Category: 4. Technology

I enjoyed the Nothing Phone 2. I wasn’t bothered that it wasn’t as powerful as most flagship devices at the time, and I loved that I didn’t have to pay as much. Nothing stayed within itself, delivering a phone with a clean UI and smooth performance. We waited a bit longer than expected for an encore, but the Nothing Phone 3 is finally on the way.

The Nothing Phone 3 may not be for everyone, but that’s okay. Nothing is in a position to create a niche product with a unique design, as it is not constrained by the same pressures as other Android manufacturers.

Sure, the company wants to sell a ton of phones, but it gets to have fun in the process, taking chances that would sink other companies. The Nothing Phone 3 does what Samsung can’t — and I’m here for it.

I’m sorry to see the Glyph Interface go

But I’m willing to give the Glyph Matrix a chance

The Nothing Phone 3’s Glyph Matrix

I never set up my Glyph Interface with different patterns for each contact, but I loved the visual feedback I got from across the room when I received a call or notification. I mourned the loss of notification LEDs on modern smartphones, so the Glyph Interface appealed to me.

The Glyph Matrix is different, but it’s still a way to get visual information from my phone at a glance. I appreciate a well-done always-on display, but I struggle to differentiate notifications from a few feet away, unlike with an old-school notification LED.

I’m hoping that the Glyph Matrix can be programmed to display recognizable patterns from further away, but I applaud that Nothing has included something different from other Android manufacturers.

The Nothing Phone 3’s Glyph Matrix

The Nothing Phone 3 design is also something you won’t see from Samsung anytime soon. Between its clear back and funky camera placement, the Nothing Phone 3 is an original.

I’ll admit, it’s easier to take bold design chances when you’re not one of the top-selling Android OEMs in the world, but there must be an in-between. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s design was a snoozefest, and we saw hardly any changes from previous models.

Innovation under the hood

A silicon-carbon battery is a must-have

I’m expecting outstanding battery life from the Nothing Phone 3, thanks in part to its 5,150mAh silicon-carbon battery. I’ve heard numerous excuses as to why Samsung hasn’t adopted newer battery technology, but none of them hold water.

I find it hard to believe that a company with Samsung’s resources can’t find a safe way to fit a silicon-carbon battery inside its devices. We’ve heard rumors the Galaxy S26 may contain one, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Nothing doesn’t have to carry the baggage of the Galaxy Note 7, freeing up the company to include the latest and greatest in its phones. Yes, the Galaxy S25 Ultra did see improved battery life from the same 5,000mAh lithium-ion cell as its predecessor, but I’m getting a full two days of use from my OnePlus 13 that features silicon-carbon tech.

If the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is as battery-efficient as last year’s chipset, I’m looking forward to two days of use from a single charge on the Nothing Phone 3.

Doesn’t have to be the most powerful phone

I’ll take a lower cost instead

Nothing understands that you can build a phone that provides a flagship experience without including a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. I’ve made the same argument about the Google Pixel lineup. Raw performance is essential in a flagship phone, but we often grossly overestimate the amount of power we need.

I don’t edit videos or photos on my phone, and I’ve yet to find a mobile game that demands the power a Snapdragon 8 Elite provides. If you’ve found a use for all that extra power, you’re going to look for a device like a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

However, for the rest of us, I’ll take the savings I get from the Nothing Phone 3, only shelling out $800 for well-designed software, a unique piece of hardware, and snappy, high-end performance.

I hope Nothing isn’t the only one

We need more companies like Nothing, not fewer. It’s only when we get devices like the Nothing Phone 3 that we see the sharp contrast to a lackluster device like the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Yes, there are market factors involved that prevent Samsung from taking too many chances, but I refuse to believe there aren’t some avenues for boldness. The Nothing Phone 3 does what Samsung can’t — and I can’t wait to use one.

SoC

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4

RAM

12/16GB

Storage

256/512GB

Battery

5,150 mAh

Ports

USB-C 2.0

Operating System

Android 15

Nothing Phone (3) is the first “true flagship” from the London-based brand. It comes with a 6.67-inch OLED display, a Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor, triple 50MP rear cameras, and a 5,150mAh battery. It retains Nothing’s transparent design language and comes with an upgraded Glyph Matrix.

What if you want to see as much as possible of a mechanical movement, without compromising the practicality of an automatic one? The simplest answer, sort of, is the micro-rotor automatic, of course. This neatly integrates a small winding mass into the movement, without obscuring it from view. It also challenges manufacturers to flex their watchmaking muscles as it requires more and smaller components. It’s far from the easiest solution, though, but the end result is superbly rewarding. So with that in mind, here’s a look at some of the finest micro-rotor automatic watches on the market!

Schwarz Etienne 1902 Petite Seconde

Schwarz Etienne is quite well-known for its impressive in-house movements, and the 1902 Petite Seconde is one of the latest to carry that tradition forward. The elegantly proportioned time-only watch comes in three Sector-like dial variations: Silver, Slate Grey, or Rose Gold (salmon!). But the real star of the show is found around the back, with the Calibre ASE300.00. The micro-rotor sends up to 86 hours of energy to the barrel, and is joined by four elegant finger bridges. The finishing of it all is of the highest level, with hand-polished teeth on the ratchet wheel, for instance. Worn on a leather strap, it retails for CHF 18,000.

For more information, please visit Schwarz-Etienne.com.

Quick Facts – 39mm x 10.9mm – titanium, brushed & polished – sapphire crystal front & back – 50m water-resistant – silver, slate grey or rose gold dial – sector layout – polished indices & hands – recessed small seconds subdial – Calibre ASE300.00 – in-house automatic with micro-rotor – 191 components – 21,600vph – 86h power reserve – hours, minutes, (hacking) seconds – alligator or calfskin leather strap with titanium pin buckle – CHF 18,000

Louis Vuitton Tambour Ceramic

With the revamp of the Tambour two years ago, Louis Vuitton entered the luxury sports watch segment with a bang, and following from the stainless steel versions, came this surprising brown ceramic version! The scratch-proof exterior is combined with 18k rose gold elements for a unique look, a styling cue that also finds its way to the dial. The Calibre LFT023, developed with Le Cercle des Horlogers, is driven by a 22k gold micro-rotor with the famous LV motif as a decoration. The rest shows a rather contemporary style of finishing, and the watch is fitted with a ceramic and gold bracelet. It’s not limited per se, and it retails for EUR 75,000.

For more information, please visit LouisVuitton.com.

Quick Facts – 40mm x 8.3mm – brown ceramic & 18k rose gold case – ceramic crown – sapphire crystal front & back – 50m water-resistant – stepped brown dial – rose gold markers & hands – Calibre LFT023, proprietary micro-rotor automatic (Les Cercle des Horlogers) – 28,800vph – 50h power reserve – 22k gold micro-rotor – hours, minutes, small seconds – integrated brown ceramic & rose gold bracelet with invisible rose gold triple-folding clasp – EUR 75,000

Chopard L.U.C Qualité Fleurier 20th Anniversary Edition

The Calibre 96 series by Chopard is a legend in the field of micro-rotors. It has served as the base for plenty of winners in the brand’s wonderful L.U.C line, including this one, the L.U.C Qualité Fleurier 20th Anniversary Edition. Under the Qualité Fleurier certification, the yellow gold and brown dress watch surpasses the most stringent quality standards in the Swiss industry. At the heart of the watch beats the Calibre 96.09-L, an in-house micro-rotor automatic with Chopard’s Twin-Barrel system for 65 hours of power reserve. Limited to 20 pieces, one for each year the QF certification has been in use, this one retails for EUR 33,000.

For more information, please visit Chopard.com.

Quick Facts – 39mm x 8.92mm – yellow gold case, brushed & polished – individually welded lugs – sapphire crystal front & back – 30m water-resistant – two-tone sector dial – gilded hour markers & hands – Calibre L.U.C 96.09-L, in-house automatic – Qualité Fleurier certified – 28,800vph – 65h power reserve – 22k golf micro-rotor – brown calfskin leather strap with yellow gold pin buckle – limited to 20 pieces – EUR 33,000

Laurent Ferrier Classic Auto Horizon Blue

If a dress watch has to incorporate a date display, the way Laurent Ferrier has integrated it into the design of its Classic Auto is perhaps one of the best ways to do it. The latest, finished in fresh Horizon Blue, continues the brand’s legacy in superb watchmaking, both in design and in mechanics. The pebble-shaped steel case, 40mm in width and fully polished, wears beautifully on the wrist and houses the brand’s Calibre LF270.01. This proprietary automatic has a platinum micro-rotor and is finished to the highest standards. It’s worn on a taupe goat-leather strap with a steel pin buckle, and is part of the permanent collection. The price is CHF 45,000.

For more information, please visit LaurentFerrier.ch.

Quick Facts – 40mm x 11.94mm – stainless steel case, polished – ball-shaped crown – sapphire crystal front & back – 30m water-resistant – light blue galvanic lacquered dial – dark blue transfers – drop-shaped indices, Assegai-shaped hands – recessed date ‘frame’ – Calibre LF270.01, proprietary automatic – platinum micro-rotor – 28,800vph – 72h power reserve – taupe goat-leather strap with steel pin buckle – permanent collection – CHF 45,000

Piaget Polo 79 White Gold

Probably the most outspoken design of the watches on this list, the Piaget Polo 79 in White Gold is a true stunner front to back. It rekindles Yves Piaget’s iconic 1979 design, with horizontal gadroons across the bracelet, case and dial. First presented in yellow gold, this white gold edition tones things down a touch without compromising its character. Inside ticks the Piaget Calibre 1200P1, an ultra-thin in-house micro-rotor automatic. A neat touch is the circular Côtes de Genève on the mainplate, which continues on the top of the rotor. The white gold bracelet is seamlessly integrated into the case. It will set you back EUR 85,500 incl. VAT.

For more information, please visit Piaget.com.

Quick Facts – 38mm x 7.45mm – white gold case, brushed & polished – horizontal gadroons – sapphire crystal front & back – 50m water-resistant – striped gold dial with gadroons – 18k gold hands – Piaget Calibre 1200P1, in-house automatic – micro-rotor automatic – 21,600vph – 44h power reserve – hours, minutes – circular Côtes de Genève – 18k white gold bracelet with gadroons – triple-folding clasp – permanent collection – EUR 85,500 incl. VAT

Bvlgari Octo Finissimo Automatic Yellow Gold

It goes without saying that the Bulgari Octo Finissimo is a modern-day icon of watchmaking. The ultra-thin collection has genuinely challenged the status quo, breaking records left and right. The Octo Finissimo Automatic is at the core of it all, perhaps, coming in at just 6.40mm in height. Over the years, we’ve seen it in all sorts of materials and finishes. This matte sand-blasted yellow gold edition is one of the latest and greatest in the series, relying on the ultra-thin calibre BVL 138, driven by a platinum micro-rotor. The equally edgy integrated bracelet matches the case in terms of finishing. Part of the permanent collection, it retails for EUR 51,500.

For more information, please visit Bulgari.com.

Quick Facts – 40mm x 6.40mm – 18k yellow gold case, matte sand-blasted – flat sapphire crystal front & back – screw-down crown with black ceramic cap – 100m water-resistant – sandblasted yellow gold dial – black markers & hands – Calibre BVL 138 – manufacture ultra-thin automatic – platinum micro-rotor – 21,600vph –  60h power reserve – integrated matte-sandblasted yellow gold bracelet – hidden folding clasp – permanent collection – EUR 51,500

Chinese scientists have developed a faster and more energy-efficient method to sort data, which could be used to overcome limitations in scientific computing, artificial intelligence, and hardware design.

Their new sorting system relies on memristors, an electronic circuit component with memory-like abilities, along with a sorting algorithm to enable more efficient data processing.

The team built a memristor-based hardware sorting prototype to demonstrate tasks such as route finding and neural network inference, achieving both speed and energy efficiency improvements over traditional sorting methods.

“Sorting is a performance bottleneck in numerous applications, including artificial intelligence, databases, web search and scientific computing,” the team said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Electronics on June 25.

Computing systems are typically based on Von Neumann architecture, which separates data storage – or memory – and processing, such as through the use of a central processing unit (CPU).

This has led to the Von Neumann bottleneck, a limit on the speed of data transfer between the main memory and processing unit.

“Sort-in-memory using memristors could help overcome these limitations, but current systems still rely on comparison operations so that sorting performance remains limited,” said the researchers from Peking University and the Chinese Institute for Brain Research.

Files are a funny thing; they’re essentially just a collection of data all inside of one container, and that data is organized into a single-dimensional array of bytes. Many modern operating systems will use a file extension to determine what the file is, and this, in turn, specifies rules of how the data is organized so that it can be interpreted in a meaningful way. However, when it comes to a “file” being a collection of data, it isn’t anything too special. You don’t need a file type on any file. You can save a JPG as a .zip file if you want, and if you force your photo editor to open it, chances are it will just… open anyway.

With that knowledge in mind, data isn’t anything you can’t represent in other forms. We’ve already demonstrated how files can be saved inside Pokémon Emerald, and I decided to take it a step further. What if we could save files inside Minecraft instead? There’s an unlimited world; theoretically, you could save any file you wanted inside the game, just so long as you know how to interpret it afterward. That’s exactly what I did, and while it was painstaking, it’s also a great way to explain how data is saved and referenced.

I’ll have a GitHub link at the bottom of this article, which you can take a look at to run this yourself!

Setting the stage

Understanding data storage

First and foremost, I wanted to find a way to easily represent data in Minecraft in a way that was easily obtainable through legitimate means, and could also still represent a decent amount of data per block. Some of the more complex ideas I had involved stripping wooden logs and using their directions as well, while another idea I had used frames with items inside of them. However, I realized that there are 16 colors in the game, which is perfect. Not only is wool easy to get, but having 16 colors available means that we can store four bits of data inside each wool block, and it also means we get one whole byte every two blocks.

At its core, a file is a sequence of bytes, and when it’s split, this sequence is divided into smaller, manageable segments. This division is done in such a way that each segment is an exact, contiguous subset of the original file’s byte sequence. The process is inherently lossless, meaning it does not alter the content of the bytes themselves. As long as these segments are reassembled in the correct order, the original file can be perfectly recreated. Armed with this knowledge, I created a mapping of hex digits and four-bit sequences to a wool color, which we can use to read and write data. For small files, it’s quite practical to actually build these structures yourself; as I’ll demonstrate later on, a 67-byte file uses 144 blocks of wool, where ten of those blocks are simply padding to ensure an even height and width. I also do not play Bedrock Edition, and this is aimed at the Java edition of Minecraft.

Here’s the table I created with my mappings:

So, for example, if you wanted to write the sequence 1111 0000 1010 0001, it would be:

• Pink wool
• White wool
• Cyan wool
• Light Gray wool

Thankfully, while there’s a lot of manual block placement involved for someone who is doing this by hand, it’s not too difficult overall to encode data this way. I built an encoder that will create an image you can reference to construct your data format as well.

Encoding data

Creating an mcfunction file

Encoding the data is fairly easy, and didn’t take up much time out of the admittedly far too long I spent on storing files in Minecraft in the first place. A hint as to what took far too much time can be seen in the image above, specifically at the number of decoders I tried to implement. We’ll get to that in a bit. However, you can see the encoder ran in the terminal at the bottom of the screen, an image was created, and an “mcfunction” file was generated. An “mcfunction” file is basically a script that can run all of the commands entered into it, so we can instantly place all of the blocks without needing to manually do it ourselves. The image is generated for reference so that you can manually place them, though, if you’d prefer.

To invoke our encoder, we run the following command, which requires the Pillow module installed:

python3 encoder.py hello.txt --cols 12 --y -60

This tells the encoder to only use 12 columns at a time (it defaults to 64), and to use a Y level of -60, as I’m testing this in a superflat world. This is what the above looks like in-game:

I added the blocks around the edge for testing purposes when it came to decoding, so really, what you’ll end up with is just the matrix of wool blocks. Depending on what your “cols” value is, it could be a lot wider. We’re finished with encoding now, so it’s time to try and decode our file.

Decoding files from Minecraft

A failed attempt at OCR, though reading world files works fine

This is where I ran into massive issues, and the solution I settled on is, sadly, not the one I originally wanted. I planned to use image recognition to identify the blocks placed in a screenshot, and this is why I placed those different blocks around the edge to try and identify the edge of the wool matrix. It kind of worked once I used sklearn, but the perspective change and slightly differing lengths in blocks because of this, given their distance to the wool matrix, meant that it wasn’t consistent. It would decode some of it, sometimes, and then other times, not be able to decode it at all. I spent far too much time on various different approaches using an image, but I eventually ended up using Amulet, a Python library that can read directly from a world file.

This worked perfectly, though it has a few downsides. It’s not as simple as just screenshotting what’s in front of you and converting it back to a file, and it requires a lot more manual reconstruction if you want to share a file with a friend via Minecraft using a server, for example. Essentially, you’d need to screenshot it, rebuild it locally in your own world, and then reconstruct it with the decoder. Obviously, nobody would actually like to do that, but I’d also wager nobody is really jumping with joy at the thought of sharing files via Minecraft, even if it were possible to screenshot the wool matrix to pull the file. I just wanted to do it “right”, in an accessible way, and with no requirements to access actual world files.

As you can see below, though, pulling from the world file works perfectly, as you’d expect given the deterministic nature of being able to read individual blocks.

There are a couple of limitations when it comes to reading world files; you’ll need to define the X and Y coordinates of the top left of the wool matrix, choose whether you move typically along the X and Z axis (as in, incrementing X and Z as you move across and down), and define the height and width of the matrix. It’s quite a manual process, but it does work. When you first run the program, you’ll be asked for these details:

• Top left X
• Top left Y
• Top left Z
• Dimension [overworld/nether/end] (default = overworld)
• Width (cols)
• height (rows)
• col step dX dZ [1 0]
• row step dX dZ [0 1]
• Padding (trailing white-wool blocks to ignore, 0 for none)

You also need to run it by defining the –world flag, so you run the script like this:

python3 .decode_from_world.py --world '.New World' 

If it comes across an unexpected block, it will raise an error, displaying what block it came across so that you can get a rough idea of what you need to tweak. As well, you’ll need to rename “decoded.bin” to match the expected file format. As previously mentioned, a file type is an external indicator to applications looking to interact with the file, and nothing more. The data stays the same no matter what the file type is. This is also why “containers”, when it comes to video formats, are so important, as they actually define a data structure, compression, and much more.

Once we run our decoder, we can see our output, calculated from mapping each wool block to a hex value and then writing that to a file called decoded.bin:

Hi there, this is a test file to show encoding a file in Minecraft!

While we know it decoded, so it worked, we can even see the hex values and compare them to our wool map. Our file starts off as “48 69 20 74” in hex, which corresponds to:

• Brown wool
• Lime wool
• Orange wool
• Green wool
• Gray wool
• White wool
• Yellow wool
• Brown wool

Which matches the blocks that we placed in the game.

Files can be represented by anything

It’s all about knowing how to retrieve it

As we’ve seen previously, files can be represented by anything. If you can define your own structure for reading those files, you can store anything in any format. A string of LEDs can represent 0s and 1s based on their state, or a water bottle could represent two bits of data based on whether it’s empty, a quarter full, half full, or completely full. So long as you know what it means, you can tell others too, and they can interpret the represented data the same way that you can.

This project isn’t meant to be used in its current form. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that you should never use a game to send files to people, especially not in such a tedious manner. Instead, this serves to demonstrate how files can be uniquely stored. If you’re interested in checking out the code I wrote for this project, it’s available on GitHub.

Related

I used YouTube as unlimited storage by storing files as videos

You can technically use YouTube as unlimited cloud storage, though we really don’t recommend it.

SAVE $400: The Garmin Fenix 7 fitness tracker is on sale at Amazon for $499.99, down from the list price of $899.99. That’s a 44% discount and a new record-low price at Amazon.

We’re on the heels of an exciting Prime Day. This year we get four full days of shopping to find the best Apple deals, outdoor gear upgrades, and finally replacing those uncomfortable earbuds. If you have summer adventures planned or you’re looking to keep better tabs on your fitness metrics, there’s an especially great deal that’s already live on a fitness tracker.

As of July 6, the Garmin Fenix 7 fitness tracker is just $499.99 at Amazon, marked down from the list price of $899.99. That’s a major 44% discount that takes $400 off the smartwatch. It’s also a new record-low price at Amazon by a long shot.

Summer is the perfect time to get into a new fitness routine. With better weather and longer daylight hours, it can be a great way to set a new schedule that involves a focus on health. Whether you’re taking longer walks around the neighborhood or heading into the mountains to set a new trail record, the Garmin Fenix 7 is packed with useful features.

For starters, who couldn’t use a built-in flashlight on their wrist? On the trail, this is incredibly useful for digging into your backpack to find that (probably melted) chocolate bar. At home, it’s a great way to avoid tripping on the dog during the midnight bathroom trip. The strobe function is gonna come in handy during winter runs at 5 p.m. when it’s completely dark out. But of course, the Garmin is packed with fitness tracking features, too.

On your wrist, you’ll have access to heart rate date, pulse Ox levels, and sleep metrics. Each morning, the Garmin will give you a daily report that discusses training readiness for the day. Plus, the the Garmin Fenix 7 is capable of solar recharging. But you shouldn’t need that too often since the watch can get up to 22 days of battery on a single charge when in smartwatch mode.

Since it’s down to a super low price at Amazon, it’s probably wise to jump on this Garmin Fenix 7 deal before Prime Day takes hold. There’s no telling when Amazon will decide to bump up the price while lowering others during the longest Prime Day sale ever.

Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, articles, interviews and videos:

Sudo local privilege escalation vulnerabilities fixed (CVE-2025-32462, CVE-2025-32463)
If you haven’t recently updated the Sudo utility on your Linux box(es), you should do so now, to patch two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-32462, CVE-2025-32463) that have been disclosed on Monday.

Google patches actively exploited Chrome (CVE‑2025‑6554)
Google has released a security update for Chrome to address a zero‑day vulnerability (CVE-2025-6554) that its Threat Analysis Group (TAG) discovered and reported last week.

Europe’s AI strategy: Smart caution or missed opportunity?
Europe is banking on AI to help solve its economic problems. Productivity is stalling, and tech adoption is slow. Global competitors, especially the U.S., are pulling ahead. A new report from Accenture says AI could help reverse that trend, but only if European companies move faster and invest more boldly.

CitrixBleed 2 might be actively exploited (CVE-2025-5777)
While Citrix has observed some instances where CVE-2025-6543 has been exploited on vulnerable NetScaler networking appliances, the company still says that they don’t have evidence of exploitation for CVE-2025-5349 or CVE-2025-5777, both of which have been patched earlier this month.

Cybersecurity essentials for the future: From hype to what works
Cybersecurity never stands still. One week it’s AI-powered attacks, the next it’s a new data breach, regulation, or budget cut. With all that noise, it’s easy to get distracted. But at the end of the day, the goal stays the same: protect the business.

You can’t trust AI chatbots not to serve you phishing pages, malicious downloads, or bad code
Popular AI chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs) often fail to provide accurate information on any topic, but researchers expect threat actors to ramp up their efforts to get them to spew out information that may benefit them, such as phishing URLs and fake download pages.

Healthcare CISOs must secure more than what’s regulated
In this Help Net Security interview, Henry Jiang, CISO at Ensora Health, discusses what it really takes to make DevSecOps work in healthcare.

Cisco fixes maximum-severity flaw in enterprise unified comms platform (CVE-2025-20309)
Cisco has found a backdoor account in yet another of its software solutions: CVE-2025-20309, stemming from default credentials for the root account, could allow unauthenticated remote attackers to log into a vulnerable Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (Unified CM SME) platforms and use the acquired access to execute arbitrary commands with the highest privileges.

How FinTechs are turning GRC into a strategic enabler
In this Help Net Security interview, Alexander Clemm, Corp GRC Lead, Group CISO, and BCO at Riverty, shares how the GRC landscape for FinTechs has matured in response to tighter regulations and global growth.

Qantas data breach could affect 6 million customers
Qantas has suffered a cyber incident that has lead to a data breach.

Federal Reserve System CISO on aligning cyber risk management with transparency, trust
In this Help Net Security interview, Tammy Hornsby-Fink, CISO at Federal Reserve System, shares how the Fed approaches cyber risk with a scenario-based, intelligence-driven strategy.

Microsoft introduces protection against email bombing
By the end of July 2025, all Microsoft Defender for Office 365 customers should be protected from email bombing attacks by default, Microsoft has announced on Monday.

Are we securing AI like the rest of the cloud?
In this Help Net Security interview, Chris McGranahan, Director of Security Architecture & Engineering at Backblaze, discusses how AI is shaping both offensive and defensive cybersecurity tactics.

How analyzing 700,000 security incidents helped our understanding of Living Off the Land tactics
This article shares initial findings from internal Bitdefender Labs research into Living off the Land (LOTL) techniques.

How exposure-enriched SOC data can cut cyberattacks in half by 2028
Security teams are responsible for defending an organization against looming cyber threats. Needless to say, they’re inundated with data from constantly expanding attack surfaces. But what are teams supposed to do with all? Addressing thousands of vulnerabilities is far from realistic.

New hires, new targets: Why attackers love your onboarding process
In this Help Net Security video, Ozan Ucar, CEO of Keepnet Labs, highlights a critical cybersecurity blind spot: the vulnerability of new hires during onboarding.

NTLM relay attacks are back from the dead
NTLM relay attacks are the easiest way for an attacker to compromise domain-joined hosts. While many security practitioners think NTLM relay is a solved problem, it is not – and, in fact, it may be getting worse.

Why AI agents could be the next insider threat
In this Help Net Security video, Arun Shrestha, CEO of BeyondID, explains how AI agents, now embedded in daily operations, are often over-permissioned, under-monitored, and invisible to identity governance systems.

Users lack control as major AI platforms share personal info with third parties
Some of the most popular generative AI and large language model (LLM) platforms, from companies like Meta, Google, and Microsoft, are collecting sensitive data and sharing it with unknown third parties, leaving users with limited transparency and virtually no control over how their information is stored, used, or shared, according to Incogni.

Africa’s cybersecurity crisis and the push to mobilizing communities to safeguard a digital future
While Africa hosts some of the fastest-growing digital economies globally, it also faces persistent challenges in cybersecurity preparedness.

Third-party breaches double, creating ripple effects across industries
Supply chain risks remain top-of-mind for the vast majority of CISOs and cybersecurity leaders, according to SecurityScorecard.

How cybercriminals are weaponizing AI and what CISOs should do about it
In a recent case tracked by Flashpoint, a finance worker at a global firm joined a video call that seemed normal. By the end of it, $25 million was gone.

Secretless Broker: Open-source tool connects apps securely without passwords or keys
Secretless Broker is an open-source connection broker that eliminates the need for client applications to manage secrets when accessing target services like databases, web services, SSH endpoints, or other TCP-based systems.

RIFT: New open-source tool from Microsoft helps analyze Rust malware
Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center has released a new tool called RIFT to help malware analysts identify malicious code hidden in Rust binaries.

Cybersecurity jobs available right now: July 1, 2025
We’ve scoured the market to bring you a selection of roles that span various skill levels within the cybersecurity field. Check out this weekly selection of cybersecurity jobs available right now.

Scammers are trick­ing travelers into booking trips that don’t exist
Not long ago, travelers worried about bad weather. Now, they’re worried the rental they booked doesn’t even exist.

Cyberattacks are draining millions from the hospitality industry
Every day, millions of travelers share sensitive information like passports, credit card numbers, and personal details with hotels, restaurants, and travel services. This puts pressure on the hospitality sector to keep that information safe and private.

New infosec products of the week: July 4, 2025
Here’s a look at the most interesting products from the past week, featuring releases from DigitalOcean, Scamnetic, StealthCores, and Tracer AI.

Galaxy S26 Ultra could feature improved selfie and telephoto cameras

The emerald-green mineral atacamite, named for the place it was first found, the Atacama Desert in Chile, gets its characteristic coloring from the copper ions it contains. These ions also determine the material’s magnetic properties: they each have an unpaired electron whose spin gives the ion a magnetic moment – comparable to a tiny needle on a compass. “The distinct feature of atacamite is the arrangement of the copper ions,” explains Dr. Leonie Heinze of Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS). “They form long chains of small, linked triangles known as sawtooth chains.” This geometric structure has consequences: although the copper ions’ spins always want to align themselves antiparallel to one another, the triangular arrangement makes this geometrically impossible to achieve completely. “We refer to this as magnetic frustration,” continues Heinze. As result of this frustration, the spins in atacamite only arrange themselves at very low temperatures – under 9 Kelvin (−264°C) – in a static alternating structure.

When the researchers examined atacamite under the extremely high magnetic fields at HZDR’s High Magnetic Field Laboratory (HLD), something surprising emerged: the material exhibited a noticeable cooling in the pulsed magnetic fields – and not just a slight one, but a drop to almost half of the original temperature. This unusually strong cooling effect particularly fascinated the researchers, as the behavior of magnetically frustrated materials in this context has scarcely been studied. However, magnetocaloric materials are considered a promising alternative to conventional cooling technologies, for example for energy-efficient cooling or the liquefaction of gases. This is because, instead of compressing and expanding a coolant – a process that takes place in every refrigerator – they can be used to change the temperature by applying a magnetic field in an environmentally friendly and potentially low-loss approach.

What is the origin of this strong magnetocaloric effect?

Additional studies at various labs of the European Magnetic Field Laboratory (EMFL) provided more in-depth insights. “By using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, we were clearly able to demonstrate that the magnetic order of atacamite is destroyed when a magnetic field is applied,” explains Dr. Tommy Kotte, a scientist at HLD. “This is unusual as the magnetic fields in many magnetically frustrated materials usually counteract the frustration and even encourage ordered magnetic states.”

The team found the explanation for the mineral’s unexpected behavior in complex numerical simulations of its magnetic structure: while the magnetic field aligns the copper ions’ magnetic moments on the tips of the sawtooth chains along the field and thus reduces the frustration as expected, it is precisely these magnetic moments that mediate a weak coupling to neighboring chains. When this is removed, a long-range magnetic order can no longer exist. This also provided the team with an explanation for the particularly strong magnetocaloric effect: it always occurs when a magnetic field influences the disorder – or more precisely, the magnetic entropy – of a system. In order to compensate for this rapid change in entropy, the material has to adjust its temperature accordingly. This is the very mechanism the researchers have now managed to demonstrate in atacamite.

“Of course, we do not expect atacamite to be extensively mined in the future for use in new cooling systems,” says Dr. Tommy Kotte, “but the physical mechanism we have investigated is fundamentally new and the magnetocaloric effect we observed is surprisingly strong.” The team hopes their work will inspire further research, especially a targeted search for innovative magnetocaloric materials within the extensive class of magnetically frustrated systems.

It happens all the time. A familiar sign-in window pops up on your screen, asking for your account password to enable you open a document or access emails. It happens so often we no longer notice and simply go through the motions on autopilot. But Google warns this is dangerous and needs to stop before you lose your account.

Most Gmail users “still rely on older sign-in methods like passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA),” Google warns, despite the FBI reporting that “online scams raked in a record $16.6 billion last year — up 33% in just one year — and are growing more sophisticated.” That means you’re less likely to spot an attack until it’s too late.

ForbesSamsung’s Galaxy Upgrade Just Made Android More Like iPhoneBy Zak Doffman

When I first covered Google’s alarming new stats, the company told me the warning to upgrade accounts is right, but needs to go further. This is about more than Gmail, it’s about all the accounts that can be accessed with a Google sign-in. But Gmail is the most prized, because your email account opens up access to so much more.

And less than a month later we have a frightening new proof point as to exactly why accounts that are protected by passwords and even 2FA are at such risk. Okta warns threat actors are now “abusing v0 — a breakthrough GenAI tool created by Vercelopens to develop phishing sites that impersonate legitimate sign-in webpages.”

That’s why Google says “we want to move beyond passwords altogether, while keeping sign-ins as easy as possible.” That means upgrading the security on your Google Account to add a passkey. This stops attackers accessing your account, because the passkey is linked to your own devices and can can’t be stolen or bypassed. Most Gmail users still don’t have passkeys — but all must add them as soon as possible.

Okta says this “signals a new evolution in the weaponization of Generative AI by threat actors who have demonstrated an ability to generate a functional phishing site from simple text prompts.” If you’re willing to use your password, you’re at risk.

And that’s the second part of this warning. Upgrading your account with a passkey only helps secure that account if you change your behavior as well. No more entering a password when prompted — only use your passkey. And if that’s not possible, make sure your account uses a different form of 2FA to SMS codes. An authenticator app is best.

Okta warns ”today’s threat actors are actively experimenting with and weaponizing leading GenAI tools to streamline and enhance their phishing capabilities. The use of a platform like Vercel’s v0.dev allows emerging threat actors to rapidly produce high-quality, deceptive phishing pages, increasing the speed and scale of their operations.”

Passkeys are phishing resistant. That’s why Microsoft is going even further than Google, actively pushing users to delete passwords altogether and removing them from its own Authenticator app, and will now limit that app to passkeys only.

ForbesMicrosoft Warns 400 Million Windows Users—Upgrade Your PC NowBy Zak Doffman

This is just the beginning of the new AI-fueled attacks that will fast become the norm. Attackers are playing with these new tools, and that’s changing the game. You need to ensure that all your key accounts are fully protected — it’s a change you should make today, not some time soon when you get around to it.

“We build advanced, automatic protections directly into Google’s products,” the company says, “so security is something you don’t have to think about.” But if you’re still securing those products with a password — the digital equivalent of a flimsy $5 padlock, then you are playing into the hands of those attackers.

It takes a few seconds and can be done directly from here.

Add your passkey now.