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Cryptocurrency theft is estimated to generate half of the country’s foreign currency income North Korea plays by its own rules. The isolated, secretive and autocratic country is largely cut off from the world’s economic system – but when it comes to generating foreign earnings it relies on some of the world’s most sophisticated hacking. Experts, such as TRM Labs, quickly attributed the extraordinary $6.3bn (£4.7bn) Binance cryptocurrency theft to TraderTraitor, an elite North Korean hacking unit that has also been known as the Lazarus Group. Though the link may not be proven yet, the pattern of behaviour is familiar. Continue reading...

Centre for Public Integrity report says mandatory audit and public register of all automated decision-making needed Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The federal government is “sleepwalking its way into another robodebt” scandal amid a lack of transparency and legislation around use of algorithms and artificial intelligence in decisions, the chief executive of independent thinktank the Centre for Public Integrity said. Dr Catherine Williams launched the centre’s “Computer Says No” report on Thursday, which examines the use of automated decision-making (ADM) tools by the government and calls for urgent reform. Continue reading...

North Korea is said to be behind the theft from the crypto exchange Binance. How did they pull it off and what will they do with the money? Kalyeena Makortoff and Jean H Lee report It was 8pm last Thursday when the panic alarms went off across the crypto world. Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, had been hacked. The cryptocurrency revolution promised to take power from the fusty old central banks and put it in the hands of the people. But the hack exposed just how vulnerable crypto can be. The Guardian’s banking correspondent, Kayleena Makortoff, tells Helen Pidd how Binance was hacked and how the news has shaken the crypto world. Almost immediately, the finger of blame was pointed squarely in one direction: North Korea. The journalist Jean H Lee explains why one of the poorest and most isolated countries in the world is believed to have pulled off the audacious heist, and what it might do with the money. Archive sources: CBC News, CNN, YouTube Continue reading...

Chains in seven countries say cooling unit temperatures rose overnight in incident similar to hack of French shops Who is hacking Europe’s supermarket fridges and freezers, and why? Supermarket chains in at least seven European countries have said the temperatures of refrigerators and freezers in some of their shops soared overnight to as high as 50C (122F), echoing a cyber-attack last month that caused millions of euros of damage in France. Retailers in Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden reported problems with their refrigeration systems on Monday, and several companies confirmed they had been hacked. Continue reading...

Google says one of its Android manufacturing partners secretly built a backdoor in 1.3 million devices and turned them into a botnet. The company says it has now dismantled the backdoor and "cut ties" with the manufacturer, the Shenzhen, China-based Videostrong Technology Co., which has been banned from building or selling certified Android devices or […]

Apple will now let Siri AI perform actions across third-party apps. As part of the iOS 27.3 update rolling out on Tuesday, Apple announced developers can now integrate Siri AI's new features in "all apps," allowing the voice assistant to draw on a user's personal context, process natural language prompts, and use on-screen awareness to […]

The New York Times and a group of other publications have filed lawsuits against the company that makes the Brave web browser over alleged unlawful scraping to train AI and also letting users bypass their paywalls, as reported by Reuters. According to a complaint filed by the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and […]

Bowen Wan was on anti-seizure medication, and chatbot provided her with a tapering schedule to reduce dosage A woman’s death from an epileptic seizure after she received dangerous advice from a chatbot has prompted her parents to sue OpenAI earlier this week. The legal action is the latest lawsuit that in which plaintiffs allege that a bot provided counsel to a user that ultimately led to their death. Continue reading...

Search queries are growing at their fastest rate in five years, Google parent Alphabet said in its earnings report last week. However, Google's Search revenue growth slowed to 12 percent year over year in the third quarter, down from roughly 17 percent in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, growth in paid clicks - clicks on ads […]

With smartphone sales tanking by around 20 percent compared to 2025, Qualcomm is looking to data centers to help boost its bottom line. During its Q4 2026 earnings call, the company laid out its plans to make a splash in the AI data center business, through partnerships with companies like Amazon and Meta announced earlier […]

Prospect to hold workplace sessions and recruit members under agreement with tech company Trade unions are expected to make further inroads into big tech companies in the UK after new rights for unions to access workplaces came into force, with Google UK signing an agreement on Monday. The Prospect union has reached an agreement with Google to begin organising among about 7,000 workers across its UK operations, including YouTube but excluding DeepMind. Continue reading...

Russia plans to build own version of US billionaire’s satellite communications to help attack Ukraine Vladimir Putin praised Elon Musk’s genius and said he was in touch with Starlink’s controlling shareholder as Russia develops its own satellite communications for its military to use against Ukraine. The Russian president, speaking at a summit with African leaders in Moscow, was comparing the Earth-orbiting network built by Musk’s SpaceX with Russia’s gradual efforts to build its own Rassvet constellation. Continue reading...

New electricity generating capacity would enable north-east to attract investment for large-scale AI infrastructure National Grid has taken a step towards building Britain’s biggest electricity substation on Teesside, which could supply power to a vast neighbouring datacentre as the UK races to expand its AI infrastructure. Last week, the company agreed to purchase 29.5 hectares (73 acres) of land at Dorman Point on a site owned by Teesworks, a local private-public partnership. The deal was first reported by Sky News. Continue reading...

James Talarico, the Democratic Texas senator-elect, not only managed to flip the state in yesterday's midterms but prevailed in the most expensive Senate election to date. More than $573 million was spent on advertisements between Talarico, his Republican opponent Ken Paxton, and their aligned PACs. And a big chunk of that money came from just […]

Minister hints at restriction on selling technology ‘to certain users’ amid worries over surreptitious filming of women Restrictions on smart glasses are being considered by the government, a minister has said, amid concerns that the technology is being used to surreptitiously film women. Speaking in the House of Commons, the safeguarding minister Satvir Kaur hinted at a ban on selling the technology “to certain users”. Continue reading...

Anthropic, the creator of Claude, filed to go public on the US stock market on 26 October. The company's filing statement contains a 92-page risk factor document in which it acknowledges the dangers that AI poses to society and human beings, and factors that could negatively affect Anthropic's business. Johana Bhuiyan, senior tech reporter for the Guardian, breaks down the document and explains why Anthropic's IPO could be a real test for the AI boom Anthropic files for potentially record-breaking stock market valuation in key test for AI industry Continue reading...

The tech mogul’s midterm donations backing Republicans have made him the largest single-cycle political donor in modern US history Elon Musk has poured so much money into US politics this midterms election cycle that his donations could fund half a dozen SpaceX rocket launches or buy thousands of Tesla Cybertrucks. At the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles, Musk could order more than 31.9m cheeseburgers with the money he has spent on the midterms. Musk, the world’s richest person, has funnelled at least $445.77m into Republican-aligned political action committees (Pacs) and groups since last year, according to US Federal Election Commission data as of 29 October. The contributions have made him the Republicans’ most prominent financial backer and the largest single-cycle political donor in modern US history. Continue reading...

In announcement geared to schools, tech giant showed how entwined AI is with the world’s most popular website Google just acknowledged that you can’t use Google Search without using artificial intelligence. The search giant announced a slate of new AI products for classrooms and schools on Tuesday as well as more ways for teachers and schools to limit or restrict use of those AI tools. The company said the schools should have control over whether students use AI in the classroom. There’s one catch, though: if a school or teacher blocks the use of Google’s AI features, students won’t be able to use Google Search. Continue reading...

Meta is planning to release the last OS update for its Quest 2 and Quest Pro VR headsets by March 2027, the company announced today. The last OS update for those devices is planned to be v213, and after that, Meta will continue to ship security patches and critical bug fixes through the end of […]