Tech News

1. H-1B Visa Fee Changes:

   • The White House clarified that the new $100,000 H-1B visa fee applies only to new petitions, not renewals or existing visa holders, and is a one-time fee for the February lottery. 👉 x.com
   • Microsoft, Amazon, and other tech companies advised H-1B visa holders to return to the U.S. before September 21 due to the new fee. 👉 cnbc.com
   • India's IT sector may be threatened by the Trump administration's $100,000 H-1B fee. 👉 bloomberg.com^$

2. AI and Cybersecurity:

   • NCC Group demonstrated how an AI program-writing assistant could be tricked into forking over databases and code repositories. 👉 msn.com
   • Researchers are using AI to find previously undiscovered security flaws. 👉 msn.com
   • A modified Nx program was used to root out sensitive data, marking the first AI-weaponized supply chain attack. 👉 securityweek.com
   • Google has paused its "homework help" button in Chrome after educators raised concerns about cheating. 👉 msn.com

3. Cyberattacks and Data Breaches:

   • A cyberattack disrupted air traffic at several European airports, affecting check-in and boarding systems. 👉 apnews.com
   • LastPass warned of fake GitHub repositories infecting macOS with Atomic infostealer. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • Microsoft and Cloudflare disrupted the RaccoonO365 phishing service. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • SonicWall warned customers to reset credentials after a breach. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

4. Space and Military:

   • The U.S. Space Force conducted a combat training exercise involving electromagnetic energy to disrupt satellite signals. 👉 msn.com
   • A Finnish tech firm is purchasing Helium-3 from the moon for quantum computing. 👉 msn.com

5. Software and Hardware:

   • Microsoft plans to remove WMIC after the Windows 11 25H2 upgrade. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • PIRG is petitioning Microsoft to reconsider ending support for Windows 10 in 2025. 👉 pirg.org
   • iFixit's teardown of the iPhone Air reveals clever use of space and repairability. 👉 ifixit.com
   • Apple now controls all core iPhone chips, prioritizing AI workloads. 👉 cnbc.com
   • Steam will stop running on Windows 32-bit in January 2026. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

6. Meta and Ray-Ban Smart Glasses:

   • Mark Zuckerberg's demo of Meta's newest smart glasses faced technical difficulties. 👉 nytimes.com^$
   • Meta CTO explained that the smart glasses demos failed due to a DDoS on their own development server and a new bug. 👉 techcrunch.com

7. World War II Remnants:

   • A large U.S.-made bomb from World War II was discovered in Hong Kong, leading to evacuations. 👉 apnews.com
   • Bombs from World War II have triggered evacuations and emergency measures around the globe in recent months. 👉 cbsnews.com

8. AI in Education:

   • Bloomberg featured Derek Li, founder of China's Squirrel AI, whose business is driven by academic pressure. 👉 bloomberg.com^$

9. Employment and Tech Layoffs:

   • Seattle's tech boomtown is grappling with fewer tech jobs, leading to restaurant closures and reduced spending. 👉 msn.com
   • Google laid off 200 AI moderating contractors amid a fight over working conditions. 👉 wired.com

10. Financial Exploits:

    • The Royal Canadian Mounted Police shut down the TradeOgre cryptocurrency exchange and seized $40 million. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • A cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover is expected to cost the company millions of pounds. 👉 theguardian.com

11. Open Source Security:

    • A self-replicating worm hit 180+ npm packages to steal credentials in a supply chain attack. 👉 thehackernews.com
    • Ultralytics raised a $30M Series A for its open-source computer vision models. 👉 siliconangle.com
    • F5 is acquiring CalypsoAI to bring advanced AI guardrails to large enterprises. 👉 techmeme.com

12. Geopolitics and Cybersecurity:

    • Nikkei Asia reports that global AI rules have grown by 30% since 2022. 👉 asia.nikkei.com
    • An article (4 days ago) examines how Iranian cyber espionage group UNC1549 is targeting telecom firms using LinkedIn job lures. 👉 thehackernews.com
    • Financial Times reports (1 day ago) the EU is moving to exclude Meta, Apple, Google, and Amazon from the new Financial Data Access system. 👉 t.co

13. Coffee Shop and Labor Market:

    • Near Microsoft's headquarters, a coffee shop received resumes from laid-off tech employees for barista positions. 👉 msn.com

14. OpenAI:

    • OpenAI's $4 GPT Go plan may expand to more regions. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • ChatGPT Search is now smarter as OpenAI takes on Google Search. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • ChatGPT now gives you greater control over the GPT-5 Thinking model. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • A report (2 days ago) says the Ethereum's “low-risk DeFi” applications like payments and savings could drive the chain's revenue in a similar way that search and ads sustain Google's business. 👉 vitalik.eth.limo

15. Mantic AI:

    • UK-based startup Mantic ranked #8 in the Metaculus forecasting cup, the first time an AI made the top 10. 👉 time.com

16. H-1B Visa Debate:

    • The White House says the $100K H-1B fee will not apply to renewals or existing H-1B holders re-entering the US, only to future applicants in the February lottery. 👉 axios.com
    • The White House Press Secretary says the $100K H-1B fee is not an annual fee and it is a “one-time fee that applies only to the petition” in the upcoming lottery. 👉 x.com

17. Tiktok Deal:

    • Trump says Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch might invest in TikTok deal. 👉 techcrunch.com

18. Data Center:

    • A look at UAE-based Khazna, a real estate company that builds and rents out data centers and controls 70% of the country's operational data center capacity. 👉 restofworld.org
    • Some companies are turning to fossil fuels to power their data centers as countries around the world scramble to meet rising energy demands amid the AI boom. 👉 restofworld.org

19. Meta:

    • Diplomats say the EU is moving to exclude Meta, Apple, Google, and Amazon from the new Financial Data Access system to protect the bloc's “digital sovereignty”. 👉 t.co

20. Software Chains:

    • An anonymous reader shares that we need to keep improving defenses of software supply chains. 👉 cacm.acm.org
    • PyPI invalidates tokens stolen in GhostAction supply chain attack. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

21. Coffee Shop and the labor market:

    • Near Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, the Five Stones coffee shop advertised for a barista a few months ago, and started getting resumes from "people who listed Microsoft and other tech companies. 👉 msn.com

22. Coffee Shop and The Mouse:

    • One of America's largest personal injury firms is suing Disney, in an effort to get a ruling that would allow it to use Steamboat Willie in advertisements. 👉 apnews.com

23. Consumer Advice:

    • PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) is now petitioning Microsoft to reconsider pulling support for Windows 10 in 2025. 👉 pirg.org

24. Cyber Espionage:

    • Two teenagers, believed to be linked to the August 2024 cyberattack on Transport for London, have been arrested in the United Kingdom. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • Scattered Spider Resurfaces With Financial Sector Attacks Despite Retirement Claims. 👉 thehackernews.com
    • An inside look at Léon Thévenin, the only undersea internet cable repair ship permanently stationed in Africa, operated by the French telecom company Orange. 👉 restofworld.org

25. AI Safety:

    • Researchers suggest LLM-powered medical AI tools understate the severity of symptoms in female patients and show less “empathy” toward Black and Asian patients. 👉 t.co
    • Researchers have uncovered GPT-4-Powered MalTerminal Malware Creating Ransomware, Reverse Shell. 👉 thehackernews.com

26. Data theft:

    • A profile of Edwin Chen, the CEO of Surge AI, a Scale AI rival that had $1.2B revenue in 2024, is profitable, and is reportedly raising $1B at a $30B valuation. 👉 forbes.com^$

27. Cyber Crime:

    • Reuters does a report about A look at life in online scam compounds run by Chinese gangs on the Myanmar-Thai border, with purported Thai immigration officials luring trafficking victims. 👉 reuters.com
    • As carriers deploy protections against fraudulent texts, scammers are using “SMS blasters” that impersonate base stations to send fake messages to nearby phones. 👉 wired.com

28. The web:

    • A review of Tim Berners-Lee's new book This is for Everyone, while his startup Inrupt, which aims to commercialize the Solid web protocol, struggles to scale. 👉 t.co
    • F5 to acquire calypsoai to bring advanced ai guardrails to large enterprises. 👉 techmeme.com

29. Money:

    • Bloomberg reports Trump administration's $100,000 H-1B fee threatens India's $280B IT services sector, which heavily relies on H-1B visas to deploy engineers to US client sites. 👉 bloomberg.com^$

30. Tech Sector - Company News:

    • CNBC reports interviews with Apple's Tim Millet, Arun Mathias, and Kaiann Drance on the new neural accelerators in A19 Pro GPU cores, C1X modem, N1 wireless chip, and more. 👉 cnbc.com

31. Security Industry:

    • the Wall Street Journal reports the FTC's 2023 lawsuit against Amazon goes to trial this week, alleging it used misleading tactics to entice people into Prime and made cancellation difficult. 👉 wsj.com^$

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