Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: security – Page 15

Want to go on an unforgettable trip? Abstract Submission closing soon! Exciting news from SnT, Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, University of Luxembourg! We are thrilled to announce the 1st European Interstellar Symposium in collaboration with esteemed partners like the Interstellar Research Group, Initiative & Institute for Interstellar Studies, Breakthrough Prize Foundation, and Luxembourg Space Agency. This interdisciplinary symposium will delve into the profound questions surrounding interstellar travel, exploring topics such as human and robotic exploration, propulsion, exoplanet research, life support systems, and ethics. Join us to discuss how these insights will impact near-term applications on Earth and in space, covering technologies like optical communications, ultra-lightweight materials, and artificial intelligence. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with a community of experts and enthusiasts, all united in a common goal. Check out the “Call for Papers” link in the comment section to secure your spot! Image credit: Maciej Rębisz, Science Now Studio #interstellar #conference #Luxembourg #exoplanet

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How can rapidly emerging #AI develop into a trustworthy, equitable force? Proactive policies and smart governance, says Salesforce.

These initial steps ignited AI policy conversations amid the acceleration of innovation and technological change. Just as personal computing democratized internet access and coding accessibility, fueling more technology creation, AI is the latest catalyst poised to unlock future innovations at an unprecedented pace. But with such powerful capabilities comes large responsibility: We must prioritize policies that allow us to harness its power while protecting against harm. To do so effectively, we must acknowledge and address the differences between enterprise and consumer AI.

Enterprise versus consumer AI

Salesforce has been actively researching and developing AI since 2014, introduced our first AI functionalities into our products in 2016, and established our office of ethical and human use of technology in 2018. Trust is our top value. That’s why our AI offerings are founded on trust, security and ethics. Like many technologies, there’s more than one use for AI. Many people are already familiar with large language models (LLMs) via consumer-facing apps like ChatGPT. Salesforce is leading the development of AI tools for businesses, and our approach differentiates between consumer-grade LLMs and what we classify as enterprise AI.

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Threat actors are targeting Check Point Remote Access VPN devices in an ongoing campaign to breach enterprise networks, the company warned in a Monday advisory.

Remote Access is integrated into all Check Point network firewalls. It can be configured as a client-to-site VPN for access to corporate networks via VPN clients or set up as an SSL VPN Portal for web-based access.

Check Point says the attackers are targeting security gateways with old local accounts using insecure password-only authentication, which should be used with certificate authentication to prevent breaches.

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Public cloud services employ special security technologies. Computer scientists at ETH Zurich have now discovered a gap in the latest security mechanisms used by AMD and Intel chips. This affects major cloud providers.

Over the past few years, hardware manufacturers have developed technologies that ought to make it possible for companies and governmental organizations to process sensitive data securely using shared cloud computing resources.

Known as confidential computing, this approach protects sensitive data while it is being processed by isolating it in an area that is impenetrable to other users and even to the cloud provider. But computer scientists at ETH Zurich have now proved that it is possible for hackers to gain access to these systems and to the data stored in them.

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A hacker has defaced the website of the pcTattletale spyware application, found on the booking systems of several Wyndham hotels in the United States, and leaked over a dozen archives containing database and source code data.

As Vice reported three years ago, this stalkerware app was also found leaking real-time screenshots from Android phones.

Described by its developers as an “employee and child monitoring software,” pcTattletale is a consumer-grade spyware solution that was leaking guest details and customer information captured from the hotels’ check-in systems because of an API security vulnerability, according to TechCrunch.

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When Descartes said “I think therefore I am” he probably didn’t know that he was answering a security question. Using behavioral or physical characteristics to identify people, biometrics, has gotten a big boost in the EU. The Orwellian sounding HUMABIO (Human Monitoring and Authentication using Biodynamic Indicators and Behavioral Analysis) is a well funded research project that seeks to combine sensor technology with the latest in biometrics to find reliable and non-obtrusive ways to identify people quickly. One of their proposed methods: scanning your brain stem. That’s right, in addition to reading your retinas, looking at your finger prints, and monitoring your voice, the security systems of the future may be scanning your brain.

How could they actually read your brain? What kind of patterns would they use to authenticate your identity? Yeah, that haven’t quite figured that out yet. HUMABIO is still definitely in the “pre-commercial” and “proof of concept” phase. They do have a nice ethics manual to read, and they’ve actually written some “stories” that illustrate the uses of their various works in progress, but they haven’t produced a fieldable instrument yet. In fact, this aspect of the STREP (Specific Targeted Research Project) would hardly be remarkable if we didn’t know more about the available technology from other sources.

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A quantum internet would essentially be unhackable. In the future, sensitive information—financial or national security data, for instance, as opposed to memes and cat pictures—would travel through such a network in parallel to a more traditional internet.

Of course, building and scaling systems for quantum communications is no easy task. Scientists have been steadily chipping away at the problem for years. A Harvard team recently took another noteworthy step in the right direction. In a paper published this week in Nature, the team says they’ve sent entangled photons between two quantum memory nodes 22 miles (35 kilometers) apart on existing fiber optic infrastructure under the busy streets of Boston.

“Showing that quantum network nodes can be entangled in the real-world environment of a very busy urban area is an important step toward practical networking between quantum computers,” Mikhail Lukin, who led the project and is a physics professor at Harvard, said in a press release.

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Ash carter exchange remarks as prepared.

I’m grateful to be here today with a group of kindred spirits focused on tackling some of the hardest problems we face at the intersection of technology and national security.

Ash Carter devoted his life to working in this arena, and many of you are here because of the impact he had on you and your careers.

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