Bulgarian authorities launched a criminal investigation into the secret filming of women at beauty salons, with footage allegedly distributed on pornographic websites. The victims included minors as young as 15, as well as public figures such as a judge, a prosecutor, journalists, and relatives of government officials, according to Euronews.
The investigation was initiated after hundreds of women were reportedly filmed without their knowledge or consent during intimate cosmetic procedures, such as laser hair removal. Some recordings dated back to 2023, Euronews reported. The women were often fully naked during the procedures.
In other news, tensions arose between autonomous vehicle companies and U.S. senators regarding safety regulations. During a two-hour hearing, Waymo and Tesla urged lawmakers to pass legislation to regulate autonomous vehicles, warning that the U.S. risks falling behind China in the industry, according to The Verge. However, senators appeared unconvinced and no agreement was reached.
Meanwhile, Microsoft released an urgent security patch for Office after Russian-state hackers exploited a critical vulnerability. Ars Technica reported that the threat group, known as APT28, Fancy Bear, Sednit, Forest Blizzard, and Sofacy, leveraged the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-21509, within 48 hours of the patch's release. The hackers reportedly compromised devices within diplomatic, maritime, and transport organizations in multiple countries. The group reverse-engineered the patch and developed an advanced exploit that installed previously unseen backdoors.
In the United States, the FBI encountered difficulties accessing data from a Washington Post reporter's iPhone. According to Ars Technica, the phone was protected by Apple's Lockdown Mode when agents seized the device from Hannah Natanson's home on January 14. The FBI was able to access Natanson's work laptop by using her fingerprint, but the iPhone remained inaccessible. The search warrant was executed as part of an investigation into a Pentagon contractor accused of illegally leaking classified documents.
In the tech world, Anthropic, an AI lab, released a series of Super Bowl commercials for its chatbot, Claude. One commercial featured a man seeking advice from a chatbot, seemingly intended to depict ChatGPT, on how to talk to his mom, according to TechCrunch. The chatbot offered advice before transitioning into an advertisement for a fictional cougar-dating site. Anthropic stated that while ads are coming to AI, they will not be integrated into its own chatbot, Claude.
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