General Cyber News via Ars Technica Risk Assessment

Hackers try to exploit WordPress plugin vulnerability that’s as severe as it gets

WP Automatic plugin patched, but release notes don't mention the critical fix.
Publish Date: 4/26/2024
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Apple releases eight small AI language models aimed at on-device use

OpenELM mirrors efforts by Microsoft to make useful small AI language models that run locally.
Publish Date: 4/25/2024
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Millions of IPs remain infected by USB worm years after its creators left it for dead

Ability of PlugX worm to live on presents a vexing dilemma: Delete it or leave it be.
Publish Date: 4/25/2024
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School athletic director arrested for framing principal using AI voice synthesis

Police uncover plot to defame principal with AI-generated racist and antisemitic comments.
Publish Date: 4/25/2024
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Nation-state hackers exploit Cisco firewall 0-days to backdoor government networks

Perimeter devices ought to prevent network hacks. Why are so many devices allowing attacks?
Publish Date: 4/24/2024
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Deepfakes in the courtroom: US judicial panel debates new AI evidence rules

Panel of eight judges confronts deep-faking AI tech that may undermine legal trials.
Publish Date: 4/24/2024
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Hackers infect users of antivirus service that delivered updates over HTTP

eScan AV updates were delivered over HTTP for five years.
Publish Date: 4/23/2024
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Microsoft’s Phi-3 shows the surprising power of small, locally run AI language models

Microsoft’s 3.8B parameter Phi-3 may rival GPT-3.5, signaling a new era of “small language models."
Publish Date: 4/23/2024
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Windows vulnerability reported by the NSA exploited to install Russian malware

Microsoft didn't disclose the in-the-wild exploits by Kremlin-backed group until now.
Publish Date: 4/22/2024
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Microsoft’s VASA-1 can deepfake a person with one photo and one audio track

YouTube videos of 6K celebrities helped train AI model to animate photos in real time.
Publish Date: 4/19/2024
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LLMs keep leaping with Llama 3, Meta’s newest open-weights AI model

Zuckerberg says new AI model "was still learning" when Meta stopped training.
Publish Date: 4/18/2024
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LastPass users targeted in phishing attacks good enough to trick even the savvy

Campaign used email, SMS, and voice calls to trick targets into divulging master passwords.
Publish Date: 4/18/2024
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OpenAI winds down AI image generator that blew minds and forged friendships in 2022

How a group of friends found themselves at the center of a fierce debate about the future of art.
Publish Date: 4/18/2024
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Kremlin-backed actors spread disinformation ahead of US elections

To a lesser extent, China and Iran also peddle disinfo in hopes of influencing voters.
Publish Date: 4/17/2024
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Broadcom says “many” VMware perpetual licenses got support extensions

Broadcom reportedly accused of changing VMware licensing and support conditions.
Publish Date: 4/17/2024
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Linus Torvalds reiterates his tabs-versus-spaces stance with a kernel trap

One does not simply suggest changing a kernel line to help out a parsing tool.
Publish Date: 4/16/2024
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Attackers are pummeling networks around the world with millions of login attempts

Attacks coming from nearly 4,000 IP addresses take aim at VPNs, SSH and web apps.
Publish Date: 4/16/2024
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New UK law targets “despicable individuals” who create AI sex deepfakes

Under new law, those who create the images would face a fine and possible jail time.
Publish Date: 4/16/2024
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Why the US government’s overreliance on Microsoft is a big problem

Microsoft continues to get a free pass after series of cybersecurity failures.
Publish Date: 4/16/2024
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Alleged cryptojacking scheme consumed $3.5M of stolen computing to make just $1M

Indictment says man tricked cloud providers into giving him services he never paid for.
Publish Date: 4/15/2024
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