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Category: security – Page 23

For one, it reached over a million users in five days of its release, a mark unmatched by even the most historically popular apps like Facebook and Spotify. Additionally, ChatGPT has seen near-immediate adoption in business contexts, as organizations seek to gain efficiencies in content creation, code generation, and other functional tasks.

But as businesses rush to take advantage of AI, so too do attackers. One notable way in which they do so is through unethical or malicious LLM apps.

Unfortunately, a recent spate of these malicious apps has introduced risk into an organization’s AI journey. And, the associated risk is not easily addressed with a single policy or solution. To unlock the value of AI without opening doors to data loss, security leaders need to rethink how they approach broader visibility and control of corporate applications.

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With an emphasis on AI-first strategy and improving Google Cloud databases’ capability to support GenAI applications, Google announced developments in the integration of generative AI with databases.

AWS offers a broad range of services for vector database requirements, including Amazon OpenSearch Service, Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL-Compatible Edition, Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL, Amazon Neptune ML, and Amazon MemoryDB for Redis. AWS emphasizes the operationalization of embedding models, making application development more productive through features like data management, fault tolerance, and critical security features. AWS’s strategy focuses on simplifying the scaling and operationalization of AI-powered applications, providing developers with the tools to innovate and create unique experiences powered by vector search.

Azure takes a similar approach by offering vector database extensions to existing databases. This strategy aims to avoid the extra cost and complexity of moving data to a separate database, keeping vector embeddings and original data together for better data consistency, scale, and performance. Azure Cosmos DB and Azure PostgreSQL Server are positioned as services that support these vector database extensions. Azure’s approach emphasizes the integration of vector search capabilities directly alongside other application data, providing a seamless experience for developers.

Google’s move towards native support for vector storage in existing databases simplifies building enterprise GenAI applications relying on data stored in the cloud. The integration with LangChain is a smart move, enabling developers to instantly take advantage of the new capabilities.

Continue reading “Google’s AI-First Strategy Brings Vector Support To Cloud Databases” | >

The new semiconductor is expected to have some important applications in things like transportation and security systems in both industry and the public.

Korean researchers have developed a new “intelligent sensor” semiconductor that works similarly to the optic nerves of insects.

A team of researchers from Korea have developed an insect brain-inspired semiconductor that can be used as a fast, low power motion detector.

Continue reading “Korean researchers develop insect brain-inspired motion detector” | >

A team of Chinese scientists introduced a quantum communication technique that they say could help secure Web 3.0 against the formidable threat of quantum computing.

Their approach, called Long-Distance Free-Space Quantum Secure Direct Communication (LF QSDC), promises to improve data security by enabling encrypted direct messaging without the need for key exchange, a method traditionally vulnerable to quantum attacks.

They add the approach not only enhances security but also aligns with the decentralized ethos of Web 3.0, offering a robust defense in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

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The robot, which weighs 420lbs, stands at 5ft 4in and travels at 3 miles per hour, is expected to make its appearance at the airport in the next two months, according to local reports.

According to Knightscope, the K5 is intended for outdoor use and features autonomous recharging without requiring human intervention. Features listed on Knightscope’s website include 360-degree and eye-level video streaming, people detection during certain restricted hours, thermal anomaly detection, as well as license plate recognition.

The city’s director of airports, Jesus Saenz, said that the K5 will be used to respond to door alarms at the airport and will be placed near doors with alarms that are frequently set off.

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Researchers at the University of Trento, Italy, have developed a novel approach for prime factorization via quantum annealing, leveraging a compact modular encoding paradigm and enabling the factorization of large numbers using D-Wave quantum devices.

Prime factorization is the procedure of breaking down a number into its prime components. Every integer greater than one can be uniquely expressed as a product of prime numbers.

In cryptography, prime factorization holds particular importance due to its relevance to the security of encryption algorithms, such as the widely used RSA cryptosystem.

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An interesting new attack on biometric security has been outlined by a group of researchers from China and the US. PrintListener: Uncovering the Vulnerability of Fingerprint Authentication via the Finger Friction Sound [PDF] proposes a side-channel attack on the sophisticated Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). The attack leverages the sound characteristics of a user’s finger swiping on a touchscreen to extract fingerprint pattern features. Following tests, the researchers assert that they can successfully attack “up to 27.9% of partial fingerprints and 9.3% of complete fingerprints within five attempts at the highest security FAR [False Acceptance Rate] setting of 0.01%.” This is claimed to be the first work that leverages swiping sounds to infer fingerprint information.

Biometric fingerprint security is widespread and widely trusted. If things continue as they are, it is thought that the fingerprint authentication market will be worth nearly $100 billion by 2032. However, organizations and people have become increasingly aware that attackers might want to steal their fingerprints, so some have started to be careful about keeping their fingerprints out of sight, and become sensitive to photos showing their hand details.

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A critical security flaw in the Bricks theme for WordPress is being actively exploited by threat actors to run arbitrary PHP code on susceptible installations.

The flaw, tracked as CVE-2024–25600 (CVSS score: 9.8), enables unauthenticated attackers to achieve remote code execution. It impacts all versions of the Bricks up to and including 1.9.6.

It has been addressed by the theme developers in version 1.9.6.1 released on February 13, 2024, merely days after WordPress security provider Snicco reported the flaw on February 10.

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