Posted on : May 14, 2025 By Tech World Times Technology  Rate this post Your Gmail account keeps your emails, contacts, and data safe. Changing your Gmail password makes it more secure. Maybe you forgot your password. Or maybe you want a stronger one. Whatever the reason, it’s easy. In this guide, we’ll show you how to change your Gmail password in just three steps. Let’s begin. Why You Should Change Your Gmail Password Changing your password keeps your account safe. Here are some simple reasons to change it: You think someone knows your password. You saw strange activity on your Gmail. You use the same password everywhere. Your current password is weak. You haven’t changed it in months. Keeping your Gmail password updated helps protect your Google account and personal data. Things to Remember Before You Start Before you change your password, make sure: You know your current password. You are signed in to your Google account. You have access to your phone or email. You are using a trusted device. If you don’t remember your password, you can reset it instead. Step 1: Sign In to Your Google Account This is the first step. You need to access your account settings. Open your browser and go to myaccount.google.com. Click on the “Sign In” button. Enter your email and password. Click Next to log in. Now you are inside your account dashboard. Step 2: Go to the Security Section Here you will find the password settings. On the left menu, click “Security.” Scroll down to “Signing in to Google.” Click on “Password.” Google may ask you to enter your password again. This is to confirm your identity. Enter it and click Next. Step 3: Enter a New Gmail Password Now you can change your password. You will see a box for a new password. Type your new password there. Make sure it is strong and easy to remember. Type it again in the Confirm box. Click Change Password. That’s it. You have changed your Gmail password successfully. Tips for Creating a Strong Gmail Password Here are some quick tips: Use at least 8 characters. Mix letters, numbers, and special characters. Don’t use your name or birthday. Don’t reuse old passwords. Avoid common passwords like “123456.” A strong password keeps your emails and account safe. What Happens After Changing the Password? After you change your Gmail password, a few things will happen: Google will log you out from all devices. You need to log in again on your phone and computer. You’ll get a confirmation email from Google. If you use Gmail on your phone, update the password there too. This step helps prevent others from using your old password. How to Change Password from the Gmail App You can also change the password using your phone. For Android or iPhone: Open the Gmail app. Tap your profile picture in the top-right corner. Select “Manage your Google Account.” Go to the “Security” tab. Tap on “Password.” Enter your current password. Type and confirm the new password. Tap Change Password. You have now changed it from your mobile device. What If You Forgot Your Gmail Password? If you forgot your password, don’t worry. You can still reset it. Here’s how: Go to accounts.google.com. Click “Forgot password?” Enter your email. Follow the steps on the screen. You may get a code on your phone or backup email. Enter the code and set a new password. This will help you get back into your account safely. How Often Should You Change Your Gmail Password? Experts suggest changing your password every 3 to 6 months. But you can do it sooner. If you notice strange emails, change your password immediately. Security is always important. Benefits of Updating Your Gmail Password Here are some quick benefits: Keeps hackers out. Protects your private emails. Secures your Google Drive and Photos. Helps you stay in control. Gives peace of mind. A good password is like a strong lock on your mailbox. Extra Security Tips for Gmail Want to protect your account even more? Try these: Turn on two-step verification. Don’t click on unknown email links. Don’t share your password. Use a password manager. Check your account activity often. These steps make it harder for hackers to access your data. Conclusion Changing your Gmail password is simple and quick. It helps you stay safe online. In 2025, security threats are growing. You should protect your Gmail and Google account. Follow the three easy steps shared in this guide. Update your password today. Keep your digital life safe. Strong passwords are your first defense. FAQs 1. How can I change my Gmail password? Go to your Google account, visit the Security tab, and click “Password” to change it. 2. Can I change my Gmail password on my phone? Yes. Use the Gmail app, go to account settings, and change it under the Security section. 3. What if I forget my Gmail password? Click “Forgot password” on the login page. Follow the steps to reset it with your phone or email. 4. Will I be logged out after changing my password? Yes. Google will log you out from other devices for your safety. 5. How often should I change my Gmail password? It’s best to change it every 3–6 months or anytime you see unusual activity. Tech World TimesTech World Times (TWT), a global collective focusing on the latest tech news and trends in blockchain, Fintech, Development & Testing, AI and Startups. If you are looking for the guest post then contact at techworldtimes@gmail.com

Proton Mail4.5 ExcellentBottom LineProton Mail is an easy-to-use webmail service that brings zero-access encryption to your local message store and end-to-end encryption for message transmission, along with an impressive posse of related programs.US Street Price$47.88Learn MoreProton Mail ReviewVSPreVeil4.5 ExcellentBottom LineWith PreVeil, you get free end-to-end encrypted secure cloud storage along with secure email that’s tough enough for business but extremely easy to use, all while keeping your existing email address.Learn MorePreVeil Review Table of ContentsPricing and Pricing TiersDo I Need a New Email Address?Authentication and Security OptionsCloud Storage and File SharingEmail Client IntegrationTemporary Email AddressesAdvanced Security FeaturesFeatures Beyond Email Encryption Pricing and Pricing TiersPreVeil’s pricing system is as simple as can be—it’s free. Period.You can use ProtonMail for free, too, but a free Proton Mail account lacks some features and limits others. For example, you can only send 150 messages per day and only manage a single email account. When you pay $47.88 per year for a Proton Mail Plus account, the limit on messages per day vanishes, but there’s still a cap on the number of email addresses you can use.There’s one more option, Proton Mail Ultimate, which costs $119.88 per year and includes the full pantheon of Proton’s products. This one makes sense if you want your email encryption served up along with fully functional instances of Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, Proton VPN, and the Proton Pass password manager. Ultimately, everything’s better when it’s free, so PreVeil wins.Winner: PreVeilDo I Need a New Email Address?I’ve had the same personal email address for more than 20 years, and I’ve grown fond of it. I could sign up for PreVeil and keep that address. But if I wanted to rely on Proton Mail to safeguard my email secrets, I would have to pick a new address and share it with all my contacts.On the flip side, my 20-year-old email address has accumulated quite a collection of spam. It’s been revealed in dozens of data breaches and captured by who knows how many data brokers. If you want to level up your security game by using email encryption, you might prefer switching to a pristine new address, too.Here’s the thing. You can do the same thing with PreVeil. Just set up a new, clean email address before you start using PreVeil. But you simply can’t use Proton Mail with your existing address, except in one rare case. If you own your own domain, and if you host your email on that domain, and if you're up for such domain-management tasks as changing MX records and reconfiguring settings for DNS, DKIM, DMARC, and SPF, then you can use your own email. PreVeil wins on flexibility.Winner: PreVeilAuthentication and Security OptionsIt doesn’t matter how thoroughly your email is encrypted if an evildoer gains access to your encrypted inbox. Proton Mail offers multiple levels of protection, starting with using a strong password and an optional account recovery email. On top of that basic password protection, you can optionally configure it for multi-factor authentication (MFA) using Google Authenticator or a compatible authenticator app. You can advance to expert-tier authentication by configuring Proton Mail to require a hardware security key.(Credit: Proton/PCMag)PreVeil doesn’t use passwords at all, presuming that the security of your email account is sufficient. Yes, an attacker would need access to both your email account and a trusted device, which fits the definition of MFA, barely. But you can only use an authenticator app or hardware key to authenticate your email account, not PreVeil itself. When it comes to actively protecting access to your encrypted email system, Proton Mail takes the prize.Winner: Proton MailCloud Storage and File SharingIf you want to share a file or picture securely with someone, you can add it as an attachment to an encrypted email message. That’s a workable solution, but it’s not always the most convenient. Proton Mail and PreVeil both go beyond simple attachments by allowing you to store files in the cloud and share them securely.Your PreVeil account comes with 5GB of encrypted cloud storage that’s easily accessible from Windows Explorer. You also get the option to securely share folders (but not individual files) and to set each recipient’s permission level, from full Edit & Share permission down to View Only, which merely lets the recipient peek at the file’s content in a browser window.(Credit: PreVeil/PCMag)Proton Mail users at all pricing tiers get access to the separate Proton Drive app for cloud backup. Non-paying customers get a tenth of what PreVeil offers, just 500MB. However, at the commercial Plus level that storage rises to 15GB, and if you go all out with Proton Mail Ultimate, you can store 500GB of files. If you’re keeping score, those storage figures are three times and 100 times what PreVeil gives you.Proton Drive lets you share files directly with other Proton users and control their level of access in much the same way you do with PreVeil. You can also create a public link, optionally setting a password and an expiry date. PreVeil’s similar links only work for someone with whom you’ve already shared the folder.It’s true that PreVeil offers more storage than Proton Mail’s free tier, but there’s no easy path if you want more from PreVeil. And Proton Mail’s full backup app has more flexibility. This one goes to Proton Mail.Recommended by Our EditorsWinner: Proton MailEmail Client IntegrationEven if you’ve grudgingly switched to a new email address, you can at least keep the email client that you’ve used for years, right? Well, not necessarily. To get your Proton Mail messages into Apple Mail, Outlook, or Thunderbird, you must install a separate “bridge” app and go through a configuration routine that can get complicated. It doesn’t work with the latest Outlook because it requires access to IMAP and SMTP. And you don’t get full access to encryption features in your old familiar email app.(Credit: PreVeil/PCMag)With PreVeil, integration can be as simple as installing a plug-in for Gmail or Outlook. The plug-in adds a few handy controls, like an encryption on/off switch for the messages you compose, and clearly separates encrypted messages from those you’ve sent without encryption.Winner: PreVeilTemporary Email AddressesI mentioned earlier that being forced to spin up a new email address can be a blessing in disguise, as doing so frees you from any spam and baggage associated with the old address. But if you use a temporary email address service, you can avoid accumulating those problems in the first place. Using such a service lets you communicate with online merchants and other possibly shady connections without ever revealing your actual email address. You see and respond to the messages in your normal inbox, but they see only an email alias. And if one of your connections sells you out to a spam cartel, you just delete the corresponding alias.Sounds convenient, right? The Proton team agrees. At the Unlimited subscription level, you get full access to SimpleLogin, a four-star temporary email service. Yes, that’s the most expensive level, but PreVeil doesn’t offer email aliases at any level. (Don’t feel too left out if you’re using PreVeil or haven’t opted for the expensive Proton Mail Unlimited. You can supplement your email encryption for free with email aliases from ManyMe or Bulc Club.)Winner: Proton MailAdvanced Security FeaturesAfter going to the trouble of switching to encrypted email, you’d feel pretty dumb if you lost your login and couldn’t get access to your important messages. Proton Mail encourages you to save a recovery key in the form of a lengthy code and a QR code, but that recovery key itself now becomes a weakness. Someone who acquires your code owns your account.PreVeil offers a similar recovery code system, but encourages you to use its Recovery Group system instead. This is a high-tech solution more commonly seen in Enterprise-level security. With PreVeil, your recovery key resides with multiple friends, and the recovery process requires participation by several of them. For example, you might enlist six friends to hold your secret and require any three of them to activate recovery.PreVeil’s wrapped keys encryption system is proprietary, but Proton Mail relies on the venerable and widely used PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption system. Proton Mail users can set up encrypted communication with users of other encryption tools that rely on PGP, such as Private-Mail and StartMail. For those with the tech chops, using PGP opens up immense possibilities.(Credit: Proton/PCMag)Proton Mail also actively protects your privacy against tracking that relies on images. When your email client displays an image, it necessarily requests that image from a server. From that request, the sender can learn your IP address, among other things. Proton Mail wipes out web beacons, which are images that have no purpose beyond penetrating your privacy. And it acts as an intermediary for normal images, so the sender gets the IP address of a Proton Mail server, not your personal address.Both services have clever, high-tech features. And in both cases, most users won’t use or pay attention to these features. I call this a draw.Winner: TieFeatures Beyond Email EncryptionI’ve already mentioned that both services offer encrypted file storage and secure sharing. For PreVeil, that’s about it.Proton Mail, on the other hand, offers several other significant security features. These include the already-mentioned Proton Drive, Proton VPN, Proton Calendar, and the Proton Pass password manager.(Credit: Proton/PCMag)Like Proton Drive, Proton Calendar and Proton Pass are available to free users, but with limitations. Free users of Proton VPN can use it to protect one device at a time and can’t choose which country the VPN connects through. Paying for Proton Mail lifts some of these limitations. And if you choose Proton Unlimited, you get the maximum from all the Proton apps.Winner: Proton Mail

We’re happy to announce that we’ve launched a new technical e-book, Create modular game architecture in Unity with ScriptableObjects, which provides best practices from professional developers for deploying ScriptableObjects in production.Along with the e-book, you can download a demo project from GitHub inspired by classic ball and paddle arcade game mechanics. The demo shows how ScriptableObjects can help you create components that are testable and scalable, while also being designer-friendly. Although a game like this could be built with far fewer lines of code, this demo shows ScriptableObjects in action.This post explains the benefits of ScriptableObjects, but doesn’t cover the basics or general coding in Unity. If you’re new to programming in Unity, head over to Unity Learn, which offers helpful introductory tutorials. The first chapter in the e-book also offers a solid primer.Let’s look at six ways you can benefit from using ScriptableObjects in your projects. Want to know more? All of these examples are explored further in the e-book and demo project.Although many of the techniques shared here can also be achieved using C# classes, one of the main benefits of ScriptableObjects is the accessibility to artists and designers. They can use ScriptableObjects to configure and apply game logic in a project without having to edit the code.The Editor makes it convenient to view and edit ScriptableObjects, enabling designers to set up gameplay data without heavy support from the developer team. This also applies to game logic, such as applying behavior to an NPC by adding a ScriptableObject (explained in the patterns below).Storing data and logic on a single MonoBehaviour can result in time-consuming merge conflicts if two people change different parts of the same Prefab or scene. By breaking up shared data into smaller files and assets with ScriptableObjects, designers can build gameplay in parallel with developers, instead of having to wait for the latter to finish setting up the gameplay in code before testing it.Issues can arise when colleagues with different roles access the game code and assets at the same time. With ScriptableObjects, the programmer can control what part of the project is editable in the Editor. Additionally, using ScriptableObjects to organize your code leads naturally to a codebase that’s more modular and efficient to test.Christo Nobbs, a senior technical game designer who specializes in systems game design and Unity (C#), contributed to The Unity game designer playbook, and is the main author of a blog post series on designing game systems in Unity. His posts, “Systems that create ecosystems: Emergent game design” and “Unpredictably fun: The value of randomization in game design” provide interesting examples of how designers can use ScriptableObjects.Modularity is a general software principle which can be implemented in C# without using ScriptableObjects. But, as mentioned above, ScriptableObjects help promote clean coding practices by separating data from logic, which is a first step toward modular game code. This separation means it’s easier to make changes without causing unintended side effects, and improves testability.ScriptableObjects excel at storing static data, making them handy for configuring static gameplay values like items or NPC stats, character dialogue, and much more. Because ScriptableObjects are saved as an asset, they persist outside of game mode, making it possible to use them for loading in a static configuration that dynamically changes at runtime.While changes to ScriptableObject data do persist in the Editor, it’s important to note that they are not designed for saving game data. In that case, it’s better to use a serialization system, such as JSON, XML, or a binary solution if performance is critical.MonoBehaviours carry extra overhead since they require a GameObject – and by default a Transform – to act as a host. This means you need to create a lot of unused data before storing a single value. A ScriptableObject slims down this memory footprint and drops the GameObject and Transform. It also stores data at the project level, which is helpful if you need to access the same data from multiple scenes.It’s common to have many GameObjects which rely on duplicate data that does not need to change at runtime. Rather than having this duplicate local data on each GameObject, you can funnel it into a ScriptableObject. Each of the objects stores a reference to the shared data asset, rather than copying the data itself. This can provide significant performance improvements in projects with thousands of objects.In software design, this is an optimization known as the flyweight pattern. Restructuring your code in this way using ScriptableObjects avoids copying values and reduces your memory footprint. Check out our e-book, Level up your code with game programming patterns to learn more about using design patterns in Unity.A good example of how ScriptableObjects can simplify your code is to use them as enums for comparison operations. The ScriptableObject can represent a category or item type, such as a special damage effect – cold, heat, electrical, magic, etc.If your application requires an inventory system to equip gameplay items, ScriptableObjects can represent item types or weapon slots. The fields in the Inspector then function as a drag-and-drop interface for setting them up.Using ScriptableObjects as enums becomes more interesting when you want to extend them and add more data. Unlike normal enums, ScriptableObjects can have extra fields and methods. There’s no need to have a separate lookup table or correlate with a new array of data.While traditional enums have a fixed set of values, ScriptableObject enums can be created and modified at runtime, allowing you to add or remove values as needed.If you have a long list of enum values without explicit numbering, inserting or removing an enum can change their order. This reordering can introduce subtle bugs or unintended behavior. ScriptableObject-based enums don’t have these issues. You can delete or add to your project without having to change the code every time.Suppose you want to make an item equippable in an RPG. You could append an extra boolean field to the ScriptableObject to do that. Are certain characters not allowed to hold certain items? Are some items magical or do they have special abilities? ScriptableObject-based enums can do that.Because you can create methods on a ScriptableObject, they are as useful for containing logic or actions as they are for holding data. Moving logic from your MonoBehaviour into a ScriptableObject enables you to use the latter as a delegate object, making the behavior more modular.If you need to perform specific tasks, you can encapsulate their algorithms into their own objects. The original Gang of Four refers to this general design as the strategy pattern. The example below shows how to make the strategy pattern more useful by using an abstract class to implement EnemyAI. The result is several derived ScriptableObjects with different behavior, which then becomes a pluggable behavior since each asset is interchangeable. You just drag and drop the ScriptableObject of choice into the MonoBehaviour.For a detailed example showing how to use ScriptableObjects to drive behavior, watch the video series Pluggable AI with ScriptableObjects. These sessions demonstrate a finite state machine-based AI system that can be configured using ScriptableObjects for states, actions, and transitions between those states.A common challenge in larger projects is when multiple GameObjects need to share data or states by avoiding direct references between these objects. Managing these dependencies at scale can require significant effort and is often a source of bugs. Many developers use singletons – one global instance of a class that survives scene loading. However, singletons introduce global states and make unit testing difficult. If you’re working with a Prefab that references a singleton, you’ll end up importing all of its dependencies just to test an isolated function. This makes your code less modular and efficient to debug.One solution is to use ScriptableObject-based events to help your GameObjects communicate. In this case, you are using ScriptableObjects to implement a form of the observer design pattern, where a subject broadcasts a message to one or more loosely decoupled observers. Each observing object can react independently from the subject but is unaware of the other observers. The subject can also be referred to as the “publisher” or “broadcaster” and the observers as “subscribers” or “listeners.”You can implement the observer pattern with MonoBehaviours or C# objects. While this is already common practice in Unity development, a script-only approach means your designers will rely on the programming team for every event needed during gameplay.At first glance, it appears that you’ve added a layer of overhead to the observer pattern, but this structure offers some advantages. Since ScriptableObjects are assets, they are accessible to all objects in your hierarchy and don’t disappear on scene loading.Easy, persistent access to certain resources is why many developers use singletons. ScriptableObjects can often provide the same benefits without introducing as many unnecessary dependencies.In ScriptableObject-based events, any object can serve as publisher (which broadcasts the event), and any object can serve as a subscriber (which listens for the event). The ScriptableObject sits in the middle and helps relay the signal, acting like a centralized intermediary between the two.One way to think about this is as an “event channel.” Imagine the ScriptableObject as a radio tower that has any number of objects listening for its signals. An interested MonoBehaviour can subscribe to the event channel and respond when something happens.The demo shows how the observer pattern helps you set up game events for UI, sounds, and scoring.At runtime, you’ll often need to track a list of GameObjects or components in your scene. For example, a list of enemies is something you’d need to frequently access, but it’s also a dynamic list that changes as more enemies are spawned or defeated. The singleton offers easy global access, but it has several drawbacks. Instead of using a singleton, consider storing data on a ScriptableObject as a “Runtime Set.” The ScriptableObject instance appears at the project level, which means it can store data that’s available to any object from any scene, offering similar global access. Since the data is located on an asset, its public list of items is accessible at any time.In this use case, you get a specialized data container that maintains a public collection of elements but also provides basic methods to add to and remove from the collection. This can reduce the need for singletons and improve testability and modularity.Reading data directly from a ScriptableObject is also more optimal than searching the Scene Hierarchy with a find operation like Object.FindObjectOfType or GameObject.FindWithTag. Depending on your use case and the size of your hierarchy, these are relatively expensive methods that can be inefficient for per-frame updates.There are several ScriptableObjects frameworks which offer more use cases than these six scenarios. Some teams decide to use ScriptableObjects extensively, while others limit their use to loading in static data and separating logic from data. Ultimately, the needs of your project will determine how you use them.Create modular game architecture in Unity with ScriptableObjects is the third guide in our series for intermediate to advanced Unity programmers. Each guide, authored by experienced programmers, provides best practices for topics that are important to development teams.Create a C# style guide: Write cleaner code that scales assists you with developing a style guide to help unify your approach to creating a more cohesive codebase.Level up your code with game programming patternshighlights best practices for using the SOLID principles and common programming patterns to create scalable game code architecture in your Unity project.We created this series to provide actionable tips and inspiration to our experienced creators, but they aren’t rule books. There are many ways to structure your Unity project and what might seem like a natural fit for one application may not be for another. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each recommendation, tip, and pattern with your colleagues before deploying it.Find more advanced guides and articles on the Unity best practices hub.

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (Enisa) has debuted a European Union Vulnerability Database (EUVD) to provide “aggregated, reliable and actionable” information on newly disclosed cyber security vulnerabilities in IT products and services. The EUVD, which is mandated by the NIS2 Directive, is designed to gather publicly available information from sources such as EU member state national computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs), industry threat researchers, and other vulnerability databases, including Mitre’s CVE Program. Enisa said that to meet this goal, it has constructed its platform on a holistic approach as an interconnected database that it believes will allow for better analysis and help the community correlate vulnerabilities. It said this would ultimately make it a more trustworthy, transparent and broader information source. “The EU Vulnerability Database is a major step towards reinforcing Europe’s security and resilience,” said Henna Virkkunen, European Commission executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy. “By bringing together vulnerability information relevant to the EU market, we are raising cyber security standards, enabling both private and public sector stakeholders to better protect our shared digital spaces with greater efficiency and autonomy.” Enisa executive director Juhan Lepassaar added: “Enisa achieves a milestone with the implementation of the vulnerability database requirement from the NIS2 Directive. The EU is now equipped with an essential tool designed to substantially improve the management of vulnerabilities and the risks associated with them. “The database ensures transparency to all users of the affected ICT products and services and will stand as an efficient source of information to find mitigation measures.” The launch of the EUVD comes mere weeks after the security community was rocked by the near-death experience of Mitre’s long-running CVE Program, a US government-backed and -funded resource that over the past two decades has become a fixture in the security world. Although Mitre’s funding was, in the end, restored at the last minute by the US authorities, the 24 hours of uncertainty prompted much soul-searching and many cyber professionals have begun to consider or discuss the idea of alternatives to a programme that is ultimately backed by a single government. Although EUVD is not designed to replace the US programme, Enisa said it had worked with Mitre on its development, and continues to work alongside the non-profit body to understand the impact of the funding crisis on the EUVD project. For now, data on common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE), data provided by those disclosing vulnerabilities, and other sources such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA’s) Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue will be automatically transposed into EUVD with support from EU member state CSIRTs. For example, CVE-2025-32709, a privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock – disclosed this week on Patch Tuesday – appears in the EUVD with the designation EUVD-2025-14439. Sylvain Cortes, strategy vice-president at Hackuity, said: “Enisa’s new EUVD is a good initiative when you consider the recent funding issues around Mitre’s CVE Program. “There’s also still some uncertainty around whether the Mitre database will continue to exist after the new contract expires in 10 months’ time, so having a European option in place means the industry can be less reliant on one vulnerability enrichment source. It’s an even greater alternative when you consider the fact that the NVD [the US National Vulnerability Database] has suffered backlogs in the past. “Ultimately, we need a source for all vulnerabilities that is reliable and open, and we hope that the new EUVD promises will provide this,” said Cortes. Crystal Morin, cyber security strategist at Sysdig, also welcomed the launch as part of the ongoing effort to strengthen global cyber security amid an uncertain future. She said she hoped the EUVD would complement the CVE Program. “Having both in play means more organisations handling CVE requests and, ultimately, faster public disclosure,” she said. “For security teams, the EUVD is simply another trusted source for vulnerability intelligence. As long as vulnerability submissions are streamlined – only submitted to one programme – we avoid duplication and confusion, and gain speed and resilience.” Read more about vulnerability disclosure practice The US National Institute of Standards and Technology is deferring future updates to thousands of cyber vulnerabilities discovered prior to 2018 amid surging volumes of new submissions. Many trends, notably a big shift to open source tools, are behind an expected boom in the number of disclosed vulnerabilities in 2025. New benchmarking data can help security practitioners identify gaps in healthcare vulnerability management and make the case for a proactive versus reactive approach to managing vulnerabilities.

May 13, 20256 min readDeep Math from String Theory Appears in Clashing Black HolesResearchers have shown that abstract mathematical functions from the frontiers of theoretical physics have a real-world use in modeling gravitational wavesBy Ramin Skibba edited by Lee BillingsAn illustration of two black holes about to merge and emitting copious gravitational waves. Chris Henze/NASA/SPL/Getty ImagesA decade ago astrophysicists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), operated by the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, managed to detect subtle ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves, released by a pair of black holes spiraling into each other, for the first time. That impressive discovery—which earned the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics—has since become commonplace, with researchers regularly detecting gravitational waves from myriad far-distant celestial sources.And as the numbers of gravitational-wave observations have increased, physicists’ careful modeling is revealing new details about their mysterious origins. Some of the most intriguing gravitational-wave events, it turns out, could arise not from catastrophic collisions but rather from near misses. Furthermore, these cosmic close calls might be best understood using concepts derived from string theory—a notional theory of everything that posits that all of nature is fundamentally composed of countless, wriggling subatomic strings. This arguably marks the first linkage to date between a core mathematical aspect of the arcane theory and real-world astrophysics.At least, that’s the conclusion of an international team of researchers that applied geometric structures inspired by particle physics and string theory to the behavior of black holes when the colossal objects closely pass and deflect each other. Such interactions between black holes or neutron stars (compact remnants of exploded massive stars) can be studied through the deflection angle, the energy released through the near miss and the momentum of the objects’ recoil—all of which may be discerned in gravitational waves. The team’s results were published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Black Holes as ParticlesIn their study, the researchers used an obscure class of abstract mathematical functions to solve the formidable equations involved in determining the radiated energy from a near miss. “You need these new functions, which, in math and mathematical physics, have been studied intensively but, to date, have not appeared in any real physical observable. That’s what makes it quite interesting,” says Jan Plefka, a theoretical physicist at the Humboldt University of Berlin and a co-author of the new study. Those obscure functions, known as six-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifolds, had never been shown as directly relevant to descriptions of real astrophysical phenomena before.In the years since LIGO’s initial detection, two additional major gravitational-wave observatories, Europe’s Virgo and Japan’s Kamioka Gravitational-Wave Detector (KAGRA), have come online. Together, they form the international LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration and have amassed detections of nearly 300 gravitational-wave events over the past decade, mostly from colliding pairs of black holes. Also called black hole “mergers,” such events are the cacophonous moment when these dense gravitational behemoths smash together to form a single, larger beast. Plefka and his colleagues are studying different interactions known as “scattering” events, which occur when paired black holes slip by each other, usually in prelude to their eventual coalescence. During these close encounters, the clashing gravity of the black holes causes each to accelerate past the other, generating a significant gravitational-wave signal, but the objects are sufficiently separated to avoid merging.It’s no coincidence that this resembles elementary particles deflecting each other. “You can use the techniques developed for the scattering of microscopic objects to describe this scattering of macroscopic ones,” Plefka says. Considered from far enough away, well beyond the event horizon—that pivotal region within which neither matter nor light can escape—a black hole can be modeled as a particlelike point with mass and spin, albeit one that generates gravitational rather than electromagnetic waves.On that basis, Plefka and his colleagues applied techniques from quantum field theory that are more typically used to analyze the behavior of elementary particles. “We’re building on decades of work that has been done to make predictions for collider experiments,” says Gustav Mogull, a particle physicist at Queen Mary University of London and one of Plefka’s co-authors.Closer to Complex RealitiesThe team’s goal was to bring its numerical approximations as close as possible to mirroring reality—which, of course, tends to be more messy. To do that, Mogull, Plefka and their team toiled to crank up the complexity of their calculations. In this work, the researchers incorporated five levels of that complexity—to what is known as the fifth post-Minkowskian order of precision—for describing the scattering angles of black hole pairs, their radiated energies and their recoils.This is where the Calabi-Yau geometric structures, normally associated with string theory, come in. In string theory, Calabi-Yau geometries involve the compactification of higher dimensions. Here, they are not merely abstractions but instead emerge from the researchers’ calculations of black hole scattering. It’s perhaps ironic that string theory, notoriously derided as untestable, has given rise to mathematical structures of relevance to measurable physics far from the rarefied realm of strings.A visualization of two black holes scattering off each other and emitting gravitational waves, which are rendered in shades of blue (darker shades correspond to higher energies). This visualization was computed with the aid of advanced mathematical functions known as Calabi-Yau manifolds.Mathias Driesse/Humboldt Universtität zu BerlinAny mathematical function is associated with some kind of geometry, Mogull explains—and as the function increases in complexity, so, too, does its geometry. In the case of something basic, such as the sine or cosine functions used in trigonometry, that geometry is a simple circle. Elliptic functions, on the other hand, imply a doughnut-shaped geometry called a torus, which is also a Calabi-Yau onefold. It turns out that the functions Mogull, Plefka and their team developed for black hole scattering are associated with Calabi-Yau threefold structures, which involve six-dimensional surfaces. “I don’t think the appearance of Calabi-Yaus was that unexpected within our community. I would say this represents confirmation of something that people had suspected but was yet to be verified,” Mogull says.To demonstrate the utility of their approach in their study, Plefka, Mogull and their colleagues compare their approximations of black hole scattering angles to other, presumably more precise ones that were derived from numerical simulations. Such simulations can be time-consuming to run, even on state-of-the-art supercomputers—hence the search for accurate approximations. The team’s highest-order approximation closely matches the results of supercomputer number crunching for cases of black holes that gently deflect each other across great distances. But when the black holes come closer to a head-on collision, the team’s calculations begin diverging from the numerical simulations.Such work may seem to be a purely academic exercise, but in fact, the research could prove vital for making new discoveries. Signals from scattering black holes and neutron stars should be within reach of the next generation of gravitational-wave detectors that are set to come online in the late 2030s. These detectors, which will also need a new generation of models called waveform templates to discern true gravitational-wave signals from a sea of cosmic and terrestrial noise, include the proposed Einstein Telescope in Europe and Cosmic Explorer in the U.S. The latter, like LIGO, is supported by the National Science Foundation, and so far these kinds of gravitational-wave projects have avoided being directly targeted by the Trump administration’s aggressive proposed cuts to federally funded science.The work’s prospect for enhancing our understanding of gravitational-wave sources excites scientists who are gearing up for this new wave of detectors. They include Jocelyn Read, a physicist at California State University, Fullerton, who works with the Cosmic Explorer project. “Next-generation facilities can measure nearby signals with exquisite fidelity,” she says. (Here “nearby” means “within a few billion light-years.”) “So having very accurate and precise predictions from our current theories is definitely needed to test them against those kinds of future observations,” Read adds.Yet she also urges caution when assessing the significance of Plefka, Mogull and their colleagues’ work. “If they’re talking about implications for gravitational-wave astronomy, there are a few more steps that are needed,” she says. And their team has competitors, too, including some who have been deploying numerical simulations of their own.These kinds of approximate methods could eventually inform the waveform templates that are so crucial for filtering out noise in upcoming gravitational-wave detectors, Plefka says. Geraint Pratten, a LIGO physicist at the University of Birmingham in England, agrees. “I think it’s a heroic calculation by the group. It will provide a lot of insight into how we can structure next-generation waveform models,” he says. Pratten adds that more work will need to be done to move past the new study’s limitations. For example, the paper focuses on black holes without spin and those that undergo “unbound” scattering, which means that they deflect each other and never meet again. In reality, most, if not all, black holes are thought to spin, and usually scattering events precede an eventual merger.But in any case, he believes some gravitational waves from black hole and neutron star deflections will eventually be detectable, such as through observations of globular clusters, where these dense objects are packed together in a small space, cosmically speaking.For Plefka, Mogull and their peers, this macroscopic version of quantum field theory is still a young field, and there are many new types of astrophysically relevant calculations that they and others can do. These esoteric Calabi-Yau structures, formerly on the frontier of theoretical physics, could be just the beginning. “You’ve had this whole new class of mathematical functions—these theoretical things that had appeared in string theory,” Mogull says. “And we’re saying, ‘Look, this is tangible. This [radiated energy from scattering] is something you can try to detect, try to measure. This is real physics now.’”

Most of the first trailer for Ironheart reminds viewers of what we learned in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: that Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) is a genius. Under pressure and threat of danger, she figures out a way to escape an elevator death trap, establishing her credibility as the greatest engineering mind since Tony Stark. But there’s one thing that Riri Williams has in common with most people, including those watching the trailer at home. As her friend puts it, “You know nothing about this man.” The man in question is Parker Robbins, played by Anthony Ramos. He appears in the trailer as a sort of morally dubious benefactor to Riri, but the most notable part of him is his unique style of dress. In most scenes, Robbins wears a leather cloak, which appears to have mystical powers. Marvel Comics readers (and Marvel Snap players) recognize Robbins as “The Hood,” a relative newcomer to the world of comics but a character with the power to shake up the MCU. Robbins made his debut in 2002’s The Hood, written by Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Saga) and penciled by Kyle Hotz. As part of Marvel’s mature-readers MAX line, The Hood took a sideways glance at the Peter Parker archetype, giving us a likable everyman who operated in the world of Marvel’s criminals. When Parker took a burglary job to pay for his sick mother’s treatment, he discovered a mystical cape and pair of boots, clothing that granted him the powers of flight and invisibility. While that initial story made Parker more of a normal guy who makes bad choices in difficult situations, subsequent tales have leaned into soap opera, transforming him into more of an unrepentant supervillain. In Daredevil, he sought to become the new Kingpin of Crime and he regularly butted heads with the New Avengers. During the Secret Invasion and Secret Wars storylines, Parker became a member of the Cabal, a sort of evil Illuminati, alongside villains such as Norman Osborn and Doctor Doom. Later, he joined the Thunderbolts and clashed with Hawkeye, then the team’s leader. More recently, stories about the Hood have emphasized his mystical powers, tying him to Ghost Rider and Doctor Strange’s arch-enemy Dormammu. And that’s where Parker has real potential to change the MCU. Magic has always been a key part of the MCU, ever since Thor and the first scene of Captain America: The First Avenger. More recently, movies such as Spider-Man: No Way Home and shows such as Agatha All Along have explored the magical side of the universe, indicating how it underpins everything the characters do. As seen briefly in the Ironheart trailer, the MCU version of the Hood has those same mystical powers and, if the brief shot of Parker writhing as runes form on his back is any indication, the powers may overwhelm him. Clearly, the abilities are greater than even he realizes. Furthermore, rumors have once again suggested that Mephisto, the Marvel Universe’s equivalent to Satan and a character tied to the comic book version of the Hood, will finally appear in Ironheart, played by Sacha Baron Cohen. Yes, people have been saying that since WandaVision but, given the recent Mephisto name drop in Agatha All Along, it now seems more likely. All of which raises a question: Why all this magic in Ironheart, a show about a technical genius who uses her science skills? The answer is that this clash between technology and magic has long been a theme in the Marvel Universe, going back to Iron Man‘s battles with the Mandarin, a far more magical (and far more racist) character in the comics. The bigger question involves the show’s depiction of Parker Robbins. A veteran of Hamilton and, more recently, Twisters, Ramos knows how to play a fresh-faced and likable character. Will he be able to keep audiences on his side, even as he goes deeper into the dark arts? Or will he quickly become an unrepentant villain, like his comic book counterpart. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Ironheart comes to Disney+ on June 24, 2025

Cool Finds Archaeologists Say They’ve Discovered a Hidden Chamber Where Elites Used Hallucinogens 2,500 Years Ago Unearthed in Peru, the small underground room may have been used for rituals involving psychoactive drugs. New research suggests these “exclusive” events were reserved for the elite An artistic rendering of the stone chamber where the tubes were discovered Daniel Contrera Long before the rise of the Inca empire, a group called the Chavín people thrived in ancient Peru. They’re known for their elaborate stone structures, which were located at an archaeological site now known as Chavín de Huántar in the Andean highlands. During recent excavations at the site, researchers found dozens of hollow bones packed with sediment. They think the artifacts could be ancient drug paraphernalia. “The tubes are analogous to the rolled-up bills that high-rollers snort cocaine through in the movies,” Daniel Contreras, an archaeologist at the University of Florida and a co-author of the study, tells Live Science’s Kristina Killgrove. The site of Chavín de Huántar, located in Peru at an elevation of 10,000 feet, holds the ruins of several monumental buildings. Daniel Contreras The tubes were found in small underground chambers, where experts think they may have been used by Chavín elites, according to a recent study published in the journal PNAS. Chemical and microscopic analyses of the tubes revealed traces of nicotine and vilca bean, a hallucinogen related to the drug DMT. Vilca was commonly used among pre-Columbian populations of the Andes. When smoked or consumed, vilca would bring about an altered mental state. Many ancient cultures used hallucinogens communally, but the Chavín rituals appear to have been “exclusive,” according to a statement from the university. These rituals may have taken place in rooms that held “only a handful of participants at a time, creating an air of mystique and control.” “This is compelling evidence that psychoactive plants were part of formalized and tightly-controlled rituals rather than individual vision-quests or shamanic healing practices,” Contreras tells CBS News’ Emily Mae Czachor. “As such, they seem to have been an important element in the long-term transition from small egalitarian societies to large stratified ones, where social, political and economic inequality were thought of as normal and to be expected rather than unusual.” Snuff tubes made from hollowed bones may have been used to inhale hallucinogenic drugs. Daniel Contreras The Chavín society flourished between roughly 900 and 200 B.C.E. Chavín de Huántar is known for its intricate stone carvings, which often depicted “animal-human hybrids or transformations of human into beast,” and its large network of tunnels, writes Science’s Lizzie Wade. The area is full of imported seashells and obsidian, and Chavín art has been discovered throughout the Andes and on the Peruvian coast, suggesting a “broad cultural reach.” “Chavín was part of the first big moment in Andean prehistory when people, ideas and goods were circulating quite extensively,” Contreras tells Science. Depictions of psychoactive effects in Chavín iconography PNAS For many years, historians assumed the Chavín people conducted rituals using drugs. “What’s exciting about this paper is that, for the first time, we have actual evidence,” José Capriles, an archaeologist at Pennsylvania State University who studies ancient psychoactive drug use but wasn’t involved in the study, tells Science. The researchers think the drugs may have influenced the Chavín society’s class system. By restricting access to these “profound, even terrifying” experiences, Chavín rulers could have convinced their people that “leadership was intertwined with mystical power and part of the natural order,” per the statement. “Taking psychoactives was not just about seeing visions,” says Contreras in the statement. “It was part of a tightly controlled ritual, likely reserved for a select few, reinforcing the social hierarchy.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

In February, as part of my role as a senior software development consultant for Unity Accelerate Solutions, I led a technical webinar about the Addressables Asset System. During the live session, I demonstrated various profiling tools that you can use to optimize a project’s runtime memory and build size. The webinar ended with a Q&A, and our team received more questions than we had time to answer.The following is an extension of that closing Q&A, so we can answer more of your questions.Q: Is the Addressables system needed for light games – like casual, arcade, or puzzle games – if I don’t have memory issues? A: Maybe not, but it’s good to keep in mind that the Addressables system doesn’t only improve memory performance. Having the ability to choose when you load content can improve loading times. Building content in Addressables enables you to have iterative builds that don’t take as long. For example, if you make a small script change, you may not have to rebuild all of your bundles.Q: Are loaded assets released when the scene switches? A: Potentially. Loaded assets from Addressables that are ready to be released because they have a ref count of zero might be unloaded from memory during a scene transition. When transitioning from scenes non-additively, call Resources.UnloadUnusedAssets(). This is expensive on the CPU, but allows you to partially unload AssetBundles.Q: Do object pooling and Addressables work well together? A: Yes. You can load your object once from Addressables and then instantiate multiple copies of it to create your pool. When you are done with the pool, destroy all the objects and release the AsyncOperationHandle that was used to load the asset.Q: Are groups and bundles loaded into memory all at once? A: Addressables groups are an Editor-only concept. At runtime, you only deal with bundles. Bundles are loaded into memory only when they are needed and only the desired content is loaded.Example: You have one bundle with 10 characters in it. You ask Addressables to load three characters. The bundle’s metadata and the three characters will be loaded.Q: If I want to release an asset, do I need to keep the AsyncOperationHandle or the AssetReference? A: We recommend keeping the handle and using it, since you’re responsible for releasing content when you are done using it.As an example, members of our team will often go the handle route in order to avoid calling Instantiate/Release directly on the AssetReference.Q: What are the disadvantages of many small bundles? A: This documentation lists several disadvantages of too many bundles.Q: When an asset in a bundle is needed, what overhead do the other assets in the same bundle have? If it’s a remote bundle it must be downloaded, but is there really no memory overhead from unused assets in the bundle? A: Correct, a remote bundle will be fully downloaded before you can use it.Unloaded assets in a loaded asset bundle have minimal overhead at runtime. Whenever you load assets from a bundle, you need to load the bundle’s metadata. Part of this metadata includes a table of contents that lists all the assets in the bundle. More assets in a bundle equates to larger metadata.You can view this memory overhead by taking a capture with the Unity Memory Profiler. In the “All Of Memory” tab, there’s a list of all the “SerializedFile” objects in memory, one for each bundle. These objects are your bundles’ metadata.Learn more about this metadata in our documentation.Q: When working in an open-world setting, what bundling strategies can I use to unload individual assets without half unloading a bundle and relying on Resources.UnloadUnusedAssets() to clean it up, without the overhead of having every asset in its own bundle? A: The key thing to remember is that content should be bundled together if you expect to unload it at the same time. If your game world has “static” content, like trees and rocks for a certain biome that will not be moved by the player, that content should be bundled together. Any “dynamic” content, like items the player can pick up, should be bundled separately.This blog post and linked GitHub repo covers splitting bundles for an open-world game. It also features a way to deduplicate bundles to reduce the memory overhead of each bundle. Stages 4 and 5 are particularly relevant to open worlds.Q: When should I leave “AssetBundle CRC” enabled? A: The recommended practice is to have this enabled, excluding cached AssetBundles for Remote groups, and disabled for Local groups. The check is only meant to make sure the data wasn’t corrupted on download. There’s almost no reason to do the check for local AssetBundles.Q: When is it not worth it to use Addressables due to CPU performance concerns when loading and unloading assets? A: The Addressables system has a positive impact on CPU loading performance due to not needing to load all content up front.If you don’t use Addressables when loading a scene, you’d have to load all content and references. If you move the content to Addressables, you can choose when to load which content.For example, say you have an Inventory Manager in a scene that has a reference to 1,000 inventory items. If you don’t use Addressables, you’ll have to load every mesh, texture, audio clip, etc., for all these inventory items. If you wait to load this content, loading the scene will be faster.Q: Do all dependencies of an addressable asset also need to be Addressables, or is that only necessary if they are shared? A: Dependencies do not need to be marked addressable. Dependencies will be pulled into Addressables during the build process if necessary.As an example, if you make a player prefab an addressable, you don’t have to manually mark the player’s mesh, textures, or audio as addressable, too. When the bundle is built, all the dependencies that don’t yet exist in Addressables will be automatically included in the player prefab bundle.Q: If I forgot to release an asset and change scenes, what happens to this asset? A: Changing scenes does not inherently interact poorly with handles. But if you load an asset and forget to release its handle, the asset will persist in memory.Addressables has an internal reference-counting system. Handles are how we interact with this system. Loading an asset increments the reference count, and releasing decrements the reference count.Creators are responsible for keeping this reference count up to date. The asset will be in memory as long as the reference count is greater than one.Q: Related to the webinar example, suppose I’m making an open-world game. The boss is present somewhere in the open world. When the player heads to the boss, how do I use Addressables here? Do I send the command to load the sword async, via a trigger, at a certain distance from the enemy, or something else? A: It can be a fine line to choose when to load and unload content. You want to be sure the boss is ready when the player needs to see it, but might not want to load it too early when the player is still able to turn around and avoid the boss.The good thing is that you can iterate on when to load and unload content – you don’t have to get it perfectly optimized on the first try.To get started, we suggest loading all content for a particular “zone” when the player gets near (e.g., the player approaches a dungeon entrance which causes everything inside the dungeon to load). If this causes unnecessary memory pressure, you can add more fine-grained loading and unloading.If the sword is not loading soon enough, consider moving the loading trigger to start earlier, improving the load time of the sword assets by using Unity Profiler’s CPU module to see what is being loaded, or using Addressables synchronously to ensure the load is finished.This documentation includes more details and a code snippet for synchronous Addressables.Q: If I load an addressable when a scene starts, do I need to have a loading screen for it? A: Loading from Addressables is typically done in an asynchronous way, like with Addressables.LoadAssetAsync().There may be some content you don’t want to load before leaving a loading screen. You can collect these AsyncOperationHandles and wait for the necessary ones to complete before leaving.Q: What is the memory footprint of the addressables metadata at runtime (before loading any of its data)? A: During Addressables initialization, the catalog file is loaded so that Addressables knows how to map labels and addresses to assets on disk or in remote locations. A larger catalog equates to a larger memory overhead at runtime.Catalog size can be reduced by stripping unnecessary data, like not including labels or GUIDs in groups that don’t need them, or by reducing the size of existing data. For example, by setting a group’s Internal Asset Naming Mode to GUID instead of filename or full path (which can be longer). You can view the runtime memory size of the catalog in Unity Memory Profiler.Q: What is the Unity Editor doing in the time it spends building Addressables? A: A build report log is output in the /Library folder. This log shows each step of the build process. To add additional details to the log, follow this path to select “Use Detailed Build Log”: Enabling Edit > Preferences > Scriptable Build Pipeline > Use Detailed Build Log.Check out visuals and documentation on how to view the log.Q: Does Resources.Load() also have a duplication problem? A: Yes. It can be useful to think of Addressables content and Resources content as different “worlds.” If you have a texture in /Resources, one copy of that texture is included in the Resources file. If bundles in Addressables depend on that texture, each bundle includes an implicit copy of it. You end up with multiple copies of the texture on disk and potentially multiple copies in memory.To avoid this duplication, move the texture out of /Resources and add it to an Addressables group.Q: Do you get similar size on disk issues that are resolved by removing duplicate bundles when you don’t use Addressables? A: Yes. In the webinar and slides we show how deduplicating the two water racing scenes significantly reduced build size.Q: How can I prevent shader variant duplicates? A: Shaders can be deduplicated in the same process as any other asset – explicitly declare them in a group.If an asset is explicitly declared in an Addressables group that is going into your build, that asset will not be duplicated across multiple bundles.For shaders specifically, it is common practice for projects to use a “Shared shaders” group to contain shaders that you expect to need in memory for the lifespan of your app, and that are shared across many assets.Q: Do two Unity scenes sharing the same prefab duplicate build size? A: This depends on if the prefab the scenes depend on has been explicitly included in Addressables, and if the scenes are in the same or different bundles.See the visual explanation of how duplication occurs in the webinar slides and in this blog post under Stage 4.The key to remember is that all content going into a bundle needs to be able to access all of its dependencies. If you put a scene into a bundle, all of its dependencies need to either be:Explicitly included somewhere in AddressablesImplicitly included in the same bundleQ: Is it possible to compare duplicates in given groups to prevent having all the game assets packed together into an isolated group? A: Yes. You can run the built-in deduplication rule and then sort the assets in the Addressables Groups window into better groupings.Or, a more scalable approach is to write your own Addressables AnalyzeRules, which will appear in the Analyze window. The built-in rules are delivered as C# in the Addressables package and can serve as a baseline.For example, you may want to find every duplicate across all of your groups that start with “Character-”. Any implicit duplicates can be placed in a “Shared-Character” group.Q: Are you going to cover remote builds and local paths? A: We did not cover remote and local paths, which are called “Addressables Profiles” in the webinar. However, we do describe what Addressables Profiles are and how to use them in this documentation.Q: How does Addressables work with Cloud Content Delivery (CCD)? A: CCD integration is discussed in this documentation.Q: Can you please give pointers on best practices to implement low- and high-resolution Addressables variations? A: You can find an example in the Addressables Sample on GitHub.Q: What if bundle content is encrypted? Does the UnityDataTool also decrypt the content? A: No. The data will need to be decrypted before UnityDataTool can analyze the content.Q: Is it a supported use case to build bundles from one Unity project and load the bundles at runtime from an app built from a different project? A: Yes. This is covered by using multiple catalogs at the same time.Q: Are there drawbacks to using InstantiateAsync, or situations where it is better to use LoadAsync + manual Instantiate? A: It is recommended to use Addressables.LoadAssetAsync() and call Object.Instantiate(). Addressables.InstantiateAsync() has a larger performance cost.Q: I have a lot of ScriptableObjects with at least 1–2 sprites referenced as variables. If I want to change the sprites to Addressables, do I have to change the references to Addressables one by one, or is there any trick to do this? A: An Editor script is probably the way to go to convert these references.You can add the AssetReference fields to your ScriptableObject (and temporarily keep the Sprite fields). Then, you can write an Editor script that iterates through your ScriptableObjects, looks up the Sprite asset in Addressables to find the associated AddressableAssetEntry, and stores the address or creates an AssetReference to be stored on the ScriptableObject.Lastly, you can remove the direct Sprite references and swap any related code to use the AssetReference.Q: Can I use addressables for WebGL games? If yes, are there any specific things to look for? A: Yes, and yes. Two things to note: First, WebGL does not support threading, so don’t use Tasks. Second, caching works differently on WebGL – we’ve seen issues with caching remote AssetBundles before.Q: If I use Shader.Find(“ShaderName”), is this coming from the build or Addressables? A: These are coming from the build of the Unity Player, not Addressables. Shader.Find() does not return results from AssetBundles.Q: How can I organize the Addressables Groups window when I have many similarly-named groups? A: For organizing the Addressables Groups UI, you can enable Group Hierarchy with Dashes. This will group similarly-named groups together. For example, “Character-person” and “Character-person2” will appear in the UI under the “Character” grouping.This does not affect how bundles are created. This is only a UI organizational change.Share your feedback with us in the Addressables forum. Be sure to watch for new technical blogs from other Unity developers as part of the ongoing Tech from the Trenches series.

Steam, the most popular marketplace for PC games, has reportedly seen a major breach via another company this week and millions of users' personal data could be at risk on the dark webTech13:49, 14 May 2025Updated 13:49, 14 May 2025Save big in the Steam Sales later today(Image: AFP via Getty Images)If there's one thing PC gamers can all agree on, it's that Steam rules the roost when it comes to buying and playing games.It's packed with deep discounts in regular sales, works flawlessly with Valve's own Steam Deck, and has a huge library of games. That popularity has seemingly painted a target on the service, however, as one account has suggested that a company Valve has worked with has allegedly suffered a data breach.‌A company named in some reports, Twilio, has denied it was breached. Underdark.ai on LinkedIn has suggested Twilio's Two-Factor Authentication data (2FA) was found in samples of the leaked data.‌The Steam sale is backAccording to the Underdark post, "a threat actor going by Machine1337 posted on a well-known dark web forum claiming to have breached Steam, offering a dataset of over 89 million user records for $5,000.""The implications here are serious — Steam isn’t just a game platform; it's a treasure trove of personal and financial data tied to users worldwide. If this breach is verified, it could lead to widespread phishing, account takeovers, and targeted attacks across the gaming community."Article continues belowThe post urges users to enable 2FA if they haven't already, update their passwords, and monitor their emails for suspicious activity.It's worth stressing that Valve's own service has not been breached, but that wherever the leak has come from, it could lead to phishing attempts that could have big consequences for users.If the breach is from a 2FA service, it could allow a bad actor to hijack those requests and gain access to a user's Steam account.‌It's common practice for these kinds of data purchasers to try the same login details on multiple accounts, meaning they could gain access to your email, shopping, or even banking accounts.As a result, we'd suggest changing your Steam account password, while also ensuring it isn't reused elsewhere.Password manager apps can be an ideal tool in these kinds of situations, letting you see at a glance how often you've reused a string of characters.Article continues belowA Twilio spokesperson said: "There is no evidence to suggest that Twilio was breached. We have reviewed a sampling of the data found online, and see no indication that this data was obtained from Twilio."For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌