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If COBOL is so problematic, why does the US government still use it?

Matthew Busch for The Washington Post via Getty Images Some people think tens of millions of dead people are collecting Social Security checks. That's not true. What's really going on is people don't understand its old, underlying technology. The saga of 150-year-old Social Security recipients is a tale that intertwines aging technology, government systems, and modern misunderstandings by the youthful Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) IT people. At the heart of this story lies COBOL,

Sweden Investigates New Cable Break Under Baltic Sea

The European Union vowed on Friday to increase security in the Baltic Sea as the Swedish authorities said they were investigating a new cable break, the latest example of damage to underwater infrastructure in the region. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said it would take new steps to prevent and detect threats to submarine cables, which carry internet traffic and transmit electricity. The severing of several undersea cables in the Baltic Sea in recent months has raised conc

Launch HN: Massdriver (YC W22) – Self-serve cloud infra without the red tape

Hi HN! We’re Cory, Dave, and Chris, the founders of Massdriver ( https://www.massdriver.cloud/ ), an infrastructure automation platform. Massdriver enforces organizational standards and delivers consistent, compliant deployments—no more endless approvals, red tape, or broken Terraform plans. Here’s a demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6T5p0qXcFE&t=4s Infrastructure as Code (IaC) workflows were designed to help developers and work fine for small teams, but as organizations scale, they

Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row

Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row 10 minutes ago Zoe Kleinman • @zsk Technology editor Getty Images Apple is taking the unprecedented step of removing its highest level data security tool from customers in the UK, after the government demanded access to user data. Advanced Data Protection (ADP) means only account holders can view items such as photos or documents they have stored online through a process known as end-to-end encryption. But earlier this month th

Apple Says ‘No’ to UK Backdoor Order, Will Disable E2E Cloud Encryption Instead

Good work, Britain. Owners of Apple devices in the United Kingdom will be a little less safe moving forward as the company pulls its most secure end-to-end (E2E) encryption from the country. The move is in response to government demands there that Apple build a backdoor into its iCloud encryption feature that would allow law enforcement to access the cloud data of any iPhone user around the world. Apple has for many years marketed its products as being the most safe and secure personal electron

Dreo 6L Smart Humidifier Just Had Its Biggest Price Cut Ever, Only $72 on Amazon

Looking to combat dry air without the hassle of constant refills and confusing controls? Dreo’s latest humidifier is making waves with its powerful 500mL/hr output and smart features that actually work. This 6L beast combines warm and cool mist options with app control, making it a standout choice for keeping your space perfectly humid without turning it into a sauna. Right now, Amazon’s knocked the price down to $72 from its usual $90, saving you $18 (20% off). It’s a solid deal on a feature-p

Best Pet Insurance Companies for 2025

CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. Americans love their pets. Data from the Insurance Information Institute shows that 66% of US households -- roughly 86.9 million families -- own a pet. Yet only 5.7 million pets are enrolled in a pet insurance plan, a pet healthcare package designed to help you better afford vet costs. "As a veterinary surgeon and pet owner, I urge all my clients, friends,

More than 376,000 Tesla Model Y, Model 3s have faulty steering

Some Tesla owners have yet another thing to worry about. As sales crash in Europe and protests gather outside Tesla showrooms in the US as a result of the CEO's political engagement, it now emerges that more than 376,000 Model Y crossovers and Model 3 sedans are at risk for power steering failure. So far, it has resulted in more than 3,000 warranty claims and caused 570 crashes, according to Tesla and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Federal investigators have known about the

DeepSeek goes beyond “open weights” AI with plans for source code release

Last month, DeepSeek turned the AI world on its head with the release of a new, competitive simulated reasoning model that was free to download and use under an MIT license. Now, the company is preparing to make the underlying code behind that model more accessible, promising to release five open source repos starting next week. In a social media post late Thursday, DeepSeek said the daily releases it is planning for its "Open Source Week" would provide visibility into "these humble building bl

Apple Intelligence is coming to the Vision Pro

is a senior reporter focusing on wearables, health tech, and more with 13 years of experience. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine. Soon, you’ll be able to use Apple Intelligence with the Vision Pro. That includes a mix of features we’ve seen before, as well as a new feature called Create Memory Movie that’s exclusive to the headset. Apple has been keen to position the Vision Pro as a unique tool for viewing memories, and that’s the whole goal of the Create Memor

DeepSeek to open source parts of online services code

In Brief Chinese AI lab DeepSeek plans to open source portions of its online services’ code as part of an “open source week” event next week. DeepSeek will open source five code repositories that have been “documented, deployed and battle-tested in production,” the company said in a post on X on Thursday. Code repositories are storage locations for software development assets, and typically contain source code as well as configuration files and project documentation. “As part of the open-sou

The real reason why oil and gas companies are bullish on carbon capture

Two years ago, oil and gas company Occidental bought carbon capture startup Carbon Engineering. The transaction was hailed as a win-win: A climate tech company scored a significant exit, and a fossil fuel company gained a foothold in a sector that could be worth up to $150 billion by 2050. Now we have a better idea why Occidental was keen to pick up the pricey technology: They want to use it to pump more oil. Previously, the company had said it would use the technology to zero out its climate

The Vision Pro is getting Apple Intelligence in April

Apple Intelligence is heading to the Vision Pro, as part of an upcoming operating system update. Apple confirmed on Friday that its generative AI platform will arrive on the extended reality headset as part of VisionOS 2.4. A beta version of the software is currently available for developers. The public version is set for an April release Like the iPhone and Mac before it, the Vision Pro will receive Apple Intelligence updates in waves. The first set includes several familiar offerings, focused

This 1.9-pound smartphone battery life can be measured in months

Bottom line: Advances in battery technology combined with more efficient hardware and smarter software have allowed smartphones to reach impressive runtime milestones. To borrow a phrase from the automotive world, however, "there's no replacement for displacement" – meaning capacity is still king. The problem, of course, is that few want to lug around a handset with a giant battery just to get more uptime between charges… or at least, that's what most manufacturers believe. For those who priori

Together AI’s $305M bet: Reasoning models like DeepSeek-R1 are increasing, not decreasing, GPU demand

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More When DeepSeek-R1 first emerged, the prevailing fear that shook the industry was that advanced reasoning could be achieved with less infrastructure. As it turns out, that’s not necessarily the case. At least, according to Together AI, the rise of DeepSeek and open-source reasoning has had the exact opposite effect: Instead of reducing the need for infrastructure, it is

BritCSS: Fixes CSS to use non-American English

BritCSS Fixes CSS to use non-bastardised spellings Permits using English (traditional) spellings for CSS properties, rather than English (simplified). Because this is implemented with a client-side script. You can use this to properise the CSS of any page. Demo on CodePen Usage To use this script, simply include it in your HTML: < script src =" https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/DeclanChidlow/BritCSS/britcss.js " > </ script > To enter debug mode: britCSS . debug ( true ) ; To stop the script

TinyCompiler: A compiler in a week-end

TinyCompiler: a compiler in a week-end Introduction Have you ever wondered how a compiler works, but you never found courage to find out? Then this series of articles is for you. I have never had the chance to look under the hood either, but one week-end I have decided to to write a translator from the esoteric programming language wend (short for week-end), which I just invented myself, into regular GNU assembly. The goal is to keep the code as tiny as possible, 500-ish lines of python sounds

Reddit reportedly experienced some outages

is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Reddit experienced “international outages,” NetBlocks, a global internet monitor, said in a post Thursday evening, though it appears the outages have resolved. In that post, the organization said that the incident was “not related to country-level internet disruptions or filtering.” There was also a big spike of outage reports on Downdetector, with a peak of around 56,000 rep

This 1.9-pound smartphone's battery life is measured in months

Bottom line: Advances in battery technology combined with more efficient hardware and smarter software have allowed smartphones to reach impressive runtime milestones. To borrow a phrase from the automotive world, however, "there's no replacement for displacement" – meaning capacity is still king. The problem, of course, is that few want to lug around a handset with a giant battery just to get more uptime between charges… or at least, that's what most manufacturers believe. For those who priori

Explorers Discover First Pharaoh Tomb in Over 100 Years

A British-Egyptian team of researchers has discovered what it says is the first pharaoh's tomb in over a century. As the BBC reports, the team discovered the tomb of King Thutmose II in the Western valleys of the Theban Necropolis, near Luxor, Egypt. "It is an extraordinary moment for Egyptology and the broader understanding of our shared human story," said Egypt's minister of tourism and antiquities Sherif Fathy in a statement. It must've been an extremely moving moment for everybody involve

Invisible, autonomous and hackable: The AI agent dilemma no one saw coming

This article is part of VentureBeat’s special issue, “The cyber resilience playbook: Navigating the new era of threats.” Read more from this special issue here. Generative AI poses interesting security questions, and as enterprises move into the agentic world, those safety issues increase. When AI agents enter workflows, they must be able to access sensitive data and documents to do their job — making them a significant risk for many security-minded enterprises. “The rising use of multi-agent

AI vs. endpoint attacks: What security leaders must know to stay ahead

This article is part of VentureBeat’s special issue, “The cyber resilience playbook: Navigating the new era of threats.” Read more from this special issue here. Enterprises run the very real risk of losing the AI arms race to adversaries who weaponize large language models (LLMs) and create fraudulent bots to automate attacks. Trading on the trust of legitimate tools, adversaries are using generative AI to create malware that doesn’t create a unique signature but instead relies on fileless exe

Milliseconds to breach: How patch automation closes attackers’ fastest loophole

This article is part of VentureBeat’s special issue, “The cyber resilience playbook: Navigating the new era of threats.” Read more from this special issue here. Procrastinating about patching has killed more networks and damaged more companies than any zero-day exploit or advanced cyberattack. Complacency kills — and carries a high price. Down-rev (having old patches in place that are “down revision”) or no patching at all is how ransomware gets installed, data breaches occur and companies are

Apple TV+ announces release date for Murderbot, its next big sci-fi show

Apple TV+ has gained a strong reputation for its lineup of sci-fi shows, including its new most popular series ever: Severance. Now, the company has just announced the release date for its next big sci-fi show. It’s called Murderbot, and it hits Apple TV+ this spring. Murderbot premieres in May with first season Murderbot is a new Apple TV+ sci-fi comedic thriller based on the hit book series The Murderbot Diaries. It stars Alexander Skarsgård. Apple TV+ just announced that Murderbot’s 10-epi

Apple emerges as likely buyer for UFO disclosure film from ‘Top Gun’ producer

If aliens exist, Apple may be about to tell the origin story of how we found out… Deadline exclusively reports that Apple Original Films is the likely suitor for an upcoming movie centered around UFO disclosure. The untitled sci-fi (fiction, debatable) film is expected to focus on events in recent years around the U.S. government’s disclosure of previously classified footage of what is now called a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena or unidentified anomalous phenomena). For years, the stigma su

Apple unveils iPhone 16e, new Studio Display rumors, Siri delays

Benjamin and Chance discuss the newly announced iPhone 16e, some peculiarities in feature omissions, and exactly what market a lower-cost iPhone actually serves. There’s also exciting new rumors about a second-generation Studio Display, and more doubts about whether Apple will be able to deliver Siri intelligence features in the short-term. And in Happy Hour Plus, Humane shuts up shop and sells to HP. We reflect on the failings of the Ai Pin idea. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join. Sponsored by Ch

US healthcare org pays $11M settlement over alleged cybersecurity lapses

Health Net Federal Services (HNFS) and its parent company, Centene Corporation, have agreed to pay $11,253,400 to settle allegations that HNFS falsely certified compliance with cybersecurity requirements under its Defense Health Agency (DHA) TRICARE contract. The U.S. government contracted HNFS to provide managed healthcare support services for TRICARE's North region, covering 22 states. The contract required compliance with cybersecurity standards, specifically 48 C.F.R. § 252.204-7012 and 51

Treasury agrees to block DOGE's access to personal taxpayer data at IRS

The Trump White House and Treasury Department officials have agreed to prohibit the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing personal taxpayer data, according to two people familiar with the arrangement, heading off a brewing privacy crisis at the tax agency. Gavin Kliger, a software engineer with Elon Musk’s DOGE effort assigned to the IRS, will have read-only access to anonymized tax data, the same access granted to academic researchers and IT professionals who work on IRS systems, said the people, wh

Curiosity Mars rover discovers evidence of ripples from ancient Red Planet lake

Today, we know of Mars as a cold, dry desert, with patches of subterranean ice and ice caps at its poles. Billions of years ago, however, liquid water flowed freely across the planet. And, while NASA's various Mars rovers have uncovered signs that such water once existed on Mars , there's perhaps no better evidence of an ice-free, shallow lake than these two sets of ripples in Martian rock. In November 2022, NASA's Curiosity rover imaged the Amapari Marker Band in the foothills of Mount Sharp,

After 20 years, math couple solves major group theory problem

After the conjecture was posed in the 1970s, dozens of mathematicians tried their hand at proving it. They made partial progress — and in the process they learned a great deal about groups, which are abstract objects that describe the various symmetries of a mathematical system. But a full proof seemed out of reach. Then Späth came along. Now, 20 years after she first learned about the problem and more than a decade after she met Cabanes, the two mathematicians have finally completed the proof.