AI agents are all the rage—but research shows they leak private data

AI agents are all the rage—but research shows they leak private data
A real-world credential leakage case discovered in the study. The developer embedded a Base64-encoded client secret directly in the skill’s source code, exposing the credential to anyone who installs or inspects the skill. Credit: arXiv (2026). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2604.03070

Before you prompt AI to answer another question or perform another task, a Wake Forest computer scientist wants you to know it could expose your sensitive data.

Ying Zhang, an assistant professor in Wake Forest University’s Department of Computer Science, studies security in software engineering. Her latest research, “How Your Credentials Are Leaked by LLM Agent Skills,” explores how large language model (LLM) agents make data vulnerable to attacks.

LLM agents are autonomous AI systems that analyze circum...

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Roman telescope aims to directly image exoplanets 1,000 times fainter than current limits

Enabling images of distant worlds
An artist’s concept of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/SVS

The Roman Space Telescope is designed to directly image exoplanets using complex optomechanical systems developed by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

The Roman Space Telescope has been under development for about a decade under NASA’s leadership and is scheduled to launch on Aug. 30, 2026, at 7:26 a.m. EDT. The telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, who was considered the architect of NASA’s modern science program and, among other efforts, dedicated herself to the success of the Hubble Space Telescope project.

Roman’s destination is the L2 Lagrange point, a specific location 1...

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This yeast supplement may boost cancer-fighting immunity

Natural Supplement May Boost Cancer Immunity
A common yeast supplement boosted cancer-fighting immunity in obese mice and even reversed immune damage that persisted after weight loss. Credit: Shutterstock

A simple yeast-based food supplement may help restore the immune system’s ability to fight cancer, according to new research in mice. Scientists found that yeast beta-glucan reprogrammed early immune cells in the bone marrow, leading to stronger, longer-lasting cancer-fighting responses against colorectal, skin, and breast cancer cells.

In experiments with obese laboratory mice, the researchers found that adding the supplement to the animals’ diets changed the way immune cells developed and produced stronger cancer-fighting responses.

Obesity can interfere with immune function, making it more difficult for the body to re...

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Scientists just imaged the hidden quantum shape of a molecule

An illustration of how researchers used state-of-the-art photoelectron spectroscopy (left hand side) with a lab-based soft-X-ray light source that provides ultrashort light pulses, which was combined with powerful mathematical algorithms, to image the wavefunction of electron orbitals (right-hand side).
An illustration of how researchers used state-of-the-art photoelectron spectroscopy (left hand side) with a lab-based soft-X-ray light source that provides ultrashort light pulses, which was combined with powerful mathematical algorithms, to image the wavefunction of electron orbitals (right-hand side).

Photo: Lukas Kroll

A new imaging breakthrough could let scientists watch a molecule’s quantum wavefunction change in 3D on femtosecond timescales.

Researchers have found a way to create a complete 3D image of a molecule’s wavefunction, one of quantum mechanics’ most fundamental yet elusive features...

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