NIST Aims for Summer Release of AI Cyber Guidelines

by  Alexandra Kelley

Draft iterations of cybersecurity guidance for AI-driven threats across different types of emerging systems are in development as the federal government wades into AI model risk assessments.

Summary

Members of the House Homeland Security Committee received a live briefing Wednesday on Anthropic's Mythos AI model, which has drawn significant attention across the cybersecurity community for its advanced ability to identify and reason through software vulnerabilities. Anthropic executives demonstrated the model firsthand — one of the first such live demonstrations delivered to Congress.

A committee aide called the session urgent, noting that federal cyber defenders need responsible access to advanced AI models to find and patch vulnerabilities before foreign adversaries can exploit them. Attendees also discussed preserving U.S. AI leadership, controlling compute power, and preventing China from obtaining advanced chips.

Mythos was withheld from full public release over national security concerns. Questions remain about which agencies have access, though the NSA has been confirmed among them. An ongoing legal dispute between Anthropic and the Defense Department is also reportedly affecting federal access conversations, including at CISA.

 Read full story at NextGov

Smart Meters Have Saved Austin, Texas, More Than a Billion of Gallons of Water

by  Ryan Kushner

The meters, which detect leaks and provide daily water-use reports, are helping to build “a more sustainable water future for generations to come,” the city's water chief says.

Summary

Texas cities lose billions of gallons of water annually through aging, deteriorating infrastructure. Austin alone lost 9.3 billion gallons in 2024 — a 31% increase over 2023 and enough to fill Lake Austin entirely. Leaks from failing water mains are a primary culprit, with losses rising steadily since 2021.

Austin Water's My ATX Water program is tackling the crisis through digital smart meter technology. Since 2020, the utility has installed roughly 267,000 wireless smart meters, saving an estimated 1.2 billion gallons through leak alerts and repairs. The portal gives customers near-real-time usage data, budgeting tools, and conservation resources — and earned recognition in the IDC Smart Cities North America Awards.

On the infrastructure side, Austin secured $45 million in state funding to replace brittle polybutylene pipes — a material prone to leaks that was widely installed from the 1960s through the 1980s. Officials say the upgrades will significantly improve efficiency and reduce future water loss.

 Read full story at SmartCities Dive

What Is Data Sovereignty in the Context of the Public Sector?

by  Jessica Balen

Data sovereignty has direct implications for legal authority, compliance and risk management in state and local government.

Summary

As state and local governments accelerate cloud adoption and AI deployment, data sovereignty has become a critical concern for public sector IT leaders. Unlike data residency — which addresses where data is physically stored — data sovereignty defines who holds legal authority over that data and which laws govern access to it.

The distinction matters enormously. Under laws such as the U.S. CLOUD Act, federal authorities can compel access to data held by service providers regardless of physical location. Criminal justice data faces particularly acute risks, where competing jurisdictional claims can undermine strict CJIS compliance requirements.

Artificial intelligence further complicates sovereignty frameworks, raising questions at every stage from training to deployment. Experts recommend that agencies build sovereign data inventories, conduct jurisdictional threat assessments, establish clear governance roles, and embed sovereignty considerations into AI strategies from the outset.

 Read full story at StateTech

AI Is Ready to Take Over Python Programming, but Not Much Else

by  Paul Barker

New research from a trio of Microsoft researchers reveals that LLMs “introduce substantial errors when editing work documents.”

Summary

A Microsoft research paper warns that large language models are unreliable delegates for complex document editing tasks. Using a benchmark called DELEGATE-52 — spanning 52 professional domains and 310 real-world work environments — researchers found that frontier models including Gemini, Claude, and GPT lost an average 25% of document content over 20 delegated interactions, with average degradation across all models reaching 50%.

Analysts say the findings shouldn't disqualify AI from enterprise workflows, but do expose a critical integrity problem. Errors compound over longer interactions, larger documents, and noisier contexts — conditions that mirror real enterprise environments. Python was the only domain where most models performed reliably.

Experts recommend stronger guardrails, multi-agent verification, and domain-specific fine-tuning as mitigations. Crucially, human oversight remains essential — frontier models don't simply delete content, they subtly corrupt it, requiring knowledgeable review that casual inspection won't catch.

 Read full story at Computerworld

Microsoft Surprises With Its First Server Linux Distribution: Azure Linux 4.0

by  Steven Vaughan-Nichols

You'll be able to run this Linux distro on both Azure and your desktop using Windows Subsystem for Linux. Here's what we know about it so far.

Summary

Microsoft announced Azure Linux 4.0, its first full Linux distribution, at Open Source Summit North America.

Based on Fedora Linux, Azure Linux 4.0 is designed for server-side use in the cloud and will be available as a virtual machine image and through Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

The distribution is optimized for Azure, offering a consistent experience for developers and a secure, immutable container host called Azure Container Linux (ACL).

 Read full story at ZDNET

Zero-Day Exploit Completely Defeats Default Windows 11 BitLocker Protections

by  Dan Goodin

It's not entirely clear how the exploit works. Microsoft says it's investigating.

Summary

A newly published zero-day exploit called YellowKey allows anyone with physical access to a Windows 11 device to bypass BitLocker encryption and gain full access to a protected drive within seconds. Created by a researcher known as Nightmare-Eclipse, the exploit requires only a specially configured USB drive and a few keystrokes to trigger Windows Recovery mode — bypassing the BitLocker recovery key prompt entirely.

The exploit targets Windows 11's default TPM-only BitLocker configuration. Researchers believe it manipulates Transactional NTFS to delete a critical Windows Recovery file on a separate volume, replacing the expected recovery environment with an unrestricted command prompt. Multiple independent security researchers have confirmed the exploit works as described.

Microsoft says it is investigating but has offered no further comment. Security professionals recommend enabling a pre-boot PIN alongside BitLocker's TPM protection as a stronger safeguard until a patch is issued.

 Read full story at arsTECHNICA

Energy Department Awards $94 Million to American Companies to Help Expedite the Deployments of Small Modular Reactors in the United States

by  Energy.gov

The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced the selection of eight companies to support the near-term deployment of advanced light-water small modular reactors in the United States.

Summary

The funding will address key gaps in licensing, supply chain, and site preparation, bolstering the supply chain and advancing President Trump's nuclear energy agenda.

The awards will help deploy these reactors as soon as possible to meet growing electricity demand.

 Read full story at Energy.gov

NextEra, Dominion to MergeNextEra, Dominion to Merge

by  Nuclear News

The companies' boards of directors have approved the transaction, but the merger still requires federal and state regulatory approval as well as shareholder approval.

Summary

NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy have announced an approximately $67 billion all-stock merger that would create the world's largest regulated electric utility, serving roughly 10 million customers across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The combined company would also become the nation's second-largest nuclear power generator, operating eight facilities totaling more than 13,000 megawatts of capacity.

NextEra's CEO John Ketchum will lead the combined company, which will retain dual headquarters in Florida and Virginia and trade on the NYSE under the ticker NEE. More than 80% of combined operations will be regulated. Dominion customers will receive $2.25 billion in bill credits over two years following closing.

Both boards have approved the transaction, but federal and state regulatory approval and shareholder sign-off are still required. The deal is expected to close within 12–18 months.

 Read full story at Nuclear News

by  Nuclear News

Some of the Biggest Power Companies in US

by  Reuters

Major U.S. power company NextEra Energy announced a plan to acquire Dominion Energy. The combined company would have an enterprise value of roughly $420 billion, making it the third-biggest American energy company behind oil majors Exxon and Chevron but bigger

Summary

NextEra Energy's planned $66.8 billion acquisition of Dominion Energy would create one of the world's largest electric utilities, with an enterprise value of roughly $420 billion — third among all U.S. energy companies behind only ExxonMobil and Chevron. The combined company would serve 10 million customers, hold 130 gigawatts of data center pipeline, and target 260 GW of installed generation capacity by 2032.

The deal reflects a broader industry shift as utilities race to build larger balance sheets and faster infrastructure to meet surging AI-driven power demand. Major competitors are following similar strategies. Duke Energy is deploying a record $103 billion in capital expenditures through 2030, while Southern Company and American Electric Power have each locked in multi-gigawatt data center contracts with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

Constellation Energy, the largest independent power producer, holds about 55 GW of generation capacity and supplies roughly 10% of all U.S. clean energy.

 Read full story at BOE Report