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Microsoft urges Entra ID admins to migrate users to passkeys

Microsoft again asked Entra ID administrators to migrate users to phishing-resistant methods to avoid sign-in disruptions before it retires SMS and voice authentication in February 2027.

This retirement process applies only to Microsoft Entra ID workforce tenant authentication scenarios and not to Azure AD B2C or Microsoft Entra External ID customer identity scenarios.

Before Microsoft retires SMS and voice authentication, admins should ensure all users in their organizations use a phishing-resistant method, since they will no longer be able to use them to complete multifactor authentication and log in to their accounts.

InfraTrust report warns of exploited flaws in critical network infrastructure

Attackers are actively exploiting vulnerabilities across critical network infrastructure, and PHP flaws known as “PHP2Shell” put the web management interfaces of firewalls, VPNs, application delivery controllers, and other appliances at risk.

The findings come from Eclypsium’s October InfraTrust Pulse, a monthly report tracking security advisories affecting network devices, servers, firmware, chips, and other infrastructure.

Between September 18 and October 14, InfraTrust tracked 133 new security advisories across 18 vendors, covering 2,813 vulnerabilities.

Chinese team finds 3 new planets, prompting new questions about Earth’s future

Chinese scientists have discovered three exoplanets that challenge the existing understanding of how planets evolve around aging stars, the research team behind the discoveries told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Like the sun, most stars generate light and heat by fusing hydrogen into helium in their cores. When their core hydrogen is exhausted, they eventually expand dramatically into red giants, potentially growing to hundreds of thousands or even millions of times their original volume. Nearby planets then face a grim fate: They may be directly engulfed by the stars’ expanding atmospheres or gradually pulled toward them by tidal forces until they eventually plunge into the stars, said Qian Shengbang, a professor at the School of Physics and Astronomy at Yunnan University and head of the research team.

However, the team has identified three exoplanets that appear to have survived in what current models predict to be a danger zone.

New blood test detects one of the deadliest cancers before scans can

A new blood test could detect cancer recurrence before scans are capable of picking it up.

New liquid biopsies may reliably detect the recurrence of lung cancer even in its earliest stages, and long before a tumor is large enough to appear on a scan.

That’s according to a study from NYU Langone Health and Grossman School of Medicine, where researchers detailed real-time genetic monitoring which accurately predicted the risk of lung cancer relapse.

Chornobyl dog population shows genetic signatures of directional selection

The latest research on the wild population of dogs in Chornobyl reveals that the genetic differences between these dogs and other similarly isolated dog populations are likely evidence of directional selection, not mutation. The work suggests a potential association between genetic selection and environmental variables and could advance understanding of local adaptation and genomic resilience in contaminated environments. The study appears in Genes.

Previously, researchers had looked at genetic differences in two populations of dogs: one located at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and the other in Chornobyl City, approximately 10 miles (16 kilometers) away. They found that the genetics of Chornobyl City dogs were very similar to dog populations in Russia, Poland and the surrounding areas, whereas those from the NPP had some distinct differences—specifically in regions associated with DNA repair.

“This work ties up some of the loose ends from our previous work, where in characterizing the population’s genetic structure we found that while these two dog groups are geographically very close, they have a very high degree of genetic difference, and those differences aren’t due to mutation,” said Megan Dillon, a postdoctoral research scholar at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

Gemini 4 Carbon: our next frontier model

🚀 Google Just Dropped Gemini 4 Carbon.

Just two weeks after launching Gemini 4 Argon, Google is already pushing the frontier further with Gemini 4 Carbon—their strongest model yet, featuring state-of-the-art capabilities built for long-horizon tasks, complex engineering, and heavy-duty problem solving.

Key Highlights:

* 1 on Artificial Analysis: It currently ranks #1 on the updated v5.0 Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

* Cybersecurity Powerhouse: Rolling out first to cyber defenders and trusted partners. It dominates vulnerability detection, exploitation validation, and root-cause patching (hitting top marks on SEC-bench Pro, ExploitGym, and CWE-bench).

* Long-Horizon & Persistence: Built for sustained agentic workflows—capable of running for days to tackle multi-step engineering tasks, track down bugs, and handle complex codebases.

* Massive Coding & Science Leap: Major improvements in full-stack web development (jumping to #4 on WebDev Arena) and a massive boost for scientific domains.

Continue reading “Gemini 4 Carbon: our next frontier model” | >