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AI Is The 21st Century Force Multiplier

Ease see my latest Forbes article and have a great weekend! Chuck Brooks by Chuck Brooks.

#artificialIntelligence #ai #future #tech Forbes

AI is redefining power, productivity, security, and sovereignty. Dual-use, convergent, and autonomous AI is the 21st-century force multiplier. Not only is technology advancing, but civilization is about to change.

The 1956 Dartmouth Conference invented the term “artificial intelligence.” Alan Turing and other pioneers shaped the conceptualization of AI. The first systems used symbolic logic and determinism. Certain expert systems excelled but struggled in dynamic, uncertain environments. Fragility, computational capacity, and data accessibility caused “AI winters.”

UAT-10027 Targets U.S. Education and Healthcare with Dohdoor Backdoor

A previously undocumented threat activity cluster has been attributed to an ongoing malicious campaign targeting education and healthcare sectors in the U.S. since at least December 2025.

The campaign is being tracked by Cisco Talos under the moniker UAT-10027. The end goal of the attacks is to deliver a never-before-seen backdoor codenamed Dohdoor.

“Dohdoor utilizes the DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) technique for command-and-control (C2) communications and has the ability to download and execute other payload binaries reflectively,” security researchers Alex Karkins and Chetan Raghuprasad said in a technical report shared with The Hacker News.

Hoi1 targets BLTP2 to ER–PM contact sites to regulate lipid homeostasis

Samantha K. Dziurdzik, Vaishnavi Sridhar, Elizabeth Conibear et al. (University of British Columbia) identify a conserved adaptor that recruits BLTP2-like proteins to ER–plasma membrane contacts by binding helical projections on their lipid transfer channel to maintain lipid homeostasis.

MembraneContactSites.

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Two δ-catenins, plakophilin 4 and p120, promote formation of distinct types of adherens junctions

Indrajyoti Indra, Sergey M. Troyanovsky et al. (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine) show that two δ-catenins, p120 and plakophilin-4, promote distinct cadherin clustering modes, α-catenin–dependent and α-catenin–independent, respectfully, thereby generating different types of adherens junctions.

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Your car’s tire sensors could be used to track you

Researchers at IMDEA Networks Institute, together with European partners, have found that tire pressure sensors in modern cars can unintentionally expose drivers to tracking. Over a ten-week study, they collected signals from more than 20,000 vehicles, revealing a hidden privacy risk and highlighting the need for stronger security measures in future vehicle sensor systems.

Most modern cars are equipped with a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), mandatory since the late 2000s in many countries for their contribution to road safety. This system uses small sensors in each wheel to monitor tire pressure and sends wireless signals to the car’s computer to alert the driver if a tire is underinflated.

However, the researchers found that these tire sensors also send a unique ID number in clear, unencrypted wireless signals, meaning that anyone nearby with a simple radio receiver can capture the signal, and recognize the same car again later. Most vehicle tracking today uses cameras that need clear visibility and line-of-sight to a car. TPMS tracking is different: tire sensors automatically send radio signals that pass through walls and vehicles, allowing small hidden wireless receivers to capture them without being seen.

Better reporting is better science: Community-defined minimal reporting requirements for light microscopy

Accessible minimal requirements for reproducible light microscopy. This viewpoint from Paula Montero Llopis, Chloë van Oostende-Triplet, the QUAREP-LiMi consortium and colleagues presents a community-endorsed checklist defining minimal light microscopy metadata to improve rigor, reproducibility, and transparency in research.

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Clearing the path for turbulence-free quantum communication

A University of Ottawa team has developed a new way to protect free-space quantum key distribution (QKD) from atmospheric turbulence, one of the main causes of distortion and errors when sending quantum information through air. Their paper, “All-optical turbulence mitigation for free-space quantum key distribution using stimulated parametric down-conversion,” appears in the journal Optica.

Instead of relying on complex, expensive digital adaptive optics, the researchers use a nonlinear optical process called “stimulated parametric down-conversion (StimPDC).” The technique leverages StimPDC’s phase-conjugation property to correct spatial-mode distortions dynamically without requiring prior knowledge of the turbulent channel.

“We found the idea of using a fundamental optical process to correct the effects of turbulence in real time to be both innovative and largely unexplored,” said Aarón Cardoso, lead author and Quantum Optics Student Researcher at uOttawa. “Our results show we can reduce quantum error rates below the security threshold even under strong turbulence.”

Windows 11 KB5077241 update improves BitLocker, adds Sysmon tool

Microsoft has released the KB5077241 optional cumulative update for Windows 11, which comes with 29 changes, including improvements to BitLocker, a new network speed test tool, and native System Monitor (Sysmon) functionality.

KB5077241 is a preview update delivered at the end of each month that allows admins to test Windows bug fixes, new features, and improvements before they’re generally available during next month’s Patch Tuesday release. However, unlike Patch Tuesday cumulative updates, monthly non-security preview updates do not include security fixes and only roll out quality improvements.

With the February 2026 optional update, Microsoft has improved BitLocker reliability, ensuring devices no longer freeze after entering the recovery key, and introduced a built‑in network speed test for Ethernet, Wi‑Fi, and cellular connections in the Windows taskbar, which can be opened from the Wi‑Fi or Cellular Quick Settings, or by right-clicking the network icon in the system tray.

AI-Assisted Threat Actor Compromises 600+ FortiGate Devices in 55 Countries

With Fortinet appliances becoming an attractive target for threat actors, it’s essential that organizations ensure management interfaces are not exposed to the internet, change default and common credentials, rotate SSL-VPN user credentials, implement multi-factor authentication for administrative and VPN access, and audit for unauthorized administrative accounts or connections.

It’s also recommended to isolate backup servers from general network access, ensure all software programs are up-to-date, and monitor for unintended network exposure.

“As we expect this trend to continue in 2026, organizations should anticipate that AI-augmented threat activity will continue to grow in volume from both skilled and unskilled adversaries,” Moses said. “Strong defensive fundamentals remain the most effective countermeasure: patch management for perimeter devices, credential hygiene, network segmentation, and robust detection for post-exploitation indicators.”

Android mental health apps with 14.7M installs filled with security flaws

Several mental health mobile apps with millions of downloads on Google Play contain security vulnerabilities that could expose users’ sensitive medical information.

In one of the apps, security researchers discovered more than 85 medium-and high-severity vulnerabilities that could be exploited to compromise users’ therapy data and privacy.

Some of the products are AI companions designed to help people suffering from clinical depression, multiple forms of anxiety, panic attacks, stress, and bipolar disorder.

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