Apple’s CVE-2026–65400 Screen Sharing flaw is under active exploitation on internet-exposed Macs to install a Monero miner.
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Hacker claims 3.6 million Azure account records stolen from major companies
A threat actor is selling employee databases allegedly stolen from the Microsoft Azure infrastructure of multiple Fortune 500 companies after gaining access using compromised credentials.
Starting July 31st, multiple posts from someone using the alias “TheHatman” advertised data dumps from major organizations, including McDonald’s, Gap Inc., Vodafone, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, InterContinental Hotels (IHG), and Kyndryl.
In total, the threat actor claims to have 3.64 million data records, with the most recent breach posted on Sunday, containing an alleged 1.7 million employee records from McDonalds.
Microsoft confirms GitHub is down worldwide
GitHub is down for some users as a widespread outage is causing errors across the website, API, Actions, Pull Requests, and several other services.
GitHub confirmed the outage at 9:40 AM EDT on August 17, 2026, when it said it was investigating reports of performance problems affecting some of its services.
The problems quickly spread across several parts of GitHub that developers rely on, including API Requests, Actions, Webhooks, Issues, and Pull Requests.
Astrocytes directly regulate brain circuits involved in memory consolidation
Research has shown that a good night’s sleep has many benefits, including memory consolidation. How sleep enables the brain to strengthen memories is still not completely understood, but a new study published in Neuron reveals how astrocytes, brain cells known for supporting neurons and their functions, can directly regulate brain circuits involved in memory consolidation.
The work may have implications for epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders associated with memory problems. Furthermore, the findings provide evidence that astrocytes are much more than support cells for neurons – they also seem to directly regulate brain function.
“Astrocytes have been implicated in learning and memory and in sleep regulation,” said the corresponding author. “In the current study, we investigated how their roles in sleep facilitate the storage of memories.”
MIT engineers connect bacteria to create living transistors
MIT researchers have engineered bacteria that can function as transistors, allowing the team to create living “circuit boards” that can be printed onto a growth medium in a Petri dish.
In electrical circuits, transistors function as switches that can turn current on or off. In the biological circuits that the researchers have created, bacterial switches control the flow of small molecules, which send signals to downstream circuit components.
The research team designed two different transistors, along with three bacterial strains that relay information between the transistors, giving them the building blocks they need to design nearly any type of circuit. In a new study, they used these cells to create circuits that can add two or three inputs, or send one input to a specific location in the circuit.
NASA’s Starling Mission Opens New Frontiers in Space Navigation
NASA’s Starling mission has marked another milestone in spacecraft autonomy by using a new system that determines a satellite’s position in orbit by referencing other objects in space, instead of relying on a navigational network.
The FALCON (Fast Autonomous Lost-in-space Catalog-based Optical Navigation) technology demonstration is a step toward spacecraft being able to operate more independently. As NASA prepares for more missions beyond Earth’s orbit, technologies like FALCON can support lunar satellite swarms, distributed science missions, and human exploration.
Traditional satellite navigation depends on GPS signals, but those can be unreliable or unavailable in lunar or deep space environments. The FALCON payload is a joint flight experiment by NASA and EraDrive, a startup spun out from Stanford University. It combines EraDrive’s Era-Core flight software and embedded algorithms with Starling’s cameras and an onboard catalog of known satellites to support GPS-independent navigation and space situational awareness.
Next Generation of Planetary Scientists Learn Public Engagement Skills
The NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Community of Practice for Education (SCoPE) – part of the NASA Science Activation (SciAct) Program portfolio – enables Earth and Space Science and Engineering Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) – especially NASA-funded SMEs – to efficiently and effectively share their science with support from SciAct education experts.
In Summer 2026, NASA SCoPE partnered with Arizona State University’s Facility for Open Research in a Compressed Environment (FORCE) Summer School to help seven undergraduate student interns build the science communication skills needed to share their research with a variety of audiences. FORCE is a world-class laboratory that uses high-pressure experimental equipment to recreate the extreme conditions found deep within Earth and other planetary bodies, enabling researchers to better understand how planets form, evolve, and behave under immense pressures.
As part of the Summer School, SCoPE facilitated two hands-on workshops on June 25 and 26, followed by office hours the following week, to help interns translate their technical research into compelling stories for non-expert audiences. The training focused on identifying the central themes of their work, developing clear and engaging messages, planning effective visitor interactions, and thinking through the logistics of public engagement. Interns also received guidance on preparing both their research posters and individual outreach stations.
