By Siôn Geschwindt British startup Earthwave and a group of European scientists have used satellite data to map out glacial melt across the globe — and the results are alarming. The team discovered that the European Alps’ glaciers have shrunk the most of all — 39% in just over two decades, compared to a global average of 5%. Earthwave co-founder Livia Jakob said the project was invaluable to our understanding of glacier ice loss.  “We developed an algorithm to combine all the different datasets into one common estimate of glacier mass balance, giving us a new and improved picture of glacier behaviour in…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Hisan Kidwai Steam Cloud is one of the best parts of modern gaming, as it allows you to…
The post How to Download Saved Files from Steam Cloud? appeared first on Fossbytes.

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By Deepti Pathak HP launched the Victus 15 gaming laptop in India on February 17, 2025, focusing on providing…
The post HP Launches Victus 15 in India: Packed with AMD Ryzen 9 appeared first on Fossbytes.

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In a new study, researchers at Virginia Tech spelled out a variety of security hazards that could compromise mixed-reality systems.

The researchers highlighted security threats involving the manipulation of virtual objects when users collaborated via mixed reality headsets. The work involved 20 participants from the school, with most having little or no experience with mixed-reality headsets. In many cases, the participants did not know they were being attacked; instead, they blamed technical glitches or latency issues for the problems they encountered.

“Malicious entities could exploit vulnerabilities to disrupt critical collaborations, manipulating users’ perception of the environment, and impairing their ability to coordinate, potentially resulting in physical or psychological harm to users and bystanders,” the researchers said.

There has not been enough focus on potential vulnerabilities within the XR platforms, said Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

“The reality is that a lot of these platforms are pretty closed and it’s hard to evaluate the code,” Sag said.

The study was done using a HoloLens 2 headset, which Microsoft discontinued last year. The HoloLens 2 platform is out of date, Sag noted, something the researchers acknowledged.

“There are only a few collaboration platforms in use today for enterprise and defense, and a good chunk of the potentially vulnerable collaboration tools most likely don’t connect to the open internet,” Sag said. “That’s why I think a lot of the implementations that the government wants to use — or any kind of secure applications like enterprises [rely on] — need to have code evaluations and audits.”

The researchers said the attacks would be difficult for users to comprehend and identify. “An attack might alter the environment for one user without affecting the view of others or disrupt communication between users at a critical moment,” the researchers said. 

They noted the possibility of a “click redirection attack,” which they likened to web-based clickjacking. In this case, a malicious party could attack a 3D object in a collaborators’ field of view. When the person tries to move the object, the action affects another 3D object instead.

“The collaborative environment can make the unintended movement of virtual objects a potential cause of mistrust and confusion between the collaborators,” the researchers wrote.

Another attack — called an “object occlusion attack”— involved placing an invisible barrier on 3D objects to prevent interaction from a distance. And a “spatial occlusion attack” expanded that concept by placing an invisible boundary over a larger region and blocking interaction with multiple objects. 

Occlusion attacks could affect productivity in projects as collaborators might not have similar fields of view. That kind of attack would force headset users to get closer to virtual objects before they interact with them.

The researchers also launched a latency attack by slowing network speeds between participants’ headsets. The network attack significantly undermined the user experience.

To safeguard virtual systems, the researchers recommended educating users about potential security threats and building in security by design. Safety measures could include auditory cues to identify the location of objects and a warning system to identify security threats.

Additionally, headset developers could include UI changes with toggles and controls that “highlight all objects in the environment similar to basic 3D view management,” the researchers wrote.

The research study was written by Maha Sajid, Syed Ibrahim Mustafa Shah Bukhari, Bo Ji, and Brendan David-John. They could not be reached for comment.

Source:: Computer World

A new report by UK analyst firm Say No to Disinfo and communications firm Fenimore Harper indicates a high risk that AI-generated disinformation could create bank runs that could bring down financial institutions, according to Reuters.

In an experiment, a number of UK customers were shown AI-generated rumors about their bank. Afterwards, a third said they were “very likely” to withdraw their money, with 27% saying they were “quite likely” to do so.

According to the report, spending as little as £10 (about $12.60) on a fake AI message would be enough to persuade customers to withdraw more than $1 million from the bank in question.

Two years ago, false rumors that spread on social media sites about Silicon Valley Bank led customers to withdraw $42 billion in one day. The bank ended up being closed down.

Source:: Computer World

By Thomas Macaulay Do you remember your first phone? The thought of mine brings a tear to my eye. It was a beautiful blue Nokia 3310 — and it was borderline indestructible. Best of all, the handset had the greatest mobile feature of all time: Snake. It also offered calls and SMS, but I had little use for those extravagances. I had a pay-as-you-go contract, and money was tight back then. I also had a home phone — and Mum footed the bills. As for SMS, what was the point of that when you had the joys of MSN Messenger available for free?…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Thomas Macaulay British tech mogul Mel Morris has announced the general release of AI research engine Corpora.ai. The system provides a new approach to research. Built to generate comprehensive reports from single prompts, Corpora promises in-depth analysis and accurate outputs. Speed is another big selling point. According to Corpora, the engine can process 2 million documents per second. After receiving a prompt, the AI model scans through academic papers, news articles, legal documents, and other data on the web. The content is then compiled into summaries or reports. Corpora has shared an array of the results. They range from analyses of autism and…This story continues at The Next Web

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By Deepti Pathak You’re not alone if you came upon WYF on Snapchat and aren’t sure what it means….
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By Hisan Kidwai Smartphones are essential in the 21st century, helping us make calls, pay bills, and watch content….
The post How to Block a Website & Limit Apps on iPhone? appeared first on Fossbytes.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has gained significant traction among business leaders keen to explore ways it can drive operational efficiencies and cost savings.

But while top leadership is sold on its potential, it’s a different tale for IT teams working the ground. In Australia, the challenges of implementing AI are particularly pronounced, ranging from limited expertise and siloed operations to the rising tide of cybersecurity risks. It’s no surprise then that in the face of complexity, companies are not sure how to take the first step towards smooth and successful AI deployments.

Australia’s AI challenges

Access to skilled resources, funding issues and keeping ahead of AI’s rapid evolution are just some of the challenges that make it difficult to implement AI solutions uniformly in Australia. For mid-market companies in highly regulated industries, such as finance, energy, and utilities, addressing cybersecurity concerns and responsible AI implementation are also on the list.

“From an AI context, their challenges are similar to other sectors. This includes access to talent, quality of data, integration with legacy systems, change management, and ethical and regulatory concerns. However, they also face heightened cyber threats and fraud, driven by threat actors leveraging AI to become more sophisticated. The consequence of a breach can be significant from both a financial and consumer trust perspective,” explains John Hanna, Neudesic Australia

Ultimately, the breadth of data mid-market companies in finance, energy, and utilities need to deal with is beyond the capabilities of existing systems that rely on the identification of known patterns or human analysis. “By adopting AI, these companies gain the capability to analyse information at scale and speed to identify and stop these threats before they significantly impact the business,” adds Hanna.

To overcome these challenges, Neudesic helps organisations through its expertise, cutting-edge technology, and strong partnerships with Microsoft, having won the Microsoft Partner of the Year award over 20 times. As a global professional services firm, Neudesic is now bringing decades of experience delivering capabilities spanning data and AI, cloud migration and modernisation, application development, and business strategy to Australia.

Hanna shares Neudesic’s approach, which comprises four pillars.

People: Its diverse array of internal experts spanning industries, skillsets, and Microsoft Azure and OpenAI solutions help clients address a wide spectrum of business challenges for any organisation

Approach: It achieves results not only by implementing Microsoft and OpenAI solutions, but also by addressing today’s challenges, identifying tomorrow’s opportunities, and designing the best path forward

Technology: It focuses on innovation to develop solutions that meet clients’ needs while accelerating time to value

Expertise: With 20 years of expertise in Microsoft’s stack, it offers clients expert knowledge to tackle critical IT challenges and unlock new opportunities

Neudesic’s process starts with understanding each client’s business needs, followed by collaborative workshops and rapid prototyping. The team will then develop a roadmap aligned with a client’s goals and ensure ongoing model refinement, data updates, and process improvements.

“We are also backed by IBM and Microsoft. What this means for customers is access to the expertise and experience of experts across both tech stacks dedicated to solving the most critical IT challenges of Australian businesses and capturing new growth opportunities,” says Hanna.

Simplifying critical industry processes with AI

A clear example of how Neudesic is driving AI is in simplifying the Know Your Customer (KYC) process in finance, also known as identity verification.

KYC is where good customer experience is critical, but traditional KYC processes can take days or even weeks. According to a report conducted by financial compliance software company Fenergo, eight out of ten survey respondents would lose clients to an inefficient onboarding process. More than ever, there is a need for streamlined and intelligent document processing solutions to stay competitive.  

Neudesic’s Document Intelligence Platform helps automate the KYC process by capturing customer data from various formats, cross-referencing it with databases, and validating the information in real-time. It also streamlines compliance with customer identification programs. 

What does this mean for financial organisations? They can now handle high volumes of KYC checks without additional staffing, while automation cuts operational costs. Real-time verification speeds up processes like account openings and loan approvals so that banks can acquire and manage customer assets sooner. What’s more, the platform integrates seamlessly with existing systems like Fenergo for a more robust and efficient workflow.

By partnering with integrators like Neudesic, Australian businesses can deploy AI through a proven, logical methodology and unlock the ability to invest and accelerate AI use based on business demand and available capital.

“Every business dreams big with AI but can stumble when turning ambition into action. Success demands strategy, tailored solutions, and expert guidance. With a trusted partner, businesses can avoid common pitfalls and mistakes that will result in less investment remorse and create business confidence in AI faster than would otherwise be possible,” concludes Hanna.

Learn more about how Neudesic can help Australian organisations go forward in AI, confidently.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt The US continues to hog the global herd of unicorns, dwarfing the EU in both the number and total valuation of billion-dollar startups. However, the Netherlands provides a minor bright spot, according to a new report by PwC.    More than 3,000 companies worldwide have reached unicorn status since 2013, collectively reaching a staggering valuation of $27 trillion, according to the study. The US accounts for 55% of these and a whopping 75% of their total valuation.   In stark contrast, the EU has contributed just 9% of billion-dollar startups and generated 4% of global unicorn value in that timeframe.  Despite the…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Anthropic has asked a US court for permission to intervene in the remedy phase of an antitrust case against Google, arguing that the US government’s call for a ban on Google investing in AI developers could hurt it.

Analysts suggest the AI startup’s fears are founded, and that it risks losing customers if the government’s proposal is adopted.

“Its enterprise clients might face uncertainties regarding the continuity of services and support, potentially affecting their operations,” said Charlie Dai, principal analyst at Forrester.

The government’s proposed remedies including the ban on AI investments after the US District Court for the District of Columbia found the search giant guilty of maintaining a monopoly in online search and text advertising markets in August 2024.

The proposed investment ban is aimed at stopping Google from gaining control over products that deal with or control consumer search information, and in addition to preventing further investment in any AI startup would also force it to sell stakes it currently holds, including the $3 billion one in Anthropic.

On Friday, Anthropic filed a request to participate in the remedy phase of the trial as an amicus curiæ or friend of the court.

“A forced, expedited sale of Google’s stake in Anthropic could depress Anthropic’s market value and hinder Anthropic’s ability to raise the capital needed to fund its operations in the future, seriously impacting Anthropic’s ability to develop new products and remain competitive in the tight race at the AI frontier,” the AI startup said in a court filing justifying the request.

It said it had contacted representatives for the plaintiffs in the case — the US government and several US states — seeking to influence the proposal.

Remedy wouldn’t just affect Google

While Anthropic’s primary concern is that the proposed investment ban could hurt the value of the company, it is also worried that it could put it on the back foot against rivals.

“This would provide an unjustified windfall to Anthropic’s much larger competitors in the AI space —including OpenAI, Meta, and ironically Google itself, which (through its DeepMind subsidiary) markets an AI language model, Gemini, that directly competes with Anthropic’s Claude line of products,” the company said in the filing.

Abhivyakti Sengar, senior analyst at Everest Group also shares Anthropic’s view on the effect of the proposed ban.

“Forcing Google to sell its stake in Anthropic throws a wrench into one of the AI industry’s most significant partnerships,” Sengar said, adding that while it might not cause an immediate loss of customers, any disruption to the performance or reliability of Anthropic’s models or its innovation speed could drive business towards its rivals.

The AI startup, additionally, tried to differentiate itself with rivals, such as OpenAI, by pointing out that unlike its competitors it is not owned or dominated by a single technology giant.

“While both Amazon and Google have invested in Anthropic, neither company exercises control over Anthropic. Google, in particular, owns a minority of the company and it has no voting rights, board seats, or even board observer rights,” it said in the filing.

Further, it said that Google doesn’t have any exclusive rights to any of its products despite investing nearly $3 billion since 2022 in two forms, direct equity purchase and purchases of debt instruments that can be converted into equity.

AI was “never part of the case”

Among the arguments that Anthropic makes against the proposed remedy, it notes that neither it nor Google’s other AI investments were ever a part of the case.

“Neither complaint alleged any anticompetitive conduct related to AI, and neither mentioned Anthropic. The only mention of AI in either complaint was a passing reference in the US Plaintiffs’ complaint to AI ‘voice assistants’ as one of several ‘access points’ through which mobile-device users could access Google’s search services,” it said in the filing.

In addition, it claimed that forcing Google to sell its stake could diminish Anthropic’s “ability to fund its operations and potentially depress its market value” as alternative investors deal in millions and not the billions Google invested.

“Forcing Google to sell its entire existing stake in Anthropic within a short period of time would flood the market, sating investors who would otherwise fund Anthropic in the future,” it said in the filing.

Analysts too warned that the future of Anthropic’s operations and its ability to retain customers will depend on the startup’s ability to secure investment if the proposal is adopted.

That, said Everest’s Sengar, “will determine whether it will be a setback or an opportunity for greater independence in the AI race.”

Forrester’s Dai agreed, adding that if Anthropic can quickly reassure its customers and demonstrate a clear plan for continuity and innovation, it may retain their trust and loyalty.

Source:: Computer World

By Hisan Kidwai Gaming has come a long way since the days of sitting in front of the TV,…
The post 5 Best Handheld Emulator Consoles of 2025 appeared first on Fossbytes.

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By Hisan Kidwai Chrome is the best browser for most people, thanks to its fast, functional UI and seamless…
The post How to Change Default Search Engine in Chrome on Mobile & Desktop appeared first on Fossbytes.

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By Olena Petrosyuk Sustainability tech has been all the buzz in the last few years. Investors are hunting promising ESG businesses, governments are pushing ambitious legislation, and companies are getting on board to adopt new solutions. Sustainability funding is projected to reach unprecedented levels, with BCG Henderson Institute estimating accumulated global investment to achieve net zero to hit $75 trillion by 2050.  And yet, behind the curtain, the picture isn’t quite as rosy. According to Statista, VC investment in sustainability and climate tech has been steadily declining since 2021. While AI startups often manage to secure funding rounds within mere weeks, sustainability-focused companies…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Microsoft released 63 patches for Windows, Microsoft Office, and developer platforms in this week’s Patch Tuesday update. The February release was a relatively light update, but it comes with significant testing requirements for networking and remote desktop environments. 

Two zero-day Windows patches (CVE-2025-21391 and CVE-2025-21418) have been reported as exploited and another Windows update (CVE-2025-21377) has been publicly disclosed — meaning IT admins get a “Patch Now” recommendation for this month’s Windows updates. (All other Microsoft platforms can be handled with a standard update schedule — and there were no updates for Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server.)

To navigate these changes, the team from Readiness has provided a detailed infographic exploring the deployment risks.

(For information on the last six months of Patch Tuesday releases, see our round-up here.)

Known issues 

Microsoft identified three ongoing issues affecting users of Windows 10, Citrix, and Windows Server 2022 this month, including:

Windows 10/11 and Sever 2022: Enterprise Windows customers are still reporting SSH connection issues since the October 2024 update. Microsoft is investigating the issue, but has no published fixes or mitigating actions. It’s a challenge for Microsoft since the service failure does not generate logs or error messages.

Citrix: Microsoft’s January updates — and potentially this month’s releases — are still affected by the Citrix Session Recording Agent (SRA) preventing the successful installation of Microsoft patches. This is an ongoing issue with no fixes yet, though we expect the number of users affected is much lower than the SSH service issue.

Microsoft’s System Guard Runtime Monitor Broker Service (SGMBS) may be causing system level crashes and telemetry issues with the event viewer log since last month’s Patch Tuesday release. Microsoft technical support has offered a registry level change to update the service and mitigate the issue. We expect an update from Microsoft later this month on a more permanent resolution. 

Major revisions and mitigations

As of Feb. 14, the Readiness team has not received any published revisions or updates. Microsoft did offer a mitigation for a serious vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook (CVE-2025-21298). Perhaps less helpful than you’d expect, Microsoft recommends viewing emails in plain text to mitigate this critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability, which could otherwise grant attackers control over the target system.

Windows lifecycle and enforcement updates

Microsoft published no enforcement updates this month, but the following products are nearing  their end-of-service life cycles:

Windows 11 Enterprise and Education, Version 22H2 — Oct. 14, 2025

Windows Server Annual Channel, Version 23H2 — Oct. 24, 2025

Windows 11 Home and Pro, Version 23H2 — Nov. 11, 2025

Each month, the Readiness team provides detailed, actionable testing guidance for the latest Patch Tuesday updates based on assessing a large app portfolio and a offering comprehensive analyses of the patches and their potential impact on Windows and application deployments.

For this cycle, we grouped the critical updates and required testing efforts into different functional areas, including:

Networking and Remote Desktop services

Winsock: Microsoft advises that a multipoint socket (type c_root) is created and employed with the following operations: bind, connect, and listen. The socket should close successfully.

DHCP: Create test scenarios to validate Windows DHCP client operations (discover, offer, request, and acknowledgment (ACK)).

RDP: Ensure that you can configure Microsoft RRAS servers through netsh commands.

ICS: Ensure that Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) can be configured over Wi-Fi.

FAX/Telephony: Ensure that your test scenarios include TAPI (Telephony Application Programming Interface) initialization and shutdown operations. Since these tests require an extended runtime, allocate extra time for them.

Local Windows File System and storage

Ensure that File Explorer correctly renders URL file icons. Microsoft recommends testing the Storage Sense clean-up tool. If disk quotas are enabled, confirm that all I/O workloads function as expected.

Local and domain security

Domain controllers should continue to support certificate logons after applying the updates.

Kerberos: Microsoft recommends creating authentication scenarios for domain-joined systems, using local and encrypted login methods.

If you have the time and resources (VMs and networking), the Readiness team strongly recommends building a test Remote Desktop environment that includes a connection broker, remote desktop gateway, and remote desktops on virtual machines. After setting up each component, verify that all RDP connections are established successfully.

This month, testing Microsoft’s ICS functionality requires an extended test plan covering the following areas:

Usability testing: Create test scenarios to verify that the process of enabling/disabling ICS functions as expected.

Validation: Microsoft recommends confirming that Network Address Translation (NAT) correctly translates private IP addresses to that of the shared connection.

Security: Ensure that ICS traffic adheres to existing firewall rules and does not create unintended security risks.

Each month, we break down the update cycle into product families (as defined by Microsoft) with the following basic groupings: 

Browsers (Microsoft IE and Edge) 

Microsoft Windows (both desktop and server) 

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server 

Microsoft Developer Tools (Visual Studio and .NET)

Adobe (if you get this far) 

Browsers

Microsoft released a larger-than-normal number of patches for the Edge browser this month — 10, all rated important. These updates are a mix of Chromium (CVE-2025-0444, CVE-2025-0445 and CVE-2025-0451) and Edge patches that deal with memory related security vulnerabilities. All of these low-profile changes can be added to your standard release calendar.

Microsoft Windows

These areas have been updated with two critical patches and 35 important patches this patch cycle:

Win32 and Kernel Services

Remote Desktop, RAS  and Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)

Kerberos, DHCP  and Windows Networking

Microsoft Active Directory and Windows Installer

Though the Windows NTLM patch (CVE-2025-21377) has been rated important, it has been publicly disclosed. Two more updates (both rated important) affecting storage (CVE-2025-21391) and networking (CVE-2025-21418) have reportedly been exploited in the wild. These reports raise the stakes for an otherwise low-profile Windows update, so the Readiness team recommends a “Patch Now” schedule for these.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft released a single critical update for Microsoft Excel and nine more rated as important for Microsoft Office and the SharePoint platforms. None of these  vulnerabilities have been reported as exploited or publicly disclosed. So, add these Office updates to your standard release calendar.

Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server

No updates were released for either Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server this month. 

Developer Tools

Microsoft released four updates to Microsoft Visual Studio, all of which are rated important. One of these updates (CVE-2023-32002) may look a little odd as the date refers to 2023, not 2025. However, it appears legitimate. Though it has been categorized under Microsoft’s Visual Studio product grouping, this patch attempts to resolve a vulnerability in Node.js. Add these updates (even the funny looking ones) to your standard developer release schedule.

Adobe (and 3rd party updates)

Microsoft did not push out any Adobe updates. However, HackerOne required a patch to the developer framework Node.js to resolve a network related vulnerability (CVE-2025-21418). 

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt “For the third time, stop tapping!” my primary school teacher screams at me from across the room. I must not have heard her the first two times. I’d been drumming on the desk again, using my fingers for sticks and the floor beneath for a kick drum. While my body was in maths class, my mind was elsewhere.   It was 1970. I was John Bonham, drummer of legendary rock band Led Zeppelin, on stage at the Royal Albert Hall, performing “Moby Dick” — one of the most iconic drum solos of all time. The lights are low, the atmosphere electric,…This story continues at The Next Web

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By Siôn Geschwindt Europe is home to twice as many climate tech startups as the US (30,000 vs. 14,300). However, limited access to VC funding is forcing these early-stage companies to seek capital from outside the continent, according to a new report released at the Munich Security Conference today. Venture financing in Europe averaged just 0.2% of GDP between 2013 and 2023, a fraction of the US average of 0.7%. While the continent is great at creating clean tech companies, it’s not so good at funding them.  The authors of The Importance of Climate Tech for European Resilience report — the World Fund,…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Hisan Kidwai Every day, we open Google to search for something dozens of times, only to be greeted…
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By Deepti Pathak Page numbers help keep your work organized and make it simpler to refer to, whether it’s…
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