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This OODA special report focuses on the Energy Sector. It is written both for firms that are in the sector and for those that seek to serve it with the products and services they need. Companies in this sector provide functions like exploration, production, marketing, refining and/or transporting of oil and gas products, coal and…
Dr. Bob has spent his life studying and manipulating and exploring the advanced nuances of signals processing. What he has been able to build at Bastille completely exposes the RF spectrum, making it easy to see and understand what is going on in your physical space. Read about his hard earned lessons, and where the…
There are not a lot of high schoolers that get an opportunity to intern at the Defense Information Systems Agency, but Cameron Forbes Over parlayed that experience into a decades long career as a cybersecurity profession currently running a robust practice at CrossCountry Consulting. “If executives don’t clearly understand the risk, he/she won’t make the…
The conduct of U.S. military cyber operations has significantly shifted—particularly in the last year. The Department of Defense’s newest cyber strategy, issued in September 2018, emphasizes a “persistent engagement” approach that moves the Department from a reactive state into a more proactive, assertive stance against national security threats in the cyber domain. This is also…
Neal Pollard is the CISO of UBS and has steadily built his career to safeguard people and information in a time of terrorism and cyber threats. Neal knows that how we respond to a significant incident can be the difference between success and failure. Read about how he has honed his career to become an…
Bobbie Stempfley has made huge contributions to our national cyber defense efforts for three decades through leadership roles within DISA, DHS, and now as the head of the CMU CERT. In this interview, Bobbie highlights her path in the industry and provides insights for future security concerns and building resiliency into your technology and organization.…
The use of deniable actors is hardly unique to Russia, but the state’s complicity and even outright involvement in organized crime is. OODA’s reports “The Russian Threat” suggests that “Russia should be considered a kleptocracy, where the rule of law exists as long as it supports the objectives of the state and the ruling oligarchs.”…
Putin’s Russia has demonstrated a penchant for relying on proxies to provide a degree of deniability while pursuing its military objectives. As noted in Christoph Zürcher’s book The post-Soviet wars: Rebellion, ethnic conflict and nationhood in the Caucasus, Putin’s popularity emerged in large part due to his successful resolution of the conflict with Chechnya, which…
The December 2016 “Grizzly Steppe” joint analysis report issued by the FBI and DHS provided a table of monikers attributable to various Russian cybercriminal organizations serving the state’s intelligence services. However, understanding what these names refer to is a challenge in and of itself. As noted by Florian Roth in a 2018 Medium article, similarities…
Humans are more connected now than ever before. However, half the global population is behind on the digital revolution and there is great regional disparity in the availability of affordable Internet. While reports show a growth rate of one million new users a day from 2018-2019, approximately 3 billion people are still not connected. SpaceX,…
Rama Polefka at Black Mountain Dynamics noticed a trend a long time ago: Young companies need a robust, powerful, secure IT infrastructure. But their founders are often so busy creating the company, the IT lags behind and compromises their growth. He has spent his career working with startups to grow their IT at exactly the right…
OODA is pleased to announce that our Future Proof conference will be held on March 19, 2020 in Tysons Corner, Virginia. The Future Proof conference brings together the hackers, thinkers, strategists, disruptors, leaders, technologists, and creators with one foot in the future to discuss the most pressing issues of the day and provide insight into…
A recent RAND report looks at the role of information warfare and how targeted social media campaigns and similar approaches are deployed to cause damage to a state. RAND has coined the term “hostile social manipulation” to capture this phenomenon, which builds on familiar influence techniques including propaganda and disinformation. Hostile social manipulation is used…
Gary Harrington’s career in special forces and the CIA could be the basis for a very successful action movie. For over thirty years, he directly planned or executed dozens of unconventional warfare operations on our Nation’s adversaries.
Managing the nexus between physical and cyber security is possible with a deliberate mindset and full cooperation and integration between the two teams. Physical security practitioners should view cyber defense experts as a vital component of their risk management strategy.
Zoom recently introduced VISS, an open source Vulnerability Impact Scoring System designed to evaluate and prioritize vulnerabilities based on actual exploitation, not just theoretical impact. The customizable framework offers a web-based interface and algorithms, intending to complement the widely used CVSS. VISS, tested within Zoom’s bug bounty program, has reportedly increased critical vulnerability reports by…
Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared briefly lost for words on Thursday when confronted with an AI-generated version of himself. The “double” took the opportunity to put a question to Putin about artificial intelligence during an annual news conference where dozens of callers from around the country were hooked up to the president by video link.…
Sushi’s Chief Technology Officer warned of an industry-wide exploit related to a Ledger’s Connect Kit as the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol was hit by a front-end exploit. Ledger, a maker of hardware wallets, provides Connect Kit software that decentralized finance protocols such as Lido, Metamask and Coinbase, along with Sushi, use to connect decentralized applications…
The owner of the U.S. Bancorp Tower, Oregon’s largest office building, has deployed a remote-controlled security robot to help patrol the downtown property. The robot, weighing 420 pounds at 5-foot-5, began patrolling the perimeter of the parking garage next to the downtown building this month, according to Unico Properties, co-owner and manager of the 42-story “Big…
The pace is astonishing: In the wake of the brutal attacks by Hamas-led militants on October 7, Israeli forces have struck more than 22,000 targets inside Gaza, a small strip of land along the Mediterranean coast. Just since the temporary truce broke down on December 1, Israel’s Air Force has hit more than 3,500 sites.…
Alphabet Inc.’s Google announced a slate of upgraded artificial intelligence features for its cloud-computing clients as the technology giant tries to catch up with rivals, including the allied forces of Microsoft Corp. and startup OpenAI, who have taken advantage of the AI boom. The company on Wednesday unveiled Gemini Pro for enterprises, allowing developers to…
Google on Wednesday announced MedLM, a suite of new health-care-specific artificial intelligence models designed to help clinicians and researchers carry out complex studies, summarize doctor-patient interactions and more. The move marks Google’s latest attempt to monetize health-care industry AI tools, as competition for market share remains fierce between competitors like Amazon and Microsoft . CNBC spoke…
OpenAI and Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider and Politico, signed a deal to share content on ChatGPT. The deal allows ChatGPT to pull information to user prompts from articles published on Axel Springer’s publications and provide links to full stories for transparency. It will also enable Axel Springer to build with OpenAI’s technology,…
Tesla has debuted a new version of its humanoid robot that can squat without falling over and pick up an egg without breaking it. Elon Musk’s electric car company has teased updates to the company’s Optimus automaton in a video posted on Twitter. In a demonstration video, Tesla’s robotics division showed off what it called…
The recent generative AI boom has companies across industries investing massive amounts of time and money into AI. Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, thinks most of them are just “lighting money on fire.” The CEO, who runs one of the world’s largest networks underlying the global internet, made the statement onstage at the FortuneBrainstorm…
Google has released a new Pro model of its latest AI, Gemini, and company sources say it has outperformed GPT-3.5 (the free version of ChatGPT) in widespread testing. According to performance reports, Gemini Ultra exceeds current state-of-the-art results on 30 of the 32 widely-used academic benchmarks used in large language model (LLM) research and development.…
Thai MP Rukchanok “Ice” Srinork, 28, has been sentenced to six years in prison for tweets criticizing the monarchy, under Thailand’s strict lese-majeste laws. Released on bail pending an appeal, she’s barred from repeating the offense. Her party, Move Forward, faced obstacles in forming a government due to their stance on reforming these laws, leading…
In a chaotic scene at India’s parliament, at least two individuals stormed into the chamber, spraying colored gas and shouting slogans. MPs and security officials attempted to apprehend one intruder seen jumping from table to table before being overpowered. The breach, occurring on the 22nd anniversary of a deadly militant attack on India’s parliament, led…
Argentina’s new government under President Javier Milei plans to devalue its currency by over 50% against the US dollar as part of an “economic shock therapy” to address the country’s severe crisis. Economy Minister Luis Caputo unveiled substantial cuts in public spending, targeting subsidies for fuel and transport, and freezing specific government contracts and advertising…
Dozens were injured in a missile strike on Kyiv overnight, damaging hospitals and kindergartens; six children were among the 53 injured. The strike happened after President Zelensky’s US visit for military aid proved unsuccessful. The EU plans to discuss further aid for Ukraine as Zelensky promises a response. Kyivstar, Ukraine’s major network, was hit by…
The largest mobile network operator in Ukraine, Kyivstar, suffered a massive cyberattack on Tuesday, disrupting services for millions of users. CEO Oleksandr Komarov attributed the attack to the ongoing conflict with Russia, stating that the company’s IT infrastructure had been partly destroyed. The attack affected mobile and internet services, even impacting air raid alert systems…
Harry Coker has been confirmed as the new National Cyber Director for the White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD), with a 59-40 vote by the US Senate. With an extensive background as the former executive director of the NSA and various leadership roles in the CIA, Coker steps into this crucial position,…
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) unveiled draft guidance and capabilities to ensure the secure utilization of Google Workspace (GWS) services by federal agencies. The proposed Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) configuration baselines cover nine GWS services, including Calendar, Chat, Drive, Gmail, Meet, and others. Agencies are urged to adopt these baselines, tailor…
Zero Networks, a cybersecurity startup established in 2019 and headquartered in Tel Aviv and Orlando, has secured $20 million in a Series B funding round, bringing their total raised capital to $45 million. Led by US Venture Partners and joined by CyberArk, F2 Capital, Pico Venture Partners, Venrock, and angel investors, the investment aims to…
Essential AI, an artificial intelligence startup founded by two authors of a seminal research paper at Google is disclosing details for the first time Tuesday, saying it has raised $56.5 million in new funding. The company will use AI for corporate functions such as data analysis and promises to automate monotonous tasks, work that Chief…
Ukraine’s largest telecom operator, Kyivstar, got hit by a major cyberattack on Tuesday, leaving millions of people without cell service and internet. Kyivstar customers began complaining about network and internet outages in the early morning. The company later reported via Facebook that it got hit by a “powerful” cyberattack that led to a “large-scale technical failure.”…
Auto maker Jaguar Land Rover has a long-term plan to transform its product range — but it’s also transforming its internal IT. Anthony Battle is leaning heavily on AI and IA — artificial intelligence and intelligent automation — to deliver digital transformation at luxury auto maker Jaguar Land Rover. Battle joined JLR as group chief digital and…
No one talks about the uncanny valley that much anymore — it’s that weird feeling you get when you look at a CGI image and it doesn’t quite look completely real. With AI image generation, there might be a new concept you could call the uncanny friend. Recently, Meta released a new standalone AI image…
It’s done. It’s over. Two and a half years after it was first introduced—after months of lobbying and political arm-wrestling, plus grueling final negotiations that took nearly 40 hours—EU lawmakers have reached a deal over the AI Act. It will be the world’s first sweeping AI law. The AI Act was conceived as a landmark bill…
Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who took office on Sunday, announced that Economy Minister Luis Caputo will announce sweeping “shock” therapy plans at 5 p.m. today. The new economic measures will sharply reduce state spending, reduce the size of the public sector, and devalue the peso. Read More: https://www.reuters.com/markets/argentina-braces-economic-shock-package-peso-shackled-2023-12-12/
On Monday, a joint report by Microsoft, PwC, and SentinelOne claimed that the recently outed advanced persistent threat (APT) actor Sandman is linked to China. The security researchers highlighted links between Sandman APT attacks and STORM-0866/Red Dev 40 operations, a suspected China-based threat actor. Read More: https://www.securityweek.com/sandman-cyberespionage-group-linked-to-china/
On Tuesday, Yemen’s Houthis announced that they conducted a military operation against a Norweigan commercial tanker, the STRINDA. The Houthis believed the ship was delivering crude oil to an Israeli terminal. Read More: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/cruise-missile-yemen-strikes-tanker-ship-us-officials-2023-12-12/
BlackCat/Alphv is a notorious Russian-speaking ransomware group that has operated since November 2021. The Tor-based BlackCat/Alphv leak website has been offline since December 7, reportedly due to law enforcement action. Read More: https://www.securityweek.com/law-enforcement-reportedly-behind-takedown-of-blackcat-alphv-ransomware-website/
On Monday, Poland’s parliament backed Donald Tusk to become the next prime minister in a 248-201 vote. Tusk is a former European Council president and has vowed to mend relations with Brussels over democratic standards. Read More: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/all-eyes-polish-parliament-tusk-set-become-pm-2023-12-11/
On Monday, India’s Supreme Court upheld a 2019 decision to revoke the special status for the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to integrate Jammu and Kashmir more closely with the central Indian government, and implement local polls by Sept. 30 of next year. Read More:https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-top-court-orders-elections-kashmir-by-sept-2024-2023-12-11/
Kentucky-based Norton Healthcare began notifying about 2.5 million of its customers that ransomware actors obtained their personal information during an extortion incident in May 2023. Read More: https://www.securityweek.com/norton-healthcare-ransomware-hack-2-5-million-personal-records-stolen/
Cisco researchers recently observed the North Korea-linked Lazarus hacking group deploy three Dlang malware families against various targets in the manufacturing, agriculture, and physical security sectors. Dlang is popular among some malware developers due to its easy learning curve and cross-application versatility but is an uncommon programming language overall. Read More: https://www.securityweek.com/north-korean-hackers-developing-malware-in-dlang-programming-language/
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told lawmakers on Wednesday that he would pull the plug on the cryptocurrency industry if he had the power. “I’ve always been deeply opposed to crypto, bitcoin, etcetera,” he said in response to a question from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D.-Mass., about the use of cryptocurrencies by terrorists, drug traffickers and rogue…
Microsoft Corp. is teaming up with labor unions to create “an open dialogue” on how artificial intelligence will impact workers. The Redmond, Washington-based software giant is forming an alliance with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, which comprises 60 labor unions representing 12.5 million workers, the companies said in a joint…
European Union policymakers agreed on Friday to a sweeping new law to regulate artificial intelligence, one of the world’s first comprehensive attempts to limit the use of a rapidly evolving technology that has wide-ranging societal and economic implications. The law, called the A.I. Act, sets a new global benchmark for countries seeking to harness the potential…
The role(s) will generative AI play in the future of robotics? The current rate of change makes it hard to predict very far into the future. Foundation models represent a major shift in how the best machine learning models are created, and we are already seeing some impressive near-term accelerations in natural language interfaces. They offer…
French generative artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI announced today it has closed on its second bumper funding round of the year, raising 385 million euros, or around $415 million, in a deal led by prominent venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The latest round is said to bring Mistral AI’s value to around…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Washington, DC on Monday for meetings at the White House and the United States Capitol as right-wing US Republicans resist efforts to send more money to support Ukraine’s response to Russia’s full-scale invasion. Zelensky is also expected to address US senators on Tuesday morning. The meetings come as…
Britain and Norway plan to help Ukraine bolster Black Sea security amid its war with Russia by transferring two Royal Navy Vessels to them. The focus on maritime operations has increased after nearly two years of war. Ukraine has targeted Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which is based in the annexed Crimea peninsula, as it has…
The United States, which was the sole vote against a United Nations resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, came under growing criticism on Saturday by a number of governments, human rights groups and aid organizations that warned of catastrophic consequences for civilians in the war-torn territory. With its veto in the U.N. Security Council…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke on Sunday, offering sharply different accounts of what was said in a reflection of the strained relationship between the two leaders since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. Mr. Netanyahu said he was dissatisfied with positions that Moscow had…
Critical vulnerabilities in a Delta OT monitoring product can allow hackers to hide their destructive activities from the victim. The affected product is Delta’s InfraSuite Device Master and the existence of the vulnerabilities came to light in late November. InfraSuite Device Master is described by the vendor as a data center facility monitoring software that…
Researchers have warned that powerful AI models could be used to supercharge online disinformation, cyberattacks or creation of bioweapons. European Union negotiators clinched a deal Friday on the world’s first comprehensive artificial intelligence rules. Negotiators from the European Parliament and the bloc’s 27 member countries overcame big differences on controversial points including generative AI and…
Meta is introducing default end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for chats and calls across Messenger and Facebook, the company revealed on Wednesday. E2EE ensures that messages content is only visible to the person sending the message and the one receiving it. End-to-end encrypted chats have been available in Messenger since 2016, but as a Secret Conversations feature…
U.K. regulators said they are examining Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI, marking a first push by one of the world’s most influential competition authorities to scrutinize the relationship between the tech giant and the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said Friday that it is seeking feedback on whether the partnership—and recent…
The recent step-change in AI opens new avenues for the development of artificial intelligence agents, independent programs or pieces of software that can interact with and act upon the outside world. Agents are already all around us, from advanced driver-assistance systems to smart speakers that can make to-do lists or provide real-time information on weather and…
Advanced Micro Devices is starting to roll out its newest chips for artificial intelligence, the company said on Wednesday, presenting Nvidia with perhaps its toughest challenge yet in the race to supply semiconductors that undergird the AI boom. The chips are expected to become widely available as manufacturers of servers incorporate them into their systems…
Reliable Robotics, a developer of autonomous flight control systems retrofitted in fixed-wing aircraft, said Wednesday it has successfully completed a remotely piloted flight of a Cessna 208B Caravan commanded from a control center 50 miles away. The flight, which had no human safety pilot onboard, took place last month. The aircraft took off from Hollister Municipal…
Google just announced Gemini, its most powerful suite of AI models yet, and the company has already been accused of lying about its performance. An op-ed from Bloomberg claims Google misrepresented the power of Gemini in a recent video. Google aired an impressive “what the quack” hands-on video during its announcement earlier this week, and columnist…
The Israeli military said on Thursday that fighters from the Lebanese Shia group carried out an antitank attack in northern Israel, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn that Beirut would be turned “into Gaza” if Hezbollah, which supports the Palestinian group Hamas, started an all-out war. The Israeli army said its jets struck a…
Taiwan has said that a dozen Chinese fighter jets and a balloon crossed the Taiwan Strait’s sensitive median line, as Taipei is on high alert for Chinese interference ahead of elections next month. While Beijing has been sending warplanes and vessels around Taiwan on a near-daily basis, nighttime activity by Chinese aircraft and the appearance…
US officials urge Israel to protect Gaza civilians but are unlikely to back calls for permanent truce as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) prepares to meet. The council is expected to convene on Friday to discuss a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the two-month-long war. Despite Washington’s warnings to Israel, the US is…
The Bluetooth protocol suffers from an authentication bypass flaw, CVE-2023-45866, allowing attackers within Bluetooth range to connect to vulnerable devices without user confirmation. This flaw, discovered by software engineer Marc Newlin, permits the injection of keystrokes, potentially enabling unauthorized actions like app installations or message forwarding. Newlin observed this issue in macOS, iOS, Android, and…
The United States and the United Kingdom have taken legal actions against two Russian individuals linked to cyber operations conducted for Russia’s FSB security service. Ruslan Aleksandrovich Peretyatko and Andrey Stanislavovich Korinets face charges related to computer fraud in the US for their alleged involvement in cyberespionage activities targeting government agencies, defense firms, and various…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that he will run in the 2024 presidential election. He is almost certain to win a fifth term as president, allowing him to continue leading Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. The decision comes as little surprise, with Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine seen as having boosted patriotic support for…
The cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks disclosed that APT28, a Russian state-sponsored threat group, exploited a zero-click Outlook vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397) in attacks targeting around 30 organizations across 14 nations, including NATO countries. This critical vulnerability, capable of being triggered through crafted email messages without requiring the recipient to open the email, was initially identified in…
The latest security update from WordPress tackles a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability that stems from a property oriented programming (POP) chain issue. This flaw, introduced in WordPress core 6.4, could potentially enable attackers to execute PHP code on vulnerable websites. Although the vulnerability isn’t directly exploitable within core, when combined with certain plugins,…
OpenAI has a new board, but its directors may still confront the same old problem. The artificial-intelligence startup’s unusual business structure that gave oversight of its for-profit business to a nonprofit board will be an unresolved issue for the new board to tackle. A popular suggested fix: Dissolve the nonprofit, say corporate and nonprofit directors,…
Meta Platforms Inc. is looking to promote the responsible development of artificial intelligence systems with a new initiative called Purple Llama. Announced today, it’s a project that Meta says will slowly make available all of the tools and evaluations the AI development community needs to build open generative AI models in a safe and responsible…
Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft said at an AMD investor event Wednesday they will use AMD’s newest AI chip, the Instinct MI300X. It’s the biggest sign so far that technology companies are searching for alternatives to the expensive Nvidia graphics processors that have been essential for creating and deploying artificial intelligence programs such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.…
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