AI companies have told ministers they have 12 months to head off public opposition to datacentres in the UK or risk US-style protests that could threaten their construction. Successive dry summers and rising energy bills are increasing public scrutiny of plans for the huge computer warehouses that are used to train and run AI models, says a submission to the Labour government from a group including the AI infrastructure companies Nvidia, Microsoft and Cisco. Amid increasing anti-datacentre activism in the US and Europe, they are calling on ministers to create a "compact" that would show how communities can benefit from hosting datacentres, including allowing councils that host them to retain more tax revenues. The move by the Sovereign AI Leadership (SAIL) taskforce reflects rising concern among tech companies that arguments that have blocked datacentre developments in parts of the US are taking hold in Britain. Microsoft has promised to invest $30bn (£22bn) in UK AI infrastructure.

Hackers around the world are all-in on using agentic AI to wage attacks--and manipulating tools like Anthropic's Claude to help them carry out their crimes. As AI adoption spreads among both malicious hackers and defenders, even relatively unsophisticated cybercriminals are incorporating agentic AI into their campaigns and getting around model safeguards, according to new details published on Wednesday about recent successful attacks by four different threat groups. Researchers from the threat intelligence firm CrowdStrike looked at the AI infrastructure powering attacks perpetrated between May and August by four previously unreported groups--one that operates in Chinese, one in Spanish and English, one in Indonesian, and one in Russian. The former two exhibited sophisticated AI "harnesses," the software that supports and guides a model to carry out tasks. The latter two showed less technical prowess, researchers found, but were still able to compromise multiple targets.

Data centers powering America's artificial intelligence boom are creating blue-collar jobs for electricians, mechanics and technicians, says Compass Datacenters CEO Chris Crosby.

Is the war entering a new phase? At least one person has been killed, and five others injured after Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia, one of Kyiv's largest aerial strikes in the war. St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said firefighters were battling fires sparked by Sunday's attacks on the St Petersburg oil terminal, the Ruchi oil depot and industrial warehouses in the Kolpinsky district south of the city. The attack disrupted flights at St Petersburg's main airport, one of the country's busiest, which was restricting operations "for safety reasons", Beglov said. Russian e-commerce company Ozon said there was a fire at its logistics hub in St Petersburg.

Say More Versus Trending Now Look Up In My Bag Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Mashable Selects Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook AI at School All Series Foreign data center attacks raise questions about American security risks. Rebecca Ruiz is a Senior Reporter at Mashable. She frequently covers mental health, digital culture, and technology. Her areas of expertise include suicide prevention, screen use and mental health, parenting, youth well-being, and meditation and mindfulness. Rebecca's experience prior to Mashable includes working as a staff writer, reporter, and editor at NBC News Digital and as a staff writer at Forbes.

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'Nightmare Scenario': Zero-Click Spyware Is Infecting Phones via Targeted Ads Researchers at The Citizen Lab have for the first time released technical evidence of sophisticated mercenary spyware being distributed via online advertising. On Thursday, researchers from The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto revealed a worst-case scenario found in the wild: spyware silently infecting targets as they browse past ads in their daily digital lives. Dubbing the attacks "AdFection," the researchers documented a campaign in which an Israeli-registered advertising firm allegedly connected to the servers linked to a spyware company and infected dozens of devices with its invasive malware. Citizen Lab believes this to be the first detailed technical evidence made publicly available of sophisticated spyware infecting devices via digital ads. Zero-click hacks are a holy grail for attackers and catastrophic for victims, because they can automatically install malware on devices without requiring any interaction or missteps from the target. When sophisticated hackers have deployed rare zero-click attacks in recent years, they have often exploited vulnerabilities in mobile messaging and communication apps to infect victims.

'Massive' Russian attack on Ukraine kills at least six, damages power sites Share'Massive' Russian attack on Ukraine kills at least six, damages power sites on social media Russian air attacks have killed at least six people in Ukraine and left hundreds of thousands without power, days after United States President Donald Trump announced an "energy ceasefire" in the more-than four year war. The Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had carried out a "massive" strike against communications and energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported. Other targets included a heating and power plant in Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv, along with a thermal power facility which the ministry said supplied the Ukrainian military in the southeast of the Kharkiv region. Moscow said its forces had also hit a data centre in Kyiv which it said was used to gather intelligence on Russia's military. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged people to remain in shelters.

Did Iran capture a US submarine? Iran threatens Gulf data centres: How exposed is the region's internet? Iran's security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, has warned that cables, data centres and artificial intelligence (AI) facilities across the region could be attacked if war with the United States erupts again. The warning comes as the capture of Yemeni territory along the Red Sea coastline last month by the Iran-backed Houthis has raised concerns over the safety of internet cables linking Europe and Asia. Fierce fighting is under way between Yemen's internationally recognised government and the Houthis at several locations, including Bab al-Mandeb, through which nearly one-fifth of global internet traffic passes.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia attacked Ukraine's energy infrastructure despite Donald Trump's ceasefire announcement, accusing Vladimir Putin of rejecting peace efforts.