Midnight Web by Rahul Banerjee

The Indian telecom department describes Sanchar Saathi as a citizen-centric tool that "brings robust security features and fraud-reporting capabilities directly to users' smartphones. The app complements the existing Sanchar Saathi portal by providing convenient, on-the-go protection against identity theft, forged KYC, device theft, banking fraud, and other cyber risks.’’ Last week, the Department of Telecommunications ordered mobile manufacturers and importers to facilitate the availability and accessibility of the Sanchar Saathi app on devices for users in India. According to my research, the Indian government had asked companies such as Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi to pre-install the app within 90 days. Reports also said that Apple was unlikely to oblige to the diktat from the government. The directive, as expected, created a wide outrage with privacy advocates raising concerns over the government overreach and possibilities of government snooping. The move also met crit...

Google on Tuesday unveiled its new artificial intelligence model, Gemini 3, which brings significant changes to how the search engine works. It means more artificial intelligence everywhere, including in search results. Google promises that the new model will improve its existing AI summaries and AI Mode. Initially, the Gemini 3 will be available to paying customers in the United States. Google is adding AI because the company fears that Chat GPT and similar AI bots will replace it in information search, and now wants to offer quick answers to everything like them. Google used to be a search engine, now it's striving to become an answer engine. This is problematic in many ways. Already now, Google users in USA are increasingly seeing an artificial intelligence summary at the top of their search results. Many users are content with this summary instead of going to research the sources of information themselves. There are plenty of pitfalls: First, AI can make things up, or h...

Microsoft just confirmed a nasty bug that can randomly fire up the BitLocker recovery screen on Windows 11 25H2, 24H2, and even Windows 10. Boom you’re staring at a blue screen demanding your 48-digit recovery key. Don’t, have it? Kiss your data goodbye. The silver lining: That key is usually auto-saved to your Microsoft account. Log in at account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey and grab it before you panic. The updates that broke it: Win 11 25H2, 24H2 - KB5066835 & Win 10 22H2 - KB5066791 A fix is rolling out now. Home users will get it automatically; enterprise folks, your IT crew will have to push it manually. Bonus nerd note: Run powercfg /a in an admin Command Prompt. If you see Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) , your machine uses Modern Standby . Microsoft hasn’t said a word about the connection, but here’s my take: The October 2025 updates probably messed with the boot chain or Secure Boot validation. On Intel + Modern Standby (S0) rigs, the update path failed to s...

  The feature, powered by a local computer vision model, now protects users from scam pop-ups long before traditional security systems can react. Scareware, the kind of scam that locks your screen with fake “Virus Alert!” or “Your PC is infected” messages, has plagued users for years. Edge’s Scareware blocker identifies these full-screen scam pages instantly, shutting them down before panic sets in. Microsoft says the model runs locally on devices with at least 2 GB RAM and four CPU cores, ensuring it won’t slow down browsing. Enterprise admins can also improve the feature or create allow-lists for internal sites. During preview testing, the blocker proved highly effective. Microsoft claims that users were protected hours or even days before those same scams appeared on global blocklists. Starting with Edge version 142, a new “scareware sensor” takes protection a step further. When Edge detects suspicious full-screen activity, it can immediately notify Microsoft Defender Smar...

  After October 14, 2025, Microsoft will end all support for Windows 10, which means key features and updates will stop. Specifically, Windows 10 will no longer receive feature updates, security updates or patches, technical support, or bug fixes from Microsoft. Key Feature Support That Stops No more feature updates: Microsoft will not release new features or improvements for Windows 10. Security updates end: Regular security patches protecting from viruses and vulnerabilities will stop, making systems more exposed to risks. Bug fix updates stop: No further patches for non-security bugs will be issued. Technical support gone: Microsoft will no longer offer customer or technical support for issues related to Windows 10. Microsoft 365 support reduced: Support for Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 10 will be affected, although your Office applications may continue to run but with limited or no support. What if my Windows 10 computer doesn't meet the requirements for Windows 11...

A major security vulnerability in India's income tax filing portal has been fixed, TechCrunch reported. The flaw, discovered by security researchers Akshay CS and "Viral" in September, allowed logged-in users to access real-time personal and financial information of other taxpayers. This included sensitive details such as full names, home addresses, email addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers and bank account information. Exposed Aadhaar numbers of individuals The security flaw in the income tax filing portal also exposed Aadhaar numbers, a unique government-issued identification number used for identity verification and accessing government services. TechCrunch verified the data by allowing researchers to search its records on the portal. The researchers confirmed on October 2 that the vulnerability had been patched. Discovery process Researchers found bug while filing tax returns The researchers found the security flaw while filing their recent income tax return on...