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2026-10-20

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Krebs on Security Oct 19 Score 0.9513288620370371

Feds Suspect Ransom Negotiator Ran ShinyHunters Extortion Site

U.S. federal investigators pursuing the ShinyHunters hacking group that recently stole highly sensitive data from the FBI have identified executives at two different ransomware negotiation firms who maintained unusually close relations with the extortion group

Security securitycybercrimebreaches
Simon Willison's Weblog Oct 19 Score 0.8932591249999999

My obituary for programming

My obituary for programming Jeremy Scheff poignantly captures the key loss caused by coding agents for career programmers who enjoyed the puzzle of developing code: Programming turned into one of the greatest jobs you could imagine. You got paid to work on tri

AI aillmsengineeringanalysis
Foreign Policy Oct 19 Score 0.885070910648148

Why Is France Perpetually Rioting?

Protest and radicalization are the answer to an authoritarian, centralized state.

Geopolitics geopoliticsforeign-policyanalysis
Quanta Magazine Oct 19 Score 0.8794260314814814

AI Proved the Quasi-Riemann Hypothesis. What Happens Now?

Unlike other recent AI proofs, this one has been unpacked by human experts. The implications, one mathematician said, are “staggering.” The post AI Proved the Quasi-Riemann Hypothesis. What Happens Now? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Science sciencemathematicsphysicsbiology
Foreign Policy Oct 19 Score 0.8771449847222221

Trump Can Push Past Israeli-Palestinian Paralysis

Practical steps, U.S. pressure, and greater Arab involvement are needed to overcome trauma and despair.

Geopolitics geopoliticsforeign-policyanalysis
Schneier on Security Oct 19 Score 0.8718506689814813

Training AIs to Solve CAPTCHAs

Interesting research : Abstract : Vision-language models (VLMs) can solve visual CAPTCHAs without task-specific training, but the agents built on them approach every challenge from scratch. For such an agent, the hundredth instance of a familiar puzzle costs a

Security securitycryptographypolicy
Foreign Affairs Oct 20 Score 0.8249694652777778

Empires of AI

In this essay, Niall Ferguson, one of the world’s foremost experts on imperial history, teams up the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, and the researcher Lisa Klaasen to make the provocative argument that AI is an inherently “imperial technology”—and to reve

Geopolitics geopoliticsforeign-policyanalysisjournals
Foreign Affairs Oct 20 Score 0.8249694652777778

AI Is a Choice

Alex Imas, Mohamed El-Erian, and James Manyika, leading voices at the intersection of business and technology, argue that realizing AI’s potential requires giving workers, communities, AI labs, infrastructure developers, and big companies a share of the gains.

Geopolitics geopoliticsforeign-policyanalysisjournals
Foreign Affairs Oct 20 Score 0.8249694648148149

The Limits of American Power

William McRaven, a retired four-star admiral and a major figure in American military affairs, uses history and his personal experiences to make an authoritative case that American leaders frequently overestimate the potential of military force to achieve polit

Geopolitics geopoliticsforeign-policyanalysisjournals
Foreign Affairs Oct 20 Score 0.8249694648148149

The China Price

In 1971, as the international monetary system was on the brink of collapse, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Connally told a group of worried European finance ministers that the dollar was “our currency, but your problem.” The dollar had become that system’s offic

Geopolitics geopoliticsforeign-policyanalysisjournals
Foreign Affairs Oct 20 Score 0.8249694648148149

The Chokepoint Trap

The search for economic security will end in geopolitical calamity.

Geopolitics geopoliticsforeign-policyanalysisjournals
BBC News — World Oct 19 Score 0.8168700050925927

Five ways El Niño is affecting the weather around the world

As the strongest El Niño on record continues to intensify, what impacts on weather patterns are already being felt across the globe? Sarah Keith-Lucas looks at the evidence.

Geopolitics geopoliticsbbcworld-news
The Guardian — World Oct 19 Score 0.8159338657407408

US grants deportation reprieve to migrants from Ukraine and Sudan

DHS says migrants ‘retain protections’ after temporary protected status was set to expire on Monday Send us your questions about immigration and the midterms More than 100,000 people from Ukraine and Sudan can stay in the United States without immediate risk o

Geopolitics geopoliticsworld-newsinvestigative
The Verge Oct 19 Score 0.8158225662037037

Elon Musk’s proposed SpaceX stock giveaway would go into 'Trump Accounts'

President Donald Trump announced this afternoon that Elon Musk's SpaceX shares for children will be given through Trump Accounts. Musk said earlier today that he would give one of his SpaceX shares to "every kid in America" sometime next year. Musk had thanked

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
The Verge Oct 19 Score 0.8146369180555556

The fossil fuel comeback is here

The US is building more fossil fuel infrastructure than it has in a decade while renewable energy growth slows down, a new report shows. Electricity demand is also climbing faster than it has in more than a decade with more data centers, factories, and electri

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
The Verge Oct 19 Score 0.8140901587962963

CoreWeave's debt is becoming the whole AI industry's problem

CoreWeave had a bad week last week. Its bonds slipped into distressed territory by a common definition - when investors demand 1,000 basis points more in yield than they'd get from government bonds. Last Tuesady Chamath "SPAC King" Palihapitiya noticed the dis

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
BleepingComputer Oct 19 Score 0.8139932685185186

WordPress SEO plugin Rank Math compromised to backdoor websites

Some downloads of the Rank Math PRO WordPress plugin from the vendor's official website carried malware that planted hidden backdoors in a supply-chain attack last week. [...]

Security securitymalwarevulnerabilities
Wired Oct 19 Score 0.8111743791666667

The Best Mixbook Sale for Holiday Cards (2026)

Mixbook is the best card service I’ve tried, and the brand has multiple sales on holiday cards happening now.

Technology technologyculturesociety
BleepingComputer Oct 19 Score 0.8111076203703704

Hackers hijack AOMEI update servers to secretly spread malware

Hackers reportedly compromised AOMEI's servers to distribute malware through a built-in promotional feature in its backup software, briefly tampering with configuration files before restoring them to their original state to hide the attacks.a [...]

Security securitymalwarevulnerabilities
The Verge Oct 19 Score 0.8097665476851853

Sony’s best noise-canceling earbuds are nearly $100 off today only

For a very limited time, Sony’s latest high-end noise-canceling earbuds are actually cheaper than their last-gen counterpart, the WF-1000XM5. B&H Photo is selling Sony’s latest WF-1000XM6 in black for an all-time low of $238 ($92 off) at checkout. Other re

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
MIT Technology Review Oct 19 Score 0.8089359444444445

Making the internet better for AI agents might make it worse for everyone else

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Until recently, you could divide internet users into just two categories: bots and people. Websites have long allowed

Technology technologyresearchsociety
MIT Technology Review Oct 19 Score 0.8079118703703705

“We were looking at it wrong”: The explosive claim that’s upended the AI world

“I think I have good news about the nature of neural networks.” With those simple words of optimism, Nick Cammarata, a researcher at the AI startup Goodfire, kicked off a 26,000-word blog post that has knocked the AI world on its head, sparking wild speculatio

Technology technologyresearchsociety
BleepingComputer Oct 19 Score 0.8073932685185186

OpenCode hack exposes API keys amid AI distillation attacks

The open-source AI coding project OpenCode has notified a small number of users that API keys they used with external providers were exposed in a security breach. [...]

Security securitymalwarevulnerabilities
MIT Technology Review Oct 19 Score 0.7985808518518519

The Download: preserving the Arctic permafrost, and playful AI agents

This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Inside the quest to combat Arctic fires and save the planet’s frozen carbon —James Temple In July 2021, a wildfire burned

Technology technologyresearchsociety
MIT Technology Review Oct 19 Score 0.7939220555555556

Inside the quest to combat Arctic fires and save the planet’s frozen carbon

In the middle of an especially warm July in 2021, a wildfire ignited in a thick forest of black spruce and peeling paper birch trees on the northern campus of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.  The blaze, possibly sparked by lightning, burned across th

Technology technologyresearchsociety
NBER New Working Papers Oct 20 Score 0.7875000000000001

Foreign Giants' Broad Shoulders: The Causal Effect of Foreign Ideas on U.S. Innovation -- by Tarek Alexander Hassan, Aakash Kalyani, Juan Cruz Lopez Del Valle

We study the role of foreign ideas in U.S. innovation by constructing a directed “genealogy” of technologies from the full text of 13 million patents filed between 1887 and 2024. By tracing which earlier technologies appear in the founding patents of new ones,

Economy economyresearchworking-papersnber
Schneier on Security Oct 16 Score 0.7684914097222222

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Before the Chicxulub Meteor Impact

New research shows that squid lived all around the globe even before the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered. Blog moderation policy.

Security securitycryptographypolicy
GamesIndustry.biz Oct 19 Score 0.7684745310185186

Wizards of the Coast declines to voluntarily recognize D&D and Studio X union drive

Wizards of the Coast is refusing to grant voluntary recognition to a union drive by its Dungeons & Dragons and Studio X teams. Staff will instead vote on joining in a secret-ballot election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. Read more

Gaming gamingindustrybusinessdevelopment
Quanta Magazine Oct 16 Score 0.755667698148148

He Wants AI Benchmarking To Be a Science, Not a Dark Art

Moritz Hardt, author of a new book on benchmarks, believes these “standardized tests” for artificial intelligence are fundamentally broken — but not unfixable. The post He Wants AI Benchmarking To Be a Science, Not a Dark Art first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Science sciencemathematicsphysicsbiology
Schneier on Security Oct 16 Score 0.7517719652777777

Backdooring Open-Weight AI Models

This is a problem: Any open model whose weights have been edited can carry a backdoor, whether it's a task-specific fine-tune, a merged adapter or an abliterated build. We have abliterated models in the title because it's the most popular reason people downloa

Security securitycryptographypolicy
NASA News Oct 20 Score 0.7455706254629629

Curiosity Blog, Sols 5036-5042: Watching the Clouds Go By

Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University Earth planning date: Friday, Oct. 9, 2026 Happy New Mars Year! We mark the start of a new year on Mars at the beginning of the northern hemisphere spring, or the vernal equinox. We then keep tra

Science sciencenasaspace
TechCrunch — AI Oct 19 Score 0.7413433842592593

Embedded AI evaluators won't be an easy solution, Hugging Face's policy chief says

The idea of embedded evaluators — in which supposedly "neutral" third-party observers are placed inside AI organizations — has been popularized over the last several months, as AI labs grapple with a rash of safety incidents that have spurred concerns over the

AI aiindustrystartups
Unit 42 (Palo Alto Networks) Oct 19 Score 0.7409612518518518

Threat Brief: Active Exploitation of PAN-OS CVE-2026-0257 (Updated October 19)

Ransomware operators including Spikey Scorpius (aka Qilin) and Tarnished Scorpius (aka Inc) are exploiting PAN-OS vulnerability CVE-2026-0257. The post Threat Brief: Active Exploitation of PAN-OS CVE-2026-0257 (Updated October 19) appeared first on Unit 42 .

Security securitythreat-researchmalware
Dark Reading Oct 19 Score 0.7386826152777778

Researchers Infiltrate Microsoft Tech Support Scam Operation

A large-scale scam operation impersonating Microsoft uses a malicious traffic distribution system (TDS) run by a Russian organization and abuses thousands of Cloudflare links.

Security securityenterprisethreats
NASA News Oct 19 Score 0.7357622921296296

NASA Improves Shock, Vibration Analysis

Rockets vibrate, shake, and flex intensely as they climb into space, and spacecraft packed with delicate scientific instruments must survive those forces. Before any rocket leaves the ground, NASA engineers work to predict how those stresses will affect every

Science sciencenasaspace
New Scientist Oct 19 Score 0.7349694907407407

Are we about to solve the greatest mystery of the neutrino?

We have long had a seemingly simple question about neutrinos: how much do they weigh? Now, a gigantic experiment in China is poised to find out – and the answer could transform particle physics forever

Science scienceresearchsociety
GitHub Blog Oct 19 Score 0.7346184513888889

How to continue a GitHub Copilot app session in VS Code

Learn how to move an agent session from the GitHub Copilot app into VS Code without losing the conversation, code changes, or working context. The post How to continue a GitHub Copilot app session in VS Code appeared first on The GitHub Blog .

IT itgithubdevelopment
NASA News Oct 19 Score 0.7336271069444444

Software

Research teams at NASA's Glenn Research Center are involved in developing theory and software to predict the noise from aircraft engines. This software helps engineers to design and analyze new and improved aircraft propulsion systems. Copies of our software c

Science sciencenasaspace
NASA News Oct 19 Score 0.7335493291666667

Experimental Facilities

Research teams at the NASA Glenn Research Center perform experiments in world-class facilities such as the 9- by 15-Foot Low-Speed Wind Tunnel (9 x15 LSWT), the Aero-Acoustic Propulsion Laboratory (AAPL), the Small Hot Jet Acoustic Rig (SHJAR), the Nozzle Acou

Science sciencenasaspace
NASA News Oct 19 Score 0.7333544217592592

NASA’s Simulated Mars Crew Marks One Year Inside Habitat

The four crew members in NASA’s simulated Mars mission have spent the past year living and working in isolation in a confined habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Science sciencenasaspace
InfoQ Oct 19 Score 0.7276633638888889

Pinterest Uses Event Time Watermarks to Finalize Petabyte Scale Data Partitions

Pinterest has introduced event time-based partition finalization for its database ingestion framework. The mechanism uses Apache Flink to track event time and Apache Iceberg metadata to publish a non-regressing watermark, helping downstream jobs determine when

IT itengineeringarchitecture
InfoQ Oct 19 Score 0.7274689194444445

JEP 543 Finalizes Structured Concurrency in JDK 28, Ending Seven Preview Rounds

JDK 28 finalizes structured concurrency through JEP 543, with no API changes from JDK 27. Teams on JDK 27 only need to drop --enable-preview and recompile. Code written for JDK 25 or 26 must adapt to the R_X exception type parameter, ExecutionException wrappin

IT itengineeringarchitecture
InfoQ Oct 19 Score 0.7216355861111111

Podcast: The Future of Web Apps: Will AI Agents Generate UIs on the Fly?

Rachel Lee Nabors, former React core team member, dives into the architecture and philosophy behind local-first applications, exploring how small language models (SLMs) running directly on-device can deliver privacy-focused, low-latency, and cost-effective alt

IT itengineeringarchitecture
InfoQ Oct 19 Score 0.7216355861111111

Article: From Microservices to Agents: the Next Evolution of Distributed Systems

The article examines the transition from microservices to agentic AI architecture in distributed systems. Microservices allow for functional decomposition, while agentic systems focus on decision decomposition. This shift introduces new complexities in observa

IT itengineeringarchitecture
Hacker News Oct 20 Score 0.708746773611111

OpenBSD 8.0

Comments

IT itstartupsdevelopmentcommunity
MarketWatch Top Stories Oct 19 Score 0.701830199074074

When should you dump your target-date funds?

Target-date funds aren’t necessarily built to handle many of the decisions retirees face.

Economy economymarketsfinancenews