 and this year across Meta’s finance, lobbying, engineering and safety divisions. Together, they reflect Meta’s efforts to quantify the scale of abuse on its platforms – and the company’s hesitancy to crack down in ways that could harm its business interests.
Meta’s acceptance of revenue from sources it suspects are committing fraud highlights the lack of regulatory oversight of the advertising industry, said Sandeep Abraham, a fraud examiner and former Meta safety investigator who now runs a consultancy called Risky Business Solutions.
“If regulators wouldn’t tolerate banks profiting from fraud, they shouldn’t tolerate it in tech,” he told Reuters.
In a statement, Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the documents seen by Reuters “present a selective view that distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and scams.” The company’s internal estimate that it would earn 10.1% of its 2024 revenue from scams and other prohibited ads was “rough and overly-inclusive,” Stone said. The company had later determined that the true number was lower, because the estimate included “many” legitimate ads as well, he said. He declined to provide an updated figure.
[…]

Source: Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show | Reuters

North Korean spies used Google Find Hub as remote-wipe tool

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North Korean state-backed spies have found a new way to torch evidence of their own cyber-spying – by hijacking Google’s “Find Hub” service to remotely wipe Android phones belonging to their South Korean targets.

Researchers at South Korean cybersecurity firm Genians said the campaign, attributed to the long-running KONNI group, abused Google’s device management features to trigger factory resets on compromised smartphones and tablets. In several cases, victims’ devices were wiped without authorization, erasing messages, photos, and other data that could have revealed traces of the intrusion.

[…]

According to Genians, the attackers used stolen Google account credentials harvested through spear-phishing or fake login pages to access victims’ profiles on the Find My Device platform. The feature, which allows users to locate lost phones, lock them, or perform a factory reset, became an unwitting tool for sabotage. Once logged in, the hackers could trigger remote wipes, locking victims out of their own phones and destroying incriminating evidence of compromise.

The infection chain began with victims being approached via the popular South Korean messaging app KakaoTalk. Attackers sent files masquerading as benign content to victims, lured them into installing signed MSI attachments or ZIPs, and deployed AutoIT scripts that installed RATs such as RemcosRAT, QuasarRAT and RftRAT. These tools harvested Google and Naver account credentials, enabling attackers to manipulate cloud services and use Find My Device to pull the plug.

Immediately after the reset, the attackers reportedly exploited the victim’s still-logged-in KakaoTalk desktop app to send malware-laden files to the victim’s contacts – effectively turning each compromised account into a secondary infection vector. This rapid follow-on phase allowed the KONNI operators to spread their payloads before targets could regain access to their wiped devices.

Additional findings show the attackers used the GPS location feature in Find My Device to identify when a target was outside and less likely to react quickly. In one incident, the attacker executed the wipe command not just once but three times, further delaying device recovery and ensuring the victim remained locked out.

The tactic underscores a growing risk for anyone relying on “lost device” features that are tied to online identity systems. While the ability to remotely reset a stolen phone is designed as a security safeguard, it also offers attackers an easy way to destroy evidence or cause disruption once account credentials are stolen.

[…]

Genians recommends that users of Find My Device tools enable multifactor or biometric authentication. For victims of KONNI’s latest stunt, however, the damage is already done. Once a factory reset is triggered through Google’s own service, there’s no undo button – just a blank phone and the tidy handiwork of a state hacker covering their tracks.

Source: North Korean spies used Google Find Hub as remote-wipe tool • The Register

Landfall spyware used in 0-day, 0 click attacks on Samsung phones

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A previously unknown Android spyware family called LANDFALL exploited a zero-day in Samsung Galaxy devices for nearly a year, installing surveillance code capable of recording calls, tracking locations, and harvesting photos and logs before Samsung finally patched it in April.

The surveillance campaign likely began in July 2024 and abused CVE-2025-21042, a critical bug in Samsung’s image-processing library that affects Galaxy devices running Android versions 13, 14, 15, and 16, according to Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers who discovered the commercial-grade spyware and revealed details of the espionage attacks in a Friday report.

“This was a precision espionage campaign, targeting specific Samsung Galaxy devices in the Middle East, with likely victims in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Morocco,” Itay Cohen, a senior principal researcher at Unit 42, told The Register. “The use of zero-day exploits, custom infrastructure, and modular payload design all indicate an espionage-motivated operation.”

According to the cyber sleuths, exploiting CVE-2025-21042 likely involved sending a maliciously crafted image to the victim’s device via a messaging application in a “zero-click” attack, meaning that infecting targeted phones didn’t require any user interaction.

“It’s not clear exactly how many people were targeted or exploited, but in a recent, related campaign, involving iOS and WhatsApp, WhatsApp shared that less than 200 were targeted in that campaign, so we can reasonably expect this could be a similar very targeted volume,” Cohen said.

Unit 42’s cyber sleuths originally uncovered Landfall while investigating these other two similar zero-days. In August, Apple patched a critical out-of-bounds write issue (CVE-2025-43300) in the ImageIO framework used in iPhones and iPads that had already been exploited in “extremely sophisticated” attacks.

That same month, Meta issued its own security advisory warning that attackers may have chained a WhatsApp bug (CVE-2025-55177) with this Apple OS-level flaw “in a sophisticated attack against specific targeted users.”

The Meta and WhatsApp security teams also found and disclosed to Samsung another DNG-related zero-day in Galaxy devices in August, and in September, Samsung patched CVE-2025-21043.

Despite the similarities between all of these attack chains, Unit 42 says it can’t definitively connect Landfall to the three other zero-days.

[…]

Source: Landfall spyware used in 0-day attacks on Samsung phones • The Register

Mozilla fellow Esra’a Al Shafei watches the spies through SurveillanceWatch

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Digital rights activist Esra’a Al Shafei found FinFisher spyware on her device more than a decade ago. Now she’s made it her mission to surveil the companies providing surveillanceware, their customers, and their funders.

“You cannot resist what you do not know, and the more you know, the better you can protect yourself and resist against the normalization of mass surveillance today,” she told The Register.

To this end, the Mozilla fellow founded Surveillance Watch last year. It’s an interactive map that documents the growing number of surveillance software providers, which regions use the various products, and the investors funding them. Since its launch, the project has grown from mapping connections between 220 spyware and surveillance entities to 695 today.

These include the very well known spy tech like NSO Group’s Pegasus and Cytrox’s Predator, both famously used to monitor politicians, journalists and activists in the US, UK, and around the world.

They also include companies with US and UK government contracts, like Palantir, which recently inked a $10 billion deal with the US Army and pledged a £1.5 billion ($2 billion) investment in the UK after winning a new Ministry of Defense contract. Then there’s Paragon, an Israeli company with a $2 million Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contract for its Graphite spyware, which lets law enforcement hack smartphones to access content from encrypted messaging apps once the device is compromised.

Even LexisNexis made the list. “People think of LexisNexis and academia,” Al Shafei said. “They don’t immediately draw the connection to their product called Accurint, which collects data from both public and non-public sources and offers them for sale, primarily to government agencies and law enforcement.”

Accurint compiles information from government databases, utility bills, phone records, license plate tracking, and other sources, and it also integrates analytics tools to create detailed location mapping and pattern recognition.

“And they’re also an ICE contractor, so that’s another company that you wouldn’t typically associate with surveillance, but they are one of the biggest surveillance agencies out there,” Al Shafei said.

It also tracks funders. Paragon’s spyware is boosted by AE Industrial Partners, a Florida-based investment group specializing in “national security” portfolios. Other major backers of surveillance technologies include CIA-affiliated VC firm In-Q-Tel, Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z), and mega investment firm BlackRock.

This illustrates another trend: It’s not just authoritarian countries using and investing in these snooping tools. In fact, America now leads the world in surveillance investment, with the Atlantic Council think tank identifying 20 new US investors in the past year.

[…]

They know who you are’

The Surveillance Watch homepage announces: “They know who you are. It’s time to uncover who they are.”

It’s creepy and accurate, and portrays all of the feelings that Al Shafei has around her spyware encounters. Her Majal team has “faced persistent targeting by sophisticated spyware technologies, firsthand, for a very long time, and this direct exposure to surveillance threats really led us to launch Surveillance Watch,” she said. “We think it’s very important for people to understand exactly how they’re being surveilled, regardless of the why.”

The reality is, everybody – not just activists and politicians – is subject to surveillance, whether it’s from smart-city technologies, Ring doorbell cameras, or connected cars. Users will always choose simplicity over security, and the same can be said for data privacy.

“We want to show that when surveillance goes not just unnoticed, but when we start normalizing it in our everyday habits, we look at a new, shiny AI tool, and we say, ‘Yes, of course, take access to all my data,'” Al Shafei said. “There’s a convenience that comes with using all of these apps, tracking all these transactions, and people don’t realize that this data can and does get weaponized against you, and not just against you, but also your loved ones.”

Source: Mozilla fellow Esra’a Al Shafei watches the watchers • The Register

LLM side-channel attack allows traffic sniffers to know what you are talking about with your GPT

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[…]

Streaming models send responses to users incrementally, in small chunks or tokens, as opposed to sending the complete responses all at once. This makes them susceptible to an attacker-in-the-middle scenario, where someone with the ability to intercept network traffic could sniff those LLM tokens.

“Cyberattackers in a position to observe the encrypted traffic (for example, a nation-state actor at the internet service provider layer, someone on the local network, or someone connected to the same Wi-Fi router) could use this cyberattack to infer if the user’s prompt is on a specific topic,” researchers Jonathan Bar Or and Geoff McDonald wrote.

“This especially poses real-world risks to users by oppressive governments where they may be targeting topics such as protesting, banned material, election process, or journalism,” the duo added.

Redmond disclosed the flaw to affected vendors and says some of them – specifically, Mistral, Microsoft, OpenAI, and xAI – have all implemented mitigations to protect their models from the type of side-channel attack.

[…]

Proof-of-concept shows how the attack would work

Redmond’s team produced a Whisper Leak attack demo and proof-of-concept code that uses the models to conclude a probability (between 0.0 and 1.0) of a topic being “sensitive” – in this case, money laundering.

For this proof-of-concept, the researchers used a language model to generate 100 variants of a question about the legality of money laundering, mixed them with general traffic, and then trained a binary classifier to distinguish the target topic from background queries.

Then they collected data from each language model service individually, recording response times and packet sizes via network sniffing (via tcpdump). Additionally, they shuffled the order of positive and negative samples for collection, and introduced variants by inserting extra spaces between words – this helps avoid caching interference risk.

[…]

The duo then measured the models’ performance using Area Under the Precision-Recall Curve (AUPRC).

In several of the models, including ones hosted by providers Alibaba, DeepSeek, Mistral, Microsoft, xAI, and OpenAI, classifiers achieved over 98 percent AUPRC, indicating near-perfect separation between sensitive and normal traffic.

They then simulated a “more realistic surveillance scenario” in which an attacker monitored 10,000 conversations, with only one about the target topic in the mix. They performed this test several times, and in many cases had zero false positives, while catching the money-laundering messages between 5 percent and 50 percent of the time. They wrote:

For many of the tested models, a cyberattacker could achieve 100% precision (all conversations it flags as related to the target topic are correct) while still catching 5-50% of target conversations … To put this in perspective: if a government agency or internet service provider were monitoring traffic to a popular AI chatbot, they could reliably identify users asking questions about specific sensitive topics – whether that’s money laundering, political dissent, or other monitored subjects – even though all the traffic is encrypted.

There are a few different ways to protect against size and timing information leakage. Microsoft and OpenAI adopted a method introduced by Cloudflare to protect against a similar side-channel attack: adding a random text sequence to response fields to vary token sizes, making them unpredictable, and thus mostly defending against size-based attacks.

[…]

Source: LLM side-channel attack could allow snoops to guess topic • The Register

Critics call proposed changes to landmark EU privacy law ‘death by a thousand cuts’ – “legitimate interest” would allow personal data exfiltration

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Privacy activists say proposed changes to Europe’s landmark privacy law, including making it easier for Big Tech to harvest Europeans’ personal data for AI training, would flout EU case law and gut the legislation.
The changes proposed by the European Commission are part of a drive to simplify a slew of laws adopted in recent years on technology, environmental and financial issues which have in turn faced pushback from companies and the U.S. government.
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EU antitrust chief Henna Virkkunen will present the Digital Omnibus, in effect proposals to cut red tape and overlapping legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation, the Artificial Intelligence Act, the e-Privacy Directive and the Data Act, on November 19.
According to the plans, Google (GOOGL.O)

, opens new tab, Meta Platforms (META.O)

, opens new tab, OpenAI and other tech companies may be allowed to use Europeans’ personal data to train their AI models based on legitimate interest.
In addition, companies may be exempted from the ban on processing special categories of personal data “in order not to disproportionately hinder the development and operation of AI and taking into account the capabilities of the controller to identify and remove special categories of personal data”.
“The draft Digital Omnibus proposes countless changes to many different articles of the GDPR. In combination this amounts to a death by a thousand cuts,” Austrian privacy group noyb said in a statement.
Noyb is known for filing complaints against American companies such as Apple (AAPL.O)
, opens new tab, Alphabet and Meta that have triggered several investigations and resulted in billions of dollars in fines.
“This would be a massive downgrading of Europeans’ privacy 10 years after the GDPR was adopted,” noyb’s Max Schrems said.
European Digital Rights, an association of civil and human rights organisations across Europe, slammed a proposal to merge the ePrivacy Directive, known as the cookie law that resulted in the proliferation of cookie consent pop-ups, into the GDPR.
“These proposals would change how the EU protects what happens inside your phone, computer and connected devices,” EDRi policy advisor Itxaso Dominguez de Olazabal wrote in a LinkedIn post.
“That means access to your device could rely on legitimate interest or broad exemptions like security, fraud detection or audience measurement,” she said.
The proposals would need to be thrashed out with EU countries and European Parliament in the coming months before they can be implemented.

Source: Critics call proposed changes to landmark EU privacy law ‘death by a thousand cuts’ | Reuters

Anyone can claim anything as being “legitimate interest”. It is what terms and conditions have been using for decades to pass any and all data on to third parties. At least the GDPR kind of stood in the way from it going to countries like the USA and China.

The FBI Is Trying to Unmask the Registrar Behind Archive.Today

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The FBI is looking to ascertain the identity of the creator of a long-running archiving site that is used by millions of people all over the world.

Archive.Today is a popular archiving website—similar in many ways to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine—that keeps copies of news articles and government websites that users have submitted. The site can also be used for skirting paywalls. However, it can also be useful for documenting government websites that may be subject to change. The big difference is that the Internet Archive is a transparent and legitimate non-profit that gives websites the option to opt-out of having their content stored on its platform.

If you haven’t heard of Archive.Today, you may have run into mirror sites hosted at Archive.is or Archive.ph.

About a week ago, the X account belonging to Archive posted a link to a federal subpoena, which is dated October 30th. The subpoena, which was originally spotted by a German news site, is for a Canadian web registration company called Tucows, and demands that the company turn over “customer or subscriber name, address of service, and billing address” as well as an extensive list of other information related to the “customer behind archive.today.”

404 Media notes that Archive.Today has hundreds of millions of webpages saved. The outlet further notes that “very little is known about the person or people who work on archive.today.” There is a modest FAQ page on the site, but it doesn’t offer anything in the way of identifying information about the creator of the site.

The subpoena states:

The information sought through this subpoena relates to a federal criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI. Your company is required to furnish this information. You are requested not to disclose the existence of this subpoena indefinitely as any such disclosure could interfere with an ongoing investigation and enforcement of the law.

Well, I guess that ship has sailed.

Source: The FBI Is Trying to Unmask the Registrar Behind Archive.Today

EU’s minimum wage laws may get shot down by (who else) Denmark

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The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is set to deliver a landmark ruling on Tuesday that could determine the future of the EU’s Minimum Wage Directive – and, with it, define the limits of the bloc’s authority over national social policies.

Denmark – backed by Sweden – has taken the Commission to the EU’s top court, arguing that the directive breaches EU treaties by legislating directly on pay, an area beyond the EU’s legal remit.

Adopted in 2022, the Minimum Wage Directive aims to ensure “adequate minimum wages” and stronger collective bargaining – negotiations between workers and employers over pay and conditions – across the EU.

While countries don’t have to introduce a mandatory minimum wage, the rules require those with less than 80% collective-bargaining coverage to come up with a plan to strengthen wage-setting systems.

Belgium, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, and Luxembourg all sided with the European Commission wanting to keep the law in place.

“This a real clash here between the Nordic model – collective bargaining – and the EU’s tradition of individual rights,” said Laust Høgedahl, associate professor of employment relations at Aalborg University in Denmark.

In January, the court’s advocate general – an independent expert helping judges decide in complex cases – recommended that judges rule in favour of Denmark in a non-binding opinion.

An ‘earthquake’ under EU’s social pillar

If the court follows the advocate general’s reasoning, it would be “a political earthquake” for the EU’s social policy, said Christina Hiessl, who is a professor of labour law at Belgium’s KU Leuven.

“Up to now, the Court has always sided with the Commission,” Hiessl said.

“The EU also wants to build social rights alongside the single market,” Høgedahl said. “Those social rights will become much harder to advance if this directive falls.”

Hiessl believes Danish fears are exaggerated. “It’s a common misconception that the directive imposes statutory minimum wages,” she said. “It very clearly does not.”

Current figures put Denmark’s collective bargaining rate at 82%, slightly above the 80% threshold – the level of worker coverage below which EU countries are expected to take steps to promote collective bargaining.

According to Høgedahl, Danish resistance is a principled stance rather than one of substance.

“Wage is sacred in Denmark,” he says. “It belongs to the social partners, not to politicians – not in Copenhagen, and certainly not in Brussels.”

Source: EU’s minimum wage faces judgment day | Euractiv

Of course, the Danish, who also want to implement Chat Control (blanket espionage of all EU citizens through their smartphones) would hate to see fair wages for EU citizens as well.

Scientists turn body fat into bone to heal spinal fractures

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Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University have developed a promising new method to repair spinal fractures using stem cells extracted from adipose tissue, or body fat. In animal studies, the treatment successfully healed spinal injuries in rats that mimic osteoporosis-related fractures seen in humans. Because these cells are easy to collect, even from older adults, and cause minimal strain on the body, the technique could provide a gentle, non-invasive alternative for treating bone diseases.

Osteoporosis weakens bones, making them fragile and more likely to break. As Japan’s population continues to age, the number of people affected is projected to surpass 15 million. Among the various types of fractures caused by osteoporosis, compression fractures of the spine, known as osteoporotic vertebral fractures, are the most common. These injuries can result in long-term disability and severely reduce quality of life, highlighting the need for safer and more effective treatments.

How Fat-Derived Stem Cells Help Rebuild Bone

Stem cells derived from adipose tissue (ADSCs) show strong potential for repairing bone damage. These multipotent cells can develop into various types of tissue, including bone. When ADSCs are cultivated into three-dimensional spherical groups called spheroids, their ability to promote tissue repair increases. Pre-differentiating these spheroids toward bone-forming cells further enhances their effectiveness in stimulating bone regeneration.

Led by Graduate School of Medicine student Yuta Sawada and Dr. Shinji Takahashi, the Osaka research team used ADSCs to create bone-differentiated spheroids and combined them with β-tricalcium phosphate, a material commonly used in bone reconstruction. The mixture was applied to rats with spinal fractures, resulting in significant improvements in bone healing and strength.

The researchers also observed that genes responsible for bone formation and regeneration became more active after the treatment, suggesting that the approach stimulates the body’s natural healing processes.

Promising Outlook for Future Treatments

“This study has revealed the potential of bone differentiation spheroids using ADSCs for the development of new treatments for spinal fractures,” said Sawada. “Since the cells are obtained from fat, there is little burden on the body, ensuring patient safety.”

Dr. Takahashi added, “This simple and effective method can treat even difficult fractures and may accelerate healing. This technique is expected to become a new treatment that helps extend the healthy life of patients.”

The findings were published in Bone & Joint Research.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Osaka Metropolitan University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

  1. Yuta Sawada, Shinji Takahashi, Kumi Orita, Akito Yabu, Masayoshi Iwamae, Yuki Okamura, Yuto Kobayashi, Hiroshi Taniwaki, Hiroaki Nakamura, Hidetomi Terai. Development of a new treatment for osteoporotic vertebral fractures using adipose-derived stem cell spheroids. Bone, 2025; 14 (10): 915 DOI: 10.1302/2046-3758.1410.BJR-2025-0092.R1

Source: Scientists turn body fat into bone to heal spinal fractures | ScienceDaily

Honda’s ‘Bending’ Platform Shatters Decades of Car Design Rigidity

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When your next-generation Honda Pilot or Civic goes around a corner the front-end structure is going to deform in the name of handling. Yes, really.

In Japan, Honda engineers explained last week that it’s completely rethought how vehicles are designed in an effort to lower weight, lower cost, and most interestingly, improve dynamics. The solution? A front end structure that bends, twists, and deforms while cornering.

For forever and a day automakers have sold everyone how they’ve increased the rigidity of their latest model and then improved the tuning of their suspension system to enhance corning capabilities. Honda’s now done the opposite.

Honda 0 Series Platform
Joel Feder

The new platform, which will underpin both its midsize and large vehicles ranging from the Civic and CR-V to the Pilot and Odyssey, will optimize body rigidity rather than simply aim to increase it. To that point, Honda’s shifted where the structural reinforcements are placed around the front structure rather than having it all centralized under the engine. The same principles are being applied to the upcoming 0 Series EV platform as well.

The result? When a vehicle goes around a corner the outside of the structure will deform to push the outer wheel down and load up the grip to help improve steering and cornering for less push and more feel thanks to more tire contact. The car’s going to handle better. It should also be quieter and more comfortable thanks to the ability to absorb impacts.

Honda said the new structure is modular with fixed dimensions for the front and rear sections improving commonality. The modularity and new platform design is expected to shave 198 pounds and reduce cost by 10% compared to today’s structure.

The new structure is expected to enter production in 2027.

Source: Honda’s ‘Bending’ Platform Shatters Decades of Car Design Rigidity

Nanotech makes cancer drug 20,000x stronger, without side effects

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In a major step toward improving cancer treatment, researchers at Northwestern University have redesigned the molecular structure of a widely used chemotherapy drug, making it far more soluble, potent, and less toxic to the body.

The scientists built a new form of the drug using spherical nucleic acids (SNAs), a type of nanostructure that embeds the drug directly into DNA strands coating tiny spheres. This re-engineering turned a weak, poorly dissolving chemotherapy drug into a highly targeted cancer-fighting agent that spares healthy tissue.

A Dramatic Boost Against Leukemia

The new therapy was tested in animals with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a fast-growing and hard-to-treat blood cancer. Compared with the standard chemotherapy version, the SNA-based drug entered leukemia cells 12.5 times more efficiently, destroyed them up to 20,000 times more effectively, and slowed cancer progression 59-fold — all without detectable side effects.

This success highlights the growing promise of structural nanomedicine, a field that precisely controls the composition and architecture of nanomedicines to improve how they interact with the human body. With seven SNA-based treatments already in clinical testing, researchers believe this approach could pave the way for new vaccines and therapies for cancers, infections, neurodegenerative disorders, and autoimmune diseases.

[…]

For this study, Mirkin’s team revisited 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu), a long-standing chemotherapy drug known for its limited efficiency and harsh side effects. Because it affects healthy cells as well as cancerous ones, 5-Fu can cause nausea, fatigue, and in rare cases, heart complications.

Mirkin explained that the issue lies not in the drug itself but in its poor solubility. Less than 1% dissolves in many biological fluids, meaning most of it never reaches its intended targets. When a drug cannot dissolve well, it clumps together or remains solid, preventing the body from absorbing it effectively.

“We all know that chemotherapy is often horribly toxic,” Mirkin said. “But a lot of people don’t realize it’s also often poorly soluble, so we have to find ways to transform it into water soluble forms and deliver it effectively.”

How Spherical Nucleic Acids Transform Drug Delivery

To overcome this limitation, the researchers turned to SNAs — globular nanoparticles surrounded by dense shells of DNA or RNA. Cells readily recognize these structures and pull them inside. In this case, Mirkin’s team chemically incorporated the chemotherapy molecules into the DNA strands themselves, creating a drug that cancer cells naturally absorb.

“Most cells have scavenger receptors on their surfaces,” Mirkin explained. “But myeloid cells overexpress these receptors, so there are even more of them. If they recognize a molecule, then they will pull it into the cell. Instead of having to force their way into cells, SNAs are naturally taken up by these receptors.”

Once inside, enzymes break down the DNA shell, releasing the chemotherapy payload directly into the cancer cell. This structural redesign completely changed how 5-Fu interacted with leukemia cells, dramatically increasing its effectiveness.

Precision Targeting With Minimal Harm

In mouse models, the new therapy nearly eliminated leukemia cells in the blood and spleen while significantly extending survival time. Because the SNAs selectively targeted AML cells, healthy tissues remained unharmed.

[…]

Story Source:

Materials provided by Northwestern University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

  1. Taokun Luo, Young Jun Kim, Zhenyu Han, Jeongmin Hwang, Sneha Kumari, Vinzenz Mayer, Alex Cushing, Roger A. Romero, Chad A. Mirkin. Chemotherapeutic Spherical Nucleic Acids. ACS Nano, 2025; DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5c16609

Source: Nanotech makes cancer drug 20,000x stronger, without side effects | ScienceDaily

Epic and Google agree to settle their lawsuit and change Android’s fate globally

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Just when we thought Epic v. Google might be over, just one Supreme Court rejection away from a complete victory for Epic, both sides have agreed to settle Tuesday evening. And if Judge James Donato, who ordered Google to crack open Android for third-party stores, agrees to the changes, it might turn Epic’s victory into a lasting global one.

Previously, Judge Donato agreed to some of Epic’s biggest demands. He issued a permanent injunction that will force Google to carry rival app stores within its own Google Play Store, and give those rival stores access to the full catalog of Google Play apps, to restore competition to the Android marketplace. The injunction also forced Google to stop requiring developers to use Google Play Billing, after a jury found the company had illegally tied its app store to its payments system.

But those changes only applied to the United States, only lasted for three years, and didn’t change how much Google would charge in app store fees.

Now, instead, Google is agreeing to reduce its standard fee to 20 percent or 9 percent, depending on the kind of transaction and when an app was first installed. It’s agreeing to create a new program in the very next version of Android where alternative app stores can register with Google and (theoretically) become first-class citizens that users can easily install. And it appears to be agreeing to offer “Registered App Stores” and lower fees around the world, not just in the US, lasting through June 2032 — six and a half years instead of just three.

[…]

The details of how, when, and where Google would charge its fees are complicated, and depend on when the app was installed. The “new service fee model would apply to new installs,” Google spokesperson Dan Jackson tells The Verge, and the proposal suggests it would only apply to apps installed after October 2025.

The details also seem to be somewhat tailored to the needs of a game developer like Epic Games. Google can charge 20 percent for an in-app purchase that provides “more than a de minimis gameplay advantage,” for example, or 9 percent if the purchase does not. And while 9 percent sounds like it’s also the cap for apps and in-app subscriptions sold through Google Play, period, the proposal notes that that amount doesn’t include Google’s cut for Play Billing if you buy it through that payment system.

That cut will be 5 percent, Jackson tells The Verge, confirming that “This new proposed model introduces a new, lower fee structure for developers in the US and separates the service fee from fees for using Google Play Billing.” (For reference, Google currently charges 15 percent for subscriptions, 15 percent of the first $1M of developer revenue each year and 30 percent after that, though it also cuts special deals with some big developers.)

If you use an alternative payment system, Google might still get a cut: “the Google Play store is free to assess service fees on transactions, including when developers elect to use alternative billing mechanisms,” the proposal reads. But it sounds like that may not happen in practice: “If the user chooses to pay through an alternative billing system, the developer pays no billing fee to Google,” Jackson tells The Verge.

According to the document, Google would theoretically even be able to get its cut when you click out to an app developer’s website and pay for the app there, as long as it happens within 24 hours.

[…]

“Starting with a version of the next major Android release through June 30, 2032, Google will modify future versions of the Android operating system so that a user can install a Registered App Store from a website by clicking on a single store install screen using neutral language. This will also grant the permission to the store to install apps,” the proposal reads.

The proposed modified injunction keeps many of Epic’s other wins in place, including ones that are already in effect today: it has to stop sharing money or perks with phonemakers, carriers, and app developers in exchange for Google Play exclusivity or preinstallation, and let developers communicate with their customers about pricing outside the Play Store.

Google and Epic say they will discuss this proposal with the judge on Thursday, November 6th.

[…]

Source: Epic and Google agree to settle their lawsuit and change Android’s fate globally | The Verge

Of course, you have no idea what Google will charge to add an appstore. Apple’s costs are in the millions of dollars.

Post-heist reports reveal the password for the Louvre’s video surveillance was ‘Louvre,’ and suddenly the dumpster-tier opsec of videogame NPCs seems a lot less absurd

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The air of criminal mystique has been dispelled somewhat in the weeks following the October 18 heist that saw $102 million of crown jewels stolen from the Louvre in broad daylight. The suspects fumbled an entire crown during their escape, before trying and failing to light their mechanical lift on fire as a diversionary tactic. Arsène Lupin would be appalled.

How exactly, then, did the most renowned gallery in France find itself pillaged by a cadre of buffoons in high visibility vests? Reporting from French newspaper Libération indicates the theft is less of an anomaly than we might expect, as the Louvre has suffered from over a decade of glaring security oversights and IT vulnerabilities.

(Image credit: Cass Marshall via Bluesky)

As Rogue cofounder and former Polygon arch-jester Cass Marshall notes on Bluesky, we owe a lot of videogame designers an apology. We’ve spent years dunking on the emptyheadedness of game characters leaving their crucial security codes and vault combinations in the open for anyone to read, all while the Louvre has been using the password “Louvre” for its video surveillance servers.

That’s not an exaggeration. Confidential documents reviewed by Libération detail a long history of Louvre security vulnerabilities, dating back to a 2014 cybersecurity audit performed by the French Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) at the museum’s request. ANSSI experts were able to infiltrate the Louvre’s security network to manipulate video surveillance and modify badge access.

“How did the experts manage to infiltrate the network? Primarily due to the weakness of certain passwords which the French National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) politely describes as ‘trivial,'” writes Libération’s Brice Le Borgne via machine translation. “Type ‘LOUVRE’ to access a server managing the museum’s video surveillance, or ‘THALES’ to access one of the software programs published by… Thales.”

(Image credit: Starbreeze)

The museum sought another audit from France’s National Institute for Advanced Studies in Security and Justice in 2015. Concluded two years later, the audit’s 40 pages of recommendations described “serious shortcomings,” “poorly managed” visitor flow, rooftops that are easily accessible during construction work, and outdated and malfunctioning security systems.

Later documents indicate that, in 2025, the Louvre was still using security software purchased in 2003 that is no longer supported by its developer, running on hardware using Windows Server 2003.

When the safeguards for France’s crown jewels are two decades out of date, maybe we could all afford to go a little easier on the absurdity of hacking minigames, password post-it notes and extremely stealable keycards. Heists, it seems, aren’t actually all that hard.

Source: Post-heist reports reveal the password for the Louvre’s video surveillance was ‘Louvre,’ and suddenly the dumpster-tier opsec of videogame NPCs seems a lot less absurd | PC Gamer

Hacking Buttons Back Into The Car Stereo

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To our younger readers, a car without an all-touchscreen “infotainment” system may look clunky and dated, but really, you kids don’t know what they’re missing. Buttons, knobs, and switches all offer a level of satisfying tactility and feedback that touchscreens totally lack. [Garage Builds] on YouTube agrees; he also doesn’t like the way his aftermarket Kenwood head unit looks in his 2004-vintage Nissan. That’s why he decided to take matters into his own hands, and hack the buttons back on.

Rather than source a vintage stereo head unit, or try and DIY one from scratch, [Garage Builds] has actually hidden the modern touchscreen unit behind a button panel. That button panel is actually salvaged from the stock stereo, so the looks fit the car. The stereo’s LCD gets replaced with a modern color unit, but otherwise it looks pretty stock at the end.

Adding buttons to the Kenwood is all possible thanks to steering-wheel controls. In order to make use of those, the touchscreen head unit came with a little black box that translated the button press into some kind of one-wire protocol that turned out to be an inverted and carrier-less version of the NEC protocol used in IR TV remotes. (That bit of detective work comes from [michaelb], who figured all this out for his Ford years ago, but [Garage Builds] is also sharing his code on GitHub.)

Having the protocol, it simply becomes a matter of grabbing a microcontroller to scan the stock buttons and output the necessary codes to the Kenwood head unit. Of course now he has extra buttons, since the digital head unit has no tape or CD changer to control, nor AM/FM radio to tune. Those get repurposed for the interior and exterior RGB lighting [Garage Builds] has ̶i̶n̶f̶l̶i̶c̶t̶e̶d̶  mounted on this ̶p̶o̶o̶r̶ lovely car. (There’s no accounting for taste. Some of us love the look and some hate it, but he’s certainly captured an aesthetic, and now has easy control of it to boot.) [Garage Builds] has got custom digital gauges to put into the dash of his Nissan, and some of the extra buttons have been adapted to control those, too.

The whole car is actually a rolling hack as you can see from the back catalog of the [Garage Builds] YouTube channel, which might be worth a look if you’re in the intersection of the “electronics enthusiast” and “gearhead” Venn Diagram.

There’s no accounting for taste, but we absolutely agree with him that making everything black rectangles is the death of industrial design.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen retro radios hacked together with micro-controllers; take a look at this one from a 1970s Toyota. Now that’s vintage!

Source: Hacking Buttons Back Into The Car Stereo | Hackaday

Billy B-Assistant AI Fish

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The Billy Bass Assistant is a Raspberry Pi–powered voice assistant embedded inside a Big Mouth Billy Bass Animatronic. It streams conversation using the OpenAI Realtime API, turns its head, flaps it’s tail and moves his mouth based on what he is saying.

This project is still in BETA. Things might crash, get stuck or make Billy scream uncontrollably (ok that last part maybe not literally but you get the point). Proceed with fishy caution.

Billy Bathroom
Billy UI
Billy UI Mobile

Features

  • Realtime conversations using OpenAI Realtime API
  • Personality system with configurable traits (e.g., snark, charm)
  • Physical button to start/interact/intervene
  • 3D-printable backplate for housing USB microphone and speaker
  • Support for the Modern Billy hardware version with 2 motors as well as the Classic Billy hardware version (3 motors)
  • Lightweight web UI:
    • Adjust settings and persona of Billy
    • View debug logs
    • Start/stop/restart Billy
    • Export/Import of settings and persona
    • Hostname and Port configuration
  • MQTT support:
    • sensor with status updates of Billy (idle, speaking, listening)
    • billy/say topic for triggering spoken messages remotely
    • Raspberry Pi Safe Shutdown command
  • Home Assistant command passthrough using the Conversation API
  • Custom Song Singing and animation mode

Source: billy-b-assistant (Github)

72% of game developers say Steam is effectively a PC gaming monopoly

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Steam’s longstanding dominance in the PC gaming market often raises questions about how close it is to exercising monopoly power. Although the storefront does not meet the technical definition of a monopoly, many developers are concerned about their reliance on Valve’s platform.

In a survey of over 300 executives from large US and UK game companies, 72% either slightly or strongly agreed that Steam constitutes a monopoly over PC games. Furthermore, 88% said that at least three-quarters of their revenue came from Steam, while 37% reported that the platform accounted for 90% of their total revenue.

Steam is by far the largest PC game distribution service, having recently exceeded 41 million concurrent users. Many customers are so adamant about only purchasing games through Steam that the industry’s largest publishers, including EA, Ubisoft, and even Microsoft, have tried – and failed – to withhold their titles from the service.

Still, Steam does not technically control the entire market. The Epic Games Store and the Windows Store are attempting to compete using free game giveaways, Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service, and lower sales commissions, but they remain far less popular than Steam. Meanwhile, alternative storefronts such as GOG and itch.io have carved out a niche by focusing on indie and retro titles. Moreover, some of the most popular PC games, such as Fortnite, Minecraft, League of Legends, and World of Warcraft, are not available on Steam.

Despite these caveats, Steam has previously drawn accusations of using its dominant market position to control pricing – a key sign of monopoly power. Last year, a class-action lawsuit started by Wolfire Games decried the store’s standard 30 percent revenue cut and alleged that Steam discouraged companies from lowering prices on stores that took smaller sales commissions.

Atomik Research conducted the recent survey on behalf of Rokky, a company that helps game publishers minimize the impact of grey market key resellers on prices. In addition to opinions on Steam, developers also answered questions about the PC market’s biggest challenges.

The increasing popularity of free-to-play games such as Fortnite, DOTA 2, Counter-Strike 2, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Roblox topped the list of concerns for 40% of respondents. Approximately a third mentioned market saturation and discoverability, echoing data that suggests there aren’t enough players for the thousands of new titles released on Steam each year. A similar portion of survey respondents also expressed concerns regarding subscription services.

Source: 72% of game developers say Steam is effectively a PC gaming monopoly | TechSpot

A monopoly is still a monopoly if there are other players in the market, especially if they are so much smaller. However should there be only a small amount of equal players in the market, the dangers are the same, due to risks of collusion and price fixing as well as only having one other competitor to watch.

DHS wants more biometric data from more people – even from citizens

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If you’re filing an immigration form – or helping someone who is – the Feds may soon want to look in your eyes, swab your cheek, and scan your face. The US Department of Homeland Security wants to greatly expand biometric data collection for immigration applications, covering immigrants and even some US citizens tied to those cases.

DHS, through its component agency US Citizenship and Immigration Services, on Monday proposed a sweeping expansion of the agency’s collection of biometric data. While ostensibly about verifying identities and preventing fraud in immigration benefit applications, the proposed rule goes much further than simply ensuring applicants are who they claim to be.

First off, the rule proposes expanding when DHS can collect biometric data from immigration benefit applicants, as “submission of biometrics is currently only mandatory for certain benefit requests and enforcement actions.” DHS wants to change that, including by requiring practically everyone an immigrant is associated with to submit their biometric data.

“DHS proposes in this rule that any applicant, petitioner, sponsor, supporter, derivative, dependent, beneficiary, or individual filing or associated with a benefit request or other request or collection of information, including U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals and lawful permanent residents, and without regard to age, must submit biometrics unless DHS otherwise exempts the requirement,” the rule proposal said.

DHS also wants to require the collection of biometric data from “any alien apprehended, arrested or encountered by DHS.”

It’s not explicitly stated in the rule proposal why US citizens associated with immigrants who are applying for benefits would have to have their biometric data collected. DHS didn’t answer questions to that end, though the rule stated that US citizens would also be required to submit biometric data “when they submit a family-based visa petition.”

Give me your voice, your eye print, your DNA samples

In addition to expanded collection, the proposed rule also changes the definition of what DHS considers to be valid biometric data.

“Government agencies have grouped together identifying features and actions, such as fingerprints, photographs, and signatures under the broad term, biometrics,” the proposal states. “DHS proposes to define the term ‘biometrics’ to mean ‘measurable biological (anatomical, physiological or molecular structure) or behavioral characteristics of an individual,'” thus giving DHS broad leeway to begin collecting new types of biometric data as new technologies are developed.

The proposal mentions several new biometric technologies DHS wants the option to use, including ocular imagery, voice prints and DNA, all on the table per the new rule.

[…]

Source: DHS wants more biometric data – even from citizens • The Register

Body Illusion Helps Unlock Memories

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A new study suggests that briefly changing the way people see their own bodies can make it easier to recall autobiographical memories, including some from early childhood.

Published in Scientific Reports, part of the Nature journal group, the research is the first to show that adults can access early memories more effectively after temporarily viewing themselves with a childlike version of their own face.

How the “Enfacement Illusion” Reconnects Mind and Body

Neuroscientists at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge led the study, which involved 50 adult volunteers. The experiment used what is known as an “enfacement illusion,” a technique that helps people feel as though another face they see on a screen is actually their own reflection.

Each participant watched a live video of their own face that was digitally modified with an image filter to resemble how they might have looked as a child. As participants moved their heads, the on-screen image mirrored their movements, creating the sensation that the childlike face was truly theirs. A control group experienced the same setup but viewed their unaltered adult faces.

After completing the illusion, participants were asked to take part in an autobiographical memory interview designed to prompt recollections from both their early life and the previous year.

A Clear Boost in Childhood Memory Recall

Researchers measured how much detail participants included when describing their episodic autobiographical memories. These are the kinds of memories that allow a person to mentally relive past experiences and “travel back in time” within their own mind.

The findings revealed that people who saw the younger version of themselves remembered significantly more detailed events from childhood than those who saw their regular adult face. The results provide the first evidence that subtle changes in bodily self-perception can influence how deeply we access distant memories.

[…]

“All the events that we remember are not just experiences of the external world, but are also experiences of our body, which is always present.

“We discovered that temporary changes to the bodily self, specifically, embodying a childlike version of one’s own face, can significantly enhance access to childhood memories. This might be because the brain encodes bodily information as part of the details of an event. Reintroducing similar bodily cues may help us retrieve those memories, even decades later.”

Reimagining the Self to Revisit the Past

Senior author Professor Jane Aspell, head of the Self & Body Lab at Anglia Ruskin University, added: “When our childhood memories were formed, we had a different body. So we wondered: if we could help people experience aspects of that body again, could we help them recall their memories from that time?

“Our findings suggest that the bodily self and autobiographical memory are linked, as temporary changes to bodily experience can facilitate access to remote autobiographical memories.

[…]

Journal Reference:

  1. Utkarsh Gupta, Peter Bright, Alex Clarke, Waheeb Zafar, Pilar Recarte-Perez, Jane E. Aspell. Illusory ownership of one’s younger face facilitates access to childhood episodic autobiographical memories. Scientific Reports, 2025; 15 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-17963-6

Source: Scientists find mind trick that unlocks lost memories | ScienceDaily

Cavities could be prevented by a gel that restores tooth enamel

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[…] developed a gel containing a modified version of a protein that they manipulated to act like amelogenin, a protein that helps guide the growth of our enamel when we are infants.

Experiments that involved pasting the gel onto human teeth under a microscope in solutions containing calcium and phosphate – the primary building blocks of enamel – show that it creates a thin and robust layer that stays on teeth for a few weeks, even during brushing.

The gel fills holes and cracks, creating a scaffold that uses the calcium and phosphate to promote the organised growth of new crystals in the enamel below the gel layer, even when so much was gone that the underlying dentine below was exposed.

“The gel was able to grow crystals epitaxially, which means it’s in the same crystallographic orientation as existing enamel,” says Mata.

That orientation means that the new growth – which reached up to 10 micrometres thick – is integrated into the underlying natural tissue, rebuilding the structure and properties of enamel. “The growth actually happens within a week,” says Mata. The process also worked when using donated saliva, which also naturally contains calcium and phosphate, rather than just in the solution the team used that comprised these chemicals.

 

Electron microscopy images of a tooth with demineralised enamel showing eroded crystals (left) and a similar demineralised tooth after a 2-week gel treatment showing epitaxially regenerated enamel crystals (right)

Electron microscopy images of a tooth with demineralised enamel showing eroded crystals (left) and a similar demineralised tooth after two weeks of treatment with the gel, showing epitaxially regenerated enamel crystals (right)

Professor Alvaro Mata, University of Nottingham

 

A similar approach was reported in 2019, but that produced thinner coatings, and the recovery of the architecture of inner layers of enamel was only partial.

Clinical trials in people are set for early next year. Mata has also launched a company called Mintech-Bio and hopes to have a first product out towards the end of 2026, which he sees dentists using.

 

Journal reference:

Nature Communications DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-64982-y

Source: Cavities could be prevented by a gel that restores tooth enamel | New Scientist

Ukraine First To Demo Open Source Security Platform To Help Secure Power Grid

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[A massive power outage in April left tens of millions across Spain, Portugal, and parts of France without electricity for hours due to cascading grid failures, exposing how fragile and interconnected Europe’s energy infrastructure is. The incident, though not a cyberattack, reignited concerns about the vulnerability of aging, fragmented, and insecure operational technology systems that could be easily exploited in future cyber or ransomware attacks.] This headache is one the European Commission is focused on. It is funding several projects looking at making electric grids more resilient, such as the eFort framework being developed by cybersecurity researchers at the independent non-profit Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft).

TNO’s SOARCA tool is the first ever open source security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) platform designed to protect power plants by automating the orchestration of the response to physical attacks, as well as cyberattacks, on substations and the network, and the first country to demo it will be the Ukraine this year. At the moment, SOAR systems only exist for dedicated IT environments. The researchers’ design includes a SOAR system in each layer of the power station: the substation, the control room, the enterprise layer, the cloud, or the security operations centre (SOC), so that the SOC and the control room work together to detect anomalies in the network, whether it’s an attacker exploiting a vulnerability, a malicious device being plugged into a substation, or a physical attack like a missile hitting a substation. The idea is to be able to isolate potential problems and prevent lateral movement from one device to another or privilege escalation, so an attacker cannot go through the network to the central IT management system of the electricity grid. […]

The SOARCA tool is underpinned by CACAO Playbooks, an open source specification developed by the OASIS Open standards body and its members (which include lots of tech giants and US government agencies) to create standardized predefined, automated workflows that can detect intrusions and changes made by malicious actors, and then carry out a series of steps to protect the network and mitigate the attack. Experts largely agree the problem facing critical infrastructure is only worsening as years pass, and the more random Windows implementations that are added into the network, the wider the attack surface is. […] TNO’s Wolthuis said the energy industry is likely to be pushed soon to take action by regulators, particularly once the Network Code on Cybersecurity (NCCS), which lays out rules requiring cybersecurity risk assessments in the electricity sector, is formalized.

Source: Ukraine First To Demo Open Source Security Platform To Help Secure Power Grid

Music festivals to collect data with RFID wristbands. Also, randomly, fascinating information about data Flitsmeister collects.

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This summer, Dutch music festivals will use RFID wristbands to collect visitor data. The technology has been around for a while, but the innovation lies in its application. The wristbands are anonymous by default, but users can activate them to participate in loyalty programs or unlock on-site experiences.Visitor privacy is paramount; overly invasive tracking is avoided.

This is according to Michael Guntenaar, Managing Director at Superstruct Digital Services, in the Emerce TV video ‘Data is the new headliner at dance festivals’. Superstruct is a network of approximately 80 large festivals (focused on experience and brand identity) spread across Europe and Australia. ID&T, known for events such as Sensation, Mysteryland, and Defqon.1, joined Superstruct in September 2021. Tula Daans, Data Analyst Brand Partnerships at ID&T, also joined on behalf of ID&T.

Festivals use various data sources, primarily ticket data (age, location, gender/gender identity), but also marketing data (social media), consumption data (food and drinks), and post-event surveys.

For brand partnerships, surveys are sent to visitors after the event to gauge whether they saw brands, what they thought of them, and thus gain insight into brand perception. Deliberately, no detailed feedback is requested during the festival to avoid disturbing the visitor experience, says Guntenaar.

The Netherlands is a global leader in data collection. Defqon.1 is mentioned as a breeding ground for experiments with data and technology, due to its technically advanced team and highly engaged target group.

[…]

In a second video, ‘Real-time mobility info in a complex data landscape’, Jorn de Vries, managing director at Flitsmeister, talks about mobility data and the challenges and opportunities within this market. The market for mobility data, which ranges from traffic flows to speed camera notifications, is busy with players like Garmin, Google, Waze, and TomTom.

Nevertheless, Flitsmeister still sees room for growth, because mobility is timeless and brings challenges, such as the desire to get from A to B quickly, efficiently, green, and cheaply. Innovation is essential to maintain a place in this market, says De Vries.

Flitsmeister has a large online community of almost 3 million monthly active users. This community has grown significantly over the years, even after introducing paid propositions. What distinguishes Flitsmeister from global players such as Google and Waze, according to De Vries, is their local embeddedness, with marketing and content that aligns with the language and use cases of users in the Benelux. They also collaborate with governments through partnerships, allowing them to offer specific local services, such as warnings for emergency services. Technically, competitors might be able to do this, says De Vries, but it probably isn’t a high priority because it’s local; Flitsmeister, however, believes that you have to dare to go all the way to properly serve a market, even if this requires investments that are only relevant for the Netherlands. Another example of local embeddedness is their presence on almost every radio station.

The Flitsmeister app now consists of eight main uses. In addition to the well-known speed cameras and track control, it includes warnings for emergency services (ambulance, fire brigade, Rijkswaterstaat vehicles) who are informed early when such a vehicle approaches with blue lights. The app also provides traffic jam information and warnings for incidents, stationary vehicles, and roadworks. Flitsmeister tries to give warnings for the start of traffic jams earlier than the flashing signs above the road, because they are not bound by the gantries where these signs are located.

Navigation is an added feature. In addition, there is paid parking at the end of the journey. Flitsmeister also has links with so-called smart traffic lights, where they receive data about the status of the light and share data with the intersection to optimize it. This can, for example, lead to a green light if you approach an intersection at night and there is no other traffic. More than 1500 smart intersections in the Netherlands are already equipped. Flitsmeister also receives data from matrix signs, including red crosses, arrows, and adjusted maximum speeds.

Privacy is a crucial topic when bringing consumers and data together. Flitsmeister has seen privacy from the start as a Unique Selling Point (USP) if handled correctly. Especially in countries like Germany, this is more active than in the Benelux, and privacy-friendly companies have a plus in the eyes of the consumer. Large players such as Google and Waze have the same legal playing field as Flitsmeister, but differ in what they want, can, and do.

Flitsmeister does collect live GPS data that provides a lot of insight into traffic movements. They are working with Rijkswaterstaat and their parent company Bmobile on pilots, including on the A9, where they combine loop data in the asphalt with their real-time data. This provides a more accurate and cost-efficient picture than road loops alone, which are expensive to maintain and measure limitedly. This combination allows them to provide relevant information, even between the road loops, leading to more accurate and cost-efficient traffic information.

Flitsmeister also works with data that detects real-time situations and provides early advice. They are doing pilots with ‘trigger based rerouting’, where users are proactively rerouted if a reported incident on their route is likely to affect their travel time, even if the travel time has not yet changed at that moment. The challenge here is that people must be receptive to this and understand the rationale behind the rerouting.

Although there is a lot of talk about connected vehicle data, Flitsmeister’s focus is more on strengthening the relationship with the driver than with the vehicle itself. Jorn de Vries believes that the driver will ultimately lead, as the need for mobility comes from the individual and the vehicle facilitates this.

The video Data is the new headliner at dance festivals can be watched for free. The collection Customer data: trends, innovation and future will be supplemented in the coming months and can be viewed for free after registration.

Source: Kagi Translate |(Emerce TV): music festivals want to collect data with RFID wristbands

Symbolic Strength More Important Than Facts When It Comes To Misinformation

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Why do some people endorse claims that can easily be disproved? It’s one thing to believe false information, but another to actively stick with something that’s obviously wrong.

Our new research, published in the Journal of Social Psychology, suggests that some people consider it a “win” to lean in to known falsehoods.

We are social psychologists who study political psychology and how people reason about reality. During the pandemic, we surveyed 5,535 people across eight countries to investigate why people believed COVID-19 misinformation, like false claims that 5G networks cause the virus.

The strongest predictor of whether someone believed in COVID-19-related misinformation and risks related to the vaccine was whether they viewed COVID-19 prevention efforts in terms of symbolic strength and weakness. In other words, this group focused on whether an action would make them appear to fend off or “give in” to untoward influence.

This factor outweighed how people felt about COVID-19 in general, their thinking style and even their political beliefs.

Our survey measured it on a scale of how much people agreed with sentences including “Following coronavirus prevention guidelines means you have backed down” and “Continuous coronavirus coverage in the media is a sign we are losing.” Our interpretation is that people who responded positively to these statements would feel they “win” by endorsing misinformation – doing so can show “the enemy” that it will not gain any ground over people’s views.

When meaning is symbolic, not factual

Rather than consider issues in light of actual facts, we suggest people with this mindset prioritize being independent from outside influence. It means you can justify espousing pretty much anything – the easier a statement is to disprove, the more of a power move it is to say it, as it symbolizes how far you’re willing to go.

When people think symbolically this way, the literal issue – here, fighting COVID-19 – is secondary to a psychological war over people’s minds. In the minds of those who think they’re engaged in them, psychological wars are waged over opinions and attitudes, and are won via control of belief and messaging. The U.S. government at various times has used the concept of psychological war to try to limit the influence of foreign powers, pushing people to think that literal battles are less important than psychological independence.

By that same token, vaccination, masking or other COVID-19 prevention efforts could be seen as a symbolic risk that could “weaken” one psychologically even if they provide literal physical benefits. If this seems like an extreme stance, it is – the majority of participants in our studies did not hold this mindset. But those who did were especially likely to also believe in misinformation.

In an additional study we ran that focused on attitudes around cryptocurrency, we measured whether people saw crypto investment in terms of signaling independence from traditional finance. These participants, who, like those in our COVID-19 study, prioritized a symbolic show of strength, were more likely to believe in other kinds of misinformation and conspiracies, too, such as that the government is concealing evidence of alien contact.

In all of our studies, this mindset was also strongly associated with authoritarian attitudes, including beliefs that some groups should dominate others and support for autocratic government. These links help explain why strongman leaders often use misinformation symbolically to impress and control a population.

Why people endorse misinformation

Our findings highlight the limits of countering misinformation directly, because for some people, literal truth is not the point.

For example, President Donald Trump incorrectly claimed in August 2025 that crime in Washington D.C. was at an all-time high, generating countless fact-checks of his premise and think pieces about his dissociation from reality.

But we believe that to someone with a symbolic mindset, debunkers merely demonstrate that they’re the ones reacting, and are therefore weak. The correct information is easily available, but is irrelevant to someone who prioritizes a symbolic show of strength. What matters is signaling one isn’t listening and won’t be swayed.

In fact, for symbolic thinkers, nearly any statement should be justifiable. The more outlandish or easily disproved something is, the more powerful one might seem when standing by it. Being an edgelord – a contrarian online provocateur – or outright lying can, in their own odd way, appear “authentic.”

Some people may also view their favorite dissembler’s claims as provocative trolling, but, given the link between this mindset and authoritarianism, they want those far-fetched claims acted on anyway. The deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, for example, can be the desired end goal, even if the offered justification is a transparent farce.

Is this really 5-D chess?

It is possible that symbolic, but not exactly true, beliefs have some downstream benefit, such as serving as negotiation tactics, loyalty tests, or a fake-it-till-you-make-it long game that somehow, eventually, becomes a reality. Political theorist Murray Edelman, known for his work on political symbolism, noted that politicians often prefer scoring symbolic points over delivering results – it’s easier. Leaders can offer symbolism when they have little tangible to provide.

Randy Stein is Associate Professor of Marketing, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and Abraham Rutchick is Professor of Psychology, California State University, Northridge. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Source: Symbolic Strength More Important Than Facts When It Comes To Misinformation | Techdirt

Linux finally cracks 3% on Steam – 50% more users in 1 year. Maybe people are getting really really pissed at Microsoft.

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In isolation, the numbers aren’t all that impressive. Linux usage is at 3.05 percent, up 0.37 percentage points from last month. However, it’s a significant uptick compared to the October 2024 results, which showed Linux usage at exactly two percent, up a mere 0.13 percentage points. It’s also up about 0.4 percentage points from the August survey numbers.

Yes, only a bit over one percentage point in a year – but compared to the total user numbers, that’s roughly a 50 percent jump. Adding half again to your market share in a year isn’t bad going. Keep this up and soon, you’re talking real mon— oh, wait, free software. Never mind.

Coupled with this is another bit of analysis of the Steam-on-Linux market from Linux gaming site Boiling Steam, which reported that by the end of October 2025, Windows games’ compatibility on Linux is at an all-time high. It buries the lede a little, but it gets there eventually:

the amount of games that refuse to launch is … getting very close to just 10%. This means that close to 90% of Windows games manage to launch on Linux.

Now, to be fair, just because a game launches doesn’t mean it runs well enough to play – it might start but still be unplayable for all sorts of reasons: being unusably slow, suffering from stutter or lag, showing graphics corruption, or constantly crashing. We’ve also read that some multiplayer games use anti-cheat measures that run at a low level and talk directly to the Windows OS – something emulation probably can’t fix in the foreseeable future. Even so, though, being able to run is a good start. It can be the point where a vendor starts troubleshooting what’s wrong, as opposed to telling customers something simply isn’t compatible.

This can’t simply be attributed to the Steam Deck. The Register reported on that way back in 2021, so it’s no longer new and shiny. There is other, newer SteamOS gadgetry, though. In January, Lenovo announced the first handheld officially licensed to ship with Valve’s SteamOS, the Lenovo Legion Go S. However, that officially went on sale back in May, so it’s a little too early to judge its impact.

It’s almost as if something happened earlier in October to make loads of people try out Linux. What an enduring mystery for the ages

Source: Linux finally cracks 3% on Steam • The Register

Or maybe something to do with: No account? No Windows 11 for you, says Microsoft