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Aktualizace KB5101684 vyšla pro Windows 11 24H2/25H2 v kanále Release Preview. • Vyhledávání si lépe poradí s překlepy a neúplnými názvy aplikací. • Průzkumník se učí používat jednotky MB a GB.

Enterprise AI can accelerate ransomware attacks when AI assistants and agents inherit excessive permissions or compromised identities. Acronis explains how identity controls, governance, and least-privilege access help reduce AI-enabled ransomware risk while supporting secure AI adoption. [...]

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a now-patched vulnerability chain in the Adobe Acrobat Chrome extension that has over 314 million users, which, if exploited, could facilitate a silent hijack of a user's WhatsApp data. The shortcoming has been codenamed HermeticReader by Guardio Labs. It's officially tracked as CVE-2026-48294 (CVSS score: 7.4), with the vulnerability Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Po pěti letech vývoje vyšla česká počítačová hra Scarlet Deer Inn (ProtonDB). Scarlet Deer Inn je vyšívaná temná středověká pohádka. Zatímco život ve zdánlivě obyčejné vesnici se točí kolem běžných povinností a sousedských drbů, v podzemí se skrývají zlověstná tajemství.

Eclypsium has launched InfraTrust, a new infrastructure cybersecurity knowledge base and monthly InfraTrust Pulse report designed to help organizations prioritize vulnerabilities affecting infrastructure, firmware, networking, and edge devices. [...]

Researchers could use lab-grown sperm to develop infertility treatments or, more controversially, make babies.

Scientists just transformed a living mouse’s kidney into an incubator for developing human sperm made from blood cells.

It sounds like sci-fi Mad Libs. But a team at the University of Pennsylvania, led by Kotaro Sasaki, pulled it off. For up to nine months, a tiny pouch of human cells nestled beneath a mouse’s kidney gradually developed into immature sperm. The study is the latest in a decade-long quest to grow sperm in the lab.

If successful, lab-grown sperm could open a new window into the earliest stages of sperm development, a process that’s notoriously difficult to study because it begins before birth. The research could also shed light on male infertility—which, in many cases, has no clear cause—and inspire treatments.

More controversially, lab-grown sperm could one day be used to make babies, offering hope to people struggling to conceive and same-sex couples who want to have children genetically related to both parents. That goal is still far off. Though gene activity was similar to their natural counterparts, none of the lab-grown cells were able to develop into functional sperm.

Those results starkly contrast similar attempts in mice. Researchers have already produced functional sperm and egg cells from rodent skin cells, and in two pioneering cases, used them to create healthy pups with two dads. But translating this capability to humans has been difficult, largely because reproductive development differs tons between species.

Still, the new system can help scientists probe the earliest stages of human sperm development. And because any future clinical applications would first need extensive testing in non-human primates, the team also generated immature sperm cells from monkeys, whose reproductive biology more closely mirrors our own.

Recapitulating sperm development in the lab has uses beyond fertility treatment too, such as testing whether drugs interfere with reproduction. The platform “establishes a robust framework for modeling primate germ cell [reproductive cell] development,” the team wrote.

Winning Recipe

For decades, scientist have been able to rewind adult cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These cells can go on to  become nearly any other cell type. But steering them to become sperm has proven far trickier, largely because human sperm takes years to fully develop.

The journey begins before birth. Early stem cells give rise to spermatogonia, the founder cells that replenish sperm throughout life. These cells are largely dormant until puberty, when some begin meiosis, a special type of cell division that halves their chromosomes. That way, when sperm meets egg, the embryo gains a full genetic set.

But the cells don’t live in a vacuum. Proteins and other molecules instruct immature sperm when to grow, divide, or pause. Physical forces, such as the winding architecture of the testes and the flow of fluid, also play a role. Recreating this intricate environment in a dish has been one of the biggest challenges to the study of sperm development and our ability to grow them in the lab.

Roughly a decade ago, Sasaki and colleagues found a way to transform human iPSCs into early stem cells that could eventually give rise to sperm and egg. On paper, their gene expression profile closely matched that of natural counterparts. But in practice, the cells couldn’t mature further without the right environmental cues.

In an usual workaround, the team next mixed the immature cells with supportive, non-reproductive cells isolated from mice testes. While it was an usual environment, the mice cells provided nutrients and molecular signaling that nudged development forward.

Called xrTestis, the mixture spontaneously organized into tube-like structures resembling those inside testes. “Overall, our culture method accurately recapitulates in vivo human male GC [germ cell] development and allows us to understand the genetic pathways governing this process,” they wrote at the time.

Yet none of the immature sperm advanced beyond developmental stages normally seen in fetuses. And the miniature structure collapsed after 80 days, likely because it lacked a blood supply.

Unexpected Host

To prolong the mixture’s viability and push sperm development further, the team transplanted it into the kidneys of immunodeficient mice.

The graft organized itself into the hallmark tubular structures found in testes within a month and remained stable for at least half a year. The mice showed no signs of discomfort or immune rejection.

Six months later, some human cells developed into spermatogonia—the self-renewing stem cells that eventually generate sperm. Along the way, they underwent a major event: an epigenetic reset. During this process, chemical tags on DNA that influence whether genes are turned on or off are almost completely wiped clean. If that reset is incomplete, it could compromise any sperm eventually used for reproduction.

Here, the team found a “dramatic” genome-wide epigenetic reset. The cells’ gene activity mirrored their natural counterparts. Even though the graft survived for at least nine months, however, none of the cells were able to develop into mature sperm.

This is likely due to the environment. Human and mice testes don’t share the exact same signaling molecules or respond the same way to hormones and other developmental cues. Replacing the mouse support cells with human versions could help the spermatogonia develop further.

The Ultimate Test

The team also tested the technique in monkeys, with results similar to those found in human cells. “While our human iPSC system provided valuable insight into male gametogenesis [the formation of reproductive cells], future studies of fertility competency must be carried out in non-human primates,” they wrote.

Although the cells also halted at the immature stage, the results are still valuable. Previous studies have shown monkey spermatogonia can generate mature sperm after transplantation into recipient testes, opening the door to eventually testing if lab-grown cells can sire healthy offspring.

That idea is precisely what makes some bioethicists uneasy.

Mass-producing sperm and eggs in the lab could generate far more embryos for selection, making it easier for prospective parents to choose desirable traits such as eye color or height. Pairing the technology with gene editing makes “designer babies” less hypothetical. And if skin scrapings or a single hair can be turned into reproductive cells, someone could theoretically create sperm or eggs from another person without consent.

These scenarios are purely speculation, but regulators are already preparing for that future. In 2025, the United Kingdom’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority urged the government to explicitly tackle lab-grown reproductive cells in legislation. The International Society for Stem Cell Research has similarly called for careful oversight and public engagement before clinical use. Most countries, however, are only beginning to grapple with how these technologies should be dealt with.

Meanwhile, companies are pressing forward. Paterna Biosciences in Utah recently announced they had produced functional sperm from immature sperm collected during testicular biopsies. According to the company, early embryos created with the lab-grown sperm seemed comparable to those produced through standard in vitro fertilization (IVF). And California startup Conception recently reported generating early human egg cells from iPSCs. Neither company has released results in a preprint or journal article, making the claims hard to evaluate.

Like germline gene editing, conversations weighing the pros and cons of lab-grown reproductive cells will help decide not only what’s possible, but also what should be permitted. For now, the team stresses that their work is only a research tool—not a fertility treatment—and clinical use is a long way off.

The post Scientists Inch Closer to Creating Human Sperm in the Lab appeared first on SingularityHub.

Saúdská Arábie staví v Rijádu gigantický mrakodrap ve tvaru kostky • Obří budova Mukaab nabídne moderní hotely i unikátní holografické systémy • Celý ambiciózní projekt měl být podle plánů dokončen do roku 2030

The Adobe Acrobat extension for Chrome could be used to access conversations and data rendered in WhatsApp Web without any form of authentication. [...]

EXCLUSIVE A Windows information-stealer targeting more than 300 applications comes equipped with a novel surveillance tool: an AI profiler that ranks infected victims so crooks know who to target first. Varonis Threat Labs spotted the new stealer and remote access trojan (RAT), called Dolphin X, for sale on a cybercrime forum, and shared their research exclusively with The Register. The ad for the malware claims it can target upwards of 300 applications and has the ability to bypass browser passwords and steal enterprise credentials, cryptocurrency wallets, .env files, SSH keys, cloud tokens, and DevOps secrets. Dolphin X also promises users a super-sneaky surveillance feature called the AI Profiler. It scores infected users by app usage, browsing history, and installed software, and sends the cybercriminals a daily summary that ranks victims’ based on the likely payoff from an attack. “There's two things that stand out,” Daniel Kelley, a senior threat researcher with Varonis, told The Register. “The first thing is the AI profiler. That's something I've never seen before. And then it’s also the breadth of applications that it steals - and it’s not even just applications. It’s everything, you name it: it will steal files, or credentials, cryptocurrencies. It’s probably one of the biggest stealers I’ve ever seen, and covers the biggest attack surface.” A malware vendor using the alias “Kontraktnik” posted Dolphin X for sale, promising: “You can use it as a stealer, as an HVNC [Hidden Virtual Network Computing], as a DDoS botnet, as a loader.” The crimeware currently only runs under Windows, but “we are working on Debian,” Kontraktnik claimed, adding that the malware also only supports English and Russian. Kelley suspects the developer is Russian-speaking, and told us that the stealer includes an option not to infect any users in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, a common choice among Russian-based ransomware and cybercrime gangs. Kelley and his team obtained and analyzed the malware builder, operator panel and its network traffic, but didn't examine a malware sample. Varonis therefore can’t guarantee that all of the developer’s claims are true. However, “when we looked at the builder, it had everything to suggest the features were legitimate,” he said. “We couldn’t test out the malware itself, but I would say it probably lives up to most of its expectations.” Feedback left on the forum where the malware is sold supports that analysis. As of Tuesday, the sales thread has passed 3,000 views, we’re told, with Kontraktnik closing at least two confirmed deals. Both of these included positive feedback from the buyers. Three-tier subscription model Beyond the 300 + apps it targets, Dolphin X's operator panel lists 329 features across 10 categories. Buyers can subscribe to one of three tiers, each unlocking new features, or buy a lifetime subscription. The minimalist suscription costs about $80 per month, which buys rewriting and altering capabilities across Windows Portable Executable (PE) timestamp, Rich headers, and section padding, along with capabilities allowing the malware to exploit the brittle YARA rules to bypass detection and hash-based blocklists. The middle tier advertises shuffling the import table, which would change the binary's import hash between builds. The top level sub (about $230 per month) claims to rewrite the code’s control flow, substitute instructions, and re-encrypt embedded strings with a new random key each time, thus making stable byte sequences harder to identify. Lifetime subscription cost about $1,140 for basic access, $2,280 for mid-tier malware, or $3,420 for perpetual pro-level Pwnage. “It really lowers the barrier to entry,” Kelley said, adding that in the not-so-distant past, cybercriminals needed a certain level of technical expertise to develop and use different types of malware. “Now it's set up in a way where it's almost like SaaS. Anyone can purchase it. Anyone can take it out of the package and use it.” All of this suggests two takeaways for defenders, according to the security sleuths. First, keep long-lived credentials off disk if possible. “Infostealers are designed to grab everything in one pass, so anything stored locally should be treated as potentially exposed,” the report warns. Second: focus threat detection on behavior - not file signatures - because this and other malwares include capabilities to bypass signature-based detection. “For example, explorer.exe running under a non-default desktop is a strong indicator of an HVNC session, regardless of how the malware binary is packed or what hash it uses,” the authors wrote. Varonis’ threat hunters previously uncovered other AI-powered malware, including an all-in-one phishing kit called Bluekit, and an email attack tool called SpamGPT. “It’s a huge trend,” Kelley said. “Cybercriminals are finding a lot of unique ways to integrate AI, and then they're using it to make their lives a lot easier, which is problematic.” ®

Google představil modely Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite a 3.5 Flash Cyber. • Neohromí vás inteligencí, ale rychlostí a nižšími náklady. • První dva modely si můžete hned zkusit v aplikaci Gemini nebo skrze API.

A high-severity security flaw impacting open-source developer platform Windmill has come under active exploitation in the wild, per VulnCheck. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-29059 (CVSS score: 7.5), a case of unauthenticated path traversal impacting Windmill's "get_log_file" endpoint ("/api/w/{workspace}/jobs_u/get_log_file/{filename}"). "The filename parameter is concatenated into

A high-severity security flaw impacting open-source developer platform Windmill has come under active exploitation in the wild, per VulnCheck. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-29059 (CVSS score: 7.5), a case of unauthenticated path traversal impacting Windmill's "get_log_file" endpoint ("/api/w/{workspace}/jobs_u/get_log_file/{filename}"). "The filename parameter is concatenated into Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Security leaders who build fast, visible paths to AI adoption are becoming the most valued partners in their organizations. AI governance done right gives security teams the visibility they need, employees the tools they want, and CISOs the strategic influence they have earned. According to McKinsey's State of AI report, 76 percent of employees now use AI in some capacity at work, up from 55

Security leaders who build fast, visible paths to AI adoption are becoming the most valued partners in their organizations. AI governance done right gives security teams the visibility they need, employees the tools they want, and CISOs the strategic influence they have earned. According to McKinsey's State of AI report, 76 percent of employees now use AI in some capacity at work, up from 55 The Hacker Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Authorities have long warned organizations not to pay ransoms, and fresh figures underline why: handing over the money doesn't mean the crooks leave you alone. Proofpoint survey data suggests that 58 percent of affected UK organizations paid a ransom. Worse, 22 percent of those who pay get extorted again anyway. The UK broadly tracks the global picture: 54 percent of victim organizations paid, though the rate swings sharply by region, from just 19 percent in Japan to 93 percent in the US. Cybersecurity biz Proofpoint, which published the data on Wednesday, attributes the regional variation to "a combination of regulatory environment, recovery capability, insurance incentive structures, and cultural norms around negotiation." "But the core finding holds everywhere: ransomware creates enough pressure that a significant share of organizations in each of the surveyed markets choose to pay." UK organizations that paid fared somewhat better than the 37 percent global average for repeat extortion. Still, the core lesson stands: paying doesn't reverse an attack. You can't trust a criminal's word. It just restarts a negotiation where the attacker holds every card, including the data, decryption keys, and the threat of publishing what they've stolen. Operation Cronos, law enforcement's LockBit takedown, provided hard proof of what had long been suspected: cybercriminals often retain victim data even after being paid. Before Dmitry Khoroshev's cybercrime empire collapsed, this was an assumption, not evidence-based. Cronos didn't just shutter the then-leading ransomware gang; it undermined the entire premise that paying restores the status quo. Proofpoint found that 2 percent of victims who paid a ransom never recovered their files at all. Earlier this year, Nitrogen's ESXi ransomware victims hit a similar wall after a coding error in the decryptor left some unable to fully restore access, and it was far from an isolated case. Attackers don't need to hold up their end of the bargain to keep the payments coming. The better answer is to build cyber-resilience into the organization itself. A word on AI No 2026 security report is complete without AI. In the UK, 65 percent of surveyed security practitioners said AI had sharpened the attacks that precede ransomware and extortion, most notably malicious links, business email compromise, malicious attachments, and credential harvesting. AI is not yet a key tool in ransomware payloads themselves, despite recent reports suggesting this may soon change. However, it is being used for more convincing phishing lures, sharper impersonation attempts, and faster system reconnaissance once attackers are inside a network. "AI hasn't fundamentally changed ransomware, but it has materially improved the attacks that lead to it," said Ryan Kalember, chief strategy officer at Proofpoint. "Today's attackers are using AI to create highly convincing phishing emails and credential theft campaigns that exploit human trust at scale. "Organizations that continue treating ransomware as an endpoint or recovery problem are missing where these attacks most frequently begin: people, identities and trusted communications." ®

I Androidy jsou jen stroje, a stroje se někdy můžou pokazit • Přinášíme výčet nejčastějších problémů Androidů a jejich řešení • Vypnutí a zapnutí je logické, ne vždy ale stačí k vyřešení problému

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday ordered U.S. government agencies to prioritize patching an actively exploited vulnerability in the Langflow visual framework for building AI agents. [...]