Key TakeawaysThe European Commission demands internal documentation and access to Xs commercial APIs related to content moderation and account virality.The investigation accused Musk of meddling in German politics by expressing support for AfD in a livestream ahead of Germanys February 23 elections.Initial findings of the commission suggest that Elon Musks DSA-defined VLOP has not fulfilled its obligations, pointing to issues like paid-for verification.The European Commission has intensified its investigation against Elon Musk-owned X for potential violations of the EUs Digital Services Act (DSA). It has now demanded access to Xs recommendation algorithms, along with data about any recent changes made to it, by February 15, 2025.The commission has demanded Xs commercial APIs and Internal documentation related to content moderation and account virality. The requested APIs include certain technical interfaces that allow direct fact-finding. This is intended to help the Commission service in the complex assessment under the DSA of systemic risks and their mitigation.In addition to that, a retention order has been passed requiring these documents to be preserved for the period between 17 January 2025 and 31 December 2025 except if the commissions ongoing investigation is concluded before that.We are committed to ensuring that every platform operating in the EU respects our legislation, which aims to make the online environment fair, safe, and democratic for all European citizens. Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and DemocracyAs for the DSAs initial investigation, it was found that X, formerly Twitter, is the platform with the largest ratio of mis/disinformation posts, alleging that the platform failed to meet its responsibilities as a VLOP (very large online platform), as defined by DSA.VLOPs are search engines or platforms that have more than 45 million users per month.The Underlying Political ContextThis investigation was initiated after EC claimed that X had been used to disseminate disinformation about the Hamas/Israel conflict through fake/ manipulated images, leading to the circulation of false news among the masses and violence.Recently, Musk hosted a livestream with AfDs Chancellor candidate, Alice Weidel, and publicly expressed his support for the party. This involvement in German local politics was frowned upon by politicians like Chancellor Olad Scholz who described this meddling as completely unacceptable.This controversy raised suspicions about whether X has been favoring pro-AfDs posts on the platform. However, when asked about the timing correlation between the investigation and elections, Thomas Regnier, EUs spokesperson, denied the claims. He said that these steps are independent of political considerations or any specific recent events.He further clarified that Musks interference has nothing to do with this decision. This investigation is only to gain additional information to understand Xs recommender systems better.Germanys election is to be held on February 23. Itll be interesting to see if DSA is able to find something fishy in this whole investigation in the limited time it has from 15-23 February and take action to stop it.Add Techreport to Your Google News Feed Get the latest updates, trends, and insights delivered straight to your fingertips. Subscribe now! Subscribe now Vlad is Tech Report's Executive Editor. With over a decade of experience in tech content, he's passionate about computer hardware, an advocate of online privacy, and strongly believes in the open-source, scarce-money nature of cryptocurrency.When hes not working, hes traveling with his partner and their cat, learning Python, or reading good books. He never owned a PC he did not build. View all articles by Vlad Melnic Our editorial processThe Tech Reporteditorial policyis centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written byreal authors.

In brief: Dasung, the company behind many popular and cutting-edge e-ink products, has just launched a new portable display called the Paperlike 103. What's interesting about this 10.3-inch screen is that despite using e-ink technology, it offers a 60Hz refresh rate. While e-ink monitors offer some benefits over the usual LCD models, they tend to come with low refresh rates of anything between 10Hz and 40Hz. Dasung's Paperlike 103 offers a more typical 60Hz refresh rate. While that's pretty much unheard of in today's world of gaming monitors that are reaching up to 750Hz, it's still a big improvement over the usual slow e-ink screens.As for its other specs, the Paperlike 103 features a 1,872 x 1,404 resolution and a 4:3 aspect ratio. There's also a dual-tone front light with adjustable warm, cool, and mixed light settings, designed to reduce eye strain when staring at the screen for hours on end.The Paperlike 103 also comes with Auto-Clear technology for reducing ghosting, capacitive touch support for screen navigation, and an ultra-thin aluminum alloy CNC body. There are several physical buttons, too, for altering the likes of the brightness and turning the screen on and off.Connectivity is via Type-C, allowing users to connect to computers, phones, and other devices. There's support for Windows and Linux, along with different screen modes such as mirroring and extending. Sina reports that the display costs 1,999 yuan, which is $273.In addition to the paper-like display and no blue light emission that make them great for reading, e-ink monitors only use power during screen updates, meaning they consume little power. They're also glare-free and offer excellent outdoor visibility.While we now have several color e-ink monitors, these colors are still lacking in their accuracy compared to traditional monitors. There are also the lower resolutions and lack of backlighting, which can make them hard to read in dim environments.Pushing e-ink monitors' refresh rates to 60Hz could encourage more adoption. The Dasung Paperlike 103 isn't the first to boast this spec: the Modos Paper Monitor from last year also reaches 60Hz. // Related StoriesDasung launched what it called the world's first color e-ink monitor in 2023 for $1,650. A year later, it introduced a portable variant for $850.

In brief: We've heard plenty of reports about Apple AirTags and Tile trackers being used by people to find stolen items. It's a trend that hasn't gone unnoticed by Colorado's Arvada Police department, who are giving the trackers away for free to members of the public in a bid to reduce car thefts. Since their arrival in 2021, AirTags have been popular among both those committing crimes and those trying to prevent them. CBS Colorado reports that the Arvada Police Department has a lot of faith in the devices' ability to track stolen cars, which is why it has been giving them out free.Although the report focuses on Apple's AirTags, the APD also handed out Tile trackers during its first giveaway (the next one will take place in April).Those who receive a AirTag or Tile also get a sticker for their vehicle that warns would-be thieves that it is tracker-equipped and can be tracked by police if stolen. The report notes that the police do not have access to the car owner's tracker location once it is installed in a vehicle it will be up to the owner to provide location details to police if their vehicle is stolen.A single Apple AirTag costs $29, or $99 for a four pack. The Tile Mate is $25 for a single pack, the Tile Slim is $35, and a two pack of Tile Pro trackers is $60. It's unclear how many tracking devices the police force is giving away, but the department no doubt believes the cost of investigating vehicle thefts is higher than buying a few hundred trackers.Ironically, there were reports in 2021 of thieves placing AirTags on cars parked in public places. The devices were attached to out-of-sight spots, including trailer hitches, bumpers, and gas caps. Thieves then tracked the vehicles until they stopped in a suitable location to steal, such as the victims' residences. // Related StoriesWe've also seen stories about AirTags being used by the DEA to track suspected narcotics equipment. One was used to find a lost $8,000 bike, a carpenter turned to the devices to locate a stash of stolen tools worth millions, and a victim tracked down mail thieves through the tracking tech. On the flip side, a 2024 study showed tracking devices were frequently used in organized crime and by domestic violence perpetrators.

Foldable phones are great, but one crucial aspect where they leave buyers second-guessing whether they should spend so much on a new device is their weak resilience against the elements. Take the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, which is stuck at IP48, good enough for basic immersion in water only. Moreover, it is not dust-tight, either.Oppos imminent foldable phone and OnePlus too, by that extension will be sturdy enough to take it in the bath, the shower, or the occasional underwater video capture session, as well. The next from Oppo, dubbed the Find N5, has officially been confirmed to offer IPX6, IPX8, and IPX9 full-grade waterproofing.Oppo / WeiboAs per the ingress protection system established by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), Level 9 protection for liquid ingress means the device is protected against high-pressure temperature and water jets. Thats the best weve seen on a foldable phone, or even a regular slab phone, so far.Recommended VideosIn a series of posts shared on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, an Oppo executive confirmed that the upcoming foldable phone will not only be the worlds thinnest foldable phone but also one that can handle exposure to fast-moving water with ease.Please enable Javascript to view this contentIn addition to upgrading the ingress protection of its upcoming foldable phone, Oppo is finally fixing another sore mistake support for wireless charging, and in quite an emphatic fashion too.Oppo / WeiboThe Oppo Find N5 will offer support for 50W wireless charging, matching the OnePlus 13, and far surpassing what Apple or Samsung have to offer on their flagship phones. The phones chassis is made out of titanium, matching the approach Apple introduced with the iPhone 15 Profor the metals superior strength and heat dissipation virtues.Oppo will launch the Find N5 next month, and based on the brands historically close ties with its sister brand, the upcoming OnePlus Open 2 will most likely be a rebadged version of the former. As far as the design language goes, Oppo is once again chasing a square-ish format for the inner foldable panel, while the outer cover display retains its pocketable format, as well.Oppo / WeiboNotably, it was not just the fantastic hardware that made the Oppo and OnePlus devices some of the best foldables out there. The two companies also did a fantastic job with optimizing the software for a large-screen Android experience.The Open Canvas system, in particular, is still one of the best split-screen app multi-tasking implementations out there, even better than what Apple has to offer with iPadOS on its pricey tablets. With the kind of improvements we have already seen on OxygenOS 15, the Oppo Find N5 is shaping up to be one of the best foldable phones of the year.Editors Recommendations

Marketing materials for the Galaxy S25 Ultra have leaked that confirm quite a few features, along with other leaks that hint about the phones eventual price. Known tipster Evan Blass released a slew of S25 Ultra marketing materials that highlight several interesting features. The materials focus heavily on the camera quality, citing a feature called the ProScaler as a way to take high-resolution photos. The materials also talk about the cameras Night Video with Audio Eraser ability, which helps you take more clear nighttime videos. After youve finished recording, you can use the onboard AI to cut out unwanted voices, noise, wind sounds, bird chirps, the hum of a crowd, and even music.Joe Maring / Digital TrendsOne feature that hasnt been talked about much is the Smart Switch tool, which makes it easy to move your content from one device to another. Gone are the days when transferring assets to a new phone required professional intervention; you can now do it yourself with just a few clicks. It comes as no surprise thatAI is one of the biggest features, but it is concerning that the fine print lists only one year of free AI features. The Galaxy S24 is promised two years of free features, so its curious that Samsung isnt extending the trial period for the same length of time.Recommended VideosHow much will the new Galaxy S25 cost? The initial price for the Galaxy S25 series will remain the same as the S24 series, at least in South Korea. FNNews reports that it is [Samsungs] policy to bear the cost burden for domestic consumers, despite various unfavorable conditions such as rising component prices and exchange rates. The 512GB model will be more expensive than the previous generation, according to the report.Please enable Javascript to view this contentUnfortunately, we dont have pricing estimates for the U.S. market. In Europe, the base models might have a similar freeze as in South Korea, but Indian prices look to be higher. Well officially find out all the details tomorrow at the Galaxy Unpackedevent.Editors Recommendations

burnout Southern California wildfires likely outpace ability of wildlife to adapt Even species that evolved with wildfires, like mountain lions, are struggling. Liza Gross, Inside Climate News Jan 21, 2025 10:35 am | 3 A family of deer gather around burned trees from the Palisades Fire at Will Rogers State Park on Jan. 9 in Los Angeles. Credit: Apu Gomes/Getty Images A family of deer gather around burned trees from the Palisades Fire at Will Rogers State Park on Jan. 9 in Los Angeles. Credit: Apu Gomes/Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAs fires spread with alarming speed through the Pacific Palisades region of Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 7, a local TV news crew recorded a mountain lion trailed by two young cubs running through a neighborhood north of the fire. The three lions were about three-quarters of a mile from the nearest open space. Another TV crew captured video of a disoriented, seemingly orphaned fawn trotting down the middle of a street near the Eaton Fire in Altadena, her fur appearing singed, her gait unsteady.Firefighters are still struggling to contain fires in Los Angeles County that have so far destroyed thousands of homes and other structures and left more than two dozen people dead. Fires and the notorious Santa Ana winds that fuel their spread are a natural part of this chaparral landscape.But a warming world is supercharging these fires, experts say. Climate change is causing rapid shifts between very wet years that accelerate the growth of scrubland grasses and brush, leading to whats known as excessive fuel loading, that hotter summers and drier falls and winters turn into easily ignited tinderbox conditions. The area where the fires are burning had the singularly driest October through early January period we have on record, said climate scientist Daniel Swain during an online briefing last week.Its too soon to know the toll these fires have taken on wildlife, particularly wide-ranging carnivores like mountain lions. But biologists worry that the growing severity and frequency of fires is outpacing wildlifes ability to adapt.State wildlife officials dont want people to provide food or water for wild animals, because it can alter their behavior, spread disease, and cause other unintended effects. What wildlife need right now, they say, is to reach safe habitat as fast as they can.Wildlife living at the interface of urban development already face many challenges, and now these fires have deprived them of critical resources, said Beth Pratt, California National Wildlife Federation regional executive director. Animals that escaped the flames have lost shelter, water, and food sources, all the things they need to survive, she said. The fires are even wiping out many of the plants butterflies and other pollinators need to feed and reproduce, she noted.Connecting isolated patches of habitat with interventions like wildlife crossings is critical not only for building fire resilience, Pratt said, but also for protecting biodiversity long term.Mountain lions and other wildlife adapted to the wildfires that shaped the Southern California landscape over thousands of years.Many animals respond to cues that act as early warning signs of fire, using different strategies to avoid flames after seeing or smelling smoke plumes or hearing tree limbs crackle as they burn. Large animals, like mountain lions and deer, tend to run away from advancing flames while smaller species may try to take cover.But now, with major fires happening every year around highly urbanized areas like LA, they cant simply move to a nearby open space.Daniel Blumstein, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and others have exposed animals to fire-related sensory cues in experiments to study their responses.A variety of different species, including lizards, hear or smell these cues and modify their behavior and take defensive action to try to survive, said Blumstein.If youre a lizard or small mammal, he said, getting underground in something like a burrow probably protects you from fire burning above you.But the magnitude and rapidity of these sorts of fires, and the rapidity of these fires particularly, you cant do anything, said Blumstein. I expect lots of wildlife has been killed by this fire, because it just moved so fast.Helping wildlife during emergenciesWildlife experts urge California residents not to provide food or water for wildlife during emergencies like the LA fires. Attracting wildlife to urban areas by providing food and water can have several unintended negative consequences.Fire events often leave many concerned citizens wondering what they can do to help displaced or injured wildlife, said California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Krysten Kellum. The agency appreciates people wanting to help wild animals in California, she said, offering the following recommendations to best help wildlife during emergencies:Please DO NOT provide food or water to wildlife. While this may seem well intentioned, the most critical need of wildlife during and after a wildfire is for them to find their way to safe habitat as quickly as possible. Stopping for food or water in fire zones and residential areas poses risks to them and you. Finding food and water in a specific location even one time can permanently alter an animals behavior. Wildlife quickly learns that the reward of receiving handouts from humans outweighs their fears of being around people. This often leads to a cycle of human-wildlife conflicts, which can easily be avoided.CDFW also advises leaving wild animal rescue to trained professionals. If you find an orphaned, sick, or injured wild animal after a fire event, report the sighting to local CDFW staff by emailing details to R5WildlifeReport@wildlife.ca.gov. You can also contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. For a list of licensed rehabilitators, visit the CDFW website.Just as human defenses didnt work against flames fanned by winds moving 100 miles an hour, he said, things animals might do might not be effective for something traveling so fast.Tuesday night, Jan. 7, Blumstein saw the Eaton Fire burning in the mountains around Altadena, about 30 miles northeast of his home in the Santa Monica Mountains. When he woke up later in the night, he saw that the whole mountain was on fire.You cant run away from that, he said.An evolutionary mismatchThe Los Angeles region is the biggest metropolitan area in North America inhabited by mountain lions. City living has not been kind to the big cats.If they dont die from eating prey loaded with rat poison, lions must navigate a landscape so fragmented by development they often try to cross some of the busiest freeways in the world, just to find food or a mate or to avoid a fight with resident males.Its a lethal choice. About 70 mountain lions are killed on California roads every year, according to the UC Davis Road Ecology Center. The Los Angeles region is a hotspot for such deaths.Roads are the highest source of mortality in our study area, said Jeff Sikich, a wildlife biologist with the National Park Service who has been studying the impacts of urbanization and habitat fragmentation on mountain lions in and around the Santa Monica Mountains for more than two decades.Sikich and his team track adults and kittens that they implant with tiny transmitters. In 2023, one of those transmitters told him a three-month-old kitten had been killed on a road that cuts through the Santa Monica Mountains.The kittens caught on video following their mom near the Palisades Fire are probably about the same age.Lions living in the Santa Monica Mountains are so isolated from potential mates by roads and development, Sikich and other researchers reported in 2022, they face a high risk of extinction from extremely low levels of genetic diversity.We dont have many lions radio collared now, but there is one adult male that uses the eastern Santa Monica Mountains, where the Palisades Fire is, Sikich said. I located him on Monday outside the burn area, so hes good.Most of the animals dont have radio collars, though, so Sikich cant say how theyre doing. But if they respond to these fires like they did to previous conflagrations, theyre likely to take risks searching for food and shelter that increase their chances of fatal encounters andif these types of fires persistextinction.We learned a lot after the Woolsey Fire that happened in 2018 and burned nearly half of the Santa Monica Mountains and three-quarters of the Simi Hills, said Sikich.Sikich and his team had 11 lions collared at the time and lost two in the Woolsey Fire. One of the cats just couldnt escape the flames, Sikich said. A second casualty, tracked as P-64 (P is for puma), was a remarkably resourceful male nicknamed the culvert cat because hed managed to safely navigate deadly roadways to connect three different mountain ranges within his home range. P-64, an adult male mountain lion, travels through a tunnel under Highway 101, heading south toward the Santa Monica Mountains in 2018. Credit: National Parks Service P-64, an adult male mountain lion, travels through a tunnel under Highway 101, heading south toward the Santa Monica Mountains in 2018. Credit: National Parks Service The cat traversed a long, dark tunnel under Highway 101, used by more than 350,000 cars a day, to reach a small patch of habitat north of the Santa Monica Mountains. Then he used another tunnel, made for hikers and equestrians, to reach a much larger open space to the north. But when the fire broke out, he didnt have time to reach these escape routes.Sikich could see from P-64s GPS collar that he was in the Simi Hills when the fire started. He began heading south, but ran smack into a developed area, which adult males do their best to avoid, even without the chaos of evacuations and fire engines.So he had two options, Sikich said. He could have entered the urban area or turned around and go back onto the burnt landscape, which he did.A few weeks later, Sikich got a mortality signal from P-64s radio collar. We didnt know at the time, of course, but when we found him, he had burnt paws, he said. So he died from the effects of the fire.The cat was emaciated, with smoke-damaged lungs. His burnt paws hindered his ability to hunt. He likely starved to death.When the team compared collared cats 15 months before and after the fire, they saw that the surviving cats avoided the burned areas. Lions need cover to hunt but the area was just a moonscape, Sikich said. The loss of that habitat forced the cats to take greater risks, likely to find food.Mountain lions tend to be more active around dawn and dusk, but after the fire, collared cats were more active during the day. That meant they were more likely to run into people and cross roads and even busy freeways, Sikich and his team reported in a 2022 study. On Dec. 3, 2018, National Park Service researchers discovered the remains of P-64, who survived the flames of the Woolsey Fire but died a few weeks later. The lion was emaciated and likely starved to death, unable to hunt with burnt paws. Credit: National Park Service On Dec. 3, 2018, National Park Service researchers discovered the remains of P-64, who survived the flames of the Woolsey Fire but died a few weeks later. The lion was emaciated and likely starved to death, unable to hunt with burnt paws. Credit: National Park Service We expect animals, in the long run, to adapt to the environments in which they live, said Blumstein, who contributed to the study. In California, they adapted to coastal chaparral fires but not to fires in a fragmented habitat dominated by development. And when animals adapt to something, there can be mismatches between what they see as attractive and whats good for them, he explained.Historically, being attracted to dense vegetation might have been a good thing, but if the only dense vegetation left after a fire is around peoples houses, that may not be a good thing, he said.Two cats tracked after the fire died of rodenticide poisoning and another was killed by a vehicle.The cats also traveled greater distances, which put young males at greater risk of running into older males defending their territory. The cat who died on the road was the first to successfully cross the 405 interstate, the busiest in the nation, from the Santa Monica Mountains into the Hollywood Hills. Sikich knew from remote cameras that an adult male had lived there for years. Then after the fire, surveillance footage from a camera in a gated community caught that dominant male chasing the young intruder up a tree, then toward the freeway.He tried to head back west but wasnt lucky this time as he crossed the 405, Sikich said.Add climate change-fueled fires to the list of human activity thats threatening the survival of Southern Californias mountain lions.Counting on wildlife crossingsWhen the Woolsey Fire took out half of the open space in the Santa Monica Mountains, it placed considerable stress on animals from mountain lions to monarchs, said Pratt of the National Wildlife Federation. These massive fires underscore the urgent need to connect isolated patches of habitat to boost species ability to cope with other stressors, especially in an urban environment, she said.Studies by Sikich and others demonstrated the critical need for a wildlife crossing across Highway 101 to connect protected habitat in the Santa Monica Mountains with habitat in the Simi Hills in the north. It was at a tunnel underneath the 101 connecting those two regions that Sikich first saw the culvert cat, the lion with burnt paws who perished in the Woolsey Fire.More than 20 years of research highlights the importance of connectivity in these fire-prone areas, he said, so animals can safely get across the freeways around these urban areas.Pratt helped raise awareness about the need for a wildlife crossing through the #SaveLACougars campaign. She also helped raise tens of millions of dollars to build the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, aided by P-22, the mountain lion who became world-famous as the Hollywood cat. P-22 lived his life within an improbably small 8-square-mile home range in LAs Griffith Park, after crossing two of the nations busiest freeways.The crossing broke ground in 2022, the same year wildlife officials euthanized P-22, after they determined the 12-year-old cat was suffering from multiple serious injuries, likely from a vehicle strike, debilitating health problems, and rodenticide poisoning.Wildlife crossing and connectivity projects dont just address biodiversity collapse, they also boost fire and climate resilience, Pratt said, because they give animals options, whether to escape fire, drought, or roads.Thinking of fire as something to fight is a losing battle, she said. Its something we have to coexist with. And I think that we are making investments that are trying to take out a reliance on fossil fuels so that the conditions for these fires are not so severe, she said, referring to Californias targets to slash greenhouse gas emissions within the next 20 years.Even with the inbreeding and lethal threats from cars and rat poison, Sikich sees reason to be hopeful for the Santa Monica lion population.For one thing, he said, were seeing reproduction, pointing to the mom with kittens seen above the Palisades fire and new litters among the females his team is following. And the amount of natural habitat we do have is great, he said, with plenty of deer and cover for hunting. Thats why we still have lions.This story originally appeared on Inside Climate News.Liza Gross, Inside Climate News 3 Comments

While the push for digital transformation has been underway for years, many enterprises still have legacy technology deeply ingrained in their tech stacks. In many cases, these systems are years or even decades old but remainintegral to keeping a business operational. Simply ripping them out and replacing them is often not a plausible quick fix.It's actually quite hard to fully demise previous versions of technology as we adopt new versions, and so you end up with the sort of layering of various ages of all the technologies, says Nick Godfrey, senior director and global head, office of the CISO at Google Cloud.Given that continued use of legacy systems comes with risk, why are legacy systems still so common today? How can enterprise leaders manage that risk and move forward?A Universal ChallengeIn 2019, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified 10 critical federal IT legacy systems. These systems were 8 to 51 years old and cost roughly $337 million to operate and maintain each year.Government is hardly the only sector that relies on outdated systems. The banking sector uses COBOL, a decades-old coding language, heavily. The health care industry is rife with examples of outdated electronic health record (EHR) systems and legacy hardware. One survey found that 74% of manufacturing and engineering companies use legacy systems and spreadsheets to operate.Related:If we talk about banking, manufacturing, and health care, you would find a big chunk of legacy systems are actually elements of the operational technology that it takes to operate that business, says Joel Burleson-Davis, senior vice president of worldwide engineering, cyber at Imprivata, a digital identity security company.The cost of replacing these systems isnt simply the price tag that comes with the new technology. Its also the downtime that comes with making the change.The hardest way to drive the car is when you're trying to change the tire at the same time, says Austin Allen,director of solutions architecture at Airlock Digital, an application control company. You think about one hour of downtime you can be talking about millions of dollars depending on the company.A survey conducted by commercial software company SnapLogic found that organizations spent an average of $2.7 million to overhaul legacy tech in 2023.As expensive as it is to replace legacy technology, keeping it in place could prove to be more costly. Legacy systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks and data breaches. In 2024, the average cost of a data breach is $4.88 million, according to IBMs Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024.Related:Evaluating the Tech StackThe first step to assessing the risk that legacy systems pose to an enterprise is understanding how they are being used. It sounds simple enough on the surface, but enterprise infrastructure is incredibly complicated.Everybody wishes that they had all of their processes. and all of their systems integrations documented, but they don't, says Jen Curry Hendrickson, senior vice president of managed services at DataBank, a data center solutions company.Once security and technology leaders conduct a thorough inventory of systems and understand how enterprise data is moving through those systems, they can assess the risks.This technology was designed and installed many, many years ago when the threat profile was significantly different, says Godfrey. It is creating an ever more complex surface area.What systems can be updated or patched? What systems are no longer supported by vendors? How could threat actors leverage access to a legacy system for lateral movement?Managing Legacy System RiskOnce enterprise leaders have a clear picture of their organizations legacy systems and the risk they pose, they have a choice to make. Do they replace those systems, or do they keep them in place and manage those risks?Businesses are fully entitled -- maybe they shouldn't [be] -- but they're fully entitled to say no, I understand the risk and that's not something we're going to address right now, says Burleson-Davis. Industries that tend to have lower margins and be a little more resource-strapped are the likeliest to make some of those tradeoffs.Related:If an enterprise cannot replace a legacy system, its security and technology leaders can still take steps to reduce the risk of it becoming a doorway for threat actors.Security teams can implement compensating controls to look for signs of compromise. They can implement zero-trust access and isolate legacy systems from the rest of the enterprises network as much as possible.Legacy systems really should be hardened from the operating system side. You should be turning off operating system features that do not have any business purpose in your environment by default, Allen emphasizes.Security leaders may even find relatively simple ways to reduce risk exposure related to legacy systems.People will often find, Oh, I'm running 18 different versions of the same virtualization package Why don't I go to one? Burleson-Davis shares. We find people running into scenarios like that where after doing a proper inventory [they] find that there was some low-hanging fruit that really solved some of that risk.Transitioning Away from Legacy SystemsEnterprise leaders have to clear a number of hurdles in order to replace legacy systems successfully. The cost and the time are obvious challenges. Given the age of these systems, talent constraints come to the fore. Does the enterprise have people who understand how the legacy system works and how it can be replaced?You end up with a very complex skills requirement inside of your organization to be able to manage very old types of technologies through to cutting-edge technologies, Godfrey points out.A change advisory board (CAB) can lead the charge on strategic planning. That group of people can help answer vital questions about the timeline for the transition, the potential downtime, and the people necessary to execute the change.How does that affect anything downstream or upstream? Where is my data flowing? How are these systems connected? How do Ikeep them connected? What am I going to break? asks Curry Hendrickson.Allen stresses the importance of planning for a way to roll back the implementation of new technology. What's the strategy for rolling back if it goes wrong? Because that's arguably the most important piece of this, and many times it will go wrong, he says.To reduce the chance of the implementation failing, the transition team needs to consider how the new technology will interact within the IT or OT environments. How is that different compared to the legacy system?[Understand] what it is that new system needs, [put] some of those changes in place before you implement the new system. That way the new system has every opportunity to be successful, says Allen.After pouring resources into modernizing technology, some enterprises make a fundamental mistake by forgetting to include the end users in the process. If end users arent prepared or willing to adopt new technology, that initiatives chances of success drop.One good example [is] introducing almost anything into a clinical setting and not including doctors and nurses. It is the guaranteed, number one way to fail, says Burleson-Davis.Curry Hendrickson also warns of the potential for vendor lock-in as enterprises examine ways to adopt new technology. You could get yourself into a scenario where you're so excited and you have this great environment, it is so flexible and then all of a sudden you're using way too many of this vendors tools, and now it's going to be a real problem to move out, she explains.This kind of technological transformation is often a multi-year project that requires the board, CISO, CIO, CTO, and other business leaders to agree on a strategy and consistently work toward it.There are going to be inevitably short-term trade-offs that have to be made during that transformation, during the journey to that north star, says Godfrey. The key to enabling that or unlocking the opportunity is thinking about it as a kind of organizational transformation as well as a technological transformation.

PhysicsPhysicists have created a 3D shape called the cosmohedron, which can be used to reconstruct the quantum wavefunction of the universe - and potentially do away with the idea of space-time as the underlying fabric of the universe 21 January 2025 Is space-time the fabric of the universe, or is there something deeper?Shutterstock/Mohd. AfuzaWhat is the structure of our physical reality? Physicists have long imagined space and time interweaving into space-time, the metaphorical fabric that underlies the cosmos. But there may be something even more fundamental. Instead of space-times three spatial dimensions and one of time, the physics of our world could be encoded into a set of odd geometrical shapes and studying them may chart a new, space-time-free path towards a theory of everything.The idea is that space-time somehow has to go, that it has to

Forget massive steel tankssome scientists want to make chemicals with the help of rocks deep beneath Earths surface. New research shows that ammonia, a chemical crucial for fertilizer, can be produced from rocks at temperatures and pressures that are common in the subsurface. The research was published today in Joule, and MIT Technology Review can exclusively report that a new company, called Addis Energy, was founded to commercialize the process. Ammonia is used in most fertilizers and is a vital part of our modern food system. Its also being considered for use as a green fuel in industries like transoceanic shipping. The problem is that current processes used to make ammonia require a lot of energy and produce huge amounts of the greenhouse gases that cause climate changeover 1% of the global total. The new study finds that the planets internal conditions can be used to produce ammonia in a much cleaner process. Earth can be a factory for chemical production, says Iwnetim Abate, an MIT professor and author of the new study. This idea could be a major change for the chemical industry, which today relies on huge facilities running reactions at extremely high temperatures and pressures to make ammonia. The key ingredients for ammonia production are sources of nitrogen and hydrogen. Much of the focus on cleaner production methods currently lies in finding new ways to make hydrogen, since that chemical makes up the bulk of ammonias climate footprint, says Patrick Molloy, a principal at the nonprofit research agency Rocky Mountain Institute. Recently, researchers and companies have located naturally occurring deposits of hydrogen underground. Iron-rich rocks tend to drive reactions that produce the gas, and these natural deposits could provide a source of low-cost, low-emissions hydrogen. While geologic hydrogen is still in its infancy as an industry, some researchers are hoping to help the process along by stimulating production of hydrogen underground. With the right rocks, heat, and a catalyst, you can produce hydrogen cheaply and without emitting large amounts of climate pollution. Hydrogen can be difficult to transport, though, so Abate was interested in going one step further by letting the conditions underground do the hard work in powering chemical reactions that transform hydrogen and nitrogen into ammonia. As you dig, you get heat and pressure for free, he says. To test out how this might work, Abate and his team crushed up iron-rich minerals and added nitrates (a nitrogen source), water (a hydrogen source), and a catalyst to help reactions along in a small reactor in the lab. They found that even at relatively low temperatures and pressures, they could make ammonia in a matter of hours. If the process were scaled up, the researchers estimate, one well could produce 40,000 tons of ammonia per day. While the reactions tend to go faster at high temperature and pressure, the researchers found that ammonia production could be an economically viable process even at 130 C (266 F) and a little over two atmospheres of pressure, conditions that would be accessible at depths reachable with existing drilling technology. While the reactions work in the lab, theres a lot of work to do to determine whether, and how, the process might actually work in the field. One thing the team will need to figure out is how to keep reactions going, because in the reaction that forms ammonia, the surface of the iron-rich rocks will be oxidized, leaving them in a state where they cant keep reacting. But Abate says the team is working on controlling how thick the unusable layer of rock is, and its composition, so the chemical reactions can continue. To commercialize this work, Abate is cofounding a company called Addis Energy with $4.25 million in pre-seed funds from investors including Engine Ventures. His cofounders include Michael Alexander and Charlie Mitchell (who have both spent time in the oil and gas industry) and Yet-Ming Chiang, an MIT professor and serial entrepreneur. The company will work on scaling up the research, including finding potential sites with the geological conditions to produce ammonia underground. The good news for scale-up efforts is that much of the necessary technology already exists in oil and gas operations, says Alexander, Addiss CEO. A field-deployed system will involve drilling, pumping fluid down into the ground, and extracting other fluids from beneath the surface, all very common operations in that industry. Theres novel chemistry thats wrapped in an oil and gas package, he says. The team will also work on refining cost estimates for the process and gaining a better understanding of safety and sustainability, Abate says. Ammonia is a toxic industrial chemical, but its common enough for there to be established procedures for handling, storing, and transporting it, says RMIs Molloy. Judging from the researchers early estimates, ammonia produced with this method could cost up to $0.55 per kilogram. Thats more than ammonia produced with fossil fuels today ($0.40/kg), but the technique would likely be less expensive than other low-emissions methods of producing the chemical. Tweaks to the process, including using nitrogen from the air instead of nitrates, could help cut costs further, even as low as $0.20/kg. New approaches to making ammonia could be crucial for climate efforts. Its a chemical thats essential to our way of life, says Karthish Manthiram, a professor at Caltech who studies electrochemistry, including alternative ammonia production methods. The teams research appears to be designed with scalability in mind from the outset, and using Earth itself as a reactor is the kind of thinking needed to accelerate the long-term journey to sustainable chemical production, Manthiram adds. While the company focuses on scale-up efforts, theres plenty of fundamental work left for Abate and other labs to do to understand whats going on during the reactions at the atomic level, particularly at the interface between the rocks and the reacting fluid. Research in the lab is exciting, but its only the first step, Abate says. The next one is seeing if this actually works in the field.

Step into some gum soles.A lot of different styles of sneakers can have gum soles. Mauricio Santana/Getty Images Personal and celebrity stylist Kim Appelt sees gum-bottom sneakers which feature grippy, neutral-colored soles as a "monstrous trend" at the moment.The pop of tan can be found on Adidas gazelles and Hogan beige-suede sneakers, to name a few.Appelt said adding this touch of neutral goes along with the general fashion trends toward browns and natural colors.Adidas sambas are here to stay.Sambas have been popular for a few years now. Christian Vierig/Getty Images Adidas sambas have been a popular choice across aesthetics for years, and that doesn't seem to be slowing down in 2025.Ceila "CQ" Quarles, the designer of CQ Studios who's styled multiple musicians and rappers, said the sneakers have a timeless look and a "killer silhouette.""It's a throw-on shoe you can put on whenever, wherever," she told BI. "It's a little basic, but you can't go wrong with it."Runners aren't just for jogging.Running shoes have made their way into the fashion world. andersphoto/Shutterstock Celebrity stylist Sandra Okerulu said running shoes aren't just for the sporty crowd.The trend really grew around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and offered people a comfortable, more supportive footwear choice."You need flexibility," she told BI. "That's why this switch happened; because we're thinking longevity."With athletic footwear becoming mainstream, fashion brands like Betsey Johnson and Steve Madden are even making fun options that can be worn with both street clothes and gym attire.On is somewhat of a new kid on the block.On sneakers are getting big. 2p2play/Shutterstock With comfort taking the front seat this year, CQ suggests looking into On's Cloudtilt sneakers.With endorsements from and collaborations with celebrities like Zendaya, the shoe has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. The stylist thinks it has the power to keep trending through 2025, especially because the shoes are designed to be comfortable."Comfortable shoes are typically timeless," CQ told BI.Consider grabbing a pair from Onitsuka Tiger.The artistic, multicolor sneakers have risen in popularity. Mila Gruber/Getty Images Appelt said Onitsuka Tiger's classic sneakers will likely trickle into the top trends this coming year.The Japanese brand has several styles to choose from, all featuring its signature abstract checkerboard-like stripes in fun colors.The professional stylist recently bought multiple pairs herself on a trip to Tokyo and sees the chic shoe making its way to the US in droves in 2025.Asics are a comfortable choice.Asics have become standard office wear for some. andersphoto/Shutterstock With dad-style shoes coming back in fashion, Asics continues to be in the spotlight.It's been producing comfortable shoes for decades, but beyond brand loyalty, its modern lines have made it more of a fashion staple."People are obsessed with being cozy all the time," CQ said, noting the more fashion-forward Asics Sportstyle collection may be especially popular throughout 2025.On the other hand, it's time to take a breather from wild prints.Cheetah print may be in style, but you don't need it on your shoes. andersphoto/Shutterstock In recent years, it wasn't uncommon to spot cowhide, snakeskin, or zebra stripes on shoes, but Okerulu said that fad is dwindling.Although animal print cycles in and out of fashion all the time, it's less practical on shoes, which should ideally be versatile enough to work with outfits across your wardrobe.Step away from the chunky Converse.Classic Converse will likely come back in fashion soon, but some niche styles are done. Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images Both Appelt and CQ said they're seeing the Converse craze start to die after the brand's resurgence in 2020. This is especially true for its ultra-trendy Run Star Motion platforms.Appelt clarified that the brand itself, which has been around since the early 1900s, has longevity and will eventually circle back into style."It's the platform we can leave behind," she told BI.Wedge sneakers belong in the past.The style has become a bit dated. Simon McGill/Moment Editorial/Getty Images Many have a love-hate relationship with sneaker wedges, and Okerulu still doesn't think the shoe has enough buzz to really come back in style."People try to inch back on it, and I don't think that's going to work," she said. "Consumers are looking for something that's more realistic."The style kind of defeats the purpose of a good, sturdy sneaker. You certainly can't take it from the gym to the office.Nike Dunks perhaps aren't as popular as they once were.Nike Dunks had their moment. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto CQ said people seem to be switching out their Nike Dunks for more elevated shoes especially after the brand made the shoe less of a collector's item by producing droves in a myriad of colors."They're just not hitting like they used to," she said. "It used to be people lining up around the block for them. That is not the case anymore."