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Quantum Cyber Breakfast at RSAC 2023 is a fundraiser for the International Cybersecurity Championship. Don’t miss this Quantum community event with industry leaders and professionals—including our own OODA CTO Bob Gourley and Katzcy CEO Jessica Gulick. Following is a Panel Description, Panelist Bios, and a compilation of resources from the companies represented on the panel…
Global Health Security is a research area we will be laying out in the next few months, including the role of cybersecurity and emerging and exponential technologies in the area of growing food insecurity wrought by faltering economic and food security, which is where we start with a few broad perspectives on the core issues…
For OODA Loop readers and OODA Network Members who are attending RSA 2023 this week – and have been tracking the efforts of the CISA Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) along with us here at OODA Loop since its inception two years ago – the RSA Conference 2023 is providing an opportunity for an in-person…
Chris is a Senior Advisor at OODA LLC and an OODA Network Member. In this series of OODA interviews, we talk about how she came to be a part of OODA. In subsequent conversations in this series, we will talk about Chris’ vast experience within the DoD, especially with procurement, operations, and specific programs like…
Like the famous political campaign axiom: “It’s the economy, stupid”, so goes a variation on the phrase that can be applied to the ongoing discussion about large language (LLM) model training, the development of the metaverse, AI, and crypto mining: “It’s the physical layer, stupid.” APIs, the application layer, and the cloud? All good -…
In the second half of April 2023, the UN predicts India will become the most populous country in the world, surpassing China. More than 40% of India’s residents are under the age of 25. People over the age of 65 only make up about 7%. India is also on track to become the world’s third-largest…
In early April 2023, the China Cybersecurity Industry Alliance (CCIA) published a report that reviewed notable cyber attacks allegedly conducted by U.S. intelligence agencies, using analysis from cybersecurity organizations, news sources, and supposed leaked U.S. intelligence documents. The report chronicled some of the most advanced malware observed since 2010, and suspected U.S. exploitation of IT products and encryption…
In March 2022, at the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, OODA Loop CTO Bob Gourley posited a working thesis that We Are In The First Open Source Intelligence War. A year and change into the conflict, two recent articles do a great job of expanding on Bob’s initial thesis, capturing the other analogies…
Airman Jack Teixeira is responsible for the worst leaks of national security material in years. Spies and leakers all have their own reasons for doing what they do. Some do it for money. Some do it because they are being blackmailed. Some do it because they are narcissists and seek fame. Some have done it…
A U.K. Based consortium has been awarded a $6.46 million government grant to build the world’s first liquid hydrogen-powered autonomous vessel and its allied infrastructure, a press release said. The grant is aimed at helping decarbonize the maritime sector. The Future of the Ocean and Decarbonizing Maritime Transport “A consortium of companies in the U.K.…
Why a Pause on AI Development Is Not the Answer: An Insider’s Perspective The thorny challenges posed by chatbots and AI are not going to disappear. And while many knowledgeable and well-intentioned people have signed a petition calling for a 6 month pause on advanced AI research, doing so is both unrealistic and unwise. What we’re…
China’s annual parliamentary meeting was held last month, “confirming President Xi Jinping for a historic third term and appointing a new batch of other top leaders, the government also approved a restructuring plan for national ministries, as it typically does every five years”, including a proposal for the creation of a new regulatory body: The…
The ongoing groupthink about and pushback on ChatGPT and large language models aside, there are plenty of positive signals about the promise and opportunities of artificial intelligence, along with potential perils which should contribute to your organization’s risk awareness relative to the future of AI.
I built UnrestrictedIntelligence.com as a proof of concept. I wanted to learn and also wanted to enable more from the OODA network to experiment with some capabilities of the large language models which can be accessed via connections to OpenAI. The core functionality of the site was established while on a flight. By using code…
In the current AI zeitgeist, sequence models have skyrocketed in popularity for their ability to analyze data and predict what to do next. For instance, you’ve likely used next-token prediction models like ChatGPT, which anticipate each word (token) in a sequence to form answers to users’ queries. There are also full-sequence diffusion models like Sora,…
AI development is akin to the early wild west days of open source — models are being built on top of each other, cobbled together with different elements from different places. And, much like with open-source software, this presents problems when it comes to visibility and security: How can developers know that the foundational elements…
One of the most difficult problems with quantum computing relates to increasing the size of the quantum computer. Researchers globally are seeking to solve this “challenge of scale.” To bring quantum scaling closer to reality, researchers from 14 institutions collaborated through the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA), a Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science,…
ChatGPT is now on Windows. Today, OpenAI announced that it’s begun previewing a dedicated Windows app for ChatGPT, its AI-powered chatbot platform. Currently only available to ChatGPT Plus, Team, Enterprise, and Edu users, the app is an early version, OpenAI says, arriving ahead of a “full experience” later in the year. “With the official ChatGPT…
Indonesia has elected a new president. Prabowo Subianto has been elected as President of Indonesia. The 73 year old ran on a platform of continuing the programs of outgoing President Joko Widodo. Subianto has strong ties to both the military establishment and traditional elites as he is a veteran and his family has a long…
Kenya’s Parliament has removed a sitting Deputy President from office for the first time. For the time in its history, the Kenyan Parliament has removed a sitting Deputy President from office. Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua had been impeached on 11 counts by the lower house of the Parliament. The upper house of the Parliament convicted…
Israel has announced that Yahya Sinwar has been killed. Israeli officials have announced that Yahya Sinwar has been killed in Gaza. There has not yet been comment from Hamas on this announcement. Israeli officials said that he was killed in Rafah after soldiers spotted a group of militants moving between buildings. Sinwar’s death has lead…
Ukrainian officials believe that thousands of North Korean soldiers could join Russia’s war effort. Ukrainian officials have said that North Korea is increasing its involvement in the Russian-Ukrainian War. They have said that North Korea is preparing to send up 10,000 troops to support the Russian war effort. They also said that North Korea Officers…
Iranian hackers have been infiltrating organizations to collect data. Iranian hackers have been using brute force attack to gain access to government and critical infrastructure systems. These attacks have been different from previous ones as there has not been an attempt to disrupt operations. The attackers have instead lingered inside of the organization’s systems and…
Brazilian police have arrested an individual that may be the hacker USDoD. Brazilian Federal Police have arrested an individual they said was responsible for hacks of several government agencies. The information thus far released by the police have lead many to conclude that the individual arrested was the hacker USDoD. This is because the individual…
Microsoft has found that automatic attack disruption technologies have been successful. A new report from Microsoft has found that less ransomware attacks have made it to the encryption stage. While the total number of ransomware attacks has been increasing, the decrease in the number of attacks reaching the encryption stage is important. The report said…
The Internet Archive is slowly recovering from a series DDoS attacks. The Internet Archive has slowly returned its systems to full functionality. The organization’s staff are still urging users to be careful when using the site as they restore systems. Researchers have so far found that the Internet Archive was attacked with at least 24…
Scientists hope body tissues grown in labs will become a familiar sight in medicine. Researchers around the world are working to grow heart valves, lungs and more from human cells. They have succeeded in bringing some to market such as knee cartilage and skin grafts, but advances for more complicated anatomy have been slow-going for…
Facebook owner Meta, opens new tab said on Thursday it had teamed up with Blumhouse Productions, the Hollywood company behind popular horror films such as “The Purge” and “Get Out,” to put its new generative AI video model Movie Gen to the test. The announcement comes after Meta unveiled Movie Gen, which it said can…
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are at a critical juncture in their development. They could bring immense benefits, including reducing the cost of operation, improving traffic safety and traffic management, and providing mobility and independence to people who are unable to drive or use public transport due to age, disability or other factors. Yet there is considerable…
Taiwan has signed contracts to purchase nearly 1,000 killer drones from the United States, bolstering its asymmetric warfare capabilities amid rising cross-strait tensions. The announcement came a day after the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) staged massive joint combat exercises around Taiwan on Monday in retaliation for Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te’s perceived pro-independence stance. According…
Amazon today became the latest big tech company to throw its weight behind nuclear power, joining Microsoft and Google, which both previously announced long-term promises to buy nuclear power from startups to power their data centers. The company revealed three deals, including an investment in startup X-Energy and two development agreements that aim to add around…
Blockchain lending protocol Radiant Capital lost more than $50 million on Wednesday as the result of an apparent cyberattack, according to security experts and blockchain data. An attacker gained control of Radiant Capital’s blockchain contracts by obtaining three of the “private keys” that control the protocol, security experts said. “Radiant Capital contracts were exploited on BSC…
Autonomous sidewalk delivery specialist Serve Robotics has just unveiled its third generation of robots that are faster, smarter, tougher, and a fraction of the cost to manufacture. With production now underway, Serve looks to deploy these upgraded delivery robots soon as a critical component in its plans to expand its services across the entire United…
The federal government’s bet on using artificial intelligence to fight financial crime appears to be paying off. Machine learning AI helped the US Treasury Department to sift through massive amounts of data and recover $1 billion worth of check fraud in fiscal 2024 alone, according to new estimates shared first with CNN. That’s nearly triple what…
On Wednesday, the U.S. launched attacks on five Houthi weapons facilities in Yemen. The underground weapons facilities were located in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi militia, which is backed by Iran. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said that the attack was aimed at degrading the Houthis’ capabilities. The Houthis have been…
Biden has announced a new aid package to Ukraine of $425 million. He spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday about the deal. The aid package will include armored vehicles and munitions, among other weapons. This announcement comes as Biden prepares to travel to Germany this week to meet with other Western allies. He…
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said that on Wednesday an Israeli tank fired at their watchtower. The UNIFIL is calling this a “direct and apparently deliberate” attack that damaged the tower and destroyed two cameras. This is the latest incident in a series of multiple Israeli attacks against peacekeepers in Lebanon. On…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his “victory plan” to end the Russian war to Ukraine’s parliament, Verkhovna Rada. The plan includes NATO membership and requests for specific weapons. Zelenskyy said that the war could possibly end by next year if the plan is quickly enacted. The president recently toured several European capitals to try and…
Cyber attackers are targeting users of Google Meet’s video communication service. These hackers are using a tactic called ClickFix to infect victims with information-stealing malware. In the attacks, users are tricked into downloading and running malware on their machines. The ClickFix tactic involves a fake alert warning the user that their webpage cannot be displayed…
U.S. federal prosecutors have charged two Sudanese brothers in a record 35,000 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. These attacks were conducted in just one year through a DDoS botnet for hire and included a Microsoft attack in June 2023. The hacking group is referred to as Anonymous Sudan. Their DDoS tool targeted government and critical infrastructure,…
ScarCruft, a threat actor linked to North Korea, is being connected to the exploitation of a Windows zero-day. The vulnerability, CVE-2024-38178, is being used to infect devices with RokRAT malware. The exploit is a memory corruption bug that can allow remote code execution. RokRAT can receive and execute commands from a remote server and gather…
The apparel company Varsity Brands has announced that it recently suffered a data breach. Around 65,000 people are impacted by the breach. Varsity creates uniforms, apparel, and services for athletes and sports teams. The company first detected unusual activity in May 2024. Varsity reported to the Maine Attorney General’s Office that it then launched an…
French AI startup Mistral has released its first generative AI models designed to be run on edge devices, like laptops and phones. The new family of models, which Mistral is calling “Les Ministraux,” can be used or tuned for a variety of applications, from basic text generation to working in conjunction with more capable models…
It is hard enough building a successful start-up at the best of times. But these are decidedly not the best of times for Viktoriia Yaremchuk, co-founder of the Lviv-based start-up Farsight Vision. Electricity blackouts, missile strikes and sudden conscription of her employees add extreme jeopardy to Yaremchuk’s mission. “Working underground is not that cool. We…
Neuralink Corp. imagines a world where people view the implantation of electronic devices in their skulls with the same casual acceptance as getting Lasik surgery on their eyes. One obstacle to this futuristic vision, though, is the startup’s founder, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. Musk’s frequent erratic decisions and controversial public persona raise a persistent question…
IBM’s quantum roadmap outlines the company’s comprehensive strategy aimed at scaling quantum computing and expanding how they can be used for commercial and scientific applications. The roadmap extends beyond 2033 and breaks down into two main sections: the development and innovation roadmaps. These sections detail the company’s efforts to develop modular quantum systems, integrate error…
Boston Dynamics and Toyota Research Institute (TRI) Wednesday revealed plans to bring AI-based robotic intelligence to the electric Atlas humanoid robot. The collaboration will leverage the work that TRI has done around large behavior models (LBMs), which operate along similar lines as the more familiar large language models (LLMs) behind platforms like ChatGPT. Last September, TechCrunch…
Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the popular Claude chatbot, today announced a sweeping update to its Responsible Scaling Policy (RSP), aimed at mitigating the risks of highly capable AI systems. The policy, originally introduced in 2023, has evolved with new protocols to ensure that AI models, as they grow more powerful, are developed and…
Nvidia is considering adopting a socket design for at least some of its upcoming Blackwell B300 GPUs for AI and HPC applications, according to a report from TrendForce that cites Economic Daily News and MoneyDJ. The company is said to adopt the new socketed design for something codenamed GB300, and for now, the information looks…
North Korea claims more than a million young people have signed up to join or rejoin the army this week after accusing South Korea of sending propaganda drones to Pyongyang and blowing up border roads. There was no immediate comment from South Korea, which has previously warned that if North Korea inflicts harm on the…
Taiwan detected 153 aircraft surrounding its territory as China carried out massive military exercises, according to the self-ruled island’s defense ministry. Beijing deployed fighter jets, drones, warships and coastguard ships to encircle Taiwan on Monday. China said the one-day drill was a warning against “separatist acts”. Taiwan’s Office of the President called on China to…
The US threatened to withhold military aid to Israel, but deployed troops and an anti-missile system at the same time. The deployment of troops and an anti-missile system marks a significant escalation in US entanglement with a widening Israeli war that Washington has already heavily subsidized. This development underscores the inconsistent approach of the US…
The Israeli government has told the Biden administration that it will focus its next attack on military targets in Iran, instead of those related to Iran’s oil industry or its uranium enrichment efforts. Such a move would reduce the likelihood that Israel’s retaliation will immediately set off an all-out war between the two adversaries. While…
The US cybersecurity agency CISA warns that a critical-severity hardcoded credentials vulnerability in SolarWinds Web Help Desk is exploited in attacks. The flaw is described as a hardcoded credential issue that allows remote, unauthenticated attackers to access internal WHD functionality and modify data. On October 15, SolarWinds announced the release of WHD 12.8.3 Hotfix 3,…
Russian hackers have outsourced some of their cyberespionage ops to criminal groups, especially those focused on Ukraine, according to a new report from Microsoft. Late last week, the FBI and the NSA warned about a wave of attacks being carried out by a Kremlin-backed hacker crew known as Cozy Bear. The agencies say it’s using…
Cybercriminals, hacktivists and nation-state actors have all been active in 2024 either threatening to disrupt or simply taking advantage of the US election. The threats, as always, are delivered from three primary sources: financially motivated criminals, partisan hacktivists, and politically motivated elite nation-state actors. Alex Quilici, CEO at YouMail, told SecurityWeek, “The rise of AI…
Biotechnology companies in need of cash have struggled to find financing in recent years—pushing many toward PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) deals and follow-on offerings. Yet only one of these options may be viable in the long-term. When the market for special purpose acquisition company IPOs crashed in late 2021 after leading IPO market…
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) hopes that its new Open Data and Applications Government-Owned Interoperable Repositories (Open DAGIR) Challenge initiative will streamline how the US military acquires AI and to scale it across the services. The U.S. Army, meanwhile, is looking at establishing a separate sub-path within its larger software acquisition program specifically for AI. The…
Nvidia continues to ride the AI wave as the company sees unprecedented demand for its latest Blackwell GPU next-generation processors. The supply for the next 12 months is sold out, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Morgan Stanley analysts during an investors’ meeting. A similar situation occurred with Hopper GPUs several quarters ago, Morgan Stanley Analyst Joe…
Van der Waals engineering, a technique historically used to tailor material properties by stacking two-dimensional materials, has been used in applications ranging from superconductivity to the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect. Now, scientists from Nanyang Technological University Singapore are taking this approach in a new direction. In a recently published study in Nature Photonics, the…
Traditional procurement and supply chain processes can be manual, scattered, inefficient and complex. The use of blockchain in procurement can address these issues by making them faster, more organized and cheaper. Procurement involves sourcing, purchasing and receiving goods and services. It’s a key part of supply chain management, but it often suffers from serious inefficiencies. Procurement depends…
Chinese scientists say they have discovered a promising and sustainable method for extracting lithium from seawater, offering an efficient alternative amid increasing demand for the key battery metal in renewable energy technologies while minimising the environmental impact. The surge in production of new energy vehicles and energy storage devices has led to a robust demand…
Google has signed a “world first” deal to buy energy from a fleet of mini nuclear reactors to generate the power needed for the rise in use of artificial intelligence. The US tech corporation has ordered six or seven small nuclear reactors (SMRs) from California’s Kairos Power, with the first due to be completed by…
North Korea has destroyed the inter-Korean roads as tensions escalate. South Korea has said that North Korea has destroyed the northern points of the Inter-Korean roads. This comes as tensions between the two countries have been increasing. Tensions began to increase after North Korea accused South Korea of flying drones over its capital. The Inter-Korean…
Somalia and Egypt have begun negotiations over a proposed peacekeeping mission. Egypt and Somalia have been negotiations about a proposed African Union peacekeeping mission. The announcement comes as the current African Union peacekeeping mission is approaching its end. The Egyptian deployment to Somalia also comes as regional tensions are high. Egypt and Ethiopia continue to…
A new report from Microsoft has highlighted how schools are increasingly targeted by cyberattack. Microsoft has released a report focused on the cybersecurity of schools. The report highlighted how schools are increasingly being targeted by cyber criminals. This is due to their relatively weaker security and storage of large amounts of data. The report recommended…
A Texas based billings services provider was the victim of a cyberattack. Gryphon Healthcare, a Texas based billings firm, has disclosed that its systems were breached an unknown actor. Gryphon has notified nearly 400,000 customers that their personal data was compromised. Tri-City, a California based hospital, has also disclosed that over 100,000 customers had their…
Iranian cybergroups have increased attacks against the Gulf States. APT34, an Iranian linked group, has been increasing its attacks the Gulf States and their energy infrastructure. The group has been found to be using an advanced system to bypass security systems by using a known Windows kernel exploit. The backdoor has allowed the group to…
Intesa has notified authorities of a security breach. Intesa has notified authorities that an employee was responsible for a data breach which affected thousands of customers including the current Prime Minister. The company is working with investigators to determine the appropriate next steps. Read more: https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/italys-intesa-said-it-alerted-authorities-security-breach-after-checks-2024-10-14/
Casio, a Japanese electronics company, has confirmed that the recent cyberattack the company suffered was a ransomware attack. Additionally, a data breach has resulted from the incident. Casio originally detected unauthorized access to its network on October 5, causing a system failure and service disruptions. Since then, the company has shared an update that the…
China has begun to hold war games around Taiwan, sending a warning to Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te. There are currently dozens of Chinese ships and aircraft surrounding Taiwan. The escalation comes after Lai made a speech last week that China saw as promoting Taiwan’s independence. China’s army, navy, air force, rocket force, and other troops…
The United States’s dominance in biotech innovation is crucial to our national interests and global security. In recent years, China has quickly become a powerhouse, bolstered by its biotech-friendly regulatory reforms and poised to soon surpass the U.S. Unfortunately, some of our government policies are undermining American advantages against China. Developing a new therapy takes…
The United States’s dominance in biotech innovation is crucial to our national interests and global security. In recent years, China has quickly become a powerhouse, bolstered by its biotech-friendly regulatory reforms and poised to soon surpass the U.S. Unfortunately, some of our government policies are undermining American advantages against China. Developing a new therapy takes…
In the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, one pressing challenge that developers face is orchestrating complex multi-agent systems. These systems, involving multiple AI agents working collaboratively, often present significant difficulties in coordination, control, and scalability. Current solutions tend to be heavy, requiring extensive resource allocation, which complicates deployment and testing. OpenAI introduces the Swarm Framework…
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