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Cyber, AI & Critical Infrastructure Convergence Risks

By Chuck Brooks

#cybersecurity #artificialintelligence #criticalinfrastructure #risks


By Chuck Brooks, president of Brooks Consulting International

Federal agencies and their industry counterparts are moving at a breakneck pace to modernize in this fast-changing digital world. Artificial intelligence, automation, behavioral analytics, and autonomous decision systems have become integral to mission-critical operations. This includes everything from managing energy and securing borders to delivering healthcare, supporting defense logistics, and verifying identities. These technologies are undeniably enhancing capabilities. However, they are also subtly altering the landscape of risk.

The real concern isn’t any one technology in isolation, but rather the way these technologies now intersect and rely on each other. We’re leaving behind a world of isolated cyber threats. Now, we’re facing convergence risk, a landscape where cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data integrity, and operational resilience are intertwined in ways that often remain hidden until a failure occurs. We’re no longer just securing networks. We’re safeguarding confidence, continuity, and the trust of society.

Korea arrests suspects selling intimate videos from hacked IP cameras

The Korean National Police have arrested four individuals suspected of hacking over 120,000 IP cameras across the country and then selling stolen footage to a foreign adult site.

Although the suspects or the websites haven’t been named, the police are already taking action against viewers of the illicitly gained content, as well as the operators of the website, through international collaboration.

“The National Office of Investigation announced that four suspects who hacked over 120,000 IP cameras installed in private homes and commercial facilities and sold the stolen footage on an overseas illegal website have been arrested,” reads an announcement from the National Office of Investigation.

Glassworm malware returns in third wave of malicious VS Code packages

The Glassworm campaign, which first emerged on the OpenVSX and Microsoft Visual Studio marketplaces in October, is now in its third wave, with 24 new packages added on the two platforms.

OpenVSX and the Microsoft Visual Studio Marketplace are both extension repositories for VS Code–compatible editors, used by developers to install language support, frameworks, tooling, themes, and other productivity add-ons.

The Microsoft marketplace is the official platform for Visual Studio Code, while OpenVSX is an open, vendor-neutral alternative used by editors who can’t or don’t use Microsoft’s proprietary store.

SmartTube YouTube app for Android TV breached to push malicious update

The popular open-source SmartTube YouTube client for Android TV was compromised after an attacker gained access to the developer’s signing keys, leading to a malicious update being pushed to users.

The compromise became known when multiple users reported that Play Protect, Android’s built-in antivirus module, blocked SmartTube on their devices and warned them of a risk.

The developer of SmartTube, Yuriy Yuliskov, admitted that his digital keys were compromised late last week, leading to the injection of malware into the app.

MS Teams Guest Access Can Remove Defender Protection When Users Join External Tenants

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a cross-tenant blind spot that allows attackers to bypass Microsoft Defender for Office 365 protections via the guest access feature in Teams.

“When users operate as guests in another tenant, their protections are determined entirely by that hosting environment, not by their home organization,” Ontinue security researcher Rhys Downing said in a report.

“These advancements increase collaboration opportunities, but they also widen the responsibility for ensuring those external environments are trustworthy and properly secured.”

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