News About Cyber Warfare

Paris, France (AFP) Jan 14, 2026 – A French applied mathematics professor has been charged with allowing a Chinese delegation to visit sensitive sites in a case of suspected espionage, a prosecutor said on Wednesday. The lecturer at a university engineering institute in the southwestern town of Bordeaux was charged on December 16 but released under judicial supervision, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The charges against him include “providing information to a foreign power” and “colluding with a foreign power”, which can be punished by up to 15 and 10 years in jail respectively, it added. “This civil servant is suspected in particular of having allowed members of a Chinese delegation to enter restricted areas whose sensitivity had been described as highly significant,” it said. The engineering institute where he works has been partially designated as a “restricted area” since 2019. Such sites are given extra protection to avoid scientific or technical know-how from being intercepted and used to weaken France’s “means of defence” or “compromise its security”, as well as other potential uses, according to the penal code. The academic’s lawyer did not reply to a request for comment. An investigation was opened in early 2024 after an alert from the authorities on an incident at the Bordeaux university. Along with several other people, he was detained for questioning in February last year. After the authorities examined devices seized in the probe, the French academic was called back for more questions. French publication Intelligence Online described the man as a “recognised expert, nearing the end of his career” who had been cooperating with Chinese colleagues since his student days. He “has even spent two months per year at Xiamen University since the late 2010s”, it said, adding its School of Mathematical Sciences was “among the most prestigious in the country”.

Manila (AFP) Jan 15, 2026 – The Philippines said Thursday it plans to block Elon Musk’s Grok “by tonight”, joining Southeast Asian neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia in barring access to the chatbot that has drawn fire over AI-generated sexualised deepfakes. The news came hours after social media platform X said it was taking measures to prevent its chatbot from undressing images of real people — including children — amid a growing global backlash and the launch of an investigation in the US state of California. “We need to clean the internet now, because much toxic content is appearing, especially with the advent of AI,” telecommunications secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda told a press briefing announcing the decision. Renato Paraiso, acting executive director of the country’s cybercrime centre, told AFP the block would take effect within the day. “By tonight or within today, we are expecting (Grok) to be blocked in the entire Philippines,” Paraiso said. “We are expecting the telcos to immediately comply with the (National Telecommunications Commission) order, so of course we will monitor it.” He added that X’s pledge to limit access would have no effect on the government’s plans. “We cannot make decisions based on announcements,” Paraiso said, adding they would watch to see if the platform carries through with its promises. Indonesia on Saturday became the first country to block access to Grok entirely, with Malaysia following the next day. X announces measures to prevent Grok from undressing imagesSan Francisco, United States (AFP) Jan 15, 2026 – Elon Musk’s platform X on Wednesday announced measures to prevent its AI chatbot Grok from undressing images of real people, following global backlash over its generation of sexualized images of women and children. X said it will “geoblock the ability” of all Grok and X users to create images of people in “bikinis, underwear, and similar attire” in those jurisdictions where such actions are deemed illegal. “We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis,” X’s safety team said in a statement. “This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers.” The statement comes just hours after California’s attorney general launched an investigation into Musk’s xAI — the developer of Grok — over the generation of “non-consensual, sexually explicit material” in recent weeks. International pressure had been building on xAI to rein in Grok after its so-called “Spicy Mode” feature allowed users to create sexualized deepfakes of women and children using simple text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.” Indonesia on Saturday became the first country to block access to Grok entirely, with neighboring Malaysia following on Sunday. India said Sunday that X had removed thousands of posts and hundreds of user accounts in response to its complaints. Britain’s Ofcom media regulator said Monday it was opening a probe into whether X failed to comply with UK law over the sexual images. And France’s commissioner for children Sarah El Hairy said Tuesday she had referred Grok’s generated images to French prosecutors, the Arcom media regulator and the European Union.

San Francisco, United States (AFP) Jan 15, 2026 – Global outrage persisted Thursday over sexualized deepfakes created by Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok, even after his social media platform X said it was blocking the chatbot from undressing images in certain locations. The Philippines became the third country to ban Grok, following Southeast Asian neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia, while Britain and France said they would maintain pressure after the chatbot cranked out a flood of lewd photos of women and children. X announced Wednesday that it would “geoblock the ability” of all Grok and X users to create images of people in “bikinis, underwear, and similar attire” in jurisdictions where such actions are illegal. It was not immediately clear where the tool would be restricted. The announcement came after California’s attorney general launched an investigation into xAI — the developer of Grok — over the sexually explicit material and several countries opened their own probes. Following an initial uproar last week, Grok said it would restrict image generation and editing to paying subscribers, prompting outraged critics to accuse Musk’s company of monetizing the problem rather than solving it. Bowing to global pressure, X on Wednesday said it would restrict “all users,” including paying subscribers, from using the Grok account to edit images of people in “revealing clothes such as bikinis.” But just hours later, the Philippines announced the “immediate blocking” of Grok late Thursday. Unmoved by X’s announcement, cybercrime chief Renato Paraiso said earlier that authorities would monitor whether the platform follows through on its promises. “We need to clean the internet now because much toxic content is appearing, especially with the advent of AI,” said Philippine telecommunications secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda. Meanwhile, Malaysia on Thursday said its regulators found that X’s measures to prevent Grok from generating revealing images were “not done in totality.” If X can successfully deactivate and prevent the generation of such content, Malaysia will lift the temporary restriction on Grok, communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said. – ‘Zero tolerance’ – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — a favourite target of Musk’s political posts — welcomed that X was acting to ensure “full compliance with UK law,” but insisted that it “must happen immediately.” “If we need to strengthen existing laws further, we are prepare to do that,” Starmer wrote on X. Pressure has been building on xAI to rein in Grok after its so-called “Spicy Mode” feature allowed users to create sexualized deepfakes using simple text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.” The European Commission, which acts as the EU’s digital watchdog, has said it will “carefully assess” measures taken by X to ensure “they effectively protect citizens.” “France and Europe taking action… is producing results,” Paris’s digital minister Anne Le Henanff told AFP on Thursday, warning that “no platform is above the law.” California Governor Gavin Newsom said that xAI’s “vile” decision to allow sexually explicit deepfakes to proliferate prompted him to urge the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, to hold the company accountable. “We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material,” Bonta said on Wednesday. He added that the California investigation would determine whether xAI violated state law after the explicit imagery was “used to harass people across the internet.” Further adding pressure on xAI, a coalition of 28 civil society groups submitted open letters to the CEOs of Apple and Google on Wednesday, urging them to ban Grok and X from their app stores amid the surge in sexualized images. burs-ac/arp X Apple GOOGLE

Warsaw (AFP) Jan 20, 2026 – Polish authorities are considering banning Chinese vehicles from entering military sites over possible security risks, according to defence officials. The aim is to guard against risks “related to technology, access to information, the number of sensors embedded (in the vehicles), and data that can be transmitted without our knowledge and beyond our control”, Colonel Marek Pietrzak, spokesperson for the general staff of the Polish army, told AFP on Tuesday. “A solution will be presented in the coming days,” he said. Polish media report that the new measures could also apply to cars made by US firm Tesla. According to the defence ministry, “work is underway on restrictions regarding access by Chinese-made vehicles to protected military sites and facilities.” The new rules could also cover “connections between service phones and other data carriers with the systems installed in such vehicles”, the ministry’s press service wrote in an email to AFP. Currently in Poland, a NATO and European Union member, it is up to commanders of military sites to authorize or deny access to vehicles equipped with audiovisual recording systems. sw/ks/jhb Tesla

Washington, United States (AFP) Jan 16, 2026 – The US Defense Department said Thursday it would overhaul the editorially independent, Pentagon-funded Stars and Stripes military newspaper to refocus the publication away from “woke distractions.” Stars and Stripes was first published over 150 years ago and is authorized by Congress to remain free from political interference despite being funded by the Department of Defense. The paper will adapt “to serve a new generation of service members,” including by stopping the publication of reports by the independent Associated Press wire service, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote on X. “Stars & Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters. It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY,” he wrote. The announcement came days after the Washington Post reported that applicants to the military newspaper have been asked how they would support President Donald Trump’s priorities, raising concerns about its independence. Stars and Stripes was first published by Union soldiers during the Civil War in 1861 and has been continually published since World War II, according to its website. Its reports focus on the military community and range from news to entertainment. The paper’s leadership had not been aware the Trump administration was asking applicants about how they would support the president’s policies, Jacqueline Smith, the ombudsman who guards the paper’s independence, told the Post. Smith said asking such a question “is antithetical to Stripes’ journalistic and federally mandated mission.” Stars and Stripes Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin told NBC News that the paper “does not ask questions about policy support during job interviews.” PEN America, an organization that advocates for free expression, accused the Pentagon on Thursday of “trying to turn this independent newsroom into a mouthpiece for the administration’s political messaging.” Parnell indicated the Pentagon planned to take a larger role in the newspaper’s operations. “Stars & Stripes has a proud legacy of reporting news that’s important to our service members,” Parnell said. “The Department of War is committed to ensuring the outlet continues to reflect that proud legacy.”

Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Jan 20, 2026 – The EU executive on Tuesday proposed banning third-country companies from European mobile networks if they are deemed a security risk, in a move seen as targeting China. The European Commission did not name any country or company as a target but Brussels has previously sought to restrict Chinese suppliers in the sensitive field. The step builds on actions taken in 2023 when the EU executive urged states to exclude Huawei and ZTE from their mobile networks due to security risks. The EU has taken an increasingly tough line on trade issues with China, but there are also security concerns — often raised by Washington. The EU will evaluate which states or suppliers to ban and, once identified, telecoms providers will have three years to phase them out from their networks. Brussels has taken the step after the 2023 voluntary measures failed to yield enough change across the 27-country bloc. Current rules give national authorities powers to issue restrictions, but less than half of EU states have used them to restrict or exclude high-risk vendors. The states “haven’t implemented it, and that’s why we are now proposing that it’s becoming mandatory”, EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen told reporters. The United States has long banned Huawei and sought to convince allies to follow suit over fears its products could be used to monitor communications. – Huawei criticism – The EU did not name Huawei but the company criticised the plans. “A legislative proposal to limit or exclude non-EU suppliers based on country of origin, rather than factual evidence and technical standards, violates the EU’s basic legal principles of fairness, non-discrimination, and proportionality,” the company said in a statement. “We will closely monitor the subsequent development of the legislative process and reserve all rights to safeguard our legitimate interests,” it added. Brussels unveiled the proposal as part of plans to revise its cybersecurity rules in a bid to bolster Europe’s defences against a surge in cyber attacks. The commission said it would work with EU states to identify and consider what steps to take to tackle risks to 18 critical sectors, such as energy and health. – Revamping telecoms – The commission will also unveil its proposal on Wednesday for a Digital Networks Act to overhaul Europe’s telecoms networks. The EU wants to bolster its competitiveness and boost investment. But critics say that is difficult when key sectors including telecoms and defence are fragmented with different national rules which make it difficult to scale up. The bigger question is where the money will come from, as Brussels says Europe needs 200 billion euros ($235 billion) to modernise the telecoms network. In a win for tech giants, a draft document seen by AFP made no mention of “fair share” payments from the world’s biggest web companies for the large amounts of bandwidth they use. Despite being a fervent wish of telecoms firms, the idea was deeply unpopular. It became even more unlikely after the EU-US tariff deal last year, which the White House said included an EU promise not to adopt fees. The EU executive will also give member states until 2035 to move off copper telecommunications networks, according to the draft document. This would mean the industry has more time to switch to faster fibre networks. Both texts will need to be approved by member states and the EU parliament. Beijing vows to ‘safeguard’ rights if EU bans telecom suppliersBeijing Jan 21, 2026 – Beijing vowed on Wednesday that it would “safeguard” the rights and interests of Chinese businesses if the European Union pushes on with plans to ban “high-risk” foreign telecoms suppliers, a move seen as targeting China. Brussels unveiled the proposal on Tuesday as part of plans to revise its cybersecurity rules in a bid to bolster Europe’s defences against a surge in cyber attacks. It did not name any country or company as a target, but has taken an increasingly tough stance on trade issues with China, often citing security concerns. China’s foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters on Wednesday the move amounts to protectionism by the bloc. “We urge the EU to avoid going further down the wrong path of protectionism, otherwise, China will inevitably take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises,” Guo told a news conference. The plans would see the European Union block third-country companies from European mobile networks if they are deemed a security risk, building on previous measures in 2023 that saw Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE excluded from networks. Guo warned that the EU plans would again incur “huge” economic costs. “It is naked protectionism. Behaviour that wantonly interferes in the market and goes against the laws of economics not only fails to achieve so-called security but also incurs huge costs,” he said. Brussels took the new step after the 2023 measures failed to yield enough change across the 27-country bloc.

Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Jan 26, 2026 – The EU on Monday hit Elon Musk’s X with an investigation over AI chatbot Grok’s generation of sexualised deepfake images of women and minors, in the latest step of an international backlash against the tool. Grok faces an outcry after it emerged that users could sexualise images of women and children using simple text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes”. “In Europe, we will not tolerate unthinkable behaviour, such as digital undressing of women and children,” said European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. “It is simple — we will not hand over consent and child protection to tech companies to violate and monetise. The harm caused by illegal images is very real,” she said in a statement to AFP. EU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen said the probe would “determine whether X has met its legal obligations” under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which is designed to police internet giants. She said the rights of women and children in the EU should not be “collateral damage” of X’s services. Brussels said it was investigating whether X had properly mitigated “risks related to the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, such as manipulated sexually explicit images, including content that may amount to child sexual abuse material”. The EU move comes despite repeated US threats of retaliation against enforcement of tech rules President Donald Trump’s administration attacks as curbing free speech and unfairly targeting US firms. – Three million images – Under fire, Grok said earlier this month it was restricting image generation and editing to paying subscribers. But that move did not stave off the EU’s probe — which follows investigations in multiple countries including France and the United Kingdom. “Let’s be very clear, child sexual abuse material is not a premium privilege,” said EU commission spokesman Thomas Regnier. According to research published Thursday by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit watchdog, Grok generated an estimated three million sexualised images of women and children in a matter of days. As part of the new probe, the EU said it was widening an existing investigation into X aimed at tackling the spread of illegal content and information manipulation. That move was due to the fact that X announced last week Grok will now power its recommendation system for users and EU concerns that the company had not adequately assessed the risks. Contacted by AFP, X did not immediately react to the EU announcement. Musk’s social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, has been the target of an investigation under the EU’s digital content rules since December 2023. Brussels in December slapped a 120-million-euro ($140-million) fine on X — the first-ever imposed under the DSA — for violating transparency rules, triggering angry reactions from Trump’s administration. X’s breaches included the deceptive design of its “blue checkmark” for supposedly verified accounts, and failure to provide access to public data for researchers. Violators can in theory face much higher fines — up to six percent of a provider’s global turnover — for breaching the DSA, and the EU has the power to ban offending platforms from Europe for repeated non-compliance. The EU has insisted it will enforce its tech rules despite pressure from Washington — which has pressed the bloc to roll them back. The dispute over regulation comes as the EU has grappled with the Trump administration on multiple other fronts — from the Ukraine war to trade to Greenland. In outlining the new X probe, commission spokesman Regnier said the EU enforces its legislation “firmly, fairly, objectively” and did not “target any company based on its origin.” In a separate move, the European Commission on Monday added WhatsApp to its list of digital firms big enough to face stricter content rules under the DSA. The Meta-owned service joins Facebook, TikTok, X and others in a list of 26 “very large online platforms,” after its “channels” feature passed 45 million monthly active users in the European Union. The tougher obligations will apply only to its “channels”, considered a broadcasting feature, rather than its core messaging service. EU says WhatsApp to face stricter content rulesBrussels, Belgium (AFP) Jan 26, 2026 – WhatsApp is set to face greater EU scrutiny after the European Commission on Monday added the platform to its list of digital firms big enough to face stricter content rules. The Meta-owned service joined Facebook, TikTok, X and others in a list of 26 “very large online platforms” after its “channels” feature passed 45 million monthly active users in the European Union. The channels feature will face tougher obligations under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) because it is considered a broadcasting feature distinct from its core messaging service. “These obligations include duly assessing and mitigating any systemic risks, such as violations of fundamental human rights and freedom of expression, electoral manipulation, the dissemination of illegal content and privacy concerns,” said a commission statement. WhatsApp will have until late May to comply with the content law, which has been labelled as “censorship” and discriminatory by US President Donald Trump’s government. The platform said in its latest DSA transparency report published last year that its channels had around 51.7 million monthly active users in the 27-nation EU. WhatsApp is already in the EU’s crosshairs over its AI features, with an antitrust probe opened in December to determine if the way Meta is rolling out the tool breaches the bloc’s competition rules. – US anger – The EU has stepped up regulatory enforcement against the world’s biggest digital platforms, including many American platforms, despite strong US pushback and threats of retaliation. Last month, it imposed its first-ever DSA fine, hitting Elon Musk’s X with a 120-million-euro ($140-million) penalty for violating transparency rules — and on Monday it opened a new probe into the generation of sexualised deepfake images by X’s AI tool Grok. Meta’s other platforms already face the risk of heavy fines under DSA. In October 2025, the EU accused Facebook and Instagram of failing to grant researchers sufficient access to public data and not providing user-friendly ways to flag illegal content or challenge content-moderation decisions. Brussels is also investigating Facebook and Instagram over fears they are not doing enough to combat the addictive nature of the platforms for children. And under the DSA’s sister competition law known as the Digital Markets Act, Brussels slapped a 200-million-euro fine on Meta, which has appealed. California governor to probe TikTok on Trump censorship allegationWashington, United States (AFP) Jan 27, 2026 – California Governor Gavin Newsom said he was launching a probe on Monday into allegations that TikTok censored content critical of US President Donald Trump. Democratic Newsom is one of Trump’s most vocal critics and has accused the president’s administration of curbing basic freedoms in the United States. “It’s time to investigate. I am launching a review into whether TikTok is violating state law by censoring Trump-critical content,” Newsom posted on X. TikTok announced last week it had established a new joint venture to operate its US business, which would reduce its Chinese ownership to 19.9 percent and puts majority control in the hands of American businesses including Trump’s allies. Washington has long sought to tighten control on TikTok, citing national security concerns over the platform’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance. “Following TikTok’s sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports — and independently confirmed instances — of suppressed content critical of President Trump,” Newsom’s office wrote on social media platform X. Newsom shared a screenshot appearing to show a TikTok user unable to send a message reading “epstein” because it violated the platform’s community guidelines. Trump’s past friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has brought intense scrutiny on the president. TikTok did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Washington, United States (AFP) Jan 30, 2026 – An AI-enhanced image depicting the moments before immigration agents shot an American nurse ricocheted across the internet — and also made its way onto the hallowed floor of the US Senate. Social media platforms are awash with graphic footage from the moment US agents shot and killed 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, which sparked nationwide outrage. One frame from the grainy footage was digitally altered using artificial intelligence, AI experts told AFP. The manipulated image, which purports to show Pretti surrounded by officers as one points a gun at his head, spread rapidly across Instagram, Facebook, X, and Threads. It contained several digital distortions, including a headless agent. “I am on the Senate floor to condemn the killing of US citizens at the hands of federal immigration officers,” Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, wrote on X Thursday, sharing a video of his speech in which he displayed the AI-enhanced image. “And to demand the Trump Administration take accountability for its actions.” In comments beneath his post, several X users demanded an apology from the senator for promoting the manipulated image. On Friday, Durbin’s office acknowledged the mistake. “Our office used a photo on the Senate floor that had been widely circulated online. Staff didn’t realize until after the fact that the image had been slightly edited and regret that this mistake occurred,” the senator’s spokesperson told AFP. – ‘Advancing an agenda’ – The gaffe underscores how lifelike AI visuals — even those containing glaring errors — are seeping into everyday discourse, sowing confusion during breaking news events and influencing political debate at the highest levels. The AI-enhanced image also led some social media users to falsely claim the object in Pretti’s right hand was a weapon, but analysis of the verified footage showed he was holding a phone. That analysis contradicted claims by officials in President Donald Trump’s administration that Pretti posed a threat to officers. Disinformation watchdog NewsGuard said the use of AI tools to enhance details of witness footage can lead to fabrications that “misrepresent reality, in service to advancing an agenda.” “AI tools are increasingly being used on social media to ‘enhance’ unclear images during breaking news events,” NewsGuard said in a report. “AI ‘enhancements’ can invent faces, weapons, and other critical details that were never visible in original footage — or in real life.” The trend underscores a new digital reality in which fake images — created or distorted using artificial intelligence tools — often go viral on social media in the immediate aftermath of major news events such as shootings. “Even subtle changes to the appearance of a person can alter the reception of an image to be more or less favorable,” Walter Scheirer, from the University of Notre Dame, told AFP, referring to the distorted image presented at the US Senate. “In the recent past, creating lifelike visuals took some effort. However now, with AI, this can be done instantly, making such content available to politicians on command.” On Friday, the Trump administration charged a prominent journalist Don Lemon and others with civil rights crimes over coverage of immigration protests in Minneapolis, as the president branded Pretti an “agitator.” Pretti’s killing marked the second fatal shooting of a Minneapolis protester this month by federal agents. Earlier this month, AI deepfakes flooded online platforms following the killing of another protester — 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. AFP found dozens of posts across social media, in which users shared AI-generated images purporting to “unmask” the agent who shot her. Some X users used AI chatbot Grok to digitally undress an old photo of Good.

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 06, 2026 – A research team at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has demonstrated a secure holographic platform that encodes and reveals information using only the wavelength of light and the spacing between stacked metasurface layers. The approach targets the growing limitations of conventional digital security by shifting the encryption key from electronic code to the physical properties of light and device geometry. At the core of the work is a metasurface, an ultrathin optical structure composed of microscopic elements that can precisely control incident light. When illuminated, these engineered surfaces reconstruct holographic images in free space, but traditional configurations have generally stored only a single piece of information per device. To overcome that constraint, the POSTECH team designed a modular diffractive deep neural network in which each metasurface layer plays the role of a neural network layer that processes light as it propagates through the stack. In this all optical architecture, diffraction and interference act as the computational engine, enabling the system to process and transform information without electronic chips or external power beyond the light source. Each metasurface layer is trained to generate a distinct holographic image at a chosen wavelength, so that one layer can produce an ID pattern while another reconstructs a QR code when illuminated with specific colors of light. As a result, multiple independent data channels can coexist within the same physical platform, with each layer operating as a standalone optical module. The security capability becomes more powerful when layers are combined at carefully defined separations. When two metasurface layers are aligned with a precise interlayer spacing and illuminated with a designated wavelength, the system reconstructs an encrypted hologram corresponding to a password or other sensitive data. If either the wavelength or the distance between layers is even slightly off target, the encrypted pattern does not appear and the information remains concealed. In this scheme, the color of the light and the exact spacing between layers jointly serve as a physical password that is not represented in digital form. The researchers note that the number of possible information channels grows rapidly as the design scales, because in theory the number of channels increases as m(2^n-1), where m is the number of available wavelengths and n is the number of metasurface layers. This exponential growth implies that a single stacked metasurface device can host a very large set of independent and combinational holographic outputs. The team highlights that the same platform supports standalone layer wise functions, multiwavelength operation, and combinational cipher outputs in a single integrated configuration. This flexibility makes the technology attractive for secure identity cards, anti counterfeiting labels on passports and high value products, and protected military or diplomatic documents. It could also underpin new schemes for optical communications in which critical information is encoded in wavelength combinations and layer configurations rather than in conventional electronic signals. By exploiting the intrinsic properties of light as a security key, the researchers argue that the approach can help address fundamental weaknesses in software based encryption that remains vulnerable as long as it exists as code. “By using the physical properties of light itself as a security key, this study could fundamentally reshape the paradigm of conventional digital security,” said Professor Junsuk Rho of POSTECH. “As digital technologies become more advanced, our results highlight that physical security can ultimately provide the strongest solution.” The work was carried out by Professor Junsuk Rho and colleagues at POSTECH across the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering, and the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology. The research appears in the journal Advanced Functional Materials under the title “Recomposable Layered Metasurfaces for Wavelength-Multiplexed Optical Encryption via Modular Diffractive Deep Neural Networks” and received support from the POSCO POSTECH RIST Convergence Research Institute and the National Research Foundation of Korea. Research Report:Recomposable Layered Metasurfaces for Wavelength-Multiplexed Optical Encryption via Modular Diffractive Deep Neural Networks

Minneapolis, United States Feb 2, 2026 – Technology has become a key battleground in the confrontation between US authorities and migrants along with their supporters, with both sides innovating to try to gain the upper hand. It is a David versus Goliath fight, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spending millions on surveillance tech, while activists and businesses scramble to build tools to protect migrants and others who might encounter federal officers. One migrant safety tool that has surged in popularity since the flood of immigration enforcement agents to Minnesota is TurnSignl. It allows users to connect almost instantly to an immigration lawyer when confronted by ICE, as well as to automatically record and upload the encounter to cloud storage. The app, which has 285,000 users, is the brainchild of attorney and computer scientist Jazz Hampton and his team who created it after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. It was originally intended for use by motorists fearful of encounters with US police, allowing them to record interactions at the roadside and elsewhere. But Hampton said that from January 2025 he evolved the app to meet the needs of those concerned about being stopped by immigration officials. There have been more sign-ups in the past month than in the three months preceding it. “It’s been a busy 45 days for all of us around here,” said the Minnesota-based entrepreneur, reflecting on soaring demand for $99 annual subscriptions. “We expanded (the) service this year, and now we’re offering live connection to immigration attorneys, 24/7.” Several major corporations offer subscriptions as an employee benefit and accounts can be shared with up to five others. “We don’t just provide lawyers, we provide peace of mind… allowing your teenage child to go to the grocery store and have confidence that someone will be there with them if you can’t be,” Hampton, 35, told AFP. Recordings of encounters with ICE officers, as well as the advice supplied by the connected attorney, can be used in subsequent court proceedings. “It makes them feel as if the playing field is level,” Hampton said, citing a review by a user who said they were “nervous” when being stopped but the service “made me feel safe, and (helped) not make me look mad or dumb.” – Surveillance tech – As President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up its efforts to arrest and deport millions of undocumented migrants, authorities have increasingly turned to technology to target individuals for arrest and deportation. Records seen by AFP show there has been a spending spree on monitoring and surveillance software. In September 2025, ICE spent $3.75 million on software and related services from facial recognition company Clearview AI. ICE officers deployed to Minnesota have been using that tool, and another called Mobile Fortify, to track not only migrants but US citizens protesting the crackdown, The New York Times reported citing officials. In the nine months following the start of Trump’s second presidency, officials bought products from Magnet Forensics and Cellebrite, both of which make software to extract data from mobile devices, and Penlink, which provides access to location data from hundreds of millions of mobile phones. That was in addition to a $30 million contract with Palantir to build “Immigration OS,” billed as an all-in-one platform to target unauthorized migrants and identify which are in the process of voluntary return to their country of origin. Undeterred, activists in Minneapolis have sought to turn the tables by creating “Defrost MN,” a searchable database of ICE vehicles active in the city. It features license plate information, images and other data, and even a voice search function to allow drivers tracking ICE to call in plates for checking. Loosely organized groups of anti-ICE activists have been using encrypted messaging app Signal to flag immigration sweeps and organize spontaneous demonstrations against them. Use of the app to track activities of federal officers deployed to Minneapolis surged following the killings in January of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by agents. The phenomenon has drawn the Trump administration’s ire, with the FBI warning it was reviewing use of the service to monitor officers. FBI Director Kash Patel said “you cannot create a scenario that illegally entraps and puts law enforcement in harm’s way.” gw/mlm THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY Palantir Technologies