Brought to you by: Architect: BNIMCompletion Date:2024Location: Johnston, IowaIn the human cardiovascular system blood, oxygen, and the heart can’t function without one another. At LifeServe Blood Center, a laboratory and blood donation center in Iowa, the building’s integrated design operates the same way: If you take away any component, it doesn’t work as it should. BNIM Architects designed the facility in Johnston, Iowa, to account for privacy, where needed, while also delivering a building that puts its life-saving vocation front and center. LifeServe previously operated out of a former bank downtown. Age, a lack of parking logistics, and a separation of spaces within the building were among the challenges. For its new headquarters it was apparent LifeServe needed a space that wholeheartedly reflected its mission to support long, healthy lives. Horizontally oriented shading devices were implemented on the south- and west-faces. (Kendall McCaugherty) “Being an institution that supports life in the way that they do, the whole idea of well-being was important to them, also longevity in terms of being responsible with regards to materials and building a facility that would last,” Rod Kruse, principal at BNIM, told AN. LifeServe’s new site is located in a suburban setting with easy access to the interstate. The move addressed the need for parking and easy access to its distribution network. For BNIM, working on LifeServe was a real “discovery process,” according to Kruse, which required understanding how the company’s services operate and how a new facility could make these processes more efficient. The 56,290-square-foot building serves myriad purposes: as corporate headquarters, donor center, blood processing laboratory, and as a garage for a fleet of commercial vehicles. The site allows for ease of traffic flow for LifeServe’s fleet of vehicles. (Kendall McCaugherty) The long, linear site spans from east to west; this orientation informed the building’s programming and its facade system. Public-oriented spaces were largely placed to the south side, while support areas such as the bus traffic and lot occupy the north and west faces. The massing comprises two long, horizontal volumes set off from one another in plan. An opening for bus traffic flow was located between the building and the garage area. A primary goal of the facade system was to deliver comfort without compromising character. A robust shading scheme installed over the large spans of glazing was the best solution. BNIM’s design considered glare and heat gain. The firm opted for horizontal shading fins, as solar studies found a horizontal orientation worked better than vertical on the south-, east-, and west-facing elevations. Studies also informed the ideal spacing for the blades, so as to control the amount of light entering the building. They were spaced to also afford views out toward the tree-lined landscape. While typically laboratories are dark, internal spaces with little to no natural light, at LifeServe they were located to take advantage of natural light. Inside, shading devices, like daylight and glare sensors, also keep solar gain at bay. Inside, so that new equipment could be added, ducting and mechanics were systemized on the ceiling. (Kendall McCaugherty) “The facade system basically becomes the architecture and the character of the building,” Kruse added. “It’s a functional element that really results in the architectural expression.” Corten steel was applied on the facade sparingly to leave room for large spans of glass. The shading devices installed on the glazed portions of the building were specified with a similar reddish-brown hue. Precast concrete is largely enveloped by the exterior shading devices but left exposed to face the bus stalls and garage facilities. A diagram shows the installation of the shading system and screens. (Courtesy BNIM) To conceal the bus lot, at the north end, a custom-designed screen serves as an organizational device. It completes the building visually, while also projecting its identity. The pattern on the metal paneling was inspired by blood cells viewed under a microscope. Using imagery, BNIM developed the pattern in its own software. Inside, flexibility was key. To accommodate changing technologies LifeServe needed lab space that could adapt to new equipment. Power distribution was run through the floor, and all the ducting and mechanics were systemized on the ceiling, allowing for future upgrades. Much like the facade, and the human body itself, the interiors operate as an integrated system where aesthetics drive functionality—or perhaps the other way around. Project Specifications Design Architect: BNIM Architect of Record: BNIM Landscape Architect: Confluence Client: LifeServe Blood Centers Contractor: Hansen Company Client Representative: Formation Group Structural Engineer: Raker Rhodes Engineering Lighting Design: MODUS Civil Engineer: Civil Design Advantage Facade System: Tubelite Cladding: Tekko Steel, Petrarch, PDM Precast, David Bear Glass: Vitro Windows: Kingspan, Solatube Doors: Tubelight, Wayne Dalton, Stanley, Uniq-Wall, VT Industries Interior Finishes: Mannington, Delta, Autex, Linea, Bradley, Tarkett, Concreteworks East, Nevamar, Corian, Cambria Fixtures: Waldinger

Image: Bandai NamcoThe rumours were true: Elden Ring is getting a movie adaptation thanks to studio A24, with acclaimed writer and director Alex Garland, best known for Ex-Machina, Civil War, and for writing 28 Days Later (and the upcoming 28 Years Later), at the helm. Deadline broke the news late yesterday and also confirmed the producer line-up — Peter Rice, Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich (Warfare, 28 Years Later), Game of Thrones producer Vince Gerardis, and A Song of Ice and Fire writer George R. R. Martin. Martin, of course, contributed to much of the worldbuilding to FromSoftware's critically-acclaimed open-world RPG. Bandai Namco, who published the game, has also confirmed the news, announcing that it would be collaborating with A24 on production. So, we know the movie will be live-action — that only makes sense. But we have a lot of questions here. How will Garland adapt the story? He isn't the most obvious choice for an Elden Ring movie, but we think he's a bold — and good — one. Otherwise, which characters will be in the movie? Will Miriel, Pastor of Vows be present, and who will play them? Does the movie touch on the Shadow of the Erdree DLC at all? Will it go in a completely different direction to the game? The thing is, Elden Ring is a lore-heavy game. It'll be interesting to see just how it's adapted for the screen. Elden Ring comes to Switch 2 later this year. While we don't have a release date for the Elden Ring movie yet, we at least have the Switch 2 version of the game to come in 2025. And in case you're wondering why on earth Elden Ring is getting a movie adaptation, the game has sold over 30 million copies. It's a no brainer. What do you think of this news? Is Alex Garland the right fit for the Elden Ring movie? Call Torrent and ride down to the comments to let us know. Plus new looks for Torrent That's a lot of tarnished [source deadline.com] Related Games See Also Share:0 1 Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and while RPGs are her first love, Nintendo is a close second. She enjoys nothing more than overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. She also wishes she was a Sega air pirate. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment... Related Articles 27 Upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 Games We're Excited For In 2025 The very best Switch 2 games coming soon Nintendo Unveils Diddy Kong's Brand New Design Cap's off Shigeru Miyamoto Explains Why Donkey Kong Has Been Redesigned You want expressive? You got it Here's A Look At The Size And Inside Of Switch 2 Game Cases Arriving in store next month Zelda Fans Are Concerned About The Free Switch 2 Updates, But Don't Worry It's likely performance will still be improved

A rumored Elden Ring movie became a little more of a reality on Thursday night when Bandai Namco announced that Alex Garland (Civil War, Ex Machina) was set to direct a film adaptation of the FromSoftware action role-playing-game for indie-studio darling A24. George R.R. Martin, who provided game director Hidetaka Miyazaki with a murky amount of mythological foundation for the original game, will serve as a producer on the film. Garland might look like an odd choice for Elden Ring based on his filmography; the writer-director has never made a fantasy epic, nor has he orchestrated the kind of medieval combat that would make him an obvious choice to bring Miyazaki’s tough-as-hell boss fights to live action. But Garland’s “gamer cred” is indisputable and an understanding of play is core to much of his work. Hot take time: I’d say his 2012 film Dredd is the greatest video game movie that isn’t actually based on a video game ever made. Starting out as a novelist before pivoting to screenwriting and directing, Garland has made his gaming inspirations known throughout his career. He has said that his time outrunning zombie dogs in Resident Evil was the direct inspiration for the fast zombies in 28 Days Later, which he wrote for director Danny Boyle. When he and Boyle teamed up to adapt Garland’s own novel, The Beach, the collaboration resulted in the closest thing we will ever get to Leonardo DiCaprio’s Banjo-Kazooie movie. In 2005, riding high off 28 Days Later’s success, Garland was tasked by Microsoft with adapting Halo into a feature film — a project that stalled out and sat on a shelf for so long that streaming television was invented and Halo became a decent Paramount Plus show instead. He also went on to collaborate on actual video games: He worked with Ninja Theory and Bandai Namco on 2010’s Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and he served as a story supervisor on 2013’s DmC: Devil May Cry. At some point around that time, he played and fell hard for The Last of Us. (In fact, Garland thinks TLOU is better than 28 Days Later, but hey, none of us are right about everything.) Garland’s gaming tastes are all over the map — in 2020 he aggressively kept up an Animal Crossing island like the rest of us — but his visible influences veer toward the AAA action experience. His adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation has the pace and encounters of an open-world game. His FX show Devs seems right up the alley of anyone looking for Deus Ex or Control vibes. Both Civil War and his 2025 film Warfare bring audiences closer to the kind of tactical military action that we rarely see in movies, but that is all over multiplayer shooters. But for my money, his off-the-leash translation of video game aesthetics and experience in cinematic form happened with Dredd. Written and produced by Garland and technically directed by Pete Travis (Vantage Point), Dredd drops the classic 2000 AD comic antihero, played by The Boys’ Karl Urban, into a The Raid-esque action scenario: To stop a violent drug lord (Lena Heady), the Judge must blast his way through 200 stories of a highly barricaded Mega-City One high-rise. Between the slo-mo effects induced by the illicit drug (appropriately named “Slo-Mo”) and the psychic abilities of Dredd’s sidekick Cassandra, Dredd is a dizzying array of action beats that plunges viewers into a bullet hell without resorting to any gimmicky first-person shooting. By all accounts, the making of Dredd was a fraught experience for all involved, with the studio losing enough faith in Travis that Garland remained on set for the entire shoot and supervised the edit. Urban even claims Garland “actually directed the movie.” When you see it, that makes sense — even the Slo-Mo effects feel specifically like a bullet-time mechanic rather than a complete acid trip. Will Garland make a great Elden Ring movie? What does that even look like? The good news is he’s probably been thinking about it for years, as a fan of FromSoft games. In interviews over the years, the filmmaker has cited Dark Souls as a particular favorite franchise, and even offered an explanation for why an adaptation would be such a challenge. “The Dark Souls games seem to have this embedded poetry in them,” Garland told Gamespot in 2020. “You’ll be wandering around and find some weird bit of dialogue with some sort of broken song with a bit of armor outside a doorway and it feels like you’ve drifted into some existential dream. That’s what I really love about Dark Souls. These spaces are so imaginative and they seem to flow into each other and flow out of each other. It’s very dreamlike […] I can’t imagine how that would [be adapted]. The quality that makes Dark Souls special is probably unique to video games.” The joy Garland finds in Dark Souls games isn’t far off from what Elden Ring offers him as a director — in the end, a successful adaptation will ride on mood and pace and some wicked fights. That’s what Dredd nails, even without a game as actual source material. Dredd broods without relying on too much exposition. Cassandra’s ethereal psychic powers thread a bit of innocence and whimsy into a heavy-metal dystopia. The action is brutal to the point that it often feels like a horror movie (a style Garland pushed to even more gut-wrenching, realistic extremes in Warfare).  “Elden Ring from the guy who brought us Dredd” makes a lot of sense. Now to find an actor with eight arms…

Hollywood is about to get Tarnished (Bandai Namco) A film adaptation of FromSoftware’s Elden Ring is in the works, with George R.R. Martin on board as a producer. After rumours emerged earlier this month, FromSoftware has officially announced it is partnering with A24 to make a live-action film adaptation of Elden Ring. As announced in a press release, Alex Garland will write and direct the project. He’s best known for directing films like Ex Machina, Annihilation, and Civil War, but he’s also served as writer on several Danny Boyle films, specifically Sunshine, 28 Days Later, and its upcoming sequel 28 Years Later. Garland has worked on video games too, serving as a co-writer on 2010’s Enslaved: Odyssey To The West and a story supervisor on 2013’s DmC: Devil May Cry. George R.R. Martin, who contributed to the story of Elden Ring alongside the game’s director Hidetaka Miyazaki, is a producer on the film. He’s joined by Game Of Thrones producer Vince Gerardis, Peter Rice, and Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich from DNA Films. Interestingly, Miyazaki’s name isn’t mentioned, which suggests he’s not involved. Speaking to The Guardian last year, he expressed his interest in making a film adaptation of Elden Ring but said he doesn’t think he has the ‘knowledge or ability to produce something in a different medium’. Adapting Elden Ring’s dark fantasy world to live-action will certainly be a challenge, but the biggest task might be translating the game’s lore into a tight narrative, unless it opts to tell its own story within the same universe. More Trending Between Garland and Martin though, this is probably the most promising film based on a video game currently in development. Others in the works include a BioShock movie at Netflix, a new Street Fighter movie, a Death Stranding film, OutRun with Sydney Sweeney, along with countless more. There is no indication of when the Elden Ring film will be released, or when it will start shooting, so it will likely be a few years away yet. This announcement comes a week ahead of Elden Ring: Nightreign, a roguelike multiplayer spin-off which is set to launch on May 30 across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Nightreign launches this month (Bandai Namco) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Bandai Namco and A24 announce Elden Ring live-action movie, Alex Garland directing Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Neowin @LoneWolfSL · May 23, 2025 07:16 EDT FromSoftware's Elden Ring is coming to the big screen. The game's publisher, Bandai Namco Entertainment, and movie production company A24 have announced a partnership that will see the popular action game being adapted to live-action movie form. Alex Garland has been announced as the writer and director of the project. He has previously been involved with movies like Civil War, Annihilation, and Ex Machina, while also being the writer behind projects like Dredd and 28 Days Later. FromSoftware famously worked with A Song of Ice and Fire series author George R. R. Martin to build up its lore. The author is also attached to the movie now, this time as a producer alongside Vince Gerardis, Peter Rice, Andrew Macdonald, and Allon Reich. Winner of numerous Game of the Year Awards in 2022, Elden Ring turned out to be a massive success for the developer and publisher. Bandai Namco recently announced that the Souls-like RPG has sold over 30 million copies so far. Where the story will be set in the movie is a mystery. The game itself takes place following a cataclysmic chain of events, named The Shattering, that has effectively killed the world. The movie might take place before the event, during it, or even tell a story set in the same timeline as the game. In any case, it may be years before we hear about the movie project again. FromSoftware has been building upon Elden Ring since its launch, too. Last year, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion launched, taking players to an entirely different realm to tell another story in the dark fantasy universe. Soon, a spin-off title will launch out of the studio, too. Titled Elden Ring Nightreign, the cooperative multiplayer-focused title shakes up the gameplay loop and pacing entirely. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

I travel constantly and internationally. Whenever I return to the United States, I enjoy using Global Entry, which is like E-ZPass for customs. Here’s what it’s like: As you approach customs, you see a sign that says “Global Entry,” which leads you into a corral formed by retractable belt stanchions containing connected kiosks. A uniformed TSA agent tells you to stand in front of one of the stations, which takes your picture in about 2 seconds. The kiosk then tells you to proceed to the customs agent, who just waves you through. While entering a major airport like LAX or SFO from abroad normally involves 30 minutes in a massive line, Global Entry gets me through in 3 minutes. Technically, it’s not that big a boon. It merely means that I get to baggage claim way before most others on my flight, where I wait for 45 minutes for the bags. In any event, face recognition is the secret sauce of fast customs entry. Facial recognition works. It’s super handy for unlocking smartphones and computers, enhancing security through access control and surveillance, streamlining airport and border checks, enabling secure financial transactions, improving patient identification in healthcare, personalizing retail and customer experiences, supporting law enforcement in suspect identification, and facilitating fast check-ins at events and entertainment venues. But many oppose facial recognition technology because it jeopardizes privacy, civil liberties, and personal security. It enables constant surveillance and raises the specter of a dystopian future in which people feel afraid to exercise free speech. Another issue is that one’s face can’t be changed like a password can, so if face-recognition data is stolen or sold on the Dark Web, there’s little anyone can do about the resulting identity theft and other harms. But as people fret and debate about the tradeoff between convenience and security on the one hand, and privacy risk and dystopia on the other, the surveillance tech industry has quietly moved beyond face recognition. Facing the reality of the new biometrics A company called Veritone is succeeding in the market for its Track product. As with face recognition tech, Veritone Track uses AI to spot, identify, and follow people. But unlike facial recognition, it uses body size, gender, hair color, clothing, accessories, and more. Police departments that use Track can choose attributes from a menu (specific types and colors of clothing, hats, backpacks, and other items), and then the system shows them video clips of people matching the user-selected criteria. The system can also track vehicles by make and model, rather than by license plate, and it can stitch together clips from different cameras (CCTV, body cameras, drone footage, social media, and smartphone uploads) to build a timeline of location. More than 400 clients, including police departments, universities, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and others, are already using Track, Veritone says. Track is part of Veritone’s iDEMS (Intelligent Digital Evidence Management System), which itself is powered by the aiWARE platform, which brings together more than 300 different AI models (like those for transcription, object detection, etc.) to extract insights from otherwise unrelated data sources, according to the company. Veritone’s offering isn’t alone. Clothing and attribute recognition technology is available through various APIs and platforms, often provided by companies specializing in computer vision and AI. Companies like Ximilar, Clarifai, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft offer identification based on attributes other than face recognition. In addition to specific-person identification, these companies use such technology for product tagging, personalized shopping recommendations, fashion trend analysis, and enhanced image search. Other services combine face recognition with the recognition of people based on clothing and other attributes. In fact, you probably use these technologies all the time whenever you use Google Photos or Meta’s Facebook. Google Photos, for example, analyzes photos taken together in time and detects if a person is wearing the same clothing across multiple photos, even if their face is not visible. The system also considers visual cues and other attributes to help identify individuals across multiple photos taken within a similar timeframe. I once uploaded a picture of two nieces, which I had taken with my iPhone, to Google Photos. When I search for myself, this picture shows up. Why? One of my nieces is wearing mirror sunglasses, and a reflection of my arm is visible in them. Meta developed and uses algorithms that can identify people in photos even when their faces aren’t visible by analyzing visual cues like clothing, hairstyles, and body language. Both platforms use a combination of facial recognition, clothing, and other attribute recognition, as well as contextual information, to improve the accuracy of identifying individual people. What’s also worth noting is that they do this entirely without the subjects’ permission. For example, I could take a picture of someone who doesn’t even have a Google account, then label their face in Google Photos with their name. Many active Google Photos users label dozens of people in their Photos lineup, and most of these people do have Google accounts, which Google could match to their photos. The new world of identification Worry about face recognition tends to obscure the real situation we all find ourselves in: Face recognition is now just one of many ways new technology can identify you. You can be identified by your gait (how you walk). And surveillance cameras now use AI-powered video analytics to track behavior, not just faces. They can follow you based on your clothing, the bag you carry, and your movement patterns, stitching together your path across a city or a stadium without ever needing a clear shot of your face. The truth is that face recognition is just the most visible part of a much larger system of surveillance. When public concern about face recognition causes bans or restrictions, governments, companies, and other organizations simply circumvent that concern by deploying other technologies from a large and growing menu of options. Whether we’re IT professionals, law enforcement technologists, security specialists, or privacy advocates, it’s important to incorporate the new identification technologies into our thinking, and face the new reality that face recognition is just one technology among many.

Lead AI ProgrammerSega EuropeHorsham, West Sussex, United Kingdom1 hour agoApplyBased at our well-established studio in Horsham, in the heart of West Sussex, you will be working as a key member of the team on our upcoming Survival title, the sequel to Alien: Isolation.In this role, you will be able to make a real impact on our games, while bringing your knowledge and experience to help push the boundaries of the genre by collaborating with the wider development team striving to make our titles better than ever before.This role is Hybrid and has an expectation of a minimum of 2 days per week in our Horsham studio.Key ResponsibilitiesIn this role you will be required to lead a small team of AI engineers in the development of top-quality AI capabilities for our project.On a day-to-day basis, you will:Act as technical owner and primary point of contact for the project’s AI engineeringWork closely with design, production team and technical directors to ensure all project AI engineering work is identified, well defined, planned and scoped.Collaborate with your team to plan, estimate and author high-quality performant AI codeEnsure features are delivered on time and meet quality expectationsEnsure AI systems are documented and have appropriate auto-testsDebug, diagnose and resolve any problems as they ariseMentor members of your team in their technical and professional development.Knowledge, Skill and Experience:+ EssentialExtensive professional C++ programming experience in the field of AIExperience in using Unreal Engine 4 or 5 on a AAA titleExperience of building sophisticated AI systemsAbility to clearly communicate using a variety of methods to enable effective collaboration.+ DesirablePrevious leadership experienceDevelopment experience on consolesPassionate about games and solving technical problems.About Creative AssemblyCreative Assembly crafts deep and detailed games that last, entertaining millions of players across the globe for decades.We are all game makers and we care deeply about the experiences we create. We empower our teams to make significant contributions to our games, supported by skills development and growth opportunities.We are located in Horsham, UK and Sofia, Bulgaria.We offer many benefits to support you and your family including:Work from Anywhere for a temporary period each year (restrictions apply such as VISAs)Enhanced holiday allowance, maternity and paternity breaks, flexibility with our core hours, and no-notice holidaysBespoke relocation package for you and your dependentsPrivate medical and dental insurance, life insurance, permanent health insurance, critical illness cover and free health care screeningGenerous holiday allowance plus full studio closure over the Christmas and New Year period, and all Bank holidaysJoin our Diversity and Inclusion Network – an employee-led groupSeason ticket travel loans and cycle to work scheme with free bike servicing and discounted car valet service on siteWellbeing support and virtual confidential counsellingCommunity activities including parties, football and more.Our studio sites have disabled access.We are an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief.Note to Recruitment Agencies: SEGA Europe Limited and our studios do not accept unsolicited candidate introductions from unauthorised third parties. For the avoidance of doubt, SEGA Europe is not liable for any fees, compensation or any other costs associated with the introduction of a candidate or recruitment services unless and until an agreement has been duly executed. Further details can be found here. Create Your Profile — Game companies can contact you with their relevant job openings. Apply

Tech AI to monitor NYC subway safety as crime concerns rise AI-powered surveillance aims to prevent crime before it happens in Big Apple’s subway system Published May 23, 2025 6:00am EDT close 'Decoding Broken Hearts': AI used to advance heart health research Fox News anchor Bret Baier has the latest on the Murdoch Children's Research Institute's partnership with the Gladstone Institutes for the "Decoding Broken Hearts" initiative on "Special Report." Imagine having a tireless guardian watching over you during your subway commute. It notices every detail with steady focus, all with one goal in mind: keeping you safe on the subway.New York City's subway system is testing artificial intelligence to boost security and reduce crime. Michael Kemper, a 33-year NYPD veteran and the chief security officer for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which is the largest transit agency in the United States, is leading the rollout of AI software designed to spot suspicious behavior as it happens. The MTA says this technology represents the future of subway surveillance and reassures riders that privacy concerns are being taken seriously.JOIN THE FREE ‘CYBERGUY REPORT’: GET MY EXPERT TECH TIPS, CRITICAL SECURITY ALERTS AND EXCLUSIVE DEALS, PLUS INSTANT ACCESS TO MY FREE ‘ULTIMATE SCAM SURVIVAL GUIDE’ WHEN YOU SIGN UP! New York City subway (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?How AI surveillance will work in the New York City SubwayThe AI system will analyze real-time camera feeds across subway platforms and train cars to detect unusual or potentially dangerous behaviors. Instead of identifying individuals, the technology focuses on behavior patterns that might signal trouble, such as erratic movements or confrontations. When the AI flags something suspicious, it can alert transit police to respond quickly, which could help prevent crimes before they escalate.Currently, about 40% of subway cameras are monitored live by staff. The AI aims to expand this coverage without needing additional personnel, which could enhance safety across the system. While details about the AI providers and full deployment timelines have not been shared, the MTA emphasizes that facial recognition technology will not be part of this system. This is intended to protect rider privacy. A surveillance camera mounted on a building (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Crime trends and government responseCrime in NYC subways has seen ups and downs over recent years. While major crimes dropped by about 7.7% through mid-2024, assaults have unfortunately increased. To bolster safety, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed 1,000 National Guard members to support transit police efforts. AI technology is viewed as a complementary tool in this broader strategy to keep subways safe, not a standalone solution.'DELUSIONAL' NYC POLITICIANS CALLED OUT BY GUARDIAN ANGELS FOUNDER OVER SUBWAY VIOLENCE: 'SLAP IN THE FACE' A police vehicle (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Is AI being used in public transit elsewhere?New York is not alone in exploring AI for transit security. Cities like Los Angeles and Chicago have experimented with AI-powered cameras for tasks ranging from weapons detection to issuing parking citations. These initiatives reflect a growing interest in using technology to enhance public safety in transit environments. Entrance to NYC subway (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Kurt's key takeawaysWhile the promise of AI surveillance is encouraging, several questions remain unanswered. We do not yet know exactly which behaviors the system will flag or how effective it will be in practice. Perhaps more importantly, privacy advocates and civil liberties groups warn about potential biases in AI systems and the risk of false positives that could unfairly target certain groups.The MTA's decision to exclude facial recognition is a positive step, but ongoing transparency and oversight will be crucial. Michael Kemper's extensive experience leading the NYPD's Transit Bureau, where he helped reduce subway crime, adds credibility to the initiative. Still, as this technology rolls out, balancing safety with privacy and fairness will be key to earning public trust.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPWould you trust AI to watch over you in the subway or are you more concerned about your privacy? Let us know by writing us atCyberguy.com/Contact.For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you'd like us to cover.Follow Kurt on his social channels:Answers to the most-asked CyberGuy questions:New from Kurt:Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on "FOX & Friends." Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Thursday announced the disruption of the online infrastructure associated with DanaBot (aka DanaTools) and unsealed charges against 16 individuals for their alleged involvement in the development and deployment of the malware, which it said was controlled by a Russia-based cybercrime organization. The malware, the DoJ said, infected more than 300,000 victim computers around the world, facilitated fraud and ransomware, and caused at least $50 million in damages. Two of the defendants, Aleksandr Stepanov (aka JimmBee), 39, and Artem Aleksandrovich Kalinkin (aka Onix), 34, both from Novosibirsk, Russia, are currently at large. Stepanov has been charged with conspiracy, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, unauthorized impairment of a protected computer, wiretapping, and use of an intercepted communication. Kalinkin has been charged with conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to a computer to obtain information, to gain unauthorized access to a computer to defraud, and to commit unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. The unsealed criminal complaint and indictment show that many of the defendants, counting Kalinkin, exposed their real-life identities after accidentally infecting their own systems with the malware. "In some cases, such self-infections appeared to be deliberately done in order to test, analyze, or improve the malware," the complaint [PDF] read. "In other cases, the infections seemed to be inadvertent – one of the hazards of committing cybercrime is that criminals will sometimes infect themselves with their own malware by mistake." "The inadvertent infections often resulted in sensitive and compromising data being stolen from the actor's computer by the malware and stored on the DanaBot servers, including data that helped identify members of the DanaBot organization." If convicted, Kalinkin is expected to face a statutory maximum sentence of 72 years in federal prison. Stepanov would face a jail term of five years. Concurrent with the action, the law enforcement effort, carried out as part of Operation Endgame, saw DanaBot's command-and-control (C2) servers seized, including dozens of virtual servers hosted in the United States. "DanaBot malware used a variety of methods to infect victim computers, including spam email messages containing malicious attachments or hyperlinks," the DoJ said. "Victim computers infected with DanaBot malware became part of a botnet (a network of compromised computers), enabling the operators and users of the botnet to remotely control the infected computers in a coordinated manner." DanaBot, like the recently dismantled Lumma Stealer malware, operates under a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) scheme, with the administrators leasing out access starting from $500 to "several thousand dollars" a month. Tracked under the monikers Scully Spider and Storm-1044, is a multi-functional tool along the lines of Emotet, TrickBot, QakBot, and IcedID that's capable of acting as a stealer and a delivery vector for next-stage payloads, such as ransomware. The Delphi-based modular malware is equipped to siphon data from victim computers, hijack banking sessions, and steal device information, user browsing histories, stored account credentials, and virtual currency wallet information. It can also provide full remote access, log keystrokes, and capture videos. It's been active in the wild since its debut in May 2018, when it started off as a banking trojan. Example of typical Danabot infrastructure "DanaBot initially targeted victims in Ukraine, Poland, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Australia prior to expanding its targeting posture to include U.S.- and Canada-based financial institutions in October 2018," CrowdStrike said. "The malware's popularity grew due to its early modular development supporting Zeus-based web injects, information stealer capabilities, keystroke logging, screen recording, and hidden virtual network computing (HVNC) functionality." According to Black Lotus Labs and Team Cymru, DanaBot employs a layered communications infrastructure between a victim and the botnet controllers, wherein the C2 traffic is proxied through two or three server tiers before it reaches the final level. At least five to six tier-2 servers were active at any given time. A majority of DanaBot victims are concentrated around Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. "The operators have shown their commitment to their craft, adapted to detection and changes in enterprise defense, and with later iterations, insulating the C2s in tiers to obfuscate tracking," the companies said. "Throughout this time, they have made the bot more user-friendly with structured pricing and customer support." High-level diagram of multi-tiered C2 architecture The DoJ said DanaBot administrators operated a second version of the botnet that was specially designed to target victim computers in military, diplomatic, government, and related entities in North America and Europe. This variant, emerging in January 2021, came fitted with capabilities to record all interactions happening on a victim device and send the data to a different server. "Pervasive malware like DanaBot harms hundreds of thousands of victims around the world, including sensitive military, diplomatic, and government entities, and causes many millions of dollars in losses," said United States Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California. The DoJ further credited several private sector firms, Amazon, CrowdStrike, ESET, Flashpoint, Google, Intel 471, Lumen, PayPal, Proofpoint, Spycloud, Team Cymru, and Zscaler, for providing "valuable assistance." Some of the noteworthy aspects of DanaBot, compiled from various reports, are below - DanaBot's sub-botnet 5 received commands to download a Delphi-based executable leveraged to conduct HTTP-based distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence (MOD) webmail server and the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine in March 2022, shortly after Russia's invasion of the country Two DanaBot sub-botnets, 24 and 25, were specifically used for espionage purposes likely with an aim to further intelligence-gathering activities on behalf of Russian government interests DanaBot operators have periodically restructured their offering since 2022 to focus on defense evasion, with at least 85 distinct build numbers identified to date (The most recent version is 4006, which was compiled in March 2025) The malware's infrastructure consists of multiple components: A "bot" that infects target systems and performs data collection, an "OnlineServer" that manages the RAT functionalities, a "client" for processing collected logs and bot management, and a "server" that handles bot generation, packing, and C2 communication DanaBot has been used in targeted espionage attacks against government officials in the Middle East and Eastern Europe The authors of DanaBot operate as a single group, offering the malware for rent to potential affiliates, who subsequently use it for their own malicious purposes by establishing and managing their own botnets using private servers DanaBot's developers have partnered with the authors of several malware cryptors and loaders, such as Matanbuchus, and offered special pricing for distribution bundles DanaBot maintained an average of 150 active tier-1 C2 servers per day, with approximately 1,000 daily victims across more than 40 countries, making it one of the largest MaaS platforms active in 2025 Proofpoint, which first identified and named DanaBot in May 2018, said the disruption of the MaaS operation is a win for defenders and that it will have an impact on the cybercriminal threat landscape. "Cybercriminal disruptions and law enforcement actions not only impair malware functionality and use but also impose a cost to threat actors by forcing them to change their tactics, cause mistrust in the criminal ecosystem, and potentially make criminals think about finding a different career," Selena Larson, a staff threat researcher at Proofpoint, said. "These successes against cyber criminals only come about when business IT teams and security service providers share much-needed insight into the biggest threats to society, affecting the greatest number of people around the world, which law enforcement can use to track down the servers, infrastructure, and criminal organizations behind the attacks. Private and public sector collaboration is crucial to knowing how actors operate and taking action against them." DanaBot's features as promoted on its support site DoJ Unseals Charges Against QakBot Leader The development comes as the DoJ unsealed charges against a 48-year-old Moscow resident, Rustam Rafailevich Gallyamo, for leading efforts to develop and maintain the QakBot malware, which was disrupted in a multinational operation in August 2023. The agency also filed a civil forfeiture complaint against over $24 million in cryptocurrency seized from Gallyamov over the course of the investigation. "Gallyamov developed, deployed, and controlled the Qakbot malware beginning in 2008," the DoJ said. "From 2019 onward, Gallyamov allegedly used the Qakbot malware to infect thousands of victim computers around the world in order to establish a network, or 'botnet,' of infected computers." The DoJ revealed that, following the takedown, Gallyamov and his co-conspirators continued their criminal activities by switching to other tactics like "spam bomb" attacks in order to gain unauthorized access to victim networks and deploy ransomware families like Black Basta and CACTUS. Court documents accuse the e-crime group of engaging in these methods as recently as January 2025. "Mr. Gallyamov's bot network was crippled by the talented men and women of the FBI and our international partners in 2023, but he brazenly continued to deploy alternative methods to make his malware available to criminal cyber gangs conducting ransomware attacks against innocent victims globally," said Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office. Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.