Wireless jamming attacks are on the rise. Rice University researchers have shown how self-curving radio beams can make a jammer appear to be somewhere it isn't, potentially undermining some anti-jamming defenses. Jamming relies on flooding a wireless receiver with noise that denies service. Some modern receivers identify and block jamming attempts using direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation technology that pinpoints the jammer's direction and directs an array null that blocks signals emanating in the jammer’s direction. Were a jammer to transmit a self-curving beam, however, it could fool DoA-based anti-jamming defenses by appearing to come from somewhere else entirely, and that's exactly what the Rice researchers demonstrated. Rice electrical and computer engineering professor Edward Knightly and doctoral student Caroline Spindel presented a paper [PDF] last month in which they demonstrated a curving-beam jamming attack that caused "catastrophic bit-error-rate degradation" while also "fool[ing] the receiver's DoA estimator," preventing conventional DoA-based defenses from stopping the interference. Knightly and Spindel have done prior research developing wireless technology that could bend beams around objects to increase signal strength - particularly useful for short-range millimeter wave signals - and found that the same technology could be used to deploy jammers that are far harder to locate. Spindel gave the perfect analogy in a recent Rice press release about the research for understanding how curved beams confuse DoA estimators by considering a soccer ball kick to the head. “Imagine being hit on the right side of your head by a soccer ball - you would naturally look to the right,” Spindel said. “If the ball actually curved through the air, like a David Beckham free kick, then it was kicked from somewhere else entirely.” Were Sir David to keep moving and kicking curveballs at your head you’d probably spot him eventually, but it might take a minute, and a few more smacks, to stop him. A signal jammer at radio-wave distances will probably be far harder to spot, and it won’t even have to move: Knightly and Spindel were able to create the illusion that the jammer was mobile by modulating the beam parameters from a stationary position, making it even more difficult to locate the jamming signal and negating the point of blindly searching for the best spot to point an array null. Conventional recovery methods used to block jamming completely failed in laboratory tests, Spindel said. “This is the first demonstration of a jammer that cannot be reliably localized and the first time self-curving wireless beams have been used as an attack,” Knightly added. The pair sees their research not just as a way to point out a serious threat to wireless signals - GPS jamming of aircraft is on the rise, for example - but also something that can inform the direction of future wireless technologies as we move toward the 6G era. Until then, however, there’s the potential for even more devastating jamming attacks to come. ®

The British government wants stronger protection for subsea internet cables following a surge in Russian activity near UK waters, but its latest proposals lean heavily on fines and prison sentences rather than direct defensive action. Plans - outlined in a speech by Baroness Liz Lloyd, Minister for Digital Economy ahead of a consultation - include tougher penalties for recklessly damaging undersea cables, operator security obligations and emergency powers allowing government to compel businesses to better protect their infrastructure. In April, the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force tracked Russian submarines on a covert reconnaissance near critical undersea infrastructure. According to reports, Russia deployed an Akula-class attack submarine as a decoy while two specialist vessels from Directorate of Deep Sea Research - known as Glavnoye Upravlenie Glubokovodnikh Issledovanii (GUGI) - surveyed the UK's cable routes. “Their mission was to survey our cables in peacetime, so they could more easily sabotage them in a conflict,” Lloyd said in a speech delivered at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). “They wanted this operation to be secret, but they failed." In light of this, the government is reviewing whether the UK’s security and resilience arrangements are strong enough, the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory said. UK Parliament's Joint Committee on National Security Strategy (JCNSS) last year told the government it is "too timid" in its approach to protecting Britain’s cable connections, and must do a better job. Measures proposed include tightening the law so ship owners and operators that recklessly damage subsea internet cables face tougher penalties. Cable operators could be landed with extra obligations to ensure they take steps to prevent, detect and respond to security incidents in a consistent and timely manner. “The UK already has strong protections in place for our subsea cables, but in a more uncertain world we cannot stand still,” said Lloyd. "As hostile activity by Russia and others grows, protecting these cables matters more than ever for our economy, security and daily lives.” Some 64 cables connect Britain to the global internet, and when one breaks, repair vessels are typically on scene within eight days. Historically, most cable faults have stemmed from fishing activity or dragging anchors, not sabotage. The Royal Navy unveiled its Atlantic Bastion program last year to supplement its sub-hunting ships with a force of uncrewed, autonomous vessels. The aim is that enemy submarines in the North Atlantic have nowhere to hide. This is in its early stages, with £14 million committed so far for testing and development. The latest proposals will be outlined a white paper published later this year. Separately, the UK, US, and Australia announced this weekend that their AUKUS partnership will jointly develop sensor and weapons payloads for uncrewed underwater vehicles, which is another building block for protecting seabed infrastructure. ®

Cisco will make around five percent of staff redundant and has generously offered them free Cisco training for a year once they’re gone. CEO Chuck Robbins broke the news in a Wednesday blog post titled “Our Path Forward” that opens “Today we announced our Q3 FY26 earnings with record revenue of $15.8 billion, up 12 percent year over year, and double-digit top and bottom-line growth. The ELT [executive leadership team] and I could not be prouder of the growth you have all delivered for Cisco.” That growth included net income growing 35 percent to $3.4 billion. Yet Robbins’ pride was not sufficient for all Cisco staff to keep their jobs. The CEO said the layoffs are necessary because “The companies that will win in the AI era will be those with focus, urgency, and the discipline to continuously shift investment toward the areas where demand and long-term value creation are strongest.” For Cisco that means “reducing roles in some areas” and also “making clear, strategic investments – particularly in silicon, optics, security, and in our employees’ use of AI across the company.” On Thursday, US time, close to 4,000 unlucky Cisco staff will be shown the door. Robbins said Cisco will help its soon-to-be-former workers find their next gig, and that the company’s efforts to do so have a 75 percent success rate. “We are also committed to continued personalized learning and will provide one year of access to all Cisco U courses and certifications, covering AI, Security, Networking, and more,” he added. Cisco made two big rounds of layoffs in 2024, one of which ejected seven percent of staff and the other resulted in Cisco firing five percent of employees. The restructures appear not to have slowed the company down: Robbins said product orders in Q3 rose 35 percent year over year – a figure that encapsulates a 105 percent year-over-year surge in revenue from hyperscalers and more modest 18 percent growth from other buyers. Robbins said Cisco has already scored $5.3 billion of AI infrastructure sales this year, and forecast full-year sales of $9 billion – 4.5 times its haul from last year. More prosaic products, like Wi-Fi kit, also grew fast as sales rose 40 percent. The company hopes to keep that cash flowing by building wireless kit that uses less memory. “You’ll see products that’ll become orderable in Q4 that’ll actually require 50 percent less memory,” Robbins said, with the design work to make that possible an example of the “20-plus programs that we’ve put into place that are active to reduce the memory utilization across the portfolio.” Cisco’s doing that despite the rising price of memory and storage not putting a dent in its margins, an outcome that execs attributed to supply chain management efforts. Glasswing to lift security sales Later in the earnings call, Robbins revealed that Cisco is participating in Anthropic’s Project Glasswing and using the Mythos model to test its code. The CEO said another impact of Anthropic’s bug-finding AI will be to accelerate plans to replace security appliances once other vendor’s use of Mythos finds flaw that are hard to fix. “I actually think while there will be a security opportunity, there’s going to most likely be a lot of focus from our customers on modernizing their infrastructure so that they don’t have this risk from technology that just can’t be patched,” Robbins said. Robbins said Cisco may have won an order or two from customers who were already close to replacing old security kit “and Mythos pushed them over the edge.” But he said Cisco didn’t receive “any meaningful orders in Q3 as a result of Mythos, but that could change in the future as we continue to work with customers.” ®