Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Recently, a man I was rock climbing with told me about how he’d used AI to make a motivational poster for himself, which he’d hung on his bedroom wall: a bear, walking a slackline over a canyon, holding a sign that said, “Do cool shit.” I made what I hoped was a polite noise. What reaction was this man looking for? He probably hoped someone, maybe me, would say it was cool or inspiring. It seemed I was not the first person he’d told about this poster. “You know, it’s funny,” he said to me. “No one ever says anything…

Ravie LakshmananAug 10, 2026Ransomware / Cybercrime Microsoft has disclosed that Storm-1175, a financially motivated threat actor linked to China, has deployed a previously undocumented ransomware strain called StormEncryptor. The use of StormEncryptor marks a shift from the adversary’s previous use of Medusa ransomware, the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Team said. “StormEncryptor is written in C++ and appends the file name extension .encrypted to files it encrypts,” Microsoft noted in a series of posts on Bluesky. “It then drops a ransom note named !!!README_FIRST!!!.txt to every scanned directory.” Although the exact vulnerability exploited by the threat actor as part of this campaign…

In brief Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum has elevated quantum security and privacy since its 2023 roadmap. Ethereum researchers are increasingly relying on STARKs and AI-assisted formal verification. The roadmap also includes native rollups and explores a future beyond the EVM. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says quantum resistance, privacy, and AI-assisted security have become greater priorities for Ethereum since he published his 2023 roadmap.In a post on X on Monday, Buterin said he updated his 2023 roadmap to compare its original goals with Ethereum’s current “Strawmap”—a working outline of the network’s long-term technical priorities.“What’s most striking, however, is that some completely…

Norwegian energy data and intelligence company TGS has picked up a new 4D streamer acquisition assignment off the coast of Australia. Ramform Sovereign; Source: TGS TGS has secured the award of a 4D streamer acquisition contract offshore Australia for which the Ramform Sovereign seismic acquisition vessel is scheduled to mobilize in December 2026. The survey is expected to take close to 50 days. No further information about this assignment has been disclosed. The 2008-built vessel, part of the Ramform S-Class, is equipped for multi-sensor, broadband acquisition using TGS GeoStreamer technology and can tow up to 22 streamers. Kristian Johansen, CEO…

Hundreds of firefighters and helicopters battle a growing wildfire at Indonesia’s Mount Bromo.Close to 50,000 firefighters and disaster personnel, backed by dozens of helicopters, are battling wildfires in several parts of Indonesia after an unusually dry season in the sprawling archipelago.Increased El Nino conditions have raised the risk of more forest and land fires during the peak dry season, said Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, Djamari Chaniago, on Monday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listAuthorities in East Java say the largest blaze is in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, where about 743 hectares (1,836 acres) of…

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has donated another $20 million to Build a Better California, an organization advocating against California’s proposed billionaire tax, according to a new filing. That means that the world’s fourth-richest man, whose net worth hovers around $267 billion, has now spent more than $100 million to avoid an estimated $13.3 billion tax payment. California’s Prop 40, known as the billionaire tax, would impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of around 200 billionaires that live in the state. The windfall from this proposed tax would mostly go toward funding California’s healthcare programs. The state’s Medicaid…

A threat actor compromised the upstream infrastructure of BdThemes, a developer of premium WordPress web-design tools, and modified a remote JSON feed delivered to administrators’ browsers to create rogue admin accounts. Starting Saturday, the affected BdThemes products were no longer available for download after the WordPress Plugins team closed all of them pending a full review. BdThemes provides premium WordPress plugins, including Element Pack, Prime Slider, Ultimate Post Kit, Pixel Gallery, and Ultimate Store Kit. Its flagship free Element Pack plugin alone currently shows more than 100,000 active installations on WordPress.org, while the developer advertises a portfolio with over 350,000 active…

In brief AUSTRAC suspended Cryptolink’s VASP registration for three months from August 9, shutting its 96 crypto ATMs. The trigger was missed “basic reporting obligations,” especially threshold transaction reports, plus ignored information requests. It follows an October 2025 enforceable undertaking and a $56,340 fine the company already paid. Australia’s financial-crime regulator AUSTRAC has pulled the plug on the country’s largest Bitcoin and crypto ATM network.The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre said on Monday it suspended Cryptolink Pty Ltd’s registration as a Virtual Asset Service Provider, or VASP, for three months, effective August 9, after the company failed to keep…

As of June 2026, El Niño has officially arrived. This naturally recurring phenomenon is characterized by warmer-than-normal water temperatures in parts of the equatorial Pacific along with changes to atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. Its regional effects range from desert floods to delayed monsoons to shifts in where tropical cyclones are more likely to form. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center expects the current El Niño to continue to strengthen through the end of 2026, with a 97 percent chance of lasting through early Northern Hemisphere spring 2027. Even during El Niño’s early stages, satellites have observed characteristic changes along the equatorial Pacific,…

New Providence Gas (NPG), a joint venture between Shell Bahamas Power Company (Shell) and Sun Oil, a subsidiary of FOCOL Holdings, has chosen PX Group, a portfolio company of Ara Partners, to handle operations and maintenance at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import and regasification terminal under construction in The Bahamas. La Santa Maria platform in operation during a previous LNG discharge test in Norway; Source: ECOnnect PX has been appointed by New Providence Gas as the operations and maintenance partner for the LNG terminal under development at Clifton Pier in New Providence, The Bahamas. This multi-year agreement covers commissioning, operational readiness and long-term…