How many group chats are you involved in? For me, it varies. Right now, there are only two — and both are of a more private nature.

Group chats are something that’s not really discussed much; they represent a newer technical form of communication that perhaps is better understood as a way of organizing oneself socially. As such, it has emerged sort of organically.

It has never been a “trend” to start group chats and there is really no major innovation behind it. Despite that, almost everyone now participates in various forms of group chats. It can be with family or friends, for parents in a school class, the football team, different groups or project teams at work, and so on. The simplicity of setting them up and the immediacy of communication has allowed group chat to impact our society at all levels.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but it was, of course, brought to the fore by the news this week in the US of the “Signal Chat”, where Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, was accidentally invited to a Trump administration war chat. Goldberg suddenly found himself in a group chat with the US Secretary of Defense, the Vice President, the National Security Advisor, the head of the CIA and a number of others; the purpose of the group was to plan bombings of Houthi rebels in Yemen.

That a group chat, even on a secure service like Signal, was used for this purpose — and that a journalist happened to be invited to it — became a major scandal that has put some unusual pressure on the Trump administration.

But this is far from the first time a group chat has taken the form of a corridor of power. Remember the UK government’s Whatsapp groups during the COVID-19 pandemic? They came under intense scrutiny when the handling of the pandemic was later investigated. And in Sweden, there is the “Gingänget” in Alingsås, where top political parties vied for power in a secret group chat that was revealed by the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper, resulting in resignations.

Outside the world of politics, another example involved the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank two years ago. It turned out that the bank run was fueled by large group chats for startup entrepreneurs where panic started to spread and everyone suddenly withdrew their money at the same time.

Over the years, it has also been revealed several times that Swedish police officers have communicated in group chats on Whatsapp and just the other week Dagens Nyheter reported that there is apparently a group chat for Swedish billionaires used to share private flights with each other.

As I said, group chats are not a new phenomenon and similar ways of communicating digitally have been around since the internet went mainstream. For a while, mailing lists were popular and more tech-savvy people had chats on IRC. But since Slack, Teams, Whatsapp, Messenger and Signal made group chats more accessible, their use has become a real grassroots movement, organizing everything from everyday tasks to world politics.

Is this a problem? Yes, sometimes it is. The exercise of power without transparency is always problematic, and there’s a reason why democratic countries have laws requiring that important communications be documented and preserved. The latest “Signal Chat” is probably illegal for several reasons, at least on paper, and it would be in Sweden, too.

At the same time, it should be remembered that it is not the group chat technology itself that is the culprit here. Technology has just made it much easier to achieve what used to be done in other forums. In the same way that group chats between classmates have replaced phone chains, chatting with those in power is essentially a modern version of the old gentlemen’s clubs — now in your pocket. And technology or not, it is still possible for people in power to meet over lunch without any transparency.

However, group chat as a phenomenon remains interesting and I think that when future sociologists study how society and people’s social interaction and decision-making changed with digitalization, group chats will actually play a central role.

This column is taken from CS Weekly, a personalized newsletter with reading tips, link tips and analysis sent directly from the desk of Editor-in-Chief Marcus Jerräng. Would you like to receive the newsletter on Fridays? Sign up for a free subscription here.

Source:: Computer World

By Nadeem Sarwar The first clinical trial of an AI therapist showed significant improvements for people living with depression and anxiety to the same level as a human expert.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Deepti Pathak Humanoid robots are no longer just science fiction—they are real and improving every day! They are…
The post What are Humanoid Robots? appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Thomas Macaulay Five high-flying scaleups from the Benelux region have made it into TECH5 — the “Champions League of Technology.” The classy quintet joins an exclusive group of Europe’s fastest-growing tech companies. Over the next two months, they will join six other regions — the Nordics, Southern Europe, France, the Baltic States, DACH, and the UK & Ireland — in a competition for the crown of hottest scaleup on the continent.  The contest will conclude on June 19-20, when the TECH5 champion will be announced on the main stage of TNW Conference. But first, the contenders have to win their regional title. The…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Thomas Macaulay A coalition of European startups has urged swift action to slash burdensome EU regulations after a landmark declaration from the D9+ group of digitally advanced nations. The declaration stressed the need for “removing barriers” and “simplifying EU rules and procedures.” Ministers from all 13 countries in the D9+ — Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden — signed the statement. They emphasised the need for a “reviewed digital rulebook” that is “deregulated where possible” and “avoids unnecessary red tape.” A startup group has called for the ministers to back up their…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Apple’s Safari browser has a really useful password management feature, which is now also available as a standalone app called Passwords. If you’ve ever taken a look at it, you may have seen a section called Security Recommendations where you’ll find a collection of all the accounts and passwords that might have been compromised. 

If you haven’t already, it’s time to take those collections seriously, because generative AI (genAI) adoption means the scale and nature of the threats posed by purloined passwords and broken IDs is about to grow far greater. That’s because, armed with stolen emails and passwords, criminals will find it relatively easy to throw those credentials at the most popular online services. 

If they know you, they know, you

They do this already, of course. If you have a known email address and password you still use that is now being sold on the dark web (for about $10 a collection), it’s a no brainer for attackers to try it out on a range of different services. Sometimes they may get lucky.

Augmented efficiency just means that using genAI, those same attackers can plough through more of these credentials even more swiftly, enabling them to trundle through huge collections of stolen accounts and passwords fast. Stolen credentials were the big attack vector last year, according to Verizon, and were used in around 80% of exploits. 

There are around 15 billion compromised credentials available online. 

The vast majority of these are useless, which means credential stuffing attacks might not generate much of a success rate. When they do succeed, most victim learn from the experience and secure everything pretty quickly, meaning a very small number of that 15 billion are truly vulnerable. All the same, from time to time they get lucky. And getting lucky now and then is what makes that part of the account login exploitation industry tick. 

Money in the middle

These attacks generate millions of dollars of losses every year. With billions on the planet, there’s probably another fool coming in a minute or two, and you don’t want it to be you. That’s why you should spend a little time and audit Apple’s Security Recommendations regularly, as you don’t want a service you use that happens to have its hooks on your personal, payment, health, or other valuable data to be abused.

That’s true for everyone, but for enterprise users there’s a dual challenge. We all know that employees (including business owners) are and will always be the biggest security weakness in the system. The phishing industry has evolved to exploit this. 

But that tendency is equally threatening when it comes to account IDs, and together poses a double-whammy threat once empowered by AI. How many company-related accounts have slipped and to what extent do these two vulnerabilities work together?

If someone at Iworkatthisbusiness.com foolishly used their work email and complex work password to secure their access to trivialbuthackedwebsite.com, how long might it be until someone figures that out and sees if they can use this data to crack your corporate systems? 

Phisherman’s blues

These attacks don’t even need to be that smart; they can simply be used to analyze personal patterns to help craft super-effective phishing attacks against specific targets. Really sophisticated attackers could turn to a little agentic AI to gather any available social media data on entities they designate as ripe for attack, helping them create really effective phishing emails — Spear AI, as it may one day be recognized.

Artificial intelligence will help with all of this. It’s really good at identifying patterns in disparate data sets, and analyzing the data that’s already been exfiltrated into the world will be a relatively trivial task — it all just comes down to the questions the machines are asked to answer. They can even use identified patterns in passwords to predict likely password patterns based on user data for brute force attacks. I could go on.

Passwords are not the only fruit, of course. 

If you are wise you’ll be using 2FA security and/or Passkeys on all your most important websites, and certainly to protect any with access to your financial details or payment information.

Along with different forms of biometric ID, the industry is shifting to adopt more resilient access control systems — though, of course, subverting those systems is just a new challenge in the cat-and-mouse security game. Only recently, we learned of a new AI attack designed to compromise Google Chrome’s Password Manager, and there will be more attacks of this kind. That’s even before you consider the significance of attacks made against enterprise AI in their own right.

Death to security complacency

The main takeaway is this: You should act on the warnings given to you by Apple’s Security Recommendations tool. You should avoid re-using passwords, no matter where it is. You should use a Password Manager and other forms of security, such as 2FA, and you should very much beware if you receive an email from a trusted source that contains a link to something that sounds like it was made for you; chances are, it was.

Most of all, I want you to check the credentials that have been leaked, change them, close accounts, and delete payment information from any service you don’t intend to use again. As a person or enterprise, you certainly need to build a response plan for what to do if an account is compromised, or suspected to be compromised; security training even for your most experienced employees is almost certainly going to be of value. Most of all, never, ever use one of these passwords. 

Alternatively, ignore Safari’s friendly warning and leave yourself open to having your genuine account credentials being sold online for up to $45 a time.

Why not take the time to secure your accounts? The tools are right there in your browser. What are you waiting for?

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Source:: Computer World

The UK government’s grand plan for AI in the public sector is struggling in the face of growing technological challenges, a report by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a bipartisan group of elected members of parliament, has found.

Many of these problems will be familiar to anyone who has tried to make AI work inside an organization: the dead hand of obsolete systems, poor quality data, and a chronic lack of skilled people to implement the technology.

But beyond these issues lies another problem that could prove just as difficult: the monopolistic power of tech vendors that control the AI technology the government so badly desires.

Coming only weeks after the Government Digital Service (GDS) was created to drive AI, the committee’s initial assessment in the AI in Government report is a sobering reality check.

For the birds

The committee’s report identifies several areas of concern, starting with poor-quality data “locked away in out-of-date legacy IT systems.” Of the 72 systems previously identified as being legacy barriers, 21 hadn’t even yet received remediation funding to overcome these problems, it found.

It also noted a lack of transparency in government data use in AI, which risked creating public mistrust and a future withdrawal by citizens of their consent for its use. Other problems included the perennial shortage of AI and digital skills, an issue mentioned by 70% of government bodies responding to a 2024 National Audit Office (NAO) survey.

Additionally, government departments were running AI test pilots in a siloed way, making it difficult to learn wider lessons, said the committee.

“The government has said it wants to mainline AI into the veins of the nation, but our report raises questions over whether the public sector is ready for such a procedure,” said committee chair, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.

“Unfortunately, those familiar with our committee’s past scrutiny of the government’s frankly sclerotic digital architecture will know that any promises of sudden transformation are for the birds,” he added.

AI oligopoly

There’s a lot at stake here. AI is often talked up by the ministers as the key to overhauling the state, getting it to work more efficiently and cheaply. It’s a story that has become hugely important in many countries. If progress slows, that promise will be questioned.

In its report, the committee drew attention to the market power of a small band of AI companies. The tech industry has a tendency towards monopolies over time, it said, but with AI it was starting from this position, which might lead to technological lock-in and higher costs, hindering development in the long term.

According to the Open Cloud Coalition (OCC), a recently formed lobby group of smaller cloud providers backed by Google, the UK government’s struggles with AI mirror what happened with cloud deployment from the 2010s onwards, which included the lack of competition.

“This report shows that the dominance of a few large technology suppliers in the public procurement of AI risks stifling competition and innovation, while also hampering growth, exactly the same problems we’ve seen with cloud contracts,” commented Nicky Stewart, senior advisor to the OCC.

Cloud and AI are symbiotic, she noted, and the domination of one or both by a small group of mostly US tech companies risks building monopolies it might be difficult to escape from.

“Without reform, the government will remain over-reliant on a handful of major providers, limiting flexibility and access to innovative, leading edge technology, whilst locking taxpayers into expensive, restrictive agreements,” she said.

Sylvester Kaczmarek, CTO at OrbiSky Systems, a UK company specializing in integrating AI into aerospace applications, agreed that supplier dominance could stifle innovation, but remained just as skeptical of AI’s projected cost savings. Implementation was always where technologies proved themselves, he pointed out.

“Are savings over-sold? Most likely, in the short run,” said Kaczmarek. “There is a lot of groundwork to be laid before large-scale, reliable AI deployment can safely deliver meaningful savings. [governments need to] prioritize realistic roadmaps and more comprehensive value.”

Source:: Computer World

By Adarsh Verma There is a new wave of organized crime sweeping across cities, where criminals increasingly target USPS…
The post Lorex’s Cameras Can Watch Footages For You, Saving Hundreds of Hours appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Nadeem Sarwar Experts at the University of Leeds have created a penny-sized rolling robot that can non-invasively capture ultrasound scans of the gut to look for signs of cancer.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Deepti Pathak Getting locked out of your Android phone can be frustrating, especially when almost all your photos…
The post How to Reset an Android Phone When Locked? appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

US Department of Government Efficiency tech advisor Edward Coristine previously ran a small infrastructure provider that offered services to a cybercriminal group, it has been alleged.

While in high school in 2022 the then-16-year-old DOGE senior advisor ran a company called DiamondCDN that supported a website used by a cybercriminal group named ‘EGodly’, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The connection between DiamondCDN and EGodly was established through digital records preserved by threat intelligence company DomainTools and online cybersecurity tool Any.Run, the Reuters report said.

It’s not clear that Coristine was aware of EGodly’s activity but in early 2023 the group thanked the company on Telegram for helping to keep its dataleak.fun website up and running:

“We extend our gratitude to our valued partners DiamondCDN for generously providing us with their amazing DDoS protection and caching systems, which allow us to securely host and safeguard our website,” read the message.

Records seen by Reuters show this support ran from October 2022 to June 2023 and that users attempting to reach the dataleak.fun site would first have to pass a DiamondCDN anti-bot ‘security check.’

Breaking into law enforcement accounts

Crimes EGodly boasted it had carried out include cryptocurrency theft, phone number hijacking, and breaking into law enforcement email accounts, Reuters said. The group also circulated personal details of an FBI agent it believed was investigating it, and engaged in swatting, the practice of calling armed police to a target’s house on false pretenses as a form of intimidation.

This is not the first time Coristine’s past has been questioned. In February Bloomberg reported that he was fired in 2022 by cybersecurity company Path Network for allegedly “leaking proprietary information.” Separately, it has been reported that Coristine was associated with a Telegram/Discord cybercriminal social network called ‘The Com.’

However, for now, the allegations against him are just that — allegations. He has not commented on any of them.

None of this would hold wider significance if Coristine, now 19 years old, wasn’t one of DOGE’s super-nerds. His celebrity has also been bolstered by DOGE booster Elon Musk himself, who in February tweeted on X that “Big Balls is awesome,” a reference to his vulgar nickname in high school.

Meanwhile, Coristine has access as part of his job to some of the most confidential servers in the US government, including ones that normally require a high level of security clearance.

It’s a reminder that every job candidate should be carefully vetted, said cybersecurity expert Graham Cluley.

“When you hire someone for a job, you’re wise to take a look at what they’ve done in the past. It gives you an idea of both their achievements, as well as, potentially, anything they might have got up to which would help shine light on their judgement, their ethics, and how they might perform in the role,” Cluley said by email.

Source:: Computer World

Google is beating the drum for Gemini 2.5, a new AI model that reportedly offers better performance than similar reasoning models from competitors such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Deepseek. Google calls it its “most intelligent AI model yet.”

According to a post on The Keyword blog, Gemini 2.5 can, among other things, analyze information, draw logical conclusions, take context into account, and make informed decisions. It can also interpret text, audio, images, video and code, which means it can be used to create apps and games, for example.

In the video below, a game is being created from a simple text prompt.

Gemini 2.5 can be tested using the Google AI Studio. The AI model is also available through the Gemini Advanced subscription service.

Source:: Computer World

By Deepti Pathak In today’s digital world, where almost everyone relies on text messages for communication, scammers have found…
The post How To Identify a Fake Text Message & Report It? appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Siôn Geschwindt A new algorithm has improved the ability of quantum computers to model new materials and chemicals by a factor of 10. That’s according to its developer, UK startup Phasecraft.  The Bristol- and London-based company describes the breakthrough as the largest single leap in quantum simulations to date — moving us a step closer to real-world quantum applications. Quantum computers improve on classical simulations by accurately modelling complex quantum behaviours — like the ever-changing interactions between molecules or the evolution of materials over time — that are too difficult for classical computers to simulate efficiently. This could lead to technological leaps…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Hisan Kidwai Location trackers like AirTags have become insanely popular recently, thanks to their ability to track items…
The post How To Scan Your Car for a Tracking Device With Phone? appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

Apple will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) online from June 9-13, with a small number of developers and students invited to attend in person for the keynote and state of the union announcements at Apple Park.

As it has been since the Covid-19 pandemic, WWDC will be an online event. That’s great for developers, as it gives everyone more equal access to the tools, developer contacts and advice offered to attendees. Apple says the event will give developers unique access to Apple experts, and insight into new tools, frameworks, and features, which is what this show is normally about.

“We’re excited to mark another incredible year of WWDC with our global developer community,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “We can’t wait to share the latest tools and technologies that will empower developers and help them continue to innovate.”

Why WWDC matters

WWDC is a critical event in the Apple calendar. It’s where the company reveals upcoming enhancements to its operating systems, developer tools, and hints at hardware news. It’s also the most revealing glimpse we get into the company’s strategic approach to the coming months.  

This is going to be of particular importance this year, as the company works at redeeming the reputational damage it has taken thanks to not yet delivering all the features of Apple Intelligence it promised in 2024.

You’ll be able to watch the keynote online, via Apple TV, and on YouTube. Registered developers will also be able to access all the resources Apple makes available at WWDC using the Apple Developer app, Apple Developer website, and Apple Developer YouTube channel. This year’s conference will include video sessions and opportunities to connect with Apple engineers and designers in online labs.

The Swift Student Challenge takes place along with the show. Successful applicants will be announced March 27 and given a chance to join the special event at Apple Park. In addition, 50 Distinguished Winners, who are recognized for outstanding submissions, will be invited to join WWDC in California.

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

Source:: Computer World

If you’ve been interested/enthusiastic about China’s DeepSeek AI, you’re not alone – Apple CEO Tim Cook also seems impressed with the tech, which he calls “excellent” – though he fell short of sharing any plans to integrate these models within his company’s own AI efforts.

Cook was in China to woo government and suppliers as the company remains anxious to maintain its second largest business geography even in the face of growing politically-driven tensions with the US. Apple shareholders would expect nothing less from company leadership than to work to preserve company revenue. Apple’s long-standing manufacturing alliance with China also counts for something, even as iPhone sales have declined 25% in the region.

Deep local partnerships

Apple Intelligence, the company’s so-far disappointing take on generative AI (genAI), is not yet available in China, but it’s thought the company has been speaking with local partners and officials to find some way to make it available. Apple is required to work with a Chinese provider of AI services in the market. To that end, it is expected to introduce support for AI models from Baidu and/or the Alibaba Group to replace ChatGPT in Apple’s implementation. (The assumption about why DeepSeek was not selected is that it is not yet ready to scale to meet the needs of Apple’s huge customer base.)

Apple is holding a developer conference in China this week, where it is expected to announce additional plans for Apple Intelligence there. 

Cost and scale

But the capacity to scale, or lack of it, doesn’t mean DeepSeek isn’t impressive. It is, particularly as its powerful R1 model with its estimated development price of just $5.6 million compares really well to more costly models from US-based genAI firms. During the last financial call, Cook discussed DeepSeek’s low cost and high performance, characterizing the achievement as proof that “innovation that drives efficiency is a good thing.” 

It certainly contrasts with the hundreds of millions of dollars Apple presumably spent on developing Apple Intelligence features it still can’t bring to market. Given the chaos that has hit the Siri team since he made those statements, I’m in little doubt he’d quite like to have seen the Apple Intelligence team forge a similar path to success. But perhaps the challenges of linking legacy Siri technologies with advanced AI remain too great for this to happen. Perhaps there’s a solution available?

Tariff troubles

The other challenge in China is the scale to which the current US administration will apply tariffs against Apple products imported from China. With new tariffs as high as 20% being discussed, Apple will want to find some way to navigate the two nations to maintain business in both regions while minimizing the impact of tariffs on product prices. It will, after all, be Apple’s US customers who end up paying more for the products taxed in this way and the company will want to manage the impact on them.

Fundamentally, there is one very big reason Apple makes so many of its products in China — the distribution of skills. Apple continues to invest in efforts to educate tomorrow’s generations of developers, but China can already field them by the thousands. 

It’s not just cost

Cook explained this a few years back: “In the US, you could have a meeting of tooling engineers, and I’m not sure we could fill the room,” Cook said. “In China, you could fill multiple football fields.” He also explained that labor costs are only part of the equation, the “quantity of skill” is also important. The upshot is that until the US solves the fundamental challenge of building workforces fully skilled up for advanced technology manufacturing, no number of tariffs will force jobs to move there. It needs to invest before US leaders can expect that to happen.

Apple has made big attempts to build business outside China since 2018. Today, just over 15% of its iPhones are made in India, and it has factories in locations across the world. It is also investing heavily in US manufacturing, including its $10 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund, an academy in Detroit, and its new server factory in Houston. 

But one thing it hasn’t got — at least, not yet — is its own slick, small and economical answer to DeepSeek. Not for lack of trying.

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has launched its first Bitcoin product in Europe, a move that industry experts say will help legitimise cryptocurrencies in mainstream finance.  “This is a landmark development for crypto, displaying confidence in Bitcoin for mainstream investments,” Meryem Habibi, chief revenue officer at London-based cryptocurrency trading platform Bitpace, told TNW.  “Through this first in Europe, BlackRock is not only legitimising the asset class but also paving the way for increased institutional and retail participation,” she said. BlackRock’s product is called an “iShares Bitcoin ETP” (exchange-traded products). ETPs let investors buy and sell Bitcoin without directly owning…This story continues at The Next WebOr just read more coverage about: Bitcoin

Source:: The Next Web

By Siôn Geschwindt San Francisco-based 23andMe, which sells at-home DNA testing kits, has filed for bankruptcy in the US and is looking for a new buyer — heightening concerns about the personal data of millions of people.     23andMe experienced a major data breach in 2023, which exposed personal information like family trees, birth years, and geographic locations of approximately half of the company’s 15 million users.    Now, with the company sinking, 23andMe customers are considering deleting their accounts amid fears of another hack or changes to the company’s privacy controls under a new owner.  In the EU and the UK, 23andMe users are…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Siôn Geschwindt The Netherlands has ranked 10th in a global index of tech competitiveness, ahead of the entire G7 group of the world’s largest so-called “advanced” economies. The country was praised for its thriving digital economy, mature biotech and semiconductor industries, and strong digital skills underpinned by “engineering excellence.” London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) and consultancy SThree produced the index, which ranks 35 countries based on economic indicators such as level of high-tech exports, number of software developers, and patent filings related to AI.  Several European countries joined the Netherlands near the top of the rankings. Ireland placed second…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web