Tech News

1. Metaverse:

   • Meta is considering cutting its metaverse budget by up to 30% in 2026, shifting focus to AI and wearables. 👉 bloomberg.com^$ 👉 wsj.com^$
   • Meta says it is shifting some of its investment from metaverse toward AI glasses and wearables, and “we aren't planning any broader changes than that”. 👉 nytimes.com^$
   • Alan Dye, Apple's longtime human-interface chief, is leaving to lead a new creative studio at Meta's Reality Labs. 👉 techcrunch.com 👉 latimes.com

2. AI and Security:

   • Two studies suggest AI chatbots can shift political views more effectively than TV campaign ads, especially by presenting many claims, regardless of accuracy. 👉 washingtonpost.com
   • The EU has opened an antitrust investigation into Meta over a new WhatsApp policy that 👉 reuters.com. 👉 t.co
   • OpenAI is testing training LLMs to produce “confessions”, or self-report how they carried out a task and own up to bad behavior, like appearing to lie or cheat. 👉 technologyreview.com
   • Micro1, which helps AI labs find experts for data annotation, says it has crossed $100M in annualized revenue and fielded investment offers at a $2.5B valuation. 👉 forbes.com^$
   • New research finds almost three in 10 GPs in the UK are using AI tools such as ChatGPT in consultations with patients. 👉 theguardian.com

3. Cybersecurity and Data Breaches:

   • U.S. prosecutors have charged two Virginia brothers arrested on Wednesday with allegedly conspiring to steal sensitive information and destroy 96 government databases. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Google is suing more than two dozen unnamed individuals allegedly involved in peddling a popular China-based mobile phishing service, Lighthouse. 👉 krebsonsecurity.com
   • CISA is warning that Palo Alto Networks’ PAN-OS is under active attack and needs to be patched ASAP. 👉 threatpost.com (6 days ago)
   • Financial software provider Marquis Software Solutions is warning that it suffered a data breach that impacted dozens of banks and credit unions across the US. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com (1 day ago)
   • French DIY retail giant Leroy Merlin discloses a data breach. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com (1 day ago)
   • Freedom Mobile, the fourth-largest wireless carrier in Canada, has disclosed a data breach exposing customer data. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com (1 day ago)
   • A report (8 days ago) from the Guardian says Chatbots can sway political opinions but are ‘substantially’ inaccurate. 👉 theguardian.com
   • A student loan breach exposed 2.5M records. 👉 threatpost.com (6 days ago)
   • Shai-Hulud 2.0 NPM malware attack exposed up to 400,000 dev secrets. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • The EU expects to launch a formal bidding process for its AI gigafactories in early 2026 and close it in summer 2026, as the bloc seeks to catch up with the US. 👉 wsj.com^$

4. Microsoft:

   • Microsoft is testing AI-powered support assistant in Facebook and Instagram. 👉 techcrunch.com
   • Microsoft to lift productivity suite prices for businesses, governments. 👉 reuters.com
   • A Microsoft 365 license check bug blocks desktop app downloads. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Microsoft silently "mitigated" a high-severity Windows LNK vulnerability exploited as zero-day. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • A critical security flaw has been disclosed in React Server Components (RSC) that, if successfully exploited, could result in remote code execution. 👉 thehackernews.com

5. Legal and Political:

   • The Trump administration orders enhanced vetting of H-1B applicants and their families for past work in “censorship”, including fact-checking and online safety. 👉 reuters.com
   • The Italian company Bending Spoons seems to be on an acquisitions spree, buying Eventbrite for half a milliard USD. 👉 morningbrew.com

6. Cybercrime Activities:

   • A prolific cybercriminal group that calls itself “Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters” has been stealing data from dozens of major corporations. 👉 krebsonsecurity.com
   • Silver Fox Uses Fake Microsoft Teams Installer to Spread ValleyRAT Malware in China. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • Google is suing more than two dozen unnamed individuals allegedly involved in peddling a popular China-based mobile phishing service. 👉 krebsonsecurity.com
   • China-based phishing groups blamed for non-stop scam SMS messages are promoting new phishing kits for mass-creating fake e-commerce websites. 👉 krebsonsecurity.com
   • Cybercriminals Are Selling Access to Chinese Surveillance Cameras. 👉 threatpost.com (10 days ago)

7. Malware and Vulnerabilities:

   • The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned network defenders of Chinese hackers backdooring VMware vSphere servers with Brickstorm malware. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • A maximum severity vulnerability, dubbed 'React2Shell', in the React Server Components (RSC) 'Flight' protocol allows remote code execution without authentication in React and Next.js applications. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Threat actors are exploiting a command injection vulnerability in Array AG Series VPN devices to plant webshells and create rogue users. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Vulnerability in WordPress add-on for Elementor exploited in attacks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • The U.S. government is reportedly preparing to ban the sale of wireless routers and other networking gear from TP-Link Systems, a tech company that currently enjoys an estimated 50% market share among home users and small businesses. 👉 krebsonsecurity.com
   • Researchers: Solana Seeker smartphone chip hack threatening crypto assets. 👉 cybernews.com
   • A recent article (9 days ago) in Wired profiles AI hearing aid startup Fortell, targeting affluent clients in NYC with a $6,800 device. 👉 wired.com
   • Predator spyware uses new infection vector for zero-click attacks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

8. International Relations and Cybersecurity:

   • Russia blocks FaceTime and Snapchat for alleged use by terrorists. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Russia bans FaceTime, claims the app enables crime and terror. 👉 cybernews.com
   • The Verge reports (1 day ago) Russia bans Roblox over ‘LGBT propaganda’ and ‘extremist’ content. 👉 theverge.com
   • Taiwan's interior ministry announces a one-year ban on access to Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu, aka RedNote, citing 1,700+ fraud cases since 2024. 👉 reuters.com

9. Telecommunications:

   • Reuters reports (1 day ago) Foxconn's subsidiaries and China's Luxshare plan expansions in Vietnam to boost gaming device production. 👉 reuters.com

10. Cloud Security:

    • Google Cloud partners with Replit to expand the use of Google's cloud offerings and AI models and to jointly support AI use cases for enterprise customers. 👉 cnbc.com
    • Axious reports (1 day ago) Lumia, which uses AI to analyze interactions between autonomous agents and humans, raised an $18M seed led by Team8. 👉 axios.com
    • Sources say Fluidstack, an AI cloud provider that is aiding Google's effort to expand access to its TPUs, is in talks to raise $700M+ led by Situational Awareness. 👉 theinformation.com

11. Financial and Business News:

    • Reuters reports (1 day ago) a source says Flex, which offers AI-based payment tools, credit, and more to mid-sized companies, raised a $60M Series B led by Portage, at a ~$500M valuation. 👉 reuters.com
    • The Wall Street Journal reports (1 day ago) 7AI, which makes agents that analyze and triage info like cybersecurity alerts, raised a $130M Series A at a ~$700M valuation. 👉 wsj.com^$
    • Dwarkesh Patel shares thoughts on AI progress and why AI labs' actions hint at a worldview in which AI models will continue to fare poorly at generalization and on-the-job learning. 👉 dwarkesh.com (1 day ago)
    • Forbes reports (1 day ago) AI legal software startup Harvey raised $160M led by a16z at an $8B valuation, up from $3B after raising $300M in February, taking its funding in 2025 to $760M. 👉 nytimes.com^$

12. Cloudflare:

    • Cloudflare detected and mitigated the largest ever distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that measured at 29.7 terabits per second (Tbps). 👉 thehackernews.com
    • Domains associated with the Aisuru botnet have repeatedly usurped Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft in Cloudflare’s public ranking of the most frequently requested websites. Cloudflare responded by redacting Aisuru domain names from their top websites list. 👉 krebsonsecurity.com
    • KrebsOnSecurity reports (1 day ago) an intermittent outage at Cloudflare briefly knocked many of the Internet’s top destinations offline. 👉 krebsonsecurity.com

13. Apple:

    • Apple's general counsel, Kate Adams, and its vice president for environment, policy, and social initiatives, Lisa Jackson will retire, and Jennifer Newstead, Meta's former chief legal officer, will replace Adams. 👉 cnbc.com
    • Jay Peters / The Verge: reports (1 day ago) Amazon plans to release its $630 Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and $500 Kindle Scribe on December 10. 👉 theverge.com
    • Russia has blocked Apple's (AAPL.O) video-calling app FaceTime, the state communications watchdog said. 👉 reuters.com
    • Apple announces its 2025 App Store Award winners and names visual planner Tiimo as the iPhone App of the Year. 👉 techcrunch.com
    • John Gruber / Daring Fireball: reports that Apple replacing Alan Dye with Stephen Lemay may revive the Jobs-era “design is how it works” ethos in Apple's UI design. 👉 daringfireball.net

14. Fraud and Scams:

    • Fake travel reservations are exacting more pain from the travel weary, already dealing with the misery of canceled flights and overbooked hotels. 👉 threatpost.com (12 days ago)
    • Google expands Android scam protection feature to Chase, Cash App in U.S. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

15. Telecom:

    • The FCC approves AT&T $1 billion purchase of spectrum from UScellular. 👉 cybernews.com

16. Internet of Things (IoT):

    • These Android TV streaming boxes ensnare the user’s Internet connection in a distributed residential proxy network that uses the devices to relay traffic from others. 👉 krebsonsecurity.com
    • The Washington Post reports (1 day ago) the U.S. government is preparing to ban the sale of wireless routers and other networking gear from TP-Link Systems. 👉 washingtonpost.com

17. Cyber Espionage:

    • CISA warns of Chinese "BrickStorm" malware attacks on VMware servers. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • Threatpost reports (11 days ago) Lyceum APT Returns, This Time Targeting Tunisian Firms. 👉 threatpost.com

18. Palantir:

    • Gizmodo reports (1 day ago) DealBook Summit: Palantir CEO Alex Karp says “the more constitutional you want to make” the US' Caribbean boat strikes “the more you're going to need” Palantir. 👉 gizmodo.com

19. Theft:

    • The Economic Times reports (1 day ago) Palantir CEO Alex Karp defends company's ICE ties and data ethics. 👉 economictimes.indiatimes.com
    • Ukraine: Russia blocks FaceTime services. 👉 pravda.com.ua
    • Russia restricts FaceTime, its latest step in controlling online communications. 👉 washingtontimes.com

20. Web Security:

    • New Scientist reports (1 day ago) AI can influence voters' minds. 👉 newscientist.com
    • Forbes reports (1 day ago) Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei acknowledges risks of huge spending on AI. 👉 economictimes.indiatimes.com

21. VMWare:

    • Russia blocks Apple's FaceTime. 👉 9to5mac.com
    • Google pulls plug on Apple FaceTime. 👉 idropnews.com

22. Applications:

    • Russia restricts FaceTime, its latest step in controlling online communications. 👉 washingtontimes.com

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