Author: Admin

We have covered packer-as-a-service offerings from the computer underworld in the past, previously dissecting impersonation campaigns and the rise of HeartCrypt, both popular among ransomware groups. However, it is a fast-changing landscape, and now we are watching a new incarnation of the same type of service: the Shanya crypter — already favored by ransomware groups and taking over (to some degree) the role that HeartCrypt has played in the ransomware toolkit. We’ll look at its apparent origins, unpack the code, and examine a targeted infection leveraging this tool. Sophos protections against this specific packer are covered at the end of…

Seven Regional Clean Energy Companies Graduate from Cleantech San Diego Startup Accelerator Shannon Bresnahan   |   Press Releases SAN DIEGO, CA, March 11, 2025 – Cleantech San Diego today announced the graduation of seven local clean energy companies – ChargeNet Stations, Helicoid, Paired Power, Redoxblox, Sonocharge, Uprise Energy, and Xtelligent – from its Southern California Energy Innovation Network (SCEIN).   SCEIN is an accelerator program for clean energy startups based in San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Imperial counties that are developing technologies to help California meet its clean energy goals. The program offers free business services through a consortium of regional…

The ternary operator is one of those things that will exist in virtually any modern programming language. When writing code, a common goal is to make sure that your code is succinct and no more verbose than it needs to be. A ternary expression is a useful tool to achieve this.What is a ternary?Ternaries are essentially a quick way to write an if statement on a single line. For example, if you want to tint a SwiftUI button based on a specific condition, your code might look a bit as follows:struct SampleView: View { @State var username = “” var…

Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the edge is popular among smart video devices. For example, Smart Home cameras and video doorbells revolutionized home monitoring. What began as simple recording and remote viewing tools has evolved into intelligent observers. With AI infusion, today’s cameras can actively analyze scenes, alert users to motion events, recognize familiar faces, spot package deliveries, and dynamically adjust their recording behavior. Enterprise surveillance cameras are another example. These cameras have superior resolution, enhanced computing power, and can drive more sophisticated AI models. These enhanced capabilities result in sharper detection at greater distances. As illustrated, customers demand intelligent monitoring…

While the training of large language models provides deep knowledge that is excellent for common tasks—like creating Compose UIs—training concludes on a fixed date, resulting in gaps for new libraries and updated best practices. They are also less effective with niche APIs because the necessary training data is scarce. To fix this, Android Studio’s Agent Mode is now equipped with the Android Knowledge Base, a new feature designed to significantly improve accuracy and reduce hallucinations by grounding responses with authoritative documentation. This means that instead of just relying on its training data, the agent can actively consult fresh documentation from…

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have garnered notable research interest due to their extraordinary properties. Assembling two or more 2D materials into heterostructures introduces properties that are not present in any individual components, leading to a spectrum of nanodevices and applications. The lifetime and performance of nanodevices can be largely dictated by the working temperatures, and the heat dissipation in 2D materials and heterostructures is vital to the reliability and functionality of devices. However, mechanical effects encountered can potentially impact thermal transport. A comprehensive understanding of the interplay between mechanical loadings and thermal transport in 2D materials and their heterostructures is fundamental…

The discourse about to what level AI-generated code should be reviewed often feels very binary. Is vibe coding (i.e. letting AI generate code without looking at the code) good or bad? The answer is of course neither, because “it depends”. So what does it depend on? When I’m using AI for coding, I find myself constantly making little risk assessments about whether to trust the AI, how much to trust it, and how much work I need to put into the verification of the results. And the more experience I get with using AI, the more honed and intuitive these…

Everyone today seems eager to talk about how AI is accelerating software development. Teams are shipping faster. Individuals are more productive. Entire backlogs can be written in minutes. Estimates are a click away. Code that once took days now materializes in minutes. With all this newfound speed, it’s understandable that teams and leaders start asking whether they still need the same kinds of collaboration—or even the same kinds of teams. Yet hidden underneath all that enthusiasm is a risk that hasn’t received enough attention. In fact, I would argue it is the risk that agile leaders should be paying the…

Will Netflix’s $82.7 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. get approval from federal regulators? While Paramount was assumed to be the frontrunner to acquire the storied movie studio thanks to CEO David Ellison’s connections to the Trump administration, new reporting in Bloomberg and The Hollywood Reporter suggests that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos met with President Donald Trump to discuss a potential deal in November. Trump reportedly told Sarandos that Warner Bros. should sell to the highest bidder, and the Netflix executive seems to have left the meeting convinced that the president would not immediately oppose the acquisition. After the initial…

Of the seven Earth-sized worlds orbiting the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, one planet in particular has attracted the attention of scientists. This planet orbits the star within the “Goldilocks zone” – a distance where water on its surface is theoretically possible, but only if the planet has an atmosphere. And where there is water, there might be life. TRAPPIST-1e, an Earth-sized, habitable-zone exoplanet Two recently scientific papers detail initial observations of the TRAPPIST-1 system obtained by a research group using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. In these publications, the authors, including Sukrit Ranjan with the University of Arizona Lunar…