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The future of Nuclear Energy is not decided yet. With leadership the world may be in for an incredible abundance of nuclear provided electricity providing very economical, stable, safe power and increasingly moving us all to a world of less pollution and more innovation across all industries. Alternatively, less than optimal leadership could keep the…
Last week, Microsoft released a report with an assessment of the cyber lessons learned in Ukraine since the inception of the conflict. A collaboration between Microsoft threat intelligence and data science teams, the report’s goals and conclusions are described in an Editor’s Note as “sharpening our understanding of the threat landscape in the ongoing war…
Last year, OODA was proud to sponsor the first-ever U.S. Cyber Games. The inaugural US Cyber Games was created through the support of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). But we are very proud to say the real driving force behind these games is a long-term…
The first-ever U.S. Cyber Team announced to compete in the inaugural International Cybersecurity Challenge (ICC) was in Athens, Greece earlier this month – and took the bronze medal in the competition. OODA is proud to the sponsor of the U.S. Cyber Games and the U.S. Cyber Team. Congratulations to the team from OODA!
To help members optimize opportunities and reduce risk, OODA hosts a monthly video call to discuss items of common interest to our membership. These highly collaborative sessions are always a great way for our members to meet and interact with each other while talking about topics like global risks, emerging technologies, cybersecurity, and current or…
The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project (MAS400) is a collaboration between ProMare and IBM Research. The project is also affiliated with the Submergence Group, A U.K. company that “designs and manufactures manned and unmanned submersibles. In a voyage lasting 40 days and conquering approximately 3,500 unmanned miles at sea, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship arrived in North…
It has been reported recently that L3Harris looks to buy NSO Group. In the shadow of this discouraging market activity, we return to a research report released by The Atlantic Council in November of last year entitled “Surveillance Technology at the Fair: Proliferation of Cyber Capabilities in International Arms Markets” as part of their Cyber…
Recently, Chinese media has published articles about a report provided by Burmese-based Anzer, a cybersecurity company that detailed alleged U.S. military and government agencies efforts to remotely steal more than 97 billion pieces of global Internet data, and 124 billion phone records in the last 30 days. The report specifically details the suspected involvement of…
This review of the Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology (S&T) Impact Series falls into two OODA Loop editorial and curation thematics: Opportunities for Advantage and Innovation (Design Frameworks and Methodologies). Produced and archived over the course of 2021, the DHS S&T Impact series explores opportunities for advantage through an ongoing discussion within DHS…
The issue of cybersecurity in the healthcare sector and, specifically, medical device vulnerabilities have always been included in our OODA Loop Daily Pulse. Cumulatively over time, these reports and issues of concern have now been elevated to the legislative level, with the introduction in June 2022 of bills related to medical device cybersecurity and the…
For months the OODA C-Suite Report has underscored for our readers to expect a slowdown in the global economy. Many who track the explosion of government spending plus quantitative easing plus low interest rates came to similar conclusions, especially after the Russian attacks on Ukraine and the China Covid shutdowns. But it took evidence of…
In May, OODA announced our ongoing sponsorship of the US Cyber Games and the start of Season II (with the US Cyber Open Kick-Off Event on June 30, 2022). In the meantime, the first-ever U.S. Cyber Team announced to compete in the inaugural International Cybersecurity Challenge (ICC) in Athens, Greece is in ICC competition this…
A formalized cyber agreement between Russia and India is a logical progression for Moscow both in appearance as well as from a practical standpoint. After all, both countries are known for their technological sectors and experienced IT workforce, and both have adopted multistakeholder bases and scientific cooperation. Therefore, it comes as little surprise that the…
OODA CTO Bob Gourley recently provided a discussion of the potential impacts and use cases of improved natural language processing (NLP), in which he highlighted the major developments in computer language understanding in a way that can help enterprise and government leaders better prepare to take action on these incredible new capabilities. Major improvements in…
Here at OODA Loop, during the recent spate of unprecedented Joint Cybersecurity Advisories (CSA), we praised CISA and the results of the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) – which was launched only late last year. Overall, as OODA CTO Bob Gourley recently pointed out: “We are so pleased with the quality of work and the…
Yesterday, an Israeli air strike in southern Gaza killed at least 30 and wounded 53 Palestinians, primarily women and children. The air strike was conducted upon the al-Awdah school where dozens were sheltering. The Israeli military has increased its attacks on the Gaza Strip in recent weeks. There have been four attacks on school buildings…
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has hindered a Russian operation attempting to spread pro-Russian propaganda. In the operation, Russians used fake social media accounts and artificial intelligence to spread such propaganda. The DOJ’s effort to stop the operation involved the seizure of two domain names and the search of almost 1,000 social media…
Beginning late Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India made his first visit to Russia in five years. This meeting came as Ukraine is recovering from a large-scale Russian attack on a children’s hospital, greatly angering Ukraine. While the West has attempted to isolate Russia, other nations, now including India, have continued to pursue their…
While NATO leaders gather in Washington this week, they will be simultaneously celebrating the 75th anniversary of the alliance yet facing uncertainty about its future. The Russia-Ukraine war has renewed NATO’s sense of purpose, but the alliance is threatened by right-wing skeptics and the potential presidency of Donald Trump. The summit’s main goal is likely…
An online marketplace called HuiOne Guarantee has been revealed to be frequently used by Southeast Asian cybercriminals. The marketplace is specifically linked to pig butchering scams. These schemes involve cybercriminals enticing victims with high-paying jobs, ending up in the victim being trapped in a scam compound where they must engage in fraudulent activities. Some of…
GuardZoo malware is being used to target military personnel from the Middle East. This ongoing surveillanceware campaign may have started as early as October 2019. It has been connected to a Houthi-aligned actor. Over 450 victims have been impacted by the malware, with the primary country of infection appearing to be Yemen. Attack chains distributing…
The ransomware group “RansomHub” has leaked data which the group allegedly stole from the Florida Department of Health (DOH). RansomHub claims to have stolen over 100GB of data in total, including personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI). Social Security numbers, health insurance information, and medical record numbers are among the stolen information.…
InkBridge, a security vendor, has published the discovery of a thirty-year-old design flaw in the RADIUS protocol. The flaw was discovered by researchers from a variety of institutions and companies including Microsoft Research. InkBridge is calling the vulnerability the BlastRADIUS attack, and warns that many networks, internet service providers, and telecommunications companies are at risk.…
Artificial intelligence (AI), and especially generative AI, has quickly become one of the hottest topics in the modern age. Where digital footprints are ubiquitous and data has become a valuable commodity, AI has emerged as a focal point of innovation and concern. With AI now being integrated into operating systems (OS) promising enhanced efficiency, it…
OpenAI’s upcoming ban on application programming interface (API) access to its artificial intelligence (AI) models in China doesn’t apply to Microsoft Azure’s customers in the country. Azure operates in China via a joint venture and has made it clear in public statements that the AI models are available to its customers in the country, Seeking Alpha…
To many, the AI revolution seems far away or, at least, complicated to see how it will impact them. But is it truly that distant? It’s a fun, new way to increase productivity and help with mundane tasks such as writing or answering questions via LLMs (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT. But seeing the day-to-day…
Scientists in China have made a significant breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) by reportedly creating a robot which is powered by a lab-grown, artificial brain. This brain-on-chip technology reportedly utilises human stem cells to develop a simplified brain-like structure that controls the robot. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, researchers were successfully…
A new tool makes it easier for database users to perform complicated statistical analyses of tabular data without the need to know what is going on behind the scenes. GenSQL, a generative AI system for databases, could help users make predictions, detect anomalies, guess missing values, fix errors, or generate synthetic data with just a few…
Recent satellite imagery reveals significant expansions at two key Iranian ballistic missile facilities. Thus far, two American researchers have assessed that the expansions are for intentions of boosting missile production. This has since been confirmed by three senior Iranian officials. The expansion of the sites comes following an October 2022 deal between Iran and Russia…
On Monday, Russia targeted Ukraine with missiles across cities, killing at least 36 civilians, and damaging Kyiv’s children’s hospital. According to officials, this latest attack is the deadliest air strike in months. Ukraine’s air defenses successfully shot down 30 out of the 38 incoming missiles. In Kyiv, fifty civilian buildings, as well as a business…
Tropical Storm Beryl began making its way inland Texas on Monday, arriving with strong winds and torrential rain. The arrival of the Tropical Storm forced hundreds of flights to be canceled, closed oil ports, and left over 2 million businesses and residential homes without power. Tropical Storm Beryl is ranked as the season’s earliest Category…
Sunday’s election in France resulted in a hung parliament, with the French left conceding to talks with the right on Monday. Following the election, it was revealed that Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) lost the snap election originally called by French President Emmanuel Macron. In the wake of the election, France is facing potential…
A global coalition comprised of the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea have come together to support Australia in attributing Chinese state-sponsored actors to hacking government networks. These accusations come following sanctions placed on members of the Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) actor APT31. Now the coalition has placed focus on…
A threat actor hacked into the Ethereum Foundation’s account via a mailing list platform, and then used an email phishing scam to lift over 35,749 addresses. The phishing scam originated from the legitimate Ethereum blog email address and contained a malicious link that promoted a Lido scam. According to the Foundation, “This website had a…
According to a new report from Russian cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky, a new advanced persistent threat (APT) actor has targeted Russian government entities. Given the name CloudSorcerer, Kaspersky stated that the threat actor has been observed exfiltrating data through platforms including Dropbox, Microsoft Graph, Yandex Cloud. In regards to methodology and tradecraft, the threat actor relies…
Beginning in September, Microsoft will begin instituting a mandate requiring the use of Apple iPhones for authentication purposes to log into work devices. According to a report by Bloomberg, Microsoft is planning on blocking employees located in China from using Android devices to access the corporate network. Microsoft sent an internal memo to Chinese staff…
Like all technology-related things, shadow IT has evolved. No longer just a SaaS app handling some worker’s niche need or a few personal BlackBerries snuck in by sales to access work files on the go, shadow IT today is more likely to involve AI, as employees test out all sorts of AI tools without the…
ElevenLabs, the AI voice startup known for its voice cloning, text-to-speech and speech-to-speech models, has just added another tool to its product portfolio: an AI Voice Isolator. Available on the ElevenLabs platform starting today, the offering allows creators to remove unwanted ambient noise and sounds from any piece of content they have, right from a…
There’s no need to worry that your secret ChatGPT conversations were obtained in a recently reported breach of OpenAI’s systems. The hack itself, while troubling, appears to have been superficial — but it’s reminder that AI companies have in short order made themselves into one of the juiciest targets out there for hackers. The New York…
Shanghai has published China’s first governance guidelines for humanoid robots, calling for risk controls and international collaboration, as tech giants like Tesla showed off their own automatons at the country’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) conference. Makers of humanoid robots should guarantee that their products “do not threaten human security” and “effectively safeguard human dignity”, according…
Artificial intelligence is keeping the venture capital ecosystem afloat. It accounted for more than 40% of new private U.S. “unicorns” in the first half this year, and over 60% of the increase in total venture-backed valuation, per PitchBook. There were 13 new U.S. AI unicorns — private companies that reached valuations of over $1 billion…
Japan and the Philippines have signed a defense pact allowing the deployment of troops on each other’s soil amid shared concerns over China’s growing military power. Under the agreement, Japanese forces will be able to deploy in the Philippines for joint military exercises and Filipino forces will be able to carry out combat training in…
Officials in President Biden’s Treasury Department have proposed new actions aimed at crippling a fleet of aging oil tankers that are helping deliver Russian oil to buyers around the world in defiance of Western sanctions. However the effort has stalled amid White House concerns over how it would affect energy prices ahead of the November…
Protests in Israel are calling for a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would see hostages return from captivity and for new elections in Israel. Some progress has been made in recent days for a resumption of negotiations toward a tentative deal after weeks of an impasse, even as the fighting continues in Gaza. But many…
There has been a new warning for WhatsApp and Signal users, with some security experts advising users to delete their apps. The risk affects Apple users taking advantage of the multi-device functionality offered by the messaging platforms. When you install WhatsApp and Signal on your Mac, he told me, the apps “store their local data…
Cloud provider OVHcloud this week revealed that it had mitigated the largest ever distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in terms of packet rate, amid an overall increase in DDoS attack intensity. Packet rate DDoS attacks seek to overload the processing engines of the networking devices close to the target. OVHcloud has been observing a sharp increase…
Russia has orchestrated multiple disinformation campaigns targeting France, according to French officials and cybersecurity experts in Europe and the United States. France’s legislative elections and the Paris Olympics sent them into overdrive. More than a dozen reports issued in the past year point to an intensifying effort from Russia to undermine France, particularly the upcoming…
The amount of cryptocurrency stolen through hacks and network exploits more than doubled to $1.38 billion in the first six months of the year, according to the blockchain intelligence firm TRM. Five large attacks accounted for 70% of all the crypto that was stolen. Like in 2023 and other years, a small number of attacks…
Cryptocurrencies plunged Friday as investors focused on the payout of nearly $9 billion to users of collapsed bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. As of 10 a.m. ET, bitcoin’s price fell 3% to $55,591.58 in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency had previously slumped as low as $54,500.53, marking its…
Chinese tech companies, from industry giants to ambitious startups, converged at the World AI Conference in Shanghai this week to showcase their latest innovations and express strong support for the country’s artificial intelligence sector even as it faces U.S. sanctions. More than 150 AI-related products and solutions are being exhibited at the conference, with a…
For a moment there, it seemed like Amazon might pivot its Astro home robot to enterprise by giving it a better job as a camera-equipped patrol dog. But today, it’s discontinuing the Astro for Business robot for good. On September 25th, every one of the 20-pound wheeled robots will stop working, and Amazon will automatically…
Samsung Electronics is expected to post a 13-fold increase in second-quarter profit from a year earlier as demand for artificial intelligence technology fuels a rebound in memory chip prices. Operating profit for the world’s biggest maker of memory chips, smartphones and TVs likely rose to 8.8 trillion won ($6.34 billion) in the quarter ended June…
U.S. and Israeli officials have resumed cease-fire talks with Hamas, expressing renewed optimism. Hamas has revised its position and Netanyahu has stated that he is sending a new delegation of negotiators to the talks. One White House official called the new progress “a breakthrough” in the negotiations. While Israeli officials agreed that progress had been…
The Labour Party emerged victorious in the United Kingdom general election on Thursday, and Keir Starmer is now set to be the next prime minister of Britain. Starmer has completely turned the Labour Party around, pulling it to the political center. He is promising to begin “an era of national renewal.” The Labour Party’s victory…
Yesterday, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping discussed ally relations at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. The Russian and Chinese presidents urged their allies to resist external influence which states that a multipolar world is emerging. The officials believe that the SCO is a regional bloc which opposes U.S. hegemony. The convention additionally called for…
On Wednesday, Israel killed Muhammad Nimah Nasser, a senior Hezbollah official. Hezbollah has responded by launching over 200 rockets and drones against Israel, targeting military positions. This attack is the largest so far along the Lebanon-Israel border. Tensions continue to rise in the area as each group continues to conduct high profile attacks against the…
Lawmakers in California have voted to advance legislation which would implement higher levels of testing and safety measures for AI companies. The goal of the legislation is to prevent AI tools from being manipulated for malicious purposes. Experts have identified possible scenarios in which AI systems could be manipulated to wipe out a state’s electric…
Brazil’s national data protection authority decided that Meta cannot use data originating from the country when training its artificial intelligence. This comes after Meta updated its privacy policy to allow the company to use public posts to train its AI systems. Brazil’s data regulator believes this would cause fundamental damage to the rights of the…
A law enforcement operation codenamed MORPHEUS has taken down almost 600 servers used by cybercriminals. These serves were a part of the attack known as the Cobalt Strike. Cobalt Strike is a piece of software used for penetration testing, but it has fallen into the hands of some cybercriminals who have used it for ransomware…
The ShinyHunters hacker group revealed that they had infiltrated Twilio’s two-factor authentication app Authy. ShinyHunters leaked 33 million phone numbers associated with the app. They additionally published account IDs and other non-personal data. Twilio has confirmed the data breach in a post on the company’s website. Although there is no evidence that user accounts have…
Early last year, a hacker gained access to the internal messaging systems of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and stole details about the design of the company’s A.I. technologies. The hacker lifted details from discussions in an online forum where employees talked about OpenAI’s latest technologies, according to two people familiar with the incident, but…
Most AI-powered robots today use cameras to understand their surroundings and learn new tasks, but it’s becoming easier to train robots with sound too, helping them adapt to tasks and environments where visibility is limited. Though sight is important, there are daily tasks where sound is actually more helpful, like listening to onions sizzling on…
As Google has rushed to incorporate artificial intelligence into its core products — with sometimes less-than-stellar results — a problem has been brewing behind the scenes: the systems needed to power its AI tools have vastly increased the company’s greenhouse gas emissions. AI systems need lots of computers to make them work. The data centers needed…
Meta has thrown down the gauntlet in the race for more efficient artificial intelligence. The tech giant released pre-trained models on Wednesday that leverage a novel multi-token prediction approach, potentially changing how large language models (LLMs) are developed and deployed. This new technique, first outlined in a Meta research paper in April, breaks from the…
China is far ahead of other countries in generative AI inventions like chatbots, filing six times more patents than its closest rival the United States, U.N. data showed on Wednesday. Generative AI, which produces text, images, computer code and even music from existing information, is exploding with more than 50,000 patent applications filed in the…
After last year’s brief, chaotic ouster of CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI reformed its board and key partner Microsoft got a seat as a non-voting observer. Microsoft had been blindsided by the Altman episode, which had been set in motion by the old board, and this was a way of ensuring it wouldn’t get any further…
Robots evolved. From as far back as the early black and white movies (Metropolis) almost exactly 100 years ago, robots finally became real and started to help weld rivets in automotive engineering plants somewhere around the 1970s. They then further evolved into robot-shaped humanoids with Japanese firms innovating proof of concept walking robots, but these…
Perplexity has launched a major upgrade to its Pro Search AI tool, which it says “understands when a question requires planning, works through goals step-by-step, and synthesizes in-depth answers with greater efficiency.” Examples on Perplexity’s website of what Pro Search can do include a query asking the best time to see the northern lights in…
Smartphone innovation has largely slowed to a crawl over the last few years. We’re long past the days when each successive generation of phones offered up features that drove waves of excitement among consumers, who’d then wait outside the Apple Store. But that might be about to change thanks to AI. At least, that’s what…
For two years, many unprofitable tech start-ups have cut costs, sold themselves or gone out of business. But the ones focused on artificial intelligence have been thriving. Now the A.I. boom that started in late 2022 has become the strongest counterpoint to the broader start-up downturn. Investors poured $27.1 billion into A.I. start-ups in the…
Following strikes upon Israel coming from the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Israel ordered yet another series of evacuations in the area. Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing their homes in the area as Israeli forces are again bombarding the nearby area. At least eight people were killed and more than 30 were wounded…
Hurricane Beryl is currently on a path towards Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, already having wreaked havoc upon two small islands in Grenada. The destruction of these two islands was described by the country’s leader as “unimaginable” and “total.” Around 98 percent of the buildings on the islands have been destroyed or damaged. This includes…
Moscow has made vague threats following Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons on Russia. Subsequently, U.S. defense officials have raised the alert level at military bases in Europe. Specific intelligence has not been collected about potential Russian attacks on American bases. Such an attack would be an extreme escalation of Russia’s war in Ukraine. As a…
Macron may have defeated himself by calling for snap elections last month in France. After the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday, the far-right National Rally has won a third of the vote. Runoff elections will occur early next week, and while it is uncertain if the National Rally party will win an absolute…
On July 1, Qualys researchers discovered a critical OpenSSH vulnerability. More information about the flaw has since come out, and it has been revealed that the vulnerability could be exploited by a remote attacker for code execution. If taken advantage of, the vulnerability could allow a complete system takeover. This would allow malware to be…
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