News

• NordVPN is killing its Meshnet feature, starting from December 1, 2025
• The provider has claimed the decision is due to a lack of usage
• NordVPN rolled out Meshnet in 2022 to give users a new, secure way to connect multiple devices

NordVPN has just announced it is killing one of its features due to a lack of usage.

Meshnet is set to be discontinued starting from December 1, meaning that all functionality associated with it will be removed.

Rated as TechRadar's best VPN, NordVPN, launched Meshnet in 2022 to give its users a new, secure way to connect multiple devices to securely share files, multiplayer gaming, or collaboratively remote working. A tool, however, that never quite picked up among the NordVPN community.

"When we built Meshnet, our goal was to give users more control over their connections and networks. By offering it as a free add-on to NordVPN’s core service, we hoped it would become a valuable part of your online experience. But sometimes even good ideas don’t reach a wide enough audience," wrote NordVPN in an official announcement.

Discontinuing Meshnet, the provider explains, will free significant resources that the team would be able to use to focus on improving what most of NordVPN's users care about, namely faster speeds, stronger security, and smarter VPN features.

This is why starting from December, Meshnet and its functionalities will shut down for good. These include options like device linking, traffic routing through other devices, and personal mesh networks.

The provider ensures that the virtual private network (VPN) service will continue to work as usual, with the change affecting only Meshnet-linked features.

If you're one of the few people who have been enjoying NordVPN's Meshnet, it is now a good time to look for alternatives.

The provider recommends that anyone who used Meshnet for secure file sharing switch to NordLocker instead. We also suggest looking into Proton Drive, as it comes with both free and paid plans.

If building your meshnet virtual tunnel for different purposes is what you're after, you should be happy to know that there are a few mesh networking solutions on the market you can switch to, such as Netmaker.

We approached NordVPN for other tips to support existing users with their transition, but are still waiting for a response at the time of publication.

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• Workday has been targeted in a data breach
• The breach was part of a campaign of social engineering attacks
• The campaign has also targeted Google, Dior, and Adidas

Popular HR platform Workday has revealed it was been hit by a data breach originating through a social engineering campaign.

“We want to let you know about a recent social engineering campaign targeting many large organizations, including Workday,” the company confirmed in a statement.

“In this campaign, threat actors contact employees by text or phone pretending to be from human resources or IT. Their goal is to trick employees into giving up account access or their personal information.”

Fortunately, Workday says so far there has been ‘no indication of access to customer tenants or the data within them’, and the firm has added extra safeguards to mitigate the risk of similar incidents in future.

The statement adds the information the threat actor obtained was ‘primarily commonly available business contact information, like names, email addresses, and phone numbers, potentially to further their social engineering scams.’

It seems that this breach could be part of a wave of security breaches that are targeting Salesforce CRM instances through phishing and social engineering attacks. These attacks have used these tactics to breach Google, Adidas, Dior, and more.

The hackers are likely to have used these phishing attacks to link malicious OAuth apps to the company’s Salesforce instance - then downloading and stealing databases before using the information to extort victims, BleepingComputer reports.

“As this type of breach is technically easier to perform yet still highly effective, we could see even more threat actors adopting these tactics” Senior Manager of Cyber and Head of SecOps at Immersive, Kevin Marriott told TechRadar Pro.

“CRM tooling is often a key target for threat actors as they typically store limited, but valuable information that threat actors can either use themselves or sell on, with databases full of information that is useful such as email addresses and other personal information.

“If this attack is indeed linked to the broader campaign targeting Salesforce instances, it highlights how threat actors such as ShinyHunters are focusing their efforts on SaaS platforms that hold valuable customer data from a variety of organisations.”

Users should make sure they stay vigilant online following the incident, and be skeptical of unsolicited incoming messages, especially those that demand urgent action or threaten with a disaster.

These are, and will continue to be, the biggest red flag in phishing attacks.

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A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Monday, August 18 (game #1302).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 2*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 2.

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

• K

• S

• C

• M

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1303, are…

• KNAVE
• SMART
• CARRY
• MAMMA

My infatuation with the letter V paid off today, but it still hurt my brain trying to think of words containing N, A and E. 

I really should have gotten it sooner, as my favorite book is Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines – a wonderful, darkly comic tale of a young lad’s obsession with a bird of prey; a bit like me and the letter V.

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1303, are…

• SQUAT
• WHALE
• WISER
• CRANE

• Quordle #1302, Monday, 18 August: FIBER, TRADE, RAYON, TEASE
• Quordle #1301, Sunday, 17 August: FUNGI, AMITY, DRIER, CHECK
• Quordle #1300, Saturday, 16 August: OWING, QUAKE, SLIDE, ELITE
• Quordle #1299, Friday, 15 August: WHALE, PRISM, DRAKE, TEPEE
• Quordle #1298, Thursday, 14 August: LAPEL, IDIOM, RENEW, LIVER
• Quordle #1297, Wednesday, 13 August: CACTI, HOMER, EMAIL, ALBUM
• Quordle #1296, Tuesday, 12 August: SPOOL, TITLE, JAUNT, OVINE
• Quordle #1295, Monday, 11 August: ADULT, BROOM, PURER, CRUEL
• Quordle #1294, Sunday, 10 August: SCRUM, PIPER, TROLL, SPORE
• Quordle #1293, Saturday, 9 August: NOOSE, INLET, ELEGY, VIRUS
• Quordle #1292, Friday, 8 August: KNEEL, KINKY, RALPH, BOOZY
• Quordle #1291, Thursday, 7 August: PLUNK, PROXY, CURVY, PEARL
• Quordle #1290, Wednesday, 6 August: RISKY, APART, FAUNA, HANDY
• Quordle #1289, Tuesday, 5 August: ROAST, SLICK, AUDIT, BILLY
• Quordle #1288, Monday, 4 August: MACAW, SINCE, COLON, CHIRP
• Quordle #1287, Sunday, 3 August: MOTIF, LEERY, LOFTY, BURST
• Quordle #1286, Saturday, 2 August: WARTY, PUPAL, CLEAR, SLICE
• Quordle #1285, Friday, 1 August: ACTOR, MEALY, WIDTH, ADOBE
• Quordle #1284, Thursday, 31 July: STYLE, VALET, AGONY, ALLOY

Congress didn't just reshape tax codes with the "One Big Beautiful" bill; it also quietly reshaped the future of artificial intelligence. A lesser-known provision of the sweeping legislation is now on its way to becoming law: a 10-year freeze on state-level AI regulation.

In other words, no individual state can pass rules that govern how businesses develop or use AI systems. The message is clear for companies rushing to embed AI in daily operations: govern yourselves or risk learning the hard way why guardrails matter.

AI isn't a side project anymore. It's already embedded in cybersecurity platforms, CRMs, internal chat tools, reporting dashboards and customer-facing products. Even mid-size organizations are training AI models on proprietary data to speed up everything from supplier selection to contract analysis.

However, the adoption curve has outpaced internal checks. Many teams are greenlighting tools without understanding how they were trained, what data they retain or how outputs are validated. IT leaders often discover AI use well after it's already operational. This kind of shadow Ai creates a major risk surface.

And now, with state-level oversight blocked for a decade, there's no outside pressure forcing organizations to establish policies or baseline rules. This shift pushes businesses to take even more responsibility for what happens inside their walls.

AI models aren't static. Once deployed, they learn from new data, interact with systems and influence decision-making. That's powerful but also unpredictable.

Left unchecked, an AI-driven forecasting tool might rely too heavily on outdated patterns, causing overproduction or supply chain bottlenecks. A chatbot designed to streamline customer service could unintentionally generate biased or off-brand responses.

Meanwhile, generative models trained on sensitive business documents can inadvertently expose proprietary information in future prompts. For example, a study released in January 2025 found that nearly 1 in 10 prompts used by business users when interacting with generative AI (GenAI) tools could inadvertently disclose sensitive data.

These aren't abstract dangers; they've already appeared in public incidents. But it's not just PR damage that's at stake. AI errors can affect revenue, data security and even legal exposure. The absence of regulatory pressure doesn't make these issues go away – it makes them easier to miss until they're too big to ignore.

Organizations are eager to integrate GenAI, with many teams already using these powerful tools in daily operations. This rapid adoption means that just passively monitoring things isn't enough; a strong governance structure is crucial, one that can adapt as AI becomes more central to the business.

Setting up an internal AI governance council, ideally with leaders from IT, security, compliance and operations, offers that vital framework. This council isn't there to stop innovation. Its job is to bring clarity. It typically reviews AI tools before they're rolled out, sets clear usage policies and works with teams so they fully understand the benefits and limits of the AI they're using.

This approach reduces unauthorized tool usage, makes auditing more efficient and helps leadership steer AI strategy with confidence. However, for governance to be effective, it must be integrated into broader enterprise systems, not siloed in spreadsheets or informal chats.

Governance, risk and compliance (GRC) platforms already help businesses manage third-party risk, policy enforcement, incident response and internal audits. They're now emerging as critical infrastructure for AI governance as well.

By centralizing policies, approvals and audit trails, GRC platforms help organizations track where AI is being used, which data sources are feeding it, and how outputs are monitored over time. They also create a transparent, repeatable process for teams to propose, evaluate and deploy AI tools with oversight so innovation doesn't become improvisation.

Many tools advertise AI features with a sense of built-in safety, which includes privacy settings, explainable models and compliance-ready dashboards. But too often, the details are left up to the user.

If a vendor-trained model fails, your team will likely bear the operational and reputational costs. Businesses can't afford to treat third-party AI as "set and forget." Even licensed tools must be governed internally, especially if they're learning from company data or making process-critical decisions.

With the U.S. blocking states from setting their own rules, many assumed federal regulation would follow quickly. However, the reality is more complicated. Draft legislation exists, but timelines are fuzzy, and political support is mixed.

In the meantime, every organization using AI is effectively writing its own rulebook. That's a challenge and an opportunity, especially for companies that want to build trust, avoid missteps and confidently lead.

The organizations that define their governance now will have fewer fire drills later. They'll also be better prepared for whatever federal rules eventually arrive because their internal structure won't need a last-minute overhaul.

Because whether or not rules are enforced externally, your business still depends on getting AI right.

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