Thanks to AI-enabled hacking, the internet is entering a ‘valley of pain’

Thanks to AI-enabled hacking, the internet is entering a ‘valley of pain’

Matteo Wong writes: This week could go down as the worst in the history of cybersecurity. On Wednesday, news emerged about two major vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used by 70 percent of websites, which prompted governments, hospitals, and companies around the world to take digital services offline as a precaution. There have already been millions of attempts to exploit these weaknesses. But the PHP vulnerabilities were just the most attention-grabbing in a series of alarming revelations. Security flaws…

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The DOJ, in its assault on the election system, has mostly been shooting blanks

The DOJ, in its assault on the election system, has mostly been shooting blanks

Richard L. Hasen writes: From Alaska to California and who knows where else, DOJ has been filing cases to interfere with how states count and certify votes. The agency’s latest moves—as factually unsupported as they are legally vacuous—demonstrate that for all the fear about DOJ coming in with guns blazing to try to overturn the results of the elections, it is most likely to be shooting blanks. The main reason that DOJ has been losing election-related lawsuits is that the…

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Most voters in key states want to block U.S. weapons transfers to Israel

Most voters in key states want to block U.S. weapons transfers to Israel

Jim Lobe reports: A majority of likely voters in each of six key swing states — Georgia, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas — say they approve of measures to block the transfer of bombs to Israel, according to a new poll released Wednesday by the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) and conducted by the YouGov data analytics firm. The poll also found that majorities or strong pluralities of 3,200 respondents in the six states favor “cutting $3.3…

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The CIA director in the middle of Trump’s deeply conflicted Ukraine policy

The CIA director in the middle of Trump’s deeply conflicted Ukraine policy

Shane Harris writes: Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky have never enjoyed a warm relationship, or even a stable one. But last week, it hit a new low. Trump called on the Ukrainian people to elect a new president, describing Zelensky as “more difficult to deal with” than Vladimir Putin. He accused Zelensky of prolonging Ukraine’s war with Russia. “He says he wants to settle, but he doesn’t,” Trump told Newsmax, without mentioning that it was Putin who started the war…

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‘Pure arrogance’: Anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for data center

‘Pure arrogance’: Anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for data center

The Guardian reports: Behind a wire fence lies a vast gaping wound of earth. Before Google’s arrival a few months ago, an estimated quarter of a million trees occupied the 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest near the town of Muhos in rural northern Finland. Now they are all gone. After the tech company illegally stripped the entire area to build a datacentre – taking even the top soil with it – all that remains is a vast expanse of…

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Three reasons why AI is not conscious and perhaps never will be

Three reasons why AI is not conscious and perhaps never will be

Anil K. Seth, Ned Block, and Giulio Tononi, write: Artificial-intelligence systems such as large language models (LLMs) can exhibit behaviour that seems strikingly intelligent. This has led many people, including some experts, to wonder whether these systems could have some form of consciousness — the capacity for subjective experience. However, we think that existing AI systems are not conscious, and that, along current trajectories of development, they are not likely to become conscious. Greater clarity about whether AI could become…

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Why a world without friction is a world without progress

Why a world without friction is a world without progress

Jennifer R Vail writes: In conversations, few words catch my attention faster than ‘friction’ – and especially talk of making things frictionless. From the workplace to grocery shopping, our societies seem to be striving to remove friction from everything. The motivation appears to be that decreasing resistance makes life easier and smoother. Having spent a career as a tribologist, studying friction, wear and lubrication scientifically, I have some opinions on this. I’ll confess that, in most of my career, I…

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Kyiv denies reports that Trump, Musk have restored Starlink speeds in Ukraine

Kyiv denies reports that Trump, Musk have restored Starlink speeds in Ukraine

Kyiv Independent reports: Ukraine’s military Starlink service is still operating at a speed cap of 161 kilometers per hour, a Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent on Oct. 22. The official’s statement contradicts claims quoted by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which reported on Oct. 22 that Starlink functionality was back to normal in Ukraine following a phone call between SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump called Musk on Oct. 21 to request he lift restrictions…

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Jared Kushner’s hacked phone revealed his secret negotiations — including over $700 million in transfers

Jared Kushner’s hacked phone revealed his secret negotiations — including over $700 million in transfers

Matthew Cole writes: In late spring 2020, a source I knew to be reliable called me with a story. The Dutch government had hacked into Jared Kushner’s phone and monitored him as he accessed a Dubai-based bank account. What was odd, the source said, was that the money in the account—hundreds of millions of dollars—had come from a bank in Azerbaijan. Most importantly, Kushner appeared to have transferred significant amounts of money from the Dubai account to other individuals, including…

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Judge restricts sprawling effort by DHS to find noncitizens registered to vote

Judge restricts sprawling effort by DHS to find noncitizens registered to vote

The New York Times reports: A federal judge in California on Wednesday blocked the Homeland Security Department from carrying out most field operations focused on uncovering voter fraud in nine states as part of a broader push to identify noncitizen voters. The ruling came less than two weeks before the midterm elections. The Trump administration has launched a blitz of operations focused on finding evidence of noncitizen voting or tying up election processes in states where it has dubiously claimed…

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Judge orders Trump to sit for a deposition in his defamation lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11

Judge orders Trump to sit for a deposition in his defamation lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11. The order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett came as lawyers for the British broadcaster complained that Trump had delayed his appearance in his own lawsuit. Charles Tobin, attorney for the BBC, said that with two months left in the discovery period, “we still haven’t been able to depose the…

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Unvetted AI agents are accessing U.S. bank accounts, apparently taking actions without user consent

Unvetted AI agents are accessing U.S. bank accounts, apparently taking actions without user consent

Axios reports: Major U.S. banks are detecting unauthorized third-party AI agents operating inside customer accounts, with some agents attempting to take actions that appear to be independent of user instructions, sources tell Axios. Why it matters: AI agents are becoming a nightmare for America’s banks, making their way into banking systems faster than financial institutions can respond. The difficulty in distinguishing between a human and an unauthorized bot is forcing banks to block the technology and rapidly rewrite their terms…

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Hackers used Claude and Grok to automate cyberattacks on over 400 banks and financial firms

Hackers used Claude and Grok to automate cyberattacks on over 400 banks and financial firms

Cyber Security News reports: A cybercrime group used artificial intelligence (AI) agents to coordinate attacks against more than 400 banks, payment providers and other financial organizations across Latin America, according to a report by cybersecurity company Straiker. The group, known as CyberCartel, reportedly used AI models from Anthropic, xAI and Moonshot AI to help plan and carry out parts of its operations. The reported targets span several countries, but Straiker did not name the institutions. Researchers said the system, called…

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Corporate ‘orbital data centre’ proposals are dangerous for humanity

Corporate ‘orbital data centre’ proposals are dangerous for humanity

A computer-generated image of objects in Earth orbit that are already being tracked, before any massive new satellite megaconstellations. Approximately 95 per cent of the objects are space debris in the form of non-functional satellites. (NASA) By Samantha Lawler, University of Regina SpaceX has started a trend. More American companies are betting that they can beat the laws of physics by launching thousands of enormous satellites to create orbital “AI data centres” with names like Cowboy Space’s Stampede. Space commercialization…

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