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Cyber Threat Analysis Report Volume 1 Edition 11

OODA’s Cyber Threat Analysis Report provides the “so what” behind the news and events we track on a daily basis. When it comes to putting cyber news in context, there really is no substitute for experience. The context in this report is provided by one of the most highly regarded cybersecurity practitioners and pioneer of…
Quantum Supremacy Is Here: The History Making Quantum Computing News We Have Been Anticipating Has Now Been Reported

Months ago we began to formulate an assessment that a history-making announcement in quantum computing was about to be made. For years the big players in quantum research, including IBM, Microsoft and Google, have been pursuing different methods of using quantum effects to do new calculations. Google had even made announcements indicating they thought they…
Mitigating Threats to Commercial Space Satellites

The space domain is transforming into an increasingly contested and congested environment. The President has referred to it as a critical warfighting domain and in response, the Department of Defense has recently established U.S. Space Command as a unified combatant command to employ space capabilities and lead space operations. In the private sector, we have…
Deception Needs to be an Essential Element of Your Cyber Defense Strategy

In the cyber defense community, we talk about a wide-range of risk mitigating technologies, strategies, and activities. We talk about attacker deterrence and increasing costs for the attacker. We invest in endpoint agents, threat intelligence, DLM, and other mitigating technologies on a daily basis. Here’s why one of the most compelling emerging use cases for…
The Executive’s Guide to Cyber Insurance

This special report provides an overview of the dynamic trends underway in the cyber insurance market, including actionable information that executives can put to use right now in determining the right approach to using cyber insurance to transfer risk. The report also provides insights which can be of use to any tech firm seeking to…
Which CIA Executive Impacted Snowden’s OODA Loop?

Edward Snowden’s new book is out next Tuesday, but OODA Loop got an advance copy. In the book, Snowden identifies two major catalysts that not only pushed him over the edge, but also informed his strategy for how he leaked the highly classified material. One of them was a complete surprise.
Cyber Threat Analysis Report Vol 1, Edition 10

OODA’s Cyber Threat Analysis Report provides the “so what” behind the news and events we track on a daily basis. When it comes to putting cyber news in context, there really is no substitute for experience. The context in this report is provided by one of the most highly regarded cybersecurity practitioners and pioneer of…
OODA Network Interview: David Bray

“People may look back at where we are now and discover we were in the middle of a cognitive cold war.” Collective intelligence is changing the way humans, organizations and machines support each other. Read about how David Bray from the People Centered Internet has spent his eclectic career working on the nuances of these…
Mitigating Risks To America’s Cognitive Infrastructure

This is the second of a series on our nation’s most neglected critical infrastructure, our cognitive infrastructure. The first post dove into the nature of the challenge and why it is so important for our future that the threats to our cognitive infrastructure are understood and addressed. This post flows from that one and suggests…
What To Do About Quantum Uncertainty

The term quantum uncertainty refers to the unique property of not being able to know the direction and speed of a particle at the same time. However if you were in Washington DC area this summer quantum uncertainty could also describe the confusion of defining the quantum threat to national security and countermeasures to contain…
OODA Network Interview: Stu Sjouwerman

Stu Sjouwerman’s has a knack of seeing future technology needs, and the timing to put solutions in place. He built and sold his endpoint solutions company before the market became over saturated with products and started focusing his efforts on security awareness and training in 2010. Read about his successful career of creating companies, including…
America’s Most Critical Infrastructure is also Our Most Neglected Infrastructure

This special report is the first of a two-part series designed to both inform OODA members on the nature of challenges to our nation’s most critical infrastructure and provide recommendations for action that can mitigate these challenges. Our thesis is that America’s most critical infrastructure is our cognitive infrastructure. This is also the most attacked…
Cyber Threat Analysis Report Vol 1, Edition 9

OODA’s Cyber Threat Analysis Report provides the “so what” behind the news and events we track on a daily basis. When it comes to putting cyber news in context, there really is no substitute for experience. The context in this report is provided by one of the most highly regarded cybersecurity practitioners and pioneer of…
OODA Network Interview: Jason Zann

Our latest OODA Network interview with Jason Zann from RiskIQ. Jason’s career path is a bit non-traditional and certainly didn’t follow a prescribed path. Read about how his ping-pong-ball approach has made allowed him to become a visionary in the cybersecurity industry and why RiskIQ thinks more transparency will take some of the bite out…
The DoDIIS Conference: Insights into how IT supports some of the most critical missions in the nation

With this post we provide some insights for OODA members from the 2-5 August 2019 DoDIIS conference. We have aimed this overview for three broad types of decision-makers: 1) The startup tech executive seeking to better serve government missions, 2) Business leaders seeking insights into global risks and mitigation efforts relevant to your organization, and…

Briefs

21 Vulnerabilities in Sierra Wireless Routers Could Expose Critical Infrastructure to Attacks

Forescout recently identified 21 vulnerabilities, named ‘Sierra:21’, in Sierra Wireless AirLink OT/IoT routers, with one critical and nine high-severity flaws. These vulnerabilities encompass issues like remote code execution, unauthorized access, authentication bypass, denial-of-service, and cross-site scripting. Exploitation could lead to credential theft, device control, and persistent access, posing risks across critical sectors like healthcare and…
Adobe ColdFusion Vulnerability Exploited in Attacks on US Government Agency

The US cybersecurity agency CISA issued an alert cautioning organizations about the exploitation of the Adobe ColdFusion vulnerability, CVE-2023-26360, initially patched in March 2023. Recent investigations uncovered its exploitation in attacks targeting a federal civilian executive branch (FCEB) agency. Threat actors used this vulnerability to gain access to two agency systems across separate incidents in…
GAO: Federal Agencies Yet to Fully Implement Incident Response Capabilities

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that among 23 federal agencies, only three have fully implemented event logging requirements for incident investigation and remediation. As of August 2023, 17 agencies were classified as ‘not effective,’ and three were at the basic level. This lack of implementation impedes the government’s ability to detect, investigate, and address…
Microsoft’s Copilot is getting OpenAI’s latest models and a new code interpreter

Microsoft is detailing a number of new features coming to its Copilot service soon, including OpenAI’s latest models. Copilot will get support for GPT-4 Turbo soon, alongside an updated DALL-E 3 model, a new code interpreter feature, and deep search functionality inside Bing. Copilot will soon be able to respond using OpenAI’s latest GPT-4 Turbo…
Staying Ahead Of The AI Curve: The Imperative Of Prudent Planning

It’s been about a year since major headlines spoke of an insider at Google that felt that Artificial Intelligence (AI) had become ‘sentient’. Fast forward to today where AI is everywhere and has been stirring conversations ever since. It should be clear that while AI is a potential threat, it is ultimately a tool that…
The first humanoid robot factory is about to open

A factory planning to pump out 10,000 two-legged robots a year is taking shape in Salem, Oregon — the better to help Amazon and other giant companies with dangerous hauling, lifting and moving. Why it matters: Agility Robotics says that its RoboFab manufacturing facility will be the first to mass-produce humanoid robots, which could be…
Meta and IBM form an AI Alliance, but to what end?

Meta, on an open source tear, wants to spread its influence further and wider in the ongoing battle for AI mindshare. This morning, the social network announced that it’s teaming up with IBM, whose audience is decidedly more corporate and enterprise, to launch the AI Alliance, a industry body to support “open innovation” and “open science”…
Europe’s world-leading artificial intelligence rules are facing a do-or-die moment

Hailed as a world first, European Union artificial intelligence rules are facing a make-or-break moment as negotiators try to hammer out the final details this week — talks complicated by the sudden rise of generative AI that produces human-like work. First suggested in 2019, the EU’s AI Act was expected to be the world’s first…
Microsoft Warns of Kremlin-Backed APT 28 Exploiting Critical Outlook Vulnerability

On Monday, Microsoft announced that it detected nation-state activity exploiting a now-patched critical security flaw in its Outlook email application. The company stated that the threat actor attempted to gain unauthorized access to victim accounts within Exchange servers and attributed the activity to Forest Blizzard (aka APT28, Fancy Bear). Read More: https://thehackernews.com/2023/12/microsoft-warns-of-kremlin-backed-apt28.html
Peru’s deadly gold mine attack highlights growing security risk, cost

A recent attack on a mine owned by Podersoa, one of Peru’s top gold producers, left nine workers dead and 10 others in critical condition. Similar attacks in recent years have left scores of workers dead and cost billions of dollars in losses. Peru’s government blamed illegal miners and criminal gangs targeting mines for the…
Israeli forces storm Gaza’s Khan Younis, hospitals overrun

In what appears to be the largest ground assault since a truce between Israel and Hamas collapsed last week, Israeli forces have launched their operation against the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli leaflets instructed residents to remain in shelters and hospitals. Read More: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-intensifies-southern-gaza-offensive-us-un-urge-civilian-protections-2023-12-05/
New Threat Actor ‘AeroBlade Targeted US Aerospace Firm in Espionage Campaign

Cybersecurity firm BlackBerry discovered that a previously unknown threat actor conducted a cyber espionage campaign against a US aerospace organization in September 2022 and July 2023. The early stage appeared to be a ‘testing phase’, while the later phase included updated tools. Read More: https://www.securityweek.com/new-threat-actor-aeroblade-targeted-us-aerospace-firm-in-espionage-campaign/
Remains of five crew found after US Osprey aircraft crashes off Japan

U.S. and Japanese dive teams found the remains of five crew members from a V-22 Osprey aircraft that went down off Japan’s western coast last week. Divers located one crew member’s body last week, and two more crew members remain missing. Read More: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/remains-five-crew-found-after-us-osprey-aircraft-crashes-off-japan-us-air-force-2023-12-04/
Microsoft Warns of Malvertising Scheme Spreading CACTUS Ransomware

Microsoft recently warned of a resurgence of CACTUS ransomware attacks spread through malvertising lures, likely perpetrated by the ransomware operator UNC2198 (aka Twisted Spider, Storm-0216). UNC2198 used this vector to deploy the DanaBot malware. Read More: https://thehackernews.com/2023/12/microsoft-warns-of-malvertising-scheme.html
Russian Pleads Guilty to Role in Developing TrickBot Malware

Russian national Vladimir Dunaev pleaded guilty to developing and using the Trickbot malware. Trickbot was used in cyberattacks that caused tens of millions of dollars in damages globally. Read More: https://www.securityweek.com/russian-pleads-guilty-to-role-in-developing-trickbot-malware/
Guyana will stay alert after Venezuela vote on territorial dispute

Guyanese Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo stated his country will remain vigilant after a Venezuelan referendum declared their territorial claim to the disputed Essequibo region. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has prohibited Venezuela from changing the status quo in the region, which is currently under Guyanese control. Read More: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/guyana-will-stay-alert-after-venezuela-vote-territorial-dispute-vp-2023-12-04/
OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap talks about ChatGPT launch, Dev Day and how Sam Altman thinks

Weeks before OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, the buzzy artificial intelligence company’s executive team devoted an entire meeting to debating one question: should they even release the tool? “If you know Sam [Altman], he likes to cycle through topics at a high rate, so the fact that we spent this much time on one topic…
Bitcoin Surges Past $42,000 as Crypto Rally Gathers Steam

The price of bitcoin (BTC) moved past $42,000 for the first time since April 2022 – a level not seen since before the crash of Terra – while Ether (ETH) moved past $2,200. Bitcoin’s price had been toying with the $40,000 level in recent days, but finally breached it Monday to trade above $41,600 as…
Robotics Q&A with Meta’s Dhruv Batra

This time it’s Dhruv Batra, research director, FAIR (The Fundamental AI Research) at Meta. The Facebook parent describes FAIR thusly: The Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team at Meta seeks to further our fundamental understanding in both new and existing domains, covering the full spectrum of topics related to AI, with the mission of advancing the…
OpenAI Agreed to Buy $51 Million of AI Chips From a Startup Backed by CEO Sam Altman

Sam Altman was reinstated soon after being fired as OpenAI CEO last month, but still stood to gain had the company continued to develop ChatGPT without him. During Altman’s tenure as CEO, OpenAI signed a letter of intent to spend $51 million on AI chips from a startup called Rain AI into which he has…
Meta’s AI chief doesn’t think AI super intelligence is coming anytime soon, and is skeptical on quantum computing

Meta’s chief scientist and deep learning pioneer Yann LeCun said he believes that current AI systems are decades away from reaching some semblance of sentience, equipped with common sense that can push their abilities beyond merely summarizing mountains of text in creative ways. His point of view stands in contrast to that of Nvidia CEO Jensen…
Yemen’s Houthis target Israel-linked ships in Red Sea. Here’s what to know

The Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen has launched a series of new attacks against Israel-linked vessels in the Red Sea to ramp up pressure on the US and Israel. This drew a response from a United States warship deployed in one of the world’s busiest maritime routes. The powerful group has promised more attacks will…
U.S. Is Pressing Israel and Hamas to Resume Talks, White House Official Says

The U.S. government is making an intense effort to persuade Israel and Hamas to resume negotiations so they can once again pause hostilities and exchange more prisoners for hostages, a White House spokesman said on Sunday. John Kirby said that Hamas was to blame for the breakdown in the negotiations, saying that it had not…
U.S. Navy Destroyer Shoots Down Three Drones in Red Sea, Pentagon Says

A U.S. Navy destroyer shot down three drones during a sustained attack in the Red Sea on Sunday, the Pentagon said. These attacks were said to have come from areas in Yemen that are controlled by Iranian-backed militants. Sunday’s attack underscored the risks that the fight in Gaza could spiral into a wider conflict. For…
Israel, Expanding Offensive, Tells More Gazans to Evacuate

Three days after the end of a weeklong truce, Israel sharply expanded its evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in preparation for an expected ground invasion in the southern part of the territory. The Israeli military said over the weekend that it had approved plans for a larger ground invasion. Israeli forces have…
Booking.com customers targeted in hotel booking scam

Scammers are hijacking hotels’ Booking.com accounts and using them as part of a hotel booking scam aimed at tricking guests into sharing their payment card information. Secureworks outlined an attack that occurred in October 2023, when a scammer contacted a hotel’s operations staff member by email. In this email they pretended to be a former…
North Korean Hackers Have Stolen Over $3 Billion in Cryptocurrency: Report

According to a report from threat intelligence firm Recorded Future, North Korean state-sponsored threat actors are believed to have stolen more than $3 billion in cryptocurrency. Collectively tracked as the Lazarus Group, the North Korean hackers specialize in cryptocurrency-related intrusions, mainly relying on spear-phishing emails to trick victims into authorizing malicious scripts and downloading malware.…
ICS/OTBreaches by Iran-Affiliated Hackers Spanned Multiple U.S. States, Federal Agencies Say

Multiple organizations have been breached in the United States by Iran-affiliated hackers who targeted a specific industrial control device due to the fact that it was Israeli-made, U.S. and Israeli authorities said. Although there is no evidence of Iranian involvement in the Oct. 7 attack into Israel by Hamas, it was expected that state-backed Iranian…
The Inside Story of Microsoft’s Partnership with OpenAI

It started around 11:30 a.m. on the Friday before Thanksgiving, Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, was having his weekly meeting with senior leaders when a panicked colleague told him to pick up the phone. An executive from OpenAI, an artificial-intelligence startup into which Microsoft had invested a reported thirteen billion dollars, was calling to explain…
New technique can accelerate language models by 300x

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a new technique that can significantly boost the speed of neural networks. They’ve demonstrated that altering the inference process can drastically cut down the computational requirements of these networks. In experiments conducted on BERT, a transformer model employed in various language tasks, they achieved an astonishing reduction of more…
Tiny living robots made from human cells surprise scientists

Scientists have created tiny living robots from human cells that can move around in a lab dish and may one day be able to help heal wounds or damaged tissue, according to a new study. A team at Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute have dubbed these creations anthrobots. The research builds on earlier work…
Sam Altman on being fired and rehired by OpenAI

When OpenAI’s board asked Sam Altman to return a day after they fired him, he initially felt defiant, hurt, and angry. “It took me a few minutes to snap out of it and get over the ego and emotions to then be like, ‘Yeah, of course I want to do that,’” he told me by phone…
‘The Gospel’: how Israel uses AI to select bombing targets in Gaza

Israel’s military has made no secret of the intensity of its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. In the early days of the offensive, the head of its air force spoke of relentless, “around the clock” airstrikes. His forces, he said, were only striking military targets, but he added: “We are not being surgical.” There has, however,…
The Israel-Hamas Truce Has Ended: What We Know So Far

Israel has resumed air raids in Gaza after a seven-day pause in fighting. The Israeli military announced on X, that the fighting is now resuming because “Hamas violated the operational pause” and “fired towards Israeli territory”. Minutes after the truce expired Israeli air raids and artillery fighting resumed in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s…
A Climate Summit Begins With Fossil Fuels, and Frustration, Going Strong

After decades of meetings, nations still haven’t agreed to curb the main driver of global warming. Countries talk about the need to cut the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet, but emissions are reaching record highs this year. After 27 years of meetings, countries still can’t agree to stop burning fossil fuels, which scientists…
Blinken Urges Israel to Take Concrete Steps to Aid Civilians as More Hostages Are Freed

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Israeli officials and a Palestinian leader on Thursday to seek improved conditions for Gaza’s civilians before the military resumed an expected offensive against Hamas in Gaza. With the pause in fighting set to expire in a matter of hours, Mr. Blinken said that the United States did…
Apple Patches WebKit Flaws Exploited on Older iPhones

Apple released security updates for macOS and iOS, addressing critical vulnerabilities in the WebKit browsing engine that have been exploited in attacks against older mobile devices. These flaws could allow attackers to hijack sensitive content or execute arbitrary code through malicious web content. The updates, iOS 17.1.2, iPadOS 17.1.2, macOS Sonoma 14.1.2, and Safari 17.1.2,…
Simple Attack Allowed Extraction of ChatGPT Training Data

Researchers from Google and various universities discovered a method to extract training data from ChatGPT, involving a simple prompt asking the AI to repeat a word indefinitely. This “silly” method led ChatGPT to output fragments of its training data, including identifiable information like email addresses and phone numbers. While this leaked data is sourced from…
US Sanctions North Korean Cyberespionage Group Kimsuky

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on the North Korean cyberespionage group Kimsuky, along with eight foreign agents linked to aiding Pyongyang’s weapons programs and evading sanctions. Kimsuky, associated with North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, operates as APT43, Velvet Chollima, and other aliases, primarily focusing on…
New ‘Turtle’ macOS Ransomware Analyzed

Patrick Wardle, a renowned cybersecurity expert focusing on Apple platforms, has examined a newly discovered macOS ransomware called Turtle. His analysis indicates that while the ransomware is not currently highly advanced, its presence underscores cybercriminals’ interest in targeting macOS users, with versions also seen for Windows and Linux. Despite being detected by several security vendors…
How OpenAI’s ChatGPT has changed the world in just a year

Over the course of two months from its debut in November 2022, ChatGPT exploded in popularity, from niche online curio to 100 million monthly active users — the fastest user base growth in the history of the Internet. In less than a year, it has earned the backing of Silicon Valley’s biggest firms, and been…
Big Companies Find a Way to Identify A.I. Data They Can Trust

Data is the fuel of artificial intelligence. It is also a bottleneck for big businesses, because they are reluctant to fully embrace the technology without knowing more about the data used to build A.I. programs. Now, a consortium of companies has developed standards for describing the origin, history and legal rights to data. The standards are…
Every Bitcoin payment ‘uses a swimming pool of water’

Every Bitcoin transaction uses, on average, enough water to fill “a backyard swimming pool”, a new study suggests. That’s around six million times more than is used in a typical credit card swipe, Alex de Vries of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, calculates. The figure is due to the water used to power and cool the millions…
Octopus-inspired robot arm can grab and lift a toy shark using suction

A team of engineers at Beihang University, working with a colleague from Tsinghua University, both in China, has designed, built and tested a haptically controlled octopus robot arm that is capable of grasping, lifting and carrying objects on land and underwater. In an article published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes how they…
Microsoft president says no chance of super-intelligent AI soon

The president of tech giant Microsoft said there is no chance of super-intelligent artificial intelligence being created within the next 12 months, and cautioned that the technology could be decades away. OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman earlier this month was removed as CEO by the company’s board of directors, but was swiftly reinstated after a weekend of…
Cyberattack on Pennsylvania Water Authority Disrupts OT Gear

The Aliquippa Municipal Water Authority, located in Pittsburgh, experienced a cyber attack this weekend. One of its booster stations was hacked by an Iranian-backed cyber group. The threat group is known as Cyber Av3ngers, and hacked a system known as Unitronics, which has components that are Israeli-owned. The technology that monitors water pressure at the…
Black Basta Ransomware Group Received Over $100 Million From 90 Victims

Victim organizations have paid more than $100 million in ransom demands to the ransomware group Black Basta since early 2022. The ransomware group has been active since April of 2022 and has been responsible for over 300 infections to date. Black Basta is the fourth-most active ransomware by number of victims. It was a major…
Palo Alto Networks Unveils New Rugged Firewall for Industrial Environments

Palo Alto Networks unveiled a rugged firewall for industrial environments and announced new features available through its Industrial OT Security offering on Wednesday. The new ruggedized next-generation firewall (NGFW) is the PA-450R and is designed for harsh industrial environments. It is recommended for operational technology environments such as power substations. The new technology uses machine…
Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza extended as more hostages freed

Israel and Hamas agreed to extend their truce for one more day, only minutes before it was due to expire. The temporary ceasefire was extended for a seventh day shortly before 5:00 GMT, after mediation with Qatar. The truce has led to the release of dozens of hostages kidnapped by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian…
Russian air strikes injure 10 in Donetsk, Ukraine says

Russian missile strikes injured 10 people and left several unaccounted for in Donetsk according to Ukrainian officials. Attacks have intensified recently in the eastern region of Ukraine. The shelling occurred overnight in several villages in Donetsk and injured people, including children, and left five people lost among the rubble. In the attack, an apartment block,…
Hamas says its militants killed three people at Jerusalem bus stop

Hamas claimed that the attackers behind a Jerusalem bus stop shooting that killed three people on Thursday were part of its military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades. Seven people were also injured in the attack that was carried out by two attackers. The shooting in Jerusalem comes amid a truce between Israel and Hamas which has paused…
South African man jailed for inciting pro-Jacob Zuma riot in 2021

Mdumiseni Zuma, a former security guard, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in inciting deadly riots in support of former President Jacob Zuma in 2021. He’s the first person convicted for the unrest following Jacob Zuma’s arrest. Although not related to the ex-president, Mdumiseni Zuma shared a video encouraging looting…
US military aircraft with six aboard crashes off Japan island

A US military aircraft, identified as a CV-22 Osprey, crashed near Yakushima Island in southwestern Japan with six individuals on board. One person was found dead at the crash site, and reports suggest the aircraft attempted to land at Yakushima Airport with an engine on fire. The plane, which disappeared from radar at 14:40 local…
Russia warns of tension as Finland shuts last border crossing

Finland closed its northern Russian border crossing in Raja-Jooseppi, citing a significant increase in asylum seekers directed by Russia, prompting condemnation from the Kremlin. The closure follows accusations of a Russian “hybrid operation” targeting Finland, with over 900 asylum seekers crossing this month, a stark rise from previous rates. Finland shut seven other southeastern border…
US says it foiled alleged plot to assassinate Sikh activist in New York

The US disrupted an alleged assassination attempt targeting an American supporting a Sikh separatist state in New York. Nikhil Gupta, an Indian accused of seeking a hitman, was actually negotiating with an undercover agent. Gupta, 52, detained in the Czech Republic awaiting extradition, allegedly planned the hit directed by an unnamed Indian official. The White…
CISA Warns of Unitronics PLC Exploitation Following Water Utility Hack

The Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa in Pennsylvania faced a cyberattack targeting an industrial control system (ICS) associated with water pressure regulation, with hackers taking control of a Unitronics Vision system, a programmable logic controller (PLC) and human-machine interface (HMI). Cyber Av3ngers, an anti-Israel group possibly linked to Iran, claimed responsibility, exploiting known vulnerabilities in…
New BLUFFS Bluetooth Attack Methods Can Have Large-Scale Impact: Researcher

EURECOM assistant professor Daniele Antonioli uncovered a series of attacks called BLUFFS targeting Bluetooth’s forward and future secrecy during session establishment. These attacks compromise session keys, allowing impersonation and man-in-the-middle intrusions. They exploit vulnerabilities in Bluetooth’s session key derivation, affecting a wide array of Bluetooth chips. The attacks enable real-time brute-forcing of session encryption keys,…
Okta Broadens Scope of Data Breach: All Customer Support Users Affected

Okta has expanded the scope of its security breach, revealing that hackers gained access to names and email addresses of all its customer support system users, impacting all Workforce Identity Cloud (WIC) and Customer Identity Solution (CIS) customers except those in specific government-grade environments. While user credentials and sensitive personal data weren’t included in the…
Keyless Goes Independent, Raises $6M for Biometric Authentication

Keyless, a British startup recently independent from Sift, has secured $6 million in funding led by Rialto Ventures, bringing its total raised amount to $26 million. The company specializes in privacy-preserving biometric authentication technology, aiming to streamline the entire identity lifecycle. Their products cover initial onboarding, account creation, transaction signing, and account recovery while complying…
AI could endanger humanity in 5 years: former Google CEO

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt thinks artificial intelligence capabilities could endanger humanity within five to ten years and companies aren’t doing enough to prevent harm. In an interview at Axios’ AI+ Summit, Schmidt compared the development of AI to nuclear weapons at the end of World War II. He said after Nagasaki and Hiroshima, it took…