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Home > OODA Analysis and Briefs
Over the past several years, there has been a rapid emergence of companies, projects, and initiatives in what is broadly categorized as Web3. While monitoring that rapid innovation, the OODA research team has noticed a disproportionately high number of cybersecurity incidents that have the potential to negatively impact the Web3 innovation ecosystem, disrupt customer adoption…
Based on the insights garnered from our November 2021 Stratigame on the Global Computer Chip Supply Chain Disruption, the following are some of the recent developments up and down the global semiconductor manufacturing supply chain and value chain.
Cognitive Bias and the errors in judgement they produce are seen in every aspect of human decision-making, including in the business world. Companies that have a better understanding of these cognitive biases can optimize decision making at all levels of the organization, leading to better performance in the market. Companies that ignore the impact these…
The United States said on Wednesday that it had secretly removed malware from computer networks around the world in recent weeks, a step to pre-empt Russian cyberattacks and send a message to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. When you advocate for cooperation and then act unilaterally, does that make future overtures more or less…
In 2019, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) published the first Challenges to Security in Space “to address the main threats to the array of U.S. space capabilities, and examine space and counterspace strategies and systems pursued primarily by China and Russia and, to a lesser extent, by North Korea and Iran.” DIA has followed up…
OODA Network members are invited to participate in 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 future events…
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has agreed to enter a three-year engagement to develop a treaty on international cybercrime. The proposed schedule includes at least six sessions to alternate between New York and Vienna. The ad hoc committee includes delegates, as well as non-government, academic, and IT companies. This effort comes at a time…
Like our broad research and analysis efforts last year regarding dis- misinformation and cognitive infrastructure, this year we embark on what academia calls a “literature review” on the topic of crypto and blockchain security initiatives – which begins with tracking down the best-in-class research efforts and subject matter experts to explore how they are “framing…
John Smail, CISSP, a Senior Cyber Officer, United States Space Force (who previously held the position of Director, Cyberspace Operations & Deputy Director of Communications at the National Reconnaissance Office) recently announced that The Space Force has been authorized to commission civilian cyber professionals directly into the Force as officers using the Constructive Service Credit…
Leverage these open source tools to provide your organization with the best in class information to inform business strategy, operations, and risk awareness levels around the world. Firms that understand the strengths and weaknesses of their own Cognitive Infrastructure will have an advantage over those that do not attend to this crucial function within an…
The inaugural meeting of the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee (CSAC) was held in December 2021. The second meeting of the committee was recently held in March. We provide here a brief recap of the vital updates and takeaways. For your future planning, a public comment period is scheduled for each committee meeting. We encourage OODA…
Earlier this week, The State Department on Monday launched a new cybersecurity bureau, designed to enhance digital diplomacy and online standards around the world.
In this – the largest refugee crisis since World War II – innovation and applied technologies will once again have to be solution-based and rapidly deployed. After all: radar, cryptography, logistics, and nuclear physics all made definitive contributions to victory in World War II.
In part one, we discussed the importance of problem comprehension and its role in problem-solving. In short, part one highlighted that you can’t solve a problem you don’t understand. The paradox is that you won’t completely understand most problems. While problem-solving begins with a problem, problem framing does not happen once. Problem framing continuously evolves…
This post dives into actionable recommendation on ways to optimize a corporate intelligence effort. It is based on a career serving large scale analytical efforts in the US Intelligence Community and in applying principles of intelligence in corporate America.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled on Sunday in Taiwan a collaboration with Israeli startup RGo Robotics that aims to enable the next level of intelligent robots with GenAI-powered autonomy. Combining RGo’s perception engine with Nvidia’s compute and algorithms is set to allow mobile robots to better perceive and understand the world around them, to carry…
Nvidia on Sunday unveiled its next generation of artificial intelligence chips to succeed the previous model, which was announced just months earlier in March. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced the new AI chip architecture, dubbed “Rubin,” ahead of the COMPUTEX tech conference in Taipei. Rubin comes months after the March announcement of the upcoming “Blackwell” model, which…
AMD on Monday announced new artificial intelligence chips as it seeks to establish itself as a leader amid competition with the likes of Nvidia and Intel. “AI is our number one priority and we’re at the beginning of an incredibly exciting time for the industry as AI transforms virtually every business, improves our quality of life,…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyagu of Israel has been put on the spot by President Biden’s announcement outlining a proposal for a truce. Netanyahu had previously refused to offer a timeline for ending the war for the past few months. Biden outlined broad terms which were presented by Israel to the American, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators…
With Russian athletes banned from competing in the Summer Olympics under Russia’s flag, Russia has turned its anger on the Olympics and its host for this summer, Paris. Russian propagandists have used various methods to imitate and make fun of broadcasters, as well as French and U.S. intelligence agencies, inciting fear about security at this…
With new elections in Iran on the horizon following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month, politicians such as Iran’s ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ali Larijani, and Saeed Jalili have signed up to run. Ahmadinejad was Iran’s president from 2005-2013 and had a controversial term in office, but is confident he…
At a Singapore security forum, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun stated that China’s military was prepared to “forcefully” stop Taiwan’s independence. He said that, “whoever dares to split Taiwan from China will be crushed to pieces and suffer his own destruction.” Dong claimed that Taiwan’s governing Democratic Progressive Party was pursuing separatism and will not…
ShinyHunters, a hacking group, has relaunched the BreachForums platform for the third time. They publicized the relaunch of this cybercrime forum through a high-profile breach: the theft of 560 million Ticketmaster users’ information. ShinyHunters claims that they are now in possession of 1.3 terabytes of data stolen from Ticketmaster and are asking for $500,000 in…
The U.S. recently finalized plans to give Palau, a group of about 350 small islands in the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of millions of dollars in aid over two decades. Immediately afterwards, the island nation was hit by a cyberattack where over 20,000 documents were stolen from the government. Palau is one of the few countries…
Security researchers from the Black Lotus Labs at Lumen Technologies have published a report detailing the 72-hour take down of hundreds of thousands of routers in October 2023. An unknown hacker was able to brick over 600,000 routers from Windstream, an internet service provider, using a malicious firmware update. The routers showed a solid red…
Businesses often find themselves at a crossroads in the race to leverage artificial intelligence (AI). The lure of AI’s promise is undeniable—from enhancing customer experiences to automating routine tasks. Yet, how a company approaches AI can spell the difference between mere technological flirtation and achieving real, transformative outcomes. Here, I offer a strategic blueprint for…
Large language models, the AI systems that power chatbots like ChatGPT, are getting better and better—but they’re also getting bigger and bigger, demanding more energy and computational power. For LLMs that are cheap, fast, and environmentally friendly, they’ll need to shrink, ideally small enough to run directly on devices like cellphones. Researchers are finding ways…
With investment into AI-powered robotics heating up, OpenAI is formally relaunching its previously abandoned robotics team, Forbes has learned. The company is currently hiring research engineers to rebuild the team, which it had shuttered in 2020, according to three sources. OpenAI has yet to publicly announce the details of its homegrown robotics efforts, but in a…
Days out from WWDC and the AI rumor mill is active as ever. Yesterday Mark Gurman reported that many of iOS 18’s AI features will require using an iPhone 15 Pro or later. It’s rare for many major software features to be exclusive to the latest iPhone, especially the latest Pro phone. But that’s exactly…
OpenAI said on Thursday that it had identified and disrupted five online campaigns that used its generative artificial intelligence technologies to deceptively manipulate public opinion around the world and influence geopolitics. The efforts were run by state actors and private companies in Russia, China, Iran and Israel, OpenAI said in a report about covert influence campaigns.…
Russian officials have been proclaiming all week that NATO countries were risking escalation if they allowed Ukraine to fire weapons into Russian territory. Putin had warned that this type of escalation could lead to serious consequences. After the U.S. granted Ukraine permission to use American arms to fire into Russia along Ukraine’s border near Kharkiv,…
U.S. secretary of defense, Lloyd J. Austin III, met with his Chinese counterpart, Adm. Dong Jun, to discuss how to manage military tensions with their opposing positions on Taiwan and the South China Sea. A 75 minute meeting was conducted in Singapore between the two officials, following the travel of multiple Biden administration officials to…
At the end of 2023, the Egyptian government had stated that if Israel occupied the Egypt-Gaza Strip border, this would seriously threaten relationships between Egypt and Israel. This week, Israel seized “tactical control” of the corridor. Even though the Egyptian government is facing pressure to take a harsher stance against Israel, there has not been…
President Biden has now authorized Ukraine to conduct limited strikes inside Russia’s borders using U.S.-made weapons. This is the first time an American president has authorized military attacks on artillery, missile bases, and command centers inside the borders of a nuclear-armed adversary. However, the U.S. is stating that this authorization is only extended to what…
Two major operations against botnets have been carried out by agencies in Europe and the U.S. this week. The U.S. targeted a botnet which had infected more than 19 million IP addresses. The 911 S5 botnet was created by YunHe Wang, a Chinese national, who has now been arrested. Cybercriminals were able to use IP…
Three WordPress plugin vulnerabilities are currently being exploited, allowing hackers to inject malicious scripts and backdoors into websites. These vulnerabilities allow attackers to create new WordPress administrator accounts, inject backdoors into files, and monitor infected targets using tracking scripts. One of the bugs, CVE-2024-2194, allows attackers to inject scripts via the URL search parameter which…
Proton, working with Constella Intelligence, conducted a study where they searched the dark web for around 2,300 official government email addresses of British, French, and European parliament members. The study found that 918 email addresses were leaked to cybercrime marketplaces, and British parliament members were impacted the most. The email addresses of British politicians were…
BBC, the UK media giant, has reported a data breach impacting over 25,000 current and former employees. The company said it had detected a “data security incident” involving files storing information on employees. The names, National Insurance numbers, home addresses, and dates of birth of these employees have been exposed. However, other information including phone…
Intel, Google, Microsoft, Meta and other tech heavyweights are establishing a new industry group, the Ultra Accelerator Link (UALink) Promoter Group, to guide the development of the components that link together AI accelerator chips in data centers. Announced Thursday, the UALink Promoter Group — which also counts AMD (but not Arm just yet), Hewlett Packard Enterprise,…
Sam Altman-led OpenAI said on Wednesday it has signed content and product partnerships with The Atlantic and Vox Media, helping the artificial intelligence firm to boost and train its products. The agreements with The Atlantic and Vox Media come on the heels of several media firms signing similar deals, giving OpenAI access to their news…
The operator of Japan’s destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant demonstrated Tuesday how a remote-controlled robot would retrieve tiny bits of melted fuel debris from one of three damaged reactors later this year for the first time since the 2011 meltdown. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings plans to deploy a “telesco-style” extendable pipe robot into…
Assessing Risks and Impacts of AI (ARIA) aims to help organizations and individuals determine whether a given AI technology will be valid, reliable, safe, secure, private, and fair once deployed. The program comes shortly after several recent announcements by NIST around the 180-day mark of the Executive Order on trustworthy AI and the U.S. AI…
Anthropic is releasing a new feature for its AI chatbot Claude that will let anyone create an email assistant, a bot to purchase shoes, or other personalized solutions. It’s called “tool use” (or the nerdier “function calling”), and it hooks up to any external API of your choosing. While I’m not a huge fan of the…
On Tuesday, Spain, Norway, and Ireland formally recognized a Palestinian state in a joint effort to increase international pressure on Israel. The recognition of a Palestinian state by Spain, Norway, and Ireland was intended to coerce Israel to dial back its military response to the October 7 Hamas attack. In response, Israel condemned the diplomatic…
On Thursday, Iran opened a five-day registration period for candidates to run in the Presidential election set for June 28. The Presidential election comes following the aftermath of the May 19 helicopter crash, which killed late President Ebrahim Raisi along with several others. The role of President has the power to dictate Iran’s relationship with…
On Thursday, fourteen Hong Kong pro-democracy activists were found guilty, with two acquittals in a landmark subversion trial. Critics of the trial declare that the ruling could cripple Hong Kong’s reputation as a global financial hub, and hurt its rule of law credibility. Of the group, thirty-one defendants pleaded guilty, with four becoming prosecution witnesses.…
On Wednesday, Israeli forces took control of a buffer zone between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli military, this grants Israel effective authority over the Palestinian territory’s entire land border. According to a televised briefing, a chief military spokesperson stated that Israeli forces gained “operational control over the Philadelphi Corridor”. The Philadelphi…
A new threat actor group dubbed Moonstone Sleet has been identified as responsible for a new slew of cyber attacks. These cyber attacks have targeted individuals and organizations within the defense industrial base, education, and information technology sectors using ransomware. The cyber attacks, originally thought to be the work of the threat actor group Lazarus…
The U.S. Department of Justice has announced the sentencing of a 31-year-old man to 10 years in prison for money laundering through cyber scams. Malachi Mullings, 31, was charged with laundering over $4.5 million by conducting business email compromise (BEC) schemes, and romance scams. Mullings pleaded guilty to the charges as of January 2023. To…
Brazillian banking organizations are being targeted under a new campaign that distributes a custom version of the remote access trojan (RAT) AllaSenha. The RAT AllaSenha is a custom variant of the Windows-based AllaKore RAT. This custom malware was designed to “stealing credentials that are required to access Brazilian bank accounts”. According to HarfangLab, a French…
A new Python package has been discovered that facilitates cryptocurrency theft in the Python Package Index repository (PyPI). The package was discovered by cybersecurity researchers who warned against its use. The package is called Pytoileur and has been downloaded 316 times. The author of the package has also uploaded an updated version following the removal…
Even though OpenAI’s most recently launched model, GPT-4o, significantly raised the large language model (LLM) ante, the startup is already working on its next flagship model, GPT-5. Leading up to the spring event that featured GPT-4o’s announcement, many hoped the company would launch the highly anticipated GPT-5. To curtail the speculation, CEO Sam Altman posted…
When Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, announced last year that his company would release an artificial intelligence system, Jeffrey Emanuel had reservations. Mr. Emanuel, a part-time hacker and full-time A.I. enthusiast, had tinkered with “closed” A.I. models, including OpenAI’s, meaning the systems’ underlying code could not be accessed or modified. When Mr. Zuckerberg…
Last year’s Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) was the biggest CoRL yet, with over 900 attendees, 11 workshops, and almost 200 accepted papers. While there were a lot of cool new ideas (see this great set of notes for an overview of technical content), one particular debate seemed to be front and center: Is training…
At WWDC, Apple will unveil its AI strategy as part of iOS 18 and its other operating system announcements. As previously reported by Bloomberg and others, the company plans to exploit a combination of on-device and server processing. However, processing of user data on Apple’s server infrastructures raises privacy concerns, especially when Apple has been…
It’s not uncommon for an exciting new tech feature to debut with some bugs. But at least some of the problems with Google’s new generative-AI-powered search answers may not be fixable anytime soon, five AI experts told Tech Brief on Tuesday. Last week, Google’s new “AI Overviews” went viral for the wrong reasons. Hyped as the…
North Korea condemned China, Japan, and South Korea on Monday for discussing denuclearisation of the peninsula. North Korea called their joint declaration following the summit in Seoul a violation of its sovereignty. Even though Beijing helped to water down the statement, advocating for the statement to mention the peninsula rather than North Korea specifically, North…
Between Tuesday night and Wednesday, the South Korean military said it found 260 balloons drifting across the border between North and South Korea. Residents in South Korea reported seeing plastic bags falling from the sky, which were found to contain garbage. These balloons arrived a few days after the North Korean city of Pyongyang accused…
Kyiv states that it has had difficulty stopping cross-border attacks from Russia as the U.S. and allies have banned Ukraine from firing Western weapons across the Russia-Ukraine border. Western nations are now calling for attacks across the border using weapons they’ve sent to Ukraine to be permitted. The issue is becoming more prominent as Russia…
The pier installed to allow the delivery of aid into the Gaza Strip was partially damaged during bad weather causing high seas, and is now being temporarily removed for repairs. Humanitarian aid delivery by sea will be paused as these repairs are completed. The repairs are expected to take at least a week, and then…
Virtual private networks (VPNs) are supposed to be used as an added security feature. However, it has recently been observed that attackers are increasingly using VPNs to gain access to networks. Using remote access VPNs allows hackers easy access into an organization’s IT environment, rather than having to exploit a public server or zero-day. Hackers…
On May 28, First American revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the personal information of 44,000 individuals had been compromised in the data breach taking place last December. On December 21, 2023, First American had identified unauthorized activity on its network, resulting in a data breach and the encryption…
OpenAI has begun training a new AI model, and with it the company has set up a safety and security committee to advise its board. This committee comes at a time of debate around AI safety, with high-profile employees resigning such as OpenAI’s co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. The new committee includes figures such…
The U.K. government believes Russian actors most likely tried to interfere in the 2019 general election. With the upcoming general election, prime minister Rishi Sunak has been advised by the U.K.’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy that foreign interference is likely. The committee warns that actors could use ransomware attacks targeting high-profile individuals,…
Microsoft, Google and Amazon are remarkably successful companies, and their ability to suppress competition in their primary and adjacent markets is unparalleled. These tech giants are now attempting to control artificial-intelligence technology. If allowed to dominate AI, they could reinforce and extend their supremacy over more of the economy. It is imperative that competition authorities…
Google announced new AI-powered features today for its Chromebook Plus line of devices, such as a writing assistant, a wallpaper creator and an easy access to Google’s Gemini chatbot. As a reminder, Chromebook Plus laptops are productivity-focused devices with minimum spec requirements. The company also unveiled new Chromebook Plus models from HP, Acer, and Asus. The…
For a generation of scientists raised watching Star Wars, there’s a disappointing lack of C-3PO-like droids wandering around our cities and homes. Where are the humanoid robots fuelled with common sense that can help around the house and workplace? Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) might be set to fill that hole. “I wouldn’t be surprised…
OpenAI said it had begun training its next-generation artificial intelligence software, even as the start-up backtracked on earlier claims that it wanted to build “superintelligent” systems that were smarter than humans. The San Francisco-based company said on Tuesday that it had started producing a new AI system “to bring us to the next level of…
On Monday, Russian forces captured two Ukrainian villages according to the defense ministry. The two settlements were located in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions. According to a report by the Ukrainian military’s General Staff, Ukrainian forces were successful in repelling an attack by Russian forces on Sunday. Ukrainian forces were able to fend off the…
On Monday, an Israeli airstrike triggered a fire, killing 45 people in a tent camp in the Gazan city of Rafah. Following the outbreak of the fire, global leaders erupted in an international outcry against the assault on Rafah. Global leaders also urged for the implementation of a World Court order against Israel’s actions. A…
On Monday, two confidential reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) disclosed that Iran is steadily increasing its enriched uranium stockpile. Discussions between Iran and the IAEA are currently stalled as Iran increases its uranium enrichment to weapons-grade. The main point of consternation lies in the fact that Iran has only implemented a small…
On Monday, a rocket launched by North Korea to deploy a second spy satellite exploded shortly after liftoff. According to the state media, the satellite explosion was a “setback” for Kim Jong Un. Un’s intentions to monitor both the U.S. and South Korea via reconnaissance satellites were foiled given the explosion. The explosion comes just…
Transparent Tribe, a Pakistan-nexus actor is considered responsible for a new slew of attacks against the Indian government, aerospace, and defense sectors. Transparent Tribe utilized cross-platform malware written in Rust, Golang, and Python to execute the attacks lasting from late 2023 to April 2024. According to a report published by the BlackBerry Research and Intelligence…
Microsoft is shedding light on a Moroccan-based cybercrime group named Storm-0539 behind a slew of gift card fraud attacks. Storm-0539 was discovered by Microsoft in December 2023 as orchestrating highly sophisticated email and SMS phishing attacks. According to Microsoft’s latest Cyber Signals report, the motivation for Storm-0539 is to “steal gift cards and profit by…
In a weekly news roundup, Chinese radar ships might be spying on undersea communications, spyware found at hotel check-ins, and Iran continues disruptive attacks. This week, consumer-grade spyware was discovered in Wyndham hotels across the United States. According to TechCrunch, the spyware was first identified in the check-in systems of several Wyndham hotels. A spyware…
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