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Latest articles — page 14

Google’s privacy pivot: how Personal Intelligence could bring Gmail into ad targeting
Cloud Computing

Google’s privacy pivot: how Personal Intelligence could bring Gmail into ad targeting

Google’s recent tweak to its privacy policy has set off alarm bells for anyone who assumed their Gmail, Photos, or Drive data were strictly off-limits for ad personalization. What looked like a tidy firewall between core productivity apps and advertising now reads with language that opens the door to those services informing ad-related experiences — at least in certain circumstances. The change matters because Google already offers a way to…

Saugata Datta4 min read221
OpenAI Pulls the Plug: Why Frontier Models Will No Longer Train on the Live Internet
Artificial Intelligence

OpenAI Pulls the Plug: Why Frontier Models Will No Longer Train on the Live Internet

OpenAI surprised the AI world this week by announcing it will stop training its most advanced models on the live internet. Instead of letting models access the open web during training, the company will rely on cached copies and simulated internet environments. At first glance the move looks drastic — after all, many researchers assumed that realistic, up-to-date web access was essential for cutting-edge learning. But OpenAI says a string…

Saugata Datta4 min read217
Ruby, GitLab and the Onigmo Flaw: What You Need to Know Now
Cloud Computing

Ruby, GitLab and the Onigmo Flaw: What You Need to Know Now

Ruby shipped emergency patches this week after three bugs in Onigmo, the language’s regular expression engine, were found to underlie four critical GitLab remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities. The issues let specially crafted patterns corrupt memory during regex compilation, and because GitLab compiles user-supplied patterns in some features, the result was severe: multiple high-severity CVEs, including unauthenticated 10.0-rated flaws. This post explains what happened, who’s at risk, and the practical…

Saugata Datta4 min read221
WhatsApp’s New SIM Rule: What India’s 2027 Requirement Means for Users
Cybersecurity

WhatsApp’s New SIM Rule: What India’s 2027 Requirement Means for Users

WhatsApp users in India are facing a potential change that could alter how accounts work on secondary devices. Under new directions from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) tied to the Telecom Cyber Security Rules, messaging services may be required to keep an ongoing link between an account and the SIM card registered to that number. With an expected implementation window beginning January 1, 2027, and a compliance deadline of December…

Saugata Datta4 min read220
Kentik Links Foreign Traffic Floods to North Korea .kp Outage
Cloudflare

Kentik Links Foreign Traffic Floods to North Korea .kp Outage

Multiple waves of traffic this week knocked large parts of North Korea’s public internet offline, leaving more than 40 .kp websites intermittently unreachable for roughly 32 hours. The outages began in the early hours of October 20 (02:01 UTC) and affected core services including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Korean Central News Agency. Internet measurement firm Kentik, through its internet analysis director Doug Madory, traced sudden traffic floods…

Saugata Datta3 min read220
Stadia RAT: StealC’s Comeback Brings Hidden Desktop Control and Browser Theft to Windows PCs
Automation

Stadia RAT: StealC’s Comeback Brings Hidden Desktop Control and Browser Theft to Windows PCs

The StealC operation that law enforcement disrupted this summer has not disappeared — it has evolved. Researchers recently identified a rebuilt strain, marketed as Stadia, that fuses credential theft with a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) feature set designed to give operators secret, persistent control over infected Windows machines. While the takedown seized infrastructure, surviving code and a ready customer base appear to have enabled the seller to rebrand and relaunch…

Saugata Datta4 min read224
Windows Server 2016: Why January 2027 Is a Hard Deadline for Administrators
Cloud Computing

Windows Server 2016: Why January 2027 Is a Hard Deadline for Administrators

Microsoft’s long-term support clock for Windows Server 2016 is winding down: the January 2027 security update will be the last one published for this OS, and after January 12, 2027, systems still running Windows Server 2016 will no longer receive monthly security updates. That simple sentence changes the risk profile for any environment still depending on 2016-era servers. If your estate includes domain controllers, application servers, or infrastructure appliances on…

Saugata Datta4 min read229
BlackX Bootkit: How Attackers Bypass Windows Secure Boot on Patched Systems
Cybersecurity

BlackX Bootkit: How Attackers Bypass Windows Secure Boot on Patched Systems

A sophisticated UEFI bootkit called BlackX has been observed in targeted cyberespionage campaigns against diplomatic organizations in Central Asia. Even on systems that showed up-to-date Windows patches, attackers found a path to run code before Windows started by exploiting gaps in how Secure Boot protections were deployed. The discovery highlights a subtle but critical distinction between installing updates and fully activating the firmware-level protections those updates are intended to enable.…

Saugata Datta4 min read225
ArtCraft, Get Craft Apps, and the New Open-Source Beat in Creative Software
Open Source

ArtCraft, Get Craft Apps, and the New Open-Source Beat in Creative Software

For years, creative professionals and hobbyists alike have chosen established, paid suites for design, illustration, audio, and motion work. Lately, a new class of open-source “get craft” apps — exemplified by projects like ArtCraft — has begun to shift that balance. These tools are not just affordable alternatives; they are changing workflows, challenging licensing models, and proving that community-driven software can deliver the polish and interoperability pros expect. This piece…

Saugata Datta5 min read231
Critical Okta Access Gateway Flaw Could Let Admin-Level Input Trigger System Commands
Cybersecurity

Critical Okta Access Gateway Flaw Could Let Admin-Level Input Trigger System Commands

Okta has published an advisory about a high-severity vulnerability in Okta Access Gateway that can allow specially crafted administrative input to trigger system command execution inside the appliance. The issue highlights the continuing importance of limiting and monitoring privileged access to management consoles and of applying vendor patches quickly when they address control-plane weaknesses. What happened Okta disclosed CVE-2026-115547, a vulnerability affecting Okta Access Gateway releases prior to 2026.10.2. According…

Saugata Datta3 min read232
Node2Shell: Crafted Brotli Data Lets Code Run in an Official Node.js Build — What Operators Need to Know
Cybersecurity

Node2Shell: Crafted Brotli Data Lets Code Run in an Official Node.js Build — What Operators Need to Know

Imperva researchers have demonstrated a proof-of-concept exploit—dubbed “Node2Shell”—that uses crafted Brotli-compressed data to achieve remote code execution (RCE) against an official Node.js 24.22.0 build for Linux arm64. The issue, tracked as CVE-2026-111497, was disclosed by Node.js and patched on October 21, 2026. While the demonstration did not work reliably on every attempt and targeted a specific build and architecture, it highlights a real risk for services that decode untrusted Brotli…

Saugata Datta5 min read233
Firewall Fallout: How k0t Exploited Exposed Edge Devices to Harvest 70,000+ Credentials
Cybersecurity

Firewall Fallout: How k0t Exploited Exposed Edge Devices to Harvest 70,000+ Credentials

Security teams woke up to a coordinated campaign that systematically targeted internet-facing firewalls and VPN appliances, resulting in the exposure of more than 70,000 credentials and LDAP dumps. Researchers from Group-IB and NyxLab attribute the activity to an operator tracked as k0t (also known as CryptoFeel, Member19, and QazWsxShop). The intrusions—detected largely between February and June 2026—rely less on high-value targeting and more on mass enumeration of exposed devices, leaving…

Saugata Datta4 min read233
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