devops

Got big binaries? Tired of other version control systems that treat them like inferior files? Lore might be worth a look

Fortnite maker and Apple nemesis Epic Games has decided to git good all on its own with the open-source release of its homemade version control system, dubbed Lore.

The project began life as Unreal Revision Control, and was used by internal teams and as the version control system (VCS) built into Unreal Editor for Fortnite. Now, Epic is ready to share its handiwork with the world. 

Lore is a centralized, content-addressed VCS that’s meant to be more flexible for developers, as it’s licensed under the less restrictive MIT License instead of the copyleft requirements inherent in the GNU standard. MIT is generally considered more permissive because, unlike GNU, it doesn’t require derivatives to be licensed in the same way (e.g., a fork of Lore could be proprietary). 

Lore can be installed on macOS, Windows, and Linux and its server side is designed to be transportable into different cloud services as well. The biggest difference between Lore and other VCS is its equal treatment of text files – e.g., code – and binaries. 

“All content is treated as opaque byte streams on the hot path,” Epic explains in its system design explanation document. “Text-aware features are layered on top, never assumed by the storage or transport paths. Binary content gets the same first-class treatment as text.”

With that in mind, it’s obvious who Epic is targeting with the release: Game developers. 

Lore is purpose-built for projects that use large binary files such as games, Epic said, but that doesn’t preclude other use cases with heavy binary loads, like AI model builders, systems developers, and others who work with large amounts of machine-readable data alongside their own code.

We have lots of VCS data, so why do we need Lore?

There are plenty of VCS options out there: Git, Perforce, Mercurial (and its descendent Sapling) are all mentioned by Epic as alternatives that resemble Lore in its design and use. So, why a new VCS? That’s easy, says the Fortnite studio: None of ‘em do it all. 

Git, says Epic, has great revision graphing, but treats binaries as “second class citizens” and lacks multi-tenant isolation that ensures users on the same infrastructure can’t access each others work. Perforce requires multiple server round trips to conduct standard operations, making it too slow. Mercurial and Sapling elegantly solve “the scale of source repositories” via their distributed architecture, but again treat text as king and everything else as second-class data. 

“The motivation is not that prior systems are bad,” Epic explained. “What Lore offers that the prior art does not is the union” of all those features, and some others too.

Key design goals Epic had in mind when designing Lore included the aforementioned binary-first design, a sparse-by-construction architecture that only downloads necessary fragments from the server to clients to ensure fewer round trips, the elimination of partially-applied revisions, in-between states are invisible to readers, and a full-surface API that allows Lore to work with a variety of programming languages. 

If you want to give Lore a spin Epic has published a thorough quickstart guide, and pre-built binaries are available, ironically enough, on GitHub. ®

Relativity Space—a rocket maker acquired by former Google executive chair Eric Schmidt last year after stumbling on the path to orbit—might just beat SpaceX to Mars.

On Tuesday, NASA said it hired the company to build a spacecraft to house a suite of scientific instruments, launch it into space, and fly it to Mars.

The structure of the contract is akin to the deals that NASA made with SpaceX to fly cargo to the International Space Station, or Firefly Aerospace to put a lander on the Moon. The government agency handles the science, while the private company provides low-cost infrastructure.

Aeolus, as the mission is dubbed, will contain four instruments to measure and image Mars from orbit, providing what NASA expects to be the first daily, global view of dust, winds, and temperature in its atmosphere. The agency said that data will make it safer for landers and, someday, astronauts, to visit the surface of the Red Planet.

“By pairing NASA’s world‑class instruments with commercial innovation and investment, we can deliver more science, more often, and reduce the time it takes to get essential data into the hands of researchers preparing for future human missions to Mars,” NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said in statement.

The mission is set to launch in 2028—a rapid pace that will require Relativity to design and build the spacecraft to carry the Aeolus instruments, and finish building the rocket that will carry it to space, all on a tight timeline. NASA did not disclose how much it is paying Relativity for the mission, and Relativity did not respond to questions from TechCrunch.

Isaacman, who has flown to space twice on private SpaceX missions, has championed public-private partnerships like this. Under this model, the company working with NASA takes on some of the development cost of the project, in exchange for allowing NASA to stretch its budget further—a structure that has become a template for how the agency funds ambitious missions without bearing all the financial risk itself.

But NASA is taking on risk as well: Relativity is unproven, and there’s no guarantee the mission will even make it off the ground. Past startup partners of NASA have gone bankrupt or seen Moon landers arrive askew. The potential payoff for the company is meant to extend beyond the NASA contract itself, including commercial applications, like launching satellites or delivering cargo to the Moon. Still, the further out into space these partnerships reach, the murkier the market becomes for commercial services.

Relativity was founded in 2015 by two former SpaceX and Blue Origin engineers, with the idea of using 3D printing to its maximum potential as a path to building a cheaper rocket. The company’s first design, Terran-1, launched in March 2023 and failed mid-flight. Relativity doubled down by moving on to a larger design, dubbed the Terran R.

Before Relativity could get it to the launch pad, the company ran into fundraising challenges, and Schmidt took a majority stake in the company in it last year, installing himself as CEO. He’s been tight-lipped about the investment but has expressed interest in orbital data centers, and is thought to be using Relativity to launch a space telescope, Lazuili, financed by his family philanthropy, Schmidt Sciences.

The former tech executive’s decision to take over a space company last year puzzled some observers because rocketry is a crowded and capital-intensive field. But pent up demand for new rockets—fueled by delays at Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin—could still lead to a payoff for Schmidt if Terran R can actually make it to space.

And the new contract might give Schmidt a chance to put one over on Elon Musk, a regular sparring partner of his on the issue of AI safety. While Musk has long talked of his Martian ambitions, SpaceX has never actually sent its own mission to Mars (no, the Tesla he launched into space in 2018 missed).

If Relativity’s Aeolus launches on schedule, it could be the first private mission to reach the Red Planet.

cyber-crime

Latest Interpol review shows how scams continue to dominate, and AI-enabled attackers prove too hot to handle for cash-strapped regions

Cybercrime now accounts for more than 30 percent of all offenses across the Asia and South Pacific (ASP) region, according to the latest figures from Interpol.

The international cop shop said on Wednesday that the region has seen “a dramatic increase” in the number of recorded cybercrimes, driven largely by an uptake of digital infrastructure, new technologies, and the increasingly organized nature of criminal networks.

Interpol’s latest ASP Cyberthreat Assessment Report states that online scams and phishing attacks dominate cybercrime in the region. Data taken from 2024-2025 shows that phishing campaigns have matured beyond the spray-and-pray mass emails of yesteryear and now resemble the more sophisticated techniques deployed elsewhere in the world.

Targeted spear phishing is more common nowadays, and the growing use of AI helps even low-skilled script kiddies to apply a layer of authenticity to their attacks.

The region’s problem with organized scamming gangs that run camps where hundreds of people are compelled to commit crimes is especially pronounced and well-documented.

A United Nations report published last year described scam call centers across Southeast Asia as an epidemic that is metastasizing across the region “like a cancer.”

These compounds can be found across countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and the Philippines, and often see vulnerable individuals trafficked into the scam centers to work under poor conditions – or even as slaves.

Interpol cited Singaporean research, which estimated the regional scam industry generates close to $40 billion each year.

AI tools, especially those capable of generating convincing deepfake imagery, have also proven popular with cybercriminals across ASP, just as they have beyond the region.

In 2024, the same scam compounds were found using deepfake imagery to support romance scams.

In February 2024, an employee at a multinational business in Hong Kong was duped into authorizing a $25 million payment because the faces of company execs were convincingly deepfaked on a video call.

A similar case was also reported in Singapore in March 2025, when a finance director at a different multinational was tricked into transferring more than $499 million following a Zoom call in which fraudsters assumed the identities of company chiefs, including the CEO and CFO.

Interpol’s report highlights how cyber threats are evolving into large-scale challenges for multiple jurisdictions, and no longer represent relatively uncommon, isolated incidents.

While digitization across the region is growing, opening new economic opportunities for these countries, law enforcement agencies are struggling to keep pace with the increase in cybercrime. Many lack the skills and tools needed to investigate these crimes.

The issue is especially pronounced in developing countries and small island states in the Pacific, which face “significant resource and capacity constraints,” and are thus more vulnerable to direct targeting in attacks by criminals who have a greater chance of evading consequences.

Neal Jetton, cybercrime director at Interpol, said: “The findings in this report highlight a rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape across Asia and the South Pacific, where cybercriminals are leveraging artificial intelligence, ransomware-as-a-service models, and sophisticated social engineering techniques on an industrial scale.

“As digital adoption accelerates across the region, strengthening operational cooperation, information sharing, and cyber resilience remains essential to protecting communities and critical infrastructure.”

Some improvement

Interpol lauded many jurisdictions and governments within the ASP region for their proactive approaches to countering cybercrime growth.

Hong Kong and the Republic of Korea are two areas that have made strides by introducing new cybersecurity legislation, while others have established national task forces, codified national action plans, and launched awareness campaigns.

But even in more developed countries globally, and those with more mature cybersecurity regulatory and legislative landscapes, the issue of increasing rates of cybercrime persists.

While Interpol does not collect cybercrime figures for other regions, such as Europe and North America, in the same way that it does for ASP, it’s easy to see that problems persist everywhere.

The UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes crime rates by type across England and Wales each year, and while computer misuse offenses in 2025 decreased by 58 percent compared to 2017’s figures, there were still an estimated 735,000 cases across the year.

Expanding the data to look beyond pure cyber offenses to cyber-supported crimes, such as banking and credit fraud, these offenses account for more than 2.7 million of the circa 9.6 million total crimes committed.

The FBI in the US produces its annual IC3 report examining the rates of cybercrime across the country.

Although it doesn’t compare it to total offenses or other crime types, the latest report reflecting 2025’s figures showed cybercrime reports topped one million for the first time, and total losses reached a record $20.87 billion. ®

When high school students step into a cybersecurity internship, they enter a field where the stakes are real. The tools, threats and responsibilities extend well beyond the classroom. In rural communities, such opportunities can be transformative — for both learners and the regions working to build a future-ready workforce.

In eastern Alabama, cybersecurity pathways are creating new opportunities for collaboration between educators and employers, reflecting a broader lesson: Workforce development is more impactful when industry helps shape learning early. As cybersecurity threats grow more complex, many employers say preparing future talent does not begin at the point of hiring — it starts earlier, through partnerships connecting classrooms, credentials and real-world experience.

For district leaders and career and technical education (CTE) directors designing career-connected learning, these partnerships can help align instruction with workforce realities while expanding students’ access to high-demand careers.

Credentials matter, but they only tell part of the story. What really prepares students for cybersecurity work is exposure — seeing how systems operate in the real world and understanding the responsibility that comes with protecting them.— Scott Ross

Industry as a Co-Designer

Cybersecurity is a field that depends on industry insights. The tools and threats defining the work often evolve faster than traditional curriculum cycles, and employers see firsthand how quickly skill requirements change.

Scott Ross, director of information technology at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, has seen how quickly the field changes throughout his career. While professional credentials such as Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) can signal readiness, Ross points to internships and applied experience as equally critical.

“Credentials matter, but they only tell part of the story,” Ross said. “What really prepares students for cybersecurity work is exposure — seeing how systems operate in the real world and understanding the responsibility that comes with protecting them.”

That perspective shapes HudsonAlpha’s engagement with regional education partners. As cybersecurity roles expand across sectors, from defense and healthcare to biotechnology and agriculture, employers are increasingly invested in helping students understand the range of opportunities available and the expectations that come with them.

A Regional Effort Takes Shape

In eastern Alabama, those connections are coordinated through the East Alabama Regional Cybersecurity Alliance (EARCA), a collaboration among K-12 districts, postsecondary institutions and industry partners focused on growing local cybersecurity talent. Rather than operating in isolation, schools and employers are aligning around shared goals: relevant curriculum, meaningful credentials and work-based learning opportunities tied to workforce needs.

Ross sees this regional approach as essential. “Cybersecurity isn’t limited to one industry,” he said. “When education and employers collaborate across sectors, students gain a clearer picture of where these skills apply, and regions build stronger, more adaptable talent pipelines.”

With thousands of unfilled cybersecurity roles in the state, that alignment helps keep learning connected to opportunity.

When students know their learning connects directly to real jobs, it changes how they approach the work. They’re not just completing assignments; they’re preparing for environments they know they’ll encounter.— Tanner Gamble

How Industry Partnerships Shape Learning

For educators, industry engagement can change what is possible inside schools. Tanner Gamble, the computer science and cybersecurity teacher at Childersburg High School in Talladega County, has seen how employer involvement reshapes student motivation and confidence.

“When students know their learning connects directly to real jobs, it changes how they approach the work,” Gamble said. “They’re not just completing assignments; they’re preparing for environments they know they’ll encounter.”

Preparing teachers for industry-aligned instruction is also central to the effort, said Ira Lacy, who trains educators and connects them with employers to support cybersecurity pathways across Alabama.

“When you train teachers using industry practices and give students access to authentic experiences, you start building a pipeline that lasts,” Lacy said. “We’ve seen graduates in North Alabama come back to mentor younger students and invest in their hometowns, and now we’re applying the same approach in eastern Alabama.”

Internships and industry-aligned credentials help validate pathways at the school level by demonstrating clear connections between classroom instruction and real workforce needs.

“Internships and credentials act as the ‘proof of work’ for school cybersecurity programs,” said Hillary Rogers, principal of Childersburg High School. “They bridge the gap between theory and real-world practice, ensuring students aren’t just learning about the digital front lines — they’re equipped to operate in them.”

Learning That Changes Trajectories

That impact is evident in Gavin’s experience, a junior at Childersburg High School who participated in a summer internship with the IT department at Heritage South Credit Union. During the internship, Gavin worked alongside IT staff, troubleshooting real systems, building and maintaining network infrastructure, and learning how access and risk are managed in real-world settings.

The experience opened the door to continued applied learning. Gavin now supports the IT department at Childersburg High School and earned his CompTIA Tech+ certification, an early milestone in a pathway focused on technical skill development and professional responsibility.

“The internship allowed me to start dreaming for myself and what I want my future to look like,” Gavin said. “I’ve always been interested in space, and now I can see different paths, like working in aerospace or eventually leading an IT department near Huntsville.”

For employers and educators, helping students see concrete future pathways is a powerful outcome of early work-based learning.

Why Employers Invest

While not every employer is positioned to host interns, those who engage early gain clearer insight into student readiness and stronger workforce alignment. Early exposure helps employers identify motivated learners and reduce uncertainty in later hiring decisions.

“If we wait until graduation to connect with talent, we’ve missed an opportunity,” Ross said. “Early exposure helps students prepare, and it helps employers build a workforce that understands their needs.”

At a regional level, these investments can contribute to rural economic stability by increasing the likelihood that students will pursue and remain in local careers.

A Blueprint for Other Regions

EARCA is part of broader efforts led by Digital Promise’s Center for Learner Pathway Innovations to develop statewide cybersecurity pathways that connect education and workforce systems. Pathways are strongest when learning, work and community are connected early. For students like Gavin, that collaboration opens doors. For employers, it helps ensure the next generation is ready to meet that demand.

Looking ahead: Mozilla has recently made efforts to revitalize the Firefox project. The free, independent browser is expected to undergo significant changes over the next few months, and the company is now sharing some of the ideas its developers are working on. With any luck, it will be enough to stop Firefox from losing millions of users every month.

Mozilla is trying to innovate and bring new features to Firefox, but the browser continues to lose users. Despite these concerning market trends, the company is actively working to improve the ailing browser, so much so that it has published a new roadmap highlighting the most important changes coming to the project.

Mozilla recently introduced the roadmap alongside the changelog for Firefox 152. The latest release already includes some of the improvements listed in the roadmap, while other features have been announced for the first time.

The Firefox roadmap organizes upcoming changes by category. The “Productivity” section includes the previously announced Nova design refresh, tab group support on mobile platforms, and customizable keyboard shortcuts. PDF editing is also set to improve significantly, with new capabilities for splitting, merging, and reordering files.

Mozilla said customizable keyboard shortcuts are one of the most requested features in terms of browser customization. Firefox has always emphasized security and privacy, which is why future releases will bring a built-in VPN feature to mobile devices as well. For iOS users, Firefox will soon offer basic ad and tracker blocking without requiring external add-ons.

Firefox 152 introduced a redesigned Settings page, while optional AI tools are expected to soon include a “Quick Answers” feature that allows users to interact with chatbots using voice commands. Mozilla says Firefox is taking a different approach to AI than other browsers, and that users will remain in control of the LLM-based capabilities available in the software.

Performance, built-in safety protections, and new web API support will also be a major focus of upcoming releases. The latest version introduced experimental support for the JPEG XL image format, and HDR video support is finally arriving on Windows and Linux systems. Firefox users have been requesting proper HDR media playback support in the browser for more than six years.

Mozilla says Firefox has always been built in the open, and the new roadmap continues that philosophy. Meanwhile, the browser’s desktop market share fell from 5.88% (May 2025) to 3.79% (May 2026), according to Statcounter data.

Ultimately, true HDR support and an updated roadmap may still be too little, too late to reverse the decline of a browser that has struggled to maintain relevance in recent years.

It’s been called RAMageddon: AI’s insatiable demand for hardware has caused a worldwide shortage of memory chips. Now outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook is warning its customers that your next Mac, iPhone, or iPad could be more expensive thanks to surging memory and storage chips costs.

In a recent interview, Cook told the WSJ that price increases are “unavoidable,” in spite of efforts to absorb chip costs that have increased fourfold since last year. He described the situation as “unsustainable.”

Cook didn’t name which products will be affected or when prices will rise, but he’s raised the alarm about the impacts of RAMageddon before. In April, after delivering record quarterly sales, he said that these higher costs could impact Apple’s next business results. Incoming CEO John Ternus also warned about the issue that same month.

If Apple raises prices, the iPhone seems almost certain to be impacted, memory supply experts told the Financial Times. The company is expected to launch its next iPhone in September, which gives it the opportunity to announce increased prices. Of course, Apple sells many other devices that contain memory (DRAM) and storage (NAND) chips, including the Apple Watch, Mac, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro.

It’s not clear how much more expensive any of these products will be, although research firm TechInsights gave the WSJ its estimate. It said Apple would need to add another $270 to the next iPhone Pro to keep its profit margin intact. The iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1,099.

So far AI has not been a particular boon to Apple. The company is already under pressure to figure out its AI strategy for its devices. It even paid a $250 million settlement earlier this year to end a false advertising lawsuit filed after it failed to deliver the AI features it promised two years ago.

The company’s Worldwide Developers conference held earlier this month showed progress on fulfilling those previous AI promises, including an overhaul of Siri. Of course, more on-device processing could mean more need for memory — a trajectory that seems destined to end with consumers paying more for Apple products.