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  • Nigerian BEC Scammer Pleads Guilty in US Court

    Henry Onyedikachi Echefu, a Nigerian national residing in South Africa at the time, pleaded guilty in a US court to participating in a business email compromise (BEC) fraud scheme, which operated between February and July 2017. Echefu and his co-conspirators, including individuals in Maryland, gained unauthorized access to email accounts, spoofed email addresses, and instructed…

  • FBI: Cybercrime Losses Exceeded $12.5 Billion in 2023

    The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its 2023 annual report, showing a nearly 10% increase in cybercrime complaints compared to the previous year. With over 880,000 complaints filed in the United States, losses totaled over $12.5 billion, a 22% increase from 2022, and reaching $37.4 billion over five years. Phishing remains the top…

  • Cryptography Firm Zama Raises $73 Million for FHE Solution

    France-based Zama, an open-source cryptography company, announced raising $73 million in a Series A funding round, led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs, among others. Zama specializes in fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), allowing processing of encrypted data without decryption. Their focus is on making FHE accessible to developers through open-source libraries, enabling end-to-end encryption without…

  • Hugging Face is launching an open source robotics project led by former Tesla scientist

    Hugging Face, the New York City-startup that maintains the popular open source repository of machine learning and AI code of the same name and the open source ChatGPT-rival Hugging Chat, is launching a new robotics project under former Tesla staff scientist Remi Cadene, according to a post from Cadene on X this morning. Fittingly, Cadene…

  • Elon Musk may yet hold OpenAI to account — unlike its board

    The plaintiff is conflicted. The legal arguments appear tenuous. And, in places, the 35-page lawsuit that Elon Musk filed last week with the Superior Court of California against OpenAI reads like a mash-up between a science fiction film script and a letter from a jilted lover. But Musk’s submission that OpenAI has breached its founding…

  • Inflection AI’s friendly chatbot tops 1 million daily users

    ChatGPT rival Pi, from Inflection, now performs “neck and neck with” OpenAI’s GPT-4 thanks to a new model, according to data first shared with Axios. Why it matters: Inflection faces a crowded field in the market for AI-based assistants, competing against better-heeled rivals including Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, among others. Inflection is announcing Thursday that Pi…

  • The Integral Role Of Robotics, AI And Automation In Healthcare

    With the advent of robotics, automation and artificial intelligence (AI), we are not merely witnessing a change in how healthcare is delivered; we are at the dawn of a new era where the boundaries of what is possible are being redefined. As a senior executive of an organization delivering intelligent engineering and technology solutions to…

  • Google employee charged with stealing AI trade secrets

    A Google employee was charged Tuesday with stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets from the tech giant while secretly working with two Chinese-based companies in the AI industry. Linwei Ding, who also goes by Leon Ding, is charged with four counts of theft of trade secrets. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison for…

  • Three killed in first fatal Houthi attack on Red Sea shipping, CENTCOM says

    On Wednesday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the killing of three seafarers on board a merchant ship in the Red Sea via a Houthi missile attack. These deaths mark the first fatalities reported as a result of the Iranian proxy group strikes in the Red Sea. The attack itself set a Greek-owned ship with a…

  • Ukrainian drones strike Russian iron ore plant

    On Wednesday, two Ukrainian drones hit one of Russia’s largest iron ore plants. The two drones attacked the fuel facilities of the plant. Just two hours after announcing the first strike, Roman Starovoit the governor of Kursk announced a second attack on the facilities. The drone strikes hit the Mikhailovsky GOK iron ore plant. Metalloinvest…

  • Exit Scam: BlackCat Ransomware Group Vanishes After $22 Millon Payout

    Threat actors behind the Blackcat ransomware are suspected of pulling an exit scam after uploading a law enforcement seizure notice and shutting down their darknet website. This shutdown occurred after the actors behind BlackCat allegedly received a $22 million ransom payment. The ransom was paid by UnitedHealth’s Change Healthcare unit (Optum) and the threat actors…

  • Apple Blunts Zero-Day Attacks with iOS 17.4 Update

    On Tuesday, Apple revealed an urgent software update to patch several security flaws in the iOS platform. These updates come with a warning of potential zero-day exploits in the system. Apple released several iOS updates including iOS 17.4, iPad 17.4, and iOS 16.7.6 as a means of patching potential security defects. The release of the…

  • Ex-Google Engineer Arrested for Stealing AI Technology Secrets for China

    On March 6, The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted a 38-year-old California resident and Chinese national for allegedly stealing proprietary information from Google. Linwei Ding (aka Leon Ding) is accused of having pilfered over 500 files regarding information on Google’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) trade secrets. The former Google engineer is said to have lifted…

  • Alert: GhostSec and Stormous Launch Joint Ransomware Attacks in Over 15 Countries

    Cybercrime group ChostSec was linked to a ransomware family of the Golang variant called GhostLocker. Attacks conducted by the group have targeted a myriad of counties and sectors including Cuba, Poland, China, Lebanon, Israel, India, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia to name a few. Targeted sectors include government, critical infrastructure, education, and manufacturing. According to a…

  • China steps up grey-zone warfare to exhaust Taiwan, defense report says

    According to a Taiwan defense ministry report on Thursday, China has stepped up grey-zone warfare against Taiwan. The report states that China’s goal is to make the areas around Taiwan “saturated” with balloons, civilian boats, and drones. This report comes after years of Taiwan’s complaints regarding China’s escalation in grey-zone conflict tactics as a means…

  • Russia’s FSB says it shoots dead a man planning an ‘act of terrorism’ – RIA

    On Thursday, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced it shot a Belarusian man dead who was planning “an act of terrorism” on Ukraine’s behalf. The RIA state news agency reported that the shooting took place in the northern Russian region of Karelia. Russian media reportedly identified the man as Nikolai Alekseev, a 49-year-old activist. The…

  • Senegal president announces March election

    Senegal president announces March election The government of Senegal has announced that the country’s presidential election will be held on March 24th, following tensions sparked by President Macky Sall’s decision to postpone the original February poll. This move led to widespread protests, with opponents accusing him of attempting a constitutional coup. Senegal, known for its…

  • At least 18 Syrian truffle hunters killed in suspected IS attack

    Suspected Islamic State (IS) gunmen have killed at least 18 people and left over 50 missing in an attack on truffle hunters in Syria’s eastern Deir al-Zour province, according to reports from monitoring groups and media outlets. The attack occurred in the desert area of Kobajib, with conflicting reports on the exact number of casualties.…

  • Haiti gang leader threatens ‘civil war’ if PM does not resign

    Amid escalating violence in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier has issued a threat of “civil war” if Prime Minister Ariel Henry does not resign. The situation has led to a humanitarian crisis, with thousands displaced and over 1,000 killed since the start of the year. The United States has urged Henry to…

  • Explosions hit Odesa as Zelensky meets Greek PM

    Deadly explosions struck Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa during a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Ukraine’s navy reported five fatalities, but no injuries to either delegation were reported. Russia claimed responsibility for targeting a maritime drone facility in a commercial port area, prompting Zelensky to accuse Moscow of reckless…

  • Cloud Security Firm Sweet Security Raises $33 Million, 6 Months After Emerging From Stealth

    Sweet Security, a Tel Aviv-based cloud runtime security firm, has secured a $33 million Series A funding round led by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from Munich Re Ventures and Glilot Capital Partners. The funding comes just six months after the company emerged from stealth with an initial $12 million seed funding. Sweet Security plans…

  • Anatomy of a BlackCat Attack Through the Eyes of Incident Response

    In a recent cyberattack case, incident response firm Sygnia intervened when a company faced a ransomware attack orchestrated by BlackCat. The attack, initiated through a supply chain breach, targeted misconfigured Apache Hadoop, Confluence, Docker, and Redis instances. Sygnia advised the victim to disconnect from the internet, preventing the attackers from encrypting the entire environment and…

  • Linux Malware Campaign Targets Misconfigured Cloud Servers

    Cado Security has issued a warning about a cryptojacking campaign leveraging Linux malware, which targets misconfigured Apache Hadoop, Confluence, Docker, and Redis instances with innovative malicious payloads. The attackers employ four new Golang payloads to automate the discovery and exploitation of vulnerable hosts, alongside a reverse shell and multiple user-mode rootkits to conceal their activities.…

  • Fresh $100 Million Claroty Funding Brings Total to $735 Million 

    Claroty, a cybersecurity firm specializing in securing cyber-physical systems, has secured $100 million in strategic growth funding, bringing its total investment to $735 million. The funding round saw participation from Delta-v Capital, AB Private Credit Investors at AllianceBernstein, Standard Investments, Toshiba Digital Solutions, SE Ventures, Rockwell Automation, and Silicon Valley Bank. The company plans to…

  • Something Like Fire

    Machines can now talk with us in ways that aren’t preprogrammed. They can draw pictures, write passable (if generic) college essays, and make fake videos so convincing that you and I can’t tell the difference. The first time I used ChatGPT, I almost forgot that I was communicating with a machine. Artificial intelligence is like nothing…

  • Klarna’s AI Assistant Is Doing The Job Of 700 Workers, Company Says

    The challenge for high-flying tech unicorns is how to keep growing in a belt-tightening environment, due to inflation and uncertain economic conditions. It’s even harder when the tech darlings don’t generate sufficient profits to maintain their market capitalization. The likelihood of investors continually funding companies amid high interest rates and economic headwinds dwindles, as there…

  • Agility Robotics’ new CEO is ‘focused on the here and now’

    There was nothing else like Digit on the ProMat floor last year. The manufacturing supply chain event has gradually morphed into a tech show in recent years. Many of the biggest names in the space were present, showcasing autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), bin picking arms and automated storage and retrieval systems. But Agility’s small army…

  • Salesforce aims to blaze new generative AI trail for developers with Einstein 1 Studio

    Salesforce is continuing its generative AI push with the availability today of the company’s Einstein 1 Studio, timed to coincide with the company’s TrailblazerDX developer conference. Einstein 1 Studio provides a set of tools that can enable developers to customize the Salesforce Einstein Copilot gen AI assistant, which became available as a beta release last…

  • Microsoft engineer warns company’s AI tool creates violent, sexual images, ignores copyrights

    On a late night in December, Shane Jones, an artificial intelligence engineer at Microsoft, felt sickened by the images popping up on his computer. Jones was noodling with Copilot Designer, the AI image generator that Microsoft debuted in March 2023, powered by OpenAI’s technology. Like with OpenAI’s DALL-E, users enter text prompts to create pictures. Creativity…

  • Microsoft’s Mistral deal beefs up Azure without spurning OpenAI

    Microsoft’s multiyear deal with French AI company Mistral signaled that the company wants longevity in the space. The company invested €2 billion ($2.1 billion) into Mistral and announced it would bring Mistral’s newest AI model, Mistral Large, to Azure. But the investment into Mistral, mainly a developer of open-source AI models, doesn’t mean Microsoft lost faith…

  • Cloudflare announces new defensive AI products for protecting LLMs and companies from attack

    Cloudflare Inc., a global cloud connectivity provider company, today announced the development of Firewall for AI to provide companies a layer of protection for artificial intelligence large language models, with an aim to identify potential attacks before they can tamper with critical functionality or access sensitive data. The company also announced a suite of new defensive…

  • Bitcoin Soars to New All-Time High Above $69K

    The price of bitcoin (BTC) has set a record high, rising above $69,000 on crypto exchange Coinbase, a level first touched on Nov. 10, 2021. A continuing massive wave of buying by the newish U.S.-based spot bitcoin ETFs is the likely catalyst behind what’s now a historic run higher. The price of bitcoin sat at…

  • AMD Hits US Roadblock in Selling AI Chip Tailored for China

    Advanced Micro Devices Inc. hit a US government roadblock in attempting to sell an artificial intelligence chip tailored for the Chinese market, according to people familiar with the matter, part of Washington’s crackdown on the export of advanced technologies to the country. AMD had hoped to gain a green light from the Commerce Department to…

  • AI Talent Is in Demand Even as Tech Layoffs Mount

    U.S. companies are ramping up recruitment of artificial-intelligence professionals and paying a premium for talent. Firms in the tech sector and beyond went on a hiring spree after the onset of the pandemic before pivoting to a focus on efficiency through layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. The market for AI-related roles has proved resilient, job-listings…

  • Middle East Leads in Deployment of DMARC Email Security

    After stricter email handling mandates by Google and Yahoo, organizations have adopted a trio of email authentication technologies, and organizations in the Middle East are adopting them as quickly, or faster than, the global average. 73% of global organizations have adopted the email authentication technologies. 90% of organizations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and…

  • German Authorities Take Down ‘Crimemarket’ Cybercrime Website

    Authorities in Germany announced the shutdown of the cybercrime marketplace called “crimemarket” along with the arrest of six people believed to be involved with its operations. According to authorities, the site was the biggest illegal online trading platform that spoke German. The platform was used to trade narcotics, weapons, cybercrime tools and illegal services. The…

  • China sets ambitious 2024 economic target

    China set an ambitious growth target of approximately 5% for this year. The announcement was made by Premier Li Qiang at the opening of the annual National People’s Congress on Tuesday. Mr Li acknowledged that China’s economic performance has faced difficulties and China is struggling to reinvigorate its once-booming economy. A series of other measures…

  • US sanctions Zimbabwe president Emmerson Mnangagwa over alleged abuses

    The US has sanctioned Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa along with his wife and senior government officials due to their alleged involvement with corruption and human rights abuses. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions after a review of the sanctions program that had been in place since 2003. The sanctions targeted…

  • Philippines says ship damaged in South China Sea incident with Chinese boat

    The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has reported that one of its boats suffered minor structural damage when Chinese ships tried to block a resupply mission in the South China Sea. This was the latest confrontation in the disputed waters. The incident took place early on Tuesday morning near Second Thomas Shoal where a small group…

  • PyRIT: Open-source framework to find risks in generative AI systems

    PyRIT has been battle-tested by Microsoft’s AI red team. It started as a collection of individual scripts used during the team’s initial foray into red teaming generative AI systems in 2022. As they engaged with various generative AI systems and explored different risks, they incorporated new features they deemed beneficial. The tool should not be seen…

  • The Big Questions Raised by Elon Musk’s Lawsuit Against OpenAI

    From Silicon Valley to Wall Street to Washington, the blockbuster case that Elon Musk filed against OpenAI and its C.E.O., Sam Altman, has become Topic A. It is the business world’s hottest soap opera. But among lawyers, the case has become something of a fascination for a different reason: It poses a series of unique and…

  • Humanoid Robots at Amazon Provide Glimpse of an Automated Workplace

    Employees at an Amazon.com Inc. warehouse near Seattle recently got a glimpse of the future of work: a 5-foot-9-inch robot that resembles a human, walks like a bird and has glowing white eyes. Called Digit, the machine is configured for one basic task: plucking empty yellow bins off a shelf and ferrying them several feet…

  • China offers AI computing ‘vouchers’ to its underpowered start-ups

    China is taking steps to level the playing field for its artificial intelligence start-ups, as the country’s tech giants hog AI-training computing resources already squeezed by US chip restrictions. At least 17 city governments, including the largest, Shanghai, have pledged to provide “computing vouchers” to subsidise AI start-ups facing rising data centre costs as supplies…

  • A.I. Start-Up Anthropic Challenges OpenAI and Google With New Chatbot

    The high-profile A.I. start-up Anthropic released a new version of its Claude chatbot on Monday, saying it outperforms other leading chatbots on a range of standard benchmark tests, including systems from Google and OpenAI. Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s chief executive and co-founder, said the new technology, called Claude 3 Opus, was particularly useful when analyzing scientific…

  • Infrastructure Cyberattacks, AI-Powered Threats Pummel Africa

    In 2023, most major economies in Africa experienced fewer overall cyber threats, but there were some exceptions. Kenya saw a 68% rise in ransomware attacks and South Africa saw a 29% jump in phishing attacks targeting sensitive information. Cyber attackers are increasingly targeting critical infrastructure and experimenting with ways to incorporate AI into their toolkits.…

  • CryptoChameleon Attackers Target Apple, Okta Users With Tech Support Gambit

    A phishing kit, named CryptoChameleon, has been targeting cryptocurrency platforms, including employees of Binance and Coinbase. The kit has also been targeting the Federal Communications Commission as well. According to a Lookout analysis, the victims primarily use Apple iOS and Google Android devices with single sign-on solutions. These include Okta, Outlook and Google. Successful attacks…

  • Georgia’s Largest County Is Still Repairing Damage From January Cyberattack

    Georgia’s largest county government is still repairing damage from an attack by hackers a month ago. The hackers shut down office phone lines, restricted clerks from issuing vehicle registrations or marriage licenses, and threatened to release sensitive data they claimed to have stolen unless officials paid a ransom. The ransomware syndicate LockBit took credit for…

  • Kamala Harris urges more aid for starving Gazans

    US Vice President Kamala Harris has urged Israel to increase the flow of aid to Gaza because the people in Gaza are starving. She also called for an immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks. Israel did not attend truce talks in Egypt because Hamas did not give a list of hostages still…

  • New US-Russian crew heads to space station

    A SpaceX rocket with three US astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut has begun its trip to the International Space Station (ISS) from Florida. The mission will last six months. Space is one of the few areas where the US and Russia continue to co-operate closely, despite the Russian war with Ukraine. The three men and…

  • Australia gives $41mn to ASEAN countries for ‘free, open’ South China Sea

    On the first day of a summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Melbourne, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong has announced 64 million Australian dollars in funding for maritime security. It was not specified which countries would receive the funding, but Wong “welcomed efforts” by Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Malaysia, the…

  • Haiti declares curfew after 4,000 inmates escape jail amid rising violence

    Haiti’s government declared a state of emergency after a sharp increase in gang-led violence over the weekend. The violence included attacks on the country’s two biggest prisons, resulting in thousands of prisoners escaping. The 72-hour state of emergency and curfew went into effect as the government said they would find the escaped inmates. The curfew…

  • 20 Ways SMBs Can Leverage AI To Elevate Their CX

    These days, almost all companies are exploring how artificial intelligence can impact and improve their processes. For smaller companies aiming to stand out, leveraging AI offers unique opportunities to simplify and enhance customer interactions, share compelling messaging, drive personalization, and more, all combining to deliver a better customer experience. From allowing companies to provide 24/7…

  • CIOs rethink all-in cloud strategies

    After years of marching to the cloud migration drumbeat, CIOs are increasingly becoming circumspect about the cloud-first mantra, catching on to the need to turn some workloads away from the public cloud to platforms where they will run more productively, more efficiently, and cheaper. “‘Cloud exit’ became a big theme in 2023 and there’s good odds…

  • OpenAI wants to make a walking, talking humanoid robot smarter

    Just a few years ago, attempts at autonomous, human-shaped bipedal robots were laughable and far-fetched. Two-legged robots competing in high-profile Pentagon challenges famously stumbled and fell their way through obstacle courses like an inebriated pub-crawler while Tesla’s highly-hyped humanoid bot, years later, turned out to be nothing more than a man dancing in a skin-tight…

  • Elon Musk sues OpenAI for abandoning its mission to benefit humanity

    Elon Musk is suing OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, over claims that the pursuit of profit has led the company to abandon its founding mission to develop artificial intelligence technology that will benefit humanity. In a lawsuit filed with a San Francisco court on Thursday, Musk alleges that OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft has transformed…

  • As Hungry Gazans Crowd a Convoy, a Crush of Bodies, Israeli Gunshots and a Deadly Toll

    Israeli forces opened fire while a crowd was gathered on Thursday near a convoy of trucks carrying desperately needed aid to Gaza City. The details of what happened were unclear, with officials from both sides offering starkly different accounts. The Gazan health ministry said in a statement that more than 100 people were killed and…

  • Biden Calls Chinese Electric Vehicles a Security Threat

    President Biden took steps on Thursday toward blocking internet-connected Chinese cars and trucks from entry to the American auto market, saying they posed risks to national security because their operating systems could send sensitive information to Beijing. The announcement was the latest example of Mr. Biden’s move to ramp up technology restrictions on China, and…

  • Pentagon Weighs New Plan to Ship Weapons to Ukraine Quickly

    The Biden administration is considering whether to provide Ukraine with badly needed arms and ammunition from Pentagon stockpiles even though the government has run out of money to replace those munitions, according to two U.S. officials and a senior lawmaker. This would be a short-term move until Congress approves a larger military aid package to…

  • After Macron Touted Troops to Ukraine, Putin Warns West of Nuclear War Risk

    Responding to French President Emmanuel Macron’s assumption on Monday that a deployment of European troops to Ukraine cannot be “ruled out”, President Vladimir Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons if Western powers send soldiers to within striking distance of Russia. Moscow has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal including a new generation of hypersonic missiles…

  • Bitcoin surges to top $60,000, putting it within striking distance of all-time high

    Bitcoin surged on Wednesday to break above $60,000, putting it within striking distance of its all-time high as enthusiasm for the world’s largest cryptocurrency reached a frenzy last seen during a 2021 boom. The digital asset climbed as high as $63,900, touching its highest intraday point since November 2021, before dropping back to the $60,000…

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