Security teams log 54% of successful attacks and alert on just 14%. The rest move through your environment unseen.
The Picus whitepaper shows how breach and attack simulation tests your SIEM and EDR rules so threats stop slipping by detection.
Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
Wow, today’s NYT Connections puzzle has a really intriguing purple category. Hint: Look for words that use the same exact letters. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.
Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: You won.
Green group hint: Let’s get back to the topic.
Blue group hint: Ghostbusters is a classic.
Purple group hint: Mix up the letters.
Yellow group: Championship awards.
Green group: Matter at hand.
Blue group: ’80s comedies.
Purple group: Anagrams.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
The completed NYT Connections puzzle for May 26, 2026.
The theme is championship awards. The four answers are cup, medal, pennant and ring.
The theme is matter at hand. The four answers are concern, focus, point and subject.
The theme is ’80s comedies. The four answers are Airplane, Big, Clue and Twins.
The theme is anagrams. The four answers are enlist, listen, silent and tinsel.
We’ve made a note of some of the toughest Connections puzzles so far. Maybe they’ll help you see patterns in future puzzles.
#5: Included “things you can set,” such as mood, record, table and volleyball.
#4: Included “one in a dozen,” such as egg, juror, month and rose.
#3: Included “streets on screen,” such as Elm, Fear, Jump and Sesame.
#2: Included “power ___” such as nap, plant, Ranger and trip.
#1: Included “things that can run,” such as candidate, faucet, mascara and nose.
It’s down to subscriptions, data and new AI-driven infotainment systems.
Since 2015, consumers and automakers have had a handshake agreement: we’ll buy their cars if they let us connect our smartphones to Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. For ten years or so, it has worked like a charm. We get seamless access to our music, maps and communication, while carmakers offload key infotainment system technology to Google or Apple.
Recently, though, that equation has changed. One of the world’s biggest automakers, General Motors, announced it was dropping Android Auto from its EVs, and plans to pull it from all of its vehicles in the near future. In its place, GM will offer its own conversational-based system that will employ Google’s Gemini AI.
Other manufacturers have never offered Android Auto to begin with, particularly Rivian and Tesla. And while the vast majority of 2026 car models still offer the tech, that could change soon for several reasons — and you may not like any of them.
To understand how Android Auto came to dominate the dashboards of cars, a short history lesson is in order. Android Auto started out, much like CarPlay, as a simple projection system, letting you connect your phone and car via USB to get a driving-friendly version on the infotainment screen. Manufacturer adoption was not immediate. Toyota and Ford tried to create their own system and BMW even tried to charge users $80 a year for CarPlay (while not supporting Android Auto at all until 2020).
Car buyers wanted none of that. Rather, they loved the idea of plugging in their phones and having all their tunes, contacts and addresses available with no hassle or cost. Gradually, automakers began offering it as an option alongside their own in-house infotainment systems. Google made that as easy as possible by not charging for integration.
Google made a new play in 2017 with Android Automotive OS (AAOS), which debuted with the Polestar 2 in 2020. That supports Android Auto, but also provides an Android-based vehicle operating system that doesn’t require your phone’s processing power. This came at a good time, as traditional car manufacturers like Volkswagen discovered that developing an in-car OS wasn’t like building a transaxle. Many gave up and adopted AAOS for some or all of their models, starting with Volvo and a couple of Stellantis and GM brands.
In exchange for the extra convenience, Google helps itself to a lot of the data you generate while driving. On top of the usual info collected, it also grabs GPS and mapping data it can use to help advertisers target you. Since we use our cars to go places and buy stuff, this info is obviously valuable.
None of this data goes to car manufacturers, though. Most aren’t looking to sell that data to advertisers — in fact, GM is actually forbidden for doing so after breaking California’s privacy laws and paying a $12.75 million fine. Rather, some like Rivian and GM say it deprives them of valuable data they could use to improve their vehicles and retain customers.
For instance, GM has claimed that it needs sat nav data to improve the EV charging experience. “With Android Auto or Apple CarPlay environments, the vehicle energy model or road segment data is sending energy usage and everything else associated with it to the phone, and it’s pretty difficult to off-board it from the phone,” GM’s infotainment manager told GM Authority in 2023. The company said its own system will allow for intelligent EV routing that takes into account charge state, range and charging station availability, plus integration with its Super Cruise driver assistant.
Since it will still use Google’s AAOS, GM claims that it will work like your phone for things like calls and streaming from contacts and apps. You’ll also be able to use built-in assistants like Siri and Google assistant using Bluetooth pass-through. All that will happen more smoothly as well, the company says, thanks to the responsive built-in hardware.
GM adds that its own infotainment system will deliver features “that go beyond what’s possible with just phone projection,” it told MotorTrend. It cited Dolby Atmos on Amazon Music as an example of that, calling that experience “impossible” with simple phone projection.
Rivian and Tesla are two companies that never adopted Android Auto in the first place, with both saying they want more control over the driver experience. Rivian, whose operating system is built on top of AAOS, also believes that phone mirroring systems aren’t necessary, given what’s possible with AI these days. “The possibilities now for such deep AI integration in the car make the entire CarPlay debate completely obsolete,” the company told The Verge last month.
There are caveats, though. GM has also acknowledged that there are “subscription revenue opportunities” available with by using its own infotainment systems. That’s what got BMW into trouble in the past, when it wanted to charge $18 per month for heated seats in select regions.
Built-in apps require the vehicle to have an active cellular connection, too, since your phone is no longer being used. Though GM’s latest vehicles ship with eight years of OnStar connected services, it’s not clear what will happen after that. Rivian offers its own premium data service, Rivian Connect+ that costs $150 per year. Tesla, which also eschews Android Auto in favor of its own system, also charges $150 per year for its Connect+ premium cellular data service. Then again, even manufacturers like Kia that fully support Android Auto end up putting features like remote locking behind trial subscriptions that eventually need to be paid for.
Car shoppers may prove to be the biggest hurdle. GM’s announcement that it’s eliminating Android Auto from its vehicles created blowback, with many of Engadget’s readers for instance saying they wouldn’t buy cars that don’t have it. There’s also a groundswell movement against subscription services of all kinds these days, and having to pay one in your car has chafed a lot of people.
Fortunately, Android Auto and CarPlay are still available in most vehicles. Traditional automakers have also shown that they’re uniquely bad at creating their own infotainment systems. So despite Android Auto disappearing from a few brands, plenty of others will continue to support the system, and it should keep on getting better and smarter.
WTF?! With the AI boom driving GPU prices to record highs, scammers are capitalizing by flooding the market with counterfeit graphics cards. A new report from China suggests that fraudsters are now gluing fake plastic GPU shells onto PCBs and selling them as genuine RTX 4090 graphics cards to unsuspecting buyers.
In a video posted on the Chinese social media platform Bilibili, well-known PC hardware dealer Brother Zhang claimed that he was recently scammed into buying a counterfeit second-hand RTX 4090 for 1,500 yuan (around $221). According to Zhang, the card appeared to be a normal RTX 4090 at first glance, with the die markings reading “AD102-300-A1,” which refers to the actual GPU used in the 4090.
However, upon further investigation, he found that other markings on the die were inconsistent with original RTX GPUs, such as the font style, which did not match Nvidia’s official design. The die also had “TW 3043E2” engraved on it, suggesting it was manufactured in 2030 – an error Nvidia and its official board partners are unlikely to make.
Zhang immediately suspected that the card was not authentic, or at least that some components may have been swapped out before being sold. Once he disassembled the card for further inspection, his suspicions were confirmed: the GPU die was made of plastic rather than silicon. The memory dies were not real either.
Zhang compared the fake RTX 4090 die with photographs of an original RTX 4090 board, confirming his suspicion that nearly every part of the card was counterfeit and had been glued onto the PCB to fill empty space. Other discrepancies included misplaced capacitors and a missing QR code that would have been etched onto the die had it been authentic.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time reports have surfaced of fake graphics cards being sold to unsuspecting buyers. Earlier this year, a repair shop owner came across a “near-perfect” fake RTX 4090 with laser-etched VRAM and a fake GPU core. Last year, a technician in China found that three out of four RTX 4090 cards he received for repair were fitted with RTX 3090 or RTX 3080 dies.
The first day of the BMPS Grand Finals here at the Jaipur Convention Center has just curtailed, and it was another exhilarating, action-packed scene we’ve all come to expect of BGMI action. Despite securing two chicken dinners, iQOO Reckoning Esports couldn’t hold on to the top spot, with Divine Gaming and Nebula Esports finishing first and second, respectively. Not every fan favorite had a day to remember. Teams like iQOO SouL and TAG barely managed to get going and now find themselves near the bottom of the standings. Here’s what the full standings looked like after day one of the BMPS Grand Finals.
| Rank | Team | WWCD | Finish Points | Position Points | Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DIVINE | 2 | 54 | 31 | 85 |
| 2 | NBE | 1 | 36 | 17 | 53 |
| 3 | GENS | 0 | 35 | 17 | 52 |
| 4 | iQOOORGE | 2 | 20 | 27 | 47 |
| 5 | iQOO8BIT | 0 | 29 | 11 | 40 |
| 6 | iQOORNTX | 0 | 29 | 10 | 39 |
| 7 | VASISTA | 0 | 26 | 12 | 38 |
| 8 | iQOOxTT | 0 | 24 | 13 | 37 |
| 9 | 7GODS | 1 | 21 | 15 | 36 |
| 10 | GDR | 0 | 22 | 7 | 29 |
| 11 | iQOOxOG | 0 | 15 | 11 | 26 |
| 12 | iQOOSOUL | 0 | 20 | 5 | 25 |
| 13 | MYTH | 0 | 18 | 6 | 24 |
| 14 | TAG | 0 | 21 | 2 | 23 |
| 15 | VS | 0 | 15 | 7 | 22 |
| 16 | GODL | 0 | 19 | 1 | 20 |
Day 2 gets underway tomorrow, and if BMPS history is anything to go by, it’s often the day when teams begin mounting comebacks. We hope to see similar top-tier action and maybe a comeback from fan favorites like Soul. If you missed today’s games, check out our highlights of day 1.

Few devices attempt to blend serious outdoor durability with features that feel borrowed from a living room setup. The 8849 Tank 5 does so without apology. This latest entry in the Tank series arrives as a thick, heavy slab of a phone that carries a built-in 2K DLP projector, a 17,600mAh battery, and flagship-grade internals while meeting strict IP68 and IP69K standards for dust and water resistance.
With a weight of 715 grams and a thickness of 33.8mm, the Tank 5 will immediately draw your notice as soon as it leaves your pocket or bag. It measures 33.8mm (1.39 in) thick, giving it a chunky feel, more like a compact portable radio than a typical smartphone. Two physical keys can be programmed to activate the flashlight at the touch of a button or provide rapid access to other essential features. The back features a 1200-lumen camping light with RGB warning functionality. It’s far brighter than a regular LED flash, making it ideal for signaling or lighting up your campground. On the side, a fingerprint sensor allows you to easily unlock the phone.
Sale
When it comes to power delivery, you get a big 17600mAh battery to keep things going. Early testers have reported getting several days out of a single charge, which must be reassuring. Of course, if it does run low, you can plug it in and get back up to speed in approximately 90 minutes using 120W cable charging. The phone may also double as a power bank for smaller gadgets, including reverse wired charging at 25W. Of course, you can continue to use the projector, but excessive use will shorten the life of your battery.
The MediaTek Dimensity 9400e, an octa-core chipset designed on a 4nm technology, delivers performance. It has a primary Cortex-X4 core running at 3.4GHz, as well as certain high-performance and efficiency cores and an Immortalis-G720 GPU. Early testing indicate that it can get AnTuTu scores of over 2.3 million, making it a flagship performer for gaming, multitasking, and demanding programs. Memory options include 18GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.0 internal memory, with the possibility to add up to 2TB of storage via microSD card. Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, dual Nano-SIM and eSIM support, as well as USB 3.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 for connected video to external screens, round out the connectivity options.
The phone’s front display is a 6.73-inch AMOLED with a resolution of 3200 by 1440, a refresh rate of 120Hz, and a peak brightness of up to 3000 nits. That high brightness, paired with the AMOLED contrast, makes a significant difference when working or exploring outdoors in direct sunshine, and the punch-hole camera cutout keeps the screen area relatively clear. The Tank 5 stands out from other rugged phones due to its rear-mounted 2K DLP projector with a brightness of 220 lumens. With 2048 by 1080 resolution, laser autofocus, and automated keystone correction, you can see a good-sized image on a nearby wall or portable screen even in low-light or gloomy settings. Ideal for movie nights on a camping trip or quick presentations wherever they are required.
The rear camera setup consists of a 50 megapixel primary sensor, a 50 megapixel telephoto lens, and a 50 megapixel night vision camera equipped with infrared LEDs, allowing you to capture usable images even in complete darkness. In contrast, a 32 megapixel front camera easily handles video calls and selfies. Now, the inclusion of night vision and a telephoto lens opens up new options for users like hikers and security professionals, as well as anyone who needs to see things from a distance or in poor light.
Prices begin at $899 during the initial pre-order period and rise to the regular price of $999 shortly after. What you get is a single configuration option with 18GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, all in black, with no additional options available. By the way, pre-orders commenced in mid-June 2026, and shipping should begin in early July through official channels and the occasional warehouse.
The company’s co-founder says it’s because of increasing memory prices.
CMF, the budget brand owned by Nothing, will not be launching a follow-up to the Phone Pro 2 anytime soon. “A lot of you have been asking when the next CMF phone is coming and as always we’d rather be transparent,” Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis wrote in a post on X. He said that CMF was working on a successor to the Phone Pro 2, but because of current memory prices, the subsidiary can’t build a phone that “feels like a genuine step forward at a price that makes sense for CMF.” That’s why CMF decided not to launch a new phone this year.
RAM prices have skyrocketed over the past year due to supply shortages, caused by manufacturers redirecting their production to fulfill orders from massive AI buildouts. Both Apple and Samsung have already warned that price hikes are coming due to increasing RAM costs, while the IDC predicted that PC shipments could shrink by almost 10 percent this year due to higher prices.
Nothing’s CMF launched the Phone Pro 2 as it latest flagship device in April last year. It was the lightest and slimmest smartphone it has ever designed so far, and the brand suggested back then that the phone can last two days on a single charge. A few months after Phone Pro 2 was launched, Nothing spun off its CMF brand into an independent subsidiary headquartered in India, which is the company’s strongest market.
Even though it’s not going to release a new phone this year, Evangelidis says CMF will launch several new products, “as well as some entirely new categories.”
The Typhur Dome 2 is the best air fryer you can buy. Sure, it looks like a flying saucer from a bad 1960s movie, but it will crisp your wings, bake your pizza, and gently golden brown your fries like no other. The griddle function is even capable of actual Maillard browning to chops and drumsticks. The catch is the high price, but this deal brings the cost down to earth.
The Echo Dot Max offers some of the best sound you’ll find in an Echo speaker. It’s impressively loud without getting muddled, especially considering its small size. Despite increasing competition, Alexa’s great compatibility and voice controls continue to rise above the rest, making this our top pick smart speaker.
The second-generation Fire Stick 4K Select is a budget version of our top pick, the Fire Stick 4K Max. The Select only has 8 GB of memory (compared to 16 GB for the Max), and it lacks the live view picture-in-picture and Alexa Home Theater mode, but video quality and content options are the same. The picture-in-picture mode is handy sometimes, and we do expect the Max to be on sale once Prime Day starts, but if you don’t need it, this is a solid deal on a decent streaming stick. And don’t forget, sneering Roku fans, Fox is buying Roku—good luck with that.
Networks
Allegations of fake routes are fake news, says Indian telco Jio
The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has suggested Meta might be using its investment in Indian telco Jio to sabotage the messaging service.
Durov dropped his theory on X, writing: “Indian telecom Reliance is sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users OUTSIDE India (including the UAE) via a rogue method called BGP hijacking.”
Such attacks see miscreants publish inaccurate routing announcements that associate a service with the wrong IP address. Because routers share info with each other using the border gateway protocol (BGP), fake announcements can quickly propagate across the internet. When that happens, netizens can struggle to reach online services.
Durov alleged that Reliance’s mobile carrier, Jio, had used BGP hijacking to disrupt access to Telegram.
“The sabotage seems intentional, as Reliance has ignored multiple reports,” he wrote. “This may be part of a competitive war, as Reliance is partially owned by Meta – the company behind WhatsApp.”
“The decision to ban Telegram in India looks more like a way to help WhatsApp protect its market share than a legitimate regulatory action that can fix anything,” he added in another Xeet.
Meta has indeed invested in Reliance, to the tune of $5.7 billion – and two weeks ago announced it will use a datacenter operated by the Indian company.
Jio has denied misconfiguring any routes. “Jio continues to operate its network in accordance with global internet routing best practices and the highest standards of reliability, security, and transparency,” the company said.
Durov offered no proof for his theory, but that didn’t stop him from suggesting a deeper conspiracy.
“Such abuse of global internet routing is alarming. I wouldn’t be surprised if Reliance/WhatsApp were also behind the recent lobbying effort to ban Telegram in India.”
That’s a reference to India’s decision to block Telegram for six days to prevent scams and other misconduct at the time of a medical studies entrance exam that over two million people will sit. The decision to implement the ban was taken by India’s IT ministry, at the urging of the National Testing Agency – an organization that oversees exams.
The founder is correct to say that some Indian entities have called for bans and/or tighter regulation of Telegram for reasons including its uncooperative response to requests for assistance from law enforcement, suspicions that the service facilitates content piracy, and its allowance of user anonymity. Indian telcos are also unhappy that services like Telegram – and WhatsApp – provide voice services but aren’t governed by the same laws as licensed carriers.
Durov’s suggestion that Indian authorities have singled out Telegram is therefore hard to sustain.
Durov also criticized the exam-time Telegram ban. “This punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India – not the insiders who leaked the exam materials.” he wrote, before observing that the scams and leaks that Indian authorities hoped to prevent would likely move to other apps. ®
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has urged federal agencies to secure their systems by Sunday against a critical Splunk Enterprise vulnerability that is being exploited in attacks.
Tracked as CVE-2026-20253, this security flaw affects Splunk Enterprise (versions 10.2.0 to 10.2.3 and 10.0.0 to 10.0.6) and allows remote attackers without privileges to create or truncate arbitrary files on vulnerable devices via a PostgreSQL sidecar service endpoint.
“The vulnerability exists because the PostgreSQL sidecar service endpoint lacks authentication controls, allowing any network-reachable user to invoke file operations without credentials,” the Splunk security team said in a security advisory published last week.
On June 12, days after Splunk released security patches, WatchTowr published a technical write-up, shared proof-of-concept exploit code, and warned that the flaw can be abused for remote code execution attacks.
On Wednesday, June 18, Splunk updated its advisory, urging customers to patch their systems as soon as possible due to evidence of in-the-wild exploitation.
“In June 2026, the Splunk Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) became aware of limited exploitation of this vulnerability. Splunk strongly recommends that customers upgrade to a fixed software release to remediate this vulnerability,” it said.
Internet security watchdog group Shadowserver tracks over 1,400 Internet-exposed Splunk instances, most of them from North America (952) and Europe (223). However, there is no information on how many of them are vulnerable to ongoing attacks targeting the CVE-2026-20253 flaw.

On Thursday, CISA confirmed that threat actors are now actively abusing the CVE-2026-20253 vulnerability in attacks and ordered Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to patch their Splunk instances by Sunday, as mandated by Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 26-04.
Issued last week, CISA’s BOD 26-04 requires U.S. government agencies to prioritize patching based on each vulnerability’s risk of exploitation.
“This type of vulnerability is a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and poses significant risks to the federal enterprise,” the cybersecurity agency said yesterday. “Stakeholders are responsible for evaluating each asset’s internet exposure and ensuring adherence to BOD 26-04 patching guidelines.”
Splunk also shared mitigation measures for admins who can’t immediately patch vulnerable systems, advising them to disable the PostgreSQL sidecar service to remove the attack surface.
However, it also warned that disabling PostgreSQL would break Edge Processor, OpAmp, or SPL2 data pipelines on affected instances.
Security teams log 54% of successful attacks and alert on just 14%. The rest move through your environment unseen.
The Picus whitepaper shows how breach and attack simulation tests your SIEM and EDR rules so threats stop slipping by detection.
In the quest to make every wearable device ‘smart’, a lot of electronics along have to be crammed in very small spaces, along with ways to make them resistant to environments that our bodies do not mind, like getting hit by a rainstorm or simply washing our hands. These two factors combined make especially devices like smart rings an interesting case study for repairability, with [iFixit] recently taking apart a modern Oura smart ring to assess its e-waste factor after the built-in battery dies.

The subject of the teardown video is the Oura Ring 5, a $400 smart ring that’s designed to track your vitals much like a wrist-worn fitness tracker — just in a much smaller package. This metal-and-epoxy sandwich can definitely survive a good rain shower and washing of hands, but to get to the internals rather forceful methods were needed, unlike previous Oura and Samsung smart rings where some applied heat was enough.
In the Ring 5’s case even more heat was needed to make the inner ring start to slide out, but by that point the Li-ion battery inside had already popped from the heat. The inner ring then got stuck and more violence was required to continue the disassembly and get to the super-tiny, 10.5 mAh battery. Of course, at this point the smart ring really won’t be getting back together, never mind still work or be waterproof, which is a central issue with these smart rings.
With the EU’s February 2027 deadline for user-replaceable batteries looming on the horizon, it’ll be interesting to see whether devices like this can squeeze into an exception category, or whether manufacturers will have to massively redesign or stop selling these devices to this rather large market. So far this particular regulation has already forced Nintendo to make a special Switch 2 console for the EU.
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