679 stories · Page 32 of 68
On 17 Mar 2026 Apple activated its new Background Security Improvement system to push iOS 26.3.1(a) after researchers revealed the six-bug “DarkSword” chain was already compromising iPhones running iOS 18.4-18.7 via drive-by websites.
The formerly state-grade DarkSword exploit chain—six linked flaws targeting iOS 18.4-18.7—has now surfaced in large-scale watering-hole attacks by multiple groups, forcing Apple to rush an out-of-band iOS 26.3.1(a) patch on 17 March 2026.
At 8 p.m. EDT on 19 March 2026 NASA started the 12-hour crawl of its repaired 322-ft SLS rocket back to Pad 39B and placed the four-person crew in quarantine, holding to a 1 April launch window for the first U.S. human mission beyond low-Earth orbit since 1972.
On 18 March 2026, quantum technology crossed from theory toward infrastructure as ACM gave the 2025 Turing Award to Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard, CSIRO reported the first quantum battery that both charges collectively and outputs electrical current, and the UK government launched a £2 billion program to build fault-tolerant quantum computers on its soil by the early 2030s.
On 15-16 Mar 2026 a Japanese-led team reported that just 20 mg of asteroid Ryugu dust returned by JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission contains all five canonical nucleobases, the first uncontaminated extraterrestrial sample to show the complete DNA/RNA alphabet.
On 18 March 2026 the Association for Computing Machinery announced that Charles H. Bennett and Gilles Brassard will receive the 2025 A.M. Turing Award and its US$1 million prize for their 1984 creation of the BB84 quantum-key-distribution protocol, formally recognizing quantum information science inside computing’s highest honor.
Between 18–19 March 2026, OpenAI released two downsized variants of its GPT-5.4 model—Mini (now selectable by Free and Go ChatGPT users) and Nano (API-only)—delivering almost flagship-level accuracy at more than double the speed of GPT-5 Mini while slashing per-token costs.
Peer-reviewed results released 17-18 Mar 2026 show exoplanet L 98-59 d harbours a planet-wide magma ocean and a hydrogen-sulfide-laden atmosphere, forcing astronomers to create a new class beyond the usual rocky, water or gas-dwarf worlds.
On 17 Mar 2026 three Tennessee plaintiffs asked a Northern California court to certify a nationwide class against Elon Musk’s xAI, alleging its Grok image model lacked standard safety blocks and generated deep-fake child sexual abuse material from their real photos.
On 16-17 March 2026 at GTC, NVIDIA signed simultaneous deals with five top engineering-software firms, four global automakers and multiple edge-hardware vendors to embed its CUDA-X, Omniverse and Jetson Thor/DRIVE stacks, signalling a shift from cloud-only AI training to large-scale, on-device “Physical AI” deployment.
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