• Hackers and scammers are getting more sophisticated in their methods.
• Elaborate social engineering schemes and AI are some ways that scammers are upping their game.
• One cybersecurity expert explained four ways to protect yourself going into 2025.

The end-of-2024 hack of US Treasury Department computers is a reminder that if the government isn't immune to tech trouble, neither are you. So, keeping your online accounts and information secure matters.

While state-backed hackers like the ones suspected of tapping into the Treasury's computers are sophisticated, there are still threats from small-time cybercriminals, Etay Maor, chief security strategist at Cato Networks, told Business Insider.

Still, individuals can use various tactics to avoid hackers and scammers gaining access to their information. Many have been around for years, but recent developments, such as the rise of generative artificial intelligence, call for new strategies, Maor said.

"It's a pain to remember another password or to enable another application to send you an SMS," Maor said. But, he added, "It'll help you not be the lower-hanging fruit" for those smaller hackers.

Here are four tips for enhancing cybersecurity and avoiding hackers and digital scammers going into 2025.

Use strong passwords — and have a secure place to keep track of them

Using the same password repeatedly for different accounts makes a scammer's job easier, Maor said.

Instead, he pointed to some long-standing advice: Create a separate password for each account, and make each one "strong" — usually, at least several characters long, with a variety of letters, numbers, and punctuation marks, and without common words or sequences like "123456".

But keeping track of all those passwords can be tough. Maor said he has a pattern that he uses to create new passwords. It's mostly secure, though he said that hackers might be able to figure out his pattern if they got enough of his passwords. There is also password-keeping software, but bad actors can hack those, too.

Perhaps a more secure option is a low-tech one, he said. "For me, writing them down on a piece of paper is much more secure than having the same password everywhere," Maor said. Just make sure you don't leave it lying around in plain sight.

Be aware of social engineering scams

Some scammers don't use AI but instead rely on their own communication and relationship-building skills to steal money or information.

Basic versions of this scam can include direct messages from people on Facebook or other social media apps who try to befriend you before asking for money or personal information, Maor said.

Others are more sophisticated, he added.

"If I'm now an attacker and I want to attack your boss, I might connect with you on LinkedIn, and then I'll try to connect with your boss," he said. That will create a mutual connection that could make the hacker appear more credible to the boss, Maor said.

Avoid AI-based scams by making a plan with family and friends

Some scammers use AI voice generators to create convincing clips of people saying they're in trouble and need money. The scammers then call the subject's friends and relatives and use the AI-generated voice to rip them off.

Maor said he already has a plan to avoid such scams with his family: They have agreed on a "secret word" they can ask for if they get a request they suspect might be AI-generated.

"It's not something very common," Maor said of the word his family picked. "And I think we shouldn't be afraid to do that in our corporate environment and in a private environment as well, just to confirm."

AI has also made phishing scams, which typically involve scammers sending emails that look like they're from a reputable source in order to get personal information about the recipient, more convincing.

Most guidance for avoiding phishing scams suggests looking for obvious typos in emails to identify potential phishing scams, Maor said. But scammers can now use AI to create grammatically passable messages in any language they need, he added.

Make sure to use two-factor authentication

While it's been around for years, two-factor authentication — that is, asking a website or app to send you a code via email, text, or call that you must enter in addition to your password to log in — remains a good way to protect unauthorized people from accessing your accounts, Maor said.

It's also possible to use an authenticator app like Duo or Microsoft Authenticator to sign off on login attempts or a physical security key, which, when used near the computer, confirms that it's really you trying to log in, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

• Elon Musk used his fortune and influence to help Donald Trump win reelection in November.
• The Tesla and SpaceX boss is now championing right-wing insurgent politicians in Europe.
• Musk has endorsed Reform UK in Britain and hailed Germany's far-right AfD as the country's savior.

Having tapped his vast personal wealth and marshaled his 210 million followers on X to help propel Donald Trump to election victory in November, Elon Musk has turned his gaze to European politics.

"Vote Reform," Musk said in an X post on Tuesday, referring to Reform UK, a populist party in Britain led by Nigel Farage, a key figure in the UK's vote to leave the EU in 2016.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO — who has embraced conservative stances on issues such as immigration, diversity, and transgender rights in recent years — met with conservative firebrand Farage in mid-December at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

Farage later told the BBC that Musk was "fully, fully behind us" and open to donating to Reform UK if he could do so legally. Reform has made no secret of its excitement about Musk and his potential donation, with Farage describing him as a "bloody hero" in a recent interview with the UK's Daily Telegraph.

Musk has also been loudly critical of Britain's center-left prime minister, Keir Starmer. In numerous X posts, he's called the country a "tyrannical police state," backed calls for an election — despite one having only been held in July — and suggested the nation was on the brink of civil war.

The tech billionaire has also thrown his weight behind the German far-right party the AfD, which has come out strongly against immigration and echoed Trump in calling for mass deportations.

The AfD currently holds around 10% of the seats in Germany's legislative body, the Bundestag, but has made significant gains in recent years, including coming second in this year's European Parliament elections.

It is widely expected to win the second-highest share of votes in the Bundestag election in February, and like Reform, has welcomed Musk's support. Its candidate to become Germany's chancellor, Alice Weidel, said Musk was "perfectly right" when he said the party was the only one that could "save Germany" in an X post on December 20.

Musk then championed the AfD in an op-ed published in German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag last weekend. The paper and Business Insider are both owned by Axel Springer.

Musk wrote that years of misguided policies by the main political parties had led to "economic stagnation, social unrest, and the erosion of national identity," and the AfD represented the "last spark of hope" for the country. He justified his German political commentary by pointing to his "significant investments" in the country.

Musk's Tesla Gigafactory just outside Berlin is the company's main European facility and employs close to 12,000 people. It produces components such as batteries, as well as completing the final assembly of the Tesla Model Y.

The paper printed a response by its editor-in-chief-designate, Jan Philipp Burgard, on the same page as Musk's controversial column. Burgard wrote that "Musk's diagnosis is correct," but his claim that only the AfD can save Germany is "fatally flawed."

Germany accuses Musk of meddling in its election

Before the op-ed, Musk's posts on X in support of the AfD prompted a government spokesperson to accuse him of attempting to meddle in the election, as first reported by Reuters.

The spokesperson said that Musk was free to express his opinions, however said, "Freedom of opinion also covers the greatest nonsense."

Friedrich Merz, the center-right Christian Democratic Union's candidate for chancellor, described Musk's backing of the AfD as "intrusive and pretentious."

"I cannot recall in the history of Western democracies a comparable case of interference in the election campaign of a friendly country," he told the Funke media group.

In his New Year's Eve message, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said Musk's support of the AfD was part of a "logical and systematic" campaign to weaken Europe and erode its regulatory system.

Several of Musk's businesses, most notably Tesla, are subject to European regulations and stand to benefit from reduced oversight. Tesla's plans for fully self-driving cars face increased hurdles in Europe, where regulations on autonomous vehicles are more stringent.

Musk's cosy relationship with Italy's leader

Musk has also spoken fondly of Italy's right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. In September, he called her a "precious genius" who was "even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside."

Meloni leads the Brothers of Italy party — which has roots in the post-World War II neo-fascist Italian Social Movement. She came to power in 2022, standing on a platform of lower immigration, tighter border control, and traditional values. At the time, she was described as Italy's most right-wing leader since Benito Mussolini.

Trump's agenda of tax cuts, tariffs, and deregulation promises to benefit his companies. Tesla's stock surged as soon as his victory was declared. But it's less obvious what Musk and his companies would gain from the rise of those he backs in Europe.

Not only are AfD and Reform unlikely to form governments anytime soon, both also have policies that could hurt Tesla.

The AfD has previously opposed the extension of Tesla's German factory, while Reform has pledged to reverse a looming ban on the sale of gas and diesel cars in the UK, which is naturally set to benefit EV makers like Tesla.

The AfD is polling in second place at TK%, more than the 12.6% it won at the last election in 2021. Musk posted to X Thursday that it would win "an epic victory." Whether it makes predicted gains or not, it's unlikely to stop welcoming the support of the world's most outspoken billionaire.

• In 2020, Donald Trump pardoned cybersecurity executive Chris Wade for crimes that had been sealed.
• Unsealed documents show he was part of a sophisticated spam email operation busted by an informant.
• Prosecutors want to keep part of his case sealed — the reason behind that remains a mystery.

In August 2005, years before he was an executive at a cybersecurity company, Chris Wade was vacationing at a casino in Las Vegas, planning to meet an associate who was supposed to hand him an envelope containing $2,500 in cash.

Wade, who controlled tens of thousands of hacked computers at the time, had agreed to use his network to send emails promoting a stock pump-and-dump scheme. The cash was payment for his services.

But what Wade didn't know was that his associate was a government informant and that prosecutors would soon charge him with an array of cybercrimes, accusing him of using the hacked computers to commit fraud.

For nearly two decades, the charges against Wade would remain a secret. In an unusual move, the judge sealed the entire court docket, hiding all public records of Wade's involvement in the case.

While it's common for individual court documents to be sealed or partially redacted, Wade's case was different.

Wade pleaded guilty to all the charges against him in July 2006. However, no reference to the case appeared in public federal court databases — even after he was sentenced in 2011 to time served.

The very fact that Wade had a criminal past was a secret — until Donald Trump pardoned him.

That left many wondering what would account for the curious court-sanctioned secrecy surrounding the case. One explanation, legal analysts say, is that Wade could have become a government informant himself.

A pardon for a secret crime

Years after the hacking charges, Wade went legit.

In 2011, he launched iEmu, a company that grew a cult following among developers by allowing them to emulate iPhone apps on Windows, Mac, and Android devices. In 2017, he cofounded Corellium and is its chief technology officer.

Corellium has carved out a prominent place in the software market, creating sophisticated tools for cybersecurity researchers. It fought, and ultimately settled, a protracted legal battle against Apple, which alleged Corellium violated copyright law by creating a virtual version of iOS that researchers could test for security vulnerabilities. Another one of its cofounders helped the FBI unlock the iPhone used by one of the suspects in the 2015 San Bernardino mass shooting attack.

Trump granted Wade clemency near the end of 2020, with less than a month left in his first presidential term.

While Wade's case was sealed, the pardon effectively made it public.

But Wade's crimes, at the time, remained a mystery.

The White House's announcement said only that Wade "served two years' probation after pleading guilty to various cyber-crimes" and "has shown remorse and sought to make his community a safer place."

It also said the pardon was supported by Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, the former Marvel executive and a Mar-a-Lago member who has supported Trump's political campaigns; Mark Templeton, the former Citrix CEO who has since taken a seat on the board of Corellium; and "numerous current and former law-enforcement officials."

The pardon itself is not much clearer. It says Wade is granted "a full and unconditional pardon" for his conviction "in sealed Docket No. 06-cr-394" and notes that "the offenses of conviction and sentence are also under seal." The Justice Department's website still says his offenses were "sealed" and that his sentence was "unknown."

A representative for the DOJ pardon attorney's office didn't respond to a request for comment.

The pardon was announced in a White House press release along with pardons and commutations for more than 20 other people, many of whom were businessmen charged with tax-related offenses. The list included Trump's political allies Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, who were criminally charged in the Mueller investigation, and Jared Kushner's father, Charles Kushner, who Trump has since selected as his ambassador to France for his coming second term.

Wade, through his attorney Paul Kreiger, declined to comment.

In October, following legal action by The New York Times, a judge unsealed documents containing the charges against Wade and details about his sentence.

The criminal complaint said that Wade was arrested with the help of a confidential government informant who was assisting a unit in the US Secret Service's New York field office investigating a spam email scheme.

The informant, whose identity remains unknown, had been convicted of unrelated cyber-fraud charges and was trying to leverage his connections in the hacking world to help law enforcement with the hope of receiving a lighter sentence, the complaint said.

The informant had helped authorities catch two other men, Adam Vitale and Todd Moeller. They had bypassed AOL's spam filters and blasted out tens of thousands of emails a day promoting obscure stocks, which Vitale and Moeller then dumped for profit.

Vitale used "SpamsMVP" as one of his instant message nicknames. Moeller bragged that he was making $40,000 a month by selling the stock. Both pleaded guilty to the charges against them.

Wade was the "proxy guy" in the spam email operation. Wade routed the emails through the computers of hundreds of AOL users, who were hacked and unwittingly used to transmit spam, making them look legit to AOL's filters. While he was waiting on the $2,500 payment from the informant, Wade bragged that he was able to control a "botnet" of 20,000 computers to launder spam emails, the court documents said.

The informant tried to get in on the operation. He also cut a side deal with Wade at the expected price of $2,500 a week to take advantage of his botnet. Wade took Western Union wire transfers or cash, the documents said.

The informant didn't actually bring the cash to Wade at that Las Vegas casino. But he'd collected enough evidence for the Secret Service to bring criminal charges. According to the charging document, AOL determined that Wade, Moeller, and Vitale spammed 1,277,401 different AOL email addresses.

'You're not supposed to have a case that never existed'

In January, a lawyer for The New York Times asked a federal judge to unseal the case, noting the bizarre circumstances of the "blanket sealing."

"The presidential pardon power is virtually unchecked. As a result, the public's need to know how the power is being used and who is benefiting is at its pinnacle," David E. McCraw, the lawyer for the Times, wrote.

The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted Wade, agreed to unseal certain key documents.

But other ones, prosecutors said, should remain secret. The reasons for keeping them sealed have also been withheld from the public record, with the Justice Department arguing that "would, in effect, risk disclosing the very information that warrants ongoing protection."

Wade's lawyers, in arguments that remain sealed, have also asked the judge to keep certain filings private.

It remains to be seen whether more court documents from Wade's criminal case will become public in the future. The Times has not published a story on Wade and his pardon in the months since the documents were unsealed. The judge's deadline for additional unsealing requests has passed. A representative for the Times declined to comment.

While Moeller and Vitale were charged as codefendants in 2006, prosecutors severed Wade's case from theirs and sealed it.

Prosecutors may agree to seal a case when a defendant cooperates and prosecutors want to keep the relationship a secret.

"The government will want to conceal the entire thing because they don't want other related bad guys to know that this investigation is ongoing," said John Kucera, a former federal prosecutor who investigated complex financial crimes and now works as a defense attorney at Boies Schiller Flexner.

But even when there's a secret cooperator, the court docket normally becomes public once the defendant is sentenced. That didn't happen in Wade's case.

The yearslong secrecy across multiple administrations — and the fact that the Justice Department still wants to keep portions of the case sealed — is unusual. One possible explanation, said Dan Boyle, a former federal prosecutor and US military intelligence professional, is that Wade helped the government on some kind of sensitive matter.

Boyle told BI that sealing the case indefinitely could indicate that the Justice Department didn't want anyone to know Wade had interacted with law enforcement.

"You're not supposed to have a case that never existed," said Boyle, also a Boies Schiller Flexner defense lawyer. "It happens, but it's an extraordinary circumstance."

Jason Brown, the Secret Service agent who wrote the criminal complaint against Wade, declined to answer questions about the case beyond what is available in public court records, citing laws regarding grand jury secrecy. Representatives for the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York didn't respond to a request for comment.

Thomas G.A. Brown, who later oversaw the office's unit investigating complex fraud and cybercrime, was the prosecutor in the Wade, Vitale, and Moeller investigations. Court records show he was involved in numerous high-profile cases, including the prosecution of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, the leadership of the hacking group LulzSec, and numerous digital currency cases. (Trump has vowed to commute Ulbricht's sentence on "day one" of his second term.)

Brown, who left the Justice Department in 2014, didn't respond to requests for comment.

Wade's pardon could make it easier for Corellium to seek contracts with government agencies and security companies, Adam Scott Wandt, an associate professor of technology at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice, told BI. Without a pardon, Wade would likely have difficulty obtaining security clearance or getting approval for funding from federal agencies, he said. And with the case fully sealed, Corellium may have been in a tight spot if it was asked to disclose whether its executives had criminal records.

Wandt also said the pardon would make disclosures less awkward if Corellium seeks an initial public offering in the future.

"If they're going to go public at some point, they'd have to disclose a lot about their C-suite personnel, about their leadership," Wandt said. "They might want to pardon him so they don't have to disclose that a former felon is their CTO."

Considering the success of Corellium and the technical sophistication required to run the spamming operation two decades ago, Wade may have had skills the FBI found useful.

"He probably has a lot of techniques that became useful to the bureau, and maybe that's how he worked his time off," Boyle said.

• Bleisure travel is rising as employees extend work trips to add on leisure activities.
• One bleisure traveler said he views it as a supplement to his dedicated vacation time.
• AllFly, which helps book corporate group travel, said demand for bleisure trips keeps growing.

When 25-year-old Josh Nichols had a short work trip to Hamburg, Germany, he and a coworker decided to add a couple extra days to stop by Belgium and France, two places he'd never been.

"I was already in Europe," Nichols, who works as an analyst for United Airlines, told Business Insider, "so I'm like, 'Let me just hop down and see these other countries.'"

The combination of business and leisure travel has become so popular that it has a name: bleisure travel, also referred to as blended travel.

While the trend has been growing for years, it got an extra boost during the pandemic when travel restrictions were lifted and business travel picked up again. In early 2022, American Airlines said more than half of its recently booked trips had been a mix of business and leisure travel, up from a historic average of around 20 to 25%.

A survey published by the American Hotel and Lodging Association in 2023 found nearly half of business travelers said they'd extended a work trip in the previous year, and 84% said they were interested in bleisure. Hilton's 2025 Travel Trends Report said nearly 30% of global travelers now take trips with "frolleagues" — colleagues who are also friends.

Kenny Totten, founder and COO of AllFly, which specializes in corporate group travel, told BI that companies are embracing the trend and making it easier for their employees to do it as a way to attract and retain talent.

"About one in four corporate travelers will either come early or they'll extend their trip later, so it's been a very big trend for us," he said.

Bleisure can take several forms, but it often occurs when an employee is already on a business trip. While on the work trip, the employee might do sightseeing in their free time or meet up with a friend or family member who lives in the place they're visiting. Many bleisure travelers extend their trips to have full days to explore while off the clock.

"Anything that lets me try something new when I would otherwise just kind of sit in my hotel and wait for the next day of meetings to come is something I'd consider bleisure," Nichols said.

Companies are adapting to meet bleisure demand

AllFly, which books travel for companies ranging from 50 to over 10,000 employees, has adapted the way it books trips in response to the growing demand for bleisure. It has added features that make it easy for its clients to let employees book flights for several days before or after the actual planned work event.

"The more luxurious the destination, the more people extend," Totten said, adding when AllFly coordinates work trips to Hawaii, 42% of people extend their trip.

The company also added a split pay feature, which allows employees to book all the travel through their platform but then easily split up how much the employer covers. For instance, if someone wants to bring their spouse on a work trip to Hawaii, they can easily book together while having the company cover only the employee's flight.

Some business travelers adding leisure to their trip also like to upgrade their seats to first class, so the split pay system allows the company to cover the base price and the employee to cover the upgrade cost.

Totten said the demand for bleisure has consistently grown year-over-year, and that AllFly expects to book more hybrid trips in 2025 as well.

Nichols, who travels frequently for work, said bleisure is a great way to get the most out of his business travel, but that it doesn't replace dedicated PTO. He still uses all of his vacation days and views bleisure as a "supplement."

He said the one potential downside is that travel can be tiring, so sometimes extending a work trip may not be the best move.

"Sometimes I do sit down and I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, I haven't slept in my bed in 10 days. I would like to be in my own bed a little bit.'"

A shelter volunteer said Lori "loves going on walks and sniffing and exploring."

"She's always been a little dense so this behavior is not out of the norm," Moon's owner told Newsweek.

• As demand for EVs cooled, hybrid cars took off in 2024.
• Companies that placed early bets on hybrids reaped the rewards.
• Hybrids will likely play a big role in the electric transition.

Hybrid cars had a huge comeback in 2024.

These cars, which use a mix of battery-electric and gas power, emerged as the winner in a year when demand for EVs hit a plateau.

A new group of green-car shoppers flooded the market in 2024, and unlike their wealthy early adopter counterparts, these new consumers are much more practical. The compromise of a hybrid appeals to these shoppers, who tend to be both environmentally conscious and budget-conscious.

This shift toward hybrids was great news for companies like Toyota, which remained steadfast in the hybrid market as others fled to focus on pure EVs. Meanwhile, other companies were left scrambling last year as their expensive plans to phase out gas-powered cars hit a roadblock.

Here's how 2024 became the year of the hybrid car.

1. Shoppers cooled on EVs

In 2024, demand for electric cars pulled back as wealthy early adopters fled the segment.

What automotive executives and industry watchers initially identified as price sensitivity turned out to be a bigger problem for EVs. A different breed of car shoppers started flocking to dealer lots, and they were more drawn to the compromise of a hybrid.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk once blamed the popularity of hybrid cars for the company's poor sales performance in the first half of the year.

Read more about how automakers were forced to rethink their EV plans.

2. Hybrids weren't immune to rising prices

Affordability became a key issue for car shoppers last year as higher interest rates kept shoppers on a budget. Hybrids were often considered a more affordable option, but that rule didn't always hold true.

Massive demand for a specific type of hybrid car, the plug-in hybrid, sent prices of these already expensive models soaring.

Read more about how everyone wanted a plug-in hybrid, and how that demand sent prices soaring.

3. EV demand took a hit

Greater numbers of average customers were in the market for electric cars last year, and these shoppers weren't as easily swayed as the wealthy early adopters who drove the segment's early growth.

Car companies weren't prepared for this stark drop-off in demand and were stuck slashing prices on their big, expensive EVs while they quickly pivoted to offering more hybrids.

Read more about how automakers over-estimated EV demand.

4. Hybrid bets paid off

Sales of hybrid cars took off in the first quarter of last year, benefiting companies like Toyota and Ford. Both of these big-name brands have a wide range of hybrid options, including the more expensive plug-in variety.

The Ford F-150 and Toyota RAV4 were the two most popular cars of 2024. Both saw huge sales increases last year due to interest in their hybrid models, executives have said.

"Hybrids are just rockin'," Toyota Motor North America Sales Chief David Christ said in March.

Read more about how Toyota was right about hybrid cars all along. And how Ford's secret weapon in the fight against Tesla has been hybrids.

5. Hybrids proved that they were here to stay

While the first wave of early adopters only lasted a few years for EV sellers, this more practical shopper is here to stay — at least for now.

Studies last year showed plenty of interest in pure electric vehicles, but many average consumers will require hybrids as a stepping stone as issues like charging infrastructure and affordability continue to exist.

While companies remain steadfast in their commitment to all-electric futures, several are making hybrids a bigger part of that transition.

Read more about how a hybrid-car comeback is in the making — and it could be great news for your wallet.

• Luxury beachfront high-rises on the coast of Miami's barrier islands are sinking, a new study found.
• Subsidence and rising seas are a global problem, affecting up to $109 billion of US coastal property by 2050.
• Satellites could spot buildings that are sinking or tilting for early intervention.

Coastal properties worldwide are sinking, including some of Miami's pricey waterfront high-rises.

In a study published in the journal Earth and Space Science in December, researchers found that 35 buildings along the coasts of Miami's barrier islands have sunk into the ground by 2 to 8 centimeters between 2016 and 2023.

This sinking phenomenon, called subsidence, is happening "almost everywhere that we look," said Manoochehr Shirzaei, a geophysicist at Virginia Tech who was not involved in the Miami-area study.

That sinking can lead to expensive — and sometimes deadly — damage and flooding in some of the most populated places on Earth. It doesn't have to, though.

The new Miami study shows how satellites can help save buildings and infrastructure before the sinking contributes to catastrophic failure.

Coastal cities' sinking problem

Cities all over the world weigh so much and draw so much groundwater from beneath them that they're sinking into the ground. It's been documented on every continent.

Sinking coastal cities are extra vulnerable because the seas are rising to meet them, doubling the flood risk.

"One centimeter of sea level rise and one centimeter of subsidence each have the same effects" on flooding hazards, the lead authors of the new Miami study, Farzaneh Aziz Zanjani and Falk Amelung, told BI in an email.

Many of the most afflicted coastal cities are in eastern and southern Asia, but major hubs in Europe, Africa, and Australia are also sinking rapidly.

In the US, Shirzaei's research group found that huge swaths of the East Coast — including New York and Baltimore — are sinking by at least 2 millimeters each year.

In a follow-up study, Shirzaei's research group found Gulf Coast cities sinking even more.

Expensive flood risks and structural damage

Despite its prevalence, subsidence isn't usually factored into future flooding estimates.

By combining it with sea-level rise projections, Shirzaei's group estimated that up to 518,000 more Americans will be exposed to high tide flooding by 2050 in up to 288,000 more properties, amounting to $109 billion in property value.

It's not just flooding, though. Subsidence can also compromise a building's structural integrity.

"The situation becomes concerning when different parts of the building move at varying rates," Aziz Zanjani and Amelung said.

"This can cause structural damage, such as cracks or distortions, which could compromise the building's safety over time," they added.

Knowing if and how buildings are sinking could help prevent future damage. That's where the Miami researchers' study comes in.

Satellites can spy hot spots before they sink too far

After the 2021 collapse of the Champlain South Condominium Tower in Surfside, Florida, which killed 98 people, Miami researchers began to wonder if the ground beneath that building was part of the problem.

When they assessed satellite data, they didn't find any indication of subsidence before the incident, which surprised them because so much construction was happening in the area.

They'd found that the subsidence of other buildings was associated with nearby construction. The researchers think the difference is sand.

The limestone underground might be interspersed with sandy layers in the barrier islands. Vibrations from construction could cause the sand grains to shift and give way under the buildings' weight.

Though there are likely other factors at play, having such a specific link to the subsidence of specific structures can be helpful. That's the first step in solving a building's sinking problem.

"It would be incredibly helpful if this type of information were more readily available to researchers," Aziz Zanjani and Amelung said.

The Miami researchers are seeking more funding to study Miami's sediments and investigate uneven subsidence, where different parts of a building sink at different rates.

Shirzaei said satellite remote-sensing could be a diagnostic tool to scan specific regions — such as Miami's barrier islands — for buildings tilting on uneven land subsidence. Then, investigators can target at-risk spots and, if necessary, suggest structural reinforcements.

After all, the Miami scientists wrote in their paper, "There are no indications that subsidence will come to a stop."

• Netflix has delivered another thriller based on one of Harlan Coben's books.
• "Missing You" follows a detective whose fiancé has been missing for 11 years.
• The show is billed as a limited series, but there would be plenty to explore in a second season.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "Missing You."

Fans of "Missing You," Netflix's latest adaptation of a Harlan Coben book, may be wondering if a second season is coming.

The show comes after Coben's "Fool Me Once," which was released on January 1, 2024 and became one of Netflix's most-watched shows of all time. It has been viewed 98 million times, according to the streamer.

In "Missing You," detective Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar) tries to uncover why her fiancé disappeared and her father died 11 years ago.

Netflix has promoted the show as a limited series, so it seems unlikely a second season will be made. None of the other Coben adaptations have had one, either.

But the ending leaves things on an emotional cliffhanger and it would be possible for Netflix to continue the story, which it might be tempted to do if it's as big a success as "Fool Me Once."

The series ends with Josh Buchanan (Ashley Walters), Kat's fiancé, confessing to her that he accidentally killed her father, Clint Donovan (Lenny Henry) while trying to defend his friend, Aqua Venech (Mary Malone).

Aqua accidentally learned that Clint was secretly gay and had been in a relationship with a man for 14 years. Josh arrived at Aqua's apartment when Clint was threatening her with a knife, and accidentally stabbed him during the fight.

Josh then left Kat suddenly because he couldn't deal with the guilt of killing her father.

Kat is shocked, and although the couple had started to rekindle their relationship, it's unclear whether they could stay together now she knows the truth.

A hypothetical second season of "Missing You" could explore whether the pair stay together and if Kat goes to the police. It could also return to the organized crime subplot involving gangster Dominic Calligan (James Nesbitt).

But for now, it looks like "Missing You" is a one-off.

• Chief Justice John Roberts flagged threats to the judicial system in his year-end review.
• Disgruntled lawmakers and litigants pose a threat to judicial independence, Roberts wrote.
• Roberts didn't name anyone specifically when he admonished public officials for intimidating judges.

False accusations and charged rhetoric against judges pose a threat to judicial independence, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his year-end review for 2024.

The report, published on Tuesday, delved into the dangers posed by disgruntled politicians and litigants against judges and the wider judicial system.

Roberts said in his report that some judicial decisions are "egregiously wrong" and do merit pushback, but that "not all actors engage in 'informed criticism.'"

"I feel compelled to address four areas of illegitimate activity that, in my view, do threaten the independence of judges on which the rule of law depends: (1) violence, (2) intimidation, (3) disinformation, and (4) threats to defy lawfully entered judgments," Roberts wrote.

The report came not long before President-elect Donald Trump is due to be inaugurated on January 20.

Roberts did not mention Trump in the report, though it did cite instances of litigants airing their criticisms of judges.

"Today, in the computer era, intimidation can take different forms," Roberts wrote. "Disappointed litigants rage at judicial decisions on the Internet, urging readers to send a message to the judge."

"They falsely claim that the judge had it in for them because of the judge's race, gender, or ethnicity—or the political party of the President who appointed the judge," the chief justice added.

Trump has notably clashed with judges presiding over cases against him.

He was repeatedly fined for violating his gag order during his New York hush-money trial.

The former president was held in contempt of court after criticizing his presiding judge, New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan during an interview with "Real America's Voice" in April.

"But this judge, uh, said that I can't get away from the trial. You know he's rushing the trial like crazy. Nobody's ever seen a thing go like this. The jury was picked so fast — 95% Democrats," Trump said in a phone interview with the network.

Trump also clashed repeatedly with Lewis Kaplan, the judge in a defamation suit brought against him by E. Jean Carroll.

In his report, Roberts admonished public officials for attempting to intimidate judges, though he stopped short of naming them.

"Public officials certainly have a right to criticize the work of the judiciary, but they should be mindful that intemperance in their statements when it comes to judges may prompt dangerous reactions by others," Roberts wrote.

The chief justice also admonished lawmakers for trying to defy the Supreme Court's decisions.

"Elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings," the chief justice wrote.

In April 2023, congressional Democrats urged the White House to ignore a federal judge's decision to block the sale of the abortion pill mifepristone. The Biden administration rejected the suggestion. The Supreme Court later upheld access to the drug in a ruling issued in June.

The Supreme Court did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• AI is reshaping job searches, offering speed and automation for rudimentary tasks.
• There are pros and cons for recruiters, who are now getting more applications than ever.
• Candidates should use AI as a tool, experts say, adding personal touches to stand out.

AI is transforming job searches for both candidates and recruiters.

But with all the tools that make the application process easier and faster than ever, there are traps you can fall into.

Andrea Miller, the founder of LeadWell Company, a global leadership consultancy that helps organizations navigate the future of work, told Business Insider that while AI can save time and effort by streamlining applications, optimizing resumes, and improving interview preparation, it also comes with some challenges.

"Generic, AI-generated applications can fail to stand out," Miller said, "And relying on AI without reviewing its output can lead to mistakes or misrepresentations."

Recruitment and AI pros explained to BI the dos and don'ts of using these tools and how candidates can make the most of the technology available when job hunting.

Mock tests, interviews, and portfolios

James Uffindell, the founder and CEO of the graduate recruitment platform Bright Network, told BI that AI can be very advantageous in the job hunt, especially for underrepresented and neurodiverse candidates.

"It helps level the playing field by offering better preparation opportunities, such as practice assessments and mock interviews, that may not have been otherwise available," he said.

Candidates can take advantage of many tools, such as CV builders like Kickresume and mock interview platforms like Interview Warmup by Google. Indeed's Pathfinder also helps people discover career paths that fit their skills.

Jason Heilman, the senior VP of product, automation, and AI at the staffing industry software company Bullhorn, told BI the company has a screening agent where candidates can conduct their first interview with an AI — something that could one day replace resumes entirely.

"You really get to see so much more," Heilman said of the technology. "It unlocks so much more of the person's potential beyond what a résumé could ever capture."

Heilman said it benefits candidates to be responsive and open to changes, even if it feels a bit strange at first.

"Be willing to try out these screeners," he said. "Lean into the opportunities to respond, and lean in when you are faced with new AI tools like this."

Cori Lunnen, the VP of recruitment marketing operations at HireClix, told BI that candidates should not hesitate to use AI tools to create a résumé, cover letter, or portfolio.

"The future is undeniably AI-driven," she said. "So some recruiters will want to see examples of how a candidate can successfully integrate AI-generated content with their own creativity."

The goal should be to use AI as a starting place, Lunnen said, "but then ultimately create something more unique or tailored to the opportunity it's designed to engage."

Be careful with prompts

According to Jennifer Burns, director of career development of Cornell University's executive MBA program, learning to put in the right prompts is crucial.

She advises candidates to put their resumes into ChatGPT along with the job description and ask a question like: "What are the 10 most important skills and keywords a hiring manager will look for to fill this role?"

"For the most useful output, you want to begin with input. For example, you can provide details such as your degree, your major, and your past experience," Burns told The Wall Street Journal.

"You can also input information about your major accomplishments, some of your highlights, and what motivates you, thinking about what you're good at and what you like doing. Then, after you share that information, you can ask specific questions."

Burns said AI tools can also help you determine good questions to ask at the end of the interview.

But she warned that candidates must ensure that everything makes sense and that they have a thorough understanding of the role. "Just putting in keywords for the sake of putting them in to match a job description isn't going to serve you well," she told the publication.

A personal touch is still important

On the recruiter's side, implementing AI can free up mental bandwidth, previously dominated by administrative tasks like scheduling, so recruiters can focus on providing a better experience for the candidates who move to the next stages.

But this has its downsides too. Uffindell said some recruiters are seeing a 500% increase in the number of applications, which makes it important to still stand out.

"It's important to view AI as a tool to support, not replace, your own words," Uffindell said. "While AI can help streamline the process, relying on it too heavily can lead to generic applications that fail to showcase a candidate's unique qualities."

Vrijen Attawar, a former career coach and now the founder and CEO of the AI-powered career guidance platform Careerspan, told BI that in this current environment, candidates should apply to fewer jobs so as to "not contribute to the application spam pile."

"Avoid the temptation to use easy apply or other similar tools to apply for jobs," he said. "Instead, save your time and sanity for the opportunities you can verify are real and excite you."

All AI tools have limitations. Some make things up or exaggerate information, so it is a candidate's responsibility to proofread everything and ensure it is accurate before submitting an application.

"ChatGPT 4's knowledge cut-off is April 2023, for example," Uffindell said. "So any major industry updates or company changes since then won't be included in ChatGPT outputs, so you'll need to do your own research, too."

Uffindell said personalizing each application to the specific role is still crucial because employers are looking for candidates who can communicate their strengths well and who have good soft skills.

"The strongest applications will combine AI's efficiency with the candidate's own knowledge," he said. "Showcasing not only the right skills but also the ability to navigate AI's limitations."

A law prohibiting children of a certain age from accessing social media is among the changes being implemented in Florida.

Japanese policymakers are increasingly anxious that the country's birth rate is nearing the point of no return.

Homebuyers and homeowners have been waiting for years for the right moment to buy and sell—could this finally be 2025?

Generative AI is providing personal style tips, translating family conversations, analyzing diets and transforming lives in countless ways, Axios readers tell us.

Why it matters: AI isn't only a workplace tool, and as it seeps into our lives, many are using chatbots every day to diagnose illnesses, mourn the dead or seek comfort when human companionship isn't available.

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What's next: As we enter year three of the generative AI revolution, we asked readers to tell us all the ways they've been using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot and other genAI tools — not for work but for everything else.

By the numbers: Recent research from Anthropic shows that the most popular use cases for the Claude chatbot account for only a small slice of how people use the tool.

• The top three ways people use Claude are for mobile app development (10.4%), content creation and communication (9.2%) and academic research and writing (7.2%).
• That leaves a whole lot of people using it for a whole lot of other tasks.

Fun fact: Axios' Maxwell Millington reports that "couples are split on whether it's acceptable to write their wedding vows with AI."

• According to Zola's First Look report for 2025, 51% of respondents are OK with the idea.

Style counsel

Auggie from Columbus works in AI and data science and writes, "Over the past year, I've started using ChatGPT as a personal stylist to get the most out of my purchases."

• "I share photos of the pieces I'm considering and ask questions like, 'What kinds of items would pair well with this jacket?' or 'Could I wear these pants both formally and casually?'"

Brainstorm buddy

Evelyn, a college student from Hingham, Mass., writes, "I use it to validate my brainstorms. If I have an assignment I will think about what I want to do and then when I decide I ask ChatGPT if it's a good idea or not."

Emily, who works in marketing in San Francisco, says, "I think what's been most useful about GenAI is having a thought partner."

• She says she used it to create a Golden Gate Park scavenger hunt for her niece, helping her find things kids like that she's unfamiliar with.

Felice from Marin county, Calif. says she is a visual learner and regularly asks ChatGPT to turn spreadsheets of numbers into infographics.

• "The infographic gives me a "snapshot" of a 30,000 ft view and then I can strategize based on the visual ( rather than rows of numbers). This is a 'first draft' of my thought process, so it is nothing I would bet the farm on; it is just a helpful general idea."

Scheduling assistant

Julian from Columbus, Ohio takes handwritten lists from images or screenshots and converts them into text.

• He writes, "My sister shared a printed schedule for my niece's basketball team, and I asked ChatGPT to analyze it and turn it into an .ics file. I then shared the file with my family so they could add it to their smartphone calendars."

Kitchen companion

Meg from Toronto, Canada says, "I've been using ChatGPT to take pictures of my meals and tell me how much protein is in it."

• She says she previously used paid apps and weighed all her food, but now "AI can do this with the snap of a photo."

C Davis from Phoenix, Ariz., writes, "I recently consulted ChatGPT regarding three different acid options (lemon vs apple cider vinegar vs sherry vinegar) for a fall salad. The advice was surprisingly nuanced and spot on — as if I had a chef on the line."

Joe, who is 73 years old, uses Perplexity AI to "find any food dish from anywhere in the world and have Perplexity convert it for the number of people I want to serve and give it to me in [a] guided recipe format."

Translator

Fadi from Lebanon uses genAI for parenting help for his 8-year old.

• "My son likes to hammer me with existential or puzzling questions when we're alone in the car," Fadi writes.
• Because his son doesn't speak English, Fadi will ask Gemini the question in English and tell it to reply out loud in French.

Berta from Sonoma uses ChatGPT's voice mode. She says that on her recent travels, "I could ask such random things like, I'm standing at the corner of X and Y in Barcelona, and on the second floor I see a mural. Please tell me the history of this mural."

• "We were traveling with people who were not fluent in English and I could ask Fernando [her name for her bot] to explain the information in French for our friends."

The bottom line: Most genAI evangelists will tell you that the only way to find your best personal uses for chatbots is to keep trying different things.

• There are so many drones in Ukraine that operators sometimes accidentally pick up other feeds.
• Those moments can provide incoming attack warnings and intelligence.
• It is an emerging element within the constantly evolving drone war.

There are so many drones in the sky in Ukraine that drone operators are occasionally stumbling onto drone feeds and picking up unexpected intel. Neither side can be sure though when they are going to luck into this or when the enemy will suddenly get insight into their own activities.

Drones are being used more in Russia's war against Ukraine than in any other conflict in history, including cheap first-person-view drones. They are being used to attack troops and vehicles, complicating battlefield maneuvers, and they're so prolific that ground troops often struggle to sort out which ones are their drones and which belong to the enemy.

Ukrainian drone operators told Business Insider that extensive drone warfare has resulted in unintentional feed switching.

When this occurs, operators on one side of the battlefield can see the feed of the other side's drone — typically airborne devices that can target soldiers and gather intelligence to direct fires. A drone operator in Ukraine said being able to see Russian drone feeds is "useful because you see where the enemy drone that wants to destroy you is flying."

That gives the unit a chance to take defensive action.

Samuel Bendett, a drone expert at the Center for Naval Analyses, described it as the wartime version of a common civilian occurrence. When you drive in your car and have your radio at a certain frequency, your radio can flip between different stations that use the same frequency. That is what is happening right now in Ukraine, Bendett said.

Fight for the spectrum

Jackie, a US veteran fighting in Ukraine, said: "Right now, there are two fights when we're fighting with drones. There's one that you can see on video. And there's one that's completely invisible." That invisible fight is the fight in the electromagnetic spectrum or "fight for the spectrum."

The electromagnetic spectrum can get "full" and get "crowded," he explained. When there are enough drones in an area, you'll have "a lot of the feeds between those drones transferring, basically switching between operators without intent."

When that situation happens, it means "the drone guy would just suddenly see some other drones feed," Jackie said. So when enough drones are in the sky, everyone is "constantly switching feeds between some other drone that they're not flying."

Bendett said it was possible to do this deliberately if you know the frequency your adversary is operating on, but most of the time, he said, it's accidental.

He said this sort of thing happens "because technologies for both sides are similar, and there's only so many operating frequencies you can hop on to actually pilot your drones."

Advantages and disadvantages

As neither side has dominated the electromagnetic spectrum through electronic warfare, both sides are experiencing all the advantages and disadvantages of these developments. Sometimes Ukraine is collecting intel, and sometimes it's Russia.

The feed can help operators helplessly realize an attack is incoming, and "it also can be very informative for drone crews, experienced ones to kind of determine the tactic of the adversary, how far the drone flies, how fast it flies, what's the drone route, what the drone is looking for, and so on and so forth," Bendett said.

But it's a hard thing to plan for given the chaotic nature of these occurrences.

Jackie shared that Ukraine has attempted to "play games with the signals," but Gregory Falso, an autonomous systems and cybersecurity expert at Cornell University, said that "it's probably not predictable when you'd be able to get these capabilities." It's more about seizing the advantage when the opportunity arises.

Switching signals

Falco said it would be difficult to tell if the enemy has access to a feed because "you don't have absolute certainty of where your band is at a given time and where you're projecting."

There are questions about whether this could be taken further, though, going from accidental insight to deliberately pirated drones. Right now, that's more theory than practice.

Whether any Ukrainian or Russian operators could actually get control of the other side's drone, rather than just being able to see through its eyes, probably depends on the drone, Falco said.

He explained that the spectral bands used to see drone feeds are likely very different from the ones that control it. And the bands used to receive signals — that let the operator see what the drone can see — are typically less protected than the ones that send the signals, which is how operators tell drones what to do.

He said the feed switching is "bound to happen" with so many drones in the sky and with different types of electronic warfare in play.

Solutions, Falco said, could involve something like added encryptions for drone feeds. But given the fast-moving, chaotic, and desperate nature of a lot of the fighting and the fact that drone operators can go through multiple drones a day and Ukraine, it may not be worth it. And if that's the case, this kind of thing will keep happening.

He said it was the type of thing civilians would frequently see if there was less regulation. "If we didn't have rules," and the likes of the United Nations body that allocates the radio spectrum didn't exist, "and companies didn't bother playing by the rules, then this would be a normal occurrence," Falco said.

Then, it would just be "a total shit show of hearing and seeing everything that you're not supposed to see."

Ukraine, often short on other weaponry as it faces off against Russia's larger military, has been relying on drones, including to replace ammunition amid its shortages. And even the cheap drones have let Ukraine destroy Russian equipment worth millions.

Ukraine's drones are critical assets in the war and are said to account for at least 80% of Russia's frontline losses. Drones are super vital. They're one of our more clever casualty-producing weapons," Jackie said.

• "Missing You" is the latest adaptation of a book by Harlan Coben.
• It follows detective Kat Donovan whose fiancé disappeared.
• The series includes several actors from other Netflix shows based on Coben's work.

The latest Harlan Coben Netflix thriller, "Missing You," features a handful of actors from previous adaptations of the author's mystery novels.

Rosalind Eleazar plays detective Kat Donovan, a woman whose fiancé, Josh Buchanan (Ashley Walters), disappeared without a trace eleven years ago.

When she spots his profile on a dating app it forces her to reexamine her life, including the suspicious circumstances surrounding her father's death.

"Missing You" was released on Netflix exactly one year after the previous Coben series, "Fool Me Once," starring Michelle Keegan, which was one of the streamer's most-watched shows of the year.

The cast of the new series includes three actors who subscribers might recognize from previous Coben adaptations.

Many Americans might be wondering about the mail schedule on the holiday.

Many Americans will be craving some fast food on the first day of the new year—here's which restaurant chains stay open on the holiday and which do not.

Your run to the grocery store could stop short as some retailers give the day off to employees and subsequently close for the holiday.