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During its fourth-quarter 2026 earnings call, Apple execs covered supply chain struggles, high memory costs and the role AI will play in future financials.

The streaming service is testing an interactive AI feature for personalized recommendations.

AARP reports family caregivers are spending 60% more than they were five years ago. Journalist Paula Span discusses the rising costs of caregiving and senior living, and the options available to us.

• Security researcher combined audio analysis, flight data and a lot of number-crunching to identify audio locations
• Aircraft that are inaudible on the soundtrack can still reveal the recorder's location
• The technique is apparently accurate to within 100m

If, like me, you grew up watching corny FBI shows where computers could do the impossible through made-up technology with a single command of "enhance!", you're going to love the apparently impossible thing that YouTuber Colsto has just described in a new viral video.

Using a Doppler effect technique (more on that below), the location of a video or audio recording can be identified to within 100 meters through a combination of inaudible audio, flight data and math. This is no movie magic or scriptwriter invention: it's real and it's a little bit scary too.

I've embedded the video below and would really recommend watching it, because Colsto goes into great detail about how it's done, what it can't do and what precautions you might want to take if you don't want your background to betray you.

How your video background can betray you

As Colsto explains, the key is the 'Doppler effect'. That's the way sounds appear to change based on the distance between a moving source and the listener. You hear it all the time: it's what makes fire engine and ambulance sirens, car stereos and airplane propellers seem to change pitch as they go past.

What's clever here is that Colsto has focused on the sounds made by aircraft in the backgrounds of videos. In many parts of the world the skies are very busy, and a faraway airplane that's inaudible to you or other listeners might still leave a sonic footprint on your video or audio that can be isolated and analyzed. That's definitely the case in the US data Colsto used.

Once you've got the audio, the aircraft sound can then be matched with publicly available flight data and Doppler curve measurements. By triangulating the sound from multiple aircraft, you can then identify where the audio was recorded. This is enormously clever.

Colsto explains the detail in the video — what aircraft data was used, how it was analyzed, how the Doppler measurements were filtered and what corrections were made — but isn't posting any software or other tools to actually do it for you. Instead, you'll get an assessment of preventive measurements including why normal signal processing such as high-pass filters or noise reduction can be ineffective.

How scary is this?

A spectrogram showing a Doppler curve from an audio recording with harmonics above it (Image credit: Colsto)

Colsto was keen to point out that the video is designed to be educational about open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques, rather than an attempt to fear-monger.

"The odds that someone can and does actually do this is pretty slim. In reality, there's probably a hundred easier ways to find you than this," he says.

However, these are some potential use cases. "The audio we used is just from some random security camera, but it could have just as well been footage from a investigation or a video online. Something with literally zero visual clues could be located using this," he added.

So despite the somewhat niche application, there's something deeply scary about this kind of thing, I think, and from similar revelations such as Wi-Fi routers that can be used to locate you indoors and Wi-Fi signals that can help track your movements, even if you're not carrying a phone that connects to them.

And I know that fear is probably a bit silly when everywhere I go I carry a phone, use a tablet or drive a car that's leaking identifiable information to God-knows-who. But I can't help asking the question: if the possibilities we know about are this scary, what on Earth is the tech we don't know about capable of?

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Bambu Lab has launched its Black Friday sale early this year, with running deals from now until December 1. There are plenty of 3D printers and accessories to choose from, but what's actually worth picking up in the sale?

Well, I asked our 3D printing expert Alastair which models he recommends from one of our top 3D printer makers. Alastair has tested every Bambu Lab 3D printer in his workshop for our best 3D printer guide and I wanted to know which machines he'd personally choose for readers. Here's what he suggests.

• For small business: The Bambu Lab X2D, which scored 4.5 stars in his review, " delivers exceptional print quality, material compatibility, and all at a superb price."

• For cosplayers and creators: The 4.5-star Bambu Lab H2S offers "enterprise-level print features and volume" with support for engineering materials.

• For beginners on a budget: The Bambu Lab A1 Mini earned a flawless 5 stars in his review, with exceptional speed, accuracy, features, and price.

Bambu Lab 3D printer deals

X2D: was $899 now $789
Alastair says: This is the machine that I recommend to small businesses and enthusiasts as it can cope with engineering materials.

UK price: now £669 (was £769)View Deal

• Read his full Bambu Lab X2D review

H2S: was $1399 now $1249
Alastair says: I love this machine - it's great for cosplay and making props. I use it as a dual-filament machine: PLA and PLA support, then paint.

UK price: now £999 (was £1099)View Deal

• Read his full Bambu Lab H2S review

A1 Mini: was $219 now $199
Alastair says: Cheap and just single filament but with the option to upgrade to the AMS. Just an outstanding machine for the price.

UK price: now £139 (was £149)View Deal

• Read his full Bambu Lab A1 Mini review

Bambu Lab filament sale

Alastair has also offered up some advice on which filaments he prefers. He says:

"Spend as much as you can. Filamentum, ColorFabb, and Polymaker are all great third-party filaments that I use. Otherwise branded filament from Bambu Lab and Prusa are good. esun and Sunlu as budget brands."

Bambu Lab is currently running a sale on filaments for Black Friday right here.

• The next game in the Elder Scrolls series is officially titled: The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel
• Bethesda Game Studios has also shared a teaser trailer hinting at the game's location, which appears to be Hammerfell
• The studio says, "It’ll be some time before we’re ready to share more" about Sentinel

Bethesda Game Studios has finally announced the name of the next game in its long-running Elder Scrolls series: The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel.

The news comes from a video celebrating the studio's 40th anniversary, which highlighted its many achievements and ended with Bethesda creative director Todd Howard offering a new look at the game.

"Everybody’s always asking about Elder Scrolls 6," said Howard. "And we thought, hey, given the moment, what a perfect time to tell you what The Elder Scrolls 6 is actually called."

The teaser trailer is short and doesn't showcase gameplay, but the camera pans over sand before a magic-looking scroll emerges. Then the game's title, as fans theorized, "The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel," was revealed.

The trailer description also provides an additional hint to the game, which reads, "The scroll offered only a shimmer, a veil thinly lifted to my eyes. A future lost. A victory undone. Sands of time scattered by fate," which is written in game lore by "Yazar, Moth Priest to High Queen Iradne of Hammerfell (4E 206)."

The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel has been in development for a very long time. Announced all the way back in 2018, today's teaser trailer and name drop are the first new pieces of information we've received about the game since.

In a follow-up post on X, Bethesda seemingly confirmed the game's location is set in Hammerfell, but it will be "some time" before more details

about the role-playing game (RPG) can be shared.

"Thank you for 40 years of shared memories," the studio said. "We can’t wait to make even more together with The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel. Development continues, and while it’ll be some time before we’re ready to share more, it feels great to finally reveal the name and location with you."

• Anthropic workers are likely making a good salary, plus stock-based compensation
• Revenue per employee is more than 2x Meta's and 2.6x Google's
• The company is targeting a valuation of around $1.5 trillion

Anthropic has confirmed in a recent S-1 filing that it spent $1.711 billion on personnel in its most recent three-month period, down slightly on the previous quarter's $1.857 billion but up around 3.5x compared with the same quarter in 2025 ($489 million).

With around 5,300 people on the books, it means the average worker set the company back over $322,000 for the quarter, or over $107,000 per month.

While these figures are likely wild overestimates for the average worker's pay, they show just how much the AI giant is having to spend on talent compared with last year.

Anthropic is spending billions on workers' salaries

Crucially, the average worker did not receive $107,000 in a single month, because these figures also include bonuses, employee benefits, payroll taxes and stock-based compensation. An estimated $1.1 billion of the quarterly total came from stock-based compensation, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total sum.

Still, personnel costs accounted for around 15% of the company's revenue over the first nine months of 2026, which puts Anthropic in a positive position. The company spent $4.8 billion on personnel in the first three quarters.

Flip those figures around and we have a company that's making an estimated $6.6 million in revenue per employee, compared with $3.2 million at Meta and $2.5 million at Google, per Business Insider calculations.

Recruiting AI talent is expensive

Anthropic doesn't publish salary information, but given its huge expenditure relative to the number of employees, it's clear that recruiting AI talent is expensive. With stock-based compensation accounting for two-thirds of Anthropic's personnel expenditure, workers are likely being attracted by the potential of huge future wealth, rather than immediate compensation.

An upcoming IPO has Anthropic valued at somewhere around the $1.5 trillion mark, per recent Reuters reporting. That would put it ahead of OpenAI, which is now likely targeting a $1.25 trillion valuation, per a separate Reuters report.

• Rockstar Games has confirmed players can pre-load the digital version of Grand Theft Auto 6 on November 10
• Code-in-box editions should be available in stores starting November 12
• The pre-load file will be "up to 212GB depending on your device"

Rockstar Games has announced the file size for Grand Theft Auto 6 and the dates for when players can pre-load the game depending on their edition.

In a new blog post, the studio confirmed that digital pre-loading on PlayStation 5 will begin nine days before the game's November 19 launch, on Tuesday, November 10 at midnight local time "in your respective time zone."

For Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, pre-loading begins globally on Tuesday, November 10 at 12AM GMT / 7PM EST / 6PM CST.

Meanwhile, code-in-box versions for both consoles should be available from retailers beginning November 12.

GTA 6 was speculated to be a massive game already due to its ambitious scale and impressive features, but Rockstar has officially confirmed that the pre-load file will be "up to 212 GB depending on your device."

"So make sure you've got ample space to begin pre-loading as soon as possible," the studio cautioned. Say goodbye to a fair few of your games if you want to install GTA 6.

In addition to the new details, Rockstar said it will be adding an official printable Grand Theft Auto 6 cover art poster and map of Leonida as a free digital download to the official site on November 19 for fans.

"A double-sided physical version of this poster will also be made available shortly after launch from the Rockstar Store — for $0.99 on its own or as a free gift with any purchase from the Rockstar Store," it added.

Rockstar recently released the cinematic GTA 6 launch trailer, which offers a deeper look into the game's story. Elsewhere, a new report claims the PC version could launch in early 2027.

You can definitely tell that Black Friday season is upon us, as big discounts on brand-new tech are popping up almost every day now. The latest early deal I've spotted is this record-low price for the Google Pixel Watch 5 at Amazon, which brings the latest version of the popular wearable down to $299.99.

Outside of a smaller $50 discount at the start of October, this is only the second time the Pixel Watch 5 has been on sale since its launch in August. And I don't expect it will get any cheaper than this over the next couple of months — even with Black Friday technically still over three weeks away.

The offer I've picked out here is for the standard 41mm model with Wi-Fi support only. However, the larger 45mm version and the watches with LTE support are also discounted by $100 right now at Amazon.

So, if you prefer a bigger screen or want your watch to be able to receive messages and alerts while away from your phone, you can choose between those options as well. For most, though, the standard 41mm version does everything you need in terms of health tracking, fitness tracking, and phone connectivity — and it's excellent value for money.

Google Pixel Watch 5 — record-low price

The Google Pixel Watch 5 drops to its lowest price yet following this $100 discount at Amazon. It's only the second time the smartwatch has been discounted since launch, and it's unlikely to get any cheaper over Black Friday. It's a competent wearable, too, with an accurate GPS, all the essential health and fitness tracking features you need, and an attractive design. If you're upgrading from a Pixel Watch 3 or 4, you won't notice a huge leap, but for everyone else, it's easily the best Android smartwatch right now.View Deal

We called the Google Pixel Watch 5 "the best Android watch yet" in our four-star review.

While it does feel like a clear iterative upgrade over the Pixel Watch 3 and Pixel Watch 4, it's definitely a top choice for anyone picking up a wearable for the first time. It focuses on excelling in the key areas that matter, including reliability and accuracy in metric tracking, offering a comfortable fit and attractive design, and adding advanced features for those who need them, like Breathing Emergency Detection and Insulin Resistance Trends.

The updated Google Health app puts a lot of emphasis on AI, so your mileage may vary on how much you appreciate some of the more advanced health and fitness features that rely on your data, but this is a very capable smartwatch for Android users — now at an even better price.

• The Razer Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition launches November 10 for $349.99 / €368.99
• The licensed PS5 controller features a magnesium alloy exoskeleton and an open polygonal top and back plate design with chamfered edges
• The controller is also optimized for PC and boasts "reliable precision, exceptional control, and blazing-fast speed"

Razer has announced the Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition, a new version of its officially licensed PlayStation 5 controller built on a decade of experience for "the highest level of performance and craftsmanship."

Launching exclusively at Razer on November 10 for $349.99 / €368.99 in an initial limited release supply of 1,337 serialized units, the Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition is Razer's "most ambitious" PS5 controller to date and combines materials chosen for "strength, durability, and finish."

The jet-black controller features a strong magnesium alloy exoskeleton, and the handles are wrapped in matte black textured TPU grip that resists oils and abrasion for a pristine finish for extended play sessions.

Layered over the touchpad, the Razer logo is laser-etched on a semi-transparent, tinted glass panel, which offers a subtle view of the open-air polygonal design underneath.

The Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition also has an open polygonal top and back plate design with chamfered edges, and its nano coating leaves the internal elements exposed beneath the shell, keeping them safe from debris.

RazerRazerRazerRazer

On top of that, the Razer controller boasts "reliable precision, exceptional control, and blazing-fast speed," which is achieved through its symmetrical thumbstick layout and contactless TMR thumbstick sensors for high-precision aim.

Built for PS5 consoles and optimized for PC with a 2,000Hz polling rate thanks to Razer HyperPolling Wireless for sharper movement and tracking, the controller also offers six mappable multi-function buttons, two claw-grip bumpers, and four mouse-click back buttons.

"With the Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition, we set out to illustrate what happens when Razer’s engineering and design capabilities are pushed to their absolute limits," said Charlie Bolton, Razer's global head of design. "It draws on years of experience in high-performance controllers, delivering tournament-grade responsiveness in a design that feels like a statement piece in hand."

Each Razer Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition offers a suite of premium accessories for customization, including a premium leather carrying case, alternative thumbstick caps, four swappable back button covers, an anodized aluminium back button replacement tool, a Razer HyperSpeed Wireless Dongle, and a USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable.

In Kherson city, usually seething with Russian drones, friends met at cafes, families were out together and shoppers stocked up. "The city seems alive," said one resident, "just like it used to be."

(Image credit: Svet Jacqueline for NPR)

FastestVPN has launched its exclusive Black Friday offer for TechRadar readers: a lifetime of VPN access and password management for just $27.

FastestVPN usually rolls out a discount to its Lifetime Plus Plan each November but this is the cheapest and best we've ever seen it. In previous years the exclusive has cost $30 and only included two years of the family password manager. Now, the price is lower, and access to both is free for life.

You'll need to use the code FUTUREBF2026 at checkout to make sure you secure the extra $10 discount. Otherwise you'll find the price stuck at $40.

FastestVPN: Lifetime VPN and password manager
Was: $40
Now: $27 for life!

FastestVPN's latest exclusive deal for TechRadar readers is its cheapest ever. Get lifetime VPN access and lifetime password management (normally only two years) for just $27. To claim, use code FUTUREBF2026 at checkout. Without this code, you'll be paying $40 for the same.View Deal

We don't rate FastestVPN as highly as the likes of others on our Best VPN list but it's hard to ignore at this price, when most cost upwards of $60 for 2 years and don't come with a password manager.

FastestVPN still comes with many of the features you'd expect of a VPN, such as a kill switch, P2P optimized servers, an ad-blocker and some malware protection too. It has servers in over 49 countries worldwide and will allow you to stream from BBC iPlayer, Netflix and free regional services such as 7Plus and 9Now in Australia.

Unlike the name suggests, it's not as quicker as many other VPNs, such as Mullvad and VPN Super Unlimited, as we found in our tests. But FastestVPN is private and secure enough for most use cases.

If you're more focused on VPN performance, the best alternative VPN deal right now is Proton VPN. It's $2.49 per month on a two-year plan, and brings sturdier security, faster speeds, and far more reliable unblocking performance with streaming platforms.

There are also other Black Friday VPN deals from top performers like Surfshark and NordVPN too.

Compare the iPhone Duo and Pixel 11 Pro Fold on design, multitasking, cameras, battery life, and pricing to see whether Apple's extra $100 is worth it.

The post iPhone Duo vs. Pixel 11 Pro Fold: Is Apple’s Extra $100 Worth It? appeared first on TechRepublic.

Fancy expanding your Lego collection, or picking up a set or two to give as a gift? You don't need to wait until the end of the month to do so, because it looks like the Black Friday Lego deals are here already. A number of major retailers — including Currys and Argos — have launched their sales events already, with Black Friday Price Promises to reassure you it's safe to buy now.

Included in these sales are dozens of excellent price drops on a huge selection of Lego sets, from happy plants and retro gaming classics, to modern-day animated icons and shapeshifting spooky creator sets (what do you mean, Halloween is over?). I've scoured through all the sales at a range of retailers, and rounded up my favorite Lego discounts below, at prices that range from stocking-filler / Secret Santa to blow-the-budget.

Prefer to browse yourself? Use my quick links below. Alternatively, scroll down to see my top picks.

• Amazon: Discounts on Lego sets for kids and adults
• Argos: Up to 1/3 off, with Black Friday price promise
• Currys: Up to 30% off ahead of Black Friday
• Very: Dozens of deals with Black Friday price promise

The best early Black Friday Lego deals

Lego Botanicals Rocking Plants 11506

Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon 75375

Lego Star Wars Gingerbread AT-AT Walker 40806

Lego Botanicals Japanese Red Maple Bonsai Tree 10348

LEGO City 2026 Advent Calendar 60510

Lego Wicked Emerald City & Kiamo Ko Castle 75689

Lego Architecture Tower Bridge 21067

Lego Architecture Notre-Dame De Paris 21061

Lego Harry Potter Cauldron: Secret Potions Classroom 76464

Lego KPop Demon Hunters Derpy Tiger and Sussie Bird 72537

Lego Icons the Lord of the Rings Sauron's Helmet 11373

Lego Art The Milky Way Galaxy 31212

Lego Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. 21357

Lego Creator 3-in-1 Haunted Mansion 31167

Lego Star Wars R2-D2 75379

LEGO Star Wars The Dark Falcon 75389

LEGO Disney Toy Story Celebration Train & RC Car 43264

LEGO Marvel Spider-Man Vs. Mysterio: the Daily Bugle 76342

LEGO Architecture Paris City of Love Set 21064

LEGO Harry Potter Luna Lovegood’s House 76467

LEGO Fortnite Battle Bus 77073

LEGO The Lord of the Rings Balrog Book Nook 10367

LEGO Marvel Iron Man’s Laboratory: Hall of Armour 76315

LEGO Star Wars AT-RT Attack 75444

Lego Icons Concorde Model Plane 10318

Lego Star Wars Wicket the Ewok Figure 75430

Lego Ideas Italian Riviera 21359

Lego Super Mario Game Boy 72046

Lego Botanicals Bonsai Tree 10281

Lego Art Vincent Van Gogh Sunflowers 31215

Lego Pokémon Munchlax 72150

Lego Pokemon Pikachu & Poke Ball 72152

Lego Botanicals Tiny Plants 10329

Google confirms detachable Googlebook tablets are coming, with Lenovo rumored to launch the first model. Here's what to know about features and availability.

The post Googlebook Tablets Are Coming: What We Know About Lenovo’s First Detachable appeared first on TechRepublic.

The UK growth debate often focuses on tax, regulation, and investment incentives. While incredibly important factors to the economy, they can obscure a more immediate constraints sitting inside many businesses; one of the most significant being the payment systems that determine how quickly businesses can collect, move, and reconcile money.

The CBI has made clear in their 2026 Roadmap to Growth that business leaders want to innovate but are being held back by costs and slow delivery. Payment operations are one of the places where that tension shows up most clearly. A business can have ambitious growth plans, but it cannot deliver on them if moving money still depends on manual workflows, slow approvals, and disconnected systems.

While the business case for improvement is often understood by leaders, execution is a different hurdle. Our research found that 91% of business leaders recognize that a payment system can drive overall business growth, but only 27% of firms currently use a modern payment system, defined as having advanced automation and integration features.

These inefficient payment processes ultimately hold back productivity across the wider economy. When companies cannot move money with speed and certainty, growth becomes harder to plan and slower to deliver.

The growth gap inside payment operations

Businesses are increasingly operating in an environment where customers, employees, and suppliers expect transactions to happen quickly and accurately. For example, 79% of UK consumers expect to receive disbursements immediately. Processes designed around batch payments, manual approvals, and fragmented reconciliation are no longer good enough. They may still function, but they slow businesses down.

The cost appears in smaller, repeated points of friction. A delayed supplier payment can weaken a commercial relationship. A payroll correction can damage employee confidence. Manual reconciliation consumes finance teams’ time that could be better spent on analysis, forecasting, and control. These issues not only impact operations but can also have a material impact on growth.

Leading organizations increasingly view payment operations as a source of competitive advantage rather than an administrative necessity. Growth depends on the ability to move money accurately, quickly and at scale.

Open finance raises the standard and sets the direction

If payment operations are becoming a competitive advantage, open finance is raising the stakes even further. The FCA’s open finance roadmap sets out a vision for unlocking faster and more personalized financial services, strengthening competition and supporting wider economic growth.

That future will expose the gap between businesses that have modernized their payment operations and those that have not. Better access to financial data is valuable only if the organization can convert that insight into action. A business may be able to assess cash flow more intelligently, understand customer risk earlier or access finance faster, but if its payment processes still rely on manual intervention, the benefit will be limited. Open finance can point the way to better decisions, but modern payment infrastructure is what allows those decisions to translate into faster growth.

The UK has already shown that data-enabled financial services can scale when common standards, trusted infrastructure, and market adoption come together. Open Banking Limited reported that the UK open banking ecosystem had recorded more than one billion open banking payments by July 2026.

These figures are important because they show open banking is no longer a niche innovation layer, it is becoming expected infrastructure that consumers and businesses use to move money and share account data. The challenge now is to turn that personal finance scale into practical value for businesses.

Changing the game in collections: cVRP moves the dial on open banking

Looking towards collections for an example of this practical value: a key next stage of the rollout of open finance is the move from one-off open banking payments into recurring, automated collections. Most open banking payments to date have been single transactions which are useful for a specific purchase, transfer or account-to-account payment, but less suited to the recurring flows that keep many businesses running.

The UK Payments Initiative (UKPI) has recently launched an industry-led scheme that marks a major development for businesses that collect at scale and the experience they can provide their customers. Commercial variable recurring payments (cVRP) allow businesses in specific sectors to collect varying amounts from a customer's account on a regular basis following a single authorization by the customer, all whilst giving the customer greater flexibility and control.

With cVRP, businesses can receive real-time confirmation through Faster Payments and reduce reconciliation uncertainty. That means better cash visibility, fewer failed collections, and more confidence to grow for UK firms.

The growth opportunity is clear in sectors where collections are frequent, high volume or variable, including utilities, subscriptions, and lending.

Getting payments right is a growth strategy

Payment optimization is not a narrow finance project. It is a practical route to better productivity, stronger relationships and lower operational risk. It helps businesses protect cash flow, reduce errors and free up teams from avoidable administration.

Getting payments right may not be the most visible growth strategy but it can be one of the most immediate wins that also has a significant long-term growth impact for your business.

We've reviewed and ranked the best mobile payment apps.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

• Cybercriminals are stealing AI API keys and cloud credentials to hijack expensive LLM services and infrastructure
• Stolen access is used to run AI workloads, create proxy services, and rack up massive bills for victims
• Google warns “LLMjacking” is evolving into a specialized cybercrime ecosystem with dedicated monetization operators

Threat actors are using large language models (LLM) to support almost every stage of a cyberattack, from researching potential victims to developing malware and automating various attacks. However, using AI is not cheap, and for those eager to use frontier models, costs can stack up relatively quickly.

But cybercriminals are used to stealing things, so why not steal someone else’s tokens, too?

A new report from Google’s Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) says that different hacking groups are doing exactly that and that the practice - known as LLMjacking - has been steadily growing more popular over the last couple of years.

Most groups start by focusing either on publicly exposed LLM endpoints, or on obtaining valid LLM application programming interface (API) keys. In many cases, the crooks would use exposed or stolen cloud identity tokens (IAM credentials, Service Account keys, GitHub Personal Access Tokens, and active session tokens) to establish an initial foothold into the target organizations’ infrastructure.

From there, they would “systematically work” to escalate privileges, solidify their access, and identify targets for further compromise.

LLMjacking

The endgame is LLMjacking, which GTIG describes as “the monetization and resource-hijacking of foundation models, which actors achieve through token proxying, automated model streaming, and GPU hardware provisioning.” In other words, someone else is using your AI subscription while you get the bill.

The bills can cause quite the headache, too. With cryptojacking, for example, token mining is relatively slow and steady, and a certain amount of time needs to pass for the charges to really stack up. With LLMjacking, however, costs can go into six digits in six minutes.

“Upon acquiring LLM API access keys, UNC6993 attempted to generate additional API keys and enable associated services within victim cloud projects, quickly accumulating over $100,000 in billing charges,” Google says in the report.

“Another threat actor subscribed victim accounts to Pay-As-You-Go agreements, selecting premium foundation models and launching high-volume inference streams. To bypass rate limits, the threat actor deployed a "burn and rotate" strategy, continuously creating and deleting short-lived service accounts while auditing the cloud provider’s billing interface to monitor financial impact.”

In some cases, threat actors also used the acquired access to host their own proxy endpoints and agentic workloads. Google says that one threat actor enabled agents, deployed publicly accessible reverse proxies, and used custom Node.js proxy bundles to expose endpoints compatible with multiple frontier LLMs rebranded under a persona known as D1337-KAIROS.

This actor deployed a containerized backdoor which queried an upstream LLM to reason through instructions and execute commands locally.

A growing ecosystem

The LLMjacking ecosystem is young, but growing fast and maturing even faster. Google says that there is already a division of labor between hacking groups that establish initial access to compromised environments, and operators who manage downstream monetization infrastructure. The latter are called “LLM Mixers” and they operate as a routing gateway that proxies, aggregates, and resells unauthorized LLM access to underground subscribers.

“In one investigation, GTIG observed two distinct operational clusters coordinating to compromise and monetize enterprise LLM infrastructure, demonstrating the sophisticated specialization emerging in this space,” Google said.

By using open source API gateways and custom relay infrastructure, the attackers were able to pool stolen credentials, meter usage, and hide where the requests really originated from.

Google is now sounding the alarm, saying it expects threat actors to “increasingly prioritize” LLMjacking at the expense of other resource theft practices. It urges organizations to increase their visibility of LLM platforms, prioritize detection of modifications to LLM accounts and services, and treat any unauthorized enablement as a critical security event. It also advised organizations to enforce the principle of least privilege and make sure accounts and users only have permissions they absolutely need to get the job done.

SpaceX is tightening Grok Bot usage limits as Elon Musk warns of unsustainable AI costs. Here's what the changes mean for paying users and businesses.

The post Elon Musk: Grok Bot Costs Are ‘Unsustainable’ as Usage Limits Tighten appeared first on TechRepublic.

Cleaner Kit uses AI to identify low-quality pictures, duplicate contacts, and more to help you keep things clean.

The post Clear the Clutter and Speed Up Your iPhone with This Low-Cost Tool appeared first on TechRepublic.

We benchmarked the battery life on nearly three dozen smartphones from companies like Apple, Samsung, Motorola and Google.