Mandiant researchers published findings this week about a newly revealed Chinese espionage operation that used Sogu malware to spy on the African operations of both European and US organizations. The campaign is significant for the scope of its victims, but also because attackers used a classic malware distribution method: thumb …
Read More »Your Boss’s Spyware Could Train AI to Replace You
You’ve probably heard the story: A young buck comes into a new job full of confidence, and the weathered older worker has to show them the ropes—only to find out they’ll be unemployed once the new employee is up to speed. This has been happening among humans for a long …
Read More »Satellite Images Show the Devastating Cost of Sudan’s Aerial War
On Thursday, the head of the Sudanese Army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, asking for increased aid from the international community for Sudan and condemning the paramilitary groups that he says “have killed, looted, raped, robbed, and seized citizens’ homes and properties, …
Read More »Chinese Spies Infected Dozens of Networks With Thumb Drive Malware
For much of the cybersecurity industry, malware spread via USB drives represents the quaint hacker threat of the past decade—or the one before that. But a group of China-backed spies appears to have figured out that global organizations with staff in developing countries still keep one foot in the technological …
Read More »Massive MGM and Caesars Hacks Epitomize a Vicious Ransomware Cycle
The casino and hotel company MGM Resorts has dealt with widespread system outages and service disruptions at its properties in Las Vegas and elsewhere this week following a cyberattack that the company has been scrambling to contain. Meanwhile, Caesars Entertainment said in a United States regulatory filing on Thursday that …
Read More »You Need to Update Your Browser, Like, Yesterday
China-linked hackers are increasingly moving beyond espionage and into the disturbing world of power grid attacks. Threat researchers at security software firm Symantec this week released new evidence that the Chinese hacking group known as APT41 infiltrated the power grid of an Asian nation. Some details of the latest intrusion …
Read More »The Twisted Eye in the Sky Over Buenos Aires
This story was made possible with support from the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network. “And then the nightmare began,” says Guillermo Ibarrola, recalling his arrest at the crowded train station in the city center of Buenos Aires where we stand. He points to the cameras at the end of the …
Read More »The US Congress Has Trust Issues. Generative AI Is Making It Worse
When it comes to artificial intelligence, United States senators are looking to the titans of Silicon Valley to fix a Senate problem—a problem today’s political class perpetuates daily with their increasingly hyper-partisan ways, which generative AI now feeds off of as it helps rewrite our collective future. Today, the Senate …
Read More »China-Linked Hackers Breached a Power Grid—Again
The loose nexus of Chinese-origin cyberspies collectively called APT41 is known for carrying out some of the most brazen hacking schemes linked to China over the past decade. Its methods range from a spree of software supply chain attacks that planted malware in popular applications to a sideline in profit-focused …
Read More »AI Chatbots Are Invading Your Local Government—and Making Everyone Nervous
The United States Environmental Protection Agency blocked its employees from accessing ChatGPT while the US State Department staff in Guinea used it to draft speeches and social media posts. Maine banned its executive branch employees from using generative artificial intelligence for the rest of the year out of concern for …
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