Betterment has confirmed a data breach affecting around 1.4 million customers after a January 2026 social engineering attack on a third-party platform. Attackers used the access to send fraudulent crypto scam messages posing as official promotions.
The breach occurred after an employee was tricked into sharing login credentials, allowing unauthorised access to internal messaging systems rather than core investment infrastructure. Attackers used the access to send messages promising to multiply cryptocurrency deposits sent to external wallets.
Subsequent forensic analysis and breach monitoring services confirmed that more than 1.4 million unique records were exposed. Betterment said investment accounts and login credentials were not compromised during the incident.
Exposed information included names, email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, dates of birth, job titles, location data, and device metadata. Security experts warn that such datasets can enable targeted phishing, identity fraud, and follow-on social engineering campaigns.
Betterment revoked access the same day, notified customers, and launched an external investigation. The breach was formally added to public exposure databases in early February, highlighting the growing risk of human-focused attacks against financial platforms.
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Germany has launched one of Europe’s largest AI factories to boost EU-wide sovereign AI capacity. Deutsche Telekom unveiled the new ‘Industrial AI Cloud’ in Munich, in partnership with NVIDIA and Polarise.
Designed to deliver high-performance AI computing for industry, research, and public institutions, the platform keeps data operations under European jurisdiction. Company executives described the project as proof that Europe can build large-scale AI infrastructure aligned with its regulatory and sovereignty goals.
The AI factory runs on nearly 10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, providing up to 0.5 exaFLOPS of computing power. Telekom said the capacity would be sufficient to support hundreds of millions of users accessing AI services simultaneously across the EU.
Officials in Germany framed the AI factory initiative as a strategic investment in technological leadership and digital independence. The infrastructure operates under German and EU data protection rules, positioning compliance and security as core competitive advantages.
Industrial applications are central to the project, with companies such as Siemens integrating simulation tools into the platform. The AI factory also runs on renewable energy, uses river water cooling, and plans to reuse waste heat within Munich’s urban network.
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Built using Gemini and advanced Google DeepMind models, the system analyses the biomechanics behind high-speed freestyle skiing and snowboarding manoeuvres.
Traditional motion capture required specialised suits and controlled lab environments. Google’s platform converts smartphone footage into biomechanical analysis, mapping body positioning, trick amplitude, and edge control within minutes.
Coaches and athletes can query performance data conversationally for immediate insight.
Near real-time delivery marks a significant shift in training methodology. Analysis can be reviewed on the slopes shortly after a run, enabling faster technical adjustments.
The technology is also supporting athlete preparation for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, where marginal gains can determine podium outcomes.
Applications extend beyond winter sports. Similar AI biomechanics systems could support physical rehabilitation, robotics engineering, and industrial safety environments where precision movement analysis is essential.
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The UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has partnered with Microsoft to develop AI agents to help university students find jobs. The initiative was announced in Dubai during a major policy gathering in the UAE.
The collaboration in the UAE will use Microsoft Azure to build prototype AI agents supporting personalised learning and career navigation. Dubai-based officials said the tools are designed to align higher education with labour market needs in the UAE.
Four AI agents are being developed in the UAE, covering lifelong skills planning, personalised learning, course co creation and research alignment. Dubai remains central to the project as a hub for higher education innovation in the UAE.
Officials in the UAE said the partnership reflects national priorities around innovation and a knowledge based economy. Microsoft said Dubai offers an ideal environment to scale AI driven education tools across the UAE.
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Researchers in the United States have shown that an AI-enabled digital stethoscope detected moderate to severe valvular heart disease more than twice as often as traditional tools during routine clinical exams.
The study assessed 357 patients aged 50 and above in primary care settings, using both conventional and AI-assisted stethoscopes. Sensitivity rose from 46.2 percent with traditional listening to 92.3 percent with the AI-enabled device.
Valvular heart disease affects a large proportion of older adults but frequently remains undiagnosed due to subtle or absent symptoms and limitations of conventional auscultation during busy clinical practice.
The digital stethoscope records high-fidelity heart sounds and applies machine-learning models to identify acoustic patterns associated with valve abnormalities, helping clinicians make early screening decisions.
US researchers noted a small drop in specificity that could increase false positives, but argued that earlier detection could reduce complications, hospital admissions, and long-term healthcare costs.
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The system shifts away from transaction-centric blockchain models.
Enterprise adoption has faced regulatory friction, with estimates suggesting nearly 90% of pilots fail to reach production. COBI embeds institutional policy and regulatory controls directly into execution, ensuring transactions occur only after compliance validation.
The architecture operates through four layers covering process logic, compliance policy, system orchestration, and blockchain execution. Integrations span banking infrastructure, ERP platforms, and settlement networks without requiring system replacement.
Designed for financial and sovereign use cases, COBI supports cross-border payments, CBDCs, and tokenised assets. ZenithBlox is raising USD 8 million to scale deployments and certifications.
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Substack confirmed a data breach that exposed user email addresses and phone numbers. The company said passwords and financial information were not affected. The incident occurred in October and was later investigated.
Chief executive Chris Best told users the vulnerability was identified in February and has since been fixed, with an internal investigation now underway. The company has not disclosed the technical cause of the breach or why the intrusion went undetected for several months.
Substack also did not confirm how many users were affected or provide evidence showing whether the exposed data has been misused. Users were advised to remain cautious about unexpected emails and text messages following the incident.
The breach was first reported by TechCrunch, which said the company declined to provide further operational details. Questions remain around potential ransom demands or broader system access.
Substack reports more than 50 million active subscriptions, including 5 million paid users, and raised $100 million in Series C funding in 2025, led by BOND and The Chernin Group, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and other investors.
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European lawmakers remain divided over whether AI tools that generate non-consensual sexual images should face an explicit ban in the EU legislation.
The split emerged as debate intensified over the AI simplification package, which is moving through Parliament and the Council rather than remaining confined to earlier negotiations.
Concerns escalated after Grok was used to create images that digitally undressed women and children.
The EU regulators responded by launching an investigation under the Digital Services Act, and the Commission described the behaviour as illegal under existing European rules. Several lawmakers argue that the AI Act should name pornification apps directly instead of relying on broader legal provisions.
Lead MEPs did not include a ban in their initial draft of the Parliament’s position, prompting other groups to consider adding amendments. Negotiations continue as parties explore how such a restriction could be framed without creating inconsistencies within the broader AI framework.
The Commission appears open to strengthening the law and has hinted that the AI omnibus could be an appropriate moment to act. Lawmakers now have a limited time to decide whether an explicit prohibition can secure political agreement before the amendment deadline passes.
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Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Asari AI have introduced EnCompass, a framework designed to enhance how AI agents interact with large language models.
The system improves agent performance by automatically backtracking when errors occur and running multiple execution paths in parallel to identify the most effective outcome.
Programming AI agents traditionally requires extensive additional code to handle model mistakes. EnCompass removes that burden by embedding retry and search logic directly into execution.
Developers annotate key decision points, allowing the framework to explore alternative reasoning paths while preserving the agent’s original workflow structure.
Efficiency gains appear significant. Trials show coding effort for search implementation reduced by as much as 80%, while accuracy in code translation tasks improved between 15% and 40%.
Researchers demonstrated the framework’s ability to optimise repository translation and rule discovery across complex digital systems.
Future applications extend to large-scale software maintenance, scientific experimentation, and engineering design. Presented at NeurIPS, EnCompass positions structured search as key to advancing reliable, high-performance AI agent systems.
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The German competition authority has fined Amazon €59 million for abusing its dominant position by influencing the pricing behaviour of third-party sellers.
Regulators concluded that Amazon’s pricing algorithms and Fair Pricing Policy breached national digital dominance rules and the EU competition law, rather than aligning with fair marketplace standards.
The authority argued that Amazon competes directly with merchants on its platform while shaping their prices through restrictions such as caps that penalise sellers who exceed certain limits.
Officials described that approach as incompatible with healthy competition since a platform should not influence rivals’ commercial strategies while participating in the same market.
Amazon strongly disputed the ruling and claimed the conclusion conflicts with the EU consumer standards. The company argued that the decision forces the platform to promote prices that fail to reflect competitive market conditions and announced it will challenge the findings.
The case follows a 2025 preliminary assessment and builds on Amazon’s earlier designation in 2022 as a company of paramount significance for competition, a judgement upheld by the Federal Court of Justice in Germany in 2024.
A ruling that marks another step in Europe’s efforts to rein in digital platforms that wield extensive influence across multiple markets.
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