Twilio, a major U.S. messaging company, has confirmed that unauthorized actors had identified phone numbers associated with users of its Authy two-factor authentication app. The disclosure comes after a hacker claimed last week to have obtained 33 million phone numbers from Twilio. A Twilio spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company had detected an unauthenticated endpoint allowing access to Authy account data, including phone numbers. The endpoint has since been secured.

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Astro is leaving its job to spend more time with family. From a report: Amazon informed customers and employees Wednesday morning that it plans to discontinue its Astro for Business program, less than a year after launching the robot security guard for small- and medium-sized businesses. The decision will help the company focus on its home version of Astro, according to an internal email. Astro for Business robots will stop working Sept. 25, the company said in a separate email to customers, encouraging them to recycle the devices. Businesses will receive full refunds for the original cost of the device, plus a $300 credit "to help support a replacement solution for your workplace," the email said. They will also receive refunds for unused, pre-paid Astro Secure subscription fees. Announced in November 2023, the business version of Amazon's rolling robot used an HD periscope and night vision technology to autonomously patrol and map up to 5,000 square feet of space. It followed preprogrammed routes and routines, and could be controlled manually and remotely via the Amazon Astro app.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: The US Supreme Court has issued a decision that could upend all federal cybersecurity regulations, moving ultimate regulatory approval to the courts and away from regulatory agencies. A host of likely lawsuits could gut the Biden administration's spate of cyber incident reporting requirements and other recent cyber regulatory actions. [...] While the Court's decision has the potential to weaken or substantially alter all federal agency cybersecurity requirements ever adopted, a series of cyber regulatory initiatives implemented over the past four years could become the particular focus of legal challenges. Parties who previously objected to these initiatives but were possibly reluctant to fight due to the Chevron deference will likely be encouraged to challenge these regulations. Although all existing regulations are still in effect, the upshot for CISOs is almost certainly some degree of uncertainty as the legal challenges get underway. A host of conflicting decisions across the various judicial circuits in the US could lead to confusion in compliance programs until the smoke clears. CISOs should expect some court cases to water down or eliminate many existing cybersecurity regulatory requirements. A host of recently adopted cyber regulations will likely be challenged following the Court's ruling, but some recent regulations stand out as leading candidates for litigation. Among these are:

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Speaking of Japan, joshuark shares a report: Japan's government has finally eliminated the use of floppy disks in all its systems, two decades since their heyday, reaching a long-awaited milestone in a campaign to modernise the bureaucracy. By the middle of last month, the Digital Agency had scrapped all 1,034 regulations governing their use, except for one environmental stricture related to vehicle recycling. "We have won the war on floppy disks on June 28!" Digital Minister Taro Kono, who has been vocal about wiping out fax machines and other analogue technology in government, told Reuters in a statement on Wednesday.

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Tech companies scouring the country for electricity supplies have zeroed in on a key target: America's nuclear-power plants. From a report: The owners of roughly a third of U.S. nuclear-power plants are in talks with tech companies to provide electricity to new data centers needed to meet the demands of an artificial-intelligence boom. Among them, Amazon Web Services is nearing a deal for electricity supplied directly from a nuclear plant on the East Coast with Constellation Energy, the largest owner of U.S. nuclear-power plants, according to people familiar with the matter. In a separate deal in March, the Amazon subsidiary purchased a nuclear-powered data center in Pennsylvania for $650 million. The discussions have the potential to remove stable power generation from the grid while reliability concerns are rising across much of the U.S. and new kinds of electricity users -- including AI, manufacturing and transportation -- are significantly increasing the demand for electricity in pockets of the country. Nuclear-powered data centers would match the grid's highest-reliability workhorse with a wealthy customer that wants 24-7 carbon-free power, likely speeding the addition of data centers needed in the global AI race. But instead of adding new green energy to meet their soaring power needs, tech companies would be effectively diverting existing electricity resources. That could raise prices for other customers and hold back emission-cutting goals.

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Proton, the privacy-focused technology company, has launched Proton Docs, a new document editing tool that bears a striking resemblance to Google Docs. The service, launched as part of Proton Drive, offers features such as rich text editing, real-time collaboration, and multimedia support.

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theodp writes: As with last year," tweeted College Board's AP Program Chief Trevor Packer, "the most challenging free-response question on this year's AP Computer Science A exam was Q4 on 2D Array." While it takes six pages of the AP CS A exam document [PDF] to ask question 4 (of 4), the ask of students essentially boils down to using Java to move from the current location in a 2-D grid to either immediately below or to the right of that location based on which neighbor contains the lesser value, and adding the value at that location to a total (suggested Java solution, alternative Excel VBA solution). Much like rules of the children's game Pop-O-Matic Trouble, moves are subject to the constraint that you cannot move to the right or ahead if it takes you to an invalid position (beyond the grid dimensions). Ironically, many of the AP CS A students who struggled with the grid coding problem were likely exposed by their schools from kindergarten on to more than a decade's worth of annual Hour of Code tutorials that focused on the concepts of using code to move about in 2-D grids. The move-up-down-left-right tutorials promoted by schools came from tech-backed nonprofit Code.org and its tech giant partners and have been taught over the years by the likes of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and President Obama, as well as characters from Star Wars, Disney Princess movies, and Microsoft Minecraft. The news of American high school students struggling again with fairly straightforward coding problems after a year-long course of instruction comes not only as tech companies and tech-tied nonprofits lobby state lawmakers to pass bills making CS a high school graduation requirement in the US, but also as a new report from King's College urges lawmakers and educators to address a stark decline in the number of UK students studying computing at secondary school, which is blamed on the replacement of more approachable ICT (Information and Communications Technology) courses with more rigorous computer science courses in 2013 (a switch pushed by Google and Microsoft), which it notes students have perceived as too difficult and avoided taking.

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Nearly half of Americans are using third-party antivirus software and the rest are either using the default protection in their operating system -- or none at all. From a report: In all, 46 percent of almost 1,000 US citizens surveyed by the reviews site Security.org said they used third-party antivirus on their computers, with 49 percent on their PCs, 18 percent using it on their tablets, and 17 percent on their phones. Of those who solely rely on their operating system's built-in security -- such as Microsoft's Windows Defender, Apple's XProtect, and Android's Google Play -- 12 percent are planning to switch to third-party software in the next six months. Of those who do look outside the OS, 54 percent of people pay for the security software, 43 percent choose the stripped-down free version, and worryingly, three percent aren't sure whether they pay or not. Among paying users, the most popular brands were Norton, McAfee, and Malwarebytes, while free users preferred -- in order -- McAfee, Avast, and Malwarebytes. The overwhelming reason for purchasing, cited by 84 percent of respondents, was, of course, fear of malware. The next most common reasons were privacy, at 54 percent, and worries over online shopping, at 48 percent. Fear of losing cryptocurrency stashes from wallets was at eight percent, doubled since last year's survey.

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Canned water distilled from the air will be available to buy in the US later this year, in an effort to promote solar-powered "hydropanels" that provide an off-grid method of producing drinking water. New Scientist adds: The panels, created by Arizona-based firm Source, use solar energy to power fans, which draw water vapour from the air. A water-absorbing substance, known as a desiccant, traps the moisture, before solar energy from the panel releases the moisture into a collection area within the panel. The distilled water is then sent to a pressurised tank, where the pH is tweaked and minerals like calcium and magnesium are added. Each panel can produce up to 3 litres of drinking water water a day, about the average daily intake for one person. The process works effectively even in hot, arid conditions such as Arizona, says Friesen. Source, which launched in 2014 as Zero Mass Water, already has hydropanels installed in 56 countries around the world. The panels can be installed as ground arrays, or on rooftops, linked into a building's drinking water pipes. Many sites serve off-grid communities without easy access to potable water, says Friesen. Most of the panels, which retail at almost $3000 apiece, are purchased by governments or development banks, although households can also install panels privately.

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The Rubik's Cube turns 50 this year, but it's far from retiring. At a recent San Francisco conference, math buffs and puzzle fans celebrated the enduring appeal of Erno Rubik's invention, reports The New York Times. With a mind-boggling 43 quintillion possible configurations, the Cube has inspired countless variants and found uses in education and art.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: ChromeOS Flex extends the lifespan of older hardware and contributes to reducing e-waste, making it an environmentally conscious choice. Unfortunately, recent developments hint at a potential end for ChromeOS Flex. As detailed in a June 12 blog post by Prajakta Gudadhe, senior director of engineering for ChromeOS, and Alexander Kuscher, senior director of product management for ChromeOS, Google's announcement about integrating ChromeOS with Android to enhance AI capabilities suggests that Flex might not be part of this future. Google's plan, as detailed, suggests that ChromeOS Flex could be phased out, leaving its current users in a difficult position. The ChromiumOS community around ChromeOS Flex may attempt to adjust to these changes if Google open sources ChromeOS Flex, but this is not a guarantee. In the meantime, users may want to consider alternatives, such as various Linux distributions, to keep their older hardware functional.

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Netflix is following through on its plan to phase out its cheapest ad-free tier for existing subscribers. From a report: As spotted in numerous posts on Reddit, Netflix is now asking some basic plan subscribers to choose a new plan to stay subscribed to Netflix. One Reddit user received a notification on their Netflix app, saying "Your last day to watch Netflix is July 13th. Choose a new plan to keep watching." Subscribers paying $11.99 / month for the basic plan will have to choose either the $6.99 ad-supported tier, the $15.49 ad-free tier, or the $22.99 ad-free 4K premium plan.

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Greece has introduced a six-day working week for some businesses in a bid to boost productivity and employment in the southern European country. From a report: The regulation, which came into force on July 1, bucks a global trend of companies exploring a shorter working week. Under the new legislation, which was passed as part of a broader set of labor laws last year, employees of private businesses that provide round-the-clock services will reportedly have the option of working an additional two hours per day or an extra eight-hour shift. The change means a traditional 40-hour workweek could be extended to 48 hours per week for some businesses. Food service and tourism workers are not included in the six-day working week initiative.

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Design startup Figma is temporarily disabling its "Make Design" AI feature that was said to be ripping off the designs of Apple's own Weather app. TechCrunch: The problem was first spotted by Andy Allen, the founder of NotBoring Software, which makes a suite of apps that includes a popular, skinnable Weather app and other utilities. He found by testing Figma's tool that it would repeatedly reproduce Apple's Weather app when used as a design aid. John Gruber, writing at DaringFireball: This is even more disgraceful than a human rip-off. Figma knows what they trained this thing on, and they know what it outputs. In the case of this utter, shameless, abject rip-off of Apple Weather, they're even copying Weather's semi-inscrutable (semi-scrutable?) daily temperature range bars. "AI" didn't do this. Figma did this. And they're handing this feature to designers who trust Figma and are the ones who are going to be on the hook when they present a design that, unbeknownst to them, is a blatant rip-off of some existing app.

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The Biden administration said Tuesday that it was providing $504 million in implementation grants for a dozen technology hubs in Ohio, Montana, Nevada and Florida, among other locations. From a report: The money would support the development of quantum computing, biomanufacturing, lithium batteries, computer chips, personal medicine and other technologies. The Democratic administration is trying to encourage more technological innovation across the country, instead of allowing it be concentrated in a few metro areas such as San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and New York City. "The reality is there are smart people, great entrepreneurs, and leading-edge research institutions all across the country," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a call previewing the announcement. "We're leaving so much potential on the table if we don't give them the resources to compete and win in the tech sectors that will define the 21st century global economy."

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China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has announced plans to develop standards for brain-computer interface technology, signaling the country's intent to advance in this emerging field. The ministry said it would assemble a committee of experts from various sectors to draft guidelines for brain information encoding and decoding, data communication, and visualization. Brain-computer interface technology, which enables direct communication between the brain and external devices, has gained prominence with ventures like Elon Musk's Neuralink in the United States. China's move suggests a shift from primarily academic research to more focused development, potentially rivaling Western competitors. Previous Chinese brain-computer interface efforts have been largely confined to university research. In March, state media reported a paralyzed patient regaining some mobility after receiving a brain implant developed by Tsinghua University.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: The money transfer and fintech company Wise says some of its customers' personal data may have been stolen in the recent data breach at Evolve Bank and Trust. The news highlights that the fallout from the Evolve data breach on third-party companies -- and their customers and users -- is still unclear, and it's likely that it includes companies and startups that are yet unknown. In a statement published on its official website, Wise wrote that the company worked with Evolve from 2020 until 2023 "to provide USD account details." And given that Evolve was breached recently, "some Wise customers' personal information may have been involved." [...] So far, Affirm, EarnIn, Marqeta, Melio and Mercury -- all Evolve partners -- have acknowledged that they are investigating how the Evolve breach impacted their customers.

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AI firm Anthropic launched a funding program Monday to develop new benchmarks for evaluating AI models, including its chatbot Claude. The initiative will pay third-party organizations to create metrics for assessing advanced AI capabilities. Anthropic aims to "elevate the entire field of AI safety" with this investment, according to its blog. TechCrunch adds: As we've highlighted before, AI has a benchmarking problem. The most commonly cited benchmarks for AI today do a poor job of capturing how the average person actually uses the systems being tested. There are also questions as to whether some benchmarks, particularly those released before the dawn of modern generative AI, even measure what they purport to measure, given their age. The very-high-level, harder-than-it-sounds solution Anthropic is proposing is creating challenging benchmarks with a focus on AI security and societal implications via new tools, infrastructure and methods.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon built a $2 trillion company through years of aggressive spending on its retail and logistics businesses. Its future gains will likely be determined by the billions designated to fund its artificial-intelligence push. Amazon is planning to spend more than $100 billion over the next decade on data centers, an impressive level of investment even for a company known for its spending ways. The Seattle company is now devoting more investment money to its cloud computing and AI infrastructure than to its sprawling network of e-commerce warehouses. Amazon Web Services, the arm that manages Amazon's cloud business, has opened data centers for years, but executives said there is a surge in investment now to meet demand triggered by the excitement around AI. "We have to dive in. We have to figure it out," said John Felton, who took over as AWS's chief financial officer this year after spending most of his career in Amazon's retail fulfillment operations. The company's financial commitment reflects the importance and high costs of AI. Felton said building for AI today feels like building that massive delivery network in years past. "It's a little uncertain," he said. AWS is expanding in Virginia, Ohio and elsewhere.

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