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Rabi LakshmananFebruary 5, 2026Botnet/Network Security The distributed denial of service (DDoS) botnet known as AISURU/Kimwolf is believed to be responsible for the record-setting attack, which lasted just 35 seconds at a peak of 31.4 terabits per second (Tbps). Cloudflare, which automatically detected and mitigated this activity, said it was part of a growing volume of HTTP DDoS attacks launched by botnets in Q4 2025. The attack occurred in November 2025. AISURU/Kimwolf is also linked to another DDoS campaign codenamed The Night Before Christmas that was launched on December 19, 2025. According to Cloudflare, the average size of hypervolume DDoS attacks…
Meta is testing a standalone Vibes app, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday. Launched last September, Vibes lets you create and share short-form AI-generated videos and access a dedicated feed that shows other users’ AI videos. Think TikTok or Instagram Reels. But all the videos you see are generated by AI. Previously, feeds existed within the Meta AI app. By making Vibes available outside of the Meta AI app, the company is positioning it as a more direct competitor to Sora, OpenAI’s AI-generated video and social app, which was released shortly after Vibes. “Following strong early traction for Vibes…
Many tiny flecks of ancient water are trapped inside the oldest and most famous Martian meteorite ever to fall to Earth, a new study has found. The surprising discovery, achieved using a new form of ‘neutron scanning’, reveals further clues about Mars’ watery past, which may have been the setting for the flourishing of extraterrestrial life.Meteorite NWA 7034, commonly known as Black Beauty, is an approximately 11-ounce (320-gram) chunk of Mars that was ejected when another space rock crashed into the Red Planet. It was discovered in 2011 by nomads in the Moroccan region of the Sahara Desert, but it…
The biggest question in fusion power generation remains unanswered: How can we ensure that the cost of starting a fusion reaction is not higher than the price at which we can sell the power? Many people have ideas, but no one has solved it yet. Commonwealth Fusion Systems, for example, is confident enough that it is building a huge nuclear reactor that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. But for now, the question remains open, as the device won’t be powered on until next year. Other recently formed companies, such as Pacific Fusion, see an opportunity to build fusion…
Deer headdresses unearthed at an archaeological site in Germany reveal that Stone Age hunter-gatherers shared sacred objects, tools and ideas with farming communities some 7,500 years ago, a new study reveals.The ancient farming village near Eilsleben, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Hannover in northern Germany, was “a kind of outpost” for some of Europe’s first farmers, the study’s lead author Laura Dietrich, an archaeologist at Germany’s Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, told Live Science.The site was discovered in the 1970s and has undergone extensive excavations since then. Recent geomagnetic analysis reveals that it was nearly 20 acres (8 hectares)…
The data breach at government technology giant Conduent appears to have affected far more people than initially revealed, with the number of victims potentially reaching tens of millions across the United States. A ransomware attack in January 2025 that shut down Conduent’s operations for several days is now known to have affected at least 15.4 million people in Texas alone, roughly half the state’s population. Conduent announced in October that 4 million people were affected across the state. An additional 10.5 million people are affected across Oregon, according to the state attorney general. Conduent has also notified hundreds of thousands…
An AI lab called Fundamental emerged from stealth on Thursday to offer a new underlying model for solving an old problem: how to extract insights from the vast amounts of structured data that companies generate. The company believes that by combining older systems of predictive AI with more modern tools, it can reshape the way large enterprises analyze data. “LLM is great for processing unstructured data like text, audio, video, and code, but it’s not very good at processing structured data like tables,” CEO Jeremy Fraenkel told TechCrunch. “With our model Nexus, we built the best underlying model to process…
Newsletter platform Substack confirmed the data breach in an email to users. The company announced in October that an “unauthorized third party” had accessed user data, including email addresses, phone numbers, and other unspecified “internal metadata.” Substack specified that more sensitive data such as credit card numbers, passwords, and other financial information will not be affected. In an email to users, Substack CEO Chris Best said the company identified an issue in February that allowed someone to gain access to its systems. Best said Substack resolved the issue and began an investigation. “We are contacting you to inform you of…
Artificial intelligence (AI) models are playing the popular tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) to help researchers develop long-term strategies and test their ability to collaborate with other AI systems and human players.In the study, presented at the NeurIPS 2025 conference in San Diego from Dec. 2 to Dec. 7, researchers said D&D is an ideal test bed because of the game’s unique blend of creativity and strict rules.To be successful in the game, models must demonstrate the ability to plan, communicate, and remember, as well as demonstrate awareness of their opponent’s tactics and intentions. D&D provides a context…
Mati Staniszewski, co-founder and CEO of Eleven Labs, says voice is becoming the next major interface for AI, meaning models are moving beyond text and screens and increasingly the way people interact with machines. Speaking at the Web Summit in Doha, Staniszewski told TechCrunch that speech models like the one developed by Eleven Labs are now moving beyond simply imitating human speech (including emotion and intonation) to working in conjunction with the inference capabilities of larger language models. As a result, he argued, the way people interact with technology will change. In the next few years, he said, “hopefully all…