Tech News

1. AI:

   • Google unveils new AI features for Chrome, including a Gemini button and AI Mode for US desktop users. 👉 wired.com
   • OpenAI plans to spend ~$100B on backup servers rented from cloud providers through 2030, in addition to the $350B already projected for server rentals. 👉 theinformation.com

2. Cybersecurity:

   • UK arrests two teens linked to Transport for London hack. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • President Trump signs a proclamation requiring companies to pay an annual $100,000 fee for H-1B visas, a move that could significantly impact the tech industry. 👉 reuters.com 👉 news.slashdot.org
   • Security researcher discovered two vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Entra ID identity platform that could have granted attackers administrative access to virtually all Azure customer accounts worldwide. 👉 wired.com
   • A US judge temporarily orders Meta not to respond to DHS subpoenas seeking Instagram users' info after their accounts posted an ICE agent's name. 👉 politico.com
   • The US FTC and seven states sue Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary for failing to stem the use of ticketing bots and large-scale resale operations. 👉 bloomberg.com^$

3. Meta:

   • Meta CTO says the technical issues during live demos of its new smart glasses were due to a self-inflicted DDoS and a bug that put Zuckerberg's glasses to sleep. 👉 theverge.com
   • Meta files an application for authorization “to sell energy, capacity, and certain ancillary services” in the US amid rising energy demand for AI datacenters. 👉 bloomberg.com^$
   • Sources say Oracle is in discussions with Meta to provide Meta computing power for training and deploying AI models, in a deal worth about $20B. 👉 bloomberg.com^$

4. Xiaomi:

   • Chinese consumer tech giant Xiaomi will remotely fix a flaw in the assisted driving system on over 110,000 of its popular SU7 electric cars. 👉 koreatimes.co.kr
   • China says that Xiaomi will issue a software update for 115K+ SU7 EVs to fix assisted driving safety issues, its second recall-tied fix since SU7's 2024 launch. 👉 reuters.com

5. TikTok:

   • Trump appears to suggest Xi Jinping approved a deal to divest TikTok's US operations during a call, but neither side elaborated on what the approval entailed. 👉 nytimes.com^$
   • Sources say investors in the TikTok US deal are expected to pay the Trump administration a multibillion-dollar fee for negotiating a deal with China. 👉 wsj.com^$

6. Microsoft:

   • Microsoft plans to raise Xbox Series X price by $50 to $649.99 and Series S by $20 to $399.99 starting Oct. 3, citing “changes in the macroeconomic environment”. 👉 windowscentral.com
   • Microsoft is adding a whole load of AI agents to Teams today, promising Copilot assistants for every channel, meeting, and community. 👉 theverge.com
   • Austria's armed forces have switched from Microsoft's Office programs to the open-source LibreOffice package. 👉 heise.de (1 day ago)
   • Microsoft starts rolling out Gaming Copilot on Windows 11 PCs. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Microsoft: WMIC will be removed after Windows 11 25H2 upgrade. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Microsoft and Cloudflare disrupt massive RaccoonO365 phishing service. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Microsoft plans a US clinical trial in October to test a brain implant that translates thoughts into text, hoping to put its device in a healthy person by 2030. 👉 bloomberg.com^$
   • Microsoft plans to spend an additional $100B by the end of the decade in addition to the $350B already projected for AI computing costs. 👉 theinformation.com

7. Education:

   • Average reading, math, and science scores have dropped among certain grades since before the coronavirus pandemic, according to federal data. 👉 newhampshirebulletin.com
   • A record-low 35% of Americans are satisfied with the quality of education that K-12 students receive in the U.S. today, marking an eight-percentage-point decline since last year. 👉 news.gallup.com

8. OpenAI:

   • OpenAI is recruiting from Apple's hardware, design, manufacturing, and supply chain teams, as it targets late 2026 or early 2027 for its first devices. 👉 theinformation.com
   • Report: OpenAI has considered building glasses, a digital voice recorder, and a pin, and has signed a deal with Luxshare to assemble at least one of its devices. 👉 9to5mac.com
   • An analysis of tens of thousands of research-paper submissions has shown a dramatic increase in the presence of text generated using AI in the past few years, an academic publisher has found. 👉 nature.com
   • Tests show OpenAI's Sora can closely mimic Netflix shows, movies, TikTok videos, and Twitch streams, suggesting it was trained on versions of such content. 👉 washingtonpost.com
   • OpenAI plans to spend ~$100B on backup servers rented from cloud providers through 2030, in addition to the $350B already projected for server rentals. 👉 theinformation.com
   • OpenAI's $4 GPT Go plan may expand to more regions. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com (1 day ago)
   • ChatGPT Search is now smarter as OpenAI takes on Google Search. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com (1 day ago)
   • ChatGPT now gives you greater control over GPT-5 Thinking model. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com (1 day ago)

9. Apple:

   • Apple is rushing to boost production of its newly released entry-level model iPhone 17 after strong pre-orders last weekend. 👉 theinformation.com
   • Apple may have revealed where it will test production of its foldable smartphone. 👉 cybernews.com
   • CNET reports on how Apple tests the Apple Watch's Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 5G, and satellite connectivity, like in a 15-by-15-meter Global Navigation Satellite System simulation room. 👉 cnet.com
   • Apple's new Center Stage Camera always keeps you in frame. 👉 threatpost.com (1 week ago)
   • iPhone Air is Apple’s thinnest, lightest iPhone yet. 👉 threatpost.com (1 week ago)
   • Watch Apple’s AirPod Pro 3 live translation feature in action. 👉 threatpost.com (1 week ago)
   • iPhone Users Urged to Update to Patch 2 Zero-Days, one being in the kernel and WebKit that can allow threat actors to take over devices and are under attack. 👉 threatpost.com (1 day ago)

10. Cybercrime:

    • X-VPN Reinforces Its Commitment to Privacy and Security. 👉 cybernews.com
    • U.K. Arrests Two Teen Scattered Spider Hackers Linked to August 2024 TfL Cyber Attack. 👉 thehackernews.com
    • A 20-year-old Florida man at the center of a prolific cybercrime group known as “Scattered Spider” was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison today. 👉 krebsonsecurity.com

11. Security Vulnerabilities and Patches:

    • Fortra has released security updates to patch a maximum severity vulnerability in GoAnywhere MFT's License Servlet that can be exploited in command injection attacks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • WatchGuard has released security updates to address a remote code execution vulnerability impacting the company's Firebox firewalls. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • Google has released emergency security updates to patch a Chrome zero-day vulnerability, the sixth one tagged as exploited in attacks this year. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has published an analysis of the malware deployed in attacks exploiting vulnerabilities affecting Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM). 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released details of two sets of malware that were discovered in an unnamed organization's network following the exploitation of security flaws in Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM). 👉 thehackernews.com

12. Malware:

    • Google nukes 224 Android malware apps behind massive ad fraud campaign. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • The Python Software Foundation team has invalidated all PyPI tokens stolen in the GhostAction supply chain attack in early September, confirming that the threat actors didn't abuse them to publish malware. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • Security researcher Dirk-jan Mollema discovered two vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Entra ID identity platform that could have granted attackers administrative access to virtually all Azure customer accounts worldwide. 👉 wired.com
    • At least 187 code packages made available through the JavaScript repository NPM have been infected with a self-replicating worm that steals credentials from developers. 👉 krebsonsecurity.com
    • A proxy network known as REM Proxy is powered by malware known as SystemBC , offering about 80% of the botnet to its users, according to new findings. 👉 thehackernews.com
    • Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new malware loader codenamed CountLoader that has been put to use by Russian ransomware gangs to deliver post-exploitation tools like Cobalt Strike and AdaptixC2 , and a remote access trojan known as PureHVNC RAT. 👉 thehackernews.com
    • Cybersecurity researchers have discovered two new malicious packages in the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that are designed to deliver a remote access trojan called SilentSync on Windows systems. 👉 thehackernews.com

13. Cyber Espionage:

    • An Iran-nexus cyber espionage group known as UNC1549 has been attributed to a new campaign targeting European telecommunications companies, successfully infiltrating 34 devices across 11 organizations as part of a recruitment-themed activity on LinkedIn. 👉 thehackernews.com
    • Cybersecurity researchers have discerned evidence of two Russian hacking groups Gamaredon and Turla collaborating together to target and co-comprise Ukrainian entities. 👉 thehackernews.com

14. Government:

    • MI6 launched Silent Courier, an online portal on the dark web and designed to let potential spies from Russia and elsewhere to send the agency messages securely. 👉 bloomberg.com^$
    • A US judge strikes down Trump's $15B lawsuit against the NYT for violating a rule requiring a “short plain statement” of the claim; Trump can amend the action. 👉 mediagazer.com
    • A US judge temporarily orders Meta not to respond to DHS subpoenas seeking Instagram users' info after their accounts posted an ICE agent's name. 👉 politico.com

15. Navan IPO:

    • Corporate travel and expense management service Navan, formerly known as TripActions, files for a US IPO, reporting a $99.9M net loss on $329.4M revenue in H1. 👉 bloomberg.com^$

16. Business:

    • US wholesale electricity prices have nearly doubled since 2020, rising faster than consumer rates across most regional grid operators. 👉 construction-physics.com (1 day ago)

17. Gaming:

    • Steam will stop running on Windows 32-bit in January 2026. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com (1 day ago)

18. Paris DVD Rental Store:

    • JM Video, one of only two remaining DVD rental stores in Paris, is fighting for survival against streaming platforms. 👉 reuters.com (1 day ago)

19. Flexible Workers in China:

    • China's economy increasingly relies on 200 million "flexible workers" who lack formal employment contracts, pensions and urban residency permits. 👉 economist.com (1 day ago)

20. Elon Musk's xAI:

    • Sources: xAI has raised $10B at a post-money valuation of $200B, weeks after reportedly raising $10B in debt and equity at a ~$150B valuation. 👉 cnbc.com
    • SoftBank Group will lay off nearly 20% of its Vision Fund team globally as it shifts resources to founder Masayoshi Son's large-scale AI bets in the United States. 👉 reuters.com (1 day ago)

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