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The Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community is an unclassified report released each year concurrent with Congressional testimony to Congress by the Director of National Intelligence. The report focuses on what the ODNI believes are the most direct, serious threats to the U.S. during the next year. OODA leverages the details of this…
Following the initial discussion at the April 2024 OODA Network Monthly Meeting of Domain-Specific Large Language Model Development and Use Cases, the conversation transitioned into technology topics, underscoring the need to stay informed about rapidly advancing tech domains, in a discussion of a broad swath of exponential technologies in the context of the current global…
AI Transparency is a concept centered on openness, comprehensibility, and accountability in technological systems. In the context of AI, transparency refers to the extent to which the inner workings and decision-making processes of AI systems are made accessible and understandable to users and other stakeholders. This includes insights into the data training, algorithms employed, and…
A recent article revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) would try to counter prolific ransomware gangs beyond using cyber responses, and also include psychological warfare into its toolbox.
Political Realignment and Regulatory Evolution Pave the Way for Blockchain Innovation in the Nation’s Capital
In the wake of the Ascension and Change/United Healthcare ransomware attacks, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) recently “announced the launch of the Universal PatchinG and Remediation for Autonomous DEfense (UPGRADE) program, a cybersecurity effort that will invest more than $50 million to create…
At this year’s RSA Conference a few weeks ago, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced the release of the United States’ International Cyberspace and Digital Policy Strategy – which we assume was a policy effort led (within State and across all federal agencies) by the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, where Nate Fick remains…
Future scenarios involving the Recoding of War Doctrine and the Disintermediation of the Theater of Operation by the Swarm Architecture are transformative, heralding a shift in the very fabric of military strategy and operations. While still evolving, these concepts suggest a future where warfare is increasingly dominated by autonomous systems and decentralized decision-making, fundamentally altering…
In March, Sixty-three companies were selected to participate in an invitation-only MissionLink program for CXOs of innovative, next-gen companies with dual-use National Security technology. MissionLink has also expanded its Board of Advisors. The MisionLink 2024 Cohort MissionLink, an exclusive nationwide community that serves as a force-multiplier and gateway to accelerating innovation and advancing solutions to…
At the RSA cybersecurity conference, the Secretary of State announced the release of the Department’s new International Cyberspace & Digital Policy Strategy whose four goals are to advance economic prosperity; enhance security and address cybercrime; promote human rights, democracy, and the rule of law; and other transnational challenges.
At the April 2024 OODA Network Member Meeting – held on Friday, April 19, 2024 – the network tackled developing (and potential use cases for) domain-specific large language models.
Last week: another high-impact ransomware attack in the healthcare sector, this time on Healthcare Giant Ascension. The attack has been attributed to a Russian non-state actor Black Basta – a “group…believed to have been started by former members of the infamous Conti ransomware collective, which dissolved in May 2022. Since then, Black Basta and its…
We continue to track the thought leadership of Will Roper, former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, & Logistics. Roper is currently on the advisory committee for the Defense Innovation Board and, since he founded the company in 2022, is the CEO of Istari, Inc. Roper recently co-authored a white paper with…
We continue our analysis of the categories and subsectors of the expanded metaverse, as Siemens, along with industry and media partners the MIT Technology Review, NVIDIA, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Bentley Systems, and Youl Systems Inc., explores how businesses can assemble the industrial metaverse. Background The Industrial Metaverse is not just an evolution of industrial…
In a fusion of a sub-theme from the OODA Almanac 2024 – Computation is the Ultimate First Principle – and several of the implications from our OODA Stratigame – Scenario Planning for Global Computer Chip Supply Chain Disruption, one thing has become clear: proper national security at the technological level will only be achieved through…
The United Kingdom, alongside the European Union, have announced a package of sanctions against Russia. The move is an attempt by the EU and UK to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a ceasefire deal with Ukraine. The sanctions target Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers which transport oil by circumventing Western…
Wireless carrier Cellcom has confirmed that its week-long widespread service disruption was caused by a cyberattack. The Wisconsin telecommunications provider’s voice and text services have been down for a week, but Cellcom has begun to restore some of them over the past few days. The carrier is working to investigate the incident and restore impacted…
A majority of recent sophisticated cyber attacks have been enacted by China and North Korea aligned advanced persistent threat (APT) actors. While a majority of attacks from these nations have been on targets in Europe, Southeast Asia also saw an increase in state-backed attacks. These expansions of global cyberattack activity come as regional players develop…
A threat actor being tracked as “Hazy Hawk” has been found to be using a new version of an attack vector to take control of abandoned cloud resources. The attacker is using these hijacked domains to send users to malware-infected sites, scam pages, and other shady websites for malicious activity. Victims of Hazy Hawk so…
CISA and NIST researchers are proposing a vulnerability exploitation probability metric which will help to identify the likelihood that a vulnerability has been exploited in the wild. The metric would be called Likely Exploited Vulnerabilities, or LEV, and hopes to bridge the gap between the thousands of vulnerabilities discovered each year and the small percentage…
Sudan’s army chief and de facto head of state, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has appointed former United Nations official Kamil Idris as prime minister, as the country’s civil war grinds on into its third year. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, critical infrastructure has been destroyed and more than 12 million people have been…
The conflict between China and the Philippines over control of the South China Sea is now reaching the Israeli government. The Philippines is demanding an official Israeli declaration recognizing its sovereignty over the maritime area, which has been in dispute for many years between the two Asian nations. While Israel is maintaining a neutral stance,…
Harnessing nuclear fusion—the process that powers the Sun and stars—has been a beacon of hope for scientists and energy pioneers alike. Unlike nuclear fission, which splits heavy atomic nuclei, fusion combines light atomic nuclei, such as isotopes of hydrogen, to release immense amounts of energy. This energy, derived from the fusion of hydrogen into helium,…
In mid-April, the arrival in Dhaka of three U.S. State Department officials – two deputy assistant secretaries and the charge d’affaires in Naypyidaw, Myanmar – signaled the first signs of a critical engagement between American officialdom and the Muhmmad Yunus interim government since it took charge in August 2024. Following the August 2024 political transition,…
A resurgent wave of Covid-19 is spreading through Southeast Asia, with densely populated regions in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Thailand witnessing a spike in cases. Health authorities are on alert in major cities like Hong Kong and Singapore, China and Thailand have asked people to take new booster vaccinations. According to the Hong Kong’s…
Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and following a resounding loss in the national elections this month. “It’s time to have a break,” the National leader, David Littleproud, told reporters on Tuesday. The split shows the pressure…
Parts of the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, often called India’s Silicon Valley are under water after heavy rainfall. The city is on high alert for more pre-monsoon showers on Tuesday due to cyclonic formations over the Andaman Sea, according to authorities. Three people, including a 12-year-old boy were killed in rain-related incidents on Monday.…
BreachRx, provider of the first intelligent incident response platform designed for the entire enterprise, today announced the closing of an oversubscribed $15 million Series A funding round led by Ballistic Ventures, with participation from SYN Ventures, Overline, and Silver Buckshot Ventures. The company also announced the appointments of Ballistic Ventures General Partner and former Mandiant…
Autonomous cars that are trained to respond more like humans to danger will cause fewer injuries during road accidents, according to a study that shows how driverless vehicles might be made safer. Vulnerable groups such as cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists saw the biggest gains in protection when driverless cars used “social sensitivity” in assessing the…
Pfizer has joined the PD-1xVEGF bispecific gold rush. The Big Pharma is paying 3SBio $1.25 billion upfront for ex-China rights to a clinical candidate, establishing itself as a challenger to BioNTech, Merck & Co. and Summit Therapeutics in a scorching-hot area of immuno-oncology. Interest in PD-1/L1xVEGF bispecifics has been high since Summit and Akeso’s ivonescimab…
Quantum computing promises transformative potential for industries and society by solving complex problems more efficiently than classical computers. However, challenges like scalability, high error rates, costs, and a skills gap hinder the commercial realisation of quantum computing. Milestones like IBM’s Flamingo machine and Microsoft’s topological qubits show progress. These advancements, alongside initiatives like the Quantum…
Apple Inc. is preparing to allow third-party developers to write software using its artificial intelligence models, aiming to spur the creation of new applications and make its devices more enticing. The iPhone maker is working on a software development kit and related frameworks that will let outsiders build AI features based on the large language…
Nvidia said it is racing ahead with humanoid robotics technology, providing a custom foundation model for humanoid reasoning, a blueprint for generating synthetic motion data, and more Blackwell systems to accelerate humanoid robot development. At the Computex 2025 trade show in Taiwan, Nvidia unveiled Isaac GR00T N1.5, the first update to Nvidia’s open, generalized, fully…
Microsoft’s GitHub unit on Monday introduced a Copilot artificial intelligence agent that can take on specific programming work and inform people once it has finished. From there, developers can check the agent’s work from GitHub, a widely used repository for code. They can request modifications and then allow GitHub to add the source code to…
Venture capital firms focused on artificial intelligence are driving much of the growth in the startup market, while companies in other areas are struggling to raise cash, according to a report from Silicon Valley Bank. About 40% of the total amount raised by U.S. venture funds last year was from funds that “list AI as…
Israeli allies including the United Kingdom, France, and Canada are threatening to take action against Israel after its recent military escalation in Gaza. The allies are urging Israel to stop its renewed offensive in Gaza and lift the restrictions it currently maintains against aid entering the area. The three countries released a joint statement on…
U.S. aid cuts to Africa are threatening key road and energy projects as large infrastructure projects financed by the U.S. face an uncertain future. Workers are rushing to complete such projects in anticipation of funding being rescinded by the U.S. government. Last week, U.S. and Ivorian companies signed multiple deals including drone supply and border…
Britain and the European Union struck a landmark deal which would remove some post-Brexit trade barriers on Monday. The agreement will increase cooperation between Britain and the E.U. on issues such as security and defense, coming as they work to reduce reliance on the United States. Several important policies have details which have not been…
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin talked on the phone for over two hours. Following the conversation, Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine would immediately begin negotiations towards a ceasefire deal to end the war between the two countries. Putin stated that these efforts seemed to be “on the right…
Serviceaide, an enterprise management solutions provider, has reported a data leak to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The breach affects nearly half a million Catholic Health patients, exposing their personal and medical information. Catholic Health is a customer of Serviceaide, which discovered that the database it had maintained for Catholic Health had…
The personal data of around 200,000 customers of Georgia healthcare provider Harbin Clinic was stolen in a recent data breach. The attack was on debt collector Nationwide Recovery Services (NRS), which discovered that attackers had infiltrated its network and accessed certain data. A subsidiary debt collecting services provider subsequently notified Harbin Clinic that some stolen…
Madhu Gottumukkala has been appointed as the new deputy director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). He previously served at South Dakota’s Bureau of Information and Technology as commissioner and chief information officer (CIO), as well as chief technology officer (CTO) for South Dakota. His background includes various senior and leadership-level IT…
Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange company, has disclosed a data leak after hackers broke into its systems. The cyber actors targeted Coinbase’s overseas customer support agents, offering them cash in exchange for copying data over. The attackers then used this list of customers and pretended to be Coinbase to trick them into turning over their cryptocurrency…
At least 20,000 people have fled the town of Marte in northeastern Nigeria following a surge in attacks by Islamist militants, according to Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum. Marte, near the border with Cameroon, had been resettled four years ago after years under insurgent control, but was recently overrun again by suspected Boko Haram and…
Nuclear talks between Iran and the United States “will lead nowhere” if Washington insists that Tehran drop its uranium enrichment activity to zero, Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takhtravanchi was quoted by state media on Monday as saying. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff reiterated Washington’s stance on Sunday that any new deal between the U.S. and…
Tanzania’s main opposition leader Tundu Lissu told his supporters to have no fear as he appeared in court on Monday for the first time since his arrest on charges that include treason. Lissu refused to participate in a hearing on April 24 because authorities conducted a virtual, rather than an in-person trial, with him appearing…
Skydio has announced the delivery of the first batch of X10D small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) under the U.S. Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) Tranche 2 program. This milestone marks the Skydio X10D as the only system delivered to date within Tranche 2 of the Army’s SRR Program of Record. The rapid fulfillment was crucial…
China’s “drone carrier” Jiu Tian will take off for its first mission by the end of June, laying the groundwork for expanding the Chinese air force’s operational reach in unmanned aerial combat. Chinese media reports at the weekend commented on the coming launch, and state broadcaster CCTV confirmed the mission on Monday. The first mission…
A car bomb that has exploded near a market in Pakistan’s restive southwest has killed four people and wounded 20, according to a government official. The attack was near a market in Qillah Abdullah, a city in the province of Balochistan, Deputy Commissioner Abdullah Riaz said on Monday. The province bordering Afghanistan is plagued by…
Thousands of residents evacuated on Saturday as rains lashed the north of Argentina’s Buenos Aires province, a vital agricultural hub, and caused severe flooding. The National Meteorological Service, which issued a red alert for the region on Friday evening, reported rainfall between 150 and 250mm (6-10 inches) between the cities of Zarate and Arrecifes. It…
At least 10 people were killed on Sunday after a suicide bomber targeted a queue of young recruits registering at the Damanyo military base in the Somali capital Mogadishu, witnesses told Reuters, in an attack claimed by terror group Al-Shabaab. Teenagers were lining up at the base’s gate when the attacker detonated his explosives, they…
Well, that was a quick 20 years… NVIDIA is reportedly in advanced talks to invest in photonic quantum computing startup PsiQuantum, a move that would mark the chipmaker’s first direct bet on hardware qubits and signal a shift in its long-term outlook for the field, according to multiple media sources. If finalized, the deal would…
A high-stakes technology race is playing out in the human brain. Brain-computer interfaces are already letting people with paralysis control computers and communicate their needs, and will soon enable them to manipulate prosthetic limbs without moving a muscle. The year ahead is pivotal for the companies behind this technology. Fewer than 100 people to date…
Nvidia Corp. unveiled the latest raft of technologies aimed at sustaining the boom in demand for AI computing — and ensuring that its products stay at the center of the action. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang on Monday kicked off Computex in Taiwan, Asia’s biggest electronics forum, touting new products and cementing ties with a…
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is buying 23andMe out of bankruptcy for $256 million, raising privacy concerns as the drugmaker takes control of the genetic data of millions of individuals who had once willingly handed it over. Regeneron said Monday that it would acquire the once-sizzling DNA-testing startup’s signature Personal Genome Service, its Total Health and Research Services…
This interview starts out discussing some of those new challenges that are related to politics in particular: we discuss last week’s deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the ban on H20 sales to China, and why the U.S. approach to chip controls risks America’s — and Nvidia’s — long term control. Huang…
China’s humanoid robots will not replace human workers and cause mass unemployment, according to a Chinese official who oversees a tech hub in Beijing, amid a rapid expansion of the sector and state funding for it. Liang Liang, a deputy director at the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, which hosts one of China’s largest tech hubs,…
Back in 2018 it looked like Apple Inc.’s artificial intelligence efforts were finally getting on track. Early that year, Craig Federighi, Apple’s software chief, gathered his senior staff and announced a blockbuster hire: The company had just poached John Giannandrea from Google to be its head of AI. JG, as he’s known in the industry,…
China has fired a warning shot at the Philippines following a close naval encounter with the U.S. defense treaty ally earlier this week near a contested feature in the South China Sea. Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry by email with a request for comment. China claims most of the South China Sea…
There has been a sharp rise in plots by the Iranian regime to kidnap or assassinate dissidents, journalists and political foes living abroad, according to reports by Western intelligence agencies. These attempts have escalated dramatically since 2022, with even US President Donald Trump among the alleged targets. In the UK, police are questioning a number…
Russia has recently rolled out a new AI-powered machine vision kamikaze drone that narrows the technological gap between AI-powered drones fielded earlier by Ukrainian forces. The Tuvik drone is a battlefield drone designed to destroy the enemy’s armed vehicles and other military hardware. Featuring a flying wing airframe, the UAV has a range of 30…
For the first time since the creation of its Self-Defense Forces, Japan is set to carry out a live-fire long-range missile exercise within its own borders, marking a significant shift in its national defense doctrine. Scheduled between June 19 and 30, 2025, the drill will take place at the coastal missile range adjacent to Camp…
AI dubbing company Papercup co-founder and CEO, Jesse Shemen, announced via a post on LinkedIn dated May 15, 2025, that “a large portion of the Papercup team is joining Scale AI, a company I’ve long admired for shaping the future of AI across both public and enterprise sectors.” While both Shemen and AI data annotation…
An al-Qaeda affiliate has claimed it killed 200 soldiers in an attack on a Burkina Faso army base this week, according to an NGO that tracks armed groups’ online activity. The base in the northern town of Djibo came under attack on Sunday morning, and a police station and market were also targeted, security sources…
Earlier this month, U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Doug Wickert summoned nearby civic leaders to Edwards Air Force Base in California to warn them that if China attacks Taiwan in the coming years, they should be prepared for their immediate region to suffer potentially massive disruption from the very start. In a remarkable briefing shared…
OpenAI announced on Friday it’s launching a research preview of Codex, the company’s most capable AI coding agent yet. Codex is powered by codex-1, a version of the company’s o3 AI reasoning model optimized for software engineering tasks. OpenAI says codex-1 produces “cleaner” code than o3, adheres more precisely to instructions, and will iteratively run…
Over the past week, a slew of headlines claimed Klarna’s aggressive push to automate customer service with generative AI had failed. The Swedish fintech company last year said it automated the equivalent of 700 customer service jobs with AI. And after it announced a new plan to hire human agents, the conventional wisdom was that…
Quantum computing, a field leveraging quantum mechanics to perform computations beyond classical capabilities, is witnessing rapid advance toward commercial and research uses. As of early 2025, major players like IBM, Google, Microsoft, Rigetti Computing, D-Wave, IonQ, Quantinuum, Intel, Pasqal and Amazon are shaping the future with detailed roadmaps and predictions from their experts, CEOs, and…
A Chinese startup has opened the world’s first clinic in Saudi Arabia where artificial intelligence diagnoses patients, a key step in replacing human doctors as the first line of medical treatment. Synyi AI, a Shanghai-based medical technology company, launched the trial program in Saudi Arabia’s eastern Al-Ahsa region in April in collaboration with the country’s…
Everyone is obsessed with humanoid robots right now, but the director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory thinks tomorrow’s intelligent physical machines could be something radically different. Think soft and squishy robots, says Daniela Rus. Picture flexible robots, or even edible ones. Her research group has built a robot out of sausage casing…
Satya Nadella arrived at the World Economic Forum in January ready to talk up his triumphs in artificial intelligence, when a dangerous threat emerged. A little-known Chinese startup named DeepSeek had just released an AI model that quickly became the talk of Davos, Switzerland. Nadella, the chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., gathered his lieutenants…
Nvidia said it won’t be sending graphics processing unit plans to China following a report that the artificial intelligence chipmaker is working on a research and development center in Shanghai in light of recent U.S. export curbs. “We are not sending any GPU designs to China to be modified to comply with export controls,” a…
Germany has stepped up security on its borders. Germany’s interior minister has annouced that there has been a large increase in the number of people being turned away at the Germany border. Germany’s recent governments have attempted to decrease the number of individual immigrating to the country. The government has said they do not want…
Rohingya refugees have alleged mistreatment by Indian authorities. Rohingya refugees have alleged that Indian authorities have mistreat them. They specifcally alledge that in one particular incident they were forced to swim back to Myanmar. UN Officials are investigating the claims made by the refugees. Read more: https://apnews.com/article/india-rohingya-refugees-deportation-e724b7a9949192a5383f84eb98377026
Two Libyan government ministers have resigned. Two Libyan government ministers have resigned. The two ministers were part of the internationally recognized government. It is not currently known why the ministers resigned. Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/libyan-economy-trade-minister-resigns-internationally-recognized-government-2025-05-16/
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