Technology News: 14 October 2025 - 15 October 2025

November 23, 2025, 5:24 AM EST. Black Friday has landed for UK iPhone shoppers with deals across major retailers. While the latest iPhone 17 Pro Max is still hard to find at big discounts, you can save on recent models such as the iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Pro Max (Argos has been listing around £892 for the latter). This roundup highlights the best UK Black Friday iPhone deals and includes practical storage guidance: Apple now ships all iPhone 17 models with 256GB by default, so paying for extra storage makes sense if you use a lot of apps and photos. If you don't shoot many photos or install many apps, 128GB may suffice. Don't miss related Black Friday Apple and iPad deals as well as broader UK offers.

November 23, 2025, 5:22 AM EST. Former Figure AI safety chief Robert Gruendel filed a federal lawsuit alleging wrongful termination after warning executives that Figure AI's humanoid robots are powerful enough to fracture a human skull. The complaint, filed in the Northern District of California, casts Gruendel as a whistleblower who voiced safety concerns days before his September dismissal. He says leadership ignored his cautions about downgrading a safety road map and that such moves followed Figure's rapid rise to a roughly $39 billion valuation after a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. The suit raises questions about safety, transparency, and whistleblower protections in the fast-moving startup and robotics sector, with Gruendel seeking economic, compensatory, and punitive damages and a jury trial.

November 23, 2025, 5:20 AM EST. ASUS has issued firmware version 1.1.2.3_1010 to fix a critical authentication bypass (CVE-2025-59367) affecting select DSL routers (DSL-AC51, DSL-N16, DSL-AC750). The flaw lets remote, unauthenticated attackers log into exposed devices. Users should update from ASUS support pages to stay protected. If updating isn't possible, disable internet-facing services such as WAN remote access, port forwarding, DDNS, VPN server, DMZ, port triggering, and FTP. Also enforce strong credentials and routinely check for security updates. Although no active exploits are reported yet, patching is strongly advised to avoid botnet infections or DDoS-focused campaigns.

November 23, 2025, 5:18 AM EST. SecurityScorecard's STRIKE team flags a campaign named Operation WrtHug that hijacks tens of thousands of outdated ASUS WRT routers worldwide, predominantly in Taiwan, the US, and Russia, with notable activity in Southeast Asia and Europe. Over six months, more than 50,000 unique IPs have been identified across infected devices. The attackers are believed to exploit six known vulnerabilities in end-of-life routers to gain high privileges, leveraging a unique self-signed TLS certificate set to expire 100 years from April 2022. About 99% of services presenting the certificate are ASUS AiCloud. The effort resembles other China-linked ORBs and botnets; potential links to AyySSHush are noted but unproven. Targets include models: 4G-AC55U, 4G-AC860U, DSL-AC68U, GT-AC5300, GT-AX11000, RT-AC1200HP, RT-AC1300GPLUS, RT-AC1300UHP.

November 23, 2025, 5:16 AM EST. Security researchers warn that Operation WrtHug is exploiting four flaws, including command injection and command execution, across eight older ASUS WRT routers. Many of these devices are EoL. ASUS has previously released patches, but users should verify firmware updates or consider replacing the router. If upgrading isn't possible, disable remote access and AiCloud to reduce exposure while monitoring for new advisories. The campaign underscores risks from aging hardware and underscores the importance of timely firmware patching and device retirement.