Dark Matter and the IT Privacy and Security Weekly Update for the week ending February 3rd., 2026

EP 277In this week’s dark matter:Privacy-first users send a clear message to DuckDuckGo.  AI-free search is here to stay for most of its community.A cutting-edge AI from AISLE exposed deep-seated vulnerabilities in OpenSSL, exponentially speeding the pace of cybersecurity discovery.A security breach at eScan transformed trusted antivirus software into an unexpected cyber weapon.An internal probe suggests a cyber intrusion may have prematurely exposed last year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate.A U.S. jury found former Google engineer Linwei Ding guilty of funneling AI trade secrets to Chinese tech companies.Newly surfaced records reveal U.S. investigators examined claims that WhatsApp's encryption might not be as airtight as advertised.Apple's new location “fuzzing” feature gives users the power to stay connected, without being precisely tracked.A privacy lapse in a talking AI toy exposed thousands of private conversations between children and their plush companions.Google unleashes new AI to investigate DNA’s ‘dark matter’.  DeepMind’s latest creation, AlphaGenome, is shining light on the 98% of DNA that science once found inscrutable.Come on, let’s go unravel some genomes.Find the full transcript to this podcast here.