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Authorities in the United Kingdom this week arrested four people aged 17 to 20 in connection with recent data theft and extortion attacks against the retailers Marks & Spencer and Harrods, and the British food retailer Co-op Group. The breaches have been linked to a prolific but loosely-affiliated cybercrime group dubbed “Scattered Spider,” whose other […]
Microsoft today released updates to fix at least 137 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and supported software. None of the weaknesses addressed this month are known to be actively exploited, but 14 of the flaws earned Microsoft’s most-dire “critical” rating, meaning they could be exploited to seize control over vulnerable Windows PCs with […]
I just spent some time exploring the site at Systemic Misalignment: Exposing Key Failures of Surface-Level AI Alignment Methods, and it’s a thought-provoking place. In the context of AI, “alignment is the process of encoding human values and goals into large language models to make them as helpful, safe, and reliable as possible.[1]” Researchers at […]
In May 2025, the U.S. government sanctioned a Chinese national for operating a cloud provider linked to the majority of virtual currency investment scam websites reported to the FBI. But a new report finds the accused continues to operate a slew of established accounts at American tech companies — including Facebook, Github, PayPal and Twitter/X. […]
In this interview, Amber Paranick and Kelly Bennett discuss their work on the Mass Communications Archive, a collection that documents how media is created, distributed, and consumed in the digital age. Drawing on their expertise as reference librarians, they explain how they navigated challenges in scope and selected content that complements the Library’s more traditionally […]
Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) briefed Capitol Hill staff recently on hardening the security of their mobile devices, after a contacts list stolen from the personal phone of the White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was reportedly used to fuel a series of text messages and phone calls impersonating her to […]
This blog post is co-authored by Isabel Brador and Sahar Kazmi. Vivian Li, the Library’s 2025 Innovator in Residence, spent several days learning from Library staff and exploring the collections during a visit to the Library in May. Her trip followed the selection of Seattle, Southeastern Wyoming, and Chicago as the three locations for “Anywhere […]
Since our last report, libraries have continued to experience significant upheaval from President Trump’s actions. In May, the Trump administration fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter. We also saw legal cases challenging the administration’s defunding of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) continue to make their way […]
In this interview, Tim St. Onge and Meagan Snow explain how web archiving is preserving documentation essential to understanding the evolution of modern cartography. They outline the motivations behind the Geospatial Software and File Formats Documentation Web Archive, describe their curatorial approach, and highlight the collection’s value for both current and future researchers. This is […]
Late last year, security researchers made a startling discovery: Kremlin-backed disinformation campaigns were bypassing moderation on social media platforms by leveraging the same malicious advertising technology that powers a sprawling ecosystem of online hucksters and website hackers. A new report on the fallout from that investigation finds this dark ad tech industry is far more […]
Today’s guest post is from Kate Murray, Liz Caringola, Genevieve Havemeyer-King and Liz Holdzkom of the Digital Collections Management & Services Division at the Library of Congress. This is the eighth installment of our File Format Friends series! You can start at the very beginning with Fun with File Formats from December 2021 and work […]
Microsoft today released security updates to fix at least 67 vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and software. Redmond warns that one of the flaws is already under active attack, and that software blueprints showing how to exploit a pervasive Windows bug patched this month are now public. The sole zero-day flaw this month is […]
Image: Mark Rademaker, via Shutterstock. Ukraine has seen nearly one-fifth of its Internet space come under Russian control or sold to Internet address brokers since February 2022, a new study finds. The analysis indicates large chunks of Ukrainian Internet address space are now in the hands of shadowy proxy and anonymity services that are nested […]
Since founding the Internet Archive in 1996, Brewster Kahle has helped preserve nearly three decades of digital history—along with millions of books, audio recordings, videos, images, and software programs. But in 2023, four major publishers successfully sued the Archive, forcing it to remove their copyrighted books from its digital lending library. Now the Archive is […]
Photo: John Sterling Ruth/Visit Philadelphia The City of Brotherly Love is also a city of firsts: The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731, is considered the country’s first public library. Philadelphia was the original capital of the United States. And the American Library Association (ALA) held its inaugural Convention of Librarians […]
Steak with onions at Pat’s King of Steaks Photo: Pat’s King of Steaks No one was more surprised than Philadelphians when our restaurants and chefs started raking in James Beard Awards over the past half a dozen years. We knew we had good food, but we figured the rest of the country had long since […]
Martha Hickson, a recently retired media specialist who fought censorship at North Hunterdon High School in Annandale, New Jersey, shakes hands with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (seated) after he signed into law last winter a measure to limit book bans and protect librarians from liability in the state. Photo: Dana DiFilippo/New Jersey Monitor Last December, librarian Martha […]
Author Leanne Su holds up her sci-fi novel, Peri Peri Paprika, published in 2024 by Fifth Avenue Press, the imprint of Ann Arbor (Mich.) District Library. Photo: Lia Giannotti Libraries typically provide books—not publish them. But eight years ago, Ann Arbor (Mich.) District Library (AADL) had some voices it wanted the world to hear. “We’ve […]
A young presenter shares slides about the history of basketball at Vestavia Hills (Ala.) Library’s summer 2024 PowerPoint Party. Photo: Derek Anderson/Vestavia Hills (Ala.) Library At Hewitt (Tex.) Public Library (HPL), teens enthusiastically shared slideshows on the history of roads and the comparative merits of doors and wheels. None of this was schoolwork. PowerPoint is […]
Des Moines (Iowa) University students play The Euphorigen Investigation, an escape room designed to help people better understand misinformation, as part of MisinfoDay in October 2024. Photo: Des Moines (Iowa) University Misinformation: It seems to be everywhere, is getting increasingly sophisticated, and can have dangerous consequences. So how do librarians adapt their instruction to keep […]
