The Hunters International Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operation is shutting down and rebranding with plans to switch to date theft and extortion-only attacks.
As threat intelligence firm Group-IB revealed this week, the cybercrime group remained active despite announcing on November 17, 2024, that it was shutting down due to declining profitability and increased government scrutiny.
Since then, Hunters International has launched a new extortion-only operation known as “World Leaks” on January 1, 2025.
“No two ways about it,” Altepeter told Breaking Defense today. “The number of companies that we’re announcing is a surprise to me. I did not expect we would get this many.”
For the winning teams, the value of QBI is not just the money. Indeed, first-round grants like those being announced today have typically been under $1 million — small change not just for the Pentagon but for tech firms and venture capitalists already investing billions into quantum ventures. We suggested everybody apply for a million, [but] some people came in and said they were going to do it for less, Altepeter said.
The unique value of a QBI award is that it gives the winning companies access to a DARPA-led team of quantum experts, pulled from both US government labs, including the famous Los Alamos, and federally funded research institutions. Their job is to act as independent testers, fresh eyes, and devil’s advocates, rigorously scrutinizing each participant’s quantum strategy.
A new coalition of rights-holders has called on the government to support growth in the creative and tech sectors by protecting copyright ahead of an imminent AI consultation.
The BPI, PRS For Music, PPL, MPA and UK Music are among the group of publishers, authors, artists, music businesses, specialist interest publications, unions and photographers.
Launching today, the Creative Rights In AI Coalition has published three key principles for copyright and generative AI policy and a statement supported by all member organisations. The coalition is calling on government to adopt the principles as a framework for developing AI policy.
Here’s my take: I was in the music industry for many years, so I know how it operates. People pay royalties every time an artists music is used. My friend Ayub Ogada made an ungodly amount of money from only one album that supported him all the way past death. His music still generates rotalties. Much of it was due to the smarts of Rob Bozas who ran royalties for Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records. AI companies also will have to start paying royalties to creatives whose intellectual property they use to train their AI just like royalties are paid in the music industry. Many AI companies may not be as profitable as many may think due to liabilities from use of intellectual property to train the AI, as without the content the AI could not be trained. Many lawsuits will happen in the foreseeable future.
The provincial government of Andhra Pradesh (AP) in India has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gates Foundation to advance the use of technology in various sectors, including healthcare, agriculture, and education. The agreement was discussed in a meeting between AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Bill Gates, the Foundation’s chair. Naidu reiterated his administration’s dedication to utilizing innovative technology to propel the state’s development.
The MoU focuses on applying technology in ways that will benefit the public, emphasizing affordable and scalable solutions across essential sectors such as healthcare, medical technology, education, and agriculture. According to Naidu, the collaboration will harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance predictive health analytics and automate diagnostic processes. In the agricultural sector, AI-based platforms for expert guidance and satellite technology will be employed to optimize farming practices and resource management through precision agriculture techniques.
“This MoU formalises a strategic collaboration in which the Gates Foundation will provide support to implementation partners, co-identified with the AP government, for targeted interventions within state-driven programmes,” Naidu said.
Despite Oracle denying a breach of its Oracle Cloud federated SSO login servers and the theft of account data for 6 million people, BleepingComputer has confirmed with multiple companies that associated data samples shared by the threat actor are valid.
Last week, a person named ‘rose87168’ claimed to have breached Oracle Cloud servers and began selling the alleged authentication data and encrypted passwords of 6 million users. The threat actor also said that stolen SSO and LDAP passwords could be decrypted using the info in the stolen files and offered to share some of the data with anyone who could help recover them.
The threat actor released multiple text files consisting of a database, LDAP data, and a list of 140,621 domains for companies and government agencies that were allegedly impacted by the breach. It should be noted that some of the company domains look like tests, and there are multiple domains per company.
Tesla is preparing to launch its robo taxi in June, leveraging its unique autonomy and data advantages to navigate challenges such as new tariffs and production shifts, while positioning itself for significant growth amid declining competitor viability ## Questions to inspire discussion ## Tesla’s Robo Taxi Service.
🚕 Q: When and where is Tesla launching its robo taxi service? A: Tesla’s robo taxi service is set to launch in Austin, Texas in June 2025, with plans for a nationwide rollout in the US later that year.
🏎️ Q: What vehicles will be eligible for Tesla’s robo taxi service? A: The service will be available on all vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability, including existing Model 3 and Model Y, not just the upcoming Cybertruck.
💰 Q: How will Tesla’s robo taxi network economics work? A: The economics will be based on cost per mile, factoring in low capital costs of Tesla EVs and low power consumption of their onboard autonomy systems.
📊 Q: What competitive advantage does Tesla have in the robo taxi market? A: Tesla’s existing fleet of billions of miles of deployed vehicles and hundreds of thousands of users provide a massive data advantage for improving and assessing the service. ## Tariffs and Supply Chain.
🏭 Q: What is Tesla’s supply chain strategy? A: Tesla aims to build cars where sold for environmental reasons, which is considered best practice in network design but extremely difficult to implement.
Joscha Bach is a cognitive scientist focusing on cognitive architectures, consciousness, models of mental representation, emotion, motivation and sociality.
Patreon: / curtjaimungal. Crypto: https://tinyurl.com/cryptoTOE PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE Twitter: / toewithcurt. Discord Invite: / discord. iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast… https://pdora.co/33b9lfP Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b9… Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything: / theoriesofeverything Merch: https://tinyurl.com/TOEmerch 0:00:00 Introduction 0:00:17 Bach’s work ethic / daily routine 0:01:35 What is your definition of truth? 0:04:41 Nature’s substratum is a “quantum graph”? 0:06:25 Mathematics as the descriptor of all language 0:13:52 Why is constructivist mathematics “real”? What’s the definition of “real”? 0:17:06 What does it mean to “exist”? Does “pi” exist? 0:20:14 The mystery of something vs. nothing. Existence is the default. 0:21:11 Bach’s model vs. the multiverse 0:26:51 Is the universe deterministic 0:28:23 What determines the initial conditions, as well as the rules? 0:30:55 What is time? Is time fundamental? 0:34:21 What’s the optimal algorithm for finding truth? 0:40:40 Are the fundamental laws of physics ultimately “simple”? 0:50:17 The relationship between art and the artist’s cost function 0:54:02 Ideas are stories, being directed by intuitions 0:58:00 Society has a minimal role in training your intuitions 0:59:24 Why does art benefit from a repressive government? 1:04:01 A market case for civil rights 1:06:40 Fascism vs communism 1:10:50 Bach’s “control / attention / reflective recall” model 1:13:32 What’s more fundamental… Consciousness or attention? 1:16:02 The Chinese Room Experiment 1:25:22 Is understanding predicated on consciousness? 1:26:22 Integrated Information Theory of consciousness (IIT) 1:30:15 Donald Hoffman’s theory of consciousness 1:32:40 Douglas Hofstadter’s “strange loop” theory of consciousness 1:34:10 Holonomic Brain theory of consciousness 1:34:42 Daniel Dennett’s theory of consciousness 1:36:57 Sensorimotor theory of consciousness (embodied cognition) 1:44:39 What is intelligence? 1:45:08 Intelligence vs. consciousness 1:46:36 Where does Free Will come into play, in Bach’s model? 1:48:46 The opposite of free will can lead to, or feel like, addiction 1:51:48 Changing your identity to effectively live forever 1:59:13 Depersonalization disorder as a result of conceiving of your “self” as illusory 2:02:25 Dealing with a fear of loss of control 2:05:00 What about heart and conscience? 2:07:28 How to test / falsify Bach’s model of consciousness 2:13:46 How has Bach’s model changed in the past few years? 2:14:41 Why Bach doesn’t practice Lucid Dreaming anymore 2:15:33 Dreams and GAN’s (a machine learning framework) 2:18:08 If dreams are for helping us learn, why don’t we consciously remember our dreams 2:19:58 Are dreams “real”? Is all of reality a dream? 2:20:39 How do you practically change your experience to be most positive / helpful? 2:23:56 What’s more important than survival? What’s worth dying for? 2:28:27 Bach’s identity 2:29:44 Is there anything objectively wrong with hating humanity? 2:30:31 Practical Platonism 2:33:00 What “God” is 2:36:24 Gods are as real as you, Bach claims 2:37:44 What “prayer” is, and why it works 2:41:06 Our society has lost its future and thus our culture 2:43:24 What does Bach disagree with Jordan Peterson about? 2:47:16 The millennials are the first generation that’s authoritarian since WW2 2:48:31 Bach’s views on the “social justice” movement 2:51:29 Universal Basic Income as an answer to social inequality, or General Artificial Intelligence? 2:57:39 Nested hierarchy of “I“s (the conflicts within ourselves) 2:59:22 In the USA, innovation is “cheating” (for the most part) 3:02:27 Activists are usually operating on false information 3:03:04 Bach’s Marxist roots and lessons to his former self 3:08:45 BONUS BIT: On societies problems. Pandora: https://pdora.co/33b9lfP Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b9… Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything: / theoriesofeverything. Merch: https://tinyurl.com/TOEmerch.
0:00:00 Introduction. 0:00:17 Bach’s work ethic / daily routine. 0:01:35 What is your definition of truth? 0:04:41 Nature’s substratum is a \.
The use of smartphones in Japan is extending to younger and younger children, raising serious concerns about the dangers of social media. An online safety expert provides a snapshot of Japanese teens’ use of current platforms and considers the options for protecting children from cyberbullying, exploitation, and toxic content.
