Enlarge / A bad update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon security software crashed millions of Windows PCs last week. (credit: CrowdStrike) CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said Thursday that 97 percent of all Windows systems running its Falcon sensor software were back online, a week after an update-related outage to the corporate security software delayed flights and took...
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At the Olympics, AI is watching you
Enlarge / Police observe the Eiffel Tower from Trocadero ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 22, 2024. (credit: Hector Vivas/Getty Images) On the eve of the Olympics opening ceremony, Paris is a city swamped in security. Forty thousand barriers divide the French capital. Packs of police officers wearing stab vests patrol pretty,...
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Hang out with Ars in San Jose and DC this fall for two infrastructure events
Enlarge / Infrastructure! Howdy, Arsians! Last year, we partnered with IBM to host an in-person event in the Houston area where we all gathered together, had some cocktails, and talked about resiliency and the future of IT. Location always matters for things like this, and so we hosted it at Space Center Houston and had...
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How US Chips Continue to End Up in Russian Missiles
Defying sanctions, Russia has obtained nearly $4 billion in restricted chips since the war began in Ukraine. Many were shipped through a cluster of shell companies in Hong Kong.
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X Uses Community Notes on Election Posts, but Misinformation Spreads
The social media company will use its Community Notes program to moderate lies about the election, but cracks are already appearing.
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Google claims math breakthrough with proof-solving AI models
Enlarge / An illustration provided by Google. (credit: Google) On Thursday, Google DeepMind announced that AI systems called AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2 reportedly solved four out of six problems from this year’s International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), achieving a score equivalent to a silver medal. The tech giant claims this marks the first time an AI...
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OpenAI hits Google where it hurts with new SearchGPT prototype
Enlarge (credit: Benj Edwards / OpenAI) Arguably, few companies have unintentionally contributed more to the increase of AI-generated noise online than OpenAI. Despite its best intentions—and against its terms of service—its AI language models are often used to compose spam, and its pioneering research has inspired others to build AI models that can potentially do...
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Chrome will now prompt some users to send passwords for suspicious files
(credit: Chrome) Google is redesigning Chrome malware detections to include password-protected executable files that users can upload for deep scanning, a change the browser maker says will allow it to detect more malicious threats. Google has long allowed users to switch on the Enhanced Mode of its Safe Browsing, a Chrome feature that warns users...
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Secure Boot is completely broken on 200+ models from 5 big device makers
Enlarge (credit: sasha85ru | Getty Imates) In 2012, an industry-wide coalition of hardware and software makers adopted Secure Boot to protect against a long-looming security threat. The threat was the specter of malware that could infect the BIOS, the firmware that loaded the operating system each time a computer booted up. From there, it could...
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From Online Drug Lord to Crypto Entrepreneur, Blake Benthall Is Back in Business
After Blake Benthall was arrested for running Silk Road 2.0, the infamous illegal drug bazaar, things didn’t go the way you might expect.