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Chicken Coop Door Performs in Harsh Environment
hackaday12h ago

Chicken Coop Door Performs in Harsh Environment

One of the pitfalls of modern engineering is that it’s entirely possible to end up in a situation where a product or solution has been designed by someone who has ...read more

#TECH
Sanaya Ardeshir: Hand of Thought review | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month
theguardiantheguardian12h ago

Sanaya Ardeshir: Hand of Thought review | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month

(Karigar) The Indian producer steps away from electronics into intricate, slow-building compositions that favour texture and restraint As Sandunes, Indian producer Sanaya Ardeshir has spent the last decade exploring the melodic side of electronic music with three ebullient albums that drew on the bright instrumentation and pop references of contemporaries such as Bonobo. Now releasing her first record under her own name, Ardeshir explores entirely new territory, namely expansive piano compositions that supplant dancefloor rhythms with slowly unfurling minimalist repetition. Drawing on her training as a pianist, Ardeshir displays a confident command of the keys, building an insistent right-hand motif on the opening track that creates a foundation for saxophonist Rhys Sebastian’s drawn-out notes. This unwavering piano phrasing allows her collaborators to layer evocative instrumental swells, producing bursts of woodwind fanfare on the plaintive Between Dreams and swirls of trilling synth strings on the choppy Barefoot Steps. Percussionist Sarathy Korwar delivers a standout feature on Deccan Queen, giving structure to Ardeshir’s frenetic arpeggios with his steadily intensifying tabla rhythms. Continue reading...

#TECH
The New Power Broker in Consumer Decisions Is AI
pymnts12h ago

The New Power Broker in Consumer Decisions Is AI

The history of technology is littered with winners and losers. The winners typically have at least one thing in common: they were able to control the primary interface between large user audiences and the digital services they desired. The personal computer era was defined by operating systems that mediated access to software. The web [...] The post The New Power Broker in Consumer Decisions Is AI appeared first on PYMNTS.com .

#ECONOMY
Venom Stealer pushes credential theft into more dangerous phase
biometricupdate12h ago

Venom Stealer pushes credential theft into more dangerous phase

Venom Stealer is a new malware -as-a-service infostealer that security researchers say is more dangerous than many older credential theft tools because it does not simply grab passwords and disappear. The new malware also is clear indication that the infostealer market is evolving from smash and grab credential theft into a more persistent, automated business model built for long-term exploitation. Venom Stealer combines ClickFix-style social engineering with built-in persistence and automation, allowing attackers to steal browser credentials, session data, and cryptocurrency wallet information, then keep collecting new data over time from the same infected machine. ClickFix is a highly effective and rapidly growing social engineering technique first observed in early 2024 which tricks users into manually executing malicious code on their own computers. Recent campaigns show Venom Stealer is being delivered through fake security alerts, including bogus Avast -themed virus scans that trick users into infecting themselves, underscoring how the malware turns familiar security prompts into an efficient pipeline for long-term account compromise and financial theft. Venom Stealer reflects a broader criminal market trend in which attackers no longer need deep technical expertise to deploy increasingly sophisticated tools. They can rent infrastructure, buy access, use templates, and rely on the platform developer to keep improving the product. According to analysis by BlackFog, Venom Stealer is being sold by an operator using the handle “VenomStealer” on cybercrime networks with a subscription model that starts around $250 per month and goes up to a lifetime option priced at $1,800. BlackFog said the service includes a vetted application process, Telegram-based licensing, and even a 15 percent affiliate program, all of which point to an organized commercial operation rather than a one-off malware release. According to reports, this is not just another commodity stealer, but rather a platform that has been designed to industrialize the full attack chain. The central innovation is how Venom Stealer packages ClickFix into the service itself. ClickFix attacks generally rely on tricking users into running malicious commands themselves, often under the guise of fixing a browser, certificate, font, update, or security problem. But in Venom Stealer’s case, the operator panel reportedly ships with prebuilt lures for both Windows and macOS, including fake Cloudflare CAPTCHA pages, fake operating system updates, fake SSL certificate warnings, and fake font installation prompts. Victims are instructed to open the Windows Run dialog or the macOS Terminal, paste a command, and press Enter. Because the victim initiates execution, the attack can avoid some forms of behavioral detection that look for suspicious parent child process chains. BlackFog founder and chief executive Darren Williams told Dark Reading that Venom Stealer “stands out from commodity stealers like Lumma, Vidar, and RedLine because it goes beyond credential harvesting.” Williams said the malware “builds ClickFix social engineering directly into the operator panel, automates every step after initial access, and creates a continuous exfiltration pipeline that does not end when the initial payload finishes running.” Consequently, Venom Stealer has drawn considerable attention within the crowded malware landscape. Traditional infostealers often aim to run once, grab what they can, and leave. Venom Stealer is designed to remain useful to the attacker after the first wave of theft. Once installed, the malware reportedly targets Chromium and Firefox based browsers, harvesting saved passwords, session cookies, browsing history, autofill data, and browser extension inventories. SecurityWeek reported that system fingerprinting is also captured, giving attackers a fuller profile of the victim machine. The malware can bypass Chrome’s v10 and v20 password encryption, allowing passwords to be harvested silently. Cybersecurity experts point to a silent privilege escalation method that extracts decryption keys without triggering a user account control prompt. Such a capability would make the malware more effective against users who assume browser stored credentials remain at least somewhat insulated by platform level protections. Venom Stealer’s crypto focus is another reason it is being treated as more than a routine credential thief. Wallet data found on infected systems is passed to a server side cracking engine running on GPU infrastructure. The reported target list includes MetaMask, Phantom, Solflare, Trust Wallet, Atomic, Exodus, Electrum, Bitcoin Core, Monero, and Tonkeeper. Once wallets are cracked, the service can automatically transfer funds across multiple chains, including ERC 20 and SPL token ecosystems and decentralized finance positions. The platform allows fraudsters to move from theft to monetization with little manual work. A March 9 update described by BlackFog added a file password and seed finder that searches the filesystem for locally stored seed phrases which allows for a broadened attack beyond browser saved secrets. Even users who avoid storing credentials in browsers may still be exposed if wallet recovery phrases or password notes exist anywhere on disk. In practice, that turns Venom Stealer into both a credential harvester and a machine scale scavenger for any artifact that can unlock financial accounts. Venom Stealer reportedly remains resident after the initial theft and runs a background session listener that checks in twice daily with newly saved passwords and reports new wallet activity. Researchers have also noted a persistence mechanism that monitors Chrome login data in real time, meaning the malware can continue to collect fresh credentials long after the victim believes the incident has passed. If true, this undermines password rotation as an incident response step because newly changed credentials can simply be stolen again if the infection remains active. The threat is not theoretical. Malwarebytes recently documented a campaign using a fake Avast themed website that appears to run a virus scan, falsely reports infections, and then offers a supposed fix that is actually Venom Stealer. The bogus Avast page reportedly mimics Avast branding, a navigation bar, certification badges, and even a scrolling console log naming a malware detection to make the experience feel real. Venom Stealer is less important as a single malware family than as a sign of where the infostealer market is headed. It blends convincing social engineering, automated execution, browser and wallet theft, and post compromise persistence into a service that lowers barriers for attackers and raises the cost of remediation for victims. The result is a platform built not just to steal once, but to stay, watch, and keep stealing.

#TECH
90% of Top Credit Unions Win SMB Loyalty With Digital Payments Tools
pymnts12h ago

90% of Top Credit Unions Win SMB Loyalty With Digital Payments Tools

A growing share of small businesses are not leaving credit unions yet, but they are preparing to. That is the underlying signal in the PYMNTS Intelligence and Velera report, “Credit Union Innovation Readiness: The Real Story Behind Member Churn.” The report finds that most small- to mid-sized business (SMB) members remain loyal for now, [...] The post 90% of Top Credit Unions Win SMB Loyalty With Digital Payments Tools appeared first on PYMNTS.com .

#ECONOMY
Arcas partners with Seekr to deliver sovereign AI for EU enterprises
eenewseurope12h ago

Arcas partners with Seekr to deliver sovereign AI for EU enterprises

London-based AI firm Arcas has partnered with US AI company Seekr to deliver explainable AI systems tailored for European enterprises operating under increasingly strict regulatory oversight. The partnership focuses on helping organizations deploy sovereign AI systems that can justify automated decisions and meet upcoming regulatory requirements. The collaboration arrives as the EU AI Act begins [...] The post Arcas partners with Seekr to deliver sovereign AI for EU enterprises appeared first on eeNews Europe .

#TECH
MEXC Integrates USD1 into Full-Spectrum Infrastructure for Global Users
benzinga12h ago

MEXC Integrates USD1 into Full-Spectrum Infrastructure for Global Users

VICTORIA, Seychelles, April 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MEXC, the world's fastest-growing digital asset exchange and a pioneer in zero-fee trading , has announced a series of initiatives to integrate and expand the use of USD1, a US dollar stablecoin, across its ecosystem. By incorporating USD1 into its trading infrastructure and product suite, MEXC aims to broaden its use cases across the platform, including trading support, product integration, and wider ecosystem participation, while providing global users with more diverse and resilient stablecoin options. USD1 is a stablecoin redeemable on a 1:1 basis for U.S. dollars . Each USD1 is 100% backed by a reserve consisting of short-term U.S. government Treasuries, U.S. dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents. These reserve assets are held or maintained by BitGo Trust Company, Inc. and/or its affiliates. USD1 is issued by BitGo, while ... Full story available on Benzinga.com

#CRYPTO