Missouri S&T: Missouri S&T researcher combines lessons from ants and birds to improve AI. “One of the approaches, known as ant colony optimization, is inspired by the way ants collectively find the most efficient routes to food. The other, called particle swarm optimization, draws inspiration from the way birds and other groups share information and adjust their behavior based on successful […]

Science will keep happening because people are curious, ask questions, and experiment.

But professional, large-scale, big question science - that takes some serious money. At the very least, to pay people so they could do it full-time (also infrastructure, consumables, etc.).

#AcademicChatter #Research

Interesting links of the week:

Strategy:

* https://www.gov.uk/government/news/social-media-to-be-banned-for-under-16s-in-landmark-government-move-to-givekids-their-childhood-back - and then the arguments started...
* https://cyberdefensereview.army.mil/CDR-Content/Articles/Article-View/Article/4494769/playing-the-future-insights-from-wargaming-cyber-conflict/ - insights from wargaming, or how to dress up as .mil, .ir, .il, cn or .ru*
* https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/draft-revised-telecommunications-security-code-of-practice-2026/draft-revised-telecommunications-security-code-of-practice - the UK TSA gets an update

Threats:

* https://sandflysecurity.com/blog/how-linux-malware-works-from-simple-to-sophisticated - a lovely write up on Linux malware maturity
* http://miod.online.fr/software/openbsd/stories/trojan.html - that time OpenBSD got popped
* https://www.sygnia.co/blog/operation-highland-velvet-ant/ - watch out for 🐜 people
* https://www.ibm.com/think/x-force/interlock-and-rhysida-within-the-ransonware-ecosystem - IBM with some ransomware gossip

Bugs:

* https://pruva.dev/ - automated bug reproduction 🤖
* https://labs.watchtowr.com/marking-your-own-homework-check-point-remote-access-vpn-ikev1-authentication-bypass-cve-2026-50751/ - @index's latest fun and games
* https://bumsrake.de/ - another sloppy bug in FreeBSD 🤖

Exploitation:

* https://pretalx.ripe.net/media/ripe-92/submissions/YHQY7N/resources/Manipulating_RPKI___1zypS0J.pdf - @sash talks XSS attacks on RPKI
* https://blog.ikaes.de/getting-the-pid-from-random-numbers/ - PHP is so very predictable

Hardening:

* https://trustedsec.com/blog/hardening-intune-the-implementation-guide - @trustedsec discuss hardening Intune
* https://documentation.nokia.com/nsp/25-8/NSP_Security_Hardening_Guide/NSP_Security_Hardening_Guide_Issue_1.pdf - if you've ever wanted to harden a Nokia network

* not complete list of malicious TLDs :/

#security, #research

Interesting Git repos of the week:

Strategy:

* https://github.com/tmylla/Awesome-LLM4Cybersecurity - papers on LLM for security 🤖

Detection:

* https://github.com/elastic/detection-rules - Elastic's detection rules 🤖
* https://github.com/threathunters-io/kassandra_x33fcon_2026 - fingerprinting modern C2
* https://github.com/SlimKQL/Detections.AI - detection rules
* https://github.com/NVIDIA/SkillSpector - NVIDIA take a stab at detection malicious skills

Bugs:

* https://github.com/antonioCoco/RoguePotato - old PoC for a Windows LPE
* https://github.com/MSNightmare/GreatXML - the nightmares return
* https://github.com/chompie1337/Windows_MSKSSRV_LPE_CVE-2023-36802 - @chompie1337's CVE-2023-36802 PoC
* https://github.com/chompie1337/s8_2019_2215_poc_exynos - @chompie1337's CVE-2019-2215 PoC

Exploitation:

* https://github.com/atomiczsec/Noradrenaline - malicious payloads for Linux and OS X
* https://github.com/ar0x4/tunnel-vision-toolkit - abusing Microsoft's ZTNA solution
* https://github.com/leechristensen/SpoolSample - love the name, another relay attack on Windows
* https://github.com/portbuster1337/lpe-toolkit - Linux LPE toolkit
* https://github.com/OpenSecurityResearch/hostapd-wpe - attacking wireless clients
* https://github.com/Poellie01/PentestCompanion - a pentesting framework
* https://github.com/hannob/snallygaster - @hanno hunts secretes in HTTP
* https://github.com/haltman-io/thc.org - a mirror of @thc goodies
* https://github.com/mongodb/kingfisher - you should never share a secret
* https://github.com/kernelstub/Ferrum - Windows research

Hardening:

* https://github.com/boinkor-net/hoopsnake - want an SSH server in your initrd?

Encryption:

* https://github.com/singe/QuantumHello - @singe's tools for poking for PQC
* https://github.com/snowch/hsm-guide - everything you've (n)ever wanted to know about HSM

Nerd:

* https://github.com/timb-machine-mirrors/iloveappleandtwinks-gistfile1.txt - may possibly be Siri's system prompt

#security, #code, #research

New movie added to the list 🍿

📽 "We’ll pick up tampons on the way. Okay?"

Four Good Days (2021)

The Bledwel Test is a catalogue of movies that mention menstruation.⁠ Head to the bio for the full list of films.

~ Image credit: http://TMDB.org

Via https://instagr.am/p/DZzyWOckyqz/

#menstruation #research #movies

Lol, "may"

Why sycophantic LLMs may imperil interactive norms between humans | Communications Psychology
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-026-00486-9

#AI #LLM #Nature #Research