Author: InfoForTech

Researchers have disclosed a new hardware attack, called DDRop, that breaks the memory protection in Intel and AMD confidential computing by silently dropping writes to a server’s memory, so the processor keeps reading old encrypted data as if it were current. The attack requires an attacker who already controls the server’s software and can briefly access the machine to insert a small circuit board, called an interposer, between the processor and a memory module. The interposer costs under $200 to build. DDRop works against Intel TDX, Intel Scalable SGX, and AMD SEV-SNP, the hardware that cloud services use to keep…

“You should tax things you want to discourage, like cigarettes, not jobs.” Microsoft’s Brad Smith at Monday’s launch of the Partnership for a Competitive Puget Sound, with former Gov. Chris Gregoire at his left. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh each had their moment in the sun a century ago, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said Monday — and then the warning lights started flashing, and their leaders at the time failed to heed them. “Well, here we are. It is 2026,” Smith said at a press conference, flanked by dozens of regional leaders, with…

Nuance Labs, a Seattle-based startup that’s trying to make artificial intelligence models better at face-to-face conversations, said today it has closed on a $50 million early-stage funding round to make that happen. Today’s Series A round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, which previously backed the company’s seed funding round. Existing investors Accel and South Park Commons also returned, alongside new investors Nvidia Corp. and Define Ventures. Nuance is trying to build a “human foundation model” to power avatars that can engage in conversation with humans without the lag and awkwardness associated with existing chatbots. It’s doing this by giving…

Your smart TV may know more about what is happening inside your home than you realize, but LG says recent claims about its televisions recording ambient conversations misrepresent how its voice features actually work. The controversy began after Gamers Nexus, Level1Techs, and independent security researchers presented a 135-minute investigation into LG televisions and their data collection practices. The researchers said their analysis of network traffic and software uncovered extensive data collection, including audio transcripts and information about other devices connected to the same home network. LG, however, disputes this idea. In a statement to Al Jazeera, the company said it…

Learn a practical objection-handling process, proven sales tips, and adaptable scripts for price, timing, competition, stakeholder, and trust objections. An objection is not an invitation to argue. It is evidence that risk, value, timing, or internal alignment remains unresolved. Listen before reaching for the playbook. The first objection is often a summary of a deeper concern. Clarify who owns the objection. In B2B sales, the person voicing it may be carrying the concern of finance, IT, procurement, or an executive sponsor. Respond with relevant context and proof, then check whether the concern has actually changed. A script should protect the…

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.Welcome to The Logoff: Everyone but President Donald Trump is freaking out about artificial intelligence.What’s happening? As policymakers and tech CEOs discuss how to put guardrails on AI development, Trump is on a posting spree.“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades,” he wrote in a Monday morning post. “There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI…

MIT researchers have developed a new technique that helps generative artificial intelligence models find solutions to high-stakes problems.In these settings, a plausible answer is not enough: The output often must also satisfy nonnegotiable safety, physical, or task-specific requirements, known as hard constraints.The researchers developed a method that helps generative models meet these strict requirements without sacrificing the quality of their outputs. The key to their technique is to give the model more freedom during the generation process and enforce hard constraints on the final output, rather than at every intermediate step. In experiments spanning robotics, control of physical processes, and computer vision,…

For the best part of a decade, abusive deepfake “pornography” websites have published thousands of nonconsensual videos depicting women, including high-profile celebrities, politicians, and public figures, into sexual situations. Now, in what is likely the largest takedown of explicit deepfake websites to date, officials in New York have seized more than a dozen of the harmful sites.On Monday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced the seizure of 12 domains which it says have been used for “unlawfully” sharing, publishing, and selling celebrity deepfake videos. Around 1,200 people—overwhelmingly women—were depicted in nonconsensual sexual images and videos on the websites, the office…

Marketing teams are being told to do more with AI: Draft faster. Publish more. Automate the busywork. But what if the real opportunity isn’t using AI to do your job faster, but turning parts of your job into tools that keep doing the work for you?

Your phone can be the safest place to keep your credit cards. DenPhotos/Shutterstock Digital payment tools like Apple Wallet and Google Wallet make life so much easier. In many cases, you don’t have to worry about grabbing your actual wallet before leaving the house, since you can pay for whatever you need with your phone or smartwatch. But digital wallets and payment services have another benefit you might not have considered: security. They are packed with security features, including biometrics, tokenization and remote deactivation. These all make it much harder for someone else to use your…