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In 2021, the information threat vectors and attack surfaces of the agriculture sector were further exposed after a ransomware attack on meat producer JBS Foods disrupted the nation’s food supply chains. Two pieces of legislation were introduced in the Senate last week to strengthen agricultural and rural communities against the growing number of cyberattacks on…
Soon after Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain initiative, wheat prices soared and Russia followed up with kinetic threats along the Black Sea, updates of which can be found below. Russia strikes grain terminals, port and apartment blocks in Odesa “Russia launched an extensive air attack on the Ukrainian city of Odesa on…
In response to the National Cybersecurity Strategy Implementation Plan (NCSIP), the Department of Justice (DoJ) will combine the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) with the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS). The new organization will be the tip of the spear for all ransomware initiatives spelled out in the NCSIP.
OODA Network Member Congressman Will Hurd will be in New Hampshire visiting the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth University speaking at their “Path to the Presidency” forum. The discussion will focus on a range of topics, but will be heavy on AI. Dartmouth College is important to AI because it was the site of the Dartmouth…
“As cyberattacks intensify, more and more organizations recognize the need to have a strong security culture for all employees. This cyber-aware workforce is a necessary addition to a skilled and knowledgeable security team and the use of advanced cybersecurity solutions. Employees who know how to practice good cyber hygiene are increasingly seen as a crucial…
Russia has notified Turkey, Ukraine and the UN that it will not renew a deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea. Ukrainian wheat production plays a significant role in global food security due to its status as one of the world’s major wheat exporters. Ukraine is among the top wheat-producing countries,…
A recent article in Politico, “Rust belt on the Rhine”, lays out many of the monumental challenges the German economy and society face in the future: The article does not mention the educational system, which in many ways appears to be stuck in the 1950s (minus corporal punishment). But the educational system might be an…
In the months before the recent 2023 NATO Summit in Lithiuania, the NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) opened its European regional office at the Imperial College London Innovation Hub in London in May and launched its first three pilot challenge programs. This operational “standup” was all in a timeline of less…
Given the proximity of the conflict to neighboring NATO member states, it is unsurprising that the cyberwar between Russia and Ukraine has extended beyond the borders of the two countries, as state and nonstate actors expanded their targeting to third-party countries, including those in the NATO alliance, who have taken sides in the conflict. To be fair,…
This project is fully operational, but had to start as a rigorous speculative design process – more sci-fi than real world. Until it wasn’t. It is representative of the kind of project that will still feel like a faraway future, but is currently manufacturing a drug experiment in space. Take a look at the The…
The National Cybersecurity Coordination Center (NCCC) is an organization housed within the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and, based on the USAID logo on the front page of some of its reports, sponsored by the U.S. Government. The NCCC has provided an English translation of its June 2023 Review of Cybersecurity in Ukraine,…
AI has crushed cryptocurrency in the recent technology hype cycle, garnering VC and mainstream media attention fast on the heels FTX Sam Bankman-Fried debacle which tarnished the entire crpytocurrency ecosystem. What is going on with crypto you may ask? Two recent, majro developments in the crypto space broke through in the last few weeks and…
Tuesday 18 July at 4pm Eastern four very experienced national security and intelligence professionals joined in a discussion of the future of intelligence and security informed by last week’s INSA and AFCEA Intelligence Summit. Heather McMahon, Johnny Sawyer, Larry Pfeiffer and Bob Gourley were all there engaging with various discussions that dove deep into topics of geopolitical…
Tactically, China recently made a significant geopoltical and in the IT supply chain move, restricting exports of two minerals used in high-performance chips. Following is a summary of the new Chinese policy – followed by links to our original analysis series on rare earth, critical minerals and the global IT supply chain (disruption, innovation and…
Like the Unix, Solaris, Irix, AIX Open Source operating systems that became the Linux-led open source operating system and the broader open source software movement (over a 30 to 40 year time period) the open source large language model “market” is poised to eat up market share in an exponentially fast time frame. Hugging Face…
France has adopted a budget. The French government has adopted a budget after several fractious debates. The Prime Minister was forced to use special constitutional powers to force the budget through. The far left and far right parties opposed the move, but enough members voted in favor to overcome the opposition. The budget aims to…
Additional police forces have arrived in Haiti to support on going operations. 200 additional Kenyan police officers have arrived in Haiti to support on going operations within the country. Haitian police and international forces have thus far been unable to restore order in the crisis ridden nation. Other nations in the region have continued to…
Cisco has patched several vulnerabilities in its enterprise security product. Cisco has patched several vulnerabilities in its enterprise security product. The vulnerabilities could allow threat actors to compromise devices by using administrative level privileges to compromise APIs. Cisco has said they working to resolve other vulnerabilities that users have identified in its products. Read more:…
Spanish police have arrested an individual wanted in connection with several cyber attacks against NATO. Spanish police have arrested an individual wanted in connection with several cyber attacks against NATO and US military infrastructure. The police were able to identify him after he launched a cyber attack against the Spanish civil guard. Police also seized…
A major US hiring platform has exposed the data of several million users. The US online hiring platform Foh&Boh has exposed the data of millions of job seekers. The site stored applicant data on an exposed AWS server. The server has been exposed for an unknown amount of time. The exposed data largely relates to…
Researchers have uncovered a large network of malicious apps targeting Android users in India. Cyber security researchers have uncovered a large network of malicious apps targeting Android users in India. The apps intercepted SMS messages and used those messages to initiate transactions. The apps also had systems to ensure they could not be deleted from…
The European Commission has announced the opening of a new Biotech and Biomanufacturing Hub, supporting start-ups and small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in bringing new innovations to the EU market. The Hub, hosted on the EU Commission’s Your Europe portal, is in all EU languages and explains such things as: the sources of EU funding…
Apple Inc., which counts China as its biggest manufacturing hub and the US as its largest market, is now at the center of an escalating geopolitical fight that threatens to span tariffs and regulatory probes. The Trump administration’s new 10% levy on Chinese-made goods is poised to squeeze the company at an already-challenging time, when…
Google (GOOG) aims to release commercial quantum computing applications within five years, Google’s head of quantum told Reuters on Wednesday, in a challenge to Nvidia’s predictions of a 20-year wait. “We’re optimistic that within five years we’ll see real-world applications that are possible only on quantum computers,” founder and lead of Google Quantum AI Hartmut…
ChatGPT no longer requires you to log in to use the AI chatbot’s search engine, OpenAI announced on Wednesday. With the feature, ChatGPT will surface responses based on information from the web while presenting a list of sources it used to inform its answer. OpenAI first launched its search engine to paid ChatGPT subscribers last…
Boston Dynamics Wednesday announced a partnership designed to bring improved reinforcement learning to its electric Atlas humanoid robot. The tie-up is with the Robotics & AI Institute (RAI Institute), earlier known as The Boston Dynamics AI Institute. Both organizations were founded by Marc Raibert, a former MIT professor who served as Boston Dynamics’ CEO for…
When 102 humanoid robots from 10 different companies converged last month at a sprawling 4,000-square-metre facility on the outskirts of Shanghai, trained in essential tasks – walking, making beds, washing dishes, screwing bolts and even welding – it showed how China is on the fast track to a future where humans and humanoid robots seamlessly…
Google is bringing its experimental “reasoning” artificial intelligence model capable of explaining how it answers complex questions to the Gemini app. The Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking update is part of a slew of Gemini 2.0 AI rollouts announced by Google today, including its latest Gemini 2.0 Pro flagship model. This comes as the search giant…
A Chinese software engineer who worked for Alphabet Inc.’s Google faces new charges of economic espionage by the US Justice Department for allegedly stealing trade secrets to boost China’s AI industry. Linwei Ding, who was indicted in March, now faces seven counts of economic espionage along with seven counts of theft of trade secrets under…
Last week, DeepSeek sent Silicon Valley into a panic by proving you could build powerful AI on a shoestring budget. In some respects, it was too good to be true. Recent testing has shown that DeepSeek’s AI models are more vulnerable to manipulation than those of its more expensive competitors from Silicon Valley. That challenges…
Quantum researchers at Google created a new approach to quantum simulation that combined analog and digital approaches, proving out a new way of testing the supercomputers of the future. The team used a quantum simulator made up of 69 superconducting quantum bits, or qubits, to test out their approach. Their research—published Wednesday in Nature—revealed the…
In just a few days, France will host the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, with heads of state flocking to Paris to meet global tech leaders. They’ll most likely announce some big investments and diplomatic agreements focused on safety or the environmental impact of artificial intelligence. Ahead of the summit, early-stage VC firm Galion.exe, growth investment…
Figure AI announced that it had signed its second major commercial partner, bringing the dream of humanoid robots from labs into everyday life closer than ever. CEO Brett Adcock said the deal might make it possible to ship 100,000 humanoid robots over the next four years. While details of the new customer remain under wraps,…
Amazon is using math to help solve one of artificial intelligence’s most intractable problems: its tendency to make up answers, and to repeat them back to us with confidence. The issue, known as hallucinations, have been a problem for users since AI chatbots hit the mainstream over two years ago. They’ve caused people and businesses…
Google on Tuesday updated its ethical guidelines around artificial intelligence, removing commitments not to apply the technology to weapons or surveillance. The company’s AI principles previously included a section listing four “Applications we will not pursue.” As recently as Thursday, that included weapons, surveillance, technologies that “cause or are likely to cause overall harm,” and…
U.S. President Trump stated on Tuesday that the U.S. will “take over” and “own” Gaza, resettling Palestinians elsewhere. He claims that his new redevelopment plan could turn Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” Trump also said that his administration would work to supply housing and an unlimited number of jobs for people in…
Lawmakers impeached Vice President Sara Duterte of the Philippines on Wednesday, escalating political tensions in the country. Duterte faced four complaints over alleged misuse of millions in public funds. Additionally, she had pronounced plans to assassinate President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., his wife, and his cousin who is speaker of the House of Representatives. She…
U.S. President Trump will cut off U.S. engagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council and extend a funding band on UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Trump has already withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO) since taking office. The withdrawal from UNRWA coincides with Israeli…
The Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group has declared a ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for humanitarian reasons. The unilateral ceasefire began on Tuesday. Last week, the group seized Goma, the main city in eastern DRC, with the help of thousands of Rwandan troops. The United Nations estimates that over 900 people were…
Russian hackers have been observed exploiting a 7-Zip zero day against Ukrainian entities. The exploited flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-0411, was discovered in September 2024 in 7-Zip version 24.09. It was patched around two months later. The bug allows an attacker to bypass the Mark-of-the-Web (MoTW) protection mechanism, which prevents the automatic execution of untrusted files.…
A new tactic is being used by ransomware actors in their ransomware notes. These malicious actors are now posting advertisements to solicit insider information. Researchers believe that multiple groups including Sarcoma and another group impersonating LockBit are using the new strategy. The ransomware note attempts to entice the employee to give up insider information, offering…
A new malicious practice is being called “infrastructure laundering,” where attackers exploit mainstream hosting providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Researchers have linked the China-based Funnull content delivery network (CDN) to this practice. During infrastructure laundering, threat actors operate “hosting companies” who rent IP addresses from these mainstream providers, then mapping…
Japanese electronics maker Casio’s UK website was compromised after being injected with a web skimmer. The skimmer was found to have collected buyers’ personal and payment card information. The same skimmer has allegedly been added to at least seventeen other undisclosed websites. After victims entered and submitted their personal, contact, and payment info, the skimmer…
Valentine’s Day is in two weeks, and the traditional gifts are already flying off store shelves: jewelry, watches, colognes, cards, and boxes and boxes of chocolate. All thoughtful, personal gifts—yet the process of manufacturing them is anything but warm and fuzzy. Production lines around the world have been busy churning out consumer goods at scale,…
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the buzzword of our time. It’s a term that often conjures images of robots and self-learning machines, but in reality, AI is a broad umbrella with many distinct subfields. Two of the most talked-about developments today are generative AI and agentic AI. The crucial thing to grasp is that they…
Bill Gates, co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft, believes that quantum computing, a technology that could revolutionize industries from medicine to materials science, may be closer than some experts think. In a recent interview on Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid podcast, Gates suggested that useful quantum computers could arrive in as little as three to five…
Last Friday, AI startup OpenAI filed a new application to trademark products associated with its brand — “OpenAI” — with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Normally, this wouldn’t be newsworthy. Companies file for trademarks all the time. But in the application, OpenAI hints at new product lines both nearer-term and of a more…
China retaliated to Donald Trump’s opening trade war tariffs by targeting a handful of American companies and slapping levies on some US goods, in a move seemingly designed to avoid escalating tensions between the world’s biggest economies. Beijing imposed a 15% levy on less than $5 billion of US energy imports and a moderate 10%…
Self-driving truck startup Waabi is partnering with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks, an important milestone as it gets closer to a commercial launch. The tie up also marks Volvo’s second partnership to co-develop self-driving big rigs with a startup partner. In May 2024, Volvo teamed up with Aurora Innovation to…
As artificial intelligence reshapes industries, it is critical for businesses to view AI governance not merely as a regulatory obligation but as an ethical imperative. With years of experience researching and advocating for the responsible use of AI, I have witnessed firsthand the profound benefits and significant risks it brings to society. Issues such as…
A week-long standoff at a Ukrainian agency is beginning to disrupt arms contracts. The standoff between Ukraine’s defense minister and the official overseeing weapons procurement began over a week ago, and remains unsolved. Over 80 defense companies “are unable to receive payment for completed orders and sign new contracts.” These companies accounted for around a…
China has retaliated against Trump’s new tariffs by imposing ones of its own. On Tuesday, China announced that there would be 10 percent tariffs on imports from the U.S. of crude oil, agricultural machinery, displacement vehicles, and some trucks. Additionally, China imposed a 15 percent tariff on imports from the U.S. of coal and liquefied…
New information has led American officials to now believe that Iran is developing plans for a faster, cruder way to develop an atomic weapon. The intelligence warns that Iranian weapons engineers and scientists are looking for a quick way to develop an atomic weapon in just months if Tehran chooses to race for a bomb.…
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, and U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the threatened U.S. tariffs would be paused for one month. The measures were expected to come into effect on Tuesday, but social media posts confirmed the agreement delaying the tariffs just one day before. Sheinbaum stated that…
A new phishing campaign is targeting the X accounts of high-profile individuals. Targets include journalists, political figures, and even an X employee. Malicious actors are attempting to hijack the accounts of these individuals and exploit them to commit cryptocurrency fraud. While the campaign is most prominent on X, it is not contained to just the…
Globe Life, an insurance firm, has revealed that a malicious actor may have compromised the data of around 850,000 individuals. A data breach in October 2024 may have led to the compromise of personal, health, and insurance information of hundreds of thousands of people. The attack was discovered when a threat actor attempted to extort…
The data of over one million individuals was compromised in the recent data breach of Connecticut healthcare provider Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC). The incident was discovered on January 2, when the organization found unusual activity on its network. The attacker was able to access or exfiltrate patient health records, containing information such as Social…
The Python Package Index (PyPI) package repository has been found to contain two malicious packages leveraging the DeepSeek name. Although they were only up for around 30 minutes, the packages were downloaded 36 times. The malicious attack began on January 29, when the packages were published. They appeared to be client libraries to access and…
Irish biotech GH Research has said the phase 2 win for its inhaled depression drug has “paved the way for future commercial success.” The inhaled mebufotenin candidate, dubbed GH001, was evaluated in the midstage study of 81 patients with treatment-resistant depression. The 40 patients who received GH001 saw an average 15.2 point reduction on the…
Meta’s total investment in virtual and augmented reality is set to top $100bn this year, as its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has declared 2025 will be a “defining year” for its smart glasses. In its latest annual report, Meta revealed it invested $19.9bn in its Reality Labs division last year, hitting a new high after…
UBS offers Swiss retail and wealth clients the ability to make fractional gold investments through its UBS key4 gold product. It is managed using a permissioned blockchain, the UBS Gold Network, but now the bank wants to explore making the offering available outside of Switzerland. Hence, it ran a proof of concept (PoC) using ZKsync,…
A hint to the future arrived quietly over the weekend. For a long time, I’ve been discussing two parallel revolutions in AI: the rise of autonomous agents and the emergence of powerful Reasoners since OpenAI’s o1 was launched. These two threads have finally converged into something really impressive – AI systems that can conduct research…
A team of engineers, physicists and computer specialists at Canadian company, Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc., has unveiled what they describe as the world’s first scalable, connected, photonic quantum computer prototype. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes how they designed and built their modularized quantum computer, and how it can be…
Last week, Chinese robotics company Unitree released a video showing 16 of its H1 humanoid robots busting moves alongside human dancers at a Spring Festival (or Chinese New Year) Gala event. They not only danced in sync with the beat and the human troupe, but each of them also flawlessly pulled off an incredibly challenging…
A week ago, OpenAI released a tool that can go online to shop for groceries or book a restaurant reservation. Now it is offering A.I. technology that can gather information from across the internet and synthesize it in concise reports. OpenAI unveiled the new tool, called Deep Research, with a demonstration on YouTube on Sunday,…
This engaging session at OODAcon 2024 featured a deep dive into the intersection of national security, technology, and policy, led by Matt Devost, with contributions from experts Jim and Will. The panel explored the mindset of global adversaries and their dual approaches to conflict and peace. Scenarios discussed included potential moves like a Chinese blockade…
Trump accused the South African government of confiscating land, adding that he plans to cut all funding for the country. Last month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a bill into law that would make it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest to address racial disparities in land ownership after…
The U.S. conducted an airstrike against Islamic State militants in Somalia, the first such military operation since President Trump returned to the White House. The strike targeted an Islamic State Operative. A senior U.S. official said it could take some time to determine if the main target survived the airstrike. The official said the man…
The United States has imposed stiff tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China, prompting swift retaliatory measures from the country’s North American neighbors. Trump said the tariffs were necessary to “protect Americans” and promised to keep the duties in place until what he called a national emergency in the US over the drug fentanyl…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to the United States to discuss the second phase of the ceasefire agreed with Palestinian group Hamas. The first phase of the ceasefire is set to free 33 Israeli captives in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The second phase is expected to cover the release…
While AI assistants like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT offer incredible benefits, they are also being exploited by cybercriminals. Google’s latest report reveals that advanced persistent threat (APT) groups from multiple nations, including Iran, China, North Korea, and Russia, have been experimenting with Gemini to streamline their cyber operations. This trend is a major concern…
On Thursday, authorities in the US and Netherlands announced the disruption of a Pakistan-based network of illicit online marketplaces selling hacking and fraud-enabling tools. For roughly five years, these websites had been operated by a threat actor known as Saim Raza and HeartSender, and advertised as facilitating fraud. Since 2020, Saim Raza has been selling…
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a ban on Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek for government-issued devices. “Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps,” Abbott said in a statement. The governor also prohibited popular Chinese-owned social media apps Xiaohongshu and Lemon8…
OpenAI on Thursday said the U.S. National Laboratories will be using its latest artificial intelligence models for scientific research and nuclear weapons security. Under the agreement, up to 15,000 scientists working at the National Laboratories may be able to access OpenAI’s reasoning-focused o1 series. OpenAI will also work with Microsoft , its lead investor, to…
SoftBank Corp. and Quantinuum announced a partnership to advance quantum computing into practical applications, including plans for a quantum data center. According to a joint statement, the collaboration will address AI’s current limitations and enable next-generation solutions to complex problems. The initiative, timed with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology in 2025, aims…
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