A Hacker Broke Into John Deere, SharkNinja With an Army of AI Agents

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: A hacker broke into more than 100 websites using an army of AI agents that mostly operated on their own, according to findings from the AI security firm Norforge. Though Norforge doesn’t name the targets, Reuters reports that the victims included companies like John Deere, SharkNinja, and Cummins.

[…] Researchers at Norforge uncovered the attacks through exposed work on Cairn, an open-source AI platform that describes itself as a “general-purpose problem-solving engine.” With Cairn, users set a start and end point for the AI agents, which document their progress as they move forward with the task. However, as noted by Norforge, hackers can also use the tool to orchestrate cyberattacks using AI agents.

The hacker who broke into more than 100 sites was the “most active” among the exposed Cairn instances discovered by Norforge, waging attacks on companies based in the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan, as reported by Reuters. This attacker laid out “preferred intrusion tactics” using fewer than 100 Chinese characters, with successful breaches taking about 23 hours, according to Reuters. Overall, Nordforge found more than 20 exposed Cairn instances that are “likely malicious.” A John Deere spokesperson said there is “no indication that sensitive information was accessed” as a result of the attack, while Cummins said it’s “investigating the report of a potential cyber-attack on a website operated by one of our third-party vendors.”

Meanwhile, SharkNinja says the breach impacted a standalone site with product support information, and that it has contained the threat.


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94.34 MPH: New World Record Speed On Skateboard

Because who hasn’t dreamed of reaching ludicrous speed with nothing between them and the pavement but their life flashing before their eyes, downhill skateboarding world champion Diego Ponceletrecently set a new Guinness World Record for fastest speed on a skateboard with an insane 151.83kph (94.34MPH). Diego rode the 18% grade of the Route des Éboulements in Quebec, Canada to achieve the speed, beating the previous record of 146.73kph (91.17MPH) set by Diego’s late friend Pete Connolly in 2017 (Diego said the record is a tribute to Pete, who was one of the few that believed 150kph was achievable).

In order to stop, Diego had to grab the side of the chase car (which thankfully didn’t become a run-over car) as it slowed down since he didn’t have brakes of his own. But the question remains: should we be going over 90MPH on skateboards? I suppose that depends on who you ask. If you ask me, I broke my arm trying to kickflip over a recycling bin in high school, so you won’t catch me doing even 5MPH on a skateboard. You can shoot me out of a cannon all day long though (night too if I have a fire hoop to aim for).

World record run starts at 14:30.

ReactOS reaches major milestone with NTFS install support

Open source Windows alternative ReactOS has reached a major milestone: The operating system can now be installed directly onto an NT Files System drive partition. As reported by Phoronix, the move to NTFS clears a long-standing hurdle for the project and brings it one step closer to finally reaching beta.

Prior to this latest announcement, ReactOS required users to keep a FAT32 partition for installations. A proprietary Microsoft-developed filesystem, NTFS can trace its roots back through the Windows NT family lineage starting in 1993 with Windows NT 3.1. The variant introduced with Windows XP in 2001 remains the standard used by most Windows systems today. With ReactOS’s stated goal of reaching binary compatibility with Windows Server 2003, being confined to FAT32 partitions was a practical barrier to clear on the way to reproducing the Windows environment.

However, users looking to hop off the Windows train shouldn’t be grabbing their bags just yet. ReactOS wrote that the new driver still “lacks caching (which causes inferior performance), journaling and security support.” So while the new driver is here, even the most intrepid of OS tinkerers should tread carefully. The ReactOS team warned in its announcement on X that there are still “potentially undiscovered bugs.”

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AI game clones are making indie developers afraid to show their work

Since its earliest days, the video game industry has been built on developers creating clones of competing games, with varying levels of originality and varying levels of enforcement from game platforms. Now, though, AI coding tools are making that cloning process so efficient that many developers are getting extremely cautious about sharing their early work too widely.

Developer Alliance Arts highlighted this trend over the weekend, delaying the launch of a planned public demo for its demon-themed Russian Roulette drinking game Drunken Goddess Reflex, which had been set to go live with today’s launch of Steam Next Fest.

In a post on social media Friday evening, the Alliance Arts team wrote that, in addition to concerns about managing streaming restrictions, “we’re concerned that the demo’s content could be used to quickly imitate or replicate the game’s presentation and gameplay with AI or other tools and that such works could be released before our launch.”

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Florida DMV Hacked After Police Dept Insecurely Stored Login Info

Florida’s DMV says a September 4 breach exposed driver’s license and motor vehicle records after attackers obtained credentials that a local law-enforcement employee had “improperly stored on an electronic device.” The ShinyHunters group has been linked to the intrusion. Ars Technica reports: In a notice posted Friday, [Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV)] confirmed that it took “immediate steps” after discovering that “a malicious actor accessed certain department records on September 4, 2026, using compromised credentials.” There’s “no evidence” that data has yet been misused, the department said, but law enforcement “determined the information potentially affected includes driver license and motor vehicle data, to include document images, and other personal information.”

[…] On a webpage describing the security incident, FLHSMV confirmed that an “international cybercriminal organization” was behind the breach but did not specify which group or how long they had access. Instead, officials claimed to have “promptly mitigated the breach, launched an investigation, and issued required notification to state authorities.” Mitigations included “blocking unauthorized access, resetting relevant user credentials, engaging cybersecurity professionals, and implementing additional safeguards to protect sensitive information,” FLHSMV said. Florida’s investigation is “ongoing,” officials said, but a cybercriminal group called ShinyHunters — which recently claimed credit for hacking the FBI — may have stolen the data. Florida residents affected by the breach will receive a letter offering one year of free credit monitoring through Sontiq, Inc. Those whose contact information is outdated can email the FLHSMV at customerinquiry@flhsmv.gov to determine whether their data was compromised.


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These Sennheiser Wireless Headphones Are 32% Off Right Now

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In a market where every year there is an expectation of releasing a new model, how long tech companies take to feel the need to upgrade a product is a testament to how good the product is. The Sennheiser Momentum 4 has been around since 2022, and they were only succeeded this summer with the Sennheiser Momentum 5. However, they are still great headphones, and with their $204.60 price (originally $299.99) after a 32% discount, they’re a great opportunity to get top-quality headphones at a more than reasonable price.

The Momentum 4 competes with other flagships from its time, including the Sony 1000XM5 and the Bose QuietComfort 45, in terms of comfort, design, audio quality, and other features. The Momentum 4 has a more bass-forward sound compared to its competition, but it’s still balanced. The biggest con is that you don’t have full EQ control, only being able to select certain presets from the Momentum app. The ANC is great, but not a match compared to the Sony and Bose competition. Where it does beat its competition is with the codecs it supports, including AAC, AptX, AptX Adaptive, and SBC codecs. This means better audio quality for Android devices than the Sony or Bose options.

The battery is powerful, reaching about 60 hours of juice at mid-level. It also has a 3.5mm audio cable, so you can use it wired. The microphone is perfect for making calls, with four-MEMS-mics helping make your voice stand out even in noisy environments. You can see more features from the Momentum 4 in PCMag’s “excellent” review. If you’re looking for a bargain on an established flagship headphone model without having to pay the premium in 2026, the Sennheiser Momentum 4 are a great pair to consider.

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Apple Announces October 28 ‘Pro and Tell’ Event

Following its October 13 HomeView launch, Apple is gearing up for its second hardware event of the month. The event is scheduled for October 28 in Los Angeles and carries the tagline “Pro and tell.” 9to5Mac reports: Rumors say Apple has a slew of new products to announce at its next event, headlining by its first MacBook Pro with a touchscreen and OLED. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, here’s what’s on the docket:
– New 14-inch and 16-inch touchscreen MacBook Pro models with OLED displays. They will also have a Dynamic Island for the first time and will be “significantly lighter” than the current models. The new MacBook Pro models are expected to be powered by the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.
– A revamped iPad mini with an OLED screen, a “revamped speaker system,” and a relocated FaceTime camera
– New iMac and entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro models powered by the M6 chip, which will “look like their current versions.”


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Startup taps underwater volcano as energy source in “proof point” test

The world’s first demonstration of a subsea geothermal power plant has taken place near an active underwater volcano almost a mile below the ocean surface. It generated less than 10 seconds of net-positive electricity but showed the technical feasibility of tapping another form of renewable energy underwater.

The three-week test deployment of the 3-ton prototype power plant took place at the Axial Seamount in the northeast Pacific Ocean in September. Endurance Energy, the Seattle-based startup behind the effort, aims to eventually commercialize subsea geothermal power for Pacific island nations and other customers looking for alternatives to importing expensive fossil fuels.

“The deep ocean gives us unlimited cold seawater for cooling, and its weight keeps the system and the well pressurized, so our plants can be compact,” said Andrew Redd, founder and CEO of Endurance Energy, in an email to Ars.

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Elon Musk Vows To Give a SpaceX Share To ‘Every Kid In America’

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Elon Musk has said he will give every child in America a stake in SpaceX, his $2 trillion aerospace and artificial intelligence company, as tech firms face intensifying scrutiny over their impact on society. “Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America,” he wrote on X on Monday. “This will be the first of many.”

SpaceX only began trading publicly in June (and after the biggest initial public offering in history). The company’s shares were trading for about $146 when the market closed on Friday. Musk’s proposal was thin on detail. It is not clear how those shares would be distributed to the tens of millions of American children or whether all of them would even be eligible. According to the United States Census Bureau, there are roughly 73 million people under the age of 18, making Musk’s potential giveaway worth about $10.7 billion at SpaceX’s current share price. The move came in response to Anthropic’s announcement on Sunday that it will commit at least 5% of its shares to a “Public Benefit Fund” that will donate money to social causes. “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public,” Musk said in a reply to Anthropic’s announcement. “This is what I will be doing.”


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