Author: InfoForTech
The current ransomware situation is a bit of a kludge (deep breath): a lot of ransomware (which often doesn't even involve "ware", it's just extortion) is carried out by kids who successfully make a truckload of money but can't spend it without getting caught and the companies they breach rapidly get piled onto by class action lawyers that keeps them busy fighting and being cautious not to say anyting to customers lest that then gets used against them in litigation. That's mostly it; more in this week's video:
Comparing Our Favorite Digital NotebooksOur Favorite Smart PensNeo Smartpen M1+ for $129: Skip the tablet and write directly on paper with a smart pen instead. The Neo Smartpen M1+ is the thinnest and lightest of all the pens I tried, which makes it feel a bit more like your standard pen. Importantly, it’s comfortable to hold and use. You should be able to find whatever size and style of notebook you need, as well as planners. The Neo Studio app (iOS, Android) is nice, with an easy-to-navigate notebook system and the ability to search for pages by page number or…
A new analysis of the 60 largest data centers under construction in the US by Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft estimates the sites could produce a cumulative 101.5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually once they’re fully up and running, Financial Times reports. That’s about 7% of all 2025 US power-sector emissions. Put another way, it’s the equivalent of running 27 coal power plants or putting 24 million more gas-powered cars on the road. The backlash against America’s data center and artificial intelligence boom has been building for a while now, reaching a fever pitch over water use, land grabs…
Innovation is a concept that has become mythologized in the modern era: what it is, how to manage it, how to teach it, and how to get it to work for us. Despite these explorations, it remains fundamentally misunderstood, writes Eugene Fitzgerald, the Merton C. Flemings SMA Professor in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, in his latest book, “The Invisible Engine: Why Innovation Evades Control.”Fitzgerald draws on a decade of work leading international research programs, including the MIT and Masdar Institute Cooperative Program and the MIT-Singapore Alliance for Research and Technology, where he explored innovation as the integration of market…
Ravie LakshmananAug 18, 2026Vulnerability / Network Security The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Monday added a critical flaw impacting Ray to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. Ray is an open-source, Python-native distributed computing framework designed to scale artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads. As of writing, the GitHub project has more than 43,500 stars and has been forked over 7,900 times. The vulnerability in question relates to CVE-2025-62593 (CVSS score: 9.4), which can result in remote code execution via web browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari by means of a…
It turns out that it’s not only U.S. and European companies pushing the concept of autonomous warfare. Nigeria-based Terra Industries is a defense technology startup that develops automated security systems for governments and infrastructure operators, and it has just raised $52 million. Announced today, the raise is reportedly the largest-ever seed funding round by an African startup. It saw the participation of Norleo Space Investments and angel investor Grant Gordon, as well as existing investors 8VC, Silent Ventures, Nova Global, Belief Capital and SV Angel. Terra Industries was founded in 2024 by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka. Its autonomous defense…
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed below belong solely to the author. Data sourced from Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower. Singapore’s economy is having an exceptionally strong year. GDP grew 5.9% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, after expanding 6.3% in the first. This led the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) to raise its full-year forecast to 4.5-5.5% – up from the original 1.0% to 3.0%. The main reason is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Global spending on AI infrastructure is boosting demand for semiconductors, manufacturing equipment, cloud services and other technology-related activity. Singapore happens to be extremely well positioned…
The government’s spyware playbook has had one big problem for the public: there has been no reliable count of how often it is used. That is set to change as U.S. federal courts prepare to track spyware and hacking-based communications interceptions in a new category of the annual Wiretap Report. The development matters because spyware can put investigators much closer to the source of a person’s communications than conventional network interception can. Yet while the judiciary has published detailed statistics on court-authorized wiretaps for decades, those reports have not separately shown how many specifically involved government spyware techniques. The figures…
67% of B2B leaders expect partner-driven revenue to grow this year. Most still treat every partner the same. That gap is exactly where growth dies. Here’s a question most B2B revenue leaders can’t answer cleanly. Ask them what a technology partner is versus an alliance partner versus a solution provider, and you’ll get different answers depending on who you ask. Ask ten organizations the same question, and Forrester finds you’ll get ten different answers. Nobody’s wrong, exactly. But nobody’s aligned either. And that misalignment quietly costs organizations more than they realize. Partner ecosystems have grown fast. The network of hyperscalers,…
Consul General Prakash Gupta, left of the flagpole, joins elected officials, tech leaders and guests at the flag-raising for India’s 80th Independence Day in downtown Seattle on Aug. 15. (Consulate General of India Photo) Note: Former Microsoft and AWS exec Harini Gokul serves on the Medina (Wash.) City Council. Guest Opinion: Saturday, Aug. 15, was India’s 80th Independence Day. I marked it at the Indian Consulate in Seattle, at a celebration hosted by Consul General Prakash Gupta. The Indian American diaspora attended in full force, from community members to tech CEOs. The event was open to the public, and the…