Daily English Article — August 16, 2026

Jason Arday, who became Cambridge University's youngest ever Black professor at age 37 in 2023, was found dead at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon. Emergency services discovered him unresponsive, and the Metropolitan Police stated that his death is being treated as unexpected but not suspicious. Arday had recently resigned from his position as professor of sociology of education amid serious allegations of plagiarism that sparked widespread public attention and intense media scrutiny.

Arday's family released a statement expressing profound grief, describing him as 'an amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.' They directly attributed his death to what they called 'a campaign of misinformation,' saying it had become too much for him to bear. Arday himself had repeatedly denied intentional plagiarism, though he acknowledged errors in his earlier academic work, attributing them in part to his autism, which he said caused him to rely on mimicry when processing information.

The plagiarism controversy was initially ignited by Nathan Cofnas, a self-described 'race realist' academic who had himself been dismissed from Cambridge in 2024. Cofnas claimed to have identified numerous instances of plagiarism across Arday's publications. Arday responded publicly, arguing that similar scrutiny applied to other academics would yield comparable results and expressing frustration at what he characterized as deeply unfair and cruel treatment that went far beyond legitimate scholarly criticism.

In announcing his resignation the previous week, Arday stated that the 'personal cost' of ongoing public scrutiny had become 'too great.' He emphasized that stepping down should not be interpreted as an admission of guilt, stressing that the 'relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary' had taken a profound toll on both himself and his loved ones. Cambridge vice-chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice described the news as 'desperately saddening,' offering heartfelt condolences to Arday's family and friends.

Education Secretary Lucy Powell said she was 'deeply shocked and saddened' by Arday's death and urged the public to remember that real people and their families are affected by public controversies. Cambridge University had initially indicated that plagiarism claims concerning Arday's doctoral thesis and journal publications had been under investigation by Liverpool John Moores University. His death has prompted broader reflection on the devastating human consequences of intense online and media campaigns targeting individuals.

Dutch cybersecurity authorities have issued a warning that a high-severity vulnerability in macOS, identified as CVE-2026-65400, is being actively exploited in the wild. The Netherlands National Cyber Security Centrum (NCSC) reported that multiple systems with port 5900 exposed to the internet had been compromised, with attackers gaining root-level access. In each confirmed case, the attackers installed a Monero cryptocurrency miner, which silently uses the infected machine's computing resources to generate digital currency for the attacker.

The vulnerability, rated 7.1 out of 10 in severity, resides in macOS's built-in screen sharing functionality. Screen sharing allows a remote party to view a computer's display and control its keyboard and mouse. The flaw specifically involves faulty 'state management,' the system responsible for tracking preceding events, user interactions, and system variables. By exploiting this flaw, an attacker without any valid credentials can gain unauthorized access to an affected Mac and execute malicious code remotely.

Apple released a patch addressing CVE-2026-65400 last week for macOS Tahoe, Sequoia, and Sonoma. Details of the vulnerability were publicly disclosed at Black Hat, one of the world's most prominent cybersecurity conferences. Apple's advisory noted that the flaw 'may' allow an unauthenticated attacker to gain access, which critics observed was notably cautious language. Such hedged phrasing is common among technology companies when officially acknowledging security flaws, as it avoids overstating risk before a patch is widely deployed.

The attack vector requires that port 5900 be accessible from the internet, which occurs automatically when macOS's screen sharing feature is enabled. While most home routers block this port by default, misconfigured or enterprise-level network setups may inadvertently expose it. Security professionals strongly recommend that users connect via VPN or SSH tunneling rather than leaving port 5900 open. Users are also advised to enable screen sharing only when actively needed and to disable it immediately after a session ends.

At present, observed exploitation appears limited to installing Monero mining software, which, while damaging to system performance, is less immediately harmful than other forms of malware. However, security experts warn that the same vulnerability could be leveraged to deploy credential-stealing malware or other malicious tools with far more serious consequences. The most critical protective measure is to install Apple's latest security update without delay and to navigate to System Settings, then General, then Sharing to verify that screen sharing is disabled.