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Tech News
SpaceX is reportedly negotiating access to roughly 80,000 cell sites to support a new network, according to a report. Details on the identity of the tower owners, the network's purpose, and timing have not been disclosed.
Swarm, the check-in app spun off from Foursquare, continues to operate despite a dramatic decline in activity and public attention. The app was recently acquired, according to a Fast Company columnist, though the buyer and terms were not detailed. A small base of users still logs locations and competes for mayorships years after the service's peak popularity.
T-Mobile has reached a settlement with New York Attorney General Letitia James after an investigation found the carrier raised prices on its 'Price Guarantee Plans' in 2024, despite earlier promising rates would never increase. The hike affected roughly 252,957 lines, and the deal includes a $98,000 payment to the state plus consumer relief valued at about $38 million.
Amazon is offering a 30% discount on the TP-Link Deco 7 BE5000 three-pack mesh router system, cutting roughly $91 off its price. The system uses Wi-Fi 7 technology and is rated to cover up to 6,600 square feet of home space.
A security researcher reported that attackers compromised a Tor management server in late August using a reused password, then installed the Ebury Linux backdoor and gained control of a second server called Switzerland2. From there they reconfigured 333 exit relays between October 2 and 5 to redirect SSH traffic to attacker-controlled servers and block ports used for encrypted email while leaving unencrypted email ports open.
University of Pennsylvania scientists analyzed roughly 150,000 Reddit posts from about 40,000 users to study self-reported effects of retatrutide, an experimental GLP-1 weight-loss drug not yet approved by regulators but obtained by some people in unapproved forms online. The study, published in JAMA Network Open, found that increased appetite was the most commonly reported symptom among classifiable complaints—contrary to the drug's hunger-suppressing design and the digestive issues emphasized in Phase 2 trials.
A newly unsealed search warrant application says attackers remotely accessed Staples' internal customer-support application, dubbed Nexus, and pulled memory data that let them hijack active employee login sessions. Using those hijacked sessions, the group issued more than 15,000 gift cards worth over $5 million for retailers including Staples, Target and Sephora, then used the cards to buy electronics and other goods, much of it shipped to China. The filing does not name Staples directly, but 404 Media identified the retailer through corporate details and the Nexus system name.
A security researcher discovered that 333 Tor exit relays—about 10% of the network—had been infected since August with the Ebury SSH backdoor and were coordinating a man-in-the-middle attack on SSH connections starting October 2. The compromised nodes redirected SSH traffic to 12 interception servers that stole passwords and harvested unencrypted mail traffic, prompting the researcher's report that led to the removal of the infected exit nodes from the Tor network.
A Chinese crime ring breached Staples' internal customer support tool, Nexus, and used heap dump requests to hijack logged-in employee sessions, enabling them to issue more than 15,000 fraudulent gift cards worth over $5 million. The cards were then quickly spent by 'runners' at retailers including Target, Sephora and Lowe's before they could be canceled. The breach, reported to Homeland Security Investigations in October 2023, only became public after a related search warrant was unsealed last week.
Mint Mobile, which operates on T-Mobile's network, is currently offering an anniversary promotion that cuts prices by as much as 71% on its six-month prepaid plans, automatically applied at checkout. The carrier also offers a 6-GB plan at $15 a month for three months with unlimited talk and text, though it has no dedicated senior discount. J.D. Power has ranked Mint highest in customer satisfaction among wireless carriers.
Rouler is a new Windows utility that allows users to assign individual applications, or specific IP addresses, to separate network interfaces at the same time. For example, a browser could use a privacy VPN, a work app could use a corporate tunnel, and other traffic could go through the normal connection simultaneously. The developer describes it as working purely at the network layer, distinct from a VPN or firewall.
The Federal Trade Commission's annual report to Congress found that Americans aged 60 and older reported losing $3 billion to fraud in 2025, up from $600 million in 2020. Investment scams accounted for the largest share, with losses rising 42% to over $1 billion, often initiated through social media contact. The report also found that adults 80 and older had the highest median individual losses, at $2,000.