-
Walking the Artificial Intelligence and National Security Tightrope
Artificial intelligence (AI) presents nations’ security as many challenges as it does opportunities. While it could create mass-produced malware, lethal autonomous weapons systems, or engineered pathogens, AI solutions could also prove the counter to these threats. Regulating AI to maximize national security capabilities and minimize the risks presented to them will require focus, caution and intent.
-
-
A Review of NIST’s Draft Cybersecurity Framework 2.0
Cybersecurity professionals, and anyone interested in cybersecurity, have noted that the gold standard of cybersecurity is getting a needed polish. “But all that glitters is not gold,” Melanie Teplinsky writes. NIST’s voluntary cybersecurity framework leaves organizations vulnerable to the nation’s most capable cyber adversaries. NIST’s proposed overhaul won’t change that.
-
-
In Pentagon's Overhauled Cyber Strategy, Offense is the New Defense
The Defense Department Tuesday unveiled an unclassified version of its updated cybersecurity strategy, calling for the nation’s cyber forces to persistently seek out and engage adversaries including China and Russia, as well as terrorist organizations and transnational criminal groups, to minimize threats to the U.S.
-
-
Apple and Google Are Introducing New Ways to Defeat Cell Site Simulators, But Is it Enough?
Cell-site simulators (CSS)—also known as IMSI Catchers and Stingrays—are a tool that law enforcement and governments use to track the location of phones, intercept or disrupt communications, spy on foreign governments, or even install malware.
-
-
Future-Proof Security Architecture for Healthcare Communications
Electronic patient records, digital medication plans, e-prescriptions: These applications are all key elements of the telematics infrastructure (TI). Germany’s telematics infrastructure (TI) aims to allow healthcare professionals to exchange patient data securely, rapidly and from anywhere. The platform for healthcare applications will soon see a new, flexible and therefore future-proof security architecture.
-
-
New Quantum Device Generates Single Photons and Encodes Information
Innovative approach is a step toward using single photons in quantum communication and information processing. Further coupling of the photon stream into waveguides — microscopic conduits of light — would provide the photonic circuits that allow the propagation of photons in one direction. Such circuits would be the fundamental building blocks of an ultra-secure quantum internet.
-
-
The Scourge of Commercial Spyware—and How to Stop It
Years of public revelations have spotlighted a shadowy set of spyware companies selling and servicing deeply intrusive surveillance technologies that are used against journalists, activists, lawyers, politicians, diplomats, and others. Democratic nations (thus far) lag behind the United States in executing spyware-related policy commitments.
-
-
International Ransomware Gangs Are Evolving Their Techniques. The Next Generation of Hackers Will Target Weaknesses in Cryptocurrencies
In reality, not a week goes by without attacks affecting governments, schools, hospitals, businesses and charities, all over the world. These attacks have significant financial and societal costs. Ransomware is now widely acknowledged as a major threat and challenge to modern society, and there is every expectation that criminals will continue to adapt their strategies and cause widespread damage for many years to come.
-
-
Detecting Malware Through Hardware-Integrated Protection
What if malicious software and viruses – or malware – detection could simply be built into the hardware of future computers? With a grant from NSF, a Texas A&M lab will work to move malware detection from software to hardware, expanding on existing technology.
-
-
How Trustworthy Are Large Language Models Like GPT?
More people feel comfortable outsourcing important projects to AI. New research shows why we shouldn’t, as generative AI may be riddled with hallucinations, misinformation, and bias.
-
-
Standardizing Encryption Algorithms That Can Resist Attack by Quantum Computers
Last year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) selected four algorithms designed to withstand attack by quantum computers. Now the agency has begun the process of standardizing these algorithms — the final step before making these mathematical tools available so that organizations around the world can integrate them into their encryption infrastructure. Three new algorithms are expected to be ready for use in 2024. Others will follow.
-
-
Malicious AI Arrives on the Dark Web
Nefarious non-state actors are already harnessing AI to scale up their malicious activities. Just as legitimate users have moved on from exploring ChatGPT to building similar tools, the same has happened in the shadowy world of cybercrime.
-
-
AI Cyber Challenge Aims to Secure Nation’s Most Critical Software
In an increasingly interconnected world, software undergirds everything from financial systems to public utilities. As software enables modern life and drives productivity, it also creates an expanding attack surface for malicious actors. This surface includes critical infrastructure, which is especially vulnerable to cyberattacks given the lack of tools capable of securing systems at scale. New competition challenges the nation’s top AI and cybersecurity talent to automatically find and fix software vulnerabilities, defend critical infrastructure from cyberattacks.
-
-
Training Students to Succeed in the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”
Transformational changes are already underway in the manufacturing industry as technological advancements, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and smart devices from the “fourth industrial revolution” or Industry 4.0., inspire a digital-first approach to engineering. University of Missouri researchers are using a $1 million grant to support the development of an Industry 4.0 lab, training engineering students for the future of digitization in manufacturing.
-
-
When Rumors Take Flight
Misinformation pervades U.S. politics, with the outcome of the 2020 presidential election being the most pressing case in point as a result of the persistent, unrelenting Big Lie campaign by Donald Trump and some of his allies. Yet Trump’s lies and unfounded claims have gained wide traction among his followers. MIT professor Adam Berinsky’s new book examines the political misinformation that threatens the U.S. system of government.
-
More headlines
The long view
States Rush to Combat AI Threat to Elections
By Zachary Roth
This year’s presidential election will be the first since generative AI became widely available. That’s raising fears that millions of voters could be deceived by a barrage of political deepfakes. Congress has done little to address the issue, but states are moving aggressively to respond — though questions remain about how effective any new measures to combat AI-created disinformation will be.
Ransomware Attacks: Death Threats, Endangered Patients and Millions of Dollars in Damages
By Dino Jahic
A ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, a company that processes 15 billion health care transactions annually and deals with 1 in 3 patient records in the United States, is continuing to cause massive disruptions nearly three weeks later. The incident, which started on February 21, has been called the “most significant cyberattack on the U.S. health care system” by the American Hospital Association. It is just the latest example of an increasing trend.
Chinese Government Hackers Targeted Critics of China, U.S. Businesses and Politicians
An indictment was unsealed Monday charging seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their involvement in a PRC-based hacking group that spent approximately 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and political officials in furtherance of the PRC’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.
Autonomous Vehicle Technology Vulnerable to Road Object Spoofing and Vanishing Attacks
Researchers have demonstrated the potentially hazardous vulnerabilities associated with the technology called LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, many autonomous vehicles use to navigate streets, roads and highways. The researchers have shown how to use lasers to fool LiDAR into “seeing” objects that are not present and missing those that are – deficiencies that can cause unwarranted and unsafe braking or collisions.
Tantalizing Method to Study Cyberdeterrence
By Trina West
Tantalus is unlike most war games because it is experimental instead of experiential — the immersive game differs by overlapping scientific rigor and quantitative assessment methods with the experimental sciences, and experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks.