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canopic jug writes:

A while back, Freenet Africa had a nice background piece about software luminary and founder of the software freedom movement, Richard Stallman (aka RMS). The article covers his background starting with the GNU project and following through to the current, ongoing fight for digital freedom.

A Rebel with a Cause

Imagine a world where every time you want to share a cool app with a friend, you have to ask permission (and maybe pay extra). Or where fixing a simple bug in your game is impossible because the code is locked away like a secret recipe. Sounds like a tech dystopia, right? This is exactly the kind of world Richard Stallman set out to prevent. Stallman – often known just by his initials RMS – is not as instantly famous as tech giants like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, but his impact on our digital lives is monumental. He's the mastermind behind the GNU Project, the founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), and the author of licenses that guarantee software freedom. In short, he's the original software freedom fighter, a kind of digital rights Gandalf (yes, with the beard to match). And for a guy who champions "free" software, he's quick to tell you: we're talking free as in freedom, not just free as in price.

In this essay, we'll dive into Richard Stallman's contributions to the digital world in an engaging (and occasionally humorous) way. By the end, you'll understand how his work laid the foundation for Linux and the whole open-source ecosystem, why he insists on calling it "GNU/Linux," and what the internet might look like if Stallman hadn't started his crusade for software freedom. Grab a snack (maybe some free-as-in-freedom nachos?) and let's explore the world of Stallman and the movement he started.

Who is Richard Stallman? (And Why Should You Care?) [...]

As others have pointed out, the freedom is the start of a journey, not the destination.

Previously:
(2022) The Code: Story of GNU and Linux (2001) Complete Documentary
(2021) Richard Stallman Rejoins Free Software Foundation Board of Directors
(2018) RMS on a Radical Proposal to Keep Your Personal Data Safe

Original Submission

NASA releases "Starliner Propulsion System Anomalies during the Crewed Flight Test"

VLM writes:

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-releases-report-on-starliner-crewed-flight-test-investigation/

To quote Cheryl Warner, NASA News Chief, "At a news conference on Thursday, NASA released a report of findings from the Program Investigation Team examining the Boeing CST-100 Starliner Crewed Flight Test as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program."

The direct link to the redacted report is:

https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/nasa-report-with-redactions-021926.pdf?emrc=76e561

Redacted? "For the full report, which includes redactions in coordination with our commercial partner to protect proprietary and privacy-sensitive material is available online."

Its 311 pages and they're not providing a summary so it is likely to be extremely juicy and spicy, as NASA historically doesn't water down press releases for many other reasons. So I know what I'll be reading with breakfast tea later this morning.

So the facts are above. My separate opinions below.

I'd give it a different take than the report as I've read it so far; they designed a semi-disposable cost-reduced capsule but space projects ALWAYS take longer so if backflowing oxidizer will inevitably very slowly eat the o-rings in the helium manifold, well, its going to sit around a long time before launching so its going to eat thru, thats the nature of space program delays. Or propellant residue plus CO2 will rot out thruster nozzles given enough time, and space programs being space programs they will indeed be given time to sit around and slowly rot. They still are not sure about the RCS thrusters jamming but it seems likely to be a lack of ground testing during R+D; teflon is like a viscous liquid over a long time while under stress, key being over a long time.

The "Hardware Longevity and Sparing Concerns" section hints to me that the program is about to be cancelled if it doesn't cancel itself first. Reads like they're not permitted under the terms of the investigation to recommend program shutdown but they wanted to recommend it anyway.

The report follows that with numerous identified management failures at NASA and Boeing. This is the new Boeing, which is no longer competent, so "NASA's hands-off contract approach limited insight" precisely when Boeing needed adult supervision as they've downsized, outsourced, refused to recruit, or otherwise eliminated their competent adults for various reasons over the years. But who knows, what do y'all think?

An Anonymous Coward writes:

It opens inside Bing in your default browser:

Last year, we reported on a speed test feature coming to Windows, built right into the taskbar, where you could gauge your internet connection without venturing out to a browser. In reality, it was more like a shortcut that would still open Bing and take you to a miniaturized version of Ookla's Speedtest. Today, that feature is finally here in the Insider program, as part of Build 26100.7918 and 26200.7918.

In these updates pushed to the Release Preview channel, you'll now see an option to "Perform speed test" when you right-click on the network icon or open the Wi-Fi/cellular quick settings. Upon clicking, your default browser will open up Bing, where you'll see a simplified Ookla interface with a meter in the middle, and three stats below: Latency, Download, and Upload.

That means this is technically not a "native" feature, rather just a website link in your taskbar. Still, for the uninitiated, it can be a convenient way to check their internet speed. Let's say you're in a game and suddenly start experiencing packet loss; instead of Alt-tabbing into a browser for a speed test, you can just right-click on your Ethernet icon and go there directly.

This feature will save you a click or two; however, some users may be disappointed by yet another web wrapper implemented inside Windows. Windows has enjoyed a poor run of stability recently, with even Microsoft recognizing its slack, so a built-in taskbar speedtest is probably not high on most users' list of priorities.

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://buttondown.com/creativegood/archive/its-time-to-get-rid-of-networked-cameras/

Amazon did us all a service recently by airing a Super Bowl commercial showing how Ring doorbell cameras spy on everyone walking past. (I discussed this on Techtonic this week with Chris Gilliard, aka hypervisible: episode page / podcast. Recommended listening.)

In the instant that that image aired, millions of Americans finally understood what I – and other tech critics – have been trying to warn about for years: networked cameras are spying on you. The blue circles show the reach of Ring cameras, and – crucially – indicate that they're all part of one network, controlled by Amazon, which can share or sell data to any number of third parties.

Previously: Ring Cancels Flock Deal After Dystopian Super Bowl Ad Prompts Mass Outrage

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Researchers have described a novel mechanochemical process that can store gases safely in powders, using very little energy, in a repeatable process:

Australian scientists say they've made a "eureka moment" breakthrough in gas separation and storage that could radically reduce energy use in the petrochemical industry, while making hydrogen much easier and safer to store and transport in a powder.

Nanotechnology researchers, based at Deakin University's Institute for Frontier Materials, claim to have found a super-efficient way to mechanochemically trap and hold gases in powders, with potentially enormous and wide-ranging industrial implications.

Mechanochemistry is a relatively recently coined term, referring to chemical reactions that are triggered by mechanical forces as opposed to heat, light, or electric potential differences. In this case, the mechanical force is supplied by ball milling – a low-energy grinding process in which a cylinder containing steel balls is rotated such that the balls roll up the side, then drop back down again, crushing and rolling over the material inside.

The team has demonstrated that grinding certain amounts of certain powders with precise pressure levels of certain gases can trigger a mechanochemical reaction that absorbs the gas into the powder and stores it there, giving you what's essentially a solid-state storage medium that can hold the gases safely at room temperature until they're needed. The gases can be released as required, by heating the powder up to a certain point.

The process is repeatable, and Professor Ian Chen, co-author on the new study published in the journal Materials Today, tells us via phone that the boron nitride powder used in the first experiments only loses "about a couple of percent" of its absorption capability each storage and release cycle. "Boron nitride is very stable," he tells us, "and graphene too. We're looking at a restoration treatment that can clean the powders and restore their absorption levels, but we need to prove that it'll work."

The results are absolutely remarkable from a numbers standpoint. This process, for example, could separate hydrocarbon gases out from crude oil using less than 10% of the energy that's needed today. "Currently, the petrol industry uses a cryogenic process," says Chen. "Several gases come up together, so to purify and separate them, they cool everything down to a liquid state at very low temperature, and then heat it all together. Different gases evaporate at different temperatures, and that's how they separate them out."

upstart writes:

Cosmic mystery of the impossibly high-energy neutrino solved by "dark charge" model of black holes :

In 2023, a subatomic particle called a neutrino crashed into Earth with an impossibly huge amount of energy. In fact, no known sources anywhere in the universe can produce that much energy, 100,000 times more than the highest-energy particle ever produced by the Large Hadron Collider, Earth's most powerful particle accelerator. However, a team of physicists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently hypothesized that something like this could happen when a special kind of black hole, called a quasi-extremal primordial black hole, explodes.

Black holes exist, and we have a good understanding of their life cycle: an old, large star runs out of fuel, implodes in a massively powerful supernova, and leaves behind an area of spacetime with such intense gravity that nothing, not even light, can escape. These black holes are incredibly heavy and are essentially stable.

But, as physicist Stephen Hawking pointed out in 1970, another kind of black hole – a primordial black hole – could be created not by the collapse of a star, but from the universe's primordial conditions shortly after the Big Bang. Primordial black holes exist only in theory so far. And, like standard black holes, they're so massively dense that almost nothing can escape them ... which is what makes them black. However, despite their density, primordial black holes could be much lighter than the black holes we have so far observed. Furthermore, Hawking showed that primordial black holes could slowly emit particles via what is now known as Hawking radiation if they got hot enough.

Andrea Thamm, co-author of the new research and assistant professor of physics at UMass Amherst, said:

The lighter a black hole is, the hotter it should be and the more particles it will emit. As primordial black holes evaporate, they become ever lighter, and so hotter, emitting even more radiation in a runaway process until explosion. It's that Hawking radiation that our telescopes can detect.

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

https://gizmodo.com/theres-a-new-term-for-workers-freaking-out-over-being-replaced-by-ai-2000723019

There isn't a ton of evidence to suggest that the introduction of AI has led to significant job losses, yet. But it has led to a significant amount of talk about job losses, and that appears to be taking a real toll on people. According to research published in the journal Cureus and spotted by Futurism, workers are increasingly suffering from distress caused by the constant fear of being replaced, and it's gotten so bad that it needs its own term.

The researchers propose calling this new, modern anxiety "AI replacement dysfunction" or AIRD. The authors define it as a "new, proposed clinical construct describing the psychological and existential distress that could be experienced by individuals facing the threat or reality of job displacement due to artificial intelligence (AI)." The condition carries with it several common symptoms including anxiety, insomnia, depression, and identity confusion "that may reflect deeper fears about relevance, purpose, and future employability." It can also lead to sufferers dealing with additional challenges like psychiatric disorders and substance abuse.

The anxiety over AI is definitely real. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 71% of respondents said they were concerned that AI will put "too many people out of work permanently." Pew Research found that more than half of Americans are worried about how AI in the workplace will impact their jobs, and most lower- and middle-class people believe AI will worsen their job prospects in the future. Another study found that people working in jobs particularly susceptible to automation are more likely to report feeling more stress and other negative emotions.

And while surprisingly few job cuts have actually been attributed to AI directly (despite the fact that many companies have used AI as cover for broader layoffs), there certainly does seem to be damage being done to the workforce, as it relates to entry-level roles, in particular. Early-career workers are definitely having a much harder time finding jobs, which can at least in part be attributed to companies being more willing to turn over that labor to AI. But the reality is that the economy sucks regardless of the introduction of technological innovation, and the companies responsible for building AI benefit from the narrative that their models are capable of doing human-level work. So hearing about AI taking over your job is basically unavoidable, whether the threat is real or not.

While AIRD isn't an accepted clinical diagnosis yet, the researchers have created a framework to help identify it, including a screening questionnaire designed to help clinicians spot potential symptoms. Treatments for the condition will be up to the clinician, but the researchers highlight Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and other cognitive restructuring techniques to "help patients build psychological resilience and restore a coherent sense of self."

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Ten days ago, the social chat app Discord announced that it would launch “teen-by-default” settings for its global audience. As part of this update, all new and existing users worldwide will have a teen-appropriate experience, with updated communication settings, restricted access to age-gated spaces, and content filtering that preserves privacy and meaningful connections, the platform said.

This, of course, means that to use Discord the way you are used to, you’ll have to let it scan your face, and the internet wasn’t happy. Many communities quickly announced their move to other platforms. Others, like the security researcher Celeste, who goes by the handle vmfunc, were convinced there would be a workaround.

Together with two other researchers, they set out to look into Persona, the San Francisco-based startup that’s used by Discord for biometric identity verification – and found a Persona frontend exposed to the open internet on a US government authorized server.

More at The Rage

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Software engineer Kevin McDonald has investigated the topology of the Internet itself before. He enjoys the open data archaeology of this nature. In this recent edition, he has used BGP routing to visualize the Internet again.

For the past few years, I've been trying to make the physical reality of the Internet visible with my Internet Infrastructure Map. This map shows the network of undersea fiber-optic cables along with peering bandwidth, grouped by city. I update the map annually, but I don't want to just pull the latest data and call it a day. In this post I discuss how the map evolved this year and what I did to make it happen, but you can skip to the good part by viewing it here: map.kmcd.dev.

For the 2026 edition, I wanted to better answer the question: where does the Internet actually live? By layering on BGP routing tables alongside physical infrastructure data, I'm now closer to answering that question.

The result is a concept I call “Logical Dominance.” Each city's dominance is calculated by summing total address space of IPv4 subnets that are “homed” in that city. How can I tell where IP addresses are homed? This required analyzing global routing tables to trace IP ownership back to specific geographies. Read on to find out how I accomplished this!

Mapping BGP prefixes to specific locations turned out to be a challenge. Use of BGP in this case means that he had to focus on IPv4 this time.

Previously:
(2018) Mapping the Whole IPv4 Internet with Hilbert Curves
(2016) Revisiting the Carna Botnet
(2014) Undersea Cables Wiring the Earth

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/18/palo_alto_q2_26/

If enterprises are implementing AI, they're not showing it to Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, who on Tuesday said business adoption of the tech lags consumer take-up by at least a couple of years – except for coding assistants.

"Consumers are far outstripping enterprise for the moment, but we expect enterprise will surely and slowly get on that bandwagon," he said on the company's Q2 earnings call.

Arora likened business uptake of AI to the cloud computing shift, which he said took two or three years before enterprises started migrating applications.

"Right now ... tell me how many enterprise AI apps are you using which are driving tremendous amounts of throughput," he asked, and answered himself "I can't think of anything but coding apps."

Coding apps aren't great for Palo Alto's business because they don't generate a lot of network traffic to which it can apply its security smarts. Arora thinks his security vendor peers know this.

"We're all laying the groundwork right now. It is ... sort of an arms race to try and see who can get the AI security sort of platform up and running as quickly as we can."

But the limited enterprise AI adoption Arora has seen does pose some immediate challenges to Palo Alto.

"There is now enterprise adoption that we're beginning to see where customers are running perhaps millions of tokens in one or two particular applications they're working with some of the LLM providers on, and that's where we see the traffic," he said. That traffic is on the LAN and the CEO doesn't think existing networks struggle to handle it.

"I think the challenge right now is consolidating that traffic," he said. "How do you get all the AI traffic to be in one place? So you can understand it, provide visibility, look at the ability to control it and be able to act on it."

The CEO said that as this sort of AI-related traffic grows "it needs a different set of controls and tools."

Palo Alto is already getting its hands on those tools, as on Tuesday put to bed rumours it would acquire agentic AI endpoint security startup Koi by announcing it's done the deal.

Arora pointed to Palo Alto's recent acquisitions of Chronosphere and CyberArk as further evidence of the company's moves to ensure it builds a portfolio of products to secure the AI enterprises will eventually implement.

The CEO expressed confidence Palo Alto has the products it needs today, saying customers know they can't prepare for AI if they are running a tangle of security tools and are therefore consolidating to the kind of platforms the company offers.

Demand for those products helped Palo Alto to $2.6 billion Q2 revenue for the quarter, which represented 15 percent year-over-year growth.

Execs pointed to the success of the company's subscription offerings, noting 23 percent growth in remaining performance obligations, which now stand at $16 billion. And they predicted Q3 revenue would grow at least 28 percent to land between $2.941 billion and $2.945 billion.

All of those nice numbers didn't impress investors, who knocked six percent off the company's share price – perhaps because they weren't thrilled by predictions that profits will ease.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

https://gizmodo.com/bacteria-frozen-inside-5000-year-old-ice-cave-is-crazy-resistant-to-antibiotics-2000723002

For decades, antibiotics have been humanity's frontline defense against bacterial infections, yet these essential medications have also led to the rise of drug-resistant "superbugs." Now, researchers have discovered an ancient strain of bacteria that managed to develop this superpower thousands of years before humans ever invented antibiotics.

A study published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology describes Psychrobacter SC65A.3, a bacterial strain discovered frozen inside 5,000-year-old layers of cave ice in Romania. Testing revealed that SC65A.3 is resistant to 10 modern antibiotics and carries more than 100 genes linked to resistance despite never being exposed to these drugs.

"Studying microbes such as Psychrobacter SC65A.3 retrieved from millennia-old cave ice deposits reveals how antibiotic resistance evolved naturally in the environment, long before modern antibiotics were ever used," co-author Cristina Purcarea, a senior scientist at the Institute of Biology Bucharest of the Romanian Academy, said in a release.

Antibiotic resistance is an urgent threat to global public health. In the U.S. alone, more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur each year, and more than 35,000 people die as a result, according to the CDC's 2019 Antibiotic Resistance Threats Report.

This threat has grown in tandem with the rise of antibiotic use. Antibiotic resistance is a classic example of natural selection: when microbes are exposed to a drug, most die, but a few survive thanks to protective genetic traits. Those survivors then pass their resistance genes onto the next generation, which passes them on to the next, giving rise to superbugs.

While exposure to antibiotics amplifies the prevalence of resistance genes, it does not imbue microbes with these protective traits. Those arise naturally through random genetic mutations and the constant pressure to out-perform other microorganisms in the environment, many of which produce their own antimicrobial compounds.

The ancient Psychrobacter SC65A.3 strain is a perfect example of how these natural processes lead to antibiotic resistance. Purcarea and her colleagues found it inside an 82-foot (25-meter) ice core they extracted from Scarisoara Ice Cave in northwestern Romania. The core represents 13,000 years of climatic history, including the 5,000-year-old ice layers that contained SC65A.3.

In the lab, the researchers isolated various bacterial strains from the core and sequenced their genomes to determine which genes allowed the strain to survive such low temperatures and which promote antimicrobial resistance. When they tested SC65A.3 against 28 widely used antibiotics, they found it was resistant to more than a third of them.

"The 10 antibiotics we found resistance to are widely used in oral and injectable therapies used to treat a range of serious bacterial infections in clinical practice," including tuberculosis, colitis, and urinary tract infections, Purcarea explained.

The findings underscore a frequently overlooked public health threat associated with climate change, according to the study's authors.

"If melting ice releases these microbes, these genes could spread to modern bacteria, adding to the global challenge of antibiotic resistance," Purcarea said. As the global temperature rises, the risk of releasing ancient superbugs into the environment grows. Studying these bacterial strains, however, can also lead to the discovery of unique enzymes and antimicrobial compounds that inspire new drugs and other biotechnological innovations, Purcarea noted.

The SC65A.3 genome contains 11 genes that may be able to kill or stop the growth of other bacteria, fungi, and viruses, for example. It also contains nearly 600 genes with unknown functions, suggesting that many more novel biological mechanisms could be hiding in this superbug's DNA.

"These ancient bacteria are essential for science and medicine," Purcarea said, "but careful handling and safety measures in the lab are essential to mitigate the risk of uncontrolled spread."

Reference:

Frontiers in Microbiology

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/02/openclaw-security-fears-lead-meta-other-ai-firms-to-restrict-its-use/

Last month, Jason Grad issued a late-night warning to the 20 employees at his tech startup. "You've likely seen Clawdbot trending on X/LinkedIn. While cool, it is currently unvetted and high-risk for our environment," he wrote in a Slack message with a red siren emoji. "Please keep Clawdbot off all company hardware and away from work-linked accounts."

Grad isn't the only tech executive who has raised concerns to staff about the experimental agentic AI tool, which was briefly known as MoltBot and is now named OpenClaw.
[...]
Peter Steinberger, OpenClaw's solo founder, launched it as a free, open source tool last November. But its popularity surged last month as other coders contributed features and began sharing their experiences using it on social media. Last week, Steinberger joined ChatGPT developer OpenAI, which says it will keep OpenClaw open source and support it through a foundation.
[...]
Some cybersecurity professionals have publicly urged companies to take measures to strictly control how their workforces use OpenClaw.
[...]
"Our policy is, 'mitigate first, investigate second' when we come across anything that could be harmful to our company, users, or clients," says Grad, who is cofounder and CEO of Massive, which provides Internet proxy tools to millions of users and businesses. His warning to staff went out on January 26, before any of his employees had installed OpenClaw, he says.
[...]
Some companies concerned about OpenClaw are choosing to trust the cybersecurity protections they already have in place rather than introduce a formal or one-off ban. A CEO of a major software company says only about 15 programs are allowed on corporate devices. Anything else should be automatically blocked, says the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal security protocols.
[...]
Massive, the web proxy company, is cautiously exploring OpenClaw's commercial possibilities. Grad says it tested the AI tool on isolated machines in the cloud and then, last week, released ClawPod, a way for OpenClaw agents to use Massive's services to browse the web. While OpenClaw is still not welcome on Massive's systems without protections in place, the allure of the new technology and its moneymaking potential was too great to ignore. OpenClaw "might be a glimpse into the future. That's why we're building for it," Grad says.

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Texas is suing TP-Link Systems, a California-based maker of wi-fi routers, accusing it of concealing its ties to China and potentially exposing American users' home networks to hackers:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the lawsuit on Feb. 17, alleging deceptive marketing practices. Paxton first began investigating TP-Link in October 2025, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has since prohibited state employees from using TP-Link products.

TP-Link, founded in China in 1996, states on its website that it underwent a restructuring in 2024 that split the company into TP-Link Systems and TP-Link Technologies, which serves the mainland Chinese market, and that the two entities are no longer affiliated. Devices sold to U.S. consumers also carry "Made in Vietnam" labels.

Paxton, however, alleges that those "Made in Vietnam" stickers are meant to obscure a supply chain "deeply entrenched in China," where nearly all of TP-Link's components are sourced before being shipped to Vietnam for final assembly.

Those supply-chain ties, the lawsuit claims, leave the company vulnerable to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) counterespionage and national security laws, which require Chinese companies and citizens to assist state intelligence efforts, including providing foreign user data upon request. The complaint also alleges that firmware vulnerabilities in TP-Link hardware have already "exposed millions of consumers to severe cybersecurity risks."

Previously: FCC Orders TP-Link to Allow Third-Party Firmware on Their Routers

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Canadian uranium developer NexGen Energy has held preliminary talks with data centre providers about securing finance for a new mine that could supply fuel for power plants needed for artificial intelligence, its CEO said on Wednesday:

Soaring demand for AI is driving a massive build-out of power-hungry data centres, in turn boosting the need for new generation capacity, including nuclear plants that will require uranium.

To meet that need, NexGen CEO Leigh Curyer said big tech firms will follow the trend set by automakers, who offered finance for battery material mine development several years ago to ensure there was enough supply for an expected boom in demand for electric vehicles.

"It's coming. You've seen it with automakers. These tech companies, they're under an obligation to ensure the hundreds of billions that they are investing in the data centres are going to be powered," he said, speaking at a Melbourne Mining Club event.

NexGen is developing its Rook 1 uranium project in Saskatchewan and has said it expects to finalise a funding package in the second quarter.

As reported on OilPrice.com:

Global electricity demand increased by 3% annually in 2025, following growth of 4.4% in 2024, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its recent Electricity 2026 report.

Between 2026 and 2030, the annual average growth rate would be 3.6%, driven by higher consumption from industry, electric vehicles (EVs), air conditioning, and data centers, according to the agency.

Artificial intelligence, data centers, and advanced manufacturing support the return to growth in power demand in advanced economies, the IEA said.

U.S. electricity demand rose by 2.1% in 2025 and is expected to grow by nearly 2% annually through 2030. The rapid expansion of data centers will drive half of the increase, the agency noted.

Also at ZeroHedge.

Related:

• Microsoft: the Company Doesn't Have Enough Electricity to Install All the AI GPUs in its Inventory
• Data Centers Turn to Commercial Aircraft Jet Engines Bolted Onto Trailers as AI Power Crunch Bites
• OpenAI and Nvidia's $100B AI Plan Will Require Power Equal to 10 Nuclear Reactors
• Meta is Building "Several" Multi-Gigawatt Compute Clusters

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

[Source]: ETH Zurich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich)

Researchers from ETH Zurich have discovered serious security vulnerabilities in three popular, cloud-based password managers. During testing, they were able to view and even make changes to stored passwords.

People who regularly use online services have between 100 and 200 passwords. Very few can remember every single one. Password managers are therefore extremely helpful, allowing users to access all their passwords with just a single master password.

Most password managers are cloud based. A major advantage this offers users is the ability to access their passwords from different devices and also share them with friends and family members. Security is the most important feature of these password managers since, ultimately, users store sensitive data in these encrypted storage platforms, commonly called "vaults". This can also include login details for online banking or credit cards.

Most service providers therefore promote their products with the promise of "zero-knowledge encryption". This means they assure users that their stored passwords are encrypted and even the providers themselves have "zero knowledge" of them and no access to what has been stored. "The promise is that even if someone is able to access the server, this does not pose a security risk to customers because the data is encrypted and therefore unreadable. We have now shown that this is not the case", explains Matilda Backendal.

The team conducted a study to scrutinise the security architecture of three popular password manager providers: Bitwarden, Lastpass and Dashlane. Between them, they serve around 60 million users and have a 23 per cent market share. The researchers demonstrated 12 attacks on Bitwarden, 7 on LastPass and 6 on Dashlane.

[Journal Reference]: https://eprint.iacr.org/2026/058 (Cryptology ePrint Archive)

Original Submission