Author: GT

A sophisticated cyber espionage campaign dubbed “Operation Sea Elephant” has been discovered targeting scientific research organizations, with a particular focus on ocean-related studies. The operation, attributed to a threat actor group known as CNC with South Asian origins, aims to steal valuable research data to ensure regional dominance in the Indian Ocean. The CNC group has demonstrated significantly enhanced capabilities compared to other Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups operating in South Asia. Their attacks have become increasingly modular and customized, allowing them to evade detection more effectively than their counterparts. Security experts at Qiaxin discovered the campaign in mid-2024 when…

A home robot trained to perform household tasks in a factory may fail to effectively scrub the sink or take out the trash when deployed in a user’s kitchen, since this new environment differs from its training space.To avoid this, engineers often try to match the simulated training environment as closely as possible with the real world where the agent will be deployed.However, researchers from MIT and elsewhere have now found that, despite this conventional wisdom, sometimes training in a completely different environment yields a better-performing artificial intelligence agent.Their results indicate that, in some situations, training a simulated AI agent…

After Employer.com acquired bankrupt accounting startup Bench in a fire-sale late last year, CEO Jesse Tinsley pledged on LinkedIn and elsewhere to honor past customer payments. “We’re honoring all prepaid Bench services even though we will not have the revenue from that directly ourselves,” Tinsley said in an interview with founder and investor Julian Weisser. But some Bench customers say they’re being charged to get books or tax returns they previously paid for. A lawsuit filed on Tuesday by Bench customer Qorum claims that Bench required it to pay to get its 2023 tax return, despite having already paid for…

The identification of cyber attack patterns through infrastructure analysis has emerged as a crucial methodology in modern threat intelligence. By examining the digital footprints left by threat actors, security analysts can now reconstruct attack campaigns and attribute them to specific groups with increasing accuracy. Recent research from Kudelski Security demonstrates how cross-referencing between public and private information sources creates comprehensive infrastructure diagrams that yield actionable intelligence for long-term security operations. When investigating cyber attacks, security professionals focus on identifying similarities, recurring patterns, pivot points, and historical data to establish connections between different campaigns. This approach was recently demonstrated in an…

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Farooq Ahmad Shaksaaz presses a button on his 1970 Sharp cassette player, and with a hefty clack the machine whirrs to life. As the Kashmiri tailor stitches, the machine crackles for a moment before Ghulam Ahmad Sofi’s otherworldly voice fills his shop with verses about divine love and the pain of separation from the beloved creator of the universe.Shaksaaz, a tailor in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar, inherited his passion for local Sufi music from his grandfather along with a meticulously preserved collection of audio cassette tapes from the 1970s, which he often listens to as…

Drone shows are an increasingly popular form of large-scale light display. These shows incorporate hundreds to thousands of airborne bots, each programmed to fly in paths that together form intricate shapes and patterns across the sky. When they go as planned, drone shows can be spectacular. But when one or more drones malfunction, as has happened recently in Florida, New York, and elsewhere, they can be a serious hazard to spectators on the ground.Drone show accidents highlight the challenges of maintaining safety in what engineers call “multiagent systems” — systems of multiple coordinated, collaborative, and computer-programmed agents, such as robots,…

On Thursday, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent letters to 16 American technology firms, including Google and OpenAI, asking for past communications with the Biden administration that might suggest the former president “coerced or colluded” with companies to “censor lawful speech” in AI products. The Trump administration’s top technology advisors previously signaled they would pick a fight with Big Tech over “AI censorship,” which is seemingly the next phase in the culture war between conservatives and Silicon Valley. Jordan previously led an investigation into whether the Biden administration and Big Tech colluded to silence conservative voices on social media platforms.…

A security researcher known as newp1ayer48 has successfully demonstrated a method to extract firmware from IoT and embedded devices using direct Flash Memory dumps, providing valuable insights for security professionals and bug bounty hunters. The technique, while potentially risky for the hardware, offers a reliable way to obtain firmware when other methods aren’t viable. This approach enables researchers to better understand device operations, analyze potential vulnerability vectors, and examine code for security flaws. Firmware extraction represents a critical first step in IoT and embedded device security research. While several methods exist, including downloading firmware from official websites, sniffing firmware update…

Eleven MIT faculty, including nine from the School of Engineering and two from the School of Science, were awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Fifteen additional MIT alumni were also honored. Established in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, the PECASE is awarded to scientists and engineers “who show exceptional potential for leadership early in their research careers.” The latest recipients were announced by the White House on Jan. 14 under President Joe Biden. Fourteen government agencies recommended researchers for the award.The MIT faculty and alumni honorees are among 400 scientists and engineers recognized for innovation and scientific contributions.…

After 23 years of connecting people around the world, Skype, the popular video-calling service, is shutting down. Microsoft, the parent company, confirmed that the official sunset date for the service is May 5, 2025. Skype users can either migrate all their contacts and chat data to Microsoft Teams, or they can choose to download their Skype data and transition to another video-calling service.  To assist users in the switch, we’ve created a guide on how to migrate to Teams or download Skype data. Additionally, we’ve curated a list of alternative video-calling apps that can replace Skype. How to move from…