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Category: security

AI and ultralow-energy lasers enable an ultrafast authentication system

The security of modern communications heavily relies on systems that can rapidly and reliably verify users and the devices they are using. This process, known as authentication, essentially entails confirming that users or devices are legitimate (i.e., who or what they claim to be).

Conventional authentication systems rely on static cryptographic keys, fixed digital keys that allow encryption algorithms to scramble readable data into unreadable texts or vice versa. While these systems perform well in some contexts, they often struggle when networks include billions of devices that continuously connect and disconnect.

Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) recently developed a new system that could authenticate devices faster and more reliably in real time, even when they are connecting to large-scale networks, cloud services or virtual environments.

Quantum computing could transform energy grid optimization and security

Modern power systems are rapidly evolving into highly digitized smart grids, increasing their complexity at an unprecedented pace. Renewables, batteries, electric vehicles, power electronics, sensors and real-time control systems are all expanding rapidly, and this is making electricity grids significantly harder to simulate, optimize, secure and operate.

This is driven by the increasing energy demands of a tech-driven modern world. Think of a suburban street in 2005—every house pulled electricity from the grid, and power flowed in one direction from big power stations.

This same street in 2026 might have houses with rooftop solar exporting power back into the grid; electric vehicles (EVs) that need to charge overnight; home batteries storing solar energy and feeding it back into the grid when prices spike; electric busses, electric irrigation pumps, automated machinery and smart appliances that turn on and off based on grid signals.

Google Chrome adds session cookie theft protection for all users

Google says the Chrome Device Bound Session Credentials (DBSC) security feature is now generally available and is rolling out to all users to prevent account takeovers.

Available in beta since April, DBSC was first announced in 2024 as a way to cryptographically bind session cookies to a specific device, preventing hackers from using such stolen cookies to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) and hijack users’ accounts.

DBSC works by cryptographically linking user sessions to the hardware, such as their computer’s security chip (e.g., the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) on Windows and the Secure Enclave on macOS).

US charges Google security engineer with Polymarket insider trading

A Google security engineer was charged with insider trading after winning $1.2 million using confidential company data to place bets on the cryptocurrency-based Polymarket decentralized prediction market.

36-year-old Michele Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland and a Google employee since 2014, appeared on Wednesday in the Southern District of New York.

In parallel, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a separate civil complaint the same day, seeking restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, and trading and registration bans.

Ann Cavoukian: We have to protect privacy globally or we protect it nowhere!

I recorded this interview 13 years ago.

It should feel dated by now. It doesn’t. It feels like a prophecy.

Back in 2013, Dr. Ann Cavoukian sat down with me as the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and the mind behind Privacy by Design. She told me privacy was not dead. She told me security and freedom were not a trade-off. She told me metadata reveals more about you than the content ever could.

Then she said something I have never been able to shake:

“We have to protect privacy globally, or we protect it nowhere.”

Think about where we are now. Surveillance is the business model. Your data trains systems you will never see. The “nothing to hide” crowd got louder, and the borders she warned about got thinner. She saw all of it coming.

Continue reading “Ann Cavoukian: We have to protect privacy globally or we protect it nowhere!” | >

Optical device uses humidity to unlock hidden information and offers new option for data storage

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed an optical device that reveals hidden images and changes colors in response to different levels of humidity. The technology, published in Light: Science & Applications, could lead to the development of new anti-counterfeiting labels, secure data storage, interactive displays, and environmental sensors.

The device works by displaying different images depending on moisture levels in the air. Under normal conditions or low humidity levels, one image (UC San Diego Triton logo) is visible. When humidity increases, a second image (UC San Diego library logo) emerges and conceals the first. This transition can be triggered even when a person breathes on the device. It happens in a fraction of a second and can be repeated many times.

“You can imagine using this as a built-in security feature with the environment acting like a key that unlocks different pieces of information,” said study first author Asad Nauman, an electrical and computer engineering postdoctoral researcher at UC San Diego. “One example would be something like a credit card security tag, where you can blow on it and reveal a hidden code. Another application would be an environmental sensor that changes color as the humidity changes.”

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