Franchise movies have been the dominant currency in Hollywood for years, but, lately, the upside of originality has been hard to miss.

A new hacking group has been rampaging the Internet in a persistent campaign that spreads a self-propagating and never-before-seen backdoor—and curiously a data wiper that targets Iranian machines.

Gesture control robotics replaces traditional buttons and joysticks with natural hand movements. This approach improves user ...