KadNap Malware Hijacked 14k Devices

Recently, there is a new type of malware going around, and it has so far infected over 14,000 devices, according to new reports from the Black Lotus Labs team at Lumen.

The malware, which is being called KadNap, primarily appears to target Asus-branded routers, though other edge devices have also been affected. And so far, the team estimates that at least 60 percent of the victims of the attacks driven by KadNap have been located within the United States — with a smaller percentage being detected in Russia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, France, and a few other countries throughout the world.

What is especially troubling about KadNap is the fact that once a device is infected, it essentially allows the threat actors to market the devices as part of a proxy service called Doppelgänger.

Once part of the service, it can then be utilized in completely anonymous DDoS attacks, which allow bad actors to hide behind thousands of devices that don't belong to them. Hiding malware within everyday apps has become a well-known way to distribute infected files.

The security researchers who discovered the malware say that this service is essentially a rebrand of a previous proxy service called Faceless, which has previously been associated with another type of malware known as TheMoon, which has been going around since 2014.

Based on information pulled from the website for the service, the researchers note that Doppelgänger has been launched since May or June of 2025. Malware like this is one reason the FBI has warned Americans to replace certain routers.

As our world continues to move toward acceptance of more connected devices, the threat of malware like KadNap is only growing. That's because, as we rely more on the Internet of Things (IoT), threat actors are finding new ways to exploit those devices.

Additionally, Lumen says that edge devices like the routers targeted by KadNap are also susceptible to other malware, which makes it difficult to tell exactly which malware is driving the car, so to speak. And, as the malware creators become smarter and more advanced, they're finding ways to even hide their network traffic within the legitimate peer-to-peer traffic.

The only reason Black Lotus Labs was able to discover the KadNap malware is that it detected over 10,000 Asus devices that were all corresponding with a very particular server set. From here, their investigation uncovered that a file had been used to download a malicious shell script from those servers. This file, the researchers note, is what "sets the stage" for KadNap to incorporate the victim into the P2P network." Further, because it utilizes a proxy the way it does, the researchers believe the intention behind the threat is very clear. They want to avoid any type of detection and make it as difficult as possible for people to defend against the threat.

Thankfully, as of the posting of its report, Lumen notes that it has proactively begun blocking network traffic from Doppelgänger, with plans to share the compromising indicators in public feeds so that others can help disrupt the threat that KadNap poses. Google recently started taking down another huge proxy system like this, so it's promising to see another under fire, too.

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Social Media Contributes To Sadness

Heavy social media use contributes to a stark decline in well-being among young people, with the effects particularly worrying in teenage girls in English-speaking countries and Western Europe, according to the World Happiness Report 2026 published last 19 March.

The annual report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, also found that Finland is the happiest land in the world for the ninth year in a row, with other Nordic countries such as Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway ranking among the top 10 countries.

It highlighted how life evaluations among under 25-year-olds in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have dropped significantly over the past decade, and suggested that long hours spent scrolling through social media is a key factor in that trend.

A new entry to the top five on the list is Costa Rica, which climbed to fourth place this year after rising through the ranks from 23rd place in 2023.

The report attributes that to well-being boosts from family bonds and other social connections.

"We think it’s because of the quality of their social lives and the stability that they currently enjoy," said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, an Oxford economics professor who directs the Wellbeing Research Centre and co-edits the World Happiness Report.

"Latin America more generally has strong family ties, strong social ties, a great level of social capital, as a sociologist would call it, more so than in other places," he added.

The report said Finland and the other Northern European countries’ steady ranking on top is related to a combination of wealth, its equal distribution, having a welfare state that protects people from the risks of recessions, and a healthy life expectancy.

As in previous years, nations in or near zones of major conflict remain at the foot of the rankings. Afghanistan is ranked as the unhappiest country again, followed by Sierra Leone and Malawi in Africa.

Country rankings were based on answers given by around 100,000 people in 140 countries and territories who were asked to rate their own lives. The study was done in partnership with the analytics firm Gallup and the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

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Google's "Call Home" Is No Longer Available

BGR reported that several Google Home users noticed that a useful feature had suddenly vanished from the interface of the Google Home app. First introduced in 2019, Google's "Call Home" feature added support to directly call Google Home devices like the Nest Hub Max, allowing users to reach out to their home devices easily right from the app.

However, Google Home users over on Reddit noticed a couple of months ago that the feature seemed to have vanished from the app following recent updates. Even more reports started cropping up recently, too, with 9to5Google further corroborating the feature removal by digging through the app.

While the feature wasn't especially well known, it was useful. Some parents have even noted that it was the primary way they contacted their children at home, as it didn't require another device to be present in the home beyond their Google Home devices. Some even used it as a way to broadcast messages to their family throughout the house, making it easy to keep up with everyone.

This change comes right on the heels of Google's Gemini push in Google Home as it works to turn the AI assistant into a true Google Assistant replacement. For anyone that followed Assistant's downfall, you've likely become used to Google removing features as time goes on, with those features likely expected to return with the arrival of Gemini sometime in the future. Well, the AI-powered changes have already started rolling out to users, but we're still seeing useful features removed.

What's more frustrating for users about this recent change, though, is that Google continues to remove useful features without any warning.

One user on Reddit noted that they had were trying to be patient because of how much they'd invested in their smart home setup using Google. However, they did note that the "last straw" for them was when Google continued to remove features they used for no apparent reason, even pointing toward specific features like the ability to trigger automations using NFC tags.

Of course, whether or not the feature could make a comeback at any point is unclear. For now, it seems Google has removed it entirely, with the latest update officially pulling it out of the app for even more users. It might not have been the most popular feature, but those who did use it are definitely going to miss it.

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X Will Try To Counter Start-Up's Claim To "Twitter" Trademark

Despite changing its name and using decidedly bird-free branding, X wants to retail its hold to its original Twitter trademarks, TechCrunch reports. The xAI-owned social media platform has updated its terms of service to include references to Twitter after previously only mentioning X, and seemingly attempted to counter a startup's petition to cancel the company's Twitter trademarks with a petition of its own.

The startup X appears to be responding to is Operation Bluebird, a company cofounded by former Twitter general counsel Stephen Coates that went public last week with plans to capture what remains of Twitter for its own use. The first step in that process was filing a petition with the US Patents and Trademark Office to cancel X's control of Twitter’s trademarks.

"The TWITTER and TWEET brands have been eradicated from X Corp.’s products, services and marketing, effectively abandoning the storied brand, with no intention to resume use of the mark," Operation Bluebird explained in the petition. "Petitioner seeks to use and register the TWITTER and TWEET brands for new products and services, including a social media platform that will be located at the website twitter.new."

In fairness to Operation Bluebird, Elon Musk was very open about his plan to abandon the Twitter name and bird logo after he acquired the company in 2022. "And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds," Musk posted in July 2022, not long before Twitter was rebranded to X. Even after the platform rebranded, though, at least one remnant of the original Twitter brand has stuck around: Twitter.com still redirects to X.com.

The updated terms of service TechCrunch spotted now say that as of 16 January 2025, "nothing in the Terms gives you a right to use the X name or Twitter name or any of the X or Twitter trademarks, logos, domain names, other distinctive brand features, and other proprietary rights, and you may not do so without our express written consent." The company's counterpetition also reiterates that the Twitter trademarks are X's "exclusive property."

In a statement to Engadget, Coates said that Operation Bluebird’s cancellation petition was "based on well-established trademark law" and that he believes the upstart will prevail. "X legally abandoned the TWITTER mark, publicly declared the Twitter brand ‘dead,’ and spent substantial resources establishing a new brand identity. Our cancellation petition is based on well-established trademark law and we believe we will be successful. They said goodbye. We say hello."

At the time of writing, Operation Bluebird has convinced over 145,200 people to claim a handle on the company's new social platform. Maybe X sees that early interest as a threat, but it's just as possible Operation Bluebird's public comments were enough to tip the company off so it could try to hold on to trademarks it clearly believes still hold some value.

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Microsoft Forced To Scale Down AI Sales Targets

Microsoft has reportedly reduced its sales targets for its agentic AI software after struggling to find buyers interested in using it.

In many cases, targets have been slashed by up to 50 percent, suggesting Microsoft overestimated the potential of its new AI tools. Indeed, compared with ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, Copilot is falling behind, raising concerns about Microsoft's substantial AI investment.

Microsoft was an early investor in many of the latest AI companies. It ended up with a serious stake in OpenAI and benefited from early access to its models, creating Bing Chat and Copilot when Google, Meta, and Anthropic were just getting started. But now its momentum has stalled, and like everyone else, it's not making much money from its AI products. That's because no one is buying them, and that is because very few people actually find them useful, The Information reports.

"The Information’s story inaccurately combines the concepts of growth and sales quotas," Microsoft said in a very defensive statement (via Futurism), adding that "aggregate sales quotas for AI products have not been lowered."

Petulance aside, tests from earlier this year found that AI agents failed to complete tasks up to 70 percent of the time, making them almost entirely redundant as a workforce replacement tool. At best, they're a way for skilled employees to be more productive and save time on low-level tasks, but those tasks were already being handed off to lower-level employees. Having an AI do it and fail half the time isn't exactly a winning alternative.

Other AI companies are just doing better, too. Windows Central reports that OpenAI's ChatGPT commands over 61 percent of the market, and Google's Gemini is now less than 1 percent behind Microsoft's 14 percent with Copilot. That's after a 12 percent growth over the last quarter, too, suggesting Gemini is well on its way to becoming the real second-place alternative to ChatGPT.

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