Ars Technica: news, timeline and key numbers

Ars Technica's coverage on October 20 centered on security and public health. A security brief reported that Terra Security, an AI penetration-testing startup, says failed security fixes are on the rise. The share of GitHub security fixes followed by an advisory reporting a failed patch within 90 days held at about 0.2 percent from 2019 to 2025. It reached 2.3 percent this year. The brief also said, citing a researcher, that attackers are exploiting recently patched vulnerabilities in Plex Media Server to install malware on unpatched machines.

Security teams worldwide were on high alert Tuesday after eight intermediate TLS certificates were found to have extremely weak private keys. The certificates were issued by India-based certificate authority eMudhra Limited. Anyone could use the keys to create trusted credentials for any website.

Separately, police in Guinea-Bissau raided the Bissau offices of the Bandim Health Project on Monday. They seized a batch of hepatitis B vaccine doses meant for newborns. International health experts have called the planned trial unethical.

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