A measles outbreak in South Carolina that began in October is now wildly accelerating, doubling in just the past week to a total of 434 cases , with 409 people currently in quarantine.

Amid the outbreak, South Carolina health officials have been providing updates on cases every Tuesday and Friday. On Tuesday, state health officials reported 124 more cases since last Friday, which had 99 new cases since the previous Tuesday. On that day, January 6, officials noted a more modest increase of 26 cases, bringing the outbreak total at that point to 211 cases .

With the 3-month-old outbreak now doubled in just a week, health officials are renewing calls for people to get vaccinated against the highly infectious virus—an effort that has met with little success since October. Still, the health department is activating its mobile health unit to offer free measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccinations, as well as flu vaccinations at two locations today and Thursday in the Spartanburg area, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Read full article

Comments

Microsoft has fixed a vulnerability in its Copilot AI assistant that allowed hackers to pluck a host of sensitive user data with a single click on a URL.

The hackers in this case were white-hat researchers from security firm Varonis . The net effect of their multistage attack was that they exfiltrated data, including the target’s name, location, and details of specific events from the user’s Copilot chat history. The attack continued to run even when the user closed the Copilot chat, with no further interaction needed once the user clicked the link in the email. The attack and resulting data theft bypassed enterprise endpoint security controls and detection by endpoint protection apps.

It just works

“Once we deliver this link with this malicious prompt, the user just has to click on the link and the malicious task is immediately executed,” Varonis security researcher Dolev Taler told Ars. “Even if the user just clicks on the link and immediately closes the tab of Copilot chat, the exploit still works.”

Read full article

Comments

Since the days of Wolfenstein 3D and Doom , the humble first-person shooter has flourished in myriad and complex directions. The genre has expanded in narrative and gameplay terms to include everything from sprawling sci-fi epics to dense objectivist allegories to multiplayer-focused military free-for-alls and practically everything in between.

Sometimes, though, you just want an excuse to shoot a bunch of weird little guys in weird little spaces.

Don't get too close, now... they do bite. Credit: Oddcorp

For those times, there is Oddcore , a new Early Access, roguelike boomer shooter that is a stark contrast to the more sprawling self-serious shooters out there. The game's combination of frenetic, quick-moving action, semi-randomized scenarios, and well-balanced risk/reward upgrade system makes for a pick-up-and-play shooter that I find myself struggling not to pick up and play for a few more quick-hit sessions even as I write this.

Read full article

Comments

The FBI searched a Washington Post reporter's home and seized her work and personal devices as part of an investigation into what Attorney General Pam Bondi called "illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor."

Executing a search warrant at the Virginia home of reporter Hannah Natanson on Wednesday morning, FBI "agents searched her home and her devices, seizing her phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch," The Washington Post reported . "One of the laptops was her personal computer, the other a Washington Post-issued laptop. Investigators told Natanson that she is not the focus of the probe."

Natanson regularly uses encrypted Signal chats to communicate with people who work or used to work in government, and has said her list of contacts exceeds 1,100 current and former government employees. The Post itself "received a subpoena Wednesday morning seeking information related to the same government contractor," the report said.

Read full article

Comments

The US House of Representatives, that glorious and efficient gathering of We the People, has been hit with yet another scandal.

Like most (non-sexual) House scandals, the allegations here involve personal enrichment. Unlike most (non-sexual) House scandals, though, this one involved hundreds of government cell phones being sold on eBay—and some rando member of We the People calling the US House IT help desk, which blew the lid on the whole scheme.

Only sell "in parts"

According to the government's version of events , 43-year-old Christopher Southerland was working in 2023 as a sysadmin for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. In his role, Southerland had the authority to order cell phones for committee staffers, of which there are around 80.

Read full article

Comments

After weeks of sexualized images of women and children being generated with Grok with very limited interventions from Elon Musk's xAI, California Attorney General Rob Bonta plans to investigate whether Grok's outputs break any US laws.

In a press release Wednesday, Bonta said that "xAI appears to be facilitating the large-scale production of deepfake nonconsensual intimate images that are being used to harass women and girls across the Internet, including via the social media platform X."

Notably, Bonta appears to be as concerned about Grok's standalone app and website being used to generate harmful images without consent as he is about the outputs on X.

Read full article

Comments

The prices that Americans paid for subscription- and rental-based access to video streaming services and video games increased 29 percent from December 2024 to December 2025, according to data that the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released on Tuesday.

According to the BLS, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), which BLS says represents over 90 percent of the US population across the country, for all items “increased 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustment.”

The CPI-U for “subscription and rental of video and video games” includes subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming services, like Netflix and Disney+, and "one-time rental of video and video game media. These may be rented or subscribed to through physical copy, streaming, or temporary download," BLS says . For comparison, "cable, satellite, and live streaming television service [such as YouTube TV and Sling]" saw 4.9 percent inflation last year.

Read full article

Comments

Civilization VII is coming to the iPhone and iPad, Apple and publisher 2K announced today.

Formally titled Sid Meier's Civilization VII Arcade Edition , it is developed by Behaviour Interactive with input from original developer Firaxis Games.

Neither announcement makes any mention of a non-Arcade version, so this appears to be exclusively part of the subscription.

Read full article

Comments

On Tuesday, Bandcamp announced on Reddit that it will no longer permit AI-generated music on its platform. "Music and audio that is generated wholly or in substantial part by AI is not permitted on Bandcamp," the company wrote in a post to the r/bandcamp subreddit. The new policy also prohibits "any use of AI tools to impersonate other artists or styles."

The policy draws a line that some in the music community have debated: Where does tool use end and full automation begin? AI models are not artists in themselves, since they lack personhood and creative intent. But people do use AI tools to make music, and the spectrum runs from using AI for minor assistance (cleaning up audio, suggesting chord progressions) to typing a prompt and letting a model generate an entire track. Bandcamp's policy targets the latter end of that spectrum while leaving room for human artists who incorporate AI tools into a larger creative process.

The announcement emphasized the platform's desire to protect its community of human artists. "The fact that Bandcamp is home to such a vibrant community of real people making incredible music is something we want to protect and maintain," the company wrote. Bandcamp asked users to flag suspected AI-generated content through its reporting tools, and the company said it reserves "the right to remove any music on suspicion of being AI generated."

Read full article

Comments