Microsoft released the KB5120998 preview cumulative update for Windows 11 versions 25H2 and 24H2, which comes with 35 changes, including improvements to the Start menu, taskbar, and Windows search.

KB5120998 is a preview update that lets IT administrators test Windows bug fixes, improvements, and new features before they roll out to all users during next month’s Patch Tuesday release.

However, unlike cumulative updates, monthly optional updates do not include security fixes and provide only quality improvements.

After installing the August 2026 preview update, users can move the taskbar to the bottom, top, left, or right side of their screen in Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors > Taskbar position, with most customization settings, like never combining taskbar icons, working in every position.

The KB5120998 also adds a new smaller taskbar option that reduces the taskbar height and the size of taskbar icons to maximize screen space on smaller devices, and small or large size options for the Start menu (in Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors > Taskbar size dialog), as well as the ability to independently show or hide the Pinned, Recommended, and All sections, and to hide the account name and profile picture.

With KB5120998, Microsoft has also started rolling out the administrator protection security feature that allows users to perform admin tasks using just-in-time privileges.

“Administrator protection is not classified as a formal security boundary; it hardens the security against elevation-of-privilege attacks with the introduction of profile separation,” Microsoft said. “This feature is turned off by default and can be enabled using OMA-URI in Microsoft Intune or through Group Policy.”

You can install KB5120998 by opening Windows Settings, clicking on Windows Update, and then clicking ‘Check for Updates.’

Since this is an optional update, you will need to click the “Download and install” link unless you already have the “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re they’re available” option enabled, which prompts the OS to install it automatically.

You can also manually download and install the KB5120998 preview update from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Windows 11 KB5120998 highlights

Once installed, this optional non-security update will upgrade Windows 11 25H2 and 24H2 devices to builds 26200.9278 and 26100.9278, respectively.

The August 2026 preview update comes with many other changes, some of the more important ones highlighted below:

• Windows now automatically indexes your most-used folders so those files appear in subsequent search results. You can control the setting at Settings > Privacy & Security > Search > Automatically find additional relevant locations.
• This update improves restart behavior so PCs that were manually put to sleep return to sleep after completing an update, even when automatic sleep is set to Never.
• This update adds support for participating apps to coordinate their updates with Windows Update. Supported apps can benefit from improved scheduling and a more streamlined update experience. For more information, see Windows Update Orchestration Platform (UOP).
• This update improves resiliency and recovery from potential VPN process-related background issues that can cause processes to stop responding.
• Starting in August 2026, Windows 11, version 24H2 and 25H2 will no longer include the Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC) utility. WMIC is already removed by default in new installations of Windows 11, versions 24H2 and 25H2, and will no longer be available as a Feature on Demand (FoD).

On Thursday, Microsoft warned customers that their systems may reboot one more time after deploying the August 2026 optional update and updates rolling out over the next several months.

“With recent and upcoming Windows updates over the next few months, a limited number of consumer and business devices might experience one additional restart during installation,” Microsoft noted in a message center update. “This one‑time restart occurs after a Secure Boot certificate update is applied as part of the Secure Boot update process.”

Earlier this month, it also reminded customers that devices running Home and Pro editions of Windows 11 24H2 will stop receiving updates in two months. However, Windows 11 24H2 Enterprise and Education editions will remain under mainstream support until October 2027.

Users are advised to upgrade to Windows 11 25H2 (also known as the Windows 11 2025 Update), which became generally available in September 2024.

Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply.

The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments.

Get the report

The former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) IT specialist previously accused of trying to pass secret and top-secret information to foreign spies has pleaded guilty following a successful FBI sting.

Nathan Vilas Laatsch, then 28, and now 29, was arrested in May 2025 after an undercover FBI agent caught him for the second time transmitting intelligence packages in a public park that he believed would be collected by a foreign government’s spy.

The man, who had been employed at the DIA as a civilian employee since 2019, held top-secret clearance, and in March 2025 offered to transmit classified information to an overseas administration. 

The identity of this country has never been revealed, but court documents [PDF] describe it as “a friendly foreign government.” 

Laatsch was assigned to the DIA’s Insider Threat Division in “spring 2025,” a unit dedicated to identifying government workers who were likely to leak, or already were leaking, classified information to foreign powers.

According to the Justice Department, the FBI “became aware” of Laatsch’s offer in March.

The man’s initial email, sent from a newly created account, had the subject line: “Outreach from USA Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Officer.”

The email introduced Laatsch, his role at the DIA, and the service he was willing to provide. According to the complaint, Laatsch served in a technical role in support of the DIA’s internal Officer of Security (SEC). Among other things, his duties included “enabling user activity monitoring on individuals with access to DIA systems, including individuals who are under investigation” and “assisting external partners, such as law enforcement, on the use of insider threat tools.”

“I am willing to share classified information that I have access to, which are completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation,” the email stated.

The email included a picture of his government ID used to enter and exit his Washington, D.C. workplace, with name and image redacted, and a username associated with an encrypted messaging platform the recipient could use to continue the conversation.

Soon after Laatsch’s email was intercepted, the FBI instigated an undercover operation to trick the IT bod into thinking that he was talking to a genuine spy. 

The feds’ efforts were not immediately successful. Agents replied on March 23, saying: “Good afternoon, I received your message and share your concerns. We are glad you reached out. I look forward to your response and learning more about your work.”

Laatsch did not respond until April 14, after the FBI sent a follow-up via the original email address on April 4.

Following additional conversations, in which Laatsch described what information he was offering to the “foreign spy,” on April 28, 205, Laatsch entered his office and within 20 minutes began accessing classified information. 

Prosecutors said he spent much of the entire workday writing on a physical notepad while intermittently looking at his computer monitor, hiding the notebook when coworkers walked by.

“The defendant wrote multiple pages of notes, which he then removed from the notepad at his desk and folded into squares,” court documents state. “At the end of his workday, the defendant bent under his desk, placed the folded papers into his socks, and departed the office.”

Laatsch repeated the same behavior on April 29, and again on April 30, only this time placing the paper squares in the bottom of his lunchbox.

The next day, the IT specialist followed FBI instructions on where to dead-drop the thumb drive – onto which he had transposed state secrets – in an Arlington, Virginia park.

Although he believed he was leaving the device for a foreign spy to collect, the FBI instead gathered Laatsch’s deposit and found nine typed documents, eight of which contained information classified as top-secret and contained sensitive compartmented information.

Court documents confirmed that the nature of the files Laatsch transmitted included sensitive methods of intelligence collection, intelligence related to foreign military exercises, and analysis of the impact of those military exercises.

These were chosen entirely by Laatsch, who had not received a brief on what files to collect from the FBI. In exchanged messages, Laatsch stated he chose the files based on assumed interests.

The device also contained a note from Laatsch personally. In it, he said he hoped the initial tranche of files would serve as proof of the type of information to which he had access.

Laatsch, whom prosecutors described as an individual who had become disenfranchised with the current administration, also expressed his willingness to accept citizenship in the foreign nation. 

Further, he said he was “not opposed to other compensation,” but was not in need of financial or other kinds of material rewards.

In the interim, Laatsch messaged the “spy” with additional details about how internal investigations are carried out at the DIA, the common “stupid mistakes” made by those under investigation, and that they “should not be too difficult” for him to avoid.

The undercover FBI agent arranged a second intel drop for the following month, to which Laatsch agreed.

According to the plea agreement, between May 15 and May 27, Laatsch would enter his workplace, log into his classified system, and spend most of the day transcribing classified information by hand into a notebook. He repeatedly folded up the pages and placed them in his socks before leaving at the end of the workday.

The FBI arranged the second intel drop for May 29, 2025. It instructed Laatsch to instead head to a specific picnic table in the same Arlington park and electronically transfer the files from his personal computer while situated at the picnic table.

Laatsch agreed, executed the transfer to the FBI-controlled address while sitting in the park, and was arrested on the spot.

The man waived his right to an attorney and admitted to the offenses when questioned by FBI agents.

“By his own admission, Laatsch betrayed his oath by offering classified information to a foreign government, the very thing he was supposed to prevent as an employee of DIA’s Insider Threat Division,” said Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director at the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. 

“Those entrusted with our nation’s most sensitive information must not exploit their access for personal gain – in this case offering to sell American secrets to buy foreign citizenship. The FBI and our partners will continue to hold accountable all those who betray the trust of the American people.”

Laatsch’s plea agreement [PDF] recommends a sentence between 11 and 18 years, including time served, although the court is able to issue a maximum sentence that includes a life term and a $250,000 fine. ®

The build quality isn’t terribly impressive, either. The plastic chassis is solid but doesn’t feel premium. Fortunately, the Double-shot PBT keycaps are much better, although their opaque legends don’t allow that aforementioned backlighting to shine through. Their Fn shortcuts aren’t labelled, either, unlike those installed in the best gaming keyboards.

However, the compact width of the Vibe99 is impressive, and thanks to the smart 1800 layout, you still get plenty of keys. What’s more, it also features an integrated screen. It may be a basic TFT affair with limited information displayed, but what it does show is useful, such as the time, date, and battery level. You can also upload GIFs to it if you so wish, but I wouldn’t advise that you do, given the screen’s small size and low fidelity.

Multiple extensions for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge delivered a malware framework that deployed modules to steal cryptocurrency, sensitive data, and browser history, and to inject ClickFix lures.

Researchers say all 19 malicious modules uncovered in the campaign serve distinct purposes and are designed to be “highly extensible.”

The operation was uncovered by application security company Socket, and the investigation indicates that it may have been active since early 2024.

Socket says that when initially published on the Chrome Web Store, many of the extensions provided the advertised functionality and contained no malware.

According to the researchers, five of the extensions were acquired from their original creators and injected with malware via updates delivered automatically.

One example is the “Enable Right Click & Copy — Smart Unlock + OCR” extension, which had a Chrome user base of at least 70,000 when it turned malicious. The number of installs on Edge was 10,000 at the time.

Google caught the threat early and removed the extension from its add-ons marketplace, but at the time of Socket publishing its report, the Edge version remained available.

Once installed, the malware establishes an encrypted WebSocket connection with command-and-control (C2) servers, downloads JavaScript modules, removes Content Security Policy (CSP) headers from every website visited, and injects malicious scripts into websites through hidden HTML elements.

Socket observed malware modules with the following capabilities:

• Draining EVM, Solana, and Tron wallets by hijacking legitimate “Connect Wallet” and “Swap” buttons
• Replacing Ledger and Trezor websites with convincing seed-phrase phishing pages
• Stealing sessions, tokens, account data, and balances from Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, OKX, MEXC, KuCoin, Bybit, and MetaMask
• Recording credentials and form entries across websites
• Harvesting Facebook and LinkedIn account information
• Exfiltrating browser history
• Displaying ClickFix-style fake browser updates that instruct victims to execute attacker-provided commands

Socket warns that the malicious framework may have more modules and that as the malware evolves over time, new payloads are expected to be deployed.

At the time of publishing, none of the malicious extensions are available in the Chrome Web Store.

Socket’s report provides the full list of extension IDs uncovered in the campaign along with the domains used for C2 communication.

Users who had any of the extensions installed should assume that their credentials have been compromised and change their login passwords.

Cryptocurrency holders potentially impacted by this campaign are recommended to move their assets to a newly created wallet as soon as possible.

Update [August 30]: Article edited to include the full list of malicious extensions discovered by Socket.

Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply.

The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments.

Get the report

Cheap online listings sell universal travel adapters that pack sliding American, British and European prongs plus two USB ports into one small plastic block for just over nine dollars. Brainiac75 bought one and started testing it before anyone would ever pack it for a trip.

Plugging just one plug into a live wall socket is enough to send more than 220 volts racing through the unused metal pins protruding out the other side. A simple resistance test revealed that those pins are indeed linked to the same conductors as the ones being utilized, rather than just sitting there all alone. Make no mistake: those exposed pins aren’t just ghost voltage with a modest current behind them; they’re directly connected to the grid.

Anker Nano Travel Adapter, 2 USB C Universal Charger, 20W, 1× 2-Pin AC

• Universal Plug Compatibility: Type A (US / Canada / Japan / China), Type C (EU), Type G (UK / Singapore), and Type I (Australia).
• Power 5 Devices at Once: Includes 1 AC outlet, 2 USB-A ports, and 2 USB-C ports. The USB ports support up to 20W total output or 15W max when shared…
• Exceptionally Compact: Measuring just 3.39 × 1.97 × 0.98 in (86 × 50 × 25 mm), it has a credit card-sized footprint and is 43% smaller than…

When you slide a retractable pin all the way back in, you’d expect the internal switch to disconnect it from the circuit, but that’s not the case. There is no rule requiring you to push every unused set back in before utilizing the adapter. This means that if you forget to plug in the British or American plug, it will still be live while the European plug is snug in the wall, and to make matters worse, that little red power light continues to glow for a while after you unplug the whole thing, though to give the manufacturer credit, the voltage on the pins does drop back down to safe levels pretty quickly.

Ripping open the cover gave us a good idea of why the pins reacted in this way. When you insert one of the prong sets, it presses down on these contacts, which connect to a huge central bus bar. It is a simple design with cheap manufacturing costs. Best of all, there are no restrictions on how many different plug types you can use at the same time; simply slot them all in and you’re good to go.

Those USB ports, on the other hand, were a bit of a surprise, as they were pumping out 5 volts despite the label stating 2.1 amps, and they got up to 2.4 amps on a load test before becoming unstable. Overall, not terrible, albeit they don’t provide any other charging protocols like some other adapters. After taking the device apart, he ended up removing the less useful American and British plug components and simply taping over the holes where they used to be. As a result, we have a USB charger that can accept a Schuko standard connector as well as random non-European plugs, which is more safer.
[Source]

In July and August, Washington tightened restrictions on foreign-made advanced robotic systems and imposed steep tariffs on imported drones and their components, both moves citing national-security concerns. The drone tariffs take effect in September, with additional component tariffs following in 2027.

These moves are part of a broader U.S. effort to restrict foreign technology in strategically important industries. The FCC’s Covered List, established in 2021, initially targeted telecommunications and surveillance equipment from companies including Huawei, ZTE and Hikvision before expanding to foreign-made drones and, most recently, to advanced robotic devices.

The latest move comes as Chinese manufacturers have built commanding positions in both drones and humanoid robots, often competing at prices U.S. and European rivals struggle to match.

Taken together, the restrictions are raising a bigger question for the global robotics industry: If Chinese drones and humanoids are increasingly shut out of the U.S., where does the competition move next?

The restrictions may protect parts of the American market, but they don’t directly address China’s global manufacturing scale and cost advantages.

Industry analysts and executives who spoke with TechCrunch said the result may be less a clean U.S.-China split than a more fragmented global market, with Chinese companies expanding elsewhere while U.S. and allied manufacturers compete in markets where security requirements matter more.

The Scale Gap

The U.S. and Chinese robotics industries remain deeply connected, but the two countries enter the competition with very different advantages. Unlike semiconductors, robotics does not hinge on a single technology that one country can easily control, said Ankur Saxena, an investment director at TDK Ventures.

China dominates global humanoid robot manufacturing, with global shipments hitting 22,000 units in the first half of this year — the vast majority from Chinese manufacturers — according to a report by Counterpoint. U.S. companies, by contrast, are operating at a far smaller scale, said Soumen Mandal, a principal analyst at Counterpoint Research.

The world’s five largest humanoid robot makers by shipments — AgiBot, Unitree, Galbot, UBTECH and Leju Robotics — were all Chinese and together accounted for 86% of global shipments in the first half of 2026, according to Counterpoint.

That advantage could compound. Lower prices allow Chinese manufacturers to put more robots into use, generating real-world data that can improve their technology. Higher production volumes, in turn, can drive costs down further, Saxena said.

Mandal said Chinese humanoid makers are also pushing costs down by bringing more of the technology stack in-house and drawing on China’s existing manufacturing base. Unitree, for example, is developing more components internally, while automakers such as XPeng can draw on their experience in chips and vehicle manufacturing as they move into robotics.

“The United States leads in frontier AI, software and semiconductor innovation,” Saxena told TechCrunch. “China leads in manufacturing scale, supply-chain depth and cost.”

That manufacturing edge has let Chinese companies cut humanoid prices faster than most U.S. competitors can match.

“You cannot sanction your way around a cost curve. You can only out-build it, and America has yet to begin making the decade-long investment that will require,” Saxena said.

Where Does China Go Next?

The answer may increasingly be outside the U.S. Even if Chinese robotics companies lose access to the American market, they still have a large domestic market and room to expand elsewhere, particularly in regions where demand for affordable automation is growing, Saxena said.

Chinese robotics companies are already targeting price-sensitive markets with severe labor shortages across Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, said Mandal.

Mandal expects humanoid makers to follow a path similar to Chinese electric-vehicle companies: build scale at home, expand into overseas markets, and eventually establish local production. Countries facing labor shortages and demographic decline could become early markets for humanoids, particularly in manufacturing, where robots can take on repetitive work.

The drone market offers an early glimpse of what that more fragmented robotics landscape could look like. The industry is increasingly splitting into two ecosystems: a U.S.-led market built around American-made, NDAA-compliant systems, and a China-led market focused on low-cost, high-volume production, said Bentzion Levinson, founder and CEO of Virginia-based drone maker Heven AeroTech.

Levinson said Western manufacturers are unlikely to beat Chinese companies in the low-end consumer drone market, where cost remains a major advantage. Instead, U.S. and allied companies could increasingly compete in long-range autonomous systems for defense and critical infrastructure, where security requirements carry more weight.

Levinson sees the next competitive frontier shifting from the drones themselves to the technology that powers them and the equipment they carry. “The next battleground is over who owns the next-gen energy and payload architecture,” he said, pointing to battery constraints in particular. As drones become more capable, he added, battery limitations could make power systems an increasingly important point of competition.

Agility Robotics welcomed the FCC’s decision in July, saying it could address security concerns around foreign-made advanced robots before they become deeply embedded in the U.S. market, as has happened in the drone industry. The company pointed to its Digit humanoid, which is designed and assembled in the U.S., while also calling for continued access to the tools and technologies needed to advance robotics research.

A More Regional Robotics Market

“The alternative to China isn’t a purely domestic U.S. supply chain; it’s a diversified allied one,” Saxena said.

That could create opportunities elsewhere in Asia. Japan has decades of experience in industrial robotics and precision manufacturing, South Korea brings strengths in electronics, batteries and automobiles, and Taiwan is a major player in semiconductors. But none can simply replace China, Saxena said, given how deeply Chinese components remain embedded across the global robotics industry.

Asian manufacturers could emerge as a middle ground between lower-cost Chinese robots and more expensive U.S. offerings, Mandal said. South Korea’s Hyundai, which owns Boston Dynamics, and Japan’s Toyota are among the automakers investing in robotics, drawing on their expertise in vehicles, manufacturing and autonomous systems as they move into humanoid robots.

Yang Fang of Beagle Technology, a California-based agtech startup that uses AI and robotics software to turn conventional farm equipment into autonomous machines, told TechCrunch that robotics is likely to become more regional as companies design machines for the labor needs, working conditions and customers in their home markets. Chinese robotics companies, for example, may focus on products suited to China and nearby markets, while U.S. companies are more likely to build for industries across North America, he said.

The result may not be two neatly separated U.S.- and China-led robotics industries. Instead, the restrictions could accelerate the emergence of regional markets: Chinese companies competing on cost and scale across much of the world, U.S. and allied manufacturers gaining ground where security requirements matter most, and manufacturers in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea trying to carve out space between the two.

An appeals court in California has resurrected a 2022 lawsuit over claims Apple convinced them not to use a third-party repair service to fix cracked iPhone screens.

In the last few years, Apple has been more open to enabling repairs of its hardware performed outside of its support ecosystem. While its position has relaxed a lot, it still has to deal with its policies from prior years.

A filing for the Court of Appeal for the State of California in August reveals a panel has reversed an earlier court’s ruling to quash a lawsuit over Apple’s repair policies. The three-judge appeals Sixth Appellate District panel has brought the lawsuit back to life.

In 2022, plaintiffs Jesse Granato and Janice Zarad said they were told by an Apple employee in 2021 that using a third-party repair service would void their warranty coverage. The Courthouse News Service reports the plaintiffs claim this encouraged them to pay for a screen repair through Apple itself.

The lawsuit accused Apple of inflating the cost of independent repairs in various ways, including withholding parts, manuals, and software. It also allegedly conditioned warranties on using authorized repair shops.

A Santa Clara Superior Court judge agreed with Apple’s response that the lawsuit lacked standing under the state’s unfair competition law. Something the Court of Appeal overturned in 2026.

Repairing the lawsuit

In the unanimous decision, the judges explain that, as pleaded, Apple’s practices at the time “substantially injure consumers by allowing Apple to extract inflated payments for repairs or to increase demand for new products by incentivizing replacement over repair.”

The plaintiffs also couldn’t identify any benefit to Apple’s repair policies that outweighed the harm they caused, wrote acting presiding Associate Justice Cynthia Lie.

The panel decided that the plaintiffs had adequately pleaded under the unfair competition claim.

The plaintiffs also attempted to claim that Apple had violated the California 2024 Right to Repair Act, which Apple actually backed. However, the panel pointed out that the law was enacted after the initial suit was filed.

There was also an alleged violation of the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, by Apple allegedly refusing and instructing authorized repair shops to refuse in-warranty services, if repairs were performed elsewhere outside of any warranty.

However, while Lie explains the plaintiffs hadn’t adequately managed to claim the violation of the law, it was ruled that the claims violated the spirit of the law.

The case, revived, has been remanded to a lower court.