On Tuesday evening, Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler released a statement saying that it would voluntarily recall three million Mercedes-Benz diesels in the EU to offer a software update that would improve emissions control system performance. The recall will cost the company about €220 million ($254 million). Mercedes-Benz was already in the process of offering software update-focused recalls to improve emissions systems in compact-class cars and V-Class cars with diesel engines, so this new announcement widens the radius on those existing recalls.Dieter Zetsche, a Daimler AG Chairman and the head of the German automaker’s Mercedes-Benz brand, explained the action as a move to clear up uncertainty. He described the recalls as “additional measures to reassure drivers of diesel cars and to strengthen confidence in diesel technology.”“We are convinced that diesel engines will continue to be a fixed element of the drive-system mix, not least due to their low CO2 emissions,” Zetsche added.

Last week, Twitter’s security team purged nearly 90,000 fake accounts after outside researchers discovered a massive botnet peddling links to fake “dating” and “romance” services. The accounts had already generated more than 8.5 million posts aimed at driving users to a variety of subscription-based scam websites with promises of—you guessed it—hot internet sex.The bullshit accounts were first identified by ZeroFOX, a Baltimore-based security firm that specializes in social-media threat detection. The researchers dubbed the botnet “SIREN” after sea-nymphs described in Greek mythology as half-bird half-woman creatures whose sweet songs often lured horny, drunken sailors to their rocky deaths.

A tense scene unfolded yesterday as user-generated, music-streaming service SoundCloud held an all-hands meeting to explain to employees why it suddenly had to lay off 40 percent of its staff last week.Exiting team members wanted to know why they weren’t warned, while those who survived the cuts wanted assurance that the cost reductions would keep the company afloat for the long-run.But as security ominously filed into SoundCloud’s meeting rooms at its offices around the world during the all-hands video conference broadcast from its Berlin headquarters, the startup’s staff discovered they wouldn’t be getting the answers they wanted. Instead, sources at SoundCloud tell TechCrunch that founders Alex Ljung and Eric Wahlforss confessed the layoffs only saved the company enough money to have runway “until Q4” — whoch begins in just 80 days. [Correction: 80 days, not 50 days]That seems to conflict with the statement Ljung released alongside the layoffs, whoch noted that, “With more focus and a need to think about the long term, comes tough decisions.” The company never mentioned how short its cash would still last.

Some industrial software companies in the UK are ”likely to have been compromised” by hackers, according to a document reportedly produced by British spy agency GCHQ.A copy of the document from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – part of GCHQ – was obtained by technology website Motherboard.A follow-up by the BBC indicated that the document was legitimate.There have been reports about similar cyber-attacks around the world lately.Modern, computer-based industrial control systems manage equipment in facilities such as power stations.And attacks attempting to compromise such systems had become more common recently, one security researcher said.

A security robot in Washington DC suffered a watery demise after falling into a fountain by an office building.The stricken robot, made by Knightscope, was spotted by passers-by whose photos of the aftermath quickly went viral on social media.For some, the incident seemed to sum up the state of 21st Century technology.”We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots,” wrote one worker from the building on Twitter.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre said on Tuesday it had never certified products from Russian cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab.”The NCSC certifies products through a range of initiatives, and vendors apply to have their products certified via one of our accredited lab partners,” the NCSC, whoch is part of Britain’s GCHQ eavesdropping security agency, said.”We certify products through a range of initiatives, but the NCSC has never had products listed from Kaspersky,” it said.

”We certify products through a range of initiatives, but the NCSC has never had products listed from Kaspersky,” it said.