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The Scariest Thing About Cybercrime

Last week, two British teenagers were arrested and charged in connection with the Scattered Spider hacking spree. The group has been blamed for a string of cyber attacks including Australia’s national airline Qantas, UK’s largest retailer Marks & Spencer, and even MGM Resorts in the US.

The story is shocking not because seasoned cybercriminals struck again but because of who’s behind it: kids barely out of high school.

Bloomberg reveals how they grew up in Telegram chatrooms, swapping stolen credentials, watching ransom negotiations, and learning tricks from peers. For them, cybercrime wasn’t abstract: it was community, status, and fast money.

Here’s how they cracked Qantas Airlines:

• Reports say they used AI to mimic the voice of a real employee, convincing a call-center agent in Asia that they worked for the airline.

• All it took was a password reset request. With that access, they tricked their way in and stole frequent-flyer records - names, emails, phone numbers, even dates of birth - of 5.7 million customers.

It’s terrifying. If teenagers can breach billion-dollar brands with social engineering and AI, what about hospitals, schools, or city systems with fewer defenses?

Here’s what’s equally terrifying: We are failing our teenagers. We need better interventions to stop them from being groomed into cyber criminals.

AI’s Funky Brews: Would You Take a Swig? 🍻

In Germany, Beck’s decided to let ChatGPT loose in the brewhouse for their 150th anniversary. The AI’s invention? Beck’s Autonomous, a futuristic lager that some reviewers claimed was better than the regular stuff.

Since then, the trend has bubbled over: Britain, the US, and Japan have joined the AI-brewing party. In Japan, Coedo Brewery even asked AI to dream up four craft beers, each tailored for different age groups - basically "beer horoscopes," but you can drink them.

Why are brewers tapping into AI? Because it’s like having a flavor wizard with an infinite recipe book. AI can sift through thousands of brewing formulas, then suggest wild combos: stouts reimagined as lagers, acidity tweaks to balance hops, or malt magic that no human dared try before.

And the crazy part? These experiments often work. Even seasoned brewers admit the AI’s ideas taste shockingly good. Still, skeptics worry: is this the future of beer, or the end of soulful, hand-crafted brewing?

Meet Sneha Goenka, Pioneer of the Fastest DNA Test

Celebrating this week’s Woman in Tech 🥳: Meet Sneha Goenka, the pioneer behind the world’s fastest DNA test, delivering genetic diagnoses in under 8 hours and already saving lives.

Born in Mumbai, she left home at 15, earned a dual degree at IIT Bombay (where she helped build the university’s first student satellite, later launched by ISRO (India’s space agency), and went on to complete a PhD at Stanford.

At Stanford Medicine, she co-led the team that developed ultra-rapid genome sequencing turning weeks of anxious waiting into same-day answers.

• When 13-year-old Matthew was rushed to Stanford Children’s Hospital with a failing heart, doctors had just hours to determine whether it was a viral infection or a genetic mutation that meant he needed a transplant.

• His blood was drawn on Thursday; the transplant committee met Friday.

• By morning, Goenka’s test revealed a genetic mutation. Matthew was added to the transplant list the next day, and three weeks later, he received a new heart. 💙

Her breakthrough has earned a Guinness World Record, Forbes 30 Under 30, and this month, she was named MIT Tech Review’s Innovator of the Year. Now, as head of her Princeton lab, she’s building even faster, smarter tools for doctors.

ps. Fun fact: she also holds a Master’s in Bharatanatyam, a traditional Indian dance form. ✨🤗

AI Around The World:

In Malawi, small-scale farmers are turning to an AI chatbot called Ulangizi to survive climate disasters like floods and droughts. The app gives crop advice in local languages via WhatsApp, suggesting alternatives when conditions change - one farmer rebuilt his livelihood by switching to potatoes on AI’s advice, earning $800 in sales.

In the UK, supermarket chain Waitrose is testing AI shopping trolleys that automatically scan items as customers put them in. The “smart-carts” use cameras and sensors on the handle to detect groceries and pull up information. Waitrose hopes the tech will cut shopping time and reduce errors at self-scan tills.

In China, food delivery giant Meituan has launched an AI assistant app called Xiaomei. The tool lets users order meals, book restaurants, and get recommendations just by speaking to it. Meituan already dominates the country’s $80B food delivery market and hopes Xiaomei will help it stay ahead of rivals.