The U.S. Must Win the AI Race | Microsoft’s Security Failings Allowed China to Access US Government Emails | Supreme Court Rejects Trump-Era Ban on Gun Bump Stocks, and more

The decision, by a vote of 6 to 3, split along ideological lines. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had exceeded its power when it prohibited the device, an attachment that enables a semiautomatic rifle to fire at a speed rivaling that of a machine gun.
The agency, he added, had overstepped in issuing a rule that classified bump stocks as machine guns.
“We hold that a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a ‘machine gun’ because it cannot fire more than one shot ‘by a single function of the trigger,’” Justice Thomas wrote. He included several diagrams of the firing mechanism in the opinion.
The decision was a forceful rejection of one of the government’s few steps to address gun violence, particularly as legislative efforts have stalled in Congress. It also highlighted the deep divisions on the court over the issue as the country grapples with gun violence.

US Leaders Dodge Questions About Israel’s Influence Campaign  (Dell Cameron, Wired)
Federal lawmakers in the US have dodged repeated inquiries over the past week about a covert operation ordered by the Israeli government to artificially boost support among Americans for its war in Gaza. At the same time, senior White House officials charged with advising President Joe Biden on matters of national security are claiming to have no knowledge of the operation—first disclosed publicly more than four months ago.
The operation, formally tied to the Israeli government by a New York Times reporter last week, kicked off in October 2023 following the surprise attack by Hamas in southern Israel. Researchers internationally began work to expose the campaign in February, identifying a flood of “suspicious accounts” on US-based social networking apps, most masquerading as Americans avowing support for the Israeli military response.
In addition to eroding support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides assistance to 5.6 million Palestinian refugees, a chief aim of the Israeli operation, researchers say, was to sway the opinions of Black Americans. Per the Times—which cited four current and former Israeli officials in confirming their government had commissioned the campaign—its primary targets included the account of US congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats in the House, among others who are “Black and Democratic.”

The U.S. Must Win the AI Race  (Manisha Singh, National Interest)
With conflict currently present in almost every region of the world, speculation about “World War III” is difficult to avoid. If a calamity of such magnitude were to occur, it would likely be fought partly in the cyberverse. It would also undoubtedly feature the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI). This is one of the many critical reasons that America needs to lead on AI. To paraphrase Mark Zuckerberg’s tech mantra, adversaries are moving fast, and they certainly aren’t afraid to break things. 
As with most other significant innovations in the last century, AI was born in the United States. Rivals are racing to overtake what exists, either through their own efforts or infringing on creation occurring here. Domestic and global regulatory efforts are well underway. The question of balancing innovation and regulation is not new, but it is original in the case of AI. Perhaps the most defining feature of AI is the existential anxiety it has created. 
Such apprehension has been a motivating factor in the new rules of the road for the AI super highway. A group of U.S. Senators put forth a “Framework to Mitigate Extreme AI Risks,” which acknowledges the benefits of AI but highlights that it “presents a broad spectrum of risks that could be harmful to the American public.” Both a notification and licensing procedure, as well as the creation of a new regulatory body to be established by Congress, are contemplated. Although the framework isn’t binding, it does provide insight into the evolving thought process of regulators.
History dictates that in global conflict, the most powerful tools will prevail. It is, therefore, incumbent on U.S. innovators to win the AI race and achieve the goal of “peace through strength.” Only then can a course be set to maintain stability and prevent global atrocity by actors determined to use AI in a way that will redefine the concept of war.

Microsoft Admits Security Failings Allowed China to Access US Government Emails  (James Coker, Infosecurity)
Microsoft President Brad Smith had admitted security failings by the firm in enabling Chinese state hackers access the emails of US government officials in the summer of 2023.
In testimony at Congress to members of the US House Committee on Homeland Security on June 13, 2024, Smith said the tech giant accepts responsibility for all the issues cited in a Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) report “without equivocation or hesitation.”
The CSRB report, published in April 2024, blamed Microsoft for a “cascade of security failures” that enabled Chinese threat actor Storm-0558 to access the email accounts of 25 organizations, including US government officials.
To launch the espionage attack, Storm-0558 forged authentication tokens using an acquired Microsoft encryption key, which, when combined with another flaw in Microsoft’s authentication system, allowed them to gain full access to essentially any Exchange Online account anywhere in the world.
The CSRB investigation found an inadequate security culture at Microsoft, and also identified gaps within the firm’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) security compromise assessment and remediation process, among other errors that allowed the attackers to succeed.