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Circular polarization could cut laser backscatter in fusion experiments

Experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) require breathtaking precision. Each of the 192 lasers is focused to a width of a few millimeters to enter a 3-millimeter hole at the top or bottom of a 2-centimeter (0.8-inch) gold canister known as a hohlraum.

As they enter, the beams intersect in plasma and transfer power, a process known as crossed-beam energy transfer (CBET). In designing a NIF inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiment, scientists precisely tune the beams’ wavelengths to balance power via CBET and achieve better symmetry.

Small changes in wavelength have delivered big results—CBET is one key factor in achieving ignition on NIF. But what would be the effect of a more significant change in the laser architecture, namely its polarization state? LLNL scientists have calculated that this change would make the optics more resilient to filamentation damage.

Laser pulses set layered metals vibrating 1 trillion times per second, revealing electron-driven motion

How does light turn into motion within a metal? A team of researchers from European XFEL, the University of Potsdam and other participating institutions has shown that ultrashort optical laser pulses can trigger extremely rapid lattice vibrations in periodically layered metal structures—not primarily by heating the atomic lattice, but through the pressure exerted by hot electrons. The results are published in Nature Communications.

In the study, platinum and copper layers just a few nanometers (millionths of a millimeter) thick were stacked to form an artificial metal lattice. After being excited by a laser pulse, the artificial crystal lattice began to oscillate at around one terahertz: At a rate of roughly one trillion times per second, the platinum nanolayers expand and squeeze the copper layers. The oscillation, which begins immediately, is too rapid to be explained by conventional lattice heating via heat transfer from the electrons.

“That surprised us,” says Jan-Etienne Pudell of European XFEL. “The oscillation is not caused by the pressure of the heated lattice, but by electron pressure, particularly in the platinum layers.”

Scientists Let People Play Video Games Using Only Their Thoughts

Researchers developed a brain-controlled gaming system that learns from the brain’s natural wiring, enabling fast BCI training and potentially transforming medicine, mental health, and human-computer interaction. It may not be long before video game controllers become optional. Researchers at

Klue OAuth breach linked to ‘Icarus’ Salesforce data theft attacks

Market intelligence platform Klue suffered a OAuth breach that enabled the “Icarus” threat actors to steal Salesforce CRM data from multiple organizations in an ongoing extortion campaign.

Sources told BleepingComputer of the attack yesterday, telling us that numerous organizations had their Salesforce data stolen and were now being extorted by the relatively new extortion group.

Cybersecurity firms ReliaQuest and Huntress have both published reports confirming the security incident, with Huntress stating that their Salesforce data was stolen in the attack.

Police cleans nearly 15,000 SocGholish-infected sites tied to Evil Corp

International law enforcement agencies cleaned nearly 15,000 malware-infected WordPress websites and took down more than 100 servers linked to the SocGholish botnet and the Evil Corp Russian cybercrime group.

This joint action (supported by Europol and Eurojust) was part of Operation Endgame, a major law enforcement operation targeting cybercrime now aimed at disrupting a key infection chain linked to Evil Corp.

Authorities from the Netherlands (NHCTU), Canada (RCMP), the United States (FBI), and Germany (BKA) cleaned SocGholish malware infections from 14,971 compromised WordPress websites and took 106 servers and domains offline.

ShapedPlugin update flow hacked to infect WordPress sites

Multiple WordPress plugins from ShapedPlugin were compromised in a supply chain attack that distributed infected releases to paying customers via the vendor’s official update system.

The malware delivered this way installed a fake plugin that impersonates WooCommerce components, steals credentials, and grants operators remote file-writing capabilities.

ShapedPlugin is a WordPress plugin vendor specializing in front-end/UI components and content display plugins, with a total active installation base of more than 400,000 for the free products.

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