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Toyota was obsessed with creating its best electric sedan. So he ended up asking Huawei for help…

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After letting it be seen in the Shanghai Auto Show At the beginning of last year, Toyota just made official the bZ7its electric flagship more than five meters long. What is striking here is not the car itself, that too, but the technology that gives life to both its software and its drive train. Technology that… is not from Toyota. The car. bZ7, this is the name that Toyota has given to an electric sedan that embodies the latest technology available for this segment. The summary is simple. 5.1 meters long. 1.9 meters wide. LPF (lithium ferrophosphate) type batteries of BYD origin. Autonomy of between 600 and 800 km (according to the Chinese cycle, CLTC) depending on version. Operating system HarmonyOS. Huawei DriveOne system (electrical system, engine, car architecture…) What’s Huawei looking like here?. In 2020, Huawei confirmed its commitment to the electric car with DriveOneits first electric motor. Specifically, we are talking about a control unit composed of a motor, reducer, converter, integrated charger, power distribution unit and battery control unit. It thus allows this Toyota bZ7 to have a power of 278 HP and a maximum speed limited to 180 km/h. All this in a much more compact platform compared to the traditional ones used in this type of vehicles. The interior. As if it were not enough to power the engine of this luxury sedan, the cabin has a 15.6-inch floating central screen. The size of a generous laptop. The operating system that gives it life is HarmonyOS, a platform thatthe company develops for the world of electric cars, smartphones, tablets, computers and peripherals of all kinds. The alliance. That Huawei and Toyota develop a car together is something quite recent. The Japanese company announced that, on cars destined for China, it would cooperate with Huawei. Toyota began to lose steam both in global sales and in China, where it fell 6.9% in 2024. After three consecutive years of losing sales in China, it decided with one of the manufacturers that today has more muscle when it comes to developing complete platforms for electric cars. Beyond Apple and Google. Chinese manufacturers like Huawei are betting on a solution at the operating system level that is much more integrated than what Apple and Google have been trying to do for years. Unlike Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, integrate the system (in this case HarmonyOS, but also in cases like that of HyperOS), allows complete control of the vehicle from it. It does not require a smartphone, it is updated via OTA, it is based on its own code… It’s something similar to what Google is trying with Android Automotivea complete system but with little adoption, and what Apple promised with CarPlay Ultracurrently reserved only for luxury vehicles. Image | toyota In Xataka | In the midst of the industry crisis, the brand that has most opposed the electric car continues to break records: Toyota

In medieval Europe, not only humans ended up on the gallows. Other criminals were also executed: the “murderer” pigs

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For centuries, medieval Europe It was a place where justice was dispensed not only in the courts, but in the squares, in full view of everyone, with public rituals designed to repair order when someone broke it in an intolerable way. At that time, the fear of the unforeseeable did not come only from armies, plagues or famines, but also from what moved through the streets and corrals. In the France Medieval times, for example, the public ritual of punishment (carriage amidst mockery, solemn sentence and execution before the community) did not always have a human as the protagonist: sometimes, the condemned was a pig. The image, which today seems like an oddity from a black chronicle or a folkloric exaggeration, was real enough to leave repeated documentary traces: animals led as prisoners, hung upside down until they died and treated, in practice, as perpetrators responsible for a crime that had broken the social balance. The pig as a real threat The frequency of these cases is better understood by remembering that the medieval world lived attached to animals and their risks. Pigs, in particular, were useful because they ate everything and could feed on scraps, but that same omnivorous condition made them dangerous if they roamed free near small children. The records collect numerous episodes in which pigs killed and even devoured children, a violence that today clashes with the modern image of the docile and slow animal, but which was then associated with specimens closest to the wild boar: fast, strong and capable of imposing themselves physically in seconds. Medieval archives collect cases like the one from 1379when a group of pigs in Saint-Marcel-lès-Jussey killed the son of a swineherd, or the from 1386 in FalaiseNormandy, where a sow destroyed a child who ended up dying. Also that of 1457 in Savigny, Burgundywhen little Jehan Martin was killed by a sow and, especially disturbingly, his six piglets were found nearby, stained with blood. They were not vague rumors, but stories that were fixed with names and placesand that fueled the need for a public response that was not limited to a simple private loss. In France, these events often led to in judicial proceedings formalities in which the animal was imprisoned, transferred and executed as if it were a common criminal. Sources talk about expenses registered normally (cart, prison, executioner even brought from Paris) and an administrative routine that suggests that, for the people of that time, it was not an absurd spectacle, but a legitimate mechanism of justice. The strangeness, therefore, was not that there was violence, but rather that the violence was channeled through a trial with the appearance of ordinary procedure. When money is not enough A practical explanation of these processes was that medieval justice tended to seek reconciliation between partiesand many disputes could be resolved with compensation or agreements. But when a child death came into the picture, that logic was broken: the damage was too serious and the money could be insufficient to close the social wound. In that context, the court intervened to “take control” of the conflict, separate it from private revenge and offer an institutional solution that would distribute the emotional and political burden of the outcome. Trials also functioned as a form of organize the story: It was not just about punishing the animal, but about clarifying human responsibilities. If a pig was known for being dangerouswhy was he allowed to loiter near children? Was there negligence on the part of the owner? a chain of negligence? There was even a suggestion of the possibility of darkest questions: if the child was “unwanted”, if he or she was deliberately left in a risky situation or if the accident hid an intention. The court, by intervening, not only imposed a penalty, it produced an official explanation that the community could accept. Sometimes, the local machinery was not the last word and the matter escalated towards higher authorities. In the case of 1379, some of the accused pigs belonged to an abbey, and from there a petition was sent to Duke Philip “the Bold” requesting clemency. They defended that their animals had not participated and that they were “well-behaved pigs.” The duke heeded the request and issued a pardon for the animals of the abbey, showing that these processes, strange as they may seem, were inserted in real networks of power, influences and political decisions. Far from being simple superstition or peasant rage, these executions could serve to assert authority. The right to erect a gallows and execute criminals it was a privilegeand taking a case to the end allowed a local lord to exhibit the ability to punish and control order. There are episodes that reinforce that reading: a pig murderer from the 15th century it remained imprisoned five years before being executed, and formal letters were sent for permission to build a gallows. When the duke finally agreed, the triumph was not only symbolic: in addition to showing power, the lord stopped carrying the practical cost of keeping the animal imprisoned and feeding it. Plus: another key is the medieval vision of reality as a logical system created by godwith animals destined to serve humans. For a pig to devour a child was an unbearable investment of that order, a rupture of hierarchies that demanded public reparation. In that mental framework, the trial and execution were not theater: they were a way of “putting back together” what had been broken, of affirming that the world still had rules and that chaos, even when it came from an animal, could be put back into place by a solemn act of justice. Image | Ernest Figueras, Zoe Clarke In Xataka | The Middle Ages were not as dark as they told us In Xataka | 900 years ago, Europe had its own Manhattan: the impressive skyscrapers of more than 100 meters of Bologna

74% of employees have felt more productive when using AI. Almost half have ended up correcting the result

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Artificial intelligence is already part of the daily life of the employees of many Spanish companies and helps them complete tasks faster. At least that is what emerges from a recent study by the AI ​​consultancy Workday, in which it is estimated that three out of four workers feel more productive thanks to AI. Behind that data there is a growing adoption of AI tools and a change in perception among professionals. However, this reality also implies a less visible one: part of that time gained you are missing out on reviewingcorrect and fine-tune what AI systems generate. Everyday use of AI in Spain. According to the data collected in the report “Beyond productivity: measuring the real value of AI” prepared by Workday, 74% of workers in Spain indicate they feel more productive thanks to AI, with 28% using it daily or 58% claiming to use it very often during their work week. That frequency of use of AIHowever, it is well below the global average which reflects a daily use of 46%. In any case, the increase in the use of AI translates into an average of time savings of between one and three hours per week for repetitive and administrative tasks, such as writing reports, analyzing or searching for data. ​These data coincide with the photo that the study of Indicators of use of Artificial Intelligence in Spain of 2024 prepared by ONTSI (National Observatory of Technology and Society), although in that case the perception is positive, only 11.4% of Spanish companies with 10 or more employees used AI technologies, which is revealed by a very limited business implementation. In any case, 85% of the users consulted report savings of between 1 and 7 hours per week. ​The problem of constant revisions. Satisfaction with the use of AI has the counterpart that 42% of Spanish workers dedicate up to one hour per week to review, correct or reformulate the result produced by AI, known as what has been called a “hidden tax“which stops part of the benefits. Adolfo Pellicer, Country Manager at Workday confirms that the use of these tools requires review and supervision of the results. “There is a hidden impact of AI at work. The report shows us that almost 40% of the time saved with the use of AI it ends up being lost in correctingreview and redo what the information that AI gives us,” said Pellicer. in statements to Computer World. AI digital natives. The youngest employees, between 25 and 34 years old, account for 46% of the cases with the highest review burden, since they use AI more frequently. 77% of these users verify AI results more rigorously than human-generated work. This generates additional exhaustion in these profiles. In departments such as human resources, 38% of employees need to review AI results due to the high number of errors reported. For its part, in the technical and IT departments, with a 32% increase in the use of AI, the tool has been better integrated, generating better results and content that requires fewer and fewer modifications. ​Training in companies: the pending signature. Although 66% of global leaders cite skills training as a top priority for leveraging AI, only 37% of employees who regularly use it admit to having access to these training programs. According to the report data From ONTSI, in Spain, this disconnection is worsened because 78% of workers demand more digital tools and training to use them, but adoption remains low: only 11.4% of companies with 10 or more employees used AI in 2024. In Xataka | Firing a worker because an AI “does its job” sounds very tempting. China wants to make it inappropriate Image | Unsplash (ThisisEngineering)

He is the most important programmer in all of history. And he has also ended up using AI to program

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Linus Torvalds, Linux kernel creatorhe found himself with some free time this Christmas, so he wanted to dedicate it to a personal project that he had on the shelf: an application capable of generating digital audio effects that he called AudioNoise. The curious thing is not that he started programming on his own, but rather what he ended up doing with part of that application. Linus tries Vibe coding. This project has a description on GitHub that holds a surprise. In the last paragraph of it he indicates that “Also keep in mind that the Python visualization tool was basically written using vibe-coding. I know more about analog filters (which isn’t saying much) than I do Python. I started with my typical “Google it and copy what I see” way of programming, but then I cut out the middleman (myself) and used Google Antigravity to create the audio sample viewer.” The best programmer programs like any other. The statement is surprisingly sincere and honest from the one who He is probably the most important programmer in all of history.. Admitting that your typical way of programming is “search on Google and copy what I see” is already curious, but part of programming precisely consists of looking for solutions from others and copying or adapting them into your own projects. AI can help. The other (big surprise) comes of course when he indicates that the visualization tool for his project was not programmed by him, but rather by the Google tool, Antigravity. This integrated development environment (IDE) allows you to work directly with Gemini 3 in different versions and even with Claude Sonnet and Opus 4.5, and despite having been released a few months ago, it is becoming one of the favorite tools of veteran developers but also of those who are beginning to make their ideas a reality without having too much knowledge. Let them tell it to me. This viewer has been programmed by Linus Torvalds. Or rather, Antigravity controlled by Linus Torvalds. testing. At Xataka we were curious to test what that viewer did, so we cloned the GitHub repositorywe asked Claude Code to explain how the project works and after a couple of quick changes we were able to test it with a small audio file. What the project does is implement digital audio effects (there are ‘phaser’, ‘echo’, ‘flanger’, ‘fm’ and ‘discont’) and then, if one wants, apply visualization. That visualization compares the original audio with the processed audio to see how the effect modifies the waveform. Subsurface Capture Linus’ other projects. Although Linus Torvalds is the person most responsible for the Linux kernel evolutionit is already common to see him develop some parallel and totally independent projects. Last Christmas he already created his own guitar pedal softwareand in 2011 began the development of Subsurfacean application to record and plan scuba dives, an activity to which he is very fond. The current GitHub repository is maintained by various developers among which stands out Dirk Hohndel, who was one of the first developers of the Linux kernel along with Linus Torvalds. AI is a tool. In a recent participation on the Linus Tech Tips YouTube channelLinus Torvalds talked about how he saw the world of AI. In your opinion: “AI will be a tool, and it will make people more productive. I think vibe coding is great for getting people to start programming. I think (the code it generates) is going to be horrible to maintain… so I don’t think programmers will go away. You’ll still want to have people who know how to maintain the output.” And it works for personal projects. That speech precisely aligns with this small “experiment” that he has used in that personal project: at the moment for projects of this type using tools like Antigravity can be a great idea, although it certainly does not seem so for larger projects in production. Thus, it does not seem likely that AI could be used to modify Linux code… at the moment. That, of course, may change in the future, but as Torvalds says, these types of developments will require notable (and probably human) oversight to validate that everything has been done correctly. Image | TED Conference In Xataka | Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds had been rivals for 30 years. The funny thing is that they just met and took a selfie

In 1919 the Germans decided to sink their entire fleet in the North Sea. The steel from those ships ended up in space

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At 11:20 in the morning of June 21, 1919, Admiral von Reuter’s ship began to signal to the rest of the German ships in Scapa Flow Bay, England. The taps and water intakes were opened, the pipes were destroyed, the portholes were dismantled: no one noticed anything. Until around midday, the Friederich Der Grosse began to list to starboard. It was already late, the German flag was flying from the 74 masts. Scapa Flow. The image tells the story of Scapa Flowthe sinking of the German fleet immediately after World War I. While the Allies negotiated the terms of the Armistice with Germany, the fleet was held captive and stationed off the British coast. Von Reuter feared that the Allies would divide up the ships, so he decided to sink it completely, at any cost. The British naval ships that were on maneuvers arrived at 2:30 p.m. and were only able to save one ship. The last to sink was the battlecruiser Hindenburg. Nine Germans were killed, 16 were wounded, 1,774 were detained. 52 ships were sunk on June 21 at Scapa Flow. But they are no longer there: they are on the Moon, Jupiter and beyond the orbit of Pluto. steel is steel. A tough guy, with bad temper and few words. But in 1945 (or a little before), everything changed. We didn’t realize it at first, but we quickly discovered that although all steels are equal, there are some steels that are more equal than others. I’m not going around the bush: what happened in ’45 was the atomic bomb, the device of the Devil that made us change geological era. The problem. Since the first atomic bombs exploded on the Earth’s surface, the air contains traces of radioactive elements. They are there, dissolved in it, but the amount is so small that they are harmless. Unless for some strange reason you have to blow in enormous amounts of air in the manufacturing process of some material. It’s almost useless to us. That is, all steel manufactured after the explosion of the first atomic bomb is radioactive. Very little, almost nothing. But enough so that some medical, physical or astronomical instruments do not work correctly. For example, radioactivity monitoring systems used by spacecraft. He tells it David Bodanis in “E = mc². Biography of the most famous equation in the world“, a book that, although it has become somewhat outdated, is still a delight. You may have heard the story, but it is a good story. Steel = expensive. In the book, Bodanis explains that, faced with this problem, uncontaminated steel became very expensive. Above all, because before ’45 we did not make steel in quantities so industrial as now. I imagine dozens of NASA engineers rummaging through their family’s cutlery so they can send reliable machines into space. Until someone remembered Kaiser Wilhelm’s ships. The peculiarity of Scapa Flow. There are sunken ships in many places, but there are not many shallow inlets with 52 sunken ships in their waters. Not all of them were there, but a few were enough for us to manufacture the equipment that the Apollo mission left on the lunar surface, that which the Galileo probe took to Jupiter, and that which the Pioneer probe is taking even further. The evil, the sea. In Xataka | Quantum find in Cambridge points to solar ‘Holy Grail’: single-material solar panels In Xataka | The Atacama salt flat is the key on which the electric car industry pivots. And it’s starting to dry

A teenager discovered the ‘Málaga’ virus and ended up founding VirusTotal. The enigma that remains is the same since 1992: who programmed it

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Bernardo Quintero (@bquintero) was 14 years old and his first PC, an Amstrad PC-1512, had just arrived home. It was 1987, and the co-founder of VirusTotal He was excited by this machine that allowed him to exploit his computer curiosity. His hobby ended up being trying to circumvent the copy protection systems of some games, and he was there one day when something suddenly happened. A little white ball moved on your screen. By itself. Without him having done anything. He soon discovered that it was a computer virus. One that he ended up studying to know how to detect and eliminate it. He succeeded, and over the next three years he ended up improving his first antivirus, a tool that allowed him to recognize and eradicate seven different viruses he had encountered. It didn’t seem like that project was going to go much further, and Quintero began his studies in Computer Science at the Polytechnic University School of Malaga. In one of the first classes, a professor asked if anyone wanted to raise a grade with a Pascal programming project. He signed up, and when talking to the professor, he asked him if he had done any previous projects. “Well, yes,” he replied. “An accounting program, disk utilities, an antivirus…”. The teacher cut him off. “Did you say antivirus?”. When he answered affirmatively, the professor asked him to accompany him to his office. There he showed him how the entire IT department had been infected by a virus that the antivirus did not recognize. Fragment of the code in Turbo Pascal 5.5 of the antivirus that Bernardo Quintero developed to eliminate the “Málaga-2610” virus (1992). Source: Bernardo Quintero. Quintero soon detected where the problem could be and went home with an infected disk to work on an antivirus. It took him more than he thought, but after a few hours he managed to figure out how to detect it and delete it. That helped him pass the subject, but it also ended up being the definitive seed of the professional project that would end with the founding of Virus Total. He tells it all in more detail in his novel, ‘Infected‘, which he published at the beginning of the year and in which he narrates those beginnings and how that ended up leading him to create VirusTotal, the Malaga company that would later end up being bought by Google. That virus in his faculty was called “Málaga”, and Quintero spent years without paying much attention to it again. So, three years ago, this expert posted a message on Twitter (X) to try to solve the mystery of who would have created it. Already then he discovered that according to several sources the virus had been created at the Polytechnic School of Informatics. The objective, I counted thenit was not about bringing the name to light, but about chatting with that person and remembering those times. He failed to reveal the mystery, and that mystery remained unsolved again. But Bernardo Quintero never forgot that and returned to the fray with a new attempt a few days ago. After first publishing a message on X, the next day he published a summary of that story on LinkedInand asked for help in that post to try to solve the mystery once and for all. We contacted him, and he told us how while in the past he had focused on discovering how it infected and creating the disinfection tool, he never tried to find out who had created the “Malaga” virus. But he told us that “now, looking at it with new eyes, I have seen a couple of interesting details and I have discovered the motivation.” In fact, he adds that thanks to those messages on X and LinkedIn “I have received stories from several people who studied those years at the Polytechnic of Malaga and who believe they know the author.” Of those candidates, he explains, “I have ruled out 3 or 4, but there is one that fits very well with the new data I have.” The mystery seems to be close to being solved. “I just need to clear up one unknown to confirm the author.. And if it is confirmed, there is a beautiful and sad story that will be worth telling.” Everything therefore indicates that it will finally be known who was the author of that virus, and Quintero has promised to tell more details these days. We will be attentive. Image | Mika Baumeister In Xataka | The computer with the most malware in the world: this is MICE, the challenge of Bernardo Quintero and VirusTotal

Immediately afterwards, Intel and AMD ended up being sued

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The inside of a missile says much more than it seems at first glance. Beyond its military function, it is also the result of a design, manufacturing and distribution chain that crosses borders. In several analyzes carried out in Ukrainetechnicians have identified foreign components integrated into Russian weapons. That information, by itself, does not explain how they got there, but it does open an investigation that begins in the technical field and ends up connecting with international trade and the courts. In this way, that clue is transferred to the judicial field. Several civil lawsuits were filed this week in Texas state court in Dallas on behalf of dozens of Ukrainian citizens against Intel, AMD and Texas Instruments, as well as Mouser Electronics, a large components distributor linked to Berkshire Hathaway. The plaintiffs maintain that these companies did not prevent restricted chips from being resold to Russia through third parties, despite the sanctions in force. The chosen location is not coincidental, since the aforementioned companies have an operational presence in that state. The accusation in a sentence. As Bloomberg reports, The lawsuits maintain that the companies incurred what lawyers describe as “willful ignorance”, a deliberate ignorance regarding the diversion of chips to Russia through foreseeable intermediaries. According to the plaintiffs, there were sufficient signs that components from these companies were being resold in violation of US sanctions, but they allege that controls were not strengthened to prevent this. That omission is the basis of a broader accusation of corporate negligence in export control and diversion prevention. So how do the chips arrive? The background of the litigation links to investigations that have long pointed to the presence of foreign technology in Russian weapons. Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukrainian presidential commissioner for sanctions policy, he explained to CNN in September that many of these components are dual-use and that their entry into military programs usually occurs through intermediaries and front companies. The demands are not based only on a general approach, but on specific episodes. The writings cite five attacks that occurred between 2023 and 2025 that killed or injured civilians in Ukraine. According to the documentation presented, one of those attacks would have involved Iranian-made drones, while others are attributed to KH-101 cruise missiles and Russian-produced Iskander ballistic missiles. In several cases, the plaintiffs claim that the systems used incorporated electronic components associated with the aforementioned companies. The focus of the lawsuits is not limited to the manufacturers. Named in court documents is Mouser Electronics, a large components distributor based in Mansfield, Texas, and owned by Berkshire Hathaway since 2007, when it acquired parent company TTI. The plaintiffs allege that Mouser facilitated chip transfers to shell companies controlled by intermediaries with ties to Russia, and that its logistics decisions and operations were a relevant domestic component of the alleged conduct. Mouser and Berkshire Hathaway also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Position of the companies and sanctions. The companies mentioned have not made public comments on the matter. In the past, however, they have said that they comply with sanctions requirements, that they ceased their activity in Russia when the war began, and that they maintain strict policies to monitor compliance. Since the start of the war, the United States has tightened controls on the export of semiconductors and other electronic components, but the results have been mixed. a report of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations concluded last year that components manufactured in the United States continue to appear in Russian weapons. As we can see, sanctions and export controls do not seem to be preventing Western chips from ending up in the hands of companies linked to the Russian military complex. From now on, the course of the case will depend on when the court processes the lawsuits and they become publicly visible in the judicial record. From there, the judges will decide if the litigation moves forward and with what schedule. Beyond the result, the case focuses on a question that is difficult to resolve with simple rules, how far the responsibility goes when a component is resold over and over again and ends up in a prohibited end use, with human consequences far from its point of origin. Images | Vitaly V. Kuzmin (CC BY-SA 4.0) | Rubaitul Azad In Xataka | The US has joined the “party” of China, Russia and Japan in the Pacific: with its nuclear bombers

The V16 wanted to replace the triangle and reduce risks. They have ended up proving that they can also create them

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On January 1, 2026, it will be mandatory to carry in the car an approved V16 beacon. The introduction of this device is surrounded by a great controversy regarding its implementation, its real usefulness or the emergence of illegal devices. What has just been discovered is that more than 250,000 beacons are affected by serious cybersecurity vulnerabilities. It is the umpteenth disaster that affects these devices. what has happened. Luis Miranda Acebedo, cybersecurity expert, has published a complete and in-depth analysis of the digital security (or rather, lack thereof) of one of these V16 beacons. Specifically, the Help Flash IoT model, which is especially striking because the person who distributed it is Vodafone and the operator confirmed months ago that it had sold more than 250,000 units in Spain. The document and its conclusions are worrying. Vulnerabilities everywhere. In his analysis Miranda explains that although the analysis only focuses on this device, “the security problems found in the communications part seem to be common to all devices.” Specifically, the errors found by this expert for that part were the following: Sending data in plain text– The beacon transmits exact GPS coordinates, IMEI and network parameters without any encryption. Anyone who intercepts the signal can read them. Lack of authentication and integrity: There are no mechanisms to verify that the server is legitimate or to ensure that the message has not been modified along the way. Susceptibility to false stations– It is possible to spoof a cell tower to intercept traffic, block alerts from being sent, or inject false data. Private APN Exposure– Although this beacons a private Vodafone network, the connection commands and keys are exposed on the debug port, making the network accessible to an attacker. The V16 Help Flash IoT beacon is a real trick. Image: Luis Miranda Acebedo. OTA updates, another disaster. The problems are not only limited to that part of the V16 beacon’s communication with the APN and the servers of each provider, but are also present in the OTA (Over-The-Air) update system: Insecure update: Simply press the power button for 8 seconds to activate a maintenance Wi-Fi network. The name (SSID) of the Wi-Fi and its password are identical (HF-UpdateAP-5JvqFV), they are “harcoded” in the firmware. Not only that: Miranda tested two different units and those credentials coincided, which leads him to think that they are the same in the 250,000 devices sold by Vodafone. unsecure HTTP: To download the new firmware, the HTTP protocol is used without further ado, not the secure version (HTTPS), allowing an attacker to intercept and modify the file in transit. No digital signature: The device does not verify the authenticity of the firmware, and accepts any file sent to it, allowing the installation of malicious software. DNS Spoofing– By not using DNSSEC it is trivial to trick the device into connecting to a fake server controlled by a cybercriminal. Open debug port: The port is also physically accessible without a password, allowing you to view all the logs and extract sensitive information from the hardware. Hacking a beacon is easy and cheap. The researcher explained that it is possible to buy a device that simulates a telephone antenna (500-1,000 euros). Using a Rasperry Pi 4 or a laptop, free software can be used to “intercept and manipulate the “secure” communications of these beacons.” After running a proof of concept, he managed to hack a beacon in 60 seconds and install malicious firmware that allowed him to have full control of the beacon. With this firmware it could send false locations, access the operator’s private APN, generate massive false alarms or turn the beacon into a brick. What Netun says. The company that manufactures these beacons, Netun Solutions, has sent out a press release to try to clarify these risks. Exposed data: The signature indicates that the beacon transmits geolocation, a device identifier and some technical parameters. They admit that this data can be exposed, but they emphasize that there is no transmission of personal data such as license plates or user IDs. Logical: they are not associated with the beacons. Plain text: Netun officials explain that the decision to send plain text was made to “guarantee long-term interoperability and robustness.” Private APN: It is also noted that the beacons connect through a private APN and a VPN from the operator, but Miranda explained how the connection parameters are exposed on the serial port. Physical access and removing the eSIM are enough for an attacker to connect to that private network. Netum in turn points out that physical access means that “the impact is limited to that specific unit.” OTA problems: Regarding the OTA functionality that also shows a vulnerability, Netun states that this function has been disabled through firmware updates. Improbable mass attacksFinally, those responsible point out that massive attacks could only be carried out by compromising a large number of beacons. They also explain that the Netun platform “limits the number of frames that each SIM can send” and the frequency of sending. What Vodafone says. At Xataka we have contacted Vodafone, and one of their spokespersons tells us the following: “The V16 beacons approved and marketed by Vodafone Spain constitute an adequate system that complies with current regulations for road emergency signaling. In particular, Help Flash IoT is certified in accordance with the regulations required by the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) for connected V16 beacons, meeting the necessary technical requirements in terms of visibility (sufficient light intensity), resistance, flash reliability, signal duration, etc. These requirements also include the data communication protocols of the beacon with the servers. The V16 beacons have internal security mechanisms and the Vodafone network provides an additional layer of security with controls that ensure that communication is made from the beacon authorized by the network. On the other hand, the beacons integrate NB-IoT connectivity, which guarantees that the beacon is only used for location in an emergency by authorized entities with the user’s knowledge. The communication that passes through Vodafone … Read more

The round of peace meetings in Ukraine has ended. Russia says it is “ready”, but for war with Europe

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The last two rounds of contacts between the Kremlin and Trump’s envoys have confirmed that the peace process for Ukraine is technically alive, but politically blocked. Putin took advantage of the arrival of the emissaries to launch a verbal offensive: Accused Europe of torpedoing peace, suggested the EU “is on the side of war,” and said Russia does not want a continental conflict but that if Europe starts one, “we are ready right now.” A trapped peace process. For Moscow, the talks are “very useful” as they allow it probe the limits Washington and explore what it is willing to sacrifice in exchange for a stable ceasefire. For the United States, they are an opportunity to zoom in positions without openly acknowledging that the original plan favored Russia too much and was unacceptable to kyiv. Five hours of meeting in Moscow served to review successive versions of the US document, but not to generate a “compromise option”: Russia accepts some elements, rejects others with a “critical and even negative attitude” and, above all, keeps intact its objective of translating its military advances in territorial gains formalized on paper. Moscow red lines. At the center of the disagreement is the territorial question. Moscow insists Ukraine must resign to 20% of Donetsk which he still preserves, while boasting (not without response from kyiv) of having taken Pokrovska key logistical hub that had been in operation for more than a year trying to capture with a great cost in lives and material. This insistence is not only cartographic: is part of a maximization logicin which victories at the front are used as an argument to tighten political conditions. Added to this are other structural requirements: deep cuts in the Ukrainian armed forces, severe limits on Western military aid and a fit of Ukraine into the Russian sphere of influence that would empty its formal sovereignty of content. In this context, talking about “progress” is, in reality, talk about margins: Washington explores how far it can give in without kyiv perceiving it as a capitulation, while Russia calculates how far it can stretch its demands without completely breaking the diplomatic channel that is useful to buy time and legitimize its narrative. Parallel diplomacy and mixed signals. Witkoff and Kushner’s role adds a ambiguity layer to the process. They are not classic diplomats, but political emissaries who operate in a gray zone between official diplomacy and American domestic politics. His presence in Moscow, after meeting with Ukrainians in Florida and reviewing a 28 point plan which initially tilted the board towards Moscow, sends several signals at once: kyiv is shown that Washington “listens” to its objections and tweaks the document, Moscow is made clear that the White House is willing to continue negotiating concession frameworks, and Europe is reminded that the decisive conversation remains, above all, Washington-Moscow. The Trump statement Calling the war a “mess” that is difficult to resolve fits with that approach: rather than a closed strategy, the administration seems to seek an agreement that reduces the political and economic cost of the war for the United States, although the final balance is very delicate for Ukraine. Europe as a scapegoat. The Putin’s words on Europe reveal a perfectly calculated strategy: presenting European capitals as the real obstacle to peace, accusing them of “being on the side of the war” and of preventing Washington from closing an agreement. By saying that “Europe is preventing the US administration from achieving peace in Ukraine,” the Kremlin is trying several things at the same time: put pressure on the Europeans to lower their demands, feed the fatigue of war in Western societies and drive a wedge between the United States and its allies, suggesting that Washington would be more flexible if it were not bound by “European demands.” The added threat that Russia “does not intend to fight Europe, but is ready if Europe starts” has a double effect: it works as a military warning and, at the same time, as an internal message to reinforce the idea of ​​a besieged Russia that only defends itself. The risk of being isolated. For Ukraine, cross-play is especially dangerous. Zelenskiy insists on receiving security guarantees “livable” for the future, that is, mechanisms that prevent a new Russian attack once an agreement has been signed. HE frontally opposes to any formula that forces him to give up territory that he currently controls or to reduce his army to levels that leave him defenseless. But, at the same time, it knows that a part of the European capitals and the American political class are seeking, with increasing urgency, an outcome that freezes the war and stabilizes the front, even if that enshrines a status quo very unfavorable for Ukraine. Its margin consists of supporting in the European bloc tougher (those countries that see a bad agreement as a disastrous precedent for continental security) and to remember that any credible reconstruction involves using frozen russian assets and for a framework of Western guarantees that makes another Kremlin attack politically unaffordable. Putin’s calculation of strength. The threats “cutting off Ukraine from the sea completely” and intensifying attacks on ports and ships entering them fit into a broader strategy: combine slow but steady advances in the Donbas with the ability to strangle the Ukrainian economy and make the protection of its maritime corridors more expensive. Each city taken or partially controlled serves the Kremlin as proof that time is in its favor and that it can rise the price of peace at each plan review. Editorials from related media, as Komsomolskaya Pravdareinforce this idea by presenting the negotiations as a scenario in which Russia can afford to tighten its conditions as “more and more Ukrainian territory” passes into its hands. The implicit message is clear: if the current proposals already seem harsh, the next round could be worse for kyiv if the war continues. Uncertainty. The final result is a peace process that formally remains open, but that moves on a dangerous … Read more

“Cozy games” were going to save us from stress and productivity. They have ended up being true slaves of leisure

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The promise of relaxing and clearing your mind for a few hours is what attracts us of the cozy games: those games that surround us with cute little animals, calm us with a comforting visual palette and give us repetitive and friendly tasks that make us escape from stress. It all seems very bucolic; You inherit a farm, plant flowers, decorate rooms or make dream furniture, with the promise of escaping for a few hours from the daily routine. However, that kind of digital refuge has become the materialization of what you wanted to escape from; in a second Google Calendar full of meetings, in a clone of your 9 to 5 job. And ‘Tiny Bookshop’ reaffirms it to us. Released this summer,’Tiny Bookshop‘ quickly became a hit within the crowded category cozy. The premise is clear: you arrive in a small, charming town with your new traveling bookstore project, which you can decorate with hundreds of possibilities. Through your relationship with the neighbors you manage to sell and recommend a large number of books and, in turn, discover all the secrets of the town. This entire initial point is more than striking for fans of the genre (like yours truly). After more hours than I would like to admit, I realized that I had fallen into the gaming trap again. cozy: dedicate hours and hours at a job. Underneath the adorableness of being able to paint everything in pastel tones or recommend ‘Jane Eyre’ to your clients, in the end you find that you have been searching for objects for a while to increase your sales, check the opening hours for the next day and be on the lookout to replenish the shelves with the right genre. You can call this cozybut I call it emulating another workday; and what’s worse, enjoying it. Recommend all kinds of books at ‘Tiny Bookshop’ At the beginning of the 2010s it became quite fashionable, sponsored by the gurus of Silicon Valleya trend called “gamification of work“Through video game or board game mechanics, missions, points or rewards were added within the daily routine of monotonous work tasks. It is worth asking if the cozy games They have done the opposite path, “trafficking” video games. It is true that, as is often the case with these cozy gamesit’s easy to have fun with them and immerse yourself fully in the story. The interactions are adorable, the characters are cute and they have that air of “afternoon movie” that makes them irresistible; but in the end we cannot ignore the fact that we are replicating tasks that we are supposed to escape from, such as spending hours and hours working. And yes, it all depends on the type of player you are and how you manage the objectives of the game, but the cozy games They rarely have to do with something comfortable or warm. We’ve romanticized even paying a mortgage We are not talking about a specific thing that happens with this new release, completing or performing the daily tasks of this style of games can be the least relaxing thing there is. With the pinnacle of the cozy‘stardew valley‘, the day doesn’t last long between milking the cows, collecting the eggs, making jam and going to the mine to get objects. Furthermore, as if it were real life itself, after all these tasks, you have to put on a good face and interact with your neighbors. Something similar happens with another of the big names in the category such as ‘Animal Crossing‘: you have to give objects to your island companions, cut down trees, plant flowers, fish and be attentive to the day the character who is in charge of buying your collection arrives, in order to get money and pay the mortgage. Yes, a mortgage on a beautiful house, but Tom Nook does not forgive the deadlines. After all this, it would be interesting to check the players’ heart rate when their character goes to sleep after completing all those tasks. Spend the day cutting down trees in ‘Animal Crossing’ By becoming something more mainstream and produce some sales more than substantial Since its rise in the pandemic, there are countless games that adopt the “cozy” to capture the public, even when its dynamics move away from what characterizes the genre. It is worth asking if within this label, the greatest exponents should not be games like ‘Abzu‘ either ‘Unpacking‘, where the “you don’t have to do anything” is strictly followed and the objectives do not have a timer. The contemplative and the mechanical is what is essential in these examples, honoring that part “cozy” of mental refuge with peace, serenity and tasks that are repeated over and over again. In fact, there is even metacriticism within this world. ‘Wanderstop‘, a tea shop simulator created by the visionary mind behind ‘The Stanley Parable‘, Davey Wreden. The game ironizes this fact with a character who invites you to attend to customer requests when it seems right to you, without rushing, because the last thing the protagonist needs is it’s more pressure. It is curious that most games cozy They deal with mental health or anxiety, but some have mechanics in line with this and others offer ones that are radically opposite to the feelings they seek to create in the player. The perversion of language, or the excessive use of a label such as “cozy” to sell more copies ends up producing a very specific reality: something is broken when the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about these comforting games is taking care of a farm or a supermarket, watering parsnips or paying for an extension to your house. Productivity as leisure Beyond the mechanics and quality of each of them, the addiction and fanaticism that they generate for us does nothing more than put ourselves in front of the mirror and expose the reality of our daily life: even with our leisure we want to be productive, … Read more

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