Tootfinder

So much infosec news, so little time. Check out today's Metacurity for the most critical cybersecurity developments you need to know, including
--ID documents for billionaires and top pols at Abu Dhabi conference were exposed online,
--Angola journalist was hacked with Intellexa spyware,
--Poland arrests Phobos ransomware affiliate,
--Severe flaw found in Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machine,
--Hacker who paid only a penny for a luxury hotel room was busted …

ID documents for billionaires and top politicians at Abu Dhabi conference were exposed online
Angola journalist was hacked with Intellexa spyware, Poland arrests Phobos ransomware affiliate, Severe flaw found in Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machine, Hacker who paid only a penny for a luxury hotel room busted in Spain, Oz financial technology company YouX suffered a massive breach, much more

Gemini 3 Pro is integrated into the Gemini app, which now has 650M MAUs, and powers Google Search's AI Mode conversational search feature (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/business/google-gemini-3.html

Google Unveils Gemini 3, With Improved Coding and Search Abilities
The new artificial intelligence model is the second the company has released this year. OpenAI and Anthropic made similar updates a few months ago.

Recent polling shows the majority disapprove of how ICE operates.
But to truly stop the damage requires going further
– it means eradicating the security logic that ever made people think that arming a secret police on an ethnic cleansing mission could ever make them safe.
Formed in 2003, during the embarrassing and disastrous national excesses of the post-9/11 era
– when the nation launched two ill-fated forever wars, and demonized Muslim immigrants
– ICE’s ma…

Sources: an August vesting milestone gives Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen the ability to cash out from their Cox deal and possibly exit (Natalie Korach/Status)
https://www.status.news/p/axios-cox-deal-jim-vandehei-mike-allen

Axios’ Future: Why It Matters
Three years after selling to Cox, incentives for Axios’ co-founders have vested, opening the door to a possible exit—a scenario Cox execs have begun informally planning for, Status has learned.

Methane spiked after 2020 and the cause was unexpected #environment

Methane spiked after 2020 and the cause was unexpected
Methane levels in Earth’s atmosphere surged faster than ever in the early 2020s, and scientists say the reason was a surprising mix of chemistry and climate. A temporary slowdown in the atmosphere’s ability to break down methane allowed the gas to linger, while unusually wet conditions boosted emissions from wetlands, rivers, lakes, and rice fields around the world. Pandemic-related changes in air pollution played a key role, indirectly weakening the atmosphere’s natural “clean-up” pr…

'Limits' to paid customers...
Musk’s xAI limits Grok’s ability to create sexualized images of real people on X after backlash
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/14/musk-xai-blocks-grok-chatbot-from-creating-sexualized-images-of-people.html

Sources: SpaceX and xAI are competing in a $100M DoD contest to make voice-controlled, autonomous drone swarms; OpenAI is helping Applied Intuition's submission (Katrina Manson/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

While Elon Musk is pushing hard to get the Neuralink Blindsight brain implant out, The vOICe vision BCI can grow organically, no matter how long it takes https://www.artificialvision.com/neuralink.htm Applied psychohistory

Before you head out for the weekend, don't miss today's Metacurity, which delivers developments that go beyond the usual infosec news echo chamber.
Today's items cover
--The imminent DHS shutdown will hamper US ability to respond to cyber threats,
--CISA will hold town halls on cyber incident reporting regs,
--Palo Alto removed China attribution in fear of retaliation,
--Tianfu Cup returns,
--Ring cancels partnership with Flock,
--TX AG lau…

The imminent DHS shutdown will hamper US ability to respond to cyber threats
CISA will hold town halls on cyber incident reporting regs, Palo Alto removed China attribution in fear of retaliation, Tianfu Cup returns, Ring cancels partnership with Flock, TX AG launches probe into Conduent breach, AI vibe coding platform Orchids has an unfixed flaw, much more

Eine gentechnisch veränderte #Alge könnte helfen, #Mikroplastik aus Wasser zu entfernen.
Sie produziert ein flüchtiges Naturöl namens Limonen. Weil sowohl Alge als auch #Plastik wasserabweisend …

Lab-grown algae remove microplastics from water
A University of Missouri researcher is pioneering an innovative solution to remove tiny bits of plastic pollution from our water. Mizzou's Susie Dai recently applied a revolutionary strain of algae toward capturing and removing harmful microplastics from polluted water. Driven by a mission to improve the world for both wildlife and humans, Dai also aims to repurpose the collected microplastics into safe, bioplastic products such as composite plastic films.