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• WeTransfer users were outraged when it seemed an updated terms of service implied their data would be used to train AI models.
• The company moved fast to assure users it does not use uploaded content for AI training
• WeTransfer rewrote the clause in clearer language

File-sharing platform WeTransfer spent a frantic day reassuring users that it has no intention of using any uploaded files to train AI models, after an update to its terms of service suggested that anything sent through the platform could be used for making or improving machine learning tools.

The offending language buried in the ToS said that using WeTransfer gave the company the right to use the data "for the purposes of operating, developing, commercializing, and improving the Service or new technologies or services, including to improve performance of machine learning models that enhance our content moderation process, in accordance with the Privacy & Cookie Policy."

That part about machine learning and the general broad nature of the text seemed to suggest that WeTransfer could do whatever it wanted with your data, without any specific safeguards or clarifying qualifiers to alleviate suspicions.

Perhaps understandably, a lot of WeTransfer users, who include many creative professionals, were upset at what this seemed to imply. Many started posting their plans to switch away from WeTransfer to other services in the same vein. Others began warning that people should encrypt files or switch to old-school physical delivery methods.

Time to stop using @WeTransfer who from 8th August have decided they'll own anything you transfer to power AI pic.twitter.com/sYr1JnmemXJuly 15, 2025

WeTransfer noted the growing furor around the language and rushed to try and put out the fire. The company rewrote the section of the ToS and shared a blog explaining the confusion, promising repeatedly that no one's data would be used without their permission, especially for AI models.

"From your feedback, we understood that it may have been unclear that you retain ownership and control of your content. We’ve since updated the terms further to make them easier to understand," WeTransfer wrote in the blog. "We’ve also removed the mention of machine learning, as it’s not something WeTransfer uses in connection with customer content and may have caused some apprehension."

While still granting a standard license for improving WeTransfer, the new text omits references to machine learning, focusing instead on the familiar scope needed to run and improve the platform.

Clarified privacy

If this feels a little like deja vu, that's because something very similar happened about a year and a half ago with another file transfer platform, Dropbox. A change to the company's fine print implied that Dropbox was taking content uploaded by users in order to train AI models. Public outcry led to Dropbox apologizing for the confusion and fixing the offending boilerplate.

The fact that it happened again in such a similar fashion is interesting not because of the awkward legal language used by software companies, but because it implies a knee-jerk distrust in these companies to protect your information. Assuming the worst is the default approach when there's uncertainty, and the companies have to make an extra effort to ease those tensions.

Sensitivity from creative professionals to even the appearance of data misuse. In an era where tools like DALL·E, Midjourney, and ChatGPT train on the work of artists, writers, and musicians, the stakes are very real. The lawsuits and boycotts by artists over how their creations are used, not to mention suspicions of corporate data use, make the kinds of reassurances offered by WeTransfer are probably going to be something tech companies will want to have in place early on, lest they face the misplaced wrath of their customers

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• An employee used a very bad AI-generated image to advertise graphic designer jobs at Xbox
• The image shows a woman writing code that somehow appears on the back of a computer monitor, among other problems
• The ad is especially awkward as Microsoft recently completed laying off more than 9,000 people

A post on LinkedIn seeking graphic designers for Xbox is going viral for the irony of terrible AI-generated graphics. Principal Development Lead for Xbox Graphics, Mike Matsel, shared a post announcing the roles, accompanied by what at first glance appears to be an innocuous cartoon of a woman at a workstation typing code. Except the code is on the back of her monitor, and that's just the beginning of the issues with the image.

The fact that Microsoft concluded the latest of several rounds of layoffs, affecting a total of more than 9,000 people, including many in the Xbox division, just a few weeks ago, makes it even more awkward.

(Image credit: LinkedIn/Mike Matsel)

The more you examine the image, the more obvious it becomes that it was (poorly) produced with AI. The computer is unconnected to anything, the desk sort of fades away into nothingness, and the shadows don't make sense. Plus, would Microsoft want a graphic of someone clearly using Apple headphones? Not to mention the fact that, in 2025, you're very unlikely to see someone with the corded iPhone headphones of nearly 20 years ago.

The image does at least sell the idea that Microsoft desperately needs graphic designers, or at least people who know when graphics are very wrong. The dozens of comments on the post emphasize just how annoying many people find the post. A lot are from developers and graphic designers who might otherwise be interested in the positions.

Awkward AI

The fact that this wasn’t just a bad image, but one that undermines the entire point of the job being advertised, is truly mind-boggling. It’s like handing out flyers for a bakery that uses clip art of a melting candle with "bread" written on the attached label.

It's so bizarrely bad that more than a few commenters wondered if it was on purpose. It might be a way to draw attention to the open positions, or, unlikely as this may be, a form of malicious compliance from someone instructed to use AI to announce the open jobs after their colleagues in those positions were recently let go. Or maybe it was the sharpest satire ever seen on LinkedIn.

Those are wildly unlikely theories, but it's telling that they aren't totally impossible. An ad symbolizing everything people are worried about, especially regarding the very artistic jobs being advertised, would be far too blatant to use in a joke. Still, apparently, that's just reality now.

The fact that Microsoft is currently investing billions of dollars in AI only adds to the dissonant reaction. Even if it wasn't formally approved by Microsoft, it still has their Xbox logo on it. Then again, even senior executives can faceplant when discussing and using AI.

Just last week, Executive Producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing Matt Turnbull suggested that people recently let go could turn to AI chatbots to help get over their emotional distress and find new jobs. He took down the essay encouraging former employees to use AI tools to both find jobs and for "emotional clarity," eventually, but this graphic disaster remains visible to the public, as opposed to the code hiding behind the back of the monitor.

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There are ample means by which you could learn about the fascinating intricacies of feudal Japan. Still, Koei Tecmo presents the option for a doubly steep learning curve with the latest addition to its turn-based grand strategy RPG series, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition (a repackaged edition of the initial 2023 game released for Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation 5).

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: PS5 (Complete Edition); PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, (original edition)
Release date: June 5, 2025

In this Nintendo Switch 2 game (also available on PlayStation 5), you play as a contemporary daimyō, acting as a Japanese feudal lord ruling over a province during the turbulent Sengoku period. There’s the option to follow the story of the series’ titular character, Nobunaga, head of the Oda clan, but you can also play as a host of other historical leaders from the era.

So, what is Nobunaga’s ambition? Oh, just the small feat of unifying Japan; a contentious matter among those he wished to suppress to achieve his dream. Your objective in Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is to help realize this vision – whether or not you’re playing as the man himself – by developing your lands, conducting diplomacy, and, of course, a healthy dose of feudal warfare as you strive to dominate the various territories of Japan.

Along the way, you’ll also encounter cutscenes reimagining famous battles from the time, as well as rumors from your various officers, which reflect the era’s propensity for near-constant drama and gossip among its magnates.

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

It’s a game that struggles to find its footing; in one part, it’s a gruelling uphill battle to learn complex political systems, heightened only by the game’s stunted UI and some slightly half-baked gameplay mechanics that I accidentally manipulated to win the game in less than a minute (more on that later).

On the other hand, there is something intangibly captivating about this historical part-fiction. Combat mechanics are satisfying, there’s a fulfilling base management system, and great care and attention have been paid to injecting the game with ample historical education and context-based events to keep things interesting. It’s just so brutally difficult that any enjoyment I could find is as yet out of reach.

I played over 30 hours of the game (it felt like at least ten of those were spent reading endless text boxes and tutorials) before I got to a point where I was happy upping the difficulty to medium.

Naturally, I instantly lost, and another ten hours later, I’m still in the throes of learning the next level of strategy required to win past dumb-dumb difficulty; but I’m comforted to read online that I am one of so, so many gamers to say the same.

Humble beginnings

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

You begin the game by selecting a date from 1543 to 1614 and then choosing a clan to play as. Each begins the game with different setups: alliances, provinces, and officers, which you’ll take custody of and command as you grow your control of Japan.

There is a tutorial, but as you may expect if you’re familiar with the genre, it’s pretty bare-bones, covering only the fundamentals you’ll need to get started and win a campaign on the easiest settings. After that, you’re on your own, left to unpack the other 70% of the game that the tutorial scarcely mentions.

It’s worth noting that, as the game advises, you’ll want to pick one of the easier levels first, not least because the tutorial can almost sabotage you at higher difficulties. I mistakenly jumped straight in at a medium difficulty level and followed the tutorial religiously, which led me straight into war with a far more powerful enemy.

You’ll want to start your game by checking out your territories, each of which consists of a castle and counties that contribute to resource production. Each district has a farm and fair that you can harvest to increase your monthly earnings, as well as slots for settlements that offer different benefits.

The castle county also has a town square that you can develop with various facilities. That’s not always down to you to decide, though; the art of Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening, really, is delegation.

Rise above your station

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

The first port of call, then, is assigning dominion over your lands to your officers. Officers can make or break your strategy; they’ll make judgment calls for you within their lands, though you can give guidance and structure if you want to micro-manage. You’ll recruit more and more as the game progresses through covert operations and recruitment drives, and you can choose which ones to hire based on how well their unique traits, skills, and relationships mesh with your strategy.

Each castle will need a Lord stationed from your more senior officers, and then you’ll want to assign dominion to counties to ensure the land is worked efficiently. As your Lord’s station improves, they’ll be able to pick up the slack and manage counties within their territory, too.

Officers will also recommend actions and make suggestions for how to engage in military or covert operations, which you can choose to accept or decline; but lean too far and you may find they’ll start acting on their own accord or lose loyalty towards you. As the fearless leader, you’ll also have your own castle; this can be managed autonomously by Substitutes instead.

Occasionally, they’ll even want to barter with you, whether because their loyalty has dropped low enough that they wish to part ways or because they’re offering a boon in exchange for land holdings. In each trade, you’ll need to hit a certain point value to secure the officer, and if you really want what they’re offering, you can up the ante to ensure they stick around for longer.

I found this mechanic to be a bit frustrating, given that I rarely seemed to have much to barter with, and when I did, it either drastically overdelivered or underdelivered.

Overall, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening’s staff management mechanics are pretty satisfying and well-rounded. The game does well to give you tips and pointers in this department, and you can really affect the game’s outcomes with your staffing decisions. Unique traits of officers really can drive the game, especially when it comes to battle mechanics and officer proposals.

A council of your peers

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

Another core tenet of running an effective kingdom is consulting your council. However, much of this council management is left unexplained, and as the game gets pretty tied up in its own Sengoku-specific vocabulary, it’s hard to even find the help you need within game guides.

User guides online are fairly scant, too, but I can understand why. I can’t see myself pouring my blood, sweat, and tears into learning this behemoth of a strategy game and then spelling it out for the next player for free, either.

Policies are the backbone of progress in the game, and one of the areas I enjoyed the most during my playthroughs; they allow you to unlock new features, better delegation, and strengthen your forces. However, you’ll want to wait until you have excess gold before setting up any new ones, as some are pricey.

From the council menu, you can also bestow accolades to your officers, which increases their abilities and can even grant them special effects. These are earned by achieving significant accomplishments like clan targets and demonstrating loyalty.

You can also choose to give gifts of treasure to your officers to improve their stats and loyalty, marry them to an eligible Hime, and grant titles earned by appeasing the Imperial Court from this menu.

As you grow your lands, you’ll also want to divest more responsibilities onto your officers by heading to your council and setting up a new province to be ruled over by a regent.

These run fairly autonomously, and especially on harder difficulties, the choices you make to staff these regions can make or break your game; choose a warmongering Lord and you stand to lose a fair few allies.

Friends we made along the way

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

With your ultimate goal being unification, you might want to make some friends in high places, so you’ll need to put on your diplomacy hat and send your highest officers – or your daimyō – as a diplomat to rack up some goodwill with your neighbors, including a monthly gold stipend to woo them.

Once you’ve built trust, you can ask them to be your allies and help you in combat, negotiate peace between warring territories, or even solidify your alliance through marriage. You’ll also want to conduct diplomacy with powerful entities like the Shōgun and the Imperial Court, the latter of which can offer you official posts in exchange for (costly) diplomatic activities to help you improve your prestige.

I’ve mentioned vassals already; once you’re allied with a smaller clan that may want or need protection and acknowledges you as a superior force, you can ask them to become your vassal and effectively join your territory. In time, and especially under pressure, your vassals might decide to just absorb themselves into your clan altogether, but either way, these relationships count towards the end goal of unification.

Do be warned, though, if you don’t want to cheese the game too much; there’s at least one clan scenario you can play where the goal territory is occupied entirely by allies, meaning you can just load a new save, vassal-ize your allies and win before you’ve even assigned your first officer.

Generally speaking, the diplomacy in Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is a good enough system, though you’ll want to really think about which allies make the most sense based on your goals; some allies may end up getting in the way of your expansion or be more trouble than they’re worth when enemies come knocking at their doors.

That being said, diplomacy lacks the intricacy required to offer a rewarding alternative to war. One frustration I found was that you seemingly can’t make a country with existing vassals your own vassal. I say seemingly because in the rafts of game guides available within the software, I can’t for the life of me find an alternative other than straight-up demolishing the vassal and then building relations with your target nation, at which point it’s likely better to just chip away at the territory of theirs that you want.

It’s also really frustrating that you work so hard for what can often be so little; it can take anywhere from two to six months even to accrue enough goodwill for reinforcements, and you don’t always get the all-out assault you want.

Considering it’s six to ten months to achieve enough goodwill for an alliance, too, you can wipe out a senior officer all year-round with diplomacy if you’re not careful, leaving their civil affairs at home unmanaged.

What are we doing today, brain?

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

Okay then, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening – if it’s war you want, it’s war you’ll get. It’s nigh-on impossible to dodge combat for an entire save, so if you enjoy a pacifist playthrough, you might be better off with a more flexible strategy game like Sid Meier's Civilization 7.

Once you’ve chosen an enemy's castle as your target, your castles will start amassing soldiers and readying supplies for war, indicating preparedness with a little flame icon next to the castle town(s) selected as your militarization base. Once completed, you’ll direct troops to march, choosing from various strategies suggested by your officers as to the route taken as well as which, if any, provinces you control will join the fray. You can also conduct covert operations to spread rumors or incite revolts across enemy territory and weaken forces, or just raze or destroy target castles to help with upcoming battles.

En route, you’ll undoubtedly encounter enemy units, and if your senior commanders or daimyō are on the field, you’ll be able to trigger a battle event. Instead of passively watching the unit counters trickle down in an autonomous head-to-head, you have the opportunity to command each of your troops yourself with the assistance of your officer’s recommendations, and broadly speaking, I’d recommend doing so if you really want to cut down their troops.

Battling is generally quite fun, especially when the game throws you a historical fight sequence with a good lore drop.

Best bit

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

After hours of trial and error in higher difficulties, followed by more hours of learning the ropes in lower difficulties, I returned to the scenario that had me stumped to begin with and opted to manually control my troops for a challenging siege that I won in the first try. Nothing beats that feeling.

There are a few ways to win here: destroy the enemies’ path to escape, decimate their forces, or crush their morale with consecutive defeats on the field. Some battlefields also have strategic key points, and controlling these improves your armies’ standings and morale, too.

Battling is fun, but Siege encounters are a bit trickier. Maps are slightly more complex, and if you don’t manage to launch your attack on the castle before it’s finished preparing for your attack, you’ll have an even harder time as you encounter traps and barricades. These can be brutal, especially in the early stages, and if you don’t follow your officers’ advice to always bring three to five times the units your enemy has – and I’d really recommend you aim high.

If you want to skip these siege sequences altogether, you can – and they can be a little tedious if you mostly want to auto-play – but then you miss out on the authority mechanic. Winning battles will earn you authority, which can mean anything from lands submitting themselves to you to new (or fallen) alliances.

A beautiful mess

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

So, that’s gameplay covered, but what about the actual user experience of the game?

I mentioned already that the user interface is a little disappointing, and that point stands; crowded menus, unclear navigation, and clumsy controls make an already challenging game downright frustrating. It’s a shame, because the game itself isn’t bad, aesthetically. Sure, the map and menus are all dated, but the splash art is delightful, the music is immersive, and the voice lines are delivered with conviction and minimal cheese.

The standard button layout is really confusing and unintuitive, especially for navigation and menu access, but the biggest crime is the UI clarity and visibility. Battle and siege interactions play out on an unzoomable field, and when more than three or four units on each side are on the battlefield, it’s nigh-on impossible to see where your forces start and your enemies end, which can make manual controls for retreating and resting troops hard.

Thankfully, some of these complaints are deftly handled by having the Switch 2 as my platform of choice for this review; mouse mode makes navigating through rafts of menus and directing your troops far smoother than using a controller. In fact, I’d say unless you’re used to how the games lay out their UI on a controller, it’s the de facto way to enjoy Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening (outside of a PC, of course).

Still, there’s just a lot of chaos in the game and abundant quick fixes that could be made to streamline the interface. For example, annoyingly, if you want allies to send reinforcements as you march to battle, you’ll have to head to the alliance interface instead of conducting from your marching orders screen, which can often mean they arrive long after or before your troops.

Generally, automation and management are fine, but more options to issue mass directives for castle or province management would really help to reduce time spent clicking through various menus.

Not easy to love

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

Over time, I grew to really enjoy Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening. It’s an addictive uphill slouch for infrequent strategy players, but even for the more experienced, the work needed to fully learn the game might come as a blow.

Had I not needed to play it for this review, I might just have given up after the third or fourth false start, but having to persevere has earned the series a new fan. I can’t, in good conscience, rate it more highly than I have; it’s just too messy and inconsistent, and too many parts of the game stick out like a sore thumb for their shallowness when compared to the richness and complexity elsewhere.

Winning feels good, though, and not just because it’s despite the issues the game presents. Even on easier modes, nothing is handed to you on a platter, and you need to engage with the game’s source material and setting to reap the many rewards of playing Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening. If you’re up to the challenge, this game will bring it.

Should I play Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening?Play it if…

You love grand strategy
As far as strategy games go, this one has got most others beat with the sheer amount of micro controls, all while also giving you plenty to do at a macro level. View Deal

You enjoy battle tactics
War mechanics in this game are rich and fulfilling, offering a few different ways to play and clear direction to victory. Provided you can read the UI. View Deal

You want to keep coming back for more
There is so much replayability to Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening; not only to beat your own runtime, but also to play all the various clans across the years.View Deal

Don't play it if…

You hate a steep learning curve
Hoo boy, this is not the game for you. From controls all the way to core functions in the game, it’s a long road to knowing how to play.View Deal

You want more ways to win
Diplomacy plays a role in the game, yes, but I’ve yet to find a way you can achieve Nobunaga’s Ambition without at least a little bloodshed.View Deal

You can’t tolerate bad UI and UX
From confusing button layouts to nonsensical menus to its weak tutorial and hard-to-parse interfaces, sometimes Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is physically tiring in its poor design. View Deal

Accessibility

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is far from an accessibility-first game, but there are some features of note.

The difficulty is adjustable to a fairly granular level; different scenarios offer different star ratings, but you can also head to settings before starting a scenario to adjust AI difficulty and behaviors right down to how clans form alliances.

You can also opt to spend more of the game delegating and focusing on macro controls if the micro management proves challenging.

Mouse controls are a boon to the game’s unwieldy AI, and could double as useful alternatives for those who can’t use Joy-Con control layouts. There are no specific audio accessibility features, nor are there colorblind or graphics settings.

How I reviewed Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening

I played Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition on the Nintendo Switch 2, racking up over thirty hours of gameplay. In that time, I set up multiple campaigns in different scenarios and difficulty settings, playing through to the victory scenario in each and trying all of the various features.

While using docked mode, I was playing on a 4K TV with the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller. I also tried handheld mode using the Joy-Con 2 controllers and used mouse mode.

I love a good strategy game, clocking in over 250 hours playing Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 (and that’s only on one console where I own it!) and reviewing strategy games like Age of Empires 4.

First reviewed July 2025

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• AWS unveils Kiro, an agentic AI way to code
• Kiro looks to help solve typically issues seen in "vibe coding"
• Kiro is in preview now, with three tiers set to be available

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has unveiled Kiro, an IDE which uses AI agents to streamline the development process.

Available now in preview, Kiro looks to cut down on potential issues with "vibe coding", the process where agents are being asked to create and build software with minimal human interaction.

As well as helping with coding, Kiro can also automatically create and update project plans and technical blueprints, solving one of the most troublesome issues for developers who are still getting to grips with the potential AI brings.

AWS Kiro

Announcing the launch, AWS said Kiro is looking to help transition from “vibe coding to viable code.”

It works by breaking down prompts into structured components, which can then be used to guide implementation and testing, as well as tracking any changes as the code evolves, ensuring no inconsistencies break through.

There's also Model Context Protocol (MCP) support for connecting specialized tools, steering rules to guide AI behavior across your project, and agentic chat for ad-hoc coding tasks.

Finally, it can also automatically check through code to make sure nothing is amiss, making sure developers can submit or launch code without fear of any problems.

Kiro looks, “to solve the fundamental challenges that make building software products so difficult — from ensuring design alignment across teams and resolving conflicting requirements, to eliminating tech debt, bringing rigor to code reviews, and preserving institutional knowledge when senior engineers leave," Nikhil Swaminathan, Kiro’s product lead, and Deepak Singh, Amazon’s vice president of developer experience and agents, said.

"Kiro is great at ‘vibe coding’ but goes way beyond that—Kiro’s strength is getting those prototypes into production systems with features such as specs and hooks."

For now, Kiro is free to use during the preview period, but it seems AWS is looking at introducing three pricing tiers: a free version with 50 agent interactions per month; a Pro tier at $19 per user per month with 1,000 interactions; and a Pro+ tier at $39 per user per month with 3,000 interactions.

"Kiro is really good at "vibe coding" but goes well beyond that," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a post on X.

"While other AI coding assistants might help you prototype quickly, Kiro helps you take those prototypes all the way to production by following a mature, structured development process out of the box. This means developers can spend less time on boilerplate code and more time where it matters most – innovating and building solutions that customers will love.

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• Hackers only need cheap hardware and basic skills to stop a moving freight train remotely
• The American Association of Railways dismissed the threat until federal pressure forced a response
• The system still isn’t fixed, and full updates won’t arrive until at least 2027

A critical flaw in the wireless systems used across US rail networks has remained unresolved for more than a decade, exposing trains to remote interference.

The vulnerability affects End-of-Train (EoT) devices, which relay data from the last carriage to the front of the train, forming a link with the Head-of-Train (HoT) module.

Although the issue was flagged in 2012, it was largely dismissed until federal intervention forced a response.

Ignored warnings and delayed responses

Hardware security researcher Neils first identified the flaw in 2012, when software-defined radios (SDRs) began to proliferate.

The discovery revealed that these radios could easily mimic signals sent between the HoT and EoT units.

Since the system relies on a basic BCH checksum and lacks encryption, any device transmitting on the same frequency could inject false packets.

In a concerning twist, the HoT is capable of sending brake commands to the EoT, which means an attacker could stop a train remotely.

“This vulnerability is still not patched,” Neils stated on social media, revealing it took over a decade and a public advisory from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) before meaningful action was taken.

The issue, now catalogued as CVE-2025-1727, allows for the disruption of U.S. trains with hardware costing under $500.

Neils's findings were met with skepticism by the American Association of Railways (AAR), which dismissed the vulnerability as merely “theoretical” back in 2012.

Attempts to demonstrate the flaw were thwarted due to the Federal Railway Authority's lack of a dedicated test track and the AAR denying access to operational sites.

Even after the Boston Review published the findings, the AAR publicly refuted them via a piece in Fortune.

By 2024, the AAR’s Director of Information Security continued to downplay the threat, arguing that the devices in question were approaching end-of-life and didn’t warrant urgent replacement.

It wasn’t until CISA issued a formal advisory that the AAR began outlining a fix. In April 2025, an update was announced, but full deployment is not expected until 2027.

The vulnerability stems from technology developed in the 1980s, when frequency restrictions reduced the risk of interference, but today’s widespread access to SDRs has altered the risk landscape dramatically.

“Turns out you can just hack any train in the USA and take control over the brakes,” Neils said, encapsulating the broader concern.

The ongoing delay and denial mean US trains are probably sitting on a keg of gunpowder that could lead to serious risks at any time.

Via TomsHardware

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