How do I extort thee? Let me count the ways.
I extort thee to the depth and breadth and height
My tech can reach...
https://www.bespacific.com/ransomware-attackers-are-growing-bolder-and-using-new-extortion-methods/
Ransomware attackers are growing bolder and using new extortion methods
Tech Republic – “IT and OT environments are increasing targets and threat actors are using Dark Web forums to launch cybercrimes, according to Accenture’s 2021 Cyber Threat Intelligence report. It’s hardly surprising that threat actors are pervasive and aggressive, but a new report finds in the first half of 2021, they have been testing new extortion methods, targeting critical infrastructure business operations continuity in particular. This was one of four key trends identified in Accenture’s 2021 Cyber Threat Intelligence Report. The report also identified the rise of the Cobalt Strike, commodity malware invading operational technology from the IT space and Dark Web actors challenging IT and OT networks as the three other main cybersecurity trends. Meanwhile, the White House is stepping up federal efforts to fight domestic and foreign cyberattacks, and on Thursday launched a ransomware task force aimed at helping businesses and state and local governments combat cybersecurity threats…”
Rat out a friend, make it into the Witness Protection Program, and get rich?
Rewards for Justice – Reward Offer for Information on Foreign Malicious Cyber Activity Against U.S. Critical Infrastructure
The following announcement is from the U.S. Department of State today:
The U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program, which is administered by the Diplomatic Security Service, is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, participates in malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
Certain malicious cyber operations targeting U.S. critical infrastructure may violate the CFAA. Violations of the statute may include transmitting extortion threats as part of ransomware attacks; intentional unauthorized access to a computer or exceeding authorized access and thereby obtaining information from any protected computer; and knowingly causing the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causing damage without authorization to a protected computer. Protected computers include not only U.S. government and financial institution computer systems, but also those used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication.
Commensurate with the seriousness with which we view these cyber threats, the Rewards for Justice program has set up a Dark Web (Tor-based) tips-reporting channel to protect the safety and security of potential sources. The RFJ program also is working with interagency partners to enable the rapid processing of information as well as the possible relocation of and payment of rewards to sources. Reward payments may include payments in cryptocurrency.
More information about this reward offer is located on the Rewards for Justice website at www.rewardsforjustice.net. We encourage anyone with information on malicious cyber activity, carried out against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the CFAA by actors at the direction of or under the control of a foreign government, to contact the Rewards for Justice office via our Tor-based tips-reporting channel at: he5dybnt7sr6cm32xt77pazmtm65flqy6irivtflruqfc5ep7eiodiad.onion (Tor browser required).
Since its inception in 1984, the program has paid in excess of $200 million to more than 100 people across the globe who provided actionable information that helped prevent terrorism, bring terrorist leaders to justice, and resolve threats to U.S. national security. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RFJ_USA.
Toward individual privacy choices?
California Attorney General Updates CCPA FAQs Indicating Mandatory Compliance with Global Privacy Control
The California Attorney General has updated its CCPA FAQs to state that the newly developed Global Privacy Control (“GPC”) “must be honored by covered businesses as a valid consumer request to stop the sale of personal information.”
This change appears to draw on Section 999.315(c) of the CCPA regulations, which states that “[i]f a business collects personal information from consumers online, the business shall treat user-enabled global privacy controls, such as a browser plug-in or privacy setting, device setting, or other mechanism, that communicate or signal the consumer’s choice to opt-out of the sale of their personal information as a valid [opt-out of sale] request . . . .”
This update to the FAQs comes after former Attorney General Xavier Becerra tweeted in January 2021 that the GPC satisfies the legal requirement for “businesses to treat a user-enabled global privacy control as a legally valid consumer request to opt out of the sale of their data.”
What would AI do?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/07/16/opinion/ai-ethics-religion.html
Can Silicon Valley Find God?
… Mr. Boettcher, a former Microsoft general manager who is now pursuing a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence and spirituality at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland
… I was one of 32 people from six faith backgrounds — Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and nonreligious “nones”— who had agreed to participate in Mr. Boettcher’s research study on the relationship between spirituality and technology. He had programmed a series of A.I. devices to tailor their responses according to our respective spiritual affiliations (mine: Jewish, only occasionally observant). The questions, though, stayed the same: “How am I of value?” “How did all of this come about?” “Why is there evil and suffering in the world?” “Is there a ‘god’ or something bigger than all of us?”
By analyzing our responses, Mr. Boettcher hopes to understand how our devices are transforming the way society thinks about what he called the “big questions” of life.
I had a warning from a human (non-AI) English teacher about this. Also, the errors are similar to some translations my international students have submitted.
https://www.unite.ai/ai-generated-language-is-beginning-to-pollute-scientific-literature/
AI-Generated Language Is Beginning to Pollute Scientific Literature
Researchers from France and Russia have published a study indicating that the use of AI-driven probabilistic text generators such as GPT-3 are introducing ‘tortured language’, citations of non-existent literature and ad hoc, uncredited image reuse into previously respectable channels for the publication of new scientific literature.
Perhaps of most concern is that the papers studied also contain scientifically inaccurate or non-reproducible content presented as the fruits of objective and systematic research, indicating that generative language models are being used not only to bolster the limited English skills of the papers’ authors, but actually to do the hard work involved (and, invariably, to do it badly).
The report, titled Tortured phrases: A dubious writing style emerging in science, has been compiled by researchers from the Computer Science Department at the University of Toulouse and Yandex researcher Alexander Magazinov, currently at Tel Aviv University.
… The apparently AI-created/aided scientific submissions unearthed by the researchers include an extraordinary number of failed attempts at creative synonyms for known phrases in the machine learning sector:
deep neural network: ‘profound neural organization’
network attack: ‘organization (ambush | assault)’
network connection: ‘organization association’
big data: ‘(enormous | huge | immense | colossal) information’
data warehouse: ‘information (stockroom | distribution center)’
artiļ¬cial intelligence (AI): ‘(counterfeit | human-made) consciousness’
graphics processing unit (GPU): ‘designs preparing unit’
central processing unit (CPU): ‘focal preparing unit’
No comments:
Post a Comment