https://techxplore.com/rss-feed/security-news/ en-us The latest news on cyber security, network security, software vulnerabilities, data leaks, malware, and viruses A woman strolls into a grocery store, thinking about grabbing some apples. Before she even reaches the produce aisle, a security camera has scanned her face. Whether the system is checking for shoplifters or simply logging her arrival, her face has joined a digital ledger, a trace she can't easily erase. Retailers, banks, airports, stadiums and office buildings are doing the same. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-facial-recognition-key-identity-stolen.html Business Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:20:01 EDT news696597121 The chief executive of the UK Biobank, one of the world's largest biomedical databases, recently wrote to more than 500,000 participants telling them that some of their data had been made available for sale online through a Chinese website. This wasn't a data breach or hack, but rather researchers who had legitimately accessed the data trying to sell it. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-uk-biobank-sale-china.html Security Tue, 28 Apr 2026 10:40:03 EDT news696588002 Organizations could be better protected from cybercrime by investing in more leadership and staff decision-making, a University of Queensland study has found. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-issue-human-threat-cybersecurity.html Security Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:00:04 EDT news696577441 German prosecutors Friday launched a spying investigation into phishing attacks targeting lawmakers on the Signal messaging app, with an MP saying the latest Russia-directed plot against Germany was a "wake-up call." https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-germany-spying-probe-mps.html Security Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:22:10 EDT news696252107 The limit of what artificial intelligence can achieve, known as frontier AI, has crossed another threshold. AI can now plan and execute sophisticated cyber operations with minimal guidance at speeds far beyond human capability. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-ai-threshold-claude-mythos-future.html Security Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:20:02 EDT news696178981 As quantum computers advance, they are expected to be able to break tried-and-true security schemes that currently keep most sensitive data secure from attackers. Scientists and policymakers are working to design and implement post-quantum cryptography to defend against these future attacks. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-needle-chip-pacemakers-insulin-quantum.html Hi Tech & Innovation Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:00:03 EDT news696174481 For digital nomads, logging on to work from a cafe, co-working space, hotel lobby or airport lounge is a way of life. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-tech-cafe-privacy-guidelines-remote.html Security Thu, 23 Apr 2026 04:06:03 EDT news696135935 Using generative AI to design, train, or perform steps within a machine-learning system is risky, argues computer scientist Micheal Lones in a paper appearing in Patterns. Though large language models (LLMs) could expand the capabilities of machine-learning systems and decrease costs and labor needs, Lones warns that using them reduces transparency and control for the people developing and using these systems and increases the risk of malicious cyberattacks, data leaks, and bias against underrepresented groups. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-generative-ai-machine-cyberattacks-leaks.html Security Wed, 22 Apr 2026 11:00:09 EDT news695918949 A notorious North Korean hacking group is likely behind the theft of nearly $300 million in cryptocurrency over the weekend, an affected party has said, in the biggest known crypto heist this year. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-north-korean-hackers-mn-crypto.html Security Wed, 22 Apr 2026 04:30:01 EDT news696050229 Industrial electrification is becoming a matter of economic security as well as decarbonization, according to new Oxford analysis. Continued reliance on fossil fuels leaves 75% of global industry exposed to recurring price shocks, while electrification offers a pathway to stable and resilient energy costs. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-industrial-electrification-imperative-analysis.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 21 Apr 2026 19:10:07 EDT news696009961 When evolutionary biologist Joseph Popp coded the first documented piece of ransomware in 1989, he had little idea it would become a major criminal business model capable of bringing economies to their knees. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-floppy-disks-claude-mythos-ransomware.html Security Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:00:01 EDT news695998321 With AI, the voice has acquired a new significance. Behind the words lies data that can be used both to diagnose a health problem and to steal someone's identity. Speaking to machines is no longer the stuff of science fiction. Alexa (Amazon) has been present in homes for over a decade, and an increasing number of users now favor voice interactions with chatbots. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-voice.html Security Fri, 17 Apr 2026 20:00:01 EDT news695646637 From an advertisement for an herbal remedy that promises to cure all to a video featuring a voice that sounds just like a movie star, you've surely encountered spam and scam advertisements online. And they have likely been created with artificial intelligence. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-ai-gold-spammers-scammers-google.html Security Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:01 EDT news695565592 Conversational AI tools denied blunt requests for harmful content by researchers posing as intimate partner abusers, but these guardrails were easily circumvented when they requested the content under false pretenses, a new Cornell Tech study has found. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-ai-safer-victims-intimate-partner.html Security Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:40:09 EDT news695560863 With the rapid spread of digital content, doctored videos pose growing risks across media, security, and legal domains. A new study published in The Journal of Engineering Research introduces an automated approach to detect interpolated frames—artificially inserted images used to smooth manipulated video sequences and make them appear authentic. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-ai-video-accuracy.html Security Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:20:04 EDT news695397721 Data breaches, such as the recent incidents at Odido and Basic-Fit, trigger feelings of anxiety and loss of trust among both victims and those who may have been affected. New international research shows that although data breaches provoke strong emotional responses, users tend to adapt surprisingly quickly, even when their privacy has been violated. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-reactions-breaches-faster.html Consumer & Gadgets Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:00:01 EDT news695397362 As the capacity of artificial intelligence (AI) increases at an exponential rate, so do concerns about the privacy of user data. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-federated-unlearning-ai-privacy-cybersecurity.html Security Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:40:03 EDT news695306794 Online data is generally pretty secure. Assuming everyone is careful with passwords and other protections, you can think of it as being locked in a vault so strong that even all the world's supercomputers, working together for 10,000 years, could not crack it. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-quantum-codes-faster.html Computer Sciences Mon, 13 Apr 2026 08:40:05 EDT news695288102 It's a simple thing we encounter many times every single week—often while in a hurry. You pull up at a parking spot, scan a QR code and pay within seconds. Or you sit down at a cafe, scan a code to view the menu and order your meal. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-fake-qr-codes-easy-scams.html Security Thu, 09 Apr 2026 11:00:01 EDT news694950601 Which details in a de-identified scientific record are enough to still identify a person? If, for example, the record includes that a person is a CEO, the abundance of CEOs in the world would make identification nearly impossible. If the person is a CEO living in Missouri, the list becomes notably shorter but likely extensive enough to safeguard identity. But the name of a CEO living in St. Louis and working at a particular company is easy to figure out. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-software-safeguards-privacy.html Software Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:00:03 EDT news694777944 A cross-institutional research team has developed Co-Located Authentication and Processing (CLAP), a privacy-preserving system that overcomes the trade-off between security and performance in edge computing devices. The study, titled "Privacy-preserving data analysis using a memristor chip with co-located authentication and processing," is published in Science Advances. The team was led by Professor Ngai Wong and Dr. Zhengwu Liu from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), in collaboration with Tsinghua University and the Southern University of Science and Technology. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-memristor-chip-combines-memory-edge.html Hardware Mon, 06 Apr 2026 12:20:04 EDT news694695661 From smartphone facial recognition to autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI) has long been protected as a black box. However, a joint research team from KAIST and international institutions has uncovered a new security threat capable of peeking at AI blueprints from behind walls. The team also presented corresponding defense technologies. This discovery is expected to be utilized in strengthening AI security across various sectors, including autonomous driving, health care, and finance. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-ai-blueprints-stolen-small-antenna.html Security Wed, 01 Apr 2026 15:40:02 EDT news694274582 When a person reaches across a table to pass the salt, their brain is doing something far more complex than recognizing a request and executing a movement. It is drawing on a lifetime of bodily experience—where their hand is in space, what a saltshaker feels like, the social awareness of who asked and why. In a fraction of a second, their body and brain are working as one. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-ai-lack-fundamental-property-human.html Security Wed, 01 Apr 2026 11:00:05 EDT news694252981 Hackers linked to North Korea are suspected of an ambitious attack on an inconspicuous but widely used software package, Google analysts and other cybersecurity experts said Wednesday. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-north-korea-hackers-widely-software.html Security Wed, 01 Apr 2026 04:40:02 EDT news694235959 When Apple discovers trending popular emojis, or when Google reports traffic at a busy restaurant, they're analyzing large datasets made up of individual people. Those people's personal information is systematically protected thanks in large part to research by Harvard computer scientists. Now, after two decades of work on the cryptography-adjacent mathematical framework known as differential privacy, researchers in the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have reached a key milestone in moving privacy best practices from academia into real-world applications. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-differential-privacy-registry-aims-visible.html Security Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:30:05 EDT news694175201 A team led by Rutgers University researchers has developed a security system that could change how people log in to virtual and augmented reality platforms by eliminating passwords, personal identification numbers and eye scans and replacing them with something far more seamless. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-vibrations-skull-password.html Hi Tech & Innovation Tue, 31 Mar 2026 06:39:38 EDT news694157757 Whether it's a fire or a flood, a ship's crew can only rely on itself and its training in emergencies at sea. The same is true for crews facing digital threats on oil tankers, cargo ships, and other commercial vessels. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-gaps-impacting-maritime-cybersecurity-readiness.html Security Mon, 30 Mar 2026 07:10:01 EDT news694071925 Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Center for Artificial Intelligence Security Research (CAISER) is shining a light on AI vulnerabilities. While AI models offer tremendous economic, humanitarian and national security potential, they are also increasingly susceptible to exploitation. Identifying and characterizing these vulnerabilities has required considerable intellectual effort and specialized expertise. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-photon-framework-scales-ai-vulnerability.html Security Sat, 28 Mar 2026 12:30:03 EDT news693633970 Anyone who has recently traveled to the United States will be familiar with biometric checks—facial and fingerprint scans—used at the border. It is the same technology platform that is used in airports elsewhere in the world. New Zealand's passports, for instance, are among those that now carry encrypted biometric information, matched to a traveler's face as they pass through border smart gates. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-border-backdoor-zealanders-personal.html Security Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:20:01 EDT news693825541 Researchers from the University of Huddersfield have developed a hybrid AI tool to detect patterns of psychological abuse, including coercive control, in a bid to transform digital forensic investigations and mental health research.This innovation was developed as a primary outcome of Researcher Dhruv Patel's Ph.D. work under the mentorship of senior lecturer Dr. Anju Johnson and is designed to address a bottleneck in modern digital forensic investigations, integrating insights from a broader research team to ensure its real-world application. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-hybrid-ai-tool-unmasks-hidden.html Security Wed, 25 Mar 2026 14:00:08 EDT news693663961