Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1657) — hint #1 — Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1657) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1657) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1657) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1657) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1657) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1657, are…

• FUROR
• BUGLE
• REUSE
• SCOOP

A nice game where the “first thought, best thought” method paid off.

My only moment of hesitation was guessing FUROR over “juror”, with common sense prevailing over the temptation to use a rare letter.

Daily Sequence today (game #1657) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1657, are…

• PSALM
• TATTY
• FIFTH
• ELFIN

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1656, Friday, 7 August: AMISS, SHIRK, SALSA, RABBI
• Quordle #1655, Thursday, 6 August: AMUSE, BRAND, CEDAR, BLURB
• Quordle #1654, Wednesday, 5 August: MOUND, WRONG, STOOD, WEIRD
• Quordle #1653, Tuesday, 4 August: GOOEY, TARDY, HUMAN, CHALK
• Quordle #1652, Monday, 3 August: FUNGI, MUDDY, DEBUT, MANIA
• Quordle #1651, Sunday, 2 August: BOOTH, EASEL, REACH, MAKER
• Quordle #1650, Saturday, 1 August: OMEGA, BIRCH, SMOCK, EERIE
• Quordle #1649, Friday, 31 July: MANIA, SINGE, STOOL, LOFTY
• Quordle #1648, Thursday, 30 July: MODAL, IDLER, CHUMP, LUMPY
• Quordle #1647, Wednesday, 29 July: GAWKY, ALLOY, AUDIT, LATCH
• Quordle #1646, Tuesday, 28 July: SMITE, ROACH, RUDDY, GLOBE
• Quordle #1645, Monday, 27 July: TAFFY, FIGHT, GUILD, WAGER
• Quordle #1644, Sunday, 26 July: STOMP, LIMIT, FUNKY, STEAD
• Quordle #1643, Saturday, 25 July: SALON, SHEEN, BURST, GOURD
• Quordle #1642, Friday, 24 July: DOLLY, EDIFY, LAGER, PRANK
• Quordle #1641, Thursday, 23 July: LADEN, EVICT, WOVEN, SHIRE
• Quordle #1640, Wednesday, 22 July: COYLY, SINGE, AWASH, AWOKE
• Quordle #1639, Tuesday, 21 July: TRUSS, AXIAL, SWINE, THING
• Quordle #1638, Monday, 20 July: ICING, SLICK, GAILY, RISEN
• Quordle #1637, Sunday, 19 July: SPURT, ACRID, THRUM, BLEEP

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #888) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #888) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• NECK
• SORT
• COUNT
• CREW
• PULP
• CAPTURE

NYT Strands today (game #888) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #888) - hint #4 - spangram position

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #888) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #888, are…

• TRACK
• DROP
• LOOP
• CUTBACK
• TUNNEL
• CORKSCREW
• SPANGRAM: ROLLERCOASTER

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

After a Strands yesterday that made no sense it was a relief to return to the world of real words, albeit ones connected to a thing designed to make you feel unwell.

I say that because I always feel unwell on — or even at the thought of — a ROLLERCOASTER, but I know they bring a great deal of pleasure to lots of people — including my own family, who enjoy seeing me turn green.

These days, my favorite thrill is spotting a Strands word that goes up or down in a CORKSCREW and today I got that with the word CORKSCREW.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday, August 7, game #887)

• GIZMO
• THINGAMAJIGGY
• DINGUS
• DOOHICKEY
• SPANGRAM: WHATCHAMACALLIT

• Scammers stole $1.27m from a Hong Kong man after tricking him with AI
• The scheme impersonated his father using AI deepfake tech
• Experts say using a secret codeword can thwart the fraudsters

A Hong Kong man was recently conned out of HK$10 million ($1.27 million) by scammers who used artificial intelligence (AI) on WhatsApp to impersonate his father and request the payments, highlighting the dangers of trusting increasingly realistic AI tools. Yet experts say there’s a simple trick that can save you from suffering a similar fate.

According to the Hong Kong police’s Cyberdefender platform (via the South China Morning Post), the fraudsters sent a WhatsApp voice message to the victim saying they urgently needed a transfer of HK$1 million ($127,000).

This was convincing to the target, the SCMP reported, because the “voice and manner of speech [of the message] matched his father’s.” The victim was repeatedly exploited this way until he had transferred the entirety of his savings.

Warning people against falling for AI trickery, the Hong Kong police force said: “Do not blindly trust voice messages. Even if the voice sounds similar, it does not necessarily mean it is accurate.”

If you’re unsure whether the message is genuine, put the phone down and call your friend or family member back so that you know with certainty who you are speaking to. The police also recommended enabling two-factor authentication on your devices and reviewing the list of devices connected to your accounts. If you see any suspicious devices, remove them immediately.

How to beat the fraudsters

Deepfake scams like this are so effective because they appear to come from a familiar, trustworthy source — even when they’re anything but. Yet experts have just published a proven way that you can beat the swindlers and keep everyone safe.

As reported by the BBC, setting a secret codeword to be used in emergencies can help you tell if the person on the call is actually a loved one or merely an AI impersonating them. As the BBC put it, “Deepfake scams might use your voice, but they don’t know what’s in your head.”

One tactic used by scammers is to use urgency in order to create panic and prevent you from thinking straight. That’s why it’s important to take a moment to think to ensure you remember to use the codeword and verify the caller’s identity.

When it comes to picking a codeword, “Pick something that’s easy to remember and hard to guess,” the BBC recommended. “Inside jokes are a safe bet.”

As Philadelphia lawyer and anti-scam activist Gary Schildhorn put it, there are three red flags to look out for: time pressure, a request for hard-to-trace funds (like cash, cryptocurrency or gift cards), and control over who you can speak to on the call. Experience any of those and you might be speaking to a malicious con artist.

Bear all that in mind and you stand a much better chance of protecting yourself from fraudsters. The next time you get an unusual message or call seemingly from a loved one, take a minute to breathe and remember your codeword.

• Researchers tested AI-generated patches on six CVEs with poor success rates
• Many fixes failed, altered behavior, or introduced new vulnerabilities
• Guidance improved outcomes, leading to FLAWED evaluation harness release

When using Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to fix vulnerabilities, security professionals are most of the time just robbing Peter to pay Paul, experts have warned.

Researchers from 1Passwords Off-by-1 Labs analyzed fixes proposed by two frontier models - ChatGPT 5.5 at “medium” effort, and Claude Opus 4.8 at “high” effort.

As an experiment, the researchers took six recently disclosed CVEs and produced 6,080 patches using two frontier, cyber-capable reasoning models. The results were underwhelming to say the least - of all the proposed patches, just a quarter (26%) fully resolved the issue.

FLAWED work?

This obviously leaves plenty to be desired, as half (49.3%) of the patches failed to fix at least one existing exploit path. A fifth (20.1%) fixed the original issue but changed application behavior, while 2.3% introduced new security issues. Funny enough, 2.2% failed to fix the vulnerability while also introducing additional exploit paths, as well.

Even among the patches that might be considered (26% of clean ones and 20.1% of those that changed app behavior), more than a third were fragile and not entirely addressing the underlying problem.

The researchers created an acronym for automated LLM patches: FLAWED (Fix-Like Artifacts With Embedded Defects), and warned against letting AI work without human oversight: "The expected value of a fully LLM-generated, non-human-reviewed patch is a net-negative by a considerable margin."

Results drastically improved when the AI was given better context, the researchers further explained. Before working on any patch, human developers are usually given initial guidance. When AI is given proper guidance, its success rate rises to 65%. Incorrect guidance, on the other hand, drops the success rate down to 15.2%. The difference between humans and AI is that humans are better at catching misleading information and poor guidance.

This doesn’t mean developers will, or should, abandon AI. Worst case scenario is that developers will spend more time reviewing AI-generated fixes which could increase cognitive load and still end up being net negative. Therefore, the researchers released a patch evaluation harness called FLAWED, which organizations can now use to determine the effectiveness of their AI-generated fixes.

Via The Register

• Attackers cloned AI skills, later adding malicious code to steal credentials
• Zenity Labs found millions of installs and dozens of dangerous skill variants
• Vercel and Microsoft removed malicious skills, but manual removal is still required

AI skills, instructions that teach AI agents how to do certain tasks and thus extend their capabilities, are increasingly being used in supply chain attacks, researchers have found.

Security experts at Zenity Labs uncovered a credential-stealing campaign on skills.sh, a public registry (essentially an app store) for AI agent skills. In the registry, belonging to Vercel (a cloud platform for web applications), threat actors were cloning existing skills, creating typosquatted lookalikes which, at first, did nothing malicious.

However, after a little time had past, and the skills amassed a solid download count, the attackers introduced malicious code instructing the AI agents to, among other things, exfiltrate SSH keys, cloud credentials, Git and package manager tokens, Kubernetes and Docker configurations, database credentials, infrastructure-as-code credentials, environment files and service account files. The agents were then told to package the stolen information with host metadata and send it to the attackers.

Dozens of malicious skills

While Zenity Labs could not say exactly how many people fell victim to this attack, they did stress that a single skill family amassed more than 1.7 million aggregate installs (not unique users).

And that is just one skill family, in a sea of malicious skills. The researchers also said they found “dozens” of additional skills exhibiting either malicious or dangerous behavior. Almost a third (30%) of identified dangerous skills abused Claude Code and OpenClaw to drop malware to their targets, as well. Also, Zenity found “hundreds” of reserved and empty package names that were being kept for future attacks.

These findings show how quickly cybercriminals adapt, and how creative they can get when it comes to abusing new tech. In essence, this campaign is an AI spin on a software supply-chain attack, being similar in spirit to incidents where attackers compromise an existing trusted package or repository, and later push a malicious update.

Following responsible disclosure, Vercel and Microsoft removed the identified skills, but Zenity warns that those who installed them before won’t be safe until they remove them from their systems manually.

• Someone made a tool for Asus Astral RTX 5080 and 5090 GPUs
• It's designed to prevent a melting connector, shutting down the PC before this happens
• This third-party utility – and the response to it – shows the level of paranoia out there when it comes to this issue

Do you have a high-end Nvidia Blackwell GPU, and if so, are you worried about the perils of a melted power connector? It appears that definite concerns remain in this area, to the point that a new utility has been crafted to address those worries.

An enterprising Redditor has made their own open source tool for Windows which is designed for Asus Astral RTX 5090 and 5080 graphics cards, acting as a monitoring app that will (hopefully) step in to prevent any melting disasters before they happen.

The creator, Humza Khalid, tells us how the small utility, which is available to grab on GitHub, works: "It reads per pin 12VHPWR current straight from the card's own sensor chip and force shuts down your PC if any pin stays over 9.5A for 15 seconds, before the connector can melt."

The idea is that it's a lightweight and standalone app which is an easy way to defend against the situation where there's a sustained level of too much current flowing to the Nvidia graphics card.

As noted, the PC is forced to shut down in these cases (in a safe manner, with any running or interfering apps being force-closed, we're told), before any damage is done.

The creator has taken a suggestion on board from the comments, and Khalid notes that the tool will be changed from initiating a shutdown to dropping the power limit (via the Nvidia management API) for a much faster response. (Shutting down can take a while). That change will happen in a future version of the utility, Khalid tells us.

The creator also reminds us: "This only works on Astral 5080/5090 cards because those are the only ones with per pin sensors. Windows only, needs Python. And it doesn't replace seating your connector properly, it's a last line of defense not a first one."

Analysis: default paranoia

That's all good in theory, of course, but I'd always be careful about what you're installing on your PC. Not to say this isn't a trustworthy app – I don't know whether it is or not, and that's the point. However, it is open source, so that's good, as it provides visibility into what it's doing under the hood.

Another point to note is that a co-creator of the app is listed as 'Claude', meaning that this AI has been used in making the tool. Khalid explains that they wrote the original utility, but it was based on HWiNFO, so they wanted the app rejigged to be standalone, and Claude "did a lot of the rewrite".

At any rate, Asus Astral GPU owners can make their own decision about what's worth installing, or not, although I wouldn't personally recommend installing a third-party utility from an unknown developer. As ever, if you do install such software, you do so very much at your own risk.

Regardless, what this does show is the clear level of concern about Nvidia's RTX 5090 and 5080 GPUs. One Redditor sums it up: "As a 5090 owner, I can confirm the card comes with a default paranoia about bursting into flames."

That received some pushback from other Redditors who said their overclocked RTX 5090s were just fine, and in turn, there was a further story relayed about a melting incident. Obviously, all that is anecdotal (on both sides of the coin), but the paranoia is real enough.

Cable melting worries began with the RTX 4090, of course, before the RTX 5090, and when we looked into the issues with the Blackwell flagship back at the start of last year, Nvidia firmly denied that any of this is its fault. Cable melts remain a controversial topic, though, and more recently we've even had a report of an exploding RTX 5090, no less, which PC gamers who run these high-end graphics cards probably didn't take much comfort from.

• Meta has been hit by another huge fine in New Mexico
• The ruling judge compared Meta's apps to polluting factories
• Meta says it's going to appeal the decision

Meta is in more legal trouble over the harms that its products — specifically Instagram and Facebook — can do to children, with a New Mexico judge slapping a $567 million (£422 million / AU$805 million) fine on the company, and suggesting that the damage done by these apps is akin to "noxious pollution" from factories.

As reported by CNN, the latest court ruling and financial penalty says that Meta's suite of apps "create a common, societal burden on and harm to the affected children and their families and schools, as well as hospitals and law enforcement".

Meta has said that it will appeal the decision, but its lawyers should recognize the factory analogy: they used it themselves during the original trial that got underway in February (via Courthouse News Service), arguing that a town factory shouldn't necessarily be held responsible for wider community problems it has nothing to do with.

The aim of Meta's lawyers in using the factory example was to limit the fines and measures imposed by the court, but it only partly worked. The mention of schools, hospitals, and law enforcement shows that the judge in the case, First Judicial District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid, thinks Meta has wider problems to answer for.

Mental health support

Most of the money that's being demanded from Meta — $420 million of it — is specifically earmarked for supporting community and family-based mental health services for the young people of New Mexico. The rest will be going towards mental health screening, prevention campaigns, and referral programs.

The latest fine is on top of the $375 million (£279 million / AU$533 million) in civil penalties that Meta was previously ordered to pay by a jury. This second part of the trial, with only a judge presiding, has now officially declared Instagram and Facebook a "public nuisance" in the eyes of the law.

There's more to the ruling than financial hits too. Meta is being ordered to delete all the accounts and data of users aged under 13, to turn off notifications from 8am-3pm on weekdays and from 10pm-7am on other days for users under 18 — at least in New Mexico. New accounts set up by teens should also be private by default, the judge has said.

Don't expect any of this to be implemented soon though — Meta has said it's going to appeal these decisions, which is likely to take an extended period of time. Even so, it's more evidence that the harms that social media can do to youngsters are now better understood, and that further action is very likely.

• Google’s Threat Intelligence team links BlackFile (now Redact) to phishing and extortion attacks on major hedge funds and law firms
• Group impersonates IT staff by phone, steering victims to spoofed login pages to steal SaaS credentials and tokens, then exfiltrates sensitive data
• Targets include Blackstone, KKR, Apollo, CME Group, and firms like Paul Hastings; Google tracked $10.7 million flowing into 18 crypto wallets between January–May 2026

Some of the biggest US hedge funds and law firms have been targeted by a highly sophisticated data breach and extortion campaign, conducted by a group of criminals previously known as BlackFile, experts have warned.

BlackFile (or Redact, as the group is now calling itself) has a relatively simple modus operandi, also used by ShinyHunters - they call their targets on the phone (usually employees with access to SaaS systems), identify as IT staff, and direct victims to convincing, lookalike login pages designed to steal their credentials and authentication tokens.

Once they gain access to victims' accounts, the attackers access enterprise SaaS environments (for example, Microsoft 365 and Okta) and use automated tools to exfiltrate sensitive data. In the last step, they notify the victims and threaten to leak the data on the dark web unless a ransom is paid.

Stealing millions

Since a part of the process is to navigate the victims to spoofed login pages, the criminals often register domain names that can easily be confused for legitimate ones.

That is also a good way to spot who the potential victims are, and according to a new report from Google’s Threat Intelligence Group (TGIT) team, these are some of the biggest names in the finance industry: Blackstone, KKR & Co, Apollo Global Management Inc, and CME Group Inc.

Apart from these names, a few law firms were also spotted, including Paul Hastings LLP and Greenberg Traurig LLP. However, none of these confirmed having been breached, and Greenberg Traurig told Reuters they were never targeted in the first place.

The group seems to be making quite the progress. In April and May, they registered a new phishing domain every 2.2 days, rising to every 1.6 days for June and July. It’s paying off, too.

In the 18 cryptocurrency wallets Google associates with the group and tracks, around $10.7 million was received between January and mid-May 2026.

• Huntress saw Oracle SQLi used to deploy rare khunt toolkit
• Khunt enabled OS commands, credential theft, and registry hive exfiltration
• Defense includes input sanitation and more

Someone managed to pair the classic SQL Injection (SQLi) attack with a nifty database trick to take over the underlying system entirely.

Security researchers Huntress, who were called in to investigate the incident, said the investigation first showed a classic, decades-old technique called an SQL injection attack: a public-facing application with an Oracle backend accepted and executed SQL commands input into a form without checking whether that input was valid or not.

This granted the attackers the ability to upload a database-resident, posts-exploitation toolkit named khunt. This technique is something of a cyber-white whale: it’s been widely discussed but rarely seen in the wild.

How to defend

“What happened next, however, raised our eyebrows,” Huntress said. “After performing SQL injection, the threat actor managed to upload a database-resident, post-exploitation toolkit named khunt. This is a technique that's previously been discussed and described over the years, including via a technique described as oraexec – however, the use of the technique in the wild has rarely been documented.”

As a toolkit, khunt granted the attackers multiple capabilities, including loading cmd.exe on the system and running arbitrary OS commands, steal usernames and passwords, listing, reading, searching, and checking file sizes (essentially looking around the compromised system), unzipping files, and more.

Of all the things they could have done, the attackers opted to run a PowerShell command and invoke the Windows Registry tool, copying the SAM, SECURITY and SYSTEM registry hives. They can later use the copies to extract and decode password hashes for local accounts on the system, the researchers explained.

To defend against such attacks, Huntress recommends making sure the forms aren’t injectable. “Practice proper input sanitization and query parameterization for any inputs,” they warned. “It's also important to ensure that users with the ability to execute queries aren't overprovisioned.”

Even if someone manages to pull off SQL injection, user accounts should not be capable of authoring Java sources or running stored procedures.

• Microsoft has admitted it's automatically installing an app on Windows 11
• The OneDrive Photos app is also being deployed mistakenly to business PCs as well as consumers
• There are a few odd things about this episode, and it's an anti-consumer move that doesn't sit well with Microsoft's broader goals to make Windows 11 better

Microsoft is in hot water after an odd decision to roll out a OneDrive Photos app to Windows 11 PCs used by consumers (with it also accidentally deploying the app to enterprise systems).

Windows Latest reports that Microsoft "effectively" told the website that the OneDrive Photos app is being automatically installed on Windows 11 computers whether it's wanted or not.

OneDrive Photos is a separate app to OneDrive, and it's designed for photo viewing and organization (with a light editing element bolted on). However, it's plain user-hostile behavior to have this software stealthily piped to a Windows 11 PC and forcibly installed.

What if you don't want it? What if you don't even use OneDrive sync at all, and you aren't signed in with a Microsoft account on your PC? Tough — you still get OneDrive Photos, as Windows Latest points out.

Even more bizarrely, this app — which is labelled as a beta — is appearing on business PCs, which it definitely shouldn't be doing (it's only used with a personal Microsoft account).

Microsoft wouldn't previously comment on the appearance of the OneDrive Photos app, but at least the company has now acknowledged that it is being installed on Windows 11 PCs.

There's still no official comment on why business devices would be getting this software, but Windows Latest tells us that it "understands that the rollout to enterprise PCs was not intentional". So apparently this was a mistake, and one that Microsoft is presumably in the process of correcting.

It's worth noting that there's also been some controversy about AI scanning faces for a feature in OneDrive Photos, accessed via the 'People' option, but this is only active if you explicitly allow it to be turned on (it's clearly opt-in, in other words).

Microsoft has clarified that if 'face grouping' is enabled, it runs only in the cloud with OneDrive photos (not other images on your PC), and any data collected is removed 30 days after you turn it off. The company has also assured users that it isn't using any photo data to train AI models on faces.

Analysis: I'm trying to tell you now, it's sabotage…

What is Microsoft playing at here? I really don't know, but this OneDrive Photos affair is a mess for a lot of reasons, and as you might guess, it has rubbed people up the wrong way. For starters, business users are very unhappy about having a piece of consumer-targeted beta software automatically deployed on their PCs, and are busy writing scripts to remove it (like this one on Reddit for example), rather than waiting for Microsoft to fix its error.

This is a baffling move for consumers too, because as noted, even if you don't use OneDrive at all, you'll still get this partner photo app. You can't even remove the OneDrive Photos app without deleting OneDrive as well — so if you do use the cloud storage app and sync features in Windows 11, but don't want this extra Photos application, well, you're stuck with it. You can have both, or neither.

That latter situation will change, though, Windows Latest informs us, and Microsoft is preparing an update that lets you remove the OneDrive Photos app without needing to nuke OneDrive entirely. I should hope so, too, and it's confusing how this rollout of a beta app went ahead without that choice in place.

The broad reaction on Reddit has been heated to say the least, and this is just more grit for anyone with an anti-Microsoft axe to grind.

One Redditor said "I'm uninstalling Windows. Linux is a little bit of a pain but worth it." There are more than a few similar comments in that thread, whether they're from people vowing to switch to Linux, or those who've already departed for OS pastures greener: "So glad I left Windows behind. Good riddance."

Interestingly, there are reports of this app appearing on Windows 10 PCs in the Reddit thread those comments are drawn from, although I haven't seen it on my computer with that OS (while it is on my Windows 11 system).

The trouble with all this is that it underlines how Microsoft is a vast corporation where the various limbs aren't always moving in alignment with the same aims. While the right hand is fixing Windows 11 and implementing a whole bunch of crowd-pleasing features or tweaks, the left hand is still messing around with anti-consumer initiatives such as this. Did no one tell the OneDrive team that Microsoft is supposed to be going full-tilt to persuade everyone that Windows 11 is the place to be, and that the software giant has mended its pushier and more obnoxious ways?

Apparently not, and just as we don't want third-party apps for the likes of monitors pushed on us quietly, in the background, via Windows Update, we don't want to unknowingly get first-party Microsoft software sprung on us, either.

Sort it out, Microsoft, please, because this is becoming an embarrassing oversight in terms of the big (and otherwise commendable) drive to make Windows 11 better.

• Swiss government confirms attackers breached BIT’s SharePoint servers
• Investigators suspect exploitation of recent SharePoint flaws
• No sensitive or confidential data is believed to have been stored on the platform

Cybercriminals broke into the IT network of the Swiss government and stole data from roughly 200 accounts. As a result, the Swiss government disconnected some of its servers from the wider internet and launched an investigation.

In an announcement, the Swiss government said that on July 28 2026 its security specialists noticed “abnormalities” in the Federal Office for Information Technology and Telecommunication’s (BIT) SharePoint servers.

Three days later, on July 31, the investigators determined that the attackers accessed data found in around 200 accounts, both user and technical.

Two vulnerabilities

The investigation is currently ongoing, the agency said, adding that it is getting support from Microsoft, as well. So far, the identity of the attackers is unknown, and the stolen data has not yet leaked to the dark web.

“No confidential information or particularly sensitive personal data may be stored on the SharePoint platform,” the announcement reads.

While BIT has not yet determined the initial access vector, it suspects it to be one of two flaws in SharePoint that Microsoft fixed last month:

“In mid-July, Microsoft announced several vulnerabilities in SharePoint,” it says in the announcement. “After the publication of the corresponding security updates, the FOITT immediately started work on importing them into its own systems.”

“The cyberattack was carried out by previously unknown actors, which was presumably made possible by exploiting these vulnerabilities in the SharePoint software.” It did not say which vulnerabilities those are, but in its report, BleepingComputer says that it could be one of these two: CVE-2026-56164 (an actively exploited privilege escalation vulnerability), or CVE-2026-50522 (a critical remote code execution flaw later exploited to steal SharePoint machine keys and maintain access after servers were patched).

Given its popularity among businesses of all sizes, SharePoint is a major target for cybercriminals. So far, no threat actors claimed responsibility for the attack, or demanded any ransom in exchange for the stolen data.

Via BleepingComputer

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1656) — hint #1 — Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1656) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1656) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1656) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1656) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1656) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1656, are…

• AMISS
• SHIRK
• SALSA
• RABBI

I imagined four different words in my head before submitting the correct ones.

For SHIRK I first thought “shirt”, for AMISS “alias”, for SALSA “salad” and for RABBI “rabid”.

In each case my first thoughts were impossible, but the thinking helped me get to the correct choices.

Daily Sequence today (game #1656) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1656, are…

• WEIRD
• DRANK
• ETHIC
• FOIST

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1655, Thursday, 6 August: AMUSE, BRAND, CEDAR, BLURB
• Quordle #1654, Wednesday, 5 August: MOUND, WRONG, STOOD, WEIRD
• Quordle #1653, Tuesday, 4 August: GOOEY, TARDY, HUMAN, CHALK
• Quordle #1652, Monday, 3 August: FUNGI, MUDDY, DEBUT, MANIA
• Quordle #1651, Sunday, 2 August: BOOTH, EASEL, REACH, MAKER
• Quordle #1650, Saturday, 1 August: OMEGA, BIRCH, SMOCK, EERIE
• Quordle #1649, Friday, 31 July: MANIA, SINGE, STOOL, LOFTY
• Quordle #1648, Thursday, 30 July: MODAL, IDLER, CHUMP, LUMPY
• Quordle #1647, Wednesday, 29 July: GAWKY, ALLOY, AUDIT, LATCH
• Quordle #1646, Tuesday, 28 July: SMITE, ROACH, RUDDY, GLOBE
• Quordle #1645, Monday, 27 July: TAFFY, FIGHT, GUILD, WAGER
• Quordle #1644, Sunday, 26 July: STOMP, LIMIT, FUNKY, STEAD
• Quordle #1643, Saturday, 25 July: SALON, SHEEN, BURST, GOURD
• Quordle #1642, Friday, 24 July: DOLLY, EDIFY, LAGER, PRANK
• Quordle #1641, Thursday, 23 July: LADEN, EVICT, WOVEN, SHIRE
• Quordle #1640, Wednesday, 22 July: COYLY, SINGE, AWASH, AWOKE
• Quordle #1639, Tuesday, 21 July: TRUSS, AXIAL, SWINE, THING
• Quordle #1638, Monday, 20 July: ICING, SLICK, GAILY, RISEN
• Quordle #1637, Sunday, 19 July: SPURT, ACRID, THRUM, BLEEP
• Quordle #1636, Saturday, 18 July: KNAVE, TIGHT, BLEAT, CHAOS

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #887) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #887) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• LILAC
• CHIA
• THUG
• HICK
• TAIL
• WHIG

NYT Strands today (game #887) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #887) - hint #4 - spangram position

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #887) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #887, are…

• GIZMO
• THINGAMAJIGGY
• DINGUS
• DOOHICKEY
• SPANGRAM: WHATCHAMACALLIT

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 hint

When you have a 13-letter word and it is not even the spangram then you know you have just played a difficult game.

Even though this only involved four game words, plus the (incredibly long) spangram, finding the words was indeed quite the struggle — even with the head start of a hint word.

Adding to the difficulty were slight regional variations, as I grew up calling things a “thingamebob” rather than THINGAMAJIGGY and had never heard of DOOHICKEY until I somehow put the letters together to form something approaching a word.

If you completed this without a hint then kudos.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, August 6, game #886)

• CHERRY
• REDBUD
• DOGWOOD
• HAWTHORN
• MAGNOLIA
• SPANGRAM: FLOWERINGTREE

It's time for your guide to today's Wordle answer, featuring my commentary on the latest puzzle, plus a selection of hints designed to help you keep your streak going.

Don't think you need any clues for Wordle today? No problem, just skip to my daily column. But remember: failure in this game is only ever six guesses away.

Want more word-based fun? TechRadar's Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at our NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for our verdict on two of the New York Times' other brainteasers.

SPOILER WARNING: Today's Wordle answer and hints are below, so don't read on if you don't want to see them.

Wordle hints (game #1875) - clue #1 - Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Wordle hints (game #1875) - clue #2 - first letter

F is a very common starting letter in Wordle. It ranks seventh behind only S, C, B, T, P and A and overall there are 135 solutions that begin with this letter.

Wordle hints (game #1875) - clue #3 - repeated letters

Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it's still more likely that a Wordle doesn't have one.

Wordle hints (game #1875) - clue #4 - ending letter

N is a pretty common ending letter in Wordle: it's the seventh most likely in that position and features in 130 solutions.

Wordle hints (game #1875) - clue #5 - last chance

Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1875.

• Today's Wordle answer is to pretend to be affected by something.

If you just want to know today's Wordle answer now, simply scroll down – but I'd always recommend trying to solve it on your own first. We've got lots of Wordle tips and tricks to help you, including a guide to the best Wordle start words.

If you don't want to know today's answer then DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER BECAUSE IT IS PRINTED BELOW. So don't say you weren't warned!

Today's Wordle answer (game #1875)

• NYT average score: 4.2
• My score: 6
• WordleBot's score: 4
• My skill score: 83
• My luck score: 32
• My start word performance: SANER (50 remaining answers)
• WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (329)
• Tomorrow's start word: SANER

Today's Wordle answer (game #1875) is… FEIGN.

I would like to tell you a story. Like all the best stories, it has twists and turns. The hero makes grave errors and faces great peril, but ultimately overcomes adversity. And, of course, it has a happy ending. It is the story of Wordle #1875 and my first score of six in nearly three months.

As stories go, it's certainly not my favorite. FEIGN is a relatively tricky Wordle, with an average score of 4.2, but there was no way I should have needed six guesses to solve it.

Its complications are obvious. For one, there's the too-many-answers aspect: REIGN, DEIGN and FEIGN. For two, there's the fact that quite a few other words include four of those letters, for instance BEGIN, BEING and NEIGH. And for three, there's the fact that I am, without question, an idiot.

The game started off well enough, with SANER providing two yellow letters and cutting my options to 50. CLONE was not the best follow-up I could have played, but it was reasonably helpful in reducing my options to eight words; a three was pretty much off the cards now, but a four should not have been.

Unfortunately, I missed the -EIGN format, so played first ENEMY and then BEGIN and succeeded only in taking eight answers down to five and then two: DEIGN and FEIGN.

At this stage I did spot those words. With only two guesses left, I wasn't immediately sure about playing either, because if I'd got it wrong I might even have lost my 1,676-game streak. So, I spent a good while establishing that was definitely, absolutely, 100% nothing else that fit, then played DEIGN.

And got it wrong.

Still, I did at least know now that the answer has to be FEIGN, so I escaped with streak intact but with my head hung low in shame. The Odyssey had nothing on this epic tale, right?

Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1874)

In a different time zone where it's still Thursday? Don't worry — I can give you some clues for Wordle #1874, too.

• Wordle yesterday had vowels in two places*

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

• The first letter in yesterday's Wordle answer was G.

G is the eighth most common starting letter, featuring in 115 Wordle answers. It's often paired with an R to make GR--- or an L to make GL---, but I'm not revealing whether that's the case today.

• There were no repeated letters in yesterday's Wordle.

Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it's still more likely that a Wordle doesn't have one.

• The last letter in yesterday's Wordle was E.

E is the most common letter to end a Wordle answer by far. That's one of the reasons why many of the best start words, including SLATE, CRANE, CRATE and STARE, all end with one.

Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1874.

• Yesterday's Wordle answer is a complaint.

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1874)

• NYT average score: 3.7
• My score: 4
• WordleBot's score: 3
• My skill score: 92
• My luck score: 38
• My start word performance: SANER (125 remaining answers)
• WordleBot's start word performance: SLATE (121)
• Tomorrow's start word: SANER

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1874) was… GRIPE.

Anyone get a touch of déjà vu yesterday? Don't worry, it's not just you.

However, though GRIPE has appeared as a Wordle answer before, it's unlikely that you'll remember it — that was back in December 2021 (game #187). Instead, you'll be thinking of GRAPE, which was the solution a little under two weeks ago, on 26 July.

This is the kind of probabilistic anomaly that occurs in Wordle every so often; with more than 2,000 words in the mix, it's inevitable that you'll sometimes get very similar words in close proximity.

The fact that GRAPE appeared so recently may have slightly lowered the average score — which currently sits at 3.7. That's because it will have removed one option from the possibles pool, depending on how people's games played out. That said, I don't think many will have faced a GRIPE/GRAPE dilemma anyway, because most popular start words include an A, so that will already have been ruled out.

As was the case with my game: SANER gave me the E and R, both as yellows, and removed several thousands possible answers including GRAPE. I still had 125 of them, though, but DROIT turned the R green and added a yellow I to further whittle them down to seven.

At this point I started looking for words that fit, and came up with all seven of them: PRICE, GRIPE, BRIBE, PRIME, GRIME, CRIME and PRIZE. That was a much easier task than it might sound, because there are only so many letters that can go before a green R, and it was almost certain that the I would go after it. DRI--, PRI--, CRI--… you get the idea; it was not a taxing thing for even my tired brain.

The more challenging thing was to find a word that would narrow them down and guarantee me a four. And it was one that I failed at: the best I could do was CLAMP, which might have left me a 50/50 of GRIPE and PRIZE but which would otherwise do the trick. The 'Bot suggested CAMPY, which would have made the four certain whatever the answer, so it beat me on that front.

Inevitably, I was left with that 50/50, but fortunately guessed correctly and avoided a five that I wouldn't really have deserved. I'll settle for that.

Wordle answers: The past 50

I've been playing Wordle every day for more than four years now and have tracked all of the previous answers so I can help you improve your game. Here are the last 50 solutions starting with yesterday's answer, or check out my past Wordle answers page for the full list.

• Wordle #1874, Thursday 6 August: GRIPE
• Wordle #1873, Wednesday 5 August: POSIT
• Wordle #1872, Tuesday 4 August: MOTIF
• Wordle #1871, Monday 3 August: REPLY
• Wordle #1870, Sunday 2 August: PENAL
• Wordle #1869, Saturday 1 August: SLUSH
• Wordle #1868, Friday 31 July: PURSE
• Wordle #1867, Thursday 30 July: FLUME
• Wordle #1866, Wednesday 29 July: VALVE
• Wordle #1865, Tuesday 28 July: SONAR
• Wordle #1864, Monday 27 July: POSER
• Wordle #1863, Sunday 26 July: GRAPE
• Wordle #1862, Saturday 25 July: ALOHA
• Wordle #1861, Friday 24 July: PUTTY
• Wordle #1860, Thursday 23 July: ORBIT
• Wordle #1859, Wednesday 22 July: LORRY
• Wordle #1858, Tuesday 21 July: SHILL
• Wordle #1857, Monday 20 July: DIVER
• Wordle #1856, Sunday 19 July: CHURN
• Wordle #1855, Saturday 18 July: BOOTH
• Wordle #1854, Friday 17 July: LEGAL
• Wordle #1853, Thursday 16 July: BUTTE
• Wordle #1852, Wednesday 15 July: PSHAW
• Wordle #1851, Tuesday 14 July: STEAK
• Wordle #1850, Monday 13 July: STOUT
• Wordle #1849, Sunday 12 July: CLACK
• Wordle #1848, Saturday 11 July: AVIAN
• Wordle #1847, Friday 10 July: CANAL
• Wordle #1846, Thursday 9 July: AMEND
• Wordle #1845, Wednesday 8 July: DEMON
• Wordle #1844, Tuesday 7 July: SLING
• Wordle #1843, Monday 6 July: TODDY
• Wordle #1842, Sunday 5 July: SWAMI
• Wordle #1841, Saturday 4 July: PIZZA
• Wordle #1840, Friday 3 July: BATON
• Wordle #1839, Thursday 2 July: MAVEN
• Wordle #1838, Wednesday 1 July: DEMUR
• Wordle #1837, Tuesday 30 June: PUPPY
• Wordle #1836, Monday 29 June: CRUDE
• Wordle #1835, Sunday 28 June: EMCEE
• Wordle #1834, Saturday 27 June: SCOOP
• Wordle #1833, Friday 26 June: ACUTE
• Wordle #1832, Thursday 25 June: UNITY
• Wordle #1831, Wednesday 24 June: QUEER
• Wordle #1830, Tuesday 23 June: CURRY
• Wordle #1829, Monday 22 June: OVATE
• Wordle #1828, Sunday 21 June: ALIBI
• Wordle #1827, Saturday 20 June: DRAKE
• Wordle #1826, Friday 19 June: EMOJI
• Wordle #1825, Thursday 18 June: ENTRY

What is Wordle?

If you're on this page then you almost certainly know what Wordle is already, and indeed have probably been playing it for a while. And even if you've not been playing it, you must surely have heard of it by now, because it's the viral word game phenomenon that took the world by storm in 2022 and is still going strong in 2026.

We've got a full guide to the game in our What is Wordle page, but if you just want a refresher then here are the basics.

• MSI's Nvidia GPUs are rumored to be getting price hikes
• They'll be 20% more expensive (or worse) in China, and that kind of increase will surely be seen elsewhere
• This is happening against a backdrop of wider price hikes for graphics cards – although Nvidia is offering a rare chance at an RTX 5080 or 5090 at MSRP

As fresh rumors reveal that another graphics card maker is set to hike prices, Nvidia has a plan to let you buy a Founders Edition Blackwell GPU at the MSRP, even in the case of the RTX 5090 — although you'll need to travel.

And you'll need to move very fast, attend QuakeCon in Texas, which starts today, and get yourself to the GeForce booth (hat tip to VideoCardz) before supplies of RTX 5070, 5080, and 5090 Founders Edition graphics cards run out. And I don't think that they will last for long (a matter of minutes, at a guess, although hopefully that won't be the case).

Nvidia describes this as 'Verified Priority Access' in real life, and at least it does give gamers a chance to buy an RTX 5080 and 5090 at the intended price, which is not something you can get anywhere near when purchasing one of these high-end Nvidia GPUs at retail.

As for the most recent news on GPU price hikes, Wccftech spotted that MSI is the latest graphics card maker to announce that its products will be considerably more expensive.

This is just a rumor, one that arrives via the Board Channels in China, and so should be served with some seasoning — but the theory is that MSI's Nvidia GPUs are set for price hikes of 20% or more. This is due to rising memory prices, of course, and what Nvidia charges its partners for video RAM modules (as Team Green is paying more, it passes that bill on, of course).

The price increase is in the order of $300 (£220 / AU$420) for the RTX 5080 over in China (converting from RMB), around $200 (£150 / AU$280) for the RTX 5070 Ti, and approximately $100 (£75 / AU$140) for RTX 5060 models (and not far off that for the RTX 5050).

Sadly, not only will current-gen Nvidia GeForce graphics cards be affected, but also RTX 4000 and 3000 models (with GDDR6 video RAM getting costlier, as well as GDDR7).

Analysis: pricey times

While this is a rumored cost increase for MSI products in China, these exact same pricing pressures are, of course, happening globally, so there's no reason to believe that MSI's GPUs in other regions won't follow suit.

What's more, this isn't just a problem that pertains to MSI, but Nvidia's other card-making partners, and those companies are also rumored to be implementing hefty price hikes. For example, just this week we've heard that Gigabyte GPU prices will jump between 20% and 40%. Also, on a regional basis, Nvidia RTX 5000 models in South Korea are looking at price hikes of up to 30%.

So, this is a coherent picture of hikes, and those percentages are all in a similar ballpark, indicating increases of at least 20% or a good deal more. They are also backed up by more general chatter from the grapevine about Nvidia's VRAM increases and AMD's Radeon GPUs becoming pricier.

I fear that getting any kind of current-gen graphics card at, or near, the MSRP could be a much tougher task before long, and those at QuakeCon better make the most of Nvidia's GeForce offerings at the firm's booth. As noted, I expect this to be the definition of a flash sale — as in they'll be gone in a flash — although you do have another shot at winning an RTX 5070 in the Quake III Arena RTX Remix and Doom: The Dark Ages challenges.

• The World Wide Web was created 35 years ago today
• It was initially designed for sharing documents at CERN
• Its creator says we can return to its spirit of openness and collaboration

These days, it’s hard to go long without connecting to the Internet in one way or another: whether through one of the best web browsers or by connecting to a smart home device, it’s something we often take for granted. The primary means of interacting online — the World Wide Web — has just turned 35 years old today, and its creator has a timely message that couldn’t be more relevant for modern users.

The World Wide Web is the creation of British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. Working at the scientific body CERN in the 1980s and 1990s, Berners-Lee wanted a way to store, update, and locate documents within the sprawling organization. At the same time, he sought a solution that would allow for these documents to be shared with outside bodies quickly and straightforwardly.

That desire led to his creation of the World Wide Web. It was announced to the public on August 6, 1991, with Berners-Lee humbly stating that “We are very interested in spreading the web to other areas.” It was a platform whereby anyone could link to any document in a database using hyperlinks, or links embedded in text, images, and other media. Importantly, multiple users were able to access this platform simultaneously and independently of each other.

Adoption quickly spread from CERN to other research organizations before being opened up to the wider public, whereupon it exploded in popularity. And 35 years later, it’s an invention that has turned the world on its head.

An absolutely vital component of this system was that it had to be both free and decentralized. Berners-Lee was adamant that anyone should be able to create a website and implement hyperlinks on their own, without paying a fee and without a central body dictating what could and could not be done. That principle of openness still stands today — but it’s increasingly under threat.

‘It’s not too late’

Speaking to The Guardian in September 2025, Berners-Lee lamented that plenty of the web today is no longer free and open. “We see a handful of large platforms harvesting users’ private data to share with commercial brokers or even repressive governments,” he noted, adding: “We see ubiquitous algorithms that are addictive by design and damaging to our teenagers’ mental health. Trading personal data for use certainly does not fit with my vision for a free web.”

At the same time, user data is sold “to actors we never intended it to reach,” with the result being “deliberately harmful content that leads to real-world violence, spreads misinformation, wreaks havoc on our psychological wellbeing and seeks to undermine social cohesion.”

This is especially challenging in the age of AI, Berners-Lee argued. To put things right and get back to the original vision of his creation, the father of the web advocated for strong AI governance and guidance from organizations that are not motivated by data and profit but instead by collaboration and the needs of the individual. On this point, Berners-Lee quipped: “It is hard to imagine a big tech company agreeing to share the world wide web for no commercial reward like CERN allowed me to.”

As the World Wide Web turns 35, the spirit of “collaboration, creativity and compassion” that allowed it to be given away for free is being increasingly challenged by Big Tech — but Berners-Lee still thinks there’s time to put things right: “We can re-empower individuals, and take the web back. It’s not too late.”

• VulnCheck CTO Jacob Baines reported Zbtlink routers shipped with a built‑in backdoor dubbed ENDLESSDOORS, allowing remote root commands and reverse shells
• Zbtlink denied malicious intent, calling it an after‑sales maintenance feature, but quietly pulled vulnerable firmware and promised patches
• Researchers warn all firmware images are hijackable; mitigation advice is to replace devices or enforce strict egress controls and treat LAN as untrusted

Chinese networking firm Zbtlink has been accused of shipping its products with a backdoor - and while the company denies the allegations, it has still apparently moved to address the issue.

CTO of cybersecurity company VulnCheck, Jacob Baines, recently published an in-depth report stating a Zbtlink device he runs “continuously attempts to reach a command-and-control server on the internet.”

“Zbtlink routers phone home, waiting for orders. Not because they were hacked. Because they were shipped that way.”

Detention and escape attempts

Baines dubbed the flaw “ENDLESSDOORS” and says it was uploaded to GitHub in early 2015 and “never touched again”. “It can send the client individual shell commands or tell the client to spawn a reverse bash shell.”

“The vocabulary of this protocol is two phrases: run this as root, and give me a root shell,” he further explained, saying that anyone along the path can hijack the client/server communication. VulnCheck researchers tried it, and apparently - succeeded.

Baines said that every firmware on the company’s download page (roughly two dozen images) is all “hijackable in the same way”, and said the company decided not to “responsibly disclose” the vulnerability since that assumes the vendor did not intend the behavior. "That assumption doesn't hold here."

In response to the allegations, Zbtlink told The Register VulnCheck mischaracterized the code.

“This feature is solely intended for after‑sales maintenance and serves no other purposes,” the company told the publication. “It is generally retained only on sample units to assist customers with software debugging and will not be included in mass‑production shipments.”

The Register didn’t see it as a credible explanation since, in the meantime, the company posted a warning on its downloads page:

“We have detected firmware security vulnerabilities affecting selected router firmware releases. As a precautionary measure, the impacted firmware versions have been temporarily taken down from download channels. Our engineering team is working intensively to develop and validate secured patched firmware.” This warning was allegedly posted sometime in the past seven days.

Baines gave a list of suggestions how to mitigate the risk but ended up saying that “for anything carrying real traffic, our advice is to replace the device, or at minimum move it behind strict egress control and treat its LAN as untrusted.”

• Google’s automated systems mistakenly flagged hundreds of Blogger sites as malicious
• Company admitted a bug caused false malware labels, promising a fix
• Users advised to request reviews, avoid migrating content

Hundreds of Blogger websites were locked down, and some apparently deleted as well, after Google’s automated security systems erroneously flagged them as malicious.

A user posted a new message on Google’s forum saying the huge number of reports regarding locked blogs are all for the same reason - Malware and Similar Malicious Content.

The nature of the lockdown “suggests misclassification by automated systems”, the post reads, adding that the team has “already been notified of this issue.”

Aware of a bug""

Those affected will see a red padlock in their dashboard and a warning saying the blog was locked:

"This blog was removed for violating Blogger's Community Guidelines. If you wish to request a review of the blog, click 'Request Review' below," the notice reads.

At press time, the forum post had more than 500 “I have the same question” votes, and more than 200 replies.

In a statement given to BleepingComputer, Google said it was aware of a bug that falsely labeled many sites as malicious, and that it was working on a fix.

"We are aware of a bug that incorrectly flagged some Blogger-hosted sites as malware for less than a day. We are working on a fix to resolve the issue as quickly as possible," the company said.

To make matters even worse, Google said that if users don’t file an appeal, that their blogs can be permanently deleted.

Users are advised not to create new blogs and migrate content, since that is in violation with Google’s TOS. They are also advised against deleting their Blogger profile or service from their Google account, since this will irrevocably delete the blogs. They can, however, back up their blogs if they are afraid of losing the content.

The full extent of the issue is unknown, but according to BleepingComputer, the number of users on the platform exceeds 200,000.

• OpenAI disrupted a major scam campaign in Cambodia’s Poipet, banning accounts and blocking new registrations
• Criminals used ChatGPT to run romance fraud, fake investments, bogus police scams, and even operations linked to human trafficking
• AI was leveraged for fake personas, fraudulent messages, job lures, and worker administration; OpenAI shared findings with authorities after evidence of hundreds of victims losing thousands of dollars

OpenAI said it disrupted a major scam campaign coming out of Southeast Asia by banning accounts used by the operation and making it difficult to open new ones.

In a blog post, the ChatGPT maker said it was tipped off about the existence of the campaign by WhatsApp.

After investigating further, the company found that a group of criminals in Cambodia used its AI tool in different scam campaigns - romance fraud, fake investment scams, or bogus police investigations. It also used AI to help with day-to-day operations and, most worryingly, for things that could be related to human trafficking and forced criminality.

Detention and escape attempts

OpenAI did not say if the group had a name, just that it operated out of Poipet, “a city in Banteay Meanchey province that public reporting⁠ has repeatedly⁠ linked⁠ to online scam compounds and trafficking operations.”

The group used AI to create fake personas, to help draft fraudulent emails and chat messages, and to create posters for fake jobs which were probably used to lure people into human trafficking or forced labor.

The tool was also used for worker administration, since the operators maintained records of employee debts, salary deductions, disciplinary fines, and loan repayments. They also used the tool to translate discussions about immigration status, work permits, visa overstays, and recruitment incentives.

“Some conversations also referenced apparent detention, escape attempts, and potential criminal liability for people who had been trafficked and forced to work in scam operations,” OpenAI said. “While these conversations do not allow us to determine the circumstances of any particular individual, they are consistent with extensive public reporting⁠ describing⁠ the activities of organized crime groups in Southeast Asia.”

The company could not say how many people fell victim, or how much money this group has stolen, but said it found evidence of “hundreds” of victims losing “thousands of dollars.” These findings were shared with relevant authorities.

Via The Hacker News

• Microsoft is eating humble pie over its unrealistic RAM recommendations
• It has deleted articles that pushed 32GB as an ideal or 'no-worries' loadout
• Apple is also feeling the heat in the RAM crisis, with rumors that it's struggling to secure an alternative source of memory supply from China

There are some fresh twists with the RAM crisis hitting some big tech companies, as Microsoft has backtracked on its previous memory recommendations, and even Apple is apparently finding it difficult to cope with the scarcity of memory.

Let's discuss Microsoft first, and as Windows Latest pointed out, the company has been busy backpedalling on previous memory recommendations now that the RAM crisis – which just keeps getting worse – has made those suggestions look foolish.

Microsoft previously had support documents in its Windows Learning Center which have now been removed, and Windows Latest highlights two of them. One was about optimizing your gaming PC, and it advised that "32GB is ideal for serious players who run the most demanding titles" (albeit the article also said 16GB was "plenty" for most games).

Another piece said that 32GB of RAM was the "no-worries zone", and that article was also quietly deleted as there was some backlash against this, given that it was published when the price of system memory had become ridiculous. (And buying a 32GB kit was very much a worry for your wallet).

The links to those articles now redirect to the home page of the Learning Center, and Microsoft is evidently trying to forget about pushing 32GB of RAM as an 'ideal' or 'worry-free' target for memory on your PC.

More broadly, since Copilot+ PCs were launched and the AI features for these devices made them require 16GB, Microsoft has obviously been keen to have that as a baseline memory configuration. Except now, a change of stance is necessary, as with the RAM crisis reaching alarming new heights, Microsoft has been forced to enact huge price hikes with its Surface devices.

And of course, the latest twist with that Surface hardware is that Microsoft has brought back 8GB models with last year's Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. Which makes it kind of difficult to push 16GB as a minimum, let alone make suggestions that 32GB is where it's really at for properly smooth performance.

The abandonment of these Learning Center articles is hardly surprising, then, and Microsoft is also addressing how speedily Windows 11 runs with 8GB of memory (not quickly enough currently). One of its promises with fixing the OS was better performance with a leaner RAM loadout, and Microsoft just made it clear that the company is now actively working to make Windows 11 run better with 8GB before the end of the year.

This has become a vital goal, really, when you consider that Apple has pulled off a commendable showing of performance with its MacBook Neo that packs 8GB of RAM. That was effectively a gauntlet thrown down for Microsoft – something of a declaration that macOS is coming to try to take Windows 11's market share – and one that the Windows maker had to respond to (which became clear enough when Microsoft went on the attack against the Neo).

Apple turnover: China play rumored to end in a fumble

Speaking of Apple, Microsoft isn't the only tech giant being buffeted by the rising costs caused by the RAM storm. While it has had a big success with the Neo, the challenge for Tim Cook's firm – soon to be John Ternus's, of course – is to maintain that momentum, and by all accounts, that's proving a tricky task.

Recent Mac price hikes have caused a good deal of pain – taking some of the wind out of the good ship Neo's sails – and Apple is trying to secure its RAM supply lines for the future, with rumors abounding that it's turning to Chinese chip makers to find extra production capacity.

The latest speculation, however, is that according to a report from Digital Daily (a Korean tech site, via Wccftech), Apple has floundered in negotiations with Chinese memory giant CXMT.

Apparently CXMT has strong enough domestic demand that it doesn't have to offer more attractive pricing to Apple. Essentially, CXMT is holding the line and has "insisted on prices that were higher or similar to those offered by Samsung or SK Hynix" (bear in mind there may be nuances lost with the translation of the article).

You get the message, though: Apple is failing to obtain better deals on mobile DRAM, which includes LPDDR5X, for its iPhones (and that RAM is also used in its MacBooks, of course). And CXMT was supposed to be an escape route from the difficulties of getting enough RAM inventory from Samsung and SK Hynix (and also Micron, a key supplier for Apple), but it seems like a dead-end for now.

At least if this report is correct, but analyst Tim Culpan has also written a short post which backs up the notion that Apple is in trouble here. Culpan writes: "Apple and its suppliers are scrambling to get enough memory chips for its upcoming release of new iPhone models."

'Scrambling' is a word that evokes quite a sense of panic, and indeed with the iPhone 18 models – and the foldable offering – not much more than a month away from launch now (in theory), I'd bet there are some heated words flying here and there. Culpan notes: "Assemblers are working with Apple to rush shipments of DRAM used in mobile devices."

That report is specifically about smartphones, mind, but this same situation applies to mobile RAM that's also used in MacBooks.

The overall theme is more RAM misery all round, which is hardly a surprise given all the negative news we've been hearing on the grapevine of late. GPU pricing has been the latest round of doom and gloom over the past week or two, and I don't think the pessimistic news is going to stop flowing for the foreseeable.

It's not bad news for everyone, though. A source in the semiconductor industry told Digital Daily that: "With the general-purpose DRAM floor remaining unbroken and Samsung and SK Hynix monopolizing the lead in high-value AI memory such as HBM4, the operating profit margins and global market control of the domestic semiconductor sector are expected to rise even more steeply in the second half of the year."

So, it's a familiar story: profits will be on the up and up for memory makers, while consumers will be suffering the pain of the hikes. Apple's purported rush for RAM supplies as the clock runs down on the iPhone launch window is a particularly worrying sounding story, one that doesn't bode well in terms of avoiding more Mac (and iPhone) price rises in the future. Neither can we rule out more Surface price rises, or other laptops for that matter.