Agregátor RSS

In an era where digital transformation is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, cybersecurity has become a critical battleground for businesses and individuals. 2024 is shaping up to be a pivotal moment for the cybersecurity landscape, with emerging trends poised to redefine how we approach data protection, threat mitigation, and overall digital security.

Protínání českého nebe se leteckým společnostem od příštího roku prodraží. Státní podnik Řízení letového provozu (ŘLP) chystá zvýšení jednotlivých poplatků, které má předjednané s Evropskou komisí. Výjimku představuje pohyb po Letišti Václava Havla, kde poplatky naopak mírně sníží. V rozhovoru pro ...

Zkraje března sociálními sítěmi poprvé prolétly fotografie zvláštních dronů • Vedle nálože si nesly i cívku s mnoha kilometry optického vlákna pro komunikaci • Může něco takového vůbec fungovat?

Code signing involves approving applications, software code, scripts, or programs to authorize their origin. The goal is to ensure that the code is never tampered with. Certificate Authorities (CA) confirm the identity of the code-signing source and link a public key to a code-signing certificate.

Realme si připsalo další rekord • 320W SuperSonic Charge je nejrychlejší mobilní dobíjení na světě •4420mAh baterie se dobije za čtyři a půl minuty

Roky se pravidelně umísťuje v první desítce nejbohatších lidí světa, na růžích ale rozhodně ustláno neměl. Extravagantní multimilionář a zakladatel Oraclu Larry Ellison oslaví 17. srpna osmdesátiny.

E-shopy pro kutily se pomalu chystají na naskladnění nové generace prototypovací desky Raspberry Pi Pico 2, a tak přichází na řadu tradiční výprodej starých modelů. Rpishop.cz teď nabízí ve slevě první Raspberry Pi Pico za pouhých 79 korun. Za 79 Kč jej nabízí i Mironet. Raspberry Pi Pico za 79 ...

OpenAI on Friday said it banned a set of accounts linked to what it said was an Iranian covert influence operation that leveraged ChatGPT to generate content that, among other things, focused on the upcoming U.S. presidential election. "This week we identified and took down a cluster of ChatGPT accounts that were generating content for a covert Iranian influence operation identified as

OpenAI on Friday said it banned a set of accounts linked to what it said was an Iranian covert influence operation that leveraged ChatGPT to generate content that, among other things, focused on the upcoming U.S. presidential election. "This week we identified and took down a cluster of ChatGPT accounts that were generating content for a covert Iranian influence operation identified as Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Do AI jsme nahráli články, které na Živě vyšly v uplynulém týdnu • Požádali jsme o výběr nejzajímavějších témat a jejich shrnutí • Dnešní článek připravil Claude 3.5 Sonnet, obrázek je z Midjourney.

Ucelený přehled článků, zpráviček a diskusí za minulých 7 dní.

Švýcarští neurovědci sledovali mozky laboratorních myší, v nichž se utvářely nové vzpomínky. Jak se zdá, při ukládání každé vzpomínky se nezávisle zapojují tři skupiny neuronů, které vznikají v různou dobu zárodečného vývoje. Povaha těchto tří kopií se navzájem liší. Jak to asi funguje u lidí?

Names, addresses, Social Security numbers, more all out there

A Florida firm has all but confirmed that millions of people's sensitive personal info was stolen from it by cybercriminals and publicly leaked.…

Proteins are a bit like lights in your house. They have a job to do, and getting them to do it involves switching them on and off with other proteins or molecules.

But it’s much easier to flip the switch on a light. In the body, billions of years of evolution have generated a complex web of molecular signals that act as biological switches for proteins.

This week, a team led by Dr. David Baker at the University of Washington offered a shortcut.

Using AI, they designed proteins that reliably transform themselves in the presence of a molecular switch—dubbed an “effector.” These designer proteins, unknown in nature, contain hinges that allow them to bend and assemble into different structures when dosed with an effector, and then disassemble into individual components when the effector disappears.

It’s a “startling advance for the field,” wrote Dr. A. Joshua Wand at Texas A&M University, who was not involved in the work.

The team designed proteins that can morph into myriad dynamic arrangements, such as rings or cages, loosely mimicking the behavior of their biological peers—for example, how the blood protein hemoglobin assembles to carry oxygen.

Switchable proteins open a world of possibility. Cage-like proteins could carry medication through the body and then, with a molecular flick of the switch, open to release it, allowing triggerable drug delivery. Other designs could potentially monitor disease-causing molecules in the body or pollutants in the environment. In synthetic biology, they could form the basis of biological circuits, acting as tunable switches that can predictably change a cell’s behavior.

“By designing proteins that can assemble and disassemble on command, we pave the way for future biotechnologies that may rival even nature’s sophistication,” said Baker in a press release.

Proteins, Assemble

Proteins are the body’s workhorses. They build and run our bodies. Protein networks determine when cells divide, thrive, or die. Scientists have long relied on proteins to develop vaccines, cancer therapies, and treatments for brain and heart disorders.

Structure is a crucial attribute, especially for larger proteins made up of multiple components. They need a stable shape so they can grasp other proteins and trigger biological responses, but the shape must also be able to change depending on the cell’s needs.

It’s a bit like having planks of wood for multiple house-restoration projects. The planks can combine to make a table, a set of stairs, or a planter for the garden. Similarly, our cells assemble protein “planks” into a variety of shapes—but with a twist.

Take hemoglobin, a protein in the blood that carries oxygen. It’s made up of four protein planks, each able to grab onto oxygen. But they act as a team: When one plank latches onto oxygen, it’s easier for others to do the same.

This type of molecular collaboration has inspired scientists for nearly a century. Here, oxygen is the effector. It flips a protein switch, helping proteins better carry oxygen through the body. In other words, it may be possible to optimize protein functions with an alternative effector drug.

The problem? The original inspiration is wonky. Sometimes hemoglobin proteins carry oxygen. Other times they don’t. In 1965, a French and American collaboration found out why. Each protein alternates between two three-dimensional shapes—one that carries oxygen and another that doesn’t. The shapes can’t coexist in the assembled protein to carry oxygen: It’s all-or-none, depending on the presence and amount of the effector.

The new study built on these lessons to guide their AI-designed proteins.

Shape Shifters

The team tapped several advances in recent years—most of which they’ve led.

One is the use of AI to predict protein structure. Another is the design of a hinge-like protein that changes its shape to take on two different forms (a bit like a biological transistor). The last is an AI that can stitch protein “planks” together into structures.

The team first used AI to design a group of flexible proteins, each with a hinge and two ridged arms. This setup keeps the protein’s structure stable, but lets it bend at the hinges. The hinge does double duty: It’s also a sensor. In the presence of an effector molecule, the protein changes its shape from a flat plank to a hinged “V” shape.

As a proof of concept, the team synthesized multiple AI-generated proteins and tested them in the lab. In one of these, the proteins formed a ring-like structure when given a customized effector made of peptides, or small protein chunks.

In another test, they designed a protein that grabbed onto another similarly shaped protein in the presence of an effector. Processes like this are often used by cells to change their inner workings, and in synthetic biology, they’re switches that trigger a molecular response—for example, turning genes on or off or altering the fate of a cell. Nearly 40 percent of these designer proteins dissolve in water, making them more compatible with our bodies.

Going further, the team designed a protein with two hinges connected by a short loop. In the presence of an effector, the proteins twisted in a way that mimicked hemoglobin.

Finally, they explored ways to disassemble the proteins.

“This addresses a major current protein design challenge,” wrote the authors.

A useful tool might form a cage that carries and releases a payload of medicine when encountering specific signals in the body. Choosing from the proteins in their repertoire, the team engineered a different effector that broke the cage back down into its components.

Similarly to how proteins assemble in our bodies, the engineered proteins also had the “amp-up” effect, in that grabbing onto an effector made it easier for other components to do the same—in a virtuous cycle. However, the proteins developed in the study are all unknown to nature, opening a new space “unexplored by natural evolution,” wrote the team.

They could be adapted into controllable nanomaterials or drug packaging systems that unleash cargo with a trigger. Other uses include biosensing, which can make cell therapies—such as those for cancer—more traceable, and protein nanobots that morph into different structures.

Still, many challenges remain.

This type of regulation “in nature is much more varied and complicated,” wrote Wand. Whether AI-designed proteins can fully capture the shape-shifting capabilities of natural proteins remains to be seen.

Image Credit: Baker Lab

Attacker locked out all staff for four days

The cryptocurrency offshoot of reality TV and entrepreneurship show Unicorn Hunters has confirmed that an unknown attacker compromised its G-Suite, locking all staff out of their accounts.…

Long before Taco Tuesday became part of the pop-culture vernacular, Tuesdays were synonymous with security — and for anyone in the tech world, they still are.  Patch Tuesday, as you most likely know, refers to the day each month when Microsoft releases security updates and patches for its software products — everything from Windows to Office to SQL Server, developer tools to browsers.

The practice, which happens on the second Tuesday of the month, was initiated to streamline the patch distribution process and make it easier for users and IT system administrators to manage updates.  Like tacos, Patch Tuesday is here to stay.

In a blog post celebrating the 20th anniversary of Patch Tuesday, the Microsoft Security Response Center wrote: “The concept of Patch Tuesday was conceived and implemented in 2003. Before this unified approach, our security updates were sporadic, posing significant challenges for IT professionals and organizations in deploying critical patches in a timely manner.”

Patch Tuesday will continue to be an “important part of our strategy to keep users secure,” Microsoft said, adding that it’s now an important part of the cybersecurity industry.  As a case in point, Adobe, among others, follows a similar patch cadence.

Patch Tuesday coverage has also long been a staple of Computerworld’s commitment to provide critical information to the IT industry. That’s why we’ve gathered together this collection of recent patches, a rolling list we’ll keep updated each month.

In case you missed a recent Patch Tuesday announcement, here are the latest six months of updates.

August: Patch Tuesday means patch now

Microsoft pushed out 90 updates in its August Patch Tuesday release, including fixes for five Windows zero-days (CVE-2024-38178, CVE-2024-38193, CVE-2024-38213, CVE-2024-38106, CVE-2024-38107) and one zero-day affecting Office (CVE-2024-38189). This means a “Patch Now” recommendation for both Windows and Microsoft Office. Microsoft offered several (pretty useful) mitigations and recommendations to reduce the impact of these security issues. More info on Microsoft Security updates for August 2024.

July: 4 zero-day flaws

This July’s Patch Tuesday from Microsoft addressed a significant number of vulnerabilities, including four zero-day threats.  Here’s a quick rundown: Microsoft released updates for SQL Server, with patches for Windows, Office, .NET, and Visual Studio. It also released four critical updates for Windows, including patches for Hyper-V and MSHTML. There’s one critical update for Office’s SharePoint platform.
More info on Microsoft Security updates for July 2024.

June: Relatively quiet on major updates

This month’s Patch Tuesday brought mostly low-risk updates with no reported zero-day vulnerabilities. Key areas addressed include changes to Secure Boot (requiring third-party driver testing), code integrity policies (needing verification for Windows Defender features), and core Windows systems (necessitating broad application testing). While there were no critical updates for Office or Exchange Server, some updates to Visual Studio require attention for developers.
More info on Microsoft Security updates for June 2024.

May:  3 zero-day vulnerabilities signal ‘patch now’ alert

This month’s Patch Tuesday highlights three critical zero-day vulnerabilities affecting Windows PCs and requiring immediate patching  — that is,  identified as “patch now.” Some updates like those to Office and Edge browsers follow standard release schedules, but be aware of a critical update for SharePoint Server.  Developers need to aware o a late addition to the update cycle affecting the Azure Agent, requiring attention for Azure-based virtual macHines. Testing is crucial this month, especially for core Windows features like the Common Error Log, DNS, cryptography and routing services.
More info on Microsoft Security updates for May.

April: Microsoft showers users with 149 patches

April’s Patch Tuesday was a complex one, especially for SQL-dependent applications. This hefty Patch Tuesday from Microsoft included 149 updates. While there were no zero-day vulnerabilities, key areas addressed include crypto APIs, networking and remote desktop connections. A major update to the Kerberos security system removes Windows 11 from the affected list, highlighting the importance of staying updated. For developers, 11 updates target the development platform, with 10 focused on SQL ODBC issues and 1 on .NET. While the .NET update can be added to the standard schedule, the ODBC updates require careful examination.
More info on Microsoft Security updates for April.

March: It’s a complicated Patch Tuesday

This month’s Patch Tuesday from Microsoft was complex. There were no reported zero-day vulnerabilities, but a number of updates, particularly those affecting SQL, OLE and ODBC components, underscore the importance of a thorough evaluation. Key areas of focus include file management, cryptography, networking, remote desktop connections, and SQL-related functionalities. Given the interconnectedness of these systems, organizations should prioritize testing across their application portfolios to identify potential impacts. The update to the Kerberos security system is noteworthy, as it removes support for certain Windows 11 versions.
More info on Microsoft Security updates for March.

February : Outlook and Exchange Server hit with updates

February’s Patch Tuesday from Microsoft was significant with a critical combination of vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server, both actively exploited. These updates required immediate patch now. While most updates are rated important and can be added to standard release schedules, pay close attention to the recently exploited Windows SmartScreen vulnerability and update Windows immediately. For developers, core .NET and Visual Studio updates require standard release schedule inclusion. A new SignalR library was introduced for real-time web functionality in ASP.NET.
More info on Microsoft Security updates for February.