Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

An independent malware researcher has documented a previously unreported Windows backdoor, dubbed SLEEPWALKER, that stays inert in memory until a specifically crafted network packet reaches the machine and then runs commands written in a 23-instruction language of its own design. The sample is an unsigned 64-bit Windows dynamic-link library (DLL) of 59,904 bytes, built to be side-loaded into ERAAgent.exe, the Windows executable for ESET Management Agent. It impersonates Microsoft’s dpapi.dll, exporting the same seven data protection functions as the genuine system library, and carries a version resource copied from ESET Management Agent. There are no domains, IP addresses or URLs…

In brief OpenAI banned ChatGPT accounts it assessed as very likely originating in Russia. The accounts promoted an ostensible Israeli institute that published copied research under academics’ names. Most posts received few views, though associated Telegram channels had up to 20,000 followers each. A network originating in Russia used ChatGPT to promote an organization that presented itself as an academic institute, according to an OpenAI report published Wednesday.OpenAI said it banned a group of accounts whose operators used Russian-language prompts to generate social media posts and comments, mostly in English. They also instructed ChatGPT to conceal signs that the content…

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now one major step closer to liftoff. On Aug. 21, teams enclosed the observatory inside the protective fairing of its SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The fairing is the large shell that surrounds a spacecraft at the top of a rocket. Standing 43 feet tall, it protects Roman while the observatory is on the ground and during the most violent early stages of launch. Together with specialized ground support equipment, the fairing also keeps the telescope in a controlled environment as…

At least four suspects have been arrested in connection with the deaths of 18 elephants in the Amboseli ecosystem in southern Kenya, near the border with Tanzania. Preliminary investigations by a multiagency team suggest poisoning from agricultural pesticides, authorities say. In July, 16 elephants were found dead at Kimana Sanctuary and Kuku Group Ranch in the Amboseli ecosystem. The death toll rose to 18 in August, after two more elephant carcasses were found in Kitenden B reserve, near the Amboseli National Park. On Aug. 21, Kenya Wildlife Service’s (KWS) communication director Duncan Wanyama told Mongabay by phone that…

Abuja, Nigeria – Khamila Sani Ibrahim remembers growing up in Kano State in northern Nigeria, where opportunities for girls to play organised sport were limited and seeing girls on the basketball court was uncommon.When visiting her grandparents during school holidays, she had to find ways to fit basketball around family expectations.“It is very hard for me to train in basketball,” Ibrahim said. “I only go out to play when they are not around, or I tell them that I’m going to visit my friends, and from there I go to the court.”Across northern Nigerian communities, sports such as basketball and…

Spain’s economy is 10 times bigger than Morocco’s, and the European country was once a colonial overlord there. But, as Jacob Mundy, associate professor of peace and conflict studies at Colgate University, points out, Spain relies on its neighbor for cooperation in a number of areas beyond migration, including anti-narcotics and anti-terrorism operations.  “Spain and Morocco have been at war with each other on and off for centuries and yet they have these profoundly deep, commercial, security and other kinds of relationships,” he said. “You’d think: Spain’s the bigger economy and so on, it’s going to be the one in…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldLisa Cook has rejected Donald Trump’s effort to fire her over “an inadvertent oversight” in mortgage documents as the Federal Reserve governor hit back against the president’s renewed attempt to remove her from office.In a letter on Wednesday, Cook’s lawyers claimed she mistakenly listed two properties as her primary residence, which did not amount to “intentional wrongdoing”. The letter came after the White House wrote to Cook earlier this month to formally notify her that Trump was again considering whether…

Amazon and Nvidia just got a lot closer. The two companies announced Wednesday an expanded partnership that includes a deal to add another 2 million Nvidia GPU chips to Amazon’s data centers. These GPUs, which are designed to handle the heavy compute demands of training and running AI models, include Nvidia Blackwell Ultra, Rubin, and Rubin Ultra GPUs. The chips will head to Amazon Web Services’ data centers in 2027 and 2028.  The announcement, made during Nvidia’s quarterly earnings call, comes just five months after Amazon agreed to deploy more than 1 million Nvidia GPUs across AWS infrastructure starting this year.…

Ravie LakshmananAug 26, 2026Cybercrime / Online Scams An eight-month INTERPOL operation targeting West African organized crime groups has led to arrests of 58 people and the identification of 263 suspects. “The operation, which brought together 22 countries from six continents, is a response to the escalating global threat posed by West African criminal networks – such as the Black Axe and other similar groups,” INTERPOL said. “These groups are responsible for a significant share of the world’s cyber-enabled financial fraud, typically through romance scams, cryptocurrency and investment scams or business email compromise fraud, as well as other serious and violent…

Solana’s mainnet is producing blocks faster after its first staged slot-time reduction moved the network’s target from 400 milliseconds to 350 milliseconds.Faster slots shorten block-level feedback and confirmation thresholds measured in slots, while throughput depends on a separate set of limits.The Solana Foundation confirmed the mainnet change after the feature gate activated at slot 440,208,000, the first slot of epoch 1019. A feature gate is the switch validators use to coordinate a protocol change, and under the one-epoch delay required by SIMD-0525, the new timing applied when epoch 1020 began on Aug. 21.A slot is the window in which a…