Welcome to the July 21, 2025 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• Data Crunchers Track Antisemitism
• U.S. Signals Intention to Rethink H-1B Lottery
• Global Hack on Microsoft Product Hits U.S., State Agencies
• U.S. Aims to Ban Chinese Technology in Undersea Cables
• Polish Programmer Wins World Coding Championship
• Digital Design Firm Agrees to Block 3D Guns
• Mexico Makes Biometric Identifier Mandatory for Citizens
• Cybersecurity Bosses Increasingly Worried About AI Attacks, Misuse
• Billions of Phones Can Detect, Warn About Nearby Earthquakes
• Robot Navigates Subway in China to Deliver Goods
• AI Models with Systemic Risks Given Pointers on Complying with EU AI Rules
• Nvidia Warns Its GPUs Need Protection Against Rowhammer Attacks

Data Crunchers Track Antisemitism

The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, founded by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, analyzes social media to track antisemitic trends. From a command center located next to Gillette Stadium, the Patriots’ home field in Foxborough, MA, staffers pore through a billion social-media posts daily using algorithms and AI, then create countermessaging and share information with social-media platforms, as well as colleges.
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U.S. Signals Intention to Rethink H-1B Lottery

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Citizenship and Immigration Services on Thursday filed a notice of intent to review the H-1B lottery for foreign workers. The notice filed last week seeks statutory review of a proposed rule titled "Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking To File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions." Based on the rule title, it appears the government intends to change the system for allocating H-1B visas from the current lottery to some system that will favor applicants who meet specified criteria, possibly related to skills.
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Global Hack on Microsoft Product Hits U.S., State Agencies

Hackers exploited a zero-day vulnerability in widely-used Microsoft SharePoint server software to launch a global attack on government agencies and businesses in the past few days, breaching U.S. federal and state agencies, universities, and energy companies. Tens of thousands of servers are at risk, experts said, and Microsoft has issued no patch for the flaw. Researchers said the hackers gained access to keys that may allow them to regain entry even after a system is patched.
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U.S. Aims to Ban Chinese Technology in Undersea Cables

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) intends to implement rules prohibiting companies from connecting to undersea telecommunication cables to the U.S that include Chinese technology or equipment, citing national security concerns. FCC Chair Brendan Carr said the rules are necessary to "guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership and access as well as cyber and physical threats."
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Polish Programmer Wins World Coding Championship

Polish programmer Przemyslaw Debiak defeated OpenAI’s custom AI model at the AtCoder World Tour Finals (AWTF) 2025 "Humans vs AI" contest in Tokyo, which invited 12 of the top-ranked human programmers, and for the first time an AI competitor, to tackle challenges. After a 10-hour coding marathon, Debiak edged out the AI by roughly 9.5%, clinching first place while the OpenAI-built model came in second.
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Digital Design Firm Agrees to Block 3D Guns

Digital design platform Thingiverse has deployed automated technology to block digital files for 3D-printed guns and gun parts after New York investigators found design files for 3D-printed weapons available for download. Earlier this year, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sent letters to 3D printing companies asking them to help combat the spread of homemade guns, which he called a "growing threat."
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Mexico Makes Biometric Identifier Mandatory for Citizens

A new law in Mexico is turning the previously optional biometric-based citizen code into a mandatory document for all citizens. The Unique Population Registry Code (Clave Única de Registro de Población, or CURP) will contain personal and biometric information, including a photograph and a QR code containing biometric fingerprint and iris data. The identifier will be introduced gradually by February 2026 and could be integrated into a single identity platform connected to other state databases and administrative records.
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Cybersecurity Bosses Increasingly Worried About AI Attacks, Misuse

A survey of around 110 chief information security officers (CISOs) by Israeli venture fund Team8 found close to a quarter said their firms had experienced an AI-powered cyberattack in the past year. Securing AI agents was cited as an unsolved cybersecurity challenge for about 40% of respondents, while a similar percentage of CISOs expressed concerns about securing employees' AI usage. About three-quarters (77%) of respondents said they anticipate less-experienced security operations center analysts to be among the first replaced by AI agents.
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Billions of Phones Can Detect, Warn About Nearby Earthquakes

Since launching five years ago, Google’s Android Earthquake Alerts system has expanded to enable 2.3 billion Android phone and smartwatch users to receive alerts about nearby seismic activity, Google researchers reported. The system, through which Android devices act in tandem as mini-seismometers, sends notifications when a 4.5-magnitude or greater earthquake is detected. The researchers found just three false alarms out of the 1,279 seismic event alerts issued by the system as of March 2024.
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Robot Navigates Subway in China to Deliver Goods

A robot autonomously rode a subway to deliver goods to 7-Eleven stores located in metro stations in Shenzhen, China, last week with no human assistance. Using AI-powered scheduling systems and multi-sensor navigation, the robot planned optimal delivery routes, avoided pedestrians, and independently managed train boarding and station navigation.
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AI Models with Systemic Risks Given Pointers on Complying with EU AI Rules

The European Commission (EC) on Friday unveiled guidelines to help AI models determined to have systemic risks comply with the EU's AI Act. Impacted AI models will have to carry out evaluations, assess and mitigate risks, conduct adversarial testing, report serious incidents to the EC, and ensure adequate cybersecurity protection against theft and misuse. Companies have until August 2026 to comply with the legislation.
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Nvidia Warns Its GPUs Need Protection Against Rowhammer Attacks

Nvidia has warned customers to implement defenses against Rowhammer attacks after researchers from Canada's University of Toronto identified a vulnerability in one of its workstation-grade GPUs. Rowhammer attacks can disrupt operations by using repeated bursts of read or write operations to "hammer" rows of memory cells. The vulnerability affects Nvidia's A6000 GPU with GDDR6 memory when system-level error correcting code (ECC) is disabled.
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