https://techxplore.com/rss-feed/security-news/ en-us The latest news on cyber security, network security, software vulnerabilities, data leaks, malware, and viruses It's a choice you may face multiple times a day—and, at this point, your reaction is probably reflexive. Are you going to accept those internet cookies, reject them, or spend a little time customizing your settings? https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-internet-cookies-web.html Internet Mon, 18 May 2026 14:10:01 EDT news698331560 A surge in arrests of suspected foreign scammers in Sri Lanka has authorities concerned that the island is fast becoming a hub for online crime, following sweeping crackdowns in hotspots Cambodia and Myanmar. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-crackdown-southeast-asia-scam-networks.html Internet Sun, 17 May 2026 11:11:47 EDT news698235078 Research into 5G cellular network security suggests that we need to unify encryption and intrusion detection to better protect those networks rather than treating encryption and detection as separate processes. The research in the International Journal of Information and Communication Technology focuses on the demands of 5G networks, which offer high data speeds, very low latency, and massive device connectivity. These capabilities allow us to use sophisticated mobile applications and have autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and industrial automation. But they come at a cost of increased exposure to fast-changing security threats from malware and malicious third parties. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-merged-5g-gaps.html Security Tue, 12 May 2026 19:40:03 EDT news697810028 The company that operates online learning system Canvas said it struck a deal with hackers to delete the data they pilfered in a cyberattack that created chaos for students, many of them in the middle of finals. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-hackers-delete-stolen-canvas-platform.html Security Tue, 12 May 2026 09:40:04 EDT news697794609 Google said Monday that it had disrupted a criminal group's attempt to use artificial intelligence to exploit another company's previously unknown digital vulnerability, adding to heightened worries across government and private industry about AI's risks for cybersecurity. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-google-disrupts-hackers-ai-exploit.html Security Mon, 11 May 2026 13:00:08 EDT news697722295 Tens of thousands of students studying for final exams around the world Friday regained access to a key online learning system after a cyberattack had earlier knocked it offline, throwing schools and universities into turmoil. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-canvas-online-cyberattack-disrupted-thousands.html Security Sat, 09 May 2026 05:14:58 EDT news697522454 This week, US-based education technology provider Instructure announced a significant cybersecurity incident affecting its Canvas system. This is used by schools and universities around the world, including in Australia. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-hackers-stole-schools-unis-world.html Security Fri, 08 May 2026 17:00:01 EDT news697448885 Schools and universities across the country are recovering from an outage that knocked down Canvas, an online platform that manages exams, course notes, lecture videos and grades. The disruption tied to a cyberattack hit in the middle of finals period for many colleges, a high-stress time when students and instructors rely heavily on the platform. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-cyberattack-canvas-thousands-schools-loom.html Security Fri, 08 May 2026 04:09:57 EDT news697432159 If the spring season has brought an urge to scrub your living space from top to bottom, why not clear out the digital detritus cluttering your electronic devices and online accounts at the same time? https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-digital-devices-online-accounts.html Consumer & Gadgets Thu, 07 May 2026 19:40:06 EDT news697381106 Compared to the possibilities offered by on-body interaction techniques such as wearables, smartphones and computers are increasingly beginning to look like technologies of the past. But what risks arise when mini-computers worn continuously on the body become part of everyday life? This question was investigated by CISPA researcher Dañiel Gerhardt. His central finding is that privacy and security issues are closely intertwined, creating significant risks for users. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-body-tech-expose-users-privacy.html Consumer & Gadgets Thu, 07 May 2026 15:00:03 EDT news697384562 A study conducted by researchers at IMDEA Networks Institute has revealed that ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Grok, and Perplexity AI use different types of trackers from Meta, Google, TikTok and other companies, potentially exposing data about users' conversations and activity. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-conversations-ai-private.html Security Thu, 07 May 2026 09:40:04 EDT news697365181 The Trump administration is looking to develop a process that would have the federal government review the safety of powerful artificial intelligence models before approving their release, according to a report in The New York Times on May 4, 2026. The move would stand in contrast to the administration's generally anti-regulatory approach to industry and comes in the wake of Anthropic voluntarily postponing the release of its latest AI model, Mythos. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-white-house-vet-powerful-ai.html Security Wed, 06 May 2026 18:20:03 EDT news697280959 Large language models (LLMs), the computational models underpinning the functioning of ChatGPT, Gemini, and similar conversational platforms, are now used daily by many people worldwide. As these models can rapidly answer queries about most topics, many users use them to source information related to their personal and professional lives, sometimes sharing information about themselves. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-ai-personality-traits-chatgpt-history.html Consumer & Gadgets Tue, 05 May 2026 10:00:11 EDT news697193407 A research team led by Virginia Tech cybersecurity expert Bimal Viswanath has found a critical blind spot in today's image protection techniques designed to prevent bad actors from stealing online content for unauthorized artificial intelligence training, style mimicry, and deepfake manipulations. The study is published on the arXiv preprint server. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-digital-content-safe-generative-ai.html Security Mon, 04 May 2026 15:40:03 EDT news697125482 Cybercriminals have been struggling to adopt AI in their work, reports the first-of-its-kind study that analyzed a dataset of 100 million posts from underground cybercrime communities. The study is published on the arXiv preprint server. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-ai-inroads-cybercriminals.html Security Mon, 04 May 2026 15:00:06 EDT news697124462 In our increasingly online lives, convenience has come at a cost. The average person has more than 100 online accounts, and creating a new one often requires handing over personal information like an email address or a birthdate. Researchers at the Applied Social Media Lab at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society say the current system puts your privacy at risk and makes you more vulnerable to identity theft, and they have a plan to fix it. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-identity-wallet-biometric-proof-corporate.html Consumer & Gadgets Mon, 04 May 2026 12:40:06 EDT news697115041 The cybersecurity community went on alert when Anthropic announced on April 7, 2026, that its latest and most capable general-purpose large language model, Claude Mythos Preview, had demonstrated remarkable—and unintended—capabilities. The artificial intelligence system was able to find and exploit software vulnerabilities—the most serious type of software bugs—at a rate not seen before. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-mythos-ai-cybersecurity-threat-doesnt.html Security Mon, 04 May 2026 12:20:03 EDT news697115282 A new study has uncovered a significant and largely invisible privacy risk in the online advertising ecosystem: the ads you see may be enough to reveal sensitive personal information. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-online-ads-harmless-revealing-private.html Security Mon, 04 May 2026 07:20:07 EDT news697097582 In a world where cell phones and cars guide us everywhere, we've come to trust global positioning as much as we trust our own senses. What happens when that trust is broken? https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-portable-detector-gps-spoofing-real.html Security Sun, 03 May 2026 11:00:01 EDT news696694221 Wireless communication is about to get stronger, clearer, and more secure, thanks to a new idea from UBC Okanagan researchers. Dr. Anas Chaaban and his team in the School of Engineering are exploring a method to improve the way stacked intelligent surfaces (SIS) can process electromagnetic waves more efficiently. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-stacked-intelligent-surfaces-boost-wireless.html Telecom Sat, 02 May 2026 13:00:01 EDT news696785837 Research conducted by Dr. Sanaz Taheri Boshrooyeh, a Ph.D. graduate of Koç University, Computer Science and Engineering Program, together with Prof. Dr. Alptekin Küpçü and Prof. Dr. Öznur Özkasap, has led to the development of a new scalable method designed to protect user privacy on online platforms that rely on invitation-based registration. The system, called "Anonyma," prevents even system administrators from identifying who invited a particular user to join the platform, addressing a significant privacy concern in such systems. The research and analysis results were published in Journal of Network and Computer Applications. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-method-privacy-online-platforms.html Computer Sciences Thu, 30 Apr 2026 15:00:01 EDT news696779161 Evolutionary biology holds clues for the future of AI, argue researchers from the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Eötvös Loránd University, and the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. In a new Perspective published April 20 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team warn that evolvable AI (eAI) systems that can undergo Darwinian evolution may soon emerge, and they will generate special risks that can be understood, and mitigated, based on insights from evolutionary biology. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-evolving-ai-agi-hard.html Security Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:20:09 EDT news696701761 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