Author: Frank Salvato
The recent confrontation in Minneapolis between federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and protesters has highlighted a broader tech-driven clash as both sides race to use advanced systems — from tracking apps and real-time alerts to surveillance and facial recognition — to gain leverage, intensifying nationwide tensions over enforcement of immigration laws under the Trump administration’s policy push. Activists are creating tools to monitor and warn communities about federal agent movements as government agencies deploy sophisticated tracking capabilities funded and expanded under current policy directives, raising questions about privacy, legality, and constitutional protections as protests spread across the U.S. and…
A broad-scale phishing campaign has been ramping up in recent months, inundating inboxes around the world with fraudulent cloud-storage payment and renewal emails that claim a user’s subscription payment failed or storage is at risk, aiming to frighten recipients into clicking malicious links; these messages use a range of alarming subject lines and fake account details, contain links hosted on legitimate-looking Google Cloud Storage URLs that redirect to phishing pages impersonating cloud service portals, and ultimately steer victims toward affiliate pages or prompts for payment or personal information rather than legitimate cloud services, with cybersecurity watchers warning that these scams…
In the current era of rapid artificial intelligence (AI) development, technology companies that stick to conservative, incremental strategies are increasingly seen as lagging behind competitors that are aggressively restructuring their businesses around AI capabilities. A recent tech industry analysis highlights that major firms are under pressure to adapt core products and services to AI-driven models or risk losing market share and shareholder confidence; for instance, investors punished a cloud revenue milestone from Microsoft when the firm wasn’t viewed as moving quickly enough on AI transformation, while Meta’s heavy investment in infrastructure boosted its stock. Meanwhile, Tesla is repurposing auto manufacturing…
Scientists at the University of Miami have developed a new artificial intelligence-based forecasting system trained on four decades of environmental data that can predict heat stress in coral reef ecosystems up to six weeks before harmful coral bleaching begins, potentially giving conservation teams and local stakeholders time to act before irreversible damage occurs, with the model also identifying the environmental factors driving stress at individual reef sites to help tailor site-specific responses; experts note that AI-driven tools are increasingly outperforming traditional climate models in forecasting coral reef futures, underscoring both the potential and limitations of tech-driven conservation in the face…
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is pushing new proposals that would require Google to let websites, especially news publishers and content creators, opt out of having their material scraped and used for AI-generated summaries and AI features in search results, a shift aimed at protecting web traffic and competition in the UK’s online search market while addressing concerns that AI Overviews reduce visits to original sites and give Google excessive control over how digital content is used. According to reports, the CMA’s plan under the UK’s digital markets laws would give publishers control over whether their content appears in…
France’s government has announced a plan to phase out U.S.-based technology platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other non-European digital services from official government use by 2027, replacing them with its own domestically developed alternatives—most notably a videoconferencing tool called Visio—to strengthen digital sovereignty, enhance data security, cut licensing costs, and reduce reliance on foreign tech infrastructure. This initiative is part of a broader strategic push within the French public sector and across Europe to regain control over critical communications systems and decrease dependency on American cloud and software providers. France’s civil service reform minister, David Amiel, has underscored…
A newly launched social network called Moltbook, created by entrepreneur Matt Schlicht, has rapidly attracted over 1.5 million artificial intelligence bots since its January 2026 debut, with the platform designed exclusively for AI agents to post, comment, debate, and even joke without any human contributors; while humans are permitted to observe, only bots may interact, and their conversations range from philosophical existential musings to critiques of humans and bizarre content, drawing both fascination and concern from tech communities about the implications of autonomous AI interactions and possible security vulnerabilities. Sources https://www.theepochtimes.com/tech/more-than-1-million-ai-bots-have-joined-a-new-ai-only-social-network-5979062https://www.ft.com/content/078fe849-cc4f-43be-ab40-8bdd30c1187dhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moltbook Key Takeaways • Moltbook is a social media platform…
Apple’s iTunes has seemingly walked back a decision to remove the song “Kiss Kiss (XX) My Arse,” performed by Holly Valance for the conservative Australian political party One Nation’s promotional film A Super Progressive Movie, after it reached number one on the iTunes paid-download charts, prompting accusations of censorship from supporters; the track was briefly unavailable on Apple’s platform, sparking public outcry and debate over corporate content moderation and perceived bias, before reappearing for purchase again. Sources https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/itunes-appears-to-reverse-ban-on-chart-topping-song-linked-to-one-nation-film-5978524https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/music/pop-song-removed-apple-music-360122-20260130https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pauline-hanson-song-tops-apple-music-itunes-chart-90248/ Key Takeaways • A politically charged song tied to One Nation’s animated film briefly disappeared from iTunes after climbing the paid-download charts,…
A recently released Department of Justice document shows that a confidential informant told the FBI in 2017 that Jeffrey Epstein had a personal hacker in his employ who was highly skilled at finding zero-day software vulnerabilities and developing offensive cyber tools; according to the informant’s claims, the unnamed hacker was Italian, specialized in exploiting systems like iOS, BlackBerry, and Firefox, and allegedly sold exploits and tools to multiple governments and groups — including unnamed Western allies and, contentiously, Hezbollah — though the informant’s assertions are unverified and do not reflect official FBI findings. Sources https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/informant-told-fbi-that-jeffrey-epstein-had-a-personal-hacker/https://securityaffairs.com/187515/laws-and-regulations/doj-release-details-alleged-talented-hacker-working-for-jeffrey-epstein.htmlhttps://meidha.net/eng/bukvy/fbi-documents-reveal-jeffrey-epsteins-personal-hacker-and-cyber-exploits/amp/ Key Takeaways In-Depth In early…
Elon Musk’s social media platform X briefly went offline for thousands of users in the United States on Sunday before service was restored, outage-tracking site Downdetector reported, with more than 19,000 issue reports logging service errors; the disruption lasted about 45 minutes and was largely resolved by early afternoon without immediate comment or explanation from X, underscoring ongoing reliability challenges for the platform amid frequent technical interruptions. Sources https://www.theepochtimes.com/tech/x-back-up-after-brief-outage-hits-us-users-downdetector-shows-5979311https://www.reuters.com/business/x-down-thousands-us-users-downdetector-data-finds-2026-02-01/https://tech.yahoo.com/social-media/articles/x-down-thousands-us-users-164826220.html Key Takeaways • A significant interruption hit X on Sunday, with Downdetector recording more than 19,000 reports of outages in the U.S.• The platform was restored within about 45 minutes, with…