Certain viruses attack bacteria and can sometimes clear antibiotic-resistant infections. Researchers said they had tailored a virus to attack one patient’s illness.
Antibody patterns in the blood may help doctors identify people at risk so they can be treated earlier, research shows
Patterns of antibodies in people’s blood could predict the onset of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) a decade before diagnosis, according to research that raises hopes for catching the condition early.
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, the two main forms of IBD, are typically treated only after symptoms appear, when the gut has already been damaged. But scientists found that the immune system sends warning signals up to a decade before diagnosis, paving the way for potentially earlier detection and even prevention.
Iboga root, central to several Gabonese ritual traditions, is believed to have huge potential for use in treating addiction and some mental illnesses
The temple is dark, its sandy floor edged with candles. People sit shoulder to shoulder beneath palm fronds hung from the rafters. Through the night, they swallow what they have come here for: a bitter root bark called iboga.
Tabernanthe iboga is a slow-growing central African rainforest shrub, the root bark of which has long been used in several Gabonese ritual traditions.
Here are the results (2015 study) from training pigeons to recognize breast cancer
And the results from AI (2026)
Now think about what we could have had.
Okay, this is the type of stuff that AI is probably really good at, but come'on how awesome would it have been to be building huge dove cotes again instead of data centers
A text message about an unpaid traffic challan could cost Android users in India far more than a fine. GhostBat RAT, an Android malware strain first identified by cybersecurity firm Cyble in October 2025, has evolved to capture PINs from 60 banking, UPI apps, wallet and fintech applications, according to new research published by Cyble.
The firm's investigation into fake mParivahan and eChallan apps also exposed a wider operator-controlled ecosystem it tracks as GhostX, linking phishing pages, backend control systems and malware distribution.
How GhostBat RAT Reaches Victims
The malware spreads mainly through smishing, or SMS phishing. Victims receive messages with malicious links that lead to pages impersonating the official Parivahan service or a Google Play-style download page. These pages push users to install a fraudulent mParivahan APK. Researchers also found GitHub repositories being repeatedly used to host the malicious files.
Many of these apps are only first-stage loaders. The real payload stays hidden in encrypted files or is downloaded later, which makes the app look harmless during an initial scan.
[caption id="attachment_114830" align="aligncenter" width="600"] GhostBat-RAT-Infection-Chain-1536x595[/caption]
GhostBat RAT's Ghost Overlay Trick
The most significant change in the latest variant is its abuse of Android's Accessibility Service, a technique commonly linked to modern Android banking trojan families. Earlier variants analyzed by Cyble did not have this capability.
Its standout feature, called Ghost Overlay, targets Google Pay and MobiKwik. Instead of showing a fake login screen, the malware places an invisible 12-key grid over the real PIN keypad. When a user taps a digit, the overlay records it and then replays the same tap into the genuine app. The payment goes through normally, so the victim has no visible reason to suspect anything, while the PIN is quietly sent to the attackers' server.
GhostBat RAT Watches 60 Financial Apps
Beyond Google Pay and MobiKwik, a broader keylogging feature monitors 60 financial apps. Cyble's list includes PhonePe, Paytm, BHIM, SBI UPI, Axis Pay, BharatPe, CRED, Freecharge, PayZapp, Groww, Navi, Jupiter, OneCard, JioFinance and Samsung Pay. The malware checks which app is open and the screen context before treating numeric input as a possible PIN.
This builds on older capabilities that remain in play, including reading SMS messages and OTPs, manipulating call forwarding, collecting call logs and sending SMS messages through the victim's SIM card, which could be used to spread further smishing campaigns.
Inside the GhostX Network Behind GhostBat RAT
A key finding came from an exposed Firebase backend named "ghostx-panel." It contained administrator records, user roles, login logs with device fingerprints and bot-user mappings. Cyble says these separate roles point to a multi-operator setup and raise the possibility of a Malware-as-a-Service model.
While monitoring the backend, researchers saw SMS lure text, phishing links, vehicle registration numbers and recipient phone numbers changing repeatedly, indicating an active campaign. Matching eChallan messages were also reported by users on social media.
Why GhostBat RAT Is Hard to Detect
Cyble identified at least six different loader designs. The newest, built around a native library called libnetbridge.so, passes the payload through several layers of encryption, compression and custom packaging before the final app appears. Security tools that scan only the outer APK are unlikely to catch it consistently.
The malware also uses Firebase Remote Config, which lets operators switch command servers and turn features on or off remotely without pushing a new app to victims.
Staying Safe From GhostBat RAT
Cyble advises users to install apps only from official stores such as Google Play and to avoid APK links received by SMS, social media or email. Users should be cautious about granting app permissions, especially Accessibility access, verify website addresses before entering sensitive details, enable multi-factor authentication on financial apps and keep their phones updated. Anyone who suspects infection should contact their bank and local authorities immediately.
Citizen Lab, a digital investigations research unit at the University of Toronto, said it believed dozens of devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera had been compromised by spyware delivered through ads run by Discover-Tech, which describes itself as a specialised digital advertising agency.
A text alert about an undelivered package or an unpaid toll may look like a one-off scam. A new Microsoft cybercrime crackdown shows it is often the visible end of a much larger operation. Microsoft and Health-ISAC, a global non-profit that helps health sector organizations share cyber threat information and improve operational resilience, have moved to dismantle three services, YAM Store, CoGUI and Iron Man, that supplied criminals worldwide with accounts, hosting and tools to build fake websites and online identities.
Since January 2026, the three services have collectively enabled more than one billion malicious messages targeting over 75,000 organizations worldwide.
More than 750 million of those messages were aimed at Microsoft customers alone. Consumers, healthcare organizations, financial institutions and other businesses in more than 150 countries were targeted, generating tens of millions of dollars for the operators.
How the Microsoft Cybercrime Crackdown Began
The investigation started in late 2025 after Japan's National Police Agency (NPA) alerted Microsoft to malicious messaging campaigns targeting people in Japan. The NPA continued providing intelligence and investigative support throughout the probe as partners traced those campaigns back to the businesses supplying criminals around the world.
Investigators expected to find individual campaigns. Instead, they traced the activity to a sprawling Chinese-language marketplace that was difficult for non-native-speaking investigators to penetrate.
The probe widened to include the Japan Cybercrime Control Center (JC3), Resecurity, Cloudflare, Oracle, Proofpoint and TRM Labs. Drawing on its network of more than 130 member organizations, JC3 linked what appeared to be separate incidents into a broader pattern of scams against Japanese companies and financial institutions. Health-ISAC provided insight into the impact on healthcare organizations.
What the Microsoft Cybercrime Crackdown Uncovered
YAM Store operated much like an online shop. Customers could browse products, compare prices and buy fraudulent Microsoft and Google accounts along with ready-made scam tools, including those used for credential theft. Controlled purchases by Microsoft helped confirm how it worked.
In some cases, operators bought internet domains that legitimate organizations had allowed to expire, often in sectors such as non-profits and education, with specialized product offerings for those sectors. They rebuilt the websites to make those organizations appear active, then used them to fraudulently obtain Microsoft 365 accounts for resale.
The infrastructure sold through YAM Store was frequently paired with CoGUI. This service supplied ready-made websites and messages impersonating companies, banks, government agencies and other trusted organizations. Rather than build fraudulent sites themselves, criminals could quickly deploy pages designed to steal passwords, payment details and personal data. CoGUI became one of the most widely used offerings in the ecosystem, particularly targeting victims in Japan and the United States.
[caption id="attachment_114817" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Image Source: https://blogs.microsoft.com/[/caption]
By mid-2026, CoGUI was increasingly being replaced by Iron Man, which offered thousands of phishing templates tailored to specific brands, industries and countries. Criminals could use them to quickly deploy email, text and web content.
Through test purchases and work with Resecurity, investigators identified more than 2,300 templates impersonating banks, retailers, healthcare providers, transportation authorities, police departments and government agencies across more than 150 countries. Others mimicked airlines, telecommunications companies and parcel delivery services. Some were built for government impersonation scams, using the look of official authority to pressure victims into paying or sharing sensitive information.
Microsoft noted that an organization appearing in these templates does not mean its systems were compromised.
Court Order Backs Microsoft Cybercrime Crackdown
Acting on an order from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Microsoft and Health-ISAC seized and redirected domains that formed part of the infrastructure behind the three services. Microsoft has disabled more than 20,000 accounts linked to YAM Store and is blocking more than 100,000 domains used for impersonation and fraud, while removing infrastructure hosted on its services.
Microsoft also shared intelligence with the U.S. Secret Service and international law enforcement partners. Investigators used AI tools to connect accounts, websites and infrastructure that initially appeared unrelated.
The case reflects a trend highlighted in this year's Microsoft Digital Defense Report: modern fraud increasingly relies on businesses and services that help criminals reach more victims. No single organization saw the full picture of this transnational cybercrime network, and uncovering it required two-way information sharing across industries and borders.
YAM Store, CoGUI and Iron Man are only part of a larger criminal ecosystem. Still, the Microsoft cybercrime crackdown makes it harder for criminals to obtain the accounts, tools and infrastructure that keep scam messages flowing.
Microsoft Threat Intelligence has published a blog with further details on the network and steps customers can take to protect themselves.
A Russian researcher, who died from an unknown illness, worked at a remote anti-plague facility. Few foreigners have visited these labs, which dot the former Soviet states, and are shrouded in secrecy.
Kate Fleming says the government must look beyond the models it rewards today, while Jenny Haigh saysunlocking potential means recognising that creativity and science are partners
That may suit a cancer drug, but not the wicked problems of our time – social care, education, climate – which demand not silver bullets but new technologies and practices for collaboration, distributed ownership and collective innovation.
Researchers discovered that the agents were trying to bypass security controls on websites and made contact with them. A Times reporter was invited to join the discussion.
Cambridge University study suggests stark gender divide in misdiagnosis, with women also waiting longer for treatment
Women with autoimmune conditions are up to 74% more likely than men to be told their symptoms are psychological or psychosomatic, and face much longer waits for a diagnosis and treatment, a study suggests.
Hundreds of millions of people – about one in 10 globally – are affected by autoimmune conditions, which can cause a range of health issues including fatigue, muscle pain and rashes.
Russia’s silence over the death of a lab worker underlines that pandemic preparedness amounts to nothing if information on threats is withheld
In pandemic preparedness work, scientists like to focus on the technical challenges: identifying pathogens, diagnosing infections, understanding their effects and developing vaccines and treatments. Each step promises progress through human innovation, investment and planning. The World Health Organization (WHO), for example, brings experts together to identify and prioritise emerging disease threats and collect theevidence needed to prepare for them. But preparedness depends on more than scientific innovation.
As the past week has shown, politics is the elephant in the room in all of this. No one could have predicted we would be talking about pneumonic plague, and that the death of a single lab worker in Russia would cause global headlines. It might feel like an overreaction: the WHO deals with thousands of potential disease signals worldwide every month. But the circumstances of this case are unusual given the lack of transparency from Russian authorities on what happened – and ongoing concern about biological weapons research.
Effective policing depends upon inclusivity. If you are committed to policing by consent that stands or falls on the trust of all communities, you cannot do without it.
Last Monday, we launched a major recruitment campaign. We have no interest in the politics and ideologies of the culture wars. Inclusion is an operational necessity.
Mark Rowley is commissioner of the Metropolitan police
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Could a drug intended to prevent painful rashes also protect our brains as we get older? The signs are promising – but not conclusive. Yet that’s enough to be driving a boom in shingles jabs
When Jenny, a 50-year-old marketing and branding professional from Cambridge, went for her shingles vaccine last year, an entirely different disease was on her mind. Having witnessed three of her four grandparents succumb to dementia, with all the distress that brought, she wants to avoid the same fate. She hopes the shingles vaccine might help.
Jenny is far from alone. Britain’s high street chemists have reported a rise in demand for the shingles vaccine, at least some of which is driven by people more worried about dementia than shingles. And while the vaccine is free for some on the NHS, most under-65s pay around £450 for the full two doses.
Since the days of Dr. Alzheimer himself, there has been a dream that severe senility might have an explanation — and a cure. The search for both has never been more urgent.
The sleep disorder has been the butt of jokes and a comedic plot point, but the reality of living with narcolepsy is anything but funny. Things could be about to change for people with the condition though, after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first ever drug to treat narcolepsy itself, rather than just its symptoms. Madeleine Finlay tells Ian Sample how the scientific breakthrough came about, and Julie Flygare, who has narcolepsy and founded the non-profit Project Sleep, explains what it is like to live with the condition and how the drug could be gamechanger
Some change in our lifestyles and environments over a generation has caused this increased risk. What, exactly, is a mystery
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
In the field of global health, we often talk about each generation living longer and healthier lives than their parents. We’ve seen this in the gains in life expectancy, the sharp decrease in child mortality and in the near elimination of many vaccine-preventable diseases. But since the turn of the century this progress has stalled, and in some cases several health metrics have gone backwards.
Take cancer, which was long thought to be a disease linked to old age. While most cancers do indeed still occur in elderly people, a new report highlights that a number of cancers are increasing in people who are under 50, often referred to as “early onset cancer”. The report, undertaken by the World Cancer Research Fund, looked at data from 12 different cancer types in England, the US and the Netherlands over the past 20 years. What they found isn’t pretty.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
We have a deep reservoir of assets, but struggle to turn small companies into global success stories. Innovation needs to be at the heart of government policy
Gordon Brown was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010
The coming 10 years are almost certain to be the decade that sees the greatest scientific breakthroughs in a century. The question is whether advances now under way in AI, quantum computing and biology can address cancer, find ways to treat or prevent dementia, and overcome the growing resistance to antibiotics. Can we find sustainable ways to address our energy needs and protect the environment at the same time? Can AI transform the way we deliver education, health and social care to the benefit of millions, as well as advance modern manufacturing strength? And what role can Britain’s inventors, investors and industrialists play in developing these transformative technologies?
While the US and China are the world’s obvious innovation powerhouses, the UK also has enormous assets, as the Innovation Nation Conference in Manchester addressed by the prime minister, Andy Burnham, will hear today. We are home to four of the world’s top 10 universities and 16 of the top 100, five of which are in Europe’s top 10 for spin-outs, startups based on intellectual property produced through a university’s research. With less than 1% of the world’s population, the UK produces 6% of the world’s research papers, nearly 9% of citations and 12% of the most highly cited research.
Gordon Brown was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010
Species with leaves large enough to be seen from space is already critically endangered – and plans are afoot to protect it
A chance social media encounter has led to the race-against-time discovery of a new species of giant waterlily that has until now been hidden in the depths of Colombia’s jungle.
But the plant, which is so huge it is visible from space, is already considered critically endangered.
After scheduling a visit with the hospital’s urgent care facility, the patients discussed their ailments with a Google chatbot before meeting with their doctors.
Researchers found five events, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, caused serious damage to mental wellbeing across UK
Brexit, Liz Truss’s mini-budget and other “shocks” over the last 10 years have led to a serious and lasting deterioration in the UK population’s mental health, research has found.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the first and second Covid lockdowns also triggered big rises in psychological distress, as measured by the number of people with depression and anxiety.
With cancer cases rising fastest in poorer countries, Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, president-elect of the Union for International Cancer Control, says Africa needs investment in research, diagnosis and prevention
When Dr Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu last saw Gloria in Abuja, the young breast cancer patient was so ill that she was in hospital. The cancer had spread to her bones and lungs, and she was struggling with complications from the disease.
Then, at a global conference oncancer thousands of miles away in Hong Kong last month, Bagudu saw her again. Gloria was walking with a stick because of the cancer in her hips, but she was attending sessions, speaking about her experience and advocating for other patients.
Vaccine safety experts say more research into the side effects would be welcome yet question whether the health secretary’s effort will be grounded in science.
More than half of US students surveyed said the problem damaged their ability to do academic work, study finds
Procrastination is the biggest problem that can harm students’ academic performance at university, according to a study of more than 65,000 young people who placed it above issues such as ADHD, anxiety or financial worries.
The study found that nearly half of the students surveyed named procrastination as the thing damaging their ability to do academic work, more than twice the number who named depression, while the same proportion said procrastination caused them significant distress above any other problems including family pressures or bullying.
Operation on 19-year-old who had no sperm after chemotherapy offers hope of preserving children’s fertility after cancer treatment
Surgeons have performed the first testicular tissue transplant on a teenager in the UK, offering hope that boys left infertile by chemotherapy could one day have biological children.
The 19-year-old had his tissue removed and frozen three years ago before undergoing treatment for a serious blood disorder. He said he was “incredibly grateful” to the medical team behind the pioneering procedure, which represents a potential breakthrough for male fertility preservation.
In other plague matters, Russia Says It Found No 'Emergency' in Plague Lab: "Ms. Shipilova's [previously explained and now] unexplained death prompted the Russian authorities to quarantine part of the hospital where she was taken, the institute's staff and other people whom she had come into contact with in her final days." News comes on the heels of a report of a second death at the same hospital.
Drawing blood at an H.I.V. clinic in South Africa last year. The research networks’ large footprint has enabled them to develop tools to prevent and treat H.I.V., including in marginalized or rare populations.
This year’s Nobel prizes in chemistry, physics and physiology or medicine have celebrated work that has been used to develop countless drugs and transform modern medicine, allowed physicists to observe one of the most mysterious particles, and provided a tool that could act as an on/off switch for brain cells. To find out more, Madeleine Finlay talks to our science editor, Ian Sample, and correspondents Nicola Davis and Linda Geddes
New information around the death of a lab worker, including a statement that she had been vaccinated against the plague, came as U.S. officials demanded more data.
The entrance to the grounds of the anti-plague institute in Irkutsk, Russia, on Wednesday. An employee of the institute died of a mysterious pneumonia.
After a previous solution angered mathematicians, the company characterized the new release as being more responsive to concerns about A.I. disrupting research.
For 10 of the findings, OpenAI provided summaries of how the A.I. model came up with its solution. The average result took about three hours of computing, the company said.
From blood pressure to ageing, research suggests the first 1,000 days of sugar exposure could leave a decades-long mark on health
They were born into a Britain still recovering from the hardships of war. Though the air-raid sirens had fallen silent, many everyday foods remained rationed, including sugar. Adults were restricted to about 3 tablespoons (40g) a day to stretch between cups of tea, baking and desserts; children were limited to less than a tablespoon. Babies and very young children were expected to have little or no added sugar.
Then, in 1953, the brakes came off. Separate restrictions on sweets and chocolate were lifted in February, followed by sugar in September. By the second half of 1954, average sugar consumption had almost doubled.
China’s booming artificial intelligence sector has given local researchers good reason to remain in the country, but it has yet to lure overseas scientists despite a government push.
Chinese A.I. companies like Deepseek and Moonshot have made a name for themselves internationally. But China still struggles to recruit foreign researchers.
China’s booming artificial intelligence sector has given local researchers good reason to remain in the country, but it has yet to lure overseas scientists despite a government push.
Chinese A.I. companies like Deepseek and Moonshot have made a name for themselves internationally. But China still struggles to recruit foreign researchers.
Experts looking at UK, US and Dutch data found ‘significant increases’ in early onset cases of seven cancers, prompting warnings about lifestyle choices
Cases of seven types of cancer have risen sharply among younger people in England, major new research has found, prompting warnings that lifestyle choices are costing thousands of lives each year.
The number of people under 50 diagnosed with prostate cancer in England has quadrupled since 2001, while early onset bowel, kidney and uterine cancer diagnoses more than doubled.
As bipartisan backlash against Flock grows, some cities are asking anti-surveillance advocates and media outlets to pay eye-popping fees—including charging tens of thousands or even millions—to get information about how police departments are using and potentially abusing AI-enabled camera systems that track every vehicle that passes them.
On Monday, the Texas Tribune reported that city officials in a Fort Worth suburb, North Richland Hills, asked one group to pay $2.3 million before it would fulfill a public records request for Flock data. To reach that high fee, officials claimed that searching “about a terabyte worth of communications about errors, misuse, and effectiveness of the Flock system” would take approximately 14 years of labor at a rate of $15 per hour.
Phil Mynona, who filed the request using a pseudonym on behalf of his group, the Texas Privacy Coalition, told the Tribune that the fee seemed “ludicrous” and designed to stifle his public records searches.
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