Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: cybercrime/malcode – Page 207

Based on the news, one would think the greatest threat to our nation is North Korea’s looming capability to strike the continental United States with nuclear tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

While the Hermit Kingdom’s ability to launch missiles with miniaturized nuclear payloads that can reach the U.S. is alarming, another threat to our national and economic security — targeted cyberattacks by state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) groups and terrorist and criminal non-state actors — is being overlooked.

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Rooting for the AI’s.

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing warfare and espionage in ways similar to the invention of nuclear arms and ultimately could destroy humanity, according to a new government-sponsored study.

Advances in artificial intelligence, or AI, and a subset called machine learning are occurring much faster than expected and will provide U.S. military and intelligence services with powerful new high-technology warfare and spying capabilities, says a report by two AI experts produced for Harvard’s Belfer Center.

The range of coming advanced AI weapons include: robot assassins, superfast cyber attack machines, driverless car bombs and swarms of small explosive kamikaze drones.

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The Department of Homeland Security and FBI issued a new warning on Wednesday that North Korean government hackers are continuing to target critical U.S. infrastructure for cyber attacks.

A technical report by DHS’ National Cyber Awareness System reveals details of the tools and cyber methods being used by North Korean government hackers.

The alert said the North Korean government is using the cyber tools to “target the media, aerospace, financial, and critical infrastructure sectors in the United States and globally.”

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LONDON (Reuters) — The risk of cyber attacks targeting ships’ satellite navigation is pushing nations to delve back through history and develop back-up systems with roots in World War Two radio technology.

Ships use GPS (Global Positioning System) and other similar devices that rely on sending and receiving satellite signals, which many experts say are vulnerable to jamming by hackers.

About 90 percent of world trade is transported by sea and the stakes are high in increasingly crowded shipping lanes. Unlike aircraft, ships lack a back-up navigation system and if their GPS ceases to function, they risk running aground or colliding with other vessels.

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Ready and waiting at an arms reach from the government, the Research and Development Corporation (RAND) has helped the U.S. think through some of the toughest scientific and regulatory challenges since the 1940s. This year, the think tank is opening its first office in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its positioning itself to weigh in on some of Silicon Valleys largest research projects, like autonomous vehicles, drones, AI, cybersecurity and telemedicine.

But unlike the RAND of the past, this new version embodies the scrappiness of startup culture. Formally based out of a WeWork space, office director Nidhi Kalra and the rest of her SF team largely work decentralized from homes and coffee shops around the Bay Area.

The team of a dozen researchers is here to study the development of new technologies and the way in which state and local authorities are working side-by-side with startups to keep everyone safe without sundering innovation.

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