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Welcome to the February 7, 2025 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Republican lawmakers appear to be shifting gears when it comes to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), joining with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in emphasizing its essential mission in safeguarding critical infrastructure from nation-state hackers and ransomware attacks. U.S. President Donald Trump has maintained former President Joe Biden's last executive order on cybersecurity, which requires federal agencies' software vendors to show their security standards can hold up to cyberattacks like Salt Typhoon.
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The Washington Post; Joseph Menn (February 3, 2025)
The website of China's DeepSeek, whose chatbot became the most downloaded app in the U.S. shortly after its release, contains computer code that could send some user login information to a Chinese state-owned telecommunications company barred from operating in the U.S. Canadian cybersecurity company Feroot Security identified heavily obfuscated computer script on the Web login page of the chatbot that shows connections to computer infrastructure owned by China Mobile.
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Associated Press; Byron Tau (February 5, 2025)
Representatives from the Elon Musk-led U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) fed sensitive data from the U.S. Education Department into AI software to probe the agency’s programs and spending in search of opportunities for cuts, say insiders. DOGE plans to replicate this process across other departments and agencies, accessing back-end software at different parts of the government and using AI technology to extract information about spending on employees and programs, said one source.
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The Washington Post; Hannah Natanson; Gerrit De Vynck; Elizabeth Dwoskin (February 6, 2025); et al.

Atos, Russia, and the EU’s Troubled Biometric Border System EU prosecutors are examining the participation of the Moscow office of an IT contractor in building the EU's delayed Entry/Exit System (EES). Atos Belgium won the EES contract together with IBM Belgium and Italy’s Leonardo in 2019. Leaked documents show Atos used staff in its Moscow branch to buy software in 2021 for the project; the branch operated under a license that would grant Russia’s FSB security service access to its work in the country.
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Financial Times; Laura Dubois (February 6, 2025)
Ransomware payments fell by more than a third last year to $813 million, compared to $1.25 billion in 2023, according to research firm Chainalysis. The blockchain analysis firm said payments dropped off sharply in the second half of the year, reflecting the impact of actions taken against cybercriminals by law enforcement and a refusal to pay by those being blackmailed. Chainalysis' Jacqueline Burns Koven said the new figures indicated a “ransomware apocalypse” had been avoided.
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The Guardian (U.K.); Dan Milmo (February 5, 2025)

Hardware that can be used to trap ions for quantum computing Researchers at the U.K.'s University of Oxford demonstrated the use of quantum teleportation to run simple algorithms between two pieces of quantum hardware stationed two meters apart. They used quantum teleportation to link the hardware to create a single quantum computer that could perform operations on both sides of the gap.
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Ars Technica; John Timmer (February 5, 2025)

Google is rethinking its goal of hiring from underrepresented groups In its annual report published Wednesday, Google parent Alphabet excluded language from prior years stating its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Alphabet’s Fiona Cicconi wrote in a memo that the company has to make changes due to new federal contracting requirements. Tech companies have shown an eagerness to appease the new administration and its views on DEI.
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CNBC; Jennifer Elias (February 5, 2025)

A new imaging device can capture 3D scans of human faces from hundreds of metres away A device created by Aongus McCarthy at Scotland's Heriot-Watt University and colleagues can create detailed three-dimensional (3D) images, including details as small as 1 millimeter, from hundreds of meters away using LiDAR. The researchers used a light-detecting sensor based on an ultra-thin piece of superconducting wire to enable the device to distinguish single particles of light.
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New Scientist; Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (February 6, 2025)

AI and scientists unite to decipher old scrolls charred by the Vesuvius volcano Researchers successfully produced the first image of the inside of an ancient scroll at the Bodleian Library at the U.K.'s University of Oxford, according to organizers of the Vesuvius Challenge. The papyrus scroll is one of hundreds found in the remains of a Roman villa destroyed in the A.D. 79 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. In the Vesuvius Challenge, researchers must decipher the scrolls, which are too fragile to be unrolled. The Oxford scroll was scanned using a synchrotron, then AI was used to generate a 3D image of the scroll that can be unrolled virtually.
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Independent (U.K.); Jill Lawless; Pan Pylas (February 5, 2025)

Percentage of counties within US states that are potentially susceptible to insecure authorization. University of Maryland researchers have developed a "heat map" of aggregate U.S. cyber risk based on data from 3,065 county governments, which shows a heightened risk of cyberattacks in California, Virginia, and Florida. They also found most counties vulnerable to the attack methods studied are located in the Southeast, and domain-name service misconfigurations and insecure authorizations are the most common threat type.
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Maryland Today; John Tucker (February 4, 2025)

ultrafast artificial neuron Laser-graded artificial neurons developed by Chinese University of Hong Kong researchers can operate on their own and without additional connections as a small neural network, transmitting data as much as 100,000 times faster than artificial spiking neurons. The researchers integrated a laser-graded neuron into a reservoir computing system and scanned 700 heartbeat samples. With a processing speed of 100 million heartbeats per second, the system was more than 98% accurate in identifying arrhythmia.
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Live Science; Skyler Ware (February 4, 2025)
Socket Security threat intelligence analyst Kirill Boychenko discovered one of the first documented cases of exploitation involving Go Module Mirror's indefinite caching of modules. Boychenko identified a supply chain attack on the BoltDB database module that has gone undetected for three years. Any developer who falls prey to the typosquatting technique used to trick users into downloading the malicious copycat, known as boltdb-go, would enable a backdoor allowing remote code execution.
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The Register (U.K.); Connor Jones (February 4, 2025)

NASA’s ISRU Pilot Excavator will excavate and transport lunar regolith A robotic system unveiled by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will enable the extraction of essential resources, such as hydrogen, oxygen, and water, from the lunar surface. The In-Situ Resource Utilization Pilot Excavator (IPEx) is equipped with rotating bucket drums and arms for digging and collecting lunar regolith, as well as advanced algorithms, a camera, and dust mitigation, mobility, and thermal control systems. The IPEx potentially could dig as much as 10,000 kg per lunar day.
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Interesting Engineering; Mrigakshi Dixit (February 3, 2025)
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