Other
Cybersecurity news in this category
Deploying Self-Hosted Hysteria 2 Proxy on Debian-Based Linux VPS via Terminal
Rostec Scales PCAT Platform Nationwide as Russia's First Industrial Marketplace
Kate Mobile Loses VK API Access After New Request Limits Exhaust Quota in 1.5 Days
Russian AI Research Ranks High in Global Science but Struggles with Commercialization
Russia has secured third place among BRICS nations and twentieth worldwide in the number of scientific papers presented at ten leading international conferences on machine learning and artificial intelligence. According to a study by the Scientometric Center of HSE University, Russian organizations contributed 560 papers between 2020 and 2025 that received over 12,300 citations. The average international citation rate reached 3.59, surpassing India despite fewer total publications. Russian strengths are most evident in the mathematics of machine learning, optimization, and formal concept analysis, with notable results also in computer vision and speech technologies. More than 40 percent of domestic publications involve business participation, led by Yandex among companies, HSE University and Skoltech among universities, and AIRI among non-profit organizations. Significant barriers remain, including shortages of computing power, limited access to high-quality data, and weak transfer of research into commercial products, particularly in natural language processing, AI agents, and infrastructure technologies. The Ministry of Digital Development has announced plans to stimulate demand for domestic AI solutions, expand computing infrastructure, improve regulation, and accelerate the implementation of scientific developments.
redb.Identity Deploys Three-Layer Defense to Neutralize Stolen Access Tokens in OpenID Connect
redb.Identity, a custom OAuth 2.1 and OpenID Connect provider built on .NET, addresses the inherent risks of bearer access tokens by implementing three distinct protection layers. The first layer uses a Backend-for-Frontend pattern with Blazor Server and HttpOnly cookies to ensure no tokens ever reach the browser. The second layer applies DPoP proof-of-possession binding so that a stolen token remains useless without the corresponding private key. The third layer provides rapid revocation through RFC 7009 endpoints, refresh token rotation, idle timeouts, and a hybrid push-pull backchannel logout mechanism that guarantees no revocation is lost across replicas. The architecture also mitigates XSS vectors from direct application code, compromised npm dependencies, browser extensions, and localStorage. Additional routine controls include constant-time secret comparison, TOTP replay protection, rate limiting at multiple scopes, and sanitized proxy headers. The design explicitly acknowledges that BFF shifts rather than eliminates risk, requiring complementary CSRF protection via SameSite cookies and antiforgery tokens.
Russia Weighs Mandatory Use of Sovereign AI Models Like GigaChat in Government Sectors
Russian authorities are discussing a draft government resolution that would require state bodies and companies to prioritize fully domestic AI models in multiple regulated areas even when they cost up to 50 percent more than alternatives. Only GigaChat developed by Sber currently meets the proposed sovereign criteria of being created by a Russian legal entity and running exclusively on Russian infrastructure. National models such as Yandex’s Alice AI would be allowed to incorporate open-source components. The measure would apply to law-making, national projects, taxes, customs, critical information infrastructure, education, healthcare and Gosuslugi services. The Ministry of Digital Development stresses that the list remains preliminary and open to further input from market participants. Industry players including Yandex and MWS AI have voiced concerns over reduced choice and potential quality or cost disadvantages for end users.
GTA: Vice City Runs Natively in Browser via reVC Port, Supports Smartphones and High Frame Rates
A browser-based version of the 2002 classic GTA: Vice City has been made available on the Quenq website, allowing play without any client installation on both desktop computers and mobile devices. The port supports keyboard, gamepad, and touch controls while offering save management, mod support, cheat code entry, and frame rate customization. Testing on an OnePlus 12 smartphone showed smooth performance in both landscape and portrait orientations. The implementation relies on the reVC decompilation project combined with WebAssembly for C++ execution and WebGL 2 for graphics acceleration. On desktop hardware the game can exceed 100 FPS, far above the original 30 FPS target, which can affect physics behavior. The site also hosts a similar GTA III port based on re3, with traces of the earlier DOS Zone project visible in the pause menu. Previous DMCA action by Take-Two in 2025 temporarily shut down the service, yet the versions remain accessible despite ongoing copyright concerns.
Basis Acquires 70% of Proto to Integrate Observability Platform into Basis Dynamix
Russian infrastructure software developer Basis has acquired a 70% stake in Proto, the creator of an observability and operational data analytics platform. The transaction was executed through a capital investment, with funds allocated to product development and integration into Basis’s ecosystem. Proto will operate as a subsidiary while retaining its team and continuing to advance the Proto Observability Platform. The technology will be embedded into Basis Dynamix to enable predictive analytics, incident forecasting, and proactive alerts before infrastructure failures occur. AI-driven features from Proto will support predictive assessment of IT system health. Standalone configurations will remain available for customers outside the Basis ecosystem. The company projects combined revenue from Proto technologies within its portfolio to reach at least 1 billion rubles between 2026 and 2031. CEO David Martirosov noted that the acquisition shortened development timelines by approximately 18 months compared to building similar capabilities from scratch. Proto ranked among the top three Russian observability platform providers in the 2025 Technologies of Trust study, with the domestic market estimated at 3–15 billion rubles and growing at roughly 24% annually.
Google Play Store to Add Pause and Resume Option for App Downloads
Google is preparing a long-awaited feature for the Play Store that will let Android users pause app downloads and resume them later without losing progress. The capability was discovered by Android Authority researchers while examining the code of Play Store version 53.0. Currently the store only allows users to cancel a download entirely, but the new update will introduce a dedicated Pause button next to each active download. Once paused, the item remains visible in the built-in download manager, allowing users to resume directly from the list without searching for the app again. The function is intended to help users manage bandwidth, conserve mobile data, or delay large game downloads until a Wi-Fi connection is available. Although Google has not yet made an official announcement, the feature is already functional in testing, suggesting a release may arrive sooner than the previously indicated 2026 timeframe.
Microsoft Pledges Performance Improvements for Windows 11 on 8GB RAM Devices
Microsoft has announced plans to optimize Windows 11 specifically for computers equipped with 8GB of RAM, addressing long-standing complaints about system resource consumption on budget hardware. Corporate Vice President Mark Linton revealed the initiative during an Acer presentation at IFA 2026, highlighting ongoing work to improve core system components without providing specific metrics or timelines. The effort falls under the internal Windows 11 K2 project, which targets faster File Explorer and search functionality, fewer update-related crashes, better overall responsiveness, and expanded interface customization options including the return of movable taskbar positioning. These changes come at a time when AI-powered features are increasingly integrated into Windows, raising concerns about performance on entry-level laptops that often ship with soldered 8GB memory configurations. Microsoft intends to roll out the improvements gradually through standard Windows updates, focusing on both home users and broader device compatibility.
Prioritizing Account Protection: Moving From Job Titles to Real Business Risks
When budgets are limited, companies must decide whether to protect C-level executives first or focus on employees handling critical data such as accountants, database administrators, and developers. The article outlines four practical scenarios that determine protection priorities instead of relying on corporate hierarchy. These include perimeter defense through VPN access, safeguarding email and documents against phishing, addressing unique user cases like offline executive work, and managing contractor accounts with mandatory multi-factor authentication. A protection matrix maps assets such as commercial information, infrastructure access, and privileged accounts to specific threats and controls including 2FA, DLP systems, and PAM solutions. The piece also highlights three common mistakes, such as treating tool deployment as the finish line, underestimating pilot preparation, and attempting to secure everything simultaneously. It concludes with actionable first steps: inventory accounts, disable unused ones, enable two-factor authentication for high-risk users, and expand coverage gradually.
Russian Voice Traffic Surges 25-30% as Mobile Internet Usage Falls for First Time
In the first half of 2026, voice traffic in Russian mobile networks grew by 25-30 percent while mobile internet consumption declined 10-12 percent for the first time. Home broadband traffic rose 18-20 percent as users shifted conversations to traditional voice calls and moved video, AI services, and other data-heavy applications to fixed Wi-Fi connections. Experts attribute the changes primarily to mobile internet restrictions and difficulties accessing foreign messengers, prompting a return to basic phone functionality. Additional load on wired networks comes from IoT devices including surveillance cameras, sensors, and smart watches. In May, traffic generated by AI bots exceeded the volume of data created by human users for the first time. Analysts forecast that by the end of 2026 mobile internet traffic will drop another 5-10 percent, while fixed broadband will grow 15-20 percent and voice call volumes will increase 10-15 percent.
Incident Reconstruction Fails When Logs Lack Time Zone Offsets and Proper Synchronization
Reconstructing security incidents from multiple log sources often collapses when timestamps lack time zone information or consistent synchronization. Events from web servers, load balancers, applications, and mail gateways can appear in physically impossible order, such as responses preceding requests or sessions closing before they open. The root causes include clock drift without NTP, mismatched reference points like UTC versus local time, and timestamps recorded at message processing rather than event occurrence. Classic BSD syslog (RFC 3164) omits both year and offset, forcing investigators to consult potentially unavailable source systems. Modern RFC 5424 provides full timestamps with offsets, making normalization possible without external context. Organizations must enforce offset-inclusive formats at ingestion, monitor actual synchronization status rather than service uptime, and document external sources whose timestamps cannot be controlled.
HTTP Methods Explained: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE and the New QUERY Standard
HTTP methods define the actions a client requests from a server regarding a resource. The core semantics are outlined in RFC 9110, with extensions for specialized protocols. A new standardized method called QUERY was introduced in June 2026 via RFC 10008 to handle complex queries that include a request body while remaining safe and idempotent. The article details safe and idempotent properties, compares each method including GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, OPTIONS, TRACE, CONNECT, and QUERY, and explains their correct usage to avoid breaking caches, proxies, and infrastructure expectations. It also covers WebDAV extensions and other registered methods in the IANA registry.
From Web Perimeter Breaches to Domain Takeover: How Standoff Hackbase Trains Pentesters on Real Corporate Infrastructure
wr3dmast3r, a senior pentester and BSCP certification guide author, rose to first place on the Standoff Hackbase ranking by shifting focus from initial perimeter access to full internal infrastructure compromise. The platform replicates large-scale corporate networks from various industries, forcing participants to map service relationships, harvest credentials, escalate privileges, and chain pivots across segments. Unlike CTF challenges that end with a single flag, Hackbase tasks require building complete attack paths that can lead to data theft, process disruption, or cross-domain movement. The interview highlights practical techniques such as time-boxing hypotheses, manually modeling infrastructure after automated scans, and using AI only as an information accelerator rather than an autonomous operator. wr3dmast3r also details a memorable chain that began with a bot, moved through VPN and Outlook access, leveraged SCCM tokens for privilege escalation, and ended with compromise of a second domain containing the target system.
OTUS Publishes September Digest of Free Lessons on Linux Administration, PostgreSQL, CI/CD and Infrastructure Security
OTUS has released a new digest listing free September webinars aimed at infrastructure engineers, DevOps specialists and system administrators. The program covers practical topics including Linux server configuration, PostgreSQL 18 performance tuning, high-availability clusters with Patroni, CI/CD pipelines in GitLab, eBPF observability and infrastructure security practices. All sessions are delivered by practicing OTUS instructors who share real-world production experience. Separate tracks address RAID and LVM management, GPO policies, release management in 1C environments, Go profiling, mitmproxy traffic analysis and responsible use of AI tools for incident investigation and code review. The webinars run throughout September at 19:00 or 20:00 Moscow time and require only free registration. The digest also includes sessions on career growth from tech lead to CTO and effective responsibility distribution for team leads.
Top LLMs Misidentify Poisonous Mushrooms in Every Ninth Case, Benchmark Shows
Polish developer Piotr Migdal evaluated leading large language models on their ability to identify mushrooms from photographs, using a dataset of 1040 images covering 55 species common in Poland. The images came from the FungiTastic dataset derived from the Atlas of Danish Fungi, with expert labels and partial DNA confirmation. Models were asked to return the five most likely species names in Latin without additional training or tools. Gemini 3.8 Flash performed best with 65 percent top-1 accuracy and 85 percent top-5 accuracy, followed closely by other Gemini variants. However, safety-critical errors remained high: Gemini models labeled poisonous mushrooms as edible in roughly 11 percent of cases, while GPT-5.6 Sol reached 24 percent, Claude Opus 5 reached 29 percent, and Qwen 3.8 27B reached 36 percent. The study did not ask models directly whether a mushroom was edible; species identifications were later cross-checked against toxicity tables.
September 2026 AI Model Rankings: Fable 5.1 Tops Intelligence Index as Competition Tightens Across GPT-5.6 Sol, Grok 4.6 and Muse Spark 1.3
The beginning of September 2026 marked a rare moment when the list of top language models had to be almost entirely rewritten. Anthropic released Fable 5.1 and the limited Mythos 5.1, while Meta updated Muse Spark to version 1.3, Google introduced Gemini 3.8 Flash, and Alibaba refreshed Qwen3.8-Max. Existing models including GPT-5.6 Sol, Grok 4.6, Kimi K3, GLM-5.3 and DeepSeek V4 Pro remain competitive. Traditional rankings from smartest to least capable have become difficult because modern models operate in multiple reasoning-depth modes where low, high and max settings can differ by ten or more points on the same test. The market is better viewed as several overlapping races where Fable 5.1 leads in complex reasoning quality, GPT-5.6 Sol and Grok 4.6 deliver near-top performance at lower cost, and Muse Spark 1.3 excels in price-performance. Independent Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index scores, context windows, API pricing and tool-use capabilities now determine practical choices more than raw benchmark numbers.
InfoWatch Acquires Web Control DC Team and Rebrands sPACE PAM as InfoWatch Privilege Control
InfoWatch has expanded its product portfolio by incorporating the Web Control DC development team and rebranding its flagship sPACE PAM solution. The new product, InfoWatch Privilege Control, is designed to manage and monitor privileged accounts belonging to system administrators, contractors, external specialists, and business users. These accounts provide access to servers, databases, network equipment, and critical applications, making them high-value targets for attackers. According to InfoWatch data, approximately 40% of critical information security incidents in Russia in 2025 were linked to the leakage or misuse of privileged credentials, while another 30% of confirmed cyberattacks occurred through compromised IT contractors. The solution enables time-limited privilege issuance, connection management, and detailed activity logging to prevent unauthorized actions. The original sPACE PAM product remains listed in the Russian software registry and holds FSTEC Russia certification at the fourth trust level, with compatibility for Astra Linux, Alt, and RED OS operating systems.
Secure Custom Domain Setup for Client Status Pages Using CNAME, Certbot and Go Instead of ACME On-Demand
A detailed case study describes how a monitoring service implemented white-label status pages on customer domains without relying on ACME on-demand certificate issuance. The approach uses pre-validated domains stored in a database, background DNS checks via CNAME or A-record matching, and a root helper script running on a systemd timer to handle certbot issuance and nginx configuration. Key design choices separate privileges so the Go application never touches certificates or nginx directly, while loopback endpoints are protected against proxy header spoofing. The solution explicitly addresses risks such as DoS through malicious Host headers exhausting Let's Encrypt rate limits, private key exposure, and first-visitor latency during TLS handshakes. Hysteresis in DNS status prevents temporary resolution glitches from disabling active customer pages. The entire implementation stays under a few hundred lines of code and runs reliably on a single server with nginx in front of the Go application.
Durev VPN Accused of Plagiarizing Independent Researchers' Articles for Commercial YouTube Promotion
Independent Russian cybersecurity researcher zarazaexe has publicly accused the commercial VPN service Durev VPN of systematically copying technical articles about Russian internet censorship systems, messenger analysis, and government-issued certificates. The team behind Durev VPN allegedly rewrote the original research into YouTube video scripts, replaced first-person statements with references to their own specialists, and removed all attribution to the source author or project. One video titled СРОЧНО УДАЛИ СЕРТИФИКАТ МИНЦИФРЫ reportedly gained 795,000 views in two days, while the service's Telegram bot shows 260,000 users and charges a minimum subscription of 313 rubles per month. Specific copied elements include scanning results of 46 million Russian IP addresses that yielded 63,000 entries in TSPU whitelists, architectural descriptions of default-deny and fail-closed policies, ECH handling by DPI systems, and detailed reverse-engineering findings from the MAX messenger client. The researcher documented the reuse of his earlier errors about UDP blocking inside whitelists and identical analogies comparing root certificates to apartment keys. When confronted, the Durev VPN representative initially demanded patents, invoked fair use, and later claimed the matter would be reviewed by their lawyer within a week. The researcher published the full chat logs and removed the disputed segment from one video after the complaint.
Russia's Rassvet LEO Satellite System Enters Real-World Testing Phase
The Russian low-orbit satellite constellation Rassvet has moved from laboratory development into active field trials with real consumers across multiple regions. Bureau 1440, part of IKS Holding, has begun delivering satellite internet services and installed the first user terminal on a long-distance Russian Railways train. CEO Alexey Shelobkov stated that the project advanced to service validation in 2026, ahead of schedule, and will now test performance over large territories and in motion. The initiative aims to provide high-speed connectivity to remote areas, reduce the digital divide, and create an independent Russian hybrid communications system. Shelobkov emphasized that Rassvet is not merely a response to Starlink but a strategic necessity for sovereign infrastructure free from foreign hardware and policy dependencies. Roscosmos is simultaneously increasing engagement with private companies to commercialize space activities.
Putin Calls Rumors of Russian Bank Deposit Freeze 'Stupid Fakes'
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed rumors about a possible freeze on citizens' bank deposits, describing them as rather stupid fakes during a plenary session at the Eastern Economic Forum on September 3. He stated that there are no grounds for such concerns and recalled the events of 2022 when citizens rushed to withdraw funds amid anxious sentiments. The financial system handled the situation without closing cash desks, allowing all requested amounts to be disbursed calmly. Putin emphasized that Russians continue to keep money in the financial system and are increasingly directing it to the stock market. According to the Central Bank of Russia, net inflows to private investors' brokerage accounts in the second quarter of 2026 exceeded 1 trillion rubles, marking a 19% increase from the previous quarter and a record since observations began in 2021.
Building a Cybersecurity News Aggregator: Story Clustering, Seven Importance Signals and Strict Filtering Thresholds
The idea for an information security news aggregator emerged years ago with the goal of delivering only the most relevant stories while eliminating noise. Early versions relied on the rut5_base_sum_gazeta summarization model and TextRank for importance scoring, but performance remained unsatisfactory. The current system processes roughly one thousand items daily from more than 200 sources and publishes only about 0.5 percent of them. A hybrid approach now combines a transparent seven-feature formula that scores story importance with an LLM that removes irrelevant content and generates concise summaries. The formula incorporates signals such as confirmation count, CVSS severity, exploitation status from KEV, source tier, proximity to Russian readers, depth of analysis, and publication speed. Penalties are applied for vendor self-promotion, webinars, and job postings. Stories are clustered using CVE identifiers, shared trigrams, and named entities to avoid duplicate posts while preserving original reporting.
Internal DNS as Control Plane: Why Resolvers Matter More Than They Seem
Cloudflare has announced the general availability of Cloudflare Internal DNS for corporate clients of Cloudflare Gateway. The service combines public and internal DNS with a protective resolver, structured around three core objects: internal zones, views, and resolver policies. The article explains how typical hybrid infrastructures suffer from fragmented DNS layers that lead to resolution failures often misdiagnosed as balancer or VPN issues. It emphasizes that DNS serves as an early control point in zero-trust environments because it decides whether a service exists and which address is returned before any connection is established. The model separates data plane from management plane, requiring unified change channels, auditing, and observability to remain effective. Practical recommendations include avoiding manual edits across servers, using infrastructure-as-code for consistency, and integrating with systems such as NetBox for desired-state management.
Russian Government Rules Out TikTok Transformation for Gosuslugi Portal
Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko stated that Russian authorities have no current plans to convert the Gosuslugi state services portal into a TikTok analogue. Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum, Grigorenko described such a transformation as something beyond reasonable limits while noting that the idea could become acceptable in the future. The government aims to evolve Gosuslugi into a universal digital ecosystem that includes a social network with local communities, an events aggregator, and family chats by 2035. These features are intended to unite citizens, businesses, and state bodies in a trusted interaction space. Minister of Digital Development Maksut Shadaev has previously described the portal's goal as becoming a major social media platform. Officials emphasize that vertical video content such as tax deduction оформление remains off the table for now.
RANEPA Opens Specialized IT Laboratory for Training Specialists in Russian Software
The Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) has launched a dedicated IT laboratory focused on Russian software and infrastructure management. The facility was established with support from RED SOFT, R7, and ICL Techno, equipping 15 OSiO mini-PCs and monitors with RED OS and R7 Office. Students will gain hands-on experience from operating system installation through virtualization, database administration, and office productivity tasks. The project includes four specialized courses on RED OS, permanent software licenses with updates and support, and opportunities for developer certificates and internships. The laboratory will primarily serve students from the Institute of Public Service and Management and the Institute of Economics, Mathematics and Information Technologies, covering topics such as digital literacy, data management, artificial intelligence, and municipal analytics. RANEPA aims to maintain at least 90 percent utilization of the specialized classroom.
Russia Expands Mobile Number Portability to Allow Inter-Regional Transfers Starting September 1
From September 1, Russian subscribers can retain their mobile number when moving to another region and either switch to a new operator or stay with the existing one if coverage is available. Previously, the Mobile Number Portability service was restricted to transfers within a single federal subject, forcing users who relocated from cities such as Kazan to Moscow to obtain a new number or accept outdated regional tariffs. The updated rules remove this geographic limitation, reducing the administrative burden of updating contacts, banking applications, and online accounts linked to the phone number. Operators will now face greater competition because regional restrictions can no longer be used as a retention tool. Usage of the service has already grown sharply, with more than 4.3 million numbers ported in the first half of 2026, double the 2.1 million recorded in the same period of 2025. Since the launch of MNP in 2013, over 41 million numbers have changed operators, and the new inter-regional capability is expected to accelerate that trend further.
UserGate Launches Rugged Industrial NGFW uNGFW on X10 Platform Rated for -40 to +60 °C
UserGate has introduced the uNGFW next-generation firewall running on the new X10 hardware platform designed specifically for protecting industrial control systems and OT environments. The appliance replaces the discontinued X1 model and is engineered to operate reliably in harsh conditions ranging from −40 to +60 °C with up to 80 % humidity, allowing direct DIN-rail installation inside automation cabinets at substations, extraction sites, and fuel stations. It provides deep inspection for 35 industrial protocols including Modbus, OPC UA, Profinet IO and S7Comm, with intrusion-prevention rules capable of validating individual commands on six critical protocols to block unauthorized actions without requiring equipment shutdowns. Hardware redundancy features two independent power inputs and a bypass function that maintains network connectivity during device failure, while maximum power draw remains at 24 W. Throughput reaches 1780 Mbit/s with support for up to 500 000 concurrent connections, and centralized management via UserGate’s existing console enables unified policies across distributed sites. The platform was developed by UserGate’s own design bureau and is manufactured in Saint Petersburg; it is already available for ordering and testing through company partners.
Aiker World AI Co-Creation Base Officially Lands in Hainan Oriental to Build Long-Term AI Talent and Industry Ecosystem
On August 28, the finals of the Oriental Chuxin FC-OPC Next iCreate AI Native Content Creation Competition were held in Hainan Oriental. Aiker World community, in partnership with Oriental Chuxin, advanced their collaboration by establishing an offline AI co-creation base and connecting online talent with real industrial scenarios. Thirty youth teams presented AI projects focused on Chinese cultural dissemination, Hainan tourism and intangible heritage export, free trade port digital economy, and AI content compliance. The event was attended by senior local officials including Oriental Municipal Party Secretary Li Aihua and Hainan Provincial Tourism and Culture Department Deputy Director Wang Zhongyun. 360 Group representative and Aiker World initiator Hu Xiaona highlighted the shift from AI model development to practical enterprise deployment using tools like Nami Work. The new base aims to link talent, experts, and companies for sustained project delivery beyond single events.
Yandex Builds Secure KVM Access for BareMetal Servers with IPMI Proxy and Network Isolation
Yandex Cloud engineers developed a layered architecture to grant external users safe KVM access to dedicated BareMetal servers while protecting the shared IPMI network. The solution combines IPMI Proxy containers that normalize vendor-specific protocols into VNC, IPMI Router instances running jool for IPv6-to-IPv4 translation, and strict L2/L3 controls using 802.1X, eBPF, and switch ACLs. DHCP is delivered statelessly by deriving IPv4 addresses from MAC addresses to simplify failover with VRRP. Client-side risks from legacy Java and weak hashes are contained by running minimal containers and mounting ISO images from S3 as external volumes. Continuous permission checks every ten seconds ensure long-lived sessions do not become persistent attack paths. The resulting design unifies access across hardware platforms inside the Yandex Cloud console without exposing BMCs to lateral movement.
Russia Approves Dedicated Traffic Regulations for Delivery Robots
Russian authorities have coordinated requirements for the movement of delivery robots, known as rovers, across urban areas. The rules will establish permitted speeds, guidelines for interactions with pedestrians, identification procedures, and operator liability. The draft resolution was prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development together with the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. An experimental legal regime lasting three years will test these measures in 35 regions of Russia. The core principle requires that robots must not obstruct people or create hazards on sidewalks. Specific zones where robots are permitted or prohibited will be defined in the final version of the document.
WebDesktopGL Framework Turns Web Sites into Desktop Apps on Astra Linux via Chromium
WebDesktopGL is an open-source framework that converts web applications into standalone desktop programs using a local Chromium engine. It was developed specifically for Astra Linux to meet strict licensing requirements that prohibit unlicensed software. The solution supports both X11 and Wayland sessions and has been tested on Ubuntu 24.04 KDE, Ubuntu 22.04 KDE, and Astra Linux 1.8. Key technical components include a modified VirtualGL build for GPU acceleration inside Xephyr or Xvfb virtual displays, custom clipboard synchronization via xclip, and a lightweight xdotool_xseticon utility for window management. Two launch scripts are provided: InfoDoc.sh for full isolation on a virtual X server and InfoDoc_light.sh for simpler direct execution suitable for remote deployment. The project aims to serve as a lightweight, license-compliant alternative to Electron for Linux environments.
DNS Resolver Operator Discovers Missing DNSSEC Validation After Six Months via External Test
A solo developer running VantageDNS, a recursive DNS resolver with filtering, discovered that DNSSEC validation had been disabled for six months after running an external DNS-OARC test. The test flagged "Lookup succeeded while signature was invalid," revealing that the resolver was accepting and returning responses with invalid DNSSEC signatures instead of returning SERVFAIL. Internal monitoring remained green throughout because the absence of validation does not trigger latency spikes, error rates, or availability alerts. The root cause traced back to a comment in the Unbound configuration left from an MVP phase that referenced enabling validation in Sprint 5, which never occurred. After enabling validation using a static trust-anchor-file, the operator documented the correct verification steps using dnssec-failed.org and domains with the AD flag, while noting that performance impact was negligible. The incident highlighted that security properties like DNSSEC validation require active, periodic external probing rather than passive monitoring.
1000 AI Builders Gather for 96-Hour SheNicest Hackathon in Beijing to Build Working Demos
Nearly 1000 creators from technology, product, design, hardware and imaging fields have assembled at the Beijing National Convention Center for the SheNicest 2026 Summer Thousand-Person Hackathon. Over 96 hours participants form teams, iterate rapidly and attempt to convert initial ideas into functional, demonstrable AI products across native applications, agents, intelligent hardware, games and AIGC imagery. A workshop led by Hu Xiaona of 360AI Business Development, HackingClub and AikerWorld examined the transition from individual AI tool use to full organizational adoption. She outlined three progressive stages: tool empowerment, workflow automation and true AI-native organizational redesign. The discussion stressed that simply purchasing AI tools does not change outcomes unless processes, roles and collaboration mechanisms are restructured around human-plus-AI teams. The event concludes with Demo Day on August 30, after which builders must address sales, delivery and sustained value creation.
Why 99% Attack Detection Rules Generate 99.9% False Positives in Real SOC Environments
A detection rule claiming 99% attack coverage with only 1% false positive rate sounds effective on paper, yet in practice it produces roughly one thousand false alerts for every genuine incident. Using a realistic example of 200,000 daily logins containing just two real compromises, the article demonstrates that 1.98 true positives are buried among 2,000 false positives. Bayes' theorem explains why sensitivity improvements barely move the needle while reducing the false-positive rate or narrowing the population yields dramatic gains in precision. The piece outlines three practical levers—lowering FPR, scoping rules to high-risk accounts, and cascading cheap-then-expensive checks—that cut analyst workload by orders of magnitude without sacrificing meaningful coverage. It also warns that chronically low-precision rules train analysts to ignore alerts, eventually leading to the rule being disabled despite remaining in compliance matrices. The recommended metric pair is therefore confirmed detections alongside coverage, rather than coverage alone.
ChatGPT Knows Your Company but Google Doesn't: Step-by-Step Guide to Diagnosing AI Visibility Issues
The complaint that a brand is missing from AI answers often masks six distinct technical problems that require opposite fixes. The guide separates three visibility layers—model knowledge without search, pre-indexed search bots such as OAI-SearchBot, and on-demand agent bots such as ChatGPT-User—and explains how to measure each one. It details checks for robots.txt entries, nosnippet and max-snippet meta tags, Cloudflare AI bot toggles, and server logs that reveal 403, 429, and 404 responses from specific crawlers. Additional steps cover JavaScript-rendered content, repeated query testing across 20 prompts, official reports in Yandex Webmaster and Google Search Console, and hidden prompt-injection instructions that may have been planted in page metadata. The article stresses that aggregated “AI visibility” percentages are meaningless without layer separation and warns that blocking training can unintentionally harm ordinary search indexing.
redb.Identity Adds gRPC Transport for OpenID Server Alongside Existing HTTP Facade
redb.Identity has introduced a second transport layer using gRPC next to its existing HTTP interface, sharing the same core routes, client registry, token store, and authorization logic. The new facade exposes standard OAuth and OpenID Connect operations such as Token, Introspect, Revoke, UserInfo, Discovery, and Jwks through protobuf-defined methods under identity.v1.Identity. Both transports enforce identical verdicts based on a single centralized scope table located behind direct-vm addresses, ensuring that a client authorized via HTTP receives the same result when calling gRPC. Error handling on gRPC uses status codes and trailers to carry machine-readable OAuth error codes and retry-after values, preserving compatibility with existing interceptors and tracing. Browser-facing flows, DPoP proofs, and user self-service remain on HTTP, while administrative operations are available on a separate management port. The implementation was validated through 64 unit tests, cross-language interop with @grpc/grpc-js clients, and a conformance run against the official OpenID Foundation suite.
Nvidia to Cease Regular GeForce Driver Updates for Windows 10 After October 2026
Nvidia has announced the end of regular driver support for Windows 10 in its GeForce Game Ready and Nvidia Studio driver lines starting October 2026. The first driver package without Windows 10 support will arrive in November of that year. Microsoft ended the base lifecycle of Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, and Nvidia is extending support by one additional year. Existing games and applications will continue to function after the change, while quarterly security patches for critical vulnerabilities will remain available until October 2029. Users will no longer receive optimizations for new games, fixes for graphics issues, or new GPU features. Newer technologies such as DLSS may also skip Windows 10 compatibility. The transition is described as gradual rather than abrupt, allowing older titles to keep running while newer releases increasingly encourage migration to a supported Windows version.
Rospotrebnadzor Introduces Age-Based Screen Time Limits for Russian School Students
Russia's consumer protection agency Rospotrebnadzor has established recommended maximum durations for schoolchildren working with computers and interactive whiteboards during lessons. The limits vary by grade, ranging from 20 minutes for first and second graders up to 35 minutes for students in grades 10 and 11. Separate rules apply to interactive boards, capping usage at 20 minutes for children under 10 and 30 minutes for older students. Schools must ensure students perform eye exercises when electronic devices are used, while traditional paper-based classes require such exercises only during breaks. Starting September 1 2026, a nationwide ban on mobile phones during lessons will also take effect, with individual schools deciding rules for recess periods.
From Root CA to User Authorization in nginx and Apache: Client Certificate Login Explained
This is the third installment in a detailed tutorial series covering the deployment of a two-tier PKI infrastructure with Root CA and intermediate CAs for Person, Server, and Code. The article provides comprehensive configuration guidance for enabling mTLS in nginx and Apache, including full references for all ssl_client_* variables and SSL directives. It explains the differences between password-based and certificate-based authentication, the TLS handshake steps involving CertificateRequest and CertificateVerify, and the importance of proper extendedKeyUsage settings such as clientAuth. Readers learn how to issue client certificates, package them in PKCS#12 format, enforce revocation checks via CRL and OCSP, and safely pass certificate fields to backend applications while mitigating risks from header spoofing. The guide also covers scenarios where the application itself terminates TLS without a reverse proxy and demonstrates login flows protected against CSRF using one-time tokens.
Honeytoken Traps for Detecting Compromised Backends in Encryption Key Services
The article details a honeytoken-based detection system designed to identify when a trusted backend has been compromised and is abusing its signing key to request encryption keys for arbitrary documents. A secret set of fake user and document identifiers is stored only inside the key service using keyed HMAC-SHA256 hashes, ensuring the backend itself cannot discover or bypass the canaries. Any signed request touching these identifiers triggers an alarm, audit logging, and optional emergency lock that wipes master keys from memory. The check is deliberately placed after signature validation but before envelope decryption to avoid false positives from unauthenticated attackers while keeping performance cost low. Two types of canaries address different attack patterns: document canaries catch bulk scraping while user canaries detect forged grants for non-existent principals. The mechanism has been deployed in production, with live tests confirming silent failure responses externally and clear canary_trip plus emergency_lock events internally. Limitations include inability to catch targeted extraction of a single real user’s documents and the fact that detection occurs after a canary key has already been issued.
Yisaqi Automation Magician Delivers Self-Healing RPA to Fix Low ROI in Enterprise AI Agents
Meituan's internal experiment revealed that widespread AI agent adoption drove daily token costs into the millions while introducing errors into business processes. MIT research confirmed that 95 percent of generative AI pilots fail to deliver measurable returns despite tens of billions in spending. Yisaqi's Automation Magician addresses these gaps by extending the agent lifecycle beyond conversation to include exploration, automated testing, self-healing, and export of stable scripts. The platform uses natural language input to generate resilient automation flows that adapt to UI changes without repeated model calls. Deployments at Jiage Food and a major central SOE financial shared service center demonstrate large-scale coverage of tax, finance, and manufacturing processes with minimal manual intervention. Zhongtian Technology reported 80 percent efficiency gains and annual savings exceeding one million yuan after rolling out the solution across 112 scenarios.
Aeroflot to Accept Digital Rubles for Ticket Purchases Starting September 2026
From September 1 2026 Aeroflot will begin accepting digital rubles as a payment method for airline tickets both on its website and in company sales offices. Customers choosing the new option online will see a QR code generated by the site that must be scanned in a participating bank application. The payment is then confirmed from the digital wallet hosted on the Bank of Russia platform and an electronic ticket plus receipt are issued automatically. The same QR-based flow will be used at physical ticket counters where the code appears on the terminal. Ordinary bank cards and other payment methods remain fully available and no physical digital cash is required. On the same date MTS will start accepting digital rubles through MTS Pay while Rostelecom and Megafon are also preparing their systems. Russian authorities have clarified that the digital ruble is the third official form of the national currency alongside cash and non-cash funds rather than a cryptocurrency.
Russia Permits 5G Deployment on Existing 4G Infrastructure and Frequencies
The Russian Ministry of Digital Development has prepared a draft decision for the State Radio Frequency Commission that introduces technological neutrality for mobile networks. Major operators including Beeline, Megafon, MTS and Tele2 will be allowed to launch 5G services on spectrum and base stations already allocated for LTE. The measure covers foreign equipment installed before September 2026 and aims to accelerate commercial 5G rollout without waiting for entirely new infrastructure. Additional spectrum in the 4.63-4.99 GHz band will be allocated for high-capacity use cases, although these frequencies offer limited coverage. Commercial 5G services must appear in cities with over one million residents by the end of 2027, with gradual expansion through 2031. Domestic base stations are scheduled to replace foreign equipment between 2027 and 2031.
Grep_Tribe Blue Team Shares SOC Defense Lessons from Standoff 17 Cyber Battle
The Grep_Tribe team participated in Standoff 17 for the third time, defending the RetailSTF Group infrastructure in a simulated State F environment against continuous red team attacks. They handled 37 confirmed incidents, 22 detected incidents, five investigated critical events, and maintained 88 percent average infrastructure availability. The team used familiar Positive Technologies tools alongside the new R-Vision SOAR platform to automate routine responses such as IP blocking and file sandboxing. Work was organized through a tribal system with role-based preparation and dynamic small-group investigations for complex attack chains. Participants highlighted how the event tested prioritization, Threat Intelligence attribution, and automation under high-intensity conditions unlike daily SOC operations. The experience reinforced plans to expand SOAR playbooks for repetitive tasks in their real internal SOC environment.
Password Reset Fails to Evict Attackers: What Persists in Compromised Email Accounts
Even after users change passwords and enable two-factor authentication, attackers often retain access through active sessions, application tokens, and forwarding rules. The original password serves only as an entry point, while already-issued session cookies, refresh tokens, and app passwords continue functioning independently. Services like Google, Microsoft, and Yandex provide specific pages to review devices, permissions, and app passwords, yet many users overlook the critical "sign out all devices" option. In corporate environments, Microsoft Entra ID commands can revoke sessions, but access tokens may still remain valid for up to an hour afterward. Attackers frequently replace recovery details and set up mail delegation or hidden forwarding rules to maintain long-term control. The recommended sequence prioritizes session revocation first, followed by password change, MFA review, and recovery data verification to prevent re-entry via forgotten-password flows.
86% of Large Russian Companies Use or Pilot LLMs While Autonomous AI Agents Remain Rare in Production
A joint study by Infosystems Jet and Smart Ranking reveals that 86% of major Russian organizations are already deploying or testing large language models, with 53% having moved generative AI solutions into full production. Adoption drops sharply for more autonomous systems: only 15% run semi-autonomous AI agents in production, while fully autonomous and multi-agent setups reach just 8% each. The primary barriers are not model availability but insufficient process maturity, data infrastructure readiness, and integration complexity, cited by 44% of respondents. Additional obstacles include server costs (58%), legal risks (56%), budget limits (42%), and talent shortages (40%). Nearly half of surveyed companies report no measurable financial return from AI projects so far, highlighting the gap between pilot success and scalable value. The research covered 52 large firms employing roughly 450,000 people in total.
Russia to Enforce Smartphone Ban During School Lessons Starting September 2026
From September 1, 2026, Russian school students will be prohibited from using mobile phones during classes under a new ministerial order from the Ministry of Education. The restriction, already outlined in federal law, will be detailed by the order to specify its application in schools, according to Minister Sergey Kravtsov. Phones may only be used in emergencies, such as threats to life or health of students and teachers. Activities like messaging, gaming, social media access, or using AI tools for quick answers are explicitly not permitted. Schools retain flexibility on phone use during breaks, allowing individual institutions to set their own rules. The Ministry of Digital Development has confirmed no nationwide ban on social networks for minors is planned, leaving platforms like TikTok and Telegram accessible outside class hours.
Generative AI Cuts HR Department Sizes as Russian Job Market Sees Up to 19 Applicants per Vacancy
The Russian labor market for HR professionals has become significantly more competitive since the beginning of 2026. Job seekers have submitted over 520,000 resumes while employers posted only 66,000 openings. Data from hh.ru shows some positions receiving as many as 19 applications. In June, the number of HR vacancies dropped 34 percent year-over-year while the volume of resumes rose 17 percent. Market participants estimate that roughly one in three HR employees has lost their job over the past 18 months. Companies are simultaneously reducing management layers amid cooling business activity, and generative AI tools are accelerating the trend by automating up to 80 percent of routine recruiter tasks. More than one-third of employers already use digital tools that analyze resumes, conduct initial interviews, and deliver structured results, halving hiring times and prompting questions about the need for large HR teams.
Simple Bridge Panel Offers Self-Hosted Management for Xray and AmneziaWG Connections
A developer frustrated with shared-IP VPN services and growing configuration management overhead has released Simple Bridge Panel (SBP), a lightweight self-hosted interface for administering Xray and AmneziaWG on personal VPS instances. The panel installs on fresh Ubuntu 24.04 servers via a single command and provides one-click deployment of Xray TCP with REALITY, Xray XHTTP, and AmneziaWG, along with group-based access expiration and traffic accounting. It separates the web UI from a privileged local agent that communicates over a Unix socket, allowing controlled management of Docker containers, systemd services, and network routes without granting the interface full root access. Fixed versions of Xray 26.3.27, v2rayN 7.20.4, and v2rayNG 2.2.6 are bundled to avoid compatibility issues encountered with newer releases. Additional features include Whitelist Bypass routes, monthly traffic tracking stored only in SQLite, automatic rollback on failed updates, and QR-code or subscription link generation for clients. The project is published under Apache 2.0 and deliberately targets clean servers to minimize risk of interfering with existing configurations.
Avito Details Security Gates Implementation to Enforce Vulnerability Remediation Without Disrupting Developers
Alexander Trifanov, head of Application Security at Avito, shares a detailed case study on building security gates that block risky deployments while preserving developer experience. The approach relies on asynchronous scanning pipelines using SAST, SCA, secret detection, and YAML Security tools aggregated in ASOC or SOAR systems. Gates are placed at multiple lifecycle points including pre-receive hooks, CI/CD deployment stages, and manual unit-level overrides via a red-button mechanism. Strict false-positive management, deduplication, and emergency bypass controls are highlighted as essential for scalability across thousands of developers. The article covers pre-receive gating limited to ten-second scans, separate library update flows, and Kubernetes integration attempts with Kyverno. Avito reports that even unused red-button capabilities significantly improve SLA compliance without frequent enforcement actions.
SafeTech Lab Expands SafeTech CA with CDM Module for Automated Certificate Delivery and Renewal
SafeTech Lab has released a new module called CDM (Certificate Delivery Management) for its SafeTech CA platform. The update allows the certificate authority to not only issue digital certificates but also deliver them to endpoints, install them in required stores, and automatically renew them before expiration. Administrators can now manage agents centrally, eliminating the need for custom scripts or separate heavy PKI solutions. The system supports GOST algorithms and operates independently of domain infrastructure, functioning in isolated network segments without LDAP. Additional improvements include root and subordinate CA certificate rotation without breaking trust chains, web-based configuration management, and integration with HashiCorp Vault for centralized credential storage and rotation. Future plans focus on increasing agent autonomy through the web interface.
InfotecsTech Builds Custom Kubernetes-Based Traffic Generator for NGFW RnD and Performance Testing
InfotecsTech developed an in-house traffic generator to support development and testing of its high-performance NGFW cluster in active-active mode. The team rejected commercial solutions from IXIA and Xinertel due to high cost, insufficient flexibility for complex NGFW functions, and geopolitical restrictions. The resulting platform runs on Kubernetes with a master node managing Registry, Discovery, and Crux components while worker nodes host containerized generators. Supported generators include Cisco TRex for throughput and connection testing, SIPp for VoIP scenarios, pyftpdlib-based FTP generator, Yandex Tank with Nginx for live TLS traffic, and Selenium-based legitimate clients against OWASP Juice Shop. Practical scenarios cover VoIP call storms, maximum concurrent connections, 400 Gbit/s UDP throughput, 5 million CPS, and IMIX traffic at 300 Gbit/s with packet loss analysis. The system integrates Camunda for full automation of test scenarios and device configuration.
Why AI Chatbots Misread Polished Reports and How to Prepare AI-Ready Content
Beautifully designed reports often confuse AI systems because visual layout does not preserve logical relationships between elements. When design is stripped away, machines may lose connections between headings, numbers, tables, and footnotes, leading to incorrect interpretations of key facts such as revenue growth. The solution is to create AI Ready content that maintains structure, semantics, and context even after text extraction or copying. This approach aligns closely with web accessibility standards from W3C and benefits both human readers using assistive technologies and automated analysis tools. Organizations are advised to use tagged PDFs following PDF/UA and ISO 14289-2:2024, provide data in XLSX or CSV alongside visual charts, and ensure every important figure travels with its full context including period, unit, and comparison base. The same principles apply to presentations, press releases, websites, and multimedia content.
Statistical Analysis in OSINT: Tools, Methods and Real-World Intelligence Applications
The article explains why statistical processing has become an essential component of professional OSINT work when analysts face large volumes of raw data. It outlines five core tasks that statistical methods solve: actor profiling, disinformation monitoring through time-series and graph analysis, financial intelligence, geospatial verification, and threat assessment. The text compares popular tools including Maltego, Gephi, Python, R, Power BI, Tableau and SpiderFoot, stressing that real investigations usually combine several of them. Detailed examples show how Pearson correlation, Louvain clustering and TF-IDF or BERT embeddings help identify coordinated botnets in social media. Famous leaks such as Panama Papers and Pandora Papers are presented as landmark cases where regression models, cluster analysis and network graphs exposed hidden ownership structures. The piece also lists open statistical sources from national agencies, international organisations and technical platforms, and reviews key mathematical techniques from basic descriptive statistics to ARIMA, CUSUM, DBSCAN and dimensionality reduction methods.
Bot Traffic Overtakes Human Traffic in 2024 as AI Agents and Scrapers Surge
Analysis of internet traffic from 2013 to 2026 shows automated bots steadily eroding human dominance online. Imperva data reveals human traffic fell to 47 percent by 2025 while malicious bots reached 40 percent. Good bots such as search crawlers remain stable, but gray AI agents and scrapers now drive much of the growth. Companies face rising infrastructure costs from bot traffic that generates no revenue, described as an invisible tax. Cloudflare and Akamai reports confirm high volumes of automated requests, with many classified as harmful scraping. The trend raises concerns about a synthetic internet shaped more by AI recommendations than human activity.
Understanding Security Alerts Only Becomes Clear When You Start Writing Detection Rules Yourself
A cybersecurity professional who spent years as a SOC analyst reviewing alerts before moving into detection engineering shares key insights on why alerts behave differently depending on perspective. The article explains the inherent trade-offs in tuning detection rules, the architectural reasons alerts often arrive without full context, and why default priorities rarely match any single organization's environment. It highlights how false positives are not simply developer errors but calculated risks between coverage and noise. The piece also stresses the value of feedback loops between SOC teams and detection developers to improve overall security effectiveness.
NVIDIA Accelerates Physical AI Push with $500 Billion Infrastructure Plan at 2026 World Robot Conference
The 2026 World Robot Conference opened with 373 companies showcasing over 3,000 exhibits and more than 300 new products focused on embodied intelligence. NVIDIA is deepening its commitment to physical AI by partnering with Apollo, Blackstone, KKR and other major asset managers to create an independent financing platform targeting over $500 billion in third-party capital for AI infrastructure. Madison Huang, NVIDIA’s Senior Director of Physical AI and Robotics, visited the event to review advances in human data, simulation, and real-world deployment. The company is reframing compute resources as revenue-generating AI factories that produce tokens, simulation data, and action policies rather than treating them as cost centers. Humanoid robot development faces a critical bottleneck because high-fidelity physics simulation for millions of virtual agents demands enormous cloud compute, while sim-to-real transfer gaps and edge inference constraints remain unsolved engineering challenges.
Anthropic Releases Eight Claude Code Updates in August Focused on Multi-Agent Workflows
Between August 13 and 21, Anthropic shipped eight consecutive Claude Code releases from version 2.1.232 to 2.1.239. The updates center on enabling multiple long-running agents that can share context, communicate across sessions, and continue work automatically after hitting usage limits. Key additions include subagent forking that inherits prompt cache and conversation history, cross-session messaging via @mentions, and an automatic mode that uses a classifier model to approve actions. Additional improvements cover GitLab merge request integration, memory management fixes for extended sessions, and support for native add-ons in musl-based Alpine environments. The changes significantly expand the scale of tasks that can be delegated to Claude Code without constant human oversight.
Selectel Revenue Exceeds 10 Billion Rubles as Cloud Services Drive Growth Amid Rising Costs
Selectel reported revenue of 10.2 billion rubles for the first half of 2026, marking a 14 percent increase compared with the same period a year earlier. Cloud infrastructure services remained the primary growth engine, contributing 8.9 billion rubles or 87 percent of total revenue. The customer base expanded by 14,400 clients over twelve months to reach 44,500, with smaller customers fueling much of the increase through new VDS configurations. Professional services showed the fastest consumption growth at 1.4 times, while financial and IT sectors raised infrastructure spending by 1.3 times. Adjusted EBITDA rose only 3 percent to 5.4 billion rubles, lowering its margin from 59 percent to 53 percent, and net profit stayed nearly flat at 1.9 billion rubles with margin declining from 21 percent to 18 percent. Operating expenses jumped 23 percent to 4.7 billion rubles, driven mainly by payroll costs that accounted for 65 percent of the total. The company invested 6.4 billion rubles in development, including 4.4 billion rubles on server equipment, a 1.8-fold increase, while expanding GPU purchases for AI workloads despite higher component prices, resulting in negative free cash flow of 3.4 billion rubles and a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.1.
Russian Backup Market Hits 10.6 Billion Rubles as Domestic Solutions Reach 70% Share
The Russian market for backup solutions grew 18.5% in 2025 to reach 10.6 billion rubles, outpacing the overall infrastructure software segment which expanded 16%. Domestic vendors increased their share from 19% in 2021 to 70% in 2025, with analysts from Strategy Partners forecasting further growth to 92% by 2030 and a market size of 24 billion rubles. Cyberprotect maintains the leading position with its Cyber Backup product, while Astra Group’s RuBackup is noted as another significant offering. The company itself estimates the market at approximately 12 billion rubles and claims a 56% share. Competition is shifting from feature lists toward compatibility with Russian virtualization platforms, databases, Kubernetes environments, storage systems, and monitoring tools. The broader infrastructure software market reached 158 billion rubles in 2025, with Russian developers holding 68% compared to just 8% four years earlier.
Google Issues Clear 2026 Guidance: No Separate SEO for AI Overviews or AI Mode
Google has published dedicated documentation clarifying that optimization for generative search features remains standard SEO. The company stresses that pages must be crawlable, indexable, relevant to user intent, and contain reliable information that the system can extract and synthesize. While classic ranking still applies, generative systems now evaluate pages across multiple stages including retrieval, fact extraction, cross-referencing, and citation decisions. Google explicitly rejects the need for llms.txt files, special AI-oriented Schema markup, or content rewritten specifically for language models. Instead, the focus is on non-commodity content that provides unique data, concrete metrics, and genuine user value. The guidance also warns against scaled content abuse and doorway-style pages created solely to capture long-tail AI-generated queries.
Wildberries and Ozon to Accept Digital Rubles from September 1, 2026
Major Russian marketplaces Wildberries and Ozon will begin accepting digital rubles for purchases starting September 1, 2026. Ozon plans to introduce the new payment option first in a testing phase alongside bank cards and other methods before gradually rolling it out to all customers. Wildberries confirmed it will comply with requirements from the Bank of Russia and existing regulations without providing further details. From the same date, major banks must enable clients to open digital wallets, transfer funds, and pay for goods through their regular banking apps connected to the Central Bank platform. Operations with digital rubles will remain free for citizens. The rollout is mandatory for large merchants with annual revenue exceeding 120 million rubles that are served by major banks, with smaller businesses facing obligations in subsequent years based on revenue thresholds.
Positive Technologies Wraps Up Third Positive Hack Camp with 81 Students from 20 Countries
Positive Technologies has completed the third edition of its international Positive Hack Camp cybersecurity training program. More than 80 students from 20 countries traveled to Moscow at their own expense to receive intensive instruction in ethical hacking and information security. The two-week program featured 30 practical sessions delivered by experts from Positive Technologies and invited instructors from Lebanon. Participants studied attack modeling, network traffic analysis, privilege escalation in web applications, operating system security, and reverse engineering of complex devices. The camp also included cultural activities and concluded with examinations where all students passed and received diplomas. The initiative aims to strengthen global cyber resilience and build an international community of white hackers, with previous participants already contributing to national cybersecurity efforts in Algeria.
Rubytech Tests Russian LLM Cotype 3 on Chinese GPUs Matching NVIDIA H100 Performance
Rubytech has successfully tested the Russian large language model Cotype 3 developed by MWS AI on Chinese graphics accelerators instead of NVIDIA hardware. The trials took place on the Skala^r AI machine software-hardware complex and demonstrated stable operation with inference performance comparable to configurations using NVIDIA H100 GPUs. Eight Chinese GPUs were used in the test system, delivering an average first-token generation time of about 8 seconds and inter-token latency between 111 ms when processing 27,000-token contexts. Engineers adapted drivers, software environments, and orchestration tools, achieving up to 2-2.2 times faster performance in certain scenarios compared to the standard Chinese GPU setup. The results indicate that corporate AI infrastructure can be built without mandatory reliance on NVIDIA accelerators, which is particularly relevant for government agencies, state-owned companies, and critical information infrastructure organizations requiring localized model deployment and controlled scaling. Rubytech also noted potential reductions in total cost of ownership with Chinese GPUs, although the company emphasized this is an additional option rather than a complete replacement for NVIDIA solutions.
Can the Moon Be DDoSed? Exploring Future Cybersecurity Challenges for Lunar Bases
A speculative analysis examines whether DDoS attacks could target a lunar base in 2036, highlighting how Earth-based internet protocols would fail over the 384,000 km distance. The piece details NASA’s LunaNet architecture and Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) that uses store-and-forward mechanisms to handle long delays and link disruptions. It explains why traditional volumetric attacks would be limited by narrow space communication channels while resource-exhaustion attacks on orbital relays and DTN nodes could prove more effective. The analysis contrasts Earth’s redundant routing with the Moon’s few irreplaceable links and emphasizes that attacking ground control centers might be more practical than flooding lunar hardware. It concludes that any real lunar network will inherit familiar terrestrial bottlenecks despite its exotic setting.
Central Bank of Russia Confirms Digital Ruble Will Be Free for Citizens with No Commissions
The Bank of Russia has announced that all operations with the digital ruble will be completely free of charge for individual citizens. Director of the National Payment Systems Department Alla Bakina stated that transfers and payments for private users will incur zero commissions. Businesses will still face fees, but the regulator promises they will be minimal and lower than standard bank rates for similar transactions. Starting 1 September, Russians will be able to open digital ruble wallets through mobile apps of systemically important banks and other payment-significant credit institutions. A dedicated button with the new currency logo will appear on the main screen of these applications. Payments will be made via a special QR code that buyers scan in their banking app before selecting the digital ruble wallet and confirming the transaction. Large retail chains with annual revenue exceeding 120 million rubles must begin accepting digital ruble payments from September, with the requirement later expanding to smaller merchants. The Bank of Russia emphasizes that the digital ruble represents a third form of the national currency alongside cash and bank deposits, available for voluntary use by citizens.
Power Outage at Major Russian Telecom Node Disrupts Reg.ru Services and Affects Runet Nationwide
A large-scale power failure at a key communication node in Russia caused widespread disruptions to internet services on August 17. Hosting provider and domain registrar Reg.ru experienced a major outage, preventing users from accessing its main website and personal accounts. Multiple sites relying on Reg.ru infrastructure also went down or became unstable, with evidence pointing to problems with DNS servers responsible for translating domain names into network addresses. Users reported simultaneous issues with banking apps, messengers, social networks, and other Russian online resources, though it remains unclear whether all incidents stemmed directly from the Reg.ru-related problems. Reg.ru stated that the issue originated outside its own infrastructure due to electricity supply problems at the major node. The company expressed hope for quick restoration but provided no details on the incident's full scale or recovery timeline at the time of reporting.
Yandex Maps Adds Upcoming Speed Limits and Camera Direction Details to Navigation
Yandex Maps has updated its navigation mode to display speed restrictions on upcoming road segments along the entire route. Drivers can now see a sequence of limits in advance, such as 80 km/h followed by 60 km/h after an interchange and then 40 km/h. The application also provides more detailed information about the two nearest traffic cameras, including the specific lane they target and whether they monitor oncoming or same-direction traffic. Voice alerts now warn users when a camera measures speed after the vehicle has already passed it. Pilot testing showed positive effects on speed limit compliance. The changes aim to make urban and highway driving more predictable by removing the need to guess restrictions or camera focus ahead.
Kaspersky Releases Corporate Version of Kaspersky Password Manager for Mid-Size and Large Organizations
Kaspersky has introduced a business edition of Kaspersky Password Manager designed for centralized credential management across medium and large enterprises. The solution generates complex passwords, stores them in encrypted vaults, and audits existing credentials for strength and exposure in data leaks. Employees only need to remember a single master password while the platform also supports storage of TOTP tokens, passkeys, corporate documents, and payment card details. Administrators gain tools to enforce password policies centrally and apply role-based access controls. Supporting statistics from Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence show widespread password reuse and simplicity, with 37 percent of users merely changing letter case when recycling passwords. The company links these habits to real risk, noting that credential compromise initiated one quarter of attacks against organizations in 2025.
GitHub Experiences Major Global Outage Affecting API, Actions, Copilot and Multiple Core Services
On August 17, GitHub suffered a widespread outage that impacted nearly all major platform functions including the web interface, API, Issues, Pull Requests, Actions, Webhooks, Pages, Git Operations, and Copilot. Approximately 20% of requests to the site and API failed during peak impact, with archive and raw repository content loads reaching around 50% error rates. Corporate authentication mechanisms such as SAML and OIDC, along with SCIM and Team Sync services, were also disrupted while Codespaces remained operational. The incident began around 13:40 UTC with progressive degradation across components, prompting GitHub to identify and mitigate the root cause. Services are gradually recovering but error rates remain slightly elevated, and the incident has not yet been fully closed. Parallel issues were reported in other Microsoft services including Teams and Copilot, with unconfirmed speculation linking the event to Amazon Web Services network problems.
SASTAV and ARX ASPM PLATFORM Integrate Static Code Analysis with Application Security Risk Management
Russian developers ShiftLeft Security and ARX Security have ensured compatibility between the SASTAV SAST solution and the ARX ASPM PLATFORM. The integration allows static analysis of source code to be launched and configured directly from the ASPM platform interface. For each project, specialists can select repositories and branches, form rule sets, set scanning parameters, and establish quality gates that determine whether a product can be released with detected defects. Risk acceptance procedures are also configured within the same interface. SASTAV handles static code analysis, enabling creation and editing of rules, assignment of different check sets to individual repositories, and management of scanning parameters. ARX ASPM PLATFORM serves as a unified center for managing AppSec tools, collecting results from various analyzers, correlating related findings, assessing risks, and displaying the overall security posture of digital products. Both solutions leverage artificial intelligence at different stages: SASTAV uses it for defect verification, automatic triage, prioritization, and code change recommendations, while the ARX AI assistant determines defect statuses. The combined system reduces manual operations, accelerates DevSecOps project onboarding, and lowers the burden on AppSec teams.
GPT-4 Boosts Skilled Kenyan Entrepreneurs by 15% Profit While Costing Unprepared Businesses 10% in Six-Month Study
A six-month experiment conducted by researchers from UC Berkeley, Harvard, and Columbia University examined how access to a GPT-4-based AI advisor affected small business owners in Kenya. The most skilled participants increased profits by 15 percent by adapting model recommendations to local conditions such as power outages, while less prepared entrepreneurs lost around 10 percent of revenue by applying generic advice without verification. The study highlights that the core issue lies not in the technology itself but in users abandoning critical thinking when interacting with generative AI. Earlier findings from Dickinson College showed that 97 percent of participants copied an obviously incorrect ChatGPT answer on a simple task, whereas the group without AI performed better. A simple reminder to double-check results immediately doubled accuracy. Analysis of 1.4 million KPMG work sessions revealed that 95 percent of users treat AI like a vending machine by taking the first output, while only 5 percent engage it as a thinking partner by providing context and challenging responses. The results indicate that merely granting employees access to AI tools reveals little about actual effectiveness without considering skill levels and task-specific oversight.
How to Submit Documents for Online Master's Programs via Gosuslugi: Complete Guide
The admission campaign for online master's programs at partner universities is nearing its end, with less than a month remaining for applicants. Yandex Practicum provides a detailed walkthrough on using the Gosuslugi super service to submit applications entirely online without visiting admissions offices in person. The process covers selecting programs at institutions such as ITMO and MEPhI, uploading required documents like diplomas and passports, and tracking application status through a personal account. Specific deadlines are outlined for 2026, including final document submission dates in late August for programs in areas like DevOps, AI solutions, and cybersecurity. Additional steps include arranging entrance exams, signing contracts remotely, and accessing state-supported education loans at a 3% interest rate. Common pitfalls such as unverified accounts or unreadable document scans are highlighted to help applicants avoid delays.
Claude AI Manages San Francisco Store and Fires Employee for Repeated Tardiness
In an experiment run by Andon Labs, the AI model Claude was given real managerial authority over store employees in San Francisco who worked under actual employment contracts. Claude ultimately decided to terminate one worker after the employee arrived late for 17 out of 23 shifts. The model initially recommended only an official warning, but proceeded with dismissal following guidance from a human Andon Labs manager who highlighted the repeated issues. Over five months the store’s balance dropped from $100,000 to $61,200, showing that the AI learned to enforce attendance rules before it learned to protect revenue. One remaining employee, Felix Carson, described working under the AI as nauseating and said he continued only because he needed the income. Andon Labs founder Lucas Petersson viewed the trial as an important step toward wider AI supervision of human workers. The case also illustrates that ultimate responsibility remains with humans even when an algorithm issues the final decision.
IDC Publishes First China APA Market Share Report Highlighting RPA Veterans Leading Agentic Automation
IDC has released its inaugural China Agentic Process Automation market report for 2025, marking the first official tracking of the emerging APA sector. The report values the Chinese APA market at approximately 2.15 billion RMB, with product revenue at 1.62 billion RMB and services at 530 million RMB. Leading vendors include Yisaiqi, Jinzhiwei, and Laiye Technology, all long-established RPA players now extending their platforms with agentic capabilities. APA introduces governance layers that allow AI agents to perceive environments, orchestrate tasks, and execute autonomously while maintaining auditability and compliance. Case studies from clients such as Jiage Food and Zhongtian Technology demonstrate significant efficiency gains, including 80 percent process improvements and annual cost savings exceeding one million RMB. The transition from traditional RPA to APA enables handling of non-standard, dynamic workflows that previously required constant human intervention.
sing-box Fork Expands from Desktop VPN Launcher to Android and Router Deployments
The sing-box-lx fork has grown from a desktop-focused VPN engine into a cross-platform solution supporting Android and headless router deployments. Over 1,700 commits since June produced 24 stable 1.14 releases and dozens of specialized builds. New protocol support includes a full MASQUE CONNECT-IP outbound for Cloudflare WARP and a rigorously verified AmneziaWG 2.0 implementation matching 16 obfuscation parameters across three reference sources. Android adaptations introduced aggressive endpoint state management that reduced RSS by 31 percent and CPU load by 80 percent while fixing long-standing TCP dial timeouts inherited from gVisor. The new lxd headless daemon exposes gRPC observability and admin REST endpoints with mTLS, config validation, automatic rollback, and device-name mapping for OpenWrt deployments. All changes follow strict upstream discipline: minimal patches, regular rebases, reproducible builds, and real-device testing before stable tags.
Yandex Market Launches Click Delivery with 24-Hour Post-Payment for Clothing and Accessories
Yandex Market has introduced a new delivery option called click delivery with post-payment, allowing customers to receive orders, try on items at home, and have payment processed only after 24 hours for items they choose to keep. The service targets clothing, footwear, and accessories, eliminating the need to try items in crowded pickup points. Customers can order multiple sizes or models, inspect quality at their own pace, and return unwanted goods within one day without filing a separate request. Returns can be handed to a Yandex Lavka courier or dropped off at a Market pickup point, after which the remaining order is charged automatically. The feature is available only for items eligible for Split installment payments and when selecting click delivery with the "Pay after receipt" option. The service is currently live in 26 Russian regions with plans for further expansion, positioning it as a novel format for the Russian market.
Russian Businesses Surge Chinese LLM Usage More Than 11-Fold in First Half of 2026
Russian companies have dramatically increased their consumption of Chinese large language models, with total token usage reaching over 400 billion in the first half of 2026. This represents an 11.3-fold increase compared to the full-year 2025 figure of 39.1 billion tokens. The Qwen family maintained its dominant position, accounting for 261.1 billion tokens and 59.1% of consumption during the period. GLM secured second place with 91.2 billion tokens and 20.7% share, while Kimi overtook DeepSeek for third position at 81.4 billion tokens and 18.4%. MWS Cloud data shows that major enterprises are now integrating these models into production workflows such as chatbots, personalized advertising, customer outreach, product descriptions, and review analysis. The overall Russian LLM market is projected to grow 35% to 19.6 billion rubles in 2026, with the cloud segment approaching 1.5 billion rubles. MWS Cloud has nearly doubled its Model Hub catalog to 17 models, adding GLM 5.2, Kimi K2.6, Qwen3.6, Gemma 4, GPT OSS, plus speech recognition, synthesis tools, and rerankers accessible via a unified OpenAI-compatible API.
Building a Minimal Open Source Security Stack for Infrastructure Protection
The article outlines a practical approach to assembling a basic cybersecurity stack using open source tools for organizations with limited budgets. It covers endpoint protection with ClamAV, network perimeter defense via pfSense including Snort and Suricata integration, centralized logging with ELK Stack or Wazuh, and identity management through Keycloak. The guide emphasizes that these solutions provide foundational capabilities but require careful configuration, regular updates, and community validation to avoid risks from unmaintained projects. Detailed installation steps, rule configuration examples, and integration advice are provided for each component. The author stresses that open source options serve as an entry point rather than a full replacement for commercial platforms like Kaspersky or Symantec.
Telegram Experiences Outage in Kazakhstan as International Peering Points Show Traffic Drop
Users across Kazakhstan reported widespread issues accessing Telegram, with the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development confirming the problems. Monitoring data revealed a sharp decline in Telegram traffic at major international peering points in Frankfurt and Moscow, while Kazakhtelecom reported no internal network faults, outages, or disruptions within its infrastructure. The operator confirmed that its systems continue operating normally and has contacted Telegram's technical team for clarification on the root cause. No information is yet available regarding the exact scale of the outage, affected regions within Kazakhstan, or expected recovery timeline. Separately, authorities noted that a database allegedly containing personal data of approximately 15 million Kazakh residents, or about three-quarters of the population, has been offered for sale on a shadow forum.
Russian Researchers Achieve First Qubit Operations on Planar Ion Traps
Scientists from Rosatom’s Quantum project have for the first time in Russia performed qubit operations using planar ion traps. The technology replaces traditional three-dimensional electromagnetic traps with flat electrode chips that can hold more than 100 ions while integrating optical readout components. Two independent teams demonstrated the approach: one at the Physical Institute of RAS led by Ilya Semerikov using ytterbium-171 ions, and another at the Quantum Center under Kirill Lakhmansky using calcium ions. Both groups successfully captured, moved, and performed single-qubit gates on the trapped ions. Rosatom views the planar architecture as a key step toward scalable industrial ion-trap quantum computers capable of solving practical problems. The teams now aim to advance from individual operations to high-fidelity, multi-zone systems with over 100 controllable qubits by 2030.
OSINT for the Lazy Part 17: Versatile Framework Acts as Swiss Army Knife for Investigators
The article continues the series on tools for lazy OSINT practitioners by reviewing a multifunctional online toolkit hosted at htdark.com. This minimalistic yet powerful platform aggregates data across usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, cryptocurrency, social networks, and media files. It wraps Censys search capabilities into a more convenient interface while adding features such as JSON report export and basic relationship graphing. The tool checks 20 social platforms including Reddit and Spotify but omits Chinese and Russian resources, marking absent accounts in red and requiring manual verification for others. An Advanced section functions as a dork builder supporting Baidu and Naver with time-range filters and exclusion operators. While no single toolkit replaces specialized solutions, this framework provides broad initial visibility and helps analysts choose focused follow-up directions based on accumulated data rather than random checks.
AS2 in .NET Without Separate Java Gateway: Native EDI Exchange Directly in Application Routes
redb.Route.AS2 introduces native AS2 protocol support for .NET applications, eliminating the need for separate commercial gateways or Java-based servers like OpenAS2. The library integrates AS2 handling as a standard step in Apache Camel-style routes, allowing signed and encrypted S/MIME exchanges with partners such as Walmart directly within a single .NET process. It supports both synchronous and asynchronous MDN receipts for non-repudiation, using MimeKit and Bouncy Castle for cryptography. Developers can configure partners via As2ConnectionFactory objects that define certificates, AS2 identifiers, algorithms, and MDN modes. The solution handles X12 and EDIFACT documents with compression, signing, and encryption while exposing metadata like MIC values and signature validation results to the routing pipeline. This approach consolidates deployment, observability, and processing compared to external gateways or JVM processes.
Browser Policy Manager 0.9.5 Release Candidate Adds Comprehensive Multi-Language Documentation Portal
Browser Policy Manager (BPM) is approaching its 1.0.0 release as an open-source tool designed for preparing, validating, and exporting Firefox Enterprise policy profiles. The 0.9.5 update introduces four current Firefox schema channels including Release 153, ESR 153.0, ESR 140.13, and ESR 115.38, along with migration assistance from older ESR versions. A full documentation portal built in DITA now ships with the product, covering user guides, Firefox policy references, CIS benchmark mappings, and administrator instructions across six languages. The portal integrates directly with the BPM interface through manifests and UI target maps, providing contextual help without server dependencies. Local search uses static indexes with deterministic ranking, while future RAG capabilities are planned with strict source verification and no model training on documentation. The project emphasizes reproducible builds, locale completeness checks, and clear separation between automated mappings and manual compliance validation.
Same-Origin Policy and CORS: How Browsers Enforce Web Security Boundaries
The article explains the core browser security mechanism known as Same-Origin Policy that prevents scripts from one website from reading data belonging to another. It details how origin is defined strictly by protocol, domain, and port, and why this matters for everyday web interactions such as banking sessions. The text clarifies that the policy blocks reading of cross-origin responses while still allowing loading of images, scripts, and iframes. CORS is presented as the controlled relaxation of this rule, where the target server explicitly grants permission via response headers. The piece emphasizes that CORS does not protect servers from direct requests made outside browsers and that authentication remains the true defense for APIs. Multiple practical examples illustrate the difference between displaying foreign content and programmatically reading its data.
Security Vision 5 Strengthens Connectors, Analytics and Data Handling Features
Security Vision has released an update to its SV5 platform focused on improved integrations, deeper analytics and more flexible configuration management. The release introduces namespace configuration for the WMI connector to execute WQL queries at specified addresses, along with event compression during transmission in connector configurations. An updated librdkafka library now enables the Kafka connector to support SASL/SCRAM authentication for Kafka versions 4.0.0 and higher. Data transformation capabilities have been expanded to allow conversion of numbers between binary, octal and hexadecimal numeral systems, while the Formula transformation adds abs() and sqrt() functions. Linear and bar charts receive new scaling settings, and report generation through the portal has been moved to asynchronous mode to prevent interface freezing during long exports. Additional changes affect object cards, type and directory editors, module settings, graph icon management with mapping conditions converted to filters, and a dedicated section for correlation rules with a general view and editor. The audit log now records grouping changes separately for system and user directories, and the platform blocks execution of disabled connectors through workflows.
Building Secure MLOps Platforms in Air-Gapped Environments for DevOps Engineers
The article explains how DevOps engineers can construct a minimal yet complete MLOps platform inside a closed, air-gapped network without relying on any cloud services. It highlights the cultural gap between data scientists and DevOps teams and shows how MLOps practices such as data versioning, experiment tracking, and model registries bridge that gap. The architecture separates GPU training nodes from a Kubernetes serving cluster and uses open-source components including ArgoCD for GitOps, MLflow with PostgreSQL, MinIO, DVC, OpenBao, and External Secrets Operator. Special attention is given to secrets management with SOPS and age keys, image scanning with Trivy and Bandit, and secure Docker access via socket proxy on the training server. The setup avoids Kubeflow and HashiCorp Vault due to complexity and licensing concerns, favoring lighter, license-friendly alternatives suitable for isolated perimeters.
How the Modern Web and HTTPS Emerged from Simple Two-Computer Networks
The article traces the evolution of internet infrastructure from two friends connecting PCs with twisted-pair cable and assigning IP addresses to the global system of DNS, routing, and public-key certificates. It explains how early local networks expanded with switches, always-on servers, and domain names to solve the problem of changing IP addresses. As networks grew and interconnected through routers and ISPs, new risks of eavesdropping and traffic redirection appeared on open paths. The solution introduced centralized certificate authorities such as the fictional Sectigo that issue chained certificates rooted in pre-installed trust stores. The piece details the structure of certificates, key pairs, signing chains, and the browser validation process that enables encrypted HTTPS sessions. Written in accessible language with deliberate simplifications, the text serves as an educational overview rather than a technical manual.
Russian Neighbors Fined Over 200,000 Rubles for Defamatory Remarks in Apartment Building Chat as Supreme Court Upholds Ruling
Two women who participated in a shared apartment building chat have been ordered to pay more than 200,000 rubles in total after a court found their messages about a neighbor to be defamatory. The case began when residents complained about noisy tenants and escalated into mutual insults exchanged in the group chat, via SMS, and during phone calls. The apartment owner filed a lawsuit for protection of honor and dignity after police found no administrative violation in his actions as landlord. A linguistic expert determined that several public messages, while free of direct profanity, contained derogatory characterizations and implications of mental illness that could not be considered acceptable value judgments. The court awarded more than 100,000 rubles against one defendant and a slightly smaller sum against the second, taking into account the plaintiff's own conduct during the conflict. All appeals were rejected, including by the Supreme Court, establishing that even indirect humiliating statements about an identifiable person in a building chat can result in substantial financial liability.
Samara University Study Shows Social Ties Maintain Order in Minecraft Virtual Cities
Researchers from Samara University examined how player-run cities in Minecraft sustain order without heavy reliance on formal rules or enforcement mechanisms. Olga Udalova conducted eight interviews with virtual mayors and surveyed 246 players across multiple communities. The study found that dense social connections, personal reputation, and informal authority of mayors play a far greater role than written regulations. In some cities detailed norms exist while others operate with minimal rules, simply requiring players to act reasonably. A notable example is Boostergrad, a semi-anarchic community of 117 residents where griefing is formally permitted yet rarely occurs because reputational damage outweighs any short-term gain. Residents resolve conflicts through negotiation and voluntarily compensate for damage, as illustrated by one player who paid 2000 units of in-game currency after accidentally destroying another’s loot. Overall the research demonstrates that trust and social networks, rather than fear of punishment, keep these virtual societies stable.
Why Automation Alone Fails to Improve SOC Efficiency: The Case for Managed Operational Models
Mature security infrastructure does not guarantee protection against cyber threats, as attacks can still cause downtime, crisis recovery, and financial damage even when key controls are deployed. Automation of routine tasks helps speed up responses but cannot raise SOC effectiveness without clear decision criteria, defined responsibilities, and repeatable incident-handling processes. Organizations using an average of 83 security tools from 29 vendors face fragmentation that automation alone cannot resolve. A managed SecOps model covering the full incident lifecycle—from detection and prioritization through investigation, response, closure, and post-incident improvement—is required. Positive Technologies highlights that SecOps platforms such as MaxPatrol 360 provide the unified environment needed to link context, processes, coordination, automation, metrics, and continuous improvement.
Building a Minimalist UI Test Framework with Playwright and Pytest
Vladislav Timashenkov from InfoWatch presents a practical approach to constructing a concise UI automation testing framework using Playwright. The article focuses on leveraging native Playwright features instead of creating additional abstraction layers. It covers launching a Chromium browser once per session, handling authentication via API calls to obtain cookies, and managing isolated BrowserContext instances for test independence. Readers learn how to implement Page Object models that rely on Playwright's built-in locators and auto-waiting mechanisms. The tutorial includes real code examples for fixtures, context factories, and a sample test for tag management functionality. This method reduces maintenance overhead while ensuring tests remain scalable across different environments.
Russia Develops Domestic ERA-GLONASS System for Public Transport Tracking During GPS and GLONASS Disruptions
AO GLONASS has created a national system that maintains real-time monitoring of buses and trolleybuses even when satellite navigation signals are jammed or lost. The solution relies on the state-run ERA-GLONASS platform, placing autonomous markers at stops and identifiers on vehicles to record exact positions without depending on GPS or GLONASS. Data is transmitted over a protected ERA-GLONASS communication channel that remains available during mobile internet restrictions thanks to inclusion in official white lists. The first deployment begins in Kaluga on 1 September, covering three trolleybus routes with live tracking for passengers, dispatchers, carriers, and mapping services. The battery-powered markers are designed for five years of maintenance-free operation in any weather and are built entirely with Russian components and encryption algorithms. Future plans include extending the technology to municipal vehicles and emergency services fleets.
OSINT for the Lazy Part 16: Discovering Hidden Corporate Infrastructure Through Shodan
The article explains how Shodan differs from traditional search engines by indexing internet-connected devices such as servers, routers, cameras, databases, and admin panels rather than web pages. It provides ten practical search techniques including hostname queries, SSL certificate searches, ASN lookups, IP range scans, and targeted queries for development environments, admin panels, and databases. Examples demonstrate how forgotten dev.company.com or staging.company.com hosts, open Jenkins or Grafana dashboards, and exposed MongoDB or Redis instances can be located with simple filters. The piece walks through a five-step real-world workflow that combines domain, SSL, organization, and service-title searches to map a target company’s infrastructure. It emphasizes that Shodan only reveals services already exposed to the internet and does not perform any exploitation. Common root causes listed include forgotten test servers, rushed DevOps configurations, and misconfigured firewalls. The article concludes with a reminder that many organizations remain unaware their internal systems are visible to anyone using the same techniques.
Rostelecom Outage Triggers 29-Minute Mass Disruptions Across Russian Internet Services
A 29-minute failure in Rostelecom's data transmission network on August 6 caused widespread access problems to Russian online services. The operator quickly rerouted traffic to backup equipment, restoring normal operations without revealing the root cause. Users reported issues connecting to marketplaces, banks, social platforms, IT company services and other telecom providers. The majority of complaints originated from Rostelecom's own subscribers who experienced connection and service access failures. Although the incident remained brief and did not escalate into prolonged digital disruption, it highlighted the heavy reliance on a single major provider. The event demonstrated how even a short technical problem at a large operator can simultaneously affect access to stores, financial services and everyday online platforms.
Read-Only Utility Automates Detailed Audits of UserGate NGFW Firewall Policies
A cybersecurity specialist at Gazprom CPS developed a read-only utility to analyze large-scale UserGate NGFW firewall policies without making any configuration changes. The tool connects via the UserGate XML-RPC API to collect rules, statistics, zones, network lists, services, users, and groups, then normalizes the data into a unified model for analysis. It performs eleven independent checks grouped into lifecycle, overly permissive access, observability, and documentation categories, flagging rules that have not fired recently, allow management ports broadly, lack logging, or have empty descriptions. Results are exported to a navigable Excel report featuring a rules-by-checks matrix, human-readable object names, and editable manual verdicts such as OK, requires attention, or false positive. The first full run on a production policy with over 1000 rules and 4500 related objects took 24 minutes and highlighted 39 percent of rules for review, with more than half showing multiple red flags. The approach preserves the original snapshot in JSON for repeatable offline analysis and comparison over time.
Internet Outages Disrupt Access to Russian Websites and Applications Across Multiple Regions
Users in several Russian regions reported widespread connectivity problems where internet access appeared available but failed to load most domestic websites and online services. Affected areas include Saint Petersburg along with Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, and Tyumen regions according to reports compiled by the Telegram channel Baza. Connections remained technically active yet produced repeated errors when attempting to reach Russian sites, mobile applications, and web-based platforms. The precise scale of the disruption remains undetermined and it is unclear whether the incidents stem from a single technical fault or simultaneous failures among multiple network operators. No official statements have been issued regarding the root causes or expected restoration timelines. Individuals affected continue to refresh pages and restart applications while waiting for services to recover.
Step-Up Authentication vs 2FA: Implementing Additional Verification for Sensitive Operations in Corporate Systems
Traditional two-factor authentication secures only the initial login, leaving active sessions vulnerable to misuse during sensitive tasks such as accessing payroll data. Step-Up Authentication addresses this by requiring extra verification at the moment of critical actions rather than at login. The article details how one project moved beyond standard Identity Provider features in WSO2 by building a dedicated PIN-code service and gateway-2fa microservice. This approach uses signed cookies with TTL controls and JWT cross-checks to enforce elevated trust levels without disrupting normal user flows. The solution aligns with Zero Trust principles and was monitored via Matomo and ELK for usage and performance metrics. Key implementation considerations include balancing TTL duration, encrypting stored PINs, and conducting load testing before deployment.