International authorities and a raft of private technology companies say they have disrupted a cybercrime “assembly line” that allowed crooks to collect millions of login credentials and steal more than $47 million in ransom payments and by other fraudulent means.

The crux of the operation was the simultaneous targeting of two unrelated tools that are widely used in various online scams. The first is Amadey, a malware-as-a-service platform for compromising devices and delivering malicious payloads for ransomware and other scams. Amadey has been observed in the wild since at least 2018 and was seen last year abusing GitHub as it collected system information from infected devices and installed customized payloads. The second tool was StealC, an infostealer-as-a-service platform that collects credentials, authentication cookies, cryptocurrency wallets, browser extensions, and files whose names match customer-defined patterns.

Severing a critical link in the cybercrime chain

Amadey and StealC are separate tools that are run independently of each other. Given their widespread use, however, many customers use both in their individual cybercrime activities. The tools also, it turns out, relied on some of the same underlying infrastructure to run. Microsoft said it made this determination after analyzing the tools using AI. This insight allowed Microsoft attorneys to seek an order disrupting both at the same time.

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LOS ANGELES—Slate Auto has pulled a Disneyland. Let me explain.

At Disneyland, if a sign for a ride says the wait is 45 minutes, it's actually less than that. The idea is to set expectations low and then exceed them. Slate originally said its electric truck's entry-level battery would have 180 miles (290 km) of range, but that has expanded to 205 miles (330 km). The tow rating was originally 1,000 lbs (454 kg); now it's 2,000 lbs (907 kg), a nice jump. Finally, the load rating was 1,400 lbs (635 kg), and it's now 1,550 lbs (703 kg).

The automotive startup has exceeded expectations. Was it part of the plan all along? Was leaking the price of the base model of $24,950 last week guerrilla marketing? Since the truck's unveiling a year ago, Slate's marketing has been extremely tongue-in-cheek.

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The Walt Disney Company has agreed to pay $50 million to subscribers of YouTube TV and DirecTV’s live TV streaming services to settle a lawsuit that claimed that Disney forced these services to raise their prices.

In November 2022, four YouTube TV subscribers filed a class action complaint (PDF) against Disney in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. They accused Disney of entering “anticompetitive agreements with YouTube TV” and other companies that provide access to broadcast channels via the Internet.

The complaint argued that Disney forced over-the-top (OTT) live TV services to cost more by requiring distributors to include ESPN, which Disney owns, with their base packages.

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Most people perceive a cork in a bottle of wine as a simple plug meant to keep the liquid in and the outside world out. In the recent study published in Science Advances, a team of French scientists demonstrated the cork is way more than that. By regulating the oxygen transfer into and out of the wine bottle, it works almost as another ingredient.

“Twenty years ago, our group focused on the oxidation and aging of wine and all its parameters,” Thomas Karbowiak said. “Oxygen diffusion through cork stoppers is one of these parameters.” Karbowiak is a chemist at the University of Burgundy, France, and the senior author of the study.

The mini-bottle experiment

Oxidation is one of the key drivers of wine aging. A slow, limited ingress of oxygen helps wine mature, smoothing out harsh tannins and bringing out an aromatic complexity. But when too much oxygen gets into the bottle too quickly, it can make the wine stale, brownish in color, and unpleasant to drink. That’s because it will also react with alcohol and phenols in the same process that makes a cut apple turn brown.

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A Federal Communications Commission proposal to collect more identifying information from phone users has drawn protests from privacy-focused groups and advocates for domestic violence survivors. The plan is ostensibly designed to thwart robocallers but could make it difficult for individuals to use prepaid phones that can protect their privacy, devices that are often referred to as burner phones.

The FCC is seeking comment on the proposal to require phone companies to obtain and retain, at a minimum, "the name, physical address, government issued identification number, and an alternate telephone number of any new and renewing customer before granting access to its services."

Critics say this would prevent people from using prepaid phones without revealing their identities. Technology Safety Specialist Belle Torek of the National Network to End Domestic Violence told the FCC in a filing yesterday that "many of the behaviors and privacy-protective measures the Commission appears to view as suspicious are, for survivors, well-established and often life-preserving safety practices."

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Formula E is in its final year for the current technical regulations, with a new single-seater EV set to be introduced at the start of next season, which begins in December in Saudi Arabia. The new car, known as GEN4, is a big upgrade—at times more powerful than a Formula 1 car, although heavier and with much less downforce. As speeds rise with the GEN4 car, we knew the sport would become too fast for some of its current venues.

With the release of the season 12 calendar for 2026–2027, that limitation has become clear: a 21-race lineup across 13 cities that now includes several traditional race tracks.

The Saudi double-header is scheduled for December 18 and 19 and is the only season 12 round this year. Then the series starts 2027 off with a string of Formula 1 venues in North America: Mexico on January 16, the Circuit of the Americas in Texas on February 7, and the Miami International Autodrome on February 20. The addition of COTA to Formula E's calendar makes it the seventh US location for the sport since 2015, including the American Airlines Arena in actual Miami; Long Beach, California; Brooklyn, New York; Portland, Oregon; Homestead-Miami, and the Hard Rock Stadium on the outskirts of Miami.

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Google spent the last few years locked in a legal grudge match with Epic Games, which claimed that Google's stewardship of the Play Store was anticompetitive. Now, the companies are thick as thieves, and Google is beginning to implement app store changes as agreed in its settlement with Epic. The lower developer fees and new payment options that Google promised are rolling out in select markets this month before expanding.

Until a few years ago, Google followed an Apple-like approach to app store billing, charging most developers a 30 percent commission for transactions in the Play Store. That was the only option, too. Directing users to make purchases outside the store was not allowed, and that's what got Epic in hot water in 2020. Epic added cheaper external billing to the Android and iOS versions of Fortnite, getting the game pulled from both stores and prompting a lawsuit.

Apple managed to (mostly) win its case, but Google tripped up in how it tried to control the Play Store while keeping a more open appearance. The judge in the case was set to impose some dramatic remedies in 2024, including forcing Google to distribute third-party app stores in Google Play. The settlement, which Google has noted will end its dispute with Epic globally, doesn't go that far. However, developers are about to get the promised fee reductions.

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A few days after a Tesla plowed through a Texas home and killed a grandmother, the family sued the carmaker, alleging that the Model 3’s automated assist mode was defective.

In a complaint filed this week in Harris County District Court, Jennifer Barbour, the daughter of 76-year-old Martha Avila, and Barbour's husband Justin confirmed they were seeking more than $1 million in damages following their sudden and tragic loss.

After the crash, the driver, Michael Butler, who is also a named defendant in the lawsuit, told police that the automated driver-assist feature was engaged when he lost control of the car. Cops told Ars on Monday that they’re still investigating whether the feature was in use and confirmed that Butler was not intoxicated and has been cooperating with police.

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The Army, Navy, and Air Force are once again requiring basic trainees to get vaccinated against influenza after the virus quickly swept through an Air Force base in Texas, sickening at least 222 recruits and hospitalizing four.

The outbreak flared just two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abandoned a decades-long requirement for flu shots. The requirement was intended to keep armed forces healthy in their bases, which provide ideally tight conditions for a variety of pathogens, including influenza, to run rampant. Mandates stem from centuries of intertwining histories of militaries, war, and human pathogens that have firmly established the danger that infectious diseases pose to armed forces.

But in April, Hegseth claimed that flu shot requirements were "not rational" and said removing the requirement was "restoring freedom" to military members.

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This morning, Slate Auto officially announced pricing for its Slate electric truck. Ars will have some time with a prototype later today, along with—hopefully—answers to many of our remaining questions. In the meantime, we decided to play around with Slate's online configurator to see how much you might actually have to pay for one of these exciting new EVs. As expected, Slate has managed to achieve a sub-$25,000 starting price; if you ignore things like taxes or the as-yet-unknown delivery charge, the Blank Slate pickup really does start at just $24,950.

The battery pack uses lithium iron phosphate cells, with 63 kWh useable energy (65 kWh gross) and a 181 hp (135 kW), 195 lb-ft (264 Nm) electric motor driving the rear wheels. In pickup configuration, with 17-inch steel wheels, the EPA range estimate is 205 miles (330 km). DC fast charging takes 30 minutes to charge from 20 to 80 percent at up to 120 kW via a NACS port, or four to 17 hours using AC, depending on whether you use a level 2 or simple wall socket.

Bare bones

And if you really want a bare-bones pickup, here is your chance. The first variant I mocked up this morning came in at just $25,289.97—plus pending taxes and fees—and that's just because I spent a little over $300 on some decals to make the truck look like my favorite pair of sneakers.

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There are some sights in this world that no photograph can truly capture.

Think of the rolling ribbons of the aurora in the northern and southern skies, the depth and breadth of the Grand Canyon, or the sense of immersion when diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Astronauts will tell you that not even large-format cameras can truly capture the blackness of outer space or the majesty that is our planet as seen from orbit or beyond.

It's not every day that a new one of those sights debuts. But such will be the case on Friday, November 13, when the California Science Center in Los Angeles finally reveals the launch-pad-like display of the space shuttle Endeavor inside the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.

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In May, the White House announced that its new app would be automatically downloaded onto the work phones of millions of government employees. The problem: Federal workers hate it and can’t get rid of it.

Employees of the US Department of Agriculture, the State Department, and the Department of Labor, who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation, say that they were disturbed when the app appeared on their phones. Some attempted to delete it, but to no avail.

“I deleted it as a test and it came immediately back,” says an employee from the USDA.

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The White House is drastically shortening the deadline for government agencies and organizations to adopt new quantum-resistant encryption systems that will withstand attacks that use quantum computers, as the federal government seeks to protect decades’ worth of secrets belonging to militaries, banks, governments, and most individuals on Earth.

The executive order, titled Securing the Nation against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks, requires computing systems for “high-value assets” and “high-impact systems” to transition to post-quantum cryptographic key establishment schemes by December 31, 2030, and to quantum-safe digital signature schemes by December 31, 2031.

Heading off a significant threat

The new deadline, which for many organizations is about five years sooner than the previous one, comes on the heels of recent research showing that the resources and cost for building a cryptographically relevant quantum computer are far less than previous consensus estimates. In response, Google, Cloudflare, and other companies recently tightened their timelines for moving off vulnerable systems to 2029.

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