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Zoom Stealer browser extensions harvest corporate meeting intelligence

A newly discovered campaign, which researchers call Zoom Stealer, is affecting 2.2 million Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge users through 18 extensions that collect online meeting-related data like URLs, IDs, topics, descriptions, and embedded passwords.

Zoom Stealer is one of three browser extension campaigns that reached more than 7.8 million users over seven years and are attributed to a single threat actor tracked as DarkSpectre.

Based on the used infrastructure, DarkSpectre is believed to be the same China-linked threat actor behind the previously documented GhostPoster, which targeted Firefox users, and ShadyPanda, which delivered spyware payloads to Chrome and Edge users.

US cybersecurity experts plead guilty to BlackCat ransomware attacks

Two former employees of cybersecurity incident response companies Sygnia and DigitalMint have pleaded guilty to targeting U.S. companies in BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware attacks in 2023.

33-year-old Ryan Clifford Goldberg of Watkinsville, Georgia (in federal custody since September 2023), and 28-year-old Kevin Tyler Martin of Roanoke, Texas, who were charged in November, have now pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct commerce by extortion and are set to be sentenced on March 12, 2026, facing up to 20 years in prison each.

Together with a third accomplice, the two BlackCat ransomware affiliates breached the networks of multiple victims across the United States between May 2023 and November 2023, paying a 20% share of ransoms in exchange for access to BlackCat’s ransomware and extortion platform.

TSMC officially begins 2nm chip volume production in Q4 2025

Taipei, Dec. 30 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s leading advanced chipmaker, officially began volume production of its 2-nanometer chips in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to a recent update on the company’s website.

The low-key announcement confirms that TSMC met its original roadmap for the next-generation technology. Production is currently centered at Fab 22 in Kaohsiung, utilizing the company’s first-generation nanosheet transistor technology. The new architecture achieves “full-node strides in performance and power consumption,” the website said.

The company described the 2nm process as the most advanced in the semiconductor industry in terms of transistor density and energy efficiency, adding that it is designed to “address the increasing need for energy-efficient computing,” particularly for AI and mobile applications.

Time runs faster on Mars and scientists just proved it

Thanks to Einstein’s relativity, time flows differently on Mars than on Earth. NIST scientists have now nailed down the difference, showing that Mars clocks tick slightly faster—and fluctuate over the Martian year. These microsecond shifts could play a big role in future Mars navigation, communications, and even a solar-system-wide internet. It’s a small time gap with big consequences for space exploration.

Multi-omics analyses reveal DjTcf4 critical for proper timing of differentiation in planarian regeneration

Wang et al. integrated ST-seq, scRNA-seq, and scATAC-seq data to profile transcriptional and chromatin dynamics in D. japonica head blastema at 5 dpa. They pinpointed the DjTcf4 gene network acting as a master transcription regulator to ensure cells rebuild complex structures like eyes in the right place and time.

Pathogenic Variants in Hypertrophic and Dilated Cardiomyopathies

Polygenic scores for hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies independently and oppositely modified disease risk and penetrance of pathogenic variants, supporting bidirectional genetic influences on Cardiomyopathy.

Question How is risk of hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy modified by polygenic background?

Findings In this cross-sectional study including 49 434 individuals in the Penn Medicine BioBank, polygenic scores for hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies were associated with clinical and echocardiographic measures relevant to both diseases and inversely modified the penetrance of pathogenic variants.

Meaning The findings indicate that polygenic background exists on an overlapping, opposing spectrum and may contribute to hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy susceptibility.

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