There were about 16,790 active satellites in low Earth orbit as of today, with nearly 2 out of every 3 belonging to Starlink—raising collision and Kessler-syndrome concerns at roughly 17,000 miles per hour per satellite.
Sep 18, 2026 ·
CNET
Activating Sst-Chodl neurons—about 1% of inhibitory neurons in the mouse visual cortex—can put mice to sleep and increases slow-wave activity, with stimulation raising delta power across every cortical layer and cutting the time to fall asleep.
Sep 18, 2026 ·Ars Technica
Visa and Mastercard agreed to a $167.5 million settlement covering roughly 19 years of non-bank ATM surcharges and access fees, with cash payments to eligible cardholders depending on the number of valid claims filed.
Sep 18, 2026 ·
Yahoo Finance
The National Archives removed an open-source Alibaba Qwen AI search tool from the Federal Register website after it was publicly noticed and questioned by the FBI and lawmakers, and the service had been available for at least a day (noted via a September 15 screenshot and Wednesday removal).
Sep 18, 2026 ·Ars Technica
Microsoft released out-of-band hotfixes to address Patch Tuesday bugs, including Excel 2016 paste operations failing (update 5002665), Remote Desktop Services instability causing RDP connection failures or hangs at “Please wait for the Remote Desktop Configuration” (KB5129194), and restored USB Audio Class 1.0 sound and unresponsive volume controls.
Sep 18, 2026 ·
Computerworld
Okta reported fiscal second-quarter 2027 revenue of $805 million (+11% year over year) and raised its fiscal 2027 revenue outlook to $3.216 billion–$3.226 billion (10%–11% growth), with total RPO rising 17% to $4.86 billion and current remaining performance obligations up 14% to $2.59 billion.
Sep 18, 2026 ·Yahoo Finance
North Korea-linked WaterPlum recruiters used fake interview coding tests to infect more than 30,000 devices and steal at least $10.71 million, after compromising over 7,000 cryptocurrency wallets.
Sep 18, 2026 ·
The Register
FBI IC3 says law-enforcement and government impersonation scams cost victims more than $1.6 billion since January 2025, with close to 61,000 complaints through July 2026 and average losses of more than $26,000 per complaint.
Sep 18, 2026 ·The Register
The FBI and U.S. Coast Guard boarded two U.S.-bound oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico from August 21 to August 24 after hackers reportedly compromised at least one ship’s networks and took control of navigation, propulsion, and cargo systems, with the agencies reporting no operational disruptions, vessel instability, physical danger to crews, or environmental impacts.
Sep 18, 2026 ·
TechCrunch
An independent Starling Advisory Group review says Fed supervisory staff knew Silicon Valley Bank’s key vulnerabilities as early as March 2022 but did not act promptly and decisively, in part due to a culture of risk aversion and unclear decision rights about who could be certain an intervention was correct.
Sep 18, 2026 ·Yahoo Finance
Microsoft says Edge’s Internet Explorer (IE) Mode is guaranteed support only through the end of 2029, with customers receiving one year’s notice before it is retired.
Sep 18, 2026 ·The Register
Orion’s $2,195 AI-enabled mattress pad cools during sleep and gradually warms back to room temperature by wake-up time, and the reviewer reports sleeping better over a few months of use.
Sep 18, 2026 ·TechCrunch
GhostCode device-code phishing lets attackers steal Microsoft OAuth authentication tokens, register attacker-controlled devices, and obtain a Primary Refresh Token (PRT) that provides SSO-equivalent access to a victim’s Microsoft 365 environment for the PRT’s lifetime (14 days by default).
Sep 18, 2026 ·Computerworld
Siri Recap on Apple Watch frames Apple’s approach to AI-augmented ambient audio as keeping personal data, audio recordings, and transcripts from being stored, while relying on privacy “guardrails” rather than obtaining consent from everyone who could be exposed.
Sep 18, 2026 ·Computerworld
Calendar-based malware attacks rose sharply, increasing 282% in June from the prior month, 338% in July, 1,216% in August, and is projected to increase 2,852% in September over August.
Sep 18, 2026 ·
ZDNet
Hacktron AI security researchers used Anthropic’s Claude to chain two vulnerabilities in Discourse’s image-processing pipeline and gain access to multiple OpenAI employee ChatGPT accounts, demonstrating that an unflagged ImageMagick/libheif bug (fixed months earlier but without a CVE) could still be exploitable.
Sep 18, 2026 ·TechCrunch
Microsoft’s hotfix restores working Excel pasting for Excel 2016, after a prior security update caused paste operations to fail silently.
Sep 18, 2026 ·The Register
The UK government is weighing whether to invoke a break clause on Palantir’s £330 million, seven-year NHS Federated Data Platform contract next spring, as concerns grow over the “revolving door” after Tom Watson’s new Palantir senior vice president role.
Sep 18, 2026 ·The Register
A new NWS tool, the Transient Artifact and Continuous Learning System (TACLS), is designed to use satellites and machine learning to give forecasters earlier flash-flood risk signals—potentially improving warnings before people are already flooded.
Sep 18, 2026 ·
The Verge
CrowdStrike’s 2026 Global Threat Report says AI-enabled adversary activity surged 89% year-over-year as attackers moved at “machine speed.”
Sep 18, 2026 ·Yahoo Finance
