US scrambles to stop Internet users re-creating dead pilots’ voices

US scrambles to stop Internet users re-creating dead pilots’ voices

fivenewscrypto    mai 25, 2026   

Pilots’ voices from the last seconds of a fatal cargo plane crash have been re-created by Internet sleuths using software and AI tools. The spread of reconstructed audio recordings has prompted a US government agency to suspend all public access to its database of civil transportation accidents—because federal law prohibits investigators from publicly releasing audio from cockpit voice recorders.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) usually shares factual reports and evidence gathered from investigations of aircraft crashes and other civil transportation incidents. But on May 21, the NTSB announced that the online docket system containing such information was “temporarily unavailable” as it reviewed the publicly available materials that had enabled people to re-create cockpit audio recordings from aircraft disasters.

“​​The NTSB is aware that advances in image recognition and computational methods have enabled individuals to reconstruct approximations of cockpit voice recorder audio from sound spectrum imagery released as part of NTSB investigations, including the ongoing investigation of the crash last year of UPS flight 2976 in Louisville, Kentucky,” according to an NTSB statement. “The NTSB does not release cockpit audio recordings.”

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The Boys is dead. Long live Vought Rising.

The Boys is dead. Long live Vought Rising.

fivenewscrypto    mai 24, 2026   

Well, that was fast. The Boys series finale only wrapped two days ago, but Prime Video clearly wants to build on that momentum by releasing the first teaser for the prequel series, Vought Rising. With spinoff series Gen V canceled after two seasons, Vought Rising and a planned The Boys: Mexico must carry the franchise banner.

(Spoilers for The Boys series finale below.)

The Boys' fifth season set up the final confrontation between Antony Starr’s Homelander and Karl Urban’s Butcher—the former seeking the original V compound that would make him immortal, the latter seeking to commit genocide with a Supe-specific virus. Homelander succeeded in his quest, but he wasn't quite an invulnerable god. There were heavy losses on both sides of the conflict (RIP Frenchie, in particular), and Homelander was ultimately defeated and killed by a vengeful Butcher. (Starr still hasn't gotten his much-deserved Emmy; his portrayal was simply magnificent.)

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Police boast of hacking VPN where criminals "believed themselves to be safe"

Police boast of hacking VPN where criminals "believed themselves to be safe"

fivenewscrypto    mai 24, 2026   

European law enforcement say they hacked into a VPN (virtual private network) service used for ransomware attacks and other crimes, and identified thousands of users before shutting the VPN down and arresting its administrator.

Europol announced yesterday the results of the operation against the service, First VPN. The First VPN website now displays a message saying the domain was seized by a joint international law enforcement action.

"A VPN service used by cybercriminals to conceal ransomware attacks, data theft, and other serious offenses has been dismantled in an international operation led by France and the Netherlands, with support from Europol and Eurojust," the agency said. "For years, the service, known as ‘First VPN,' was promoted on Russian-speaking cybercrime forums as a trusted tool for remaining beyond the reach of law enforcement. It offered users anonymous payments, hidden infrastructure, and services designed specifically for criminal use."

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Review: The Mandalorian and Grogu is ... fine

Review: The Mandalorian and Grogu is ... fine

fivenewscrypto    mai 24, 2026   

Hopes were arguably high for The Mandalorian and Grogu, director Jon Favreau's big-screen offshoot of the popular Disney+ series The Mandalorian. After all, there hasn't been a new film in the Star Wars franchise since 2019's The Rise of Skywalker wrapped up the three trilogies that make up the so-called "Skywalker Saga."

The new film is ... fine. It's an average Star Wars outing, and it will give families a solid Memorial Day Weekend entertainment option. It's just not the spectacular home run that might have helped launch the flagging franchise into an exciting new era, and diehard Star Wars fans hoping for more are probably going to be disappointed.

(Some spoilers below but no major reveals.)

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Texas AG sues Meta over claims that WhatsApp doesn't provide end-to-end encryption

Texas AG sues Meta over claims that WhatsApp doesn't provide end-to-end encryption

fivenewscrypto    mai 24, 2026   

The Texas Attorney General has sued Meta over allegations that the company’s WhatsApp messenger, used by more than 3 billion people, doesn’t provide the end-to-end encryption (E2EE) it has long claimed.

Since at least 2016, Meta (then named Facebook) has said WhatsApp provides robust end-to-end encryption, meaning that messages are encrypted on a sender’s device with keys that are available only to the receiver's. By definition, E2EE means that no one else—including the platform itself—can read the plaintext messages.

In sworn testimony before two US Senate committees in 2018, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Meta does “not see any of the content in WhatsApp; it is fully encrypted” and that “Facebook systems do not see the content of messages being transferred over WhatsApp.” The engine for this E2EE is the Signal protocol, an open source code base that multiple third-party experts have said lives up to its promises.

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Before it comes down, what should be saved from the International Space Station?

Before it comes down, what should be saved from the International Space Station?

fivenewscrypto    mai 24, 2026   

Humans do not just visit space; they live there, but a major part of that is coming to an end. The platform that made the longest continuous human presence in space possible is becoming history.

With NASA and its partners beginning preparations for the destructive end of the International Space Station (ISS) as soon as 2030, those who collect, curate, and study the station are now asking how to preserve the historic and culturally significant artifact, given that it is far too large and complex to keep intact.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on Thursday hosted a three-part panel discussion, bringing together space program officials, museum curators, an archeologist, and an astronaut to begin answering the why, what, and how the ISS might be saved. The sessions were part of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' (AIAA) ASCEND conference in Washington, DC.

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Marketer that claimed it could tap devices for ad targeting will pay $880K settlement

Marketer that claimed it could tap devices for ad targeting will pay $880K settlement

fivenewscrypto    mai 24, 2026   

In November 2023, we reported on dubious claims made by marketing firm Cox Media Group (CMG) Local Solutions. The company advertised a service called Active Listening on a website that said, “It’s true. Your devices are listening to you” and claimed it could use “voice data” to help advertisers target ads to specific people.

Naturally, panic ensued. 404 Media, which initially spotted the website, for instance, wrote that the idea of smartphones listening to people to sell products “may finally be a reality."

A screenshot taken in 2023 from a webpage that CMG has since removed.

Credit: Ars Technica via CMG Local Solutions

The idea of a marketing firm using AI to “detect relevant conversations via smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices” in real time—according to a since-deleted CMG blog post from November 2023 (still viewable via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine)—has raised alarms.

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