Tony Glover
United States to regulate AI
US President Joe Biden has issued an executive order aimed at regulating artificial intelligence (AI), urging Congress to pass the necessary legislation as swiftly as possible. The announcement was made only 48 hours before tomorrow’s Global AI Summit in the UK, which US Vice President Kamala Harris will attend. The push to swiftly legislate indicates that the threat of AI is being taken seriously globally, with governments taking a coordinated approach. A mass of legislation and backroom deals with IT companies is surely set to follow.
West’s intelligence services join forces with Big Tech
In what the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is billing as “their first-ever joint public appearance”, the heads of the intelligence services of five Western governments, known as the “Five Eyes” are now meeting in Palo Alto, California, the heart of Silicon Valley.
Cost of texting fraud rises fivefold in three years
The official cost of texting fraud in 2022 rose to $330 million, representing a fivefold increase since 2019, with an average cost of $1,000 to the victims concerned. But the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which issued the figures, acknowledges that this is only the tip of a gigantic cybercrime iceberg, as most phone scams go unreported.
Millions of individuals’ DNA selling for a dollar a piece
At least seven million customers of San Francisco-based DNA company, 23andMe, are now seeing their confidential and highly personal genetic data up for sale on the internet. The hackers are also offering the millions of victims’ personal email addresses for good measure and to best assist potential blackmailers and fraudsters.
EU wakes up to the global supply chain threat
Systems powered by artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and cutting-edge microchips, together with genetic engineering, are being viewed with suspicion by the European Commission. As a result, the European Union (EU) is now in close and intense consultation with the EU’s 27 member states to establish an argument for potential trade bans and investment screenings.
Unknown threat actor targets the US Red Cross
The cyber-war just got dirtier. A year or two back, an age in cyber-years, even the most ruthless cyber-gangs avoided attacking medical facilities to create a better public image in the eyes of the hacker community. Their stance has weakened somewhat since then, with attacks on the health sector becoming more common. But a recent attack on the US Red Cross is unusual enough to ring alarm bells outside the cybersecurity community.
US-China cyber-war reaches Ethiopia
The news of the arrest of an IT administrator at the US Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research for allegedly stealing classified defense documents and delivering them to a foreign power is sending shock waves across government departments. There are also indications that China, currently known to be conducting a long-standing cyber-espionage campaign against the US, may be involved behind the scenes.
FBI sounds second call to arms to fight cybercrime
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is increasingly anxious to enlist the private sector in the losing battle it is fighting against global cybercrime and espionage. Speaking in Washington on Monday, FBI director Christopher Wray stressed the importance of “collaborative, public-private” operations in fighting cybercrime, developing a strategy previously outlined by FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate at a Boston cybersecurity conference three months ago.
Western Union payouts highlight the “insider threat”
International money transfer company, US-based Western Union, has been obliged to pay a further $40 million on top of a previous $365 million payout to defrauded customers. As many customers were the victims of phishing attacks in which Western Union had already admitted some of its staff were complicit, the payouts highlight the growing “insider threat” now facing multinational corporations.
Cloud security compromised by constant upgrades
There is mounting evidence that companies may have been naive in accepting Big Tech’s optimistic assurances that sensitive data can be stored more securely in the cloud than on the company’s own servers. In its latest Attack Surface Threat report, Silicon Valley-based cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks reveals that the cloud has now become “the dominant attack surface”, with four out of five security vulnerabilities observed in organizations across all sectors coming from a cloud environment.
“Jailbreaking” – cybercrime’s latest buzzword
When cybercriminals speak about “jailbreaking,” they are not discussing springing someone from prison. It refers instead to circumventing safety restrictions on AI-driven chatbots to effectively weaponize AI for criminal purposes.
Europol aims to dismantle the EU’s Euro188bn criminal economy
The European Police Office (Europol)’s first-ever threat assessment on the topic, ‘The other side of the coin: an analysis of financial and economic crime in the EU’, aims to shine a spotlight on a EUR 188 billion-plus international underground criminal economy.
Ransomware attack erases months of government records
A massive ransomware attack cost the Sri Lankan government four months of data and spread to UK government offices, including the Cabinet Office.
China uses AI to power new propaganda campaign
China has stepped up its propaganda and disinformation war with the US in the latest escalation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s cyber war on the West. Microsoft reports a marked rise in CCP-affiliated covert influence operations that engage with target US audiences on social media.