Article Image

Russian ‘Sandworm’ hacking squad wriggles their way into Windows PCs used by NATO, EU

A team of hackers based in Russia has exploited a Windows bug to target computers used by NATO, the European Union, and other bodies. Learn more here.

A team of hackers based in Russia dubbed the “Sandworm Team” has been exploiting a vulnerability in Windows, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2012 in order to spy on multiple public, and private institutions.

iSight, a security firm that is working in concert with Microsoft to track the hackers and plug such flaws, says that when someone uses it to penetrate Windows, they have the ability to “remotely execute arbitrary code.”

iSight also said that anyone trying to take advantage of a flaw to compromise a system would “need a specifically crafted file and use social engineering methods (observed in this campaign) to convince a user to open it.”

Sandworm has used this flaw in Windows and Windows Server to hit the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, along with government organizations based in Western Europe, parts of the Ukrainian government, energy companies in Poland, multiple European telecom firms, and academic organizations here at home as well.

To combat the group’s activities, Microsoft has released security fixes that are designed to fix the flaw. Users with Automatic Update enabled on their Windows PCs will download all patches without any input from them.

Digital Trends has contacted iSight to get more information on how to avoid any potential pitfalls associated with flaw that the Sandworm Team has been exploiting. We’ll issue any updates if and when we obtain information from iSight.

Scroll through any app for five minutes, and you’ll find someone maxxing something. Their skin, their sleep, their protein intake, even their Friday night on the couch. That little suffix has been everywhere this year, and now it has a trophy to show for it. In a recent announcement, Dictionary.com named maxxing its 2026 Word of the Year.

What are people actually doing when they’re maxxing?

Speech-to-text apps have flooded the App Store, making it easier than ever to type on our Macs with just our voice. I have previously covered one such app called TypeWhisper. However, there has been a dearth of good text-to-speech models, and most of the good ones are locked behind a subscription.

Ollama, an open-source app that lets you run local AI models on your computer, wants to change that. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and your prompts are never stored or used for training.