Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Ravie LakshmananSep 03, 2026Hacking News / Cybersecurity News The worst part is how normal these attacks look. A call from IT. A shared file. A trusted app. A simple request to click “Allow.” Why break in when someone might open the door? That idea runs through this edition. Attackers use real tools, fake login pages, old account links, and software guides that point to unsafe downloads. One wrong letter in a web address can be enough. There is also ransomware, stolen ID data, hidden attack servers, and weak settings that should have been fixed long ago. Here’s the full list.…

In brief OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra, which president Greg Brockman called a “generational leap” and the arrival of AGI. Astra is the first model OpenAI has designated “critical” under its Preparedness Framework for cybersecurity. The model scored 100% on ExploitBench and discovered two zero-day vulnerabilities in Google’s V8 engine during testing. OpenAI on Thursday released GPT-6 Astra, a model president Greg Brockman called a “generational leap in capability” and the arrival of artificial general intelligence, or AGI.In a press briefing, Brockman told reporters he believes Astra meets the bar for AGI, which means artificial intelligence that can match or exceed…

Aging happens at different speeds from one person to another, but it eventually affects everyone. New research from Stanford Medicine, conducted in mice and human cells, points to a particular failure in the immune system that may help explain why. The researchers found that tissue-resident macrophages, a type of immune cell that lives permanently within organs, become less able with age to dispose of another class of immune cells. That decline appears to contribute to aging throughout the body. When the scientists blocked a single receptor on these macrophages, multiple organs in mice retained more youthful characteristics. The effects were…

Texas officials told lawmakers at a state Senate hearing on Tuesday that they want to know how much water data centers across the state are using, but there is no master mailing list. The regulators are thus uncertain whether they’re reaching facility operators at the right address, or if they’re being ignored.  The lack of a definitive list of contact information has made compiling data about the large facilities’ water and power use difficult and incomplete for the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC), the officials said at the Senate Water, Agriculture, and…

French energy giant TotalEnergies and Portugal’s Galp have closed a deal that reshuffles their positions across several offshore Namibian blocks, with the former taking over operatorship of one license, while the latter retains a stake and picks up interests in two others. TotalEnergies used Deepsea Mira rig for its drilling activities in Namibia; Source: Odjell Drilling Galp has completed the deal with TotalEnergies in Namibia, exchanging participation interests in PEL 83, including transfer of operatorship, for positions in PEL 56 and PEL 91. As a result, the Portuguese firm has retained a non-operated 40% participating interest in PEL 83, where…

There’s a fatal flaw to the Trump administration’s recently announced “economic D-Day” against Iran. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared that the new U.S. sanctions and pressure campaign was designed to “sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime” in Iran. But Iran’s single greatest lifeline, China, went unnamed. China has long been the largest buyer of Iranian oil, with some estimates claiming that about 90 percent of Iran’s oil is shipped there through a network of “shadow fleets.” China also offers access to the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) that facilitates bank transfers outside of the U.S. dollar…

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain for the first time on Thursday questioned why Moroccan authorities had failed to stop tens of thousands of migrants from crossing into the Spanish territory of Ceuta in North Africa in July. But he reiterated that his government had seen no evidence that Morocco had “designed or executed” the surge.Mr. Sánchez told Parliament that an investigation would be needed to determine what caused the migrants to rush the border on July 30.“Whether there was incapacity or inaction needs to be clarified,” he said.More than 70,000 migrants rushed into Ceuta — a tiny Spanish exclave…

But the event comes at a time of strained relations between Europe and the U.S., including over space policy. Washington has lobbied against the European Commission’s EU Space Act, a proposed rulebook for space activities the U.S. sees as targeting American companies by imposing EU rules on them.  A Franco-German push to allocate more mobile-satellite frequencies to European companies, including the EU’s IRIS² satellite network, is also angering the U.S.  Brussels, Paris and Berlin do not want Europe’s satellite connectivity to depend entirely on Starlink or other U.S. providers. For Washington, however, it looks like another example of the EU…

Donald Trump has hinted he would not come to the UK’s aid in a potential future conflict with Argentina over the Falkland Islands.In an interview with GB News, the US president said that Britain had “not been there to help me” with his country’s war with Iran, despite later saying his military did not need any support.Trump’s latest remarks come after he previously said the US could revise its neutral position on the islands’ sovereignty if the UK failed to increase defence spending.Argentinian President Javier Milei is due to make a televised statement on Thursday night about what he describes…

TikTok backed out of a congressional committee’s “public roundtable” set for this month over concerns it would be asked about child safety practices, the chair of the committee said.After negotiating “in good faith” to bring TikTok’s chief security officer before the House Select Committee on China to answer questions about Chinese government access to Americans’ data and the TikTok algorithm, Chair John Moolenaar (R-MI) said in a statement Thursday that the company reversed course. “Now, TikTok is refusing to appear citing its own desire to avoid broader scrutiny of its child safety practices,” Moolenaar wrote. TikTok did not immediately respond…