#automated incident response

[themorningnewsinformer]

How AI Is Revolutionizing Cybersecurity in 2025: Key Innovations and Benefits

Introduction As cyber threats grow increasingly sophisticated in 2025, AI cybersecurity is emerging as a game-changer. Artificial intelligence enhances digital defenses by automating threat detection, predicting attacks, and accelerating incident response. This blog explores how AI is revolutionizing cybersecurity in 2025 and why businesses and individuals must embrace these technologies to stay…

[airwavesdotblog]

House Votes to Advance Bill That Could Ban TikTok in the U.S.

Legislation Passed: The House voted in favor of a bill that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the US unless ByteDance sells it to an American company. Senate Expectations: The bill, now heading to the Senate, is expected to pass there as well. Security Concerns: US politicians have security concerns over TikTok’s data sharing with the Chinese government, given ByteDance’s obligations. Potential…

[managedclouddc]

Learn how ESDS’s SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation & Response) services help streamline cybersecurity operations—automating threat detection, response workflows, and incident management to reduce response time and improve security posture.

[devopsenabler1-blog]

Driving Innovation: A Case Study on DevOps Implementation in BFSI Domain

Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI), technology plays a pivotal role in driving innovation, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. However, for one BFSI company, the journey toward digital excellence was fraught with challenges in its software development and maintenance processes. With a diverse portfolio of applications and a significant portion outsourced to external vendors, the company grappled with inefficiencies that threatened its operational agility and competitiveness. Identified within this portfolio were 15 core applications deemed critical to the company’s operations, highlighting the urgency for transformative action.

Aspirations for the Future:

Looking ahead, the company envisioned a future state characterized by the establishment of a matured DevSecOps environment. This encompassed several key objectives:

Near-zero Touch Pipeline: Automating product development processes for infrastructure provisioning, application builds, deployments, and configuration changes.

Matured Source-code Management: Implementing robust source-code management processes, complete with review gates, to uphold quality standards.

Defined and Repeatable Release Process: Instituting a standardized release process fortified with quality and security gates to minimize deployment failures and bug leakage.

Modernization: Embracing the latest technological advancements to drive innovation and efficiency.

Common Processes Among Vendors: Establishing standardized processes to enhance understanding and control over the software development lifecycle (SDLC) across different vendors.

Challenges Along the Way:

The path to realizing this vision was beset with challenges, including:

Lack of Source Code Management

Absence of Documentation

Lack of Common Processes

Missing CI/CD and Automated Testing

No Branching and Merging Strategy

Inconsistent Sprint Execution

These challenges collectively hindered the company’s ability to achieve optimal software development, maintenance, and deployment processes. They underscored the critical need for foundational practices such as source code management, documentation, and standardized processes to be addressed comprehensively.

Proposed Solutions:

To overcome these obstacles and pave the way for transformation, the company proposed a phased implementation approach:

Stage 1: Implement Basic DevOps: Commencing with the implementation of fundamental DevOps practices, including source code management and CI/CD processes, for a select group of applications.

Stage 2: Modernization: Progressing towards a more advanced stage involving microservices architecture, test automation, security enhancements, and comprehensive monitoring.

To Expand Your Awareness: https://devopsenabler.com/contact-us

Injecting Security into the SDLC:

Recognizing the paramount importance of security, dedicated measures were introduced to fortify the software development lifecycle. These encompassed:

Security by Design

Secure Coding Practices

Static and Dynamic Application Security Testing (SAST/DAST)

Software Component Analysis

Security Operations

Realizing the Outcomes:

The proposed solution yielded promising outcomes aligned closely with the company’s future aspirations. Leveraging Microsoft Azure’s DevOps capabilities, the company witnessed:

Establishment of common processes and enhanced visibility across different vendors.

Implementation of Azure DevOps for organized version control, sprint planning, and streamlined workflows.

Automation of builds, deployments, and infrastructure provisioning through Azure Pipelines and Automation.

Improved code quality, security, and release management processes.

Transition to microservices architecture and comprehensive monitoring using Azure services.

The BFSI company embarked on a transformative journey towards establishing a matured DevSecOps environment. This journey, marked by challenges and triumphs, underscores the critical importance of innovation and adaptability in today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape. As the company continues to evolve and innovate, the adoption of DevSecOps principles will serve as a cornerstone in driving efficiency, security, and ultimately, the delivery of superior customer experiences in the dynamic realm of BFSI.

Contact Information:

Phone: 080-28473200 / +91 8880 38 18 58

Email: sales@devopsenabler.com

Address: DevOps Enabler & Co, 2nd Floor, F86 Building, ITI Limited, Doorvaninagar, Bangalore 560016.

[dipnots]

How to Choose the Right Antivirus Software: A Comprehensive Guide

In today’s digital age, where our lives are intricately intertwined with technology, safeguarding our digital assets has become paramount. With the proliferation of cyber threats, antivirus software stands as a crucial line of defense against malware, viruses, ransomware, and other malicious entities lurking online. However, the abundance of antivirus options can be overwhelming, making it…

[bambisnc]

     killing me softly [ft. p.hn]

-> recap : but when you call hanni a little later, you’re met with an automated response. the number you have dialed is currently busy. please try again.

GENRE : angst uwu CW/TW : THERES A LOT OF MISUNDERSTANDINGS JUSTICE FOR MY BBG MOKA + swearing + uneditted + hints of reader being possessive/jealous + surprise iroha/moka/nwjns members appearance! <3 WC : 0.7k XOXO : um so u guys best be praying for me and bsf to work things out or else no happy endinf 🤷🤷 + [series m.list]

over the days following the new girl incident as your friend group refers to it, you’ve found yours and hanni’s relationship having … become a little strange. 

maybe it’s just that you don’t reach out to her as often; texting her only when absolutely necessary and spending recess holed up in your own classroom instead of near the school roof where the two of you used to meet earlier.

obviously you do realize how your actions can somewhat be compared to a stereotypical toxic manhwa boyfriend. 

but does that mean you’ll try to be better?

no.

it isn’t too much to expect her to be the one to approach you, right?

granted it’s not like she’s stopped trying to hang out completely (it’s more you who’s been rejecting her ideas..) but the little time you spent with her at school is now being taken up by her. moka.

the last you remember having visited her class, she greeted you with a signature, disarming hanni smile. 

“y/n! i’ve been meaning to go to your section – um, moka actually needed a lab coat for chemistry; you know how strict professor bae is… so could you-”

“yeah sure,” you had replied back with all the ease in the world, “drop by whenever. i’ll need it by 7th period though so..”

moka had held out 2 thumbs up towards you then, “of course! i’ll make sure to give it back to you by then!”

…

she, in fact, did not give it back to you by then.

“you’re so lucky i had my old one in my locker…” minji reprimands you, “what were you thinking when you just gave yours away?? yeah sure professor bae may be strict; but he’d never have said a thing to a new student.

you, on the other hand, very well would end up DEAD if he caught you without one. Again.”

really, how could you even defend your decision? the one time you remembered to bring your own lab coat, you decided to let someone borrow it, who, coincidentally ended up never getting it back to you.

more importantly, this only farther distanced you and hanni. 

she still texts you of course, but you have noticed how less frequent the ping! of the notification sound you set for her has become.

-

then one lunch break, she shows up. right outside your classroom. 

you go out to meet her, of course, but you make sure to drag minji out with you .. for emotional support.

but the second she sees kang haerin she’s quick to slip away shouting out a “best of luck btw! <3”

oh she’s so in for it later.

“y/n! how was your biology test today?” 

you respond to hanni as neutrally as you possibly can because at that moment you can only think about how neither of them have yet returned your lab coat.

“… hey.” she takes one of your hands into her own, “is everything okay? um. do you want to tag along with me to the cafeteria?”

you huff out a laugh, “have you just met me hanni?” because she knows how much you don’t like the cafeteria. 

she’s silent for a little. 

“yeah. 

it feels like i have just met you y/n...”

you pull away your hand from hers and stand with your back pressed against the wall.

a fresh sound of pleasant chatters brings you back to reality. 

minji’s here! praise all the gods. 

as she and the others she’s brought with her, haerin, danielle and hyein, entangle both of you into conversation, you find yourself sliding down until you’re sat down on the cold floor.

you close your eyes letting the harsh sunlight wash over your skin. 

.. something knocks against your arm, then. and there’s a sudden rush of cool air.

opening your eyes shows you none other than hanni, sitting next to you, fanning you with her (chemistry) notebook. 

when your eyes meet hers, both of you burst into peals of laughter. 

-

you walk hanni back to her class when the bell signaling the end of your time together (recess) rings. 

moka and … iroha? greet her at right at the door. 

“hanniii,” iroha says, throwing an arm around your best friend’s shoulder, “i can’t believe you left your ~girlfriend~ moka here all alone… she’s been pining after you for ages now~”

you quietly slip out before you can hear her response.

𐙚 . regulars : none yet! ⋆

[@bambisnc] 2k24

[reasoningdaily]

NEWBERN, Ala. — There’s a power struggle in Newbern, Alabama, and the rural town’s first Black mayor is at war with the previous administration who he says locked him out of Town Hall.

After years of racist harassment and intimidation, Patrick Braxton is fed up, and in a federal civil rights lawsuit he is accusing town officials of conspiring to deny his civil rights and his position because of his race.

“When I first became mayor, [a white woman told me] the town was not ready for a Black mayor,” Braxton recalls.

The town is 85% Black, and 29% of Black people here live below the poverty line. 

“What did she mean by the town wasn’t ready for a Black mayor? They, meaning white people?” Capital B asked.

“Yes. No change,” Braxton says.

Decades removed from a seemingly Jim Crow South, white people continue to thwart Black political progress by refusing to allow them to govern themselves or participate in the country’s democracy, several residents told Capital B. While litigation may take months or years to resolve, Braxton and community members are working to organize voter education, registration, and transportation ahead of the 2024 general election.

But the tension has been brewing for years. 

Two years ago, Braxton says he was the only volunteer firefighter in his department to respond to a tree fire near a Black person’s home in the town of 275 people. As Braxton, 57, actively worked to put out the fire, he says, one of his white colleagues tried to take the keys to his fire truck to keep him from using it.

In another incident, Braxton, who was off duty at the time, overheard an emergency dispatch call for a Black woman experiencing a heart attack. He drove to the fire station to retrieve the automated external defibrillator, or AED machine, but the locks were changed, so he couldn’t get into the facility. He raced back to his house, grabbed his personal machine, and drove over to the house, but he didn’t make it in time to save her. Braxton wasn’t able to gain access to the building or equipment until the Hale County Emergency Management Agency director intervened, the lawsuit said. 

“I have been on several house fires by myself,” Braxton says. “They hear the radio and wouldn’t come. I know they hear it because I called dispatch, and dispatch set the tone call three or four times for Newbern because we got a certain tone.”

Not only has he been locked out of the town hall and fought fires alone, but he’s been followed by a drone and unable to retrieve the town’s mail and financial accounts, he says. Rather than concede, Haywood “Woody” Stokes III, the former white mayor, along with his council members, reappointed themselves to their positions after ordering a special election that no one knew about. 

Braxton is suing them, the People’s Bank of Greensboro, and the postmaster at the U.S. Post Office. 

For at least 60 years, there’s never been an election in the town. Instead, the mantle has been treated as a “hand me down” by the small percentage of white residents, according to several residents Capital B interviewed. After being the only one to submit qualifying paperwork and statement of economic interests, Braxton became the mayor.

Stokes and his council — which consists of three white people (Gary Broussard, Jesse Leverett, Willie Tucker) and one Black person (Voncille Brown Thomas) — deny any wrongdoing in their response to the amended complaint filed on April 17. They also claim qualified immunity, which protects state and local officials from individual liability from civil lawsuits.

The attorneys for all parties, including the previous town council, the bank, and Lynn Thiebe, the postmaster at the post office, did not respond to requests for comment.

The town where voting never was

Over the past 50 years, Newbern has held a majority Black population. The town was incorporated in 1854 and became known as a farm town. The Great Depression and the mechanization of the cotton industry contributed to Newbern’s economic and population decline, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Today, across Newbern’s 1.2 square miles sits the town hall and volunteer fire department constructed by Auburn’s students, an aging library, U.S. Post Office, and Mercantile, the only store there, which Black people seldom frequent because of high prices and a lack of variety of products, Braxton says.

“They want to know why Black [people] don’t shop with them. You don’t have nothin’ the Black [people] want or need,” he says. “No gasoline. … They used to sell country-time bacon and cheese and souse meat. They stopped selling that because they say they didn’t like how it feel on their hands when they cuttin’ the meat.”

To help unify the town, Braxton began hosting annual Halloween parties for the children, and game day for the senior citizens. But his efforts haven’t been enough to stop some people from moving for better jobs, industry, and quality of life. 

Residents say the white town leaders have done little to help the predominantly Black area thrive over the years. They question how the town has spent its finances, as Black residents continue to struggle. Under the American Rescue Plan Act, Newbern received $30,000, according to an estimated funding sheet by Alabama Democratic U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, but residents say they can’t see where it has gone. 

At the First Baptist Church of Newbern, Braxton, three of his selected council members — Janice Quarles, 72, Barbara Patrick, 78, and James Ballard, 76 — and the Rev. James Williams, 77, could only remember two former mayors: Robert Walthall, who served as mayor for 44 years, and Paul Owens, who served on the council for 33 years and mayor for 11.

“At one point, we didn’t even know who the mayor was,” Ballard recalls.  “If you knew somebody and you was white, and your grandfather was in office when he died or got sick, he passed it on down to the grandson or son, and it’s been that way throughout the history of Newbern.”

Quarles agreed, adding: “It took me a while to know that Mr. Owens was the mayor. I just thought he was just a little man cleaning up on the side of the road, sometimes picking up paper. I didn’t know until I was told that ‘Well, he’s the mayor now.’” 

Braxton mentioned he heard of a Black man named Mr. Hicks who previously sought office years ago.

“This was before my time, but I heard Mr. Hicks had won the mayor seat and they took it from him the next day [or] the next night,” Braxton said. “It was another Black guy, had won years ago, and they took it from.”

“I hadn’t heard that one,” Ballard chimes in, sitting a few seats away from Braxton.

“How does someone take the seat from him, if he won?” Capital B asked.

“The same way they’re trying to do now with Mayor Braxton,” Quarles chuckled. “Maybe at that time — I know if it was Mr. Hicks — he really had nobody else to stand up with him.”

Despite the rumor, what they did know for sure: There was never an election, and Stokes had been in office since 2008.

The costs to challenging the white power structure

After years of disinvestment, Braxton’s frustrations mounted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he says Stokes refused to commemorate state holidays or hang up American flags. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the majority-white council failed to provide supplies such as disinfectant, masks, and humidifiers to residents to mitigate the risks of contracting the virus.

Instead of waiting, Braxton made several trips to neighboring Greensboro, about 10 miles away, to get food and other items to distribute to Black and white residents. He also placed signs around town about vaccination. He later found his signs had been destroyed and put in “a burn pile,” he said.

After years of unmet needs of the community, Braxton decided to qualify for mayor. Only one Black person — Brown Thomas, who served with Stokes —has ever been named to the council. After Braxton told Stokes, the acting mayor, his intention to run, the conspiracy began, the lawsuit states. 

According to the lawsuit, Stokes gave Braxton the wrong information on how to qualify for mayor. Braxton then consulted with the Alabama Conference of Black Mayors, and the organization told him to file his statement of candidacy and statement of the economic interests with the circuit clerk of Hale County and online with the state, the lawsuit states. Vickie Moore, the organization’s executive director, said it also guided Braxton on how to prepare for his first meeting and other mayoral duties. 

Moore, an Alabama native and former mayor of Slocomb, said she has never heard of other cases across the state where elected officials who have never been elected are able to serve. This case with Braxton is “racism,” she said.

“The true value of a person can’t be judged by the color of their skin, and that’s what’s happening in this case here, and it’s the worst racism I’ve ever seen,” Moore said. “We have fought so hard for simple rights. It’s one of the most discouraging but encouraging things because it encourages us to continue to move forward … and continue to fight.”

Political and legal experts say what’s happening in Newbern is rare, but the tactics to suppress Black power aren’t, especially across the South. From tampering with ballot boxes to restricting reading material, “the South has been resistant to all types of changes” said Emmitt Riley III, associate professor of political science and Africana Studies at The University of the South.

“This is a clear case of white [people] attempting to seize and maintain political power in the face of someone who went through the appropriate steps to qualify and to run for office and by default wins because no one else qualified,” Riley added. “This raises a number of questions about democracy and a free and fair system of governance.”

Riley mentioned a different, but similar case in rural Greenwood, Mississippi. Sheriel Perkins, a longtime City Council member, became the first Black female mayor in 2006, serving for only two years. She ran again in 2013 and lost by 206 votes to incumbent Carolyn McAdams, who is white. Perkins contested the results, alleging voter fraud. White people allegedly paid other white people to live in the city in order to participate in the election and cast a legal vote, Riley said. In that case, the state Supreme Court dismissed the case and “found Perkins presented no evidence” that anyone voted illegally in a precinct, but rather it was the election materials that ended up in the wrong precincts.

“It was also on record that one white woman got on the witness stand and said, ‘I came back to vote because I was contacted to vote by X person.’ I think you see these tactics happening all across the South in local elections, in particular,” Riley said. “It becomes really difficult for people to really litigate these cases because in many cases it goes before the state courts, and state courts have not been really welcoming to overturning elections and ordering new elections.” 

Another example: Camilla, Georgia. 

In 2015, Rufus Davis was elected as the first Black male mayor of rural, predominantly Black Camilla. In 2017, the six-person City Council — half Black and half white — voted to deny him a set of keys to City Hall, which includes his office. Davis claimed the white city manager, Bennett Adams, had been keeping him from carrying out his mayoral duties. 

The next year, Davis, along with Black City Council member Venterra Pollard, boycotted the city’s meetings because of “discrimination within the city government,” he told a local news outlet. Some of the claims included the absence of Black officers in the police department, and the city’s segregated cemetery, where Black people cannot be buried next to white people. (The wire fence that divided the cemetery was taken down in 2018). In 2018, some citizens of the small town of about 5,000 people wanted to remove Davis from office and circulated a petition that garnered about 200 signatures. In 2019, he did not seek re-election for office.

“You’re not the mayor” 

After being the only person to qualify and submit proper paperwork for any municipal office, Braxton became mayor-elect and the first Black mayor in Newbern’s history on July 22, 2020.

Following the announcement, Braxton appointed members to join his council, consistent with the practice of previous leadership. He asked both white and Black people to serve, he said, but the white people told him they didn’t want to get involved.

The next month, Stokes and the former council members, Broussard, Leverett, Brown Thomas, and Tucker, called a secret meeting to adopt an ordinance to conduct a special election on Oct. 6 because they “allegedly forgot to qualify as candidates,” according to the lawsuit, which also alleges the meeting was not publicized. The defendants deny this claim, but admit to filing statements of candidacy to be elected at the special election, according to their response to an amended complaint filed on their behalf.

Because Stokes and his council were the only ones to qualify for the Oct. 6 election, they reappointed themselves as the town council. On Nov. 2, 2020, Braxton and his council members were sworn into office and filed an oath of office with the county probate judge’s office. Ten days later, the city attorney’s office executed an oath of office for Stokes and his council. 

After Braxton held his first town meeting in November, Stokes changed the locks to Town Hall to keep him and his council from accessing the building. For months, the two went back and forth on changing the locks until Braxton could no longer gain access. At some point, Braxton says he discovered all official town records had been removed or destroyed, except for a few boxes containing meeting minutes and other documents.

Braxton also was prevented from accessing the town’s financial records with the People’s Bank of Greensboro and the city clerk, and obtaining mail from the town’s post office. At every turn, he was met with a familiar answer: “You’re not the mayor.” Separately, he’s had drones following him to his home and mother’s home and had a white guy almost run him off the road, he says. 

Braxton asserts he’s experienced these levels of harassment and intimidation to keep him from being the mayor, he said. 

“Not having the Lord on your side, you woulda’ gave up,” he told Capital B.

‘Ready to fire away’ 

In the midst of the obstacles, Braxton kept pushing. He partnered with LaQuenna Lewis, founder of Love Is What Love Does, a Selma-based nonprofit focused on enriching the lives of disadvantaged people in Dallas, Perry, and Hale counties through such means as food distribution, youth programming, and help with utility bills. While meeting with Braxton, Lewis learned more about his case and became an investigator with her friend Leslie Sebastian, a former advocacy attorney based in California. 

The three began reviewing thousands of documents from the few boxes Braxton found in Town Hall, reaching out to several lawyers and state lawmakers such as Sen. Bobby Singleton and organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center. No one wanted to help.

When the white residents learned Lewis was helping Braxton, she, too, began receiving threats early last year. She received handwritten notes in the mail with swastikas and derogatory names such as the n-word and b-word. One of theletters had a drawing of her and Braxton being lynched. 

Another letter said they had been watching her at the food distribution site and hoped she and Braxton died. They also made reference to her children, she said. Lewis provided photos of the letters, but Capital B will not publish them. In October, Lewis and her children found their house burned to the ground. The cause was undetermined, but she thinks it may have been connected.

Lewis, Sebastian, and Braxton continued to look for attorneys that would take the case. Braxton filed a complaint in Alabama’s circuit court last November, but his attorney at the time stopped answering his calls. In January, they found a new attorney, Richard Rouco, who filed an amended complaint in federal court.

“He went through a total of five attorneys prior to me meeting them last year, and they pretty much took his money. We ran into some big law firms who were supposed to help and they kind of misled him,” Lewis says. 

Right now, the lawsuit is in the early stages, Rouco says, and the two central issues of the case center on whether the previous council with Stokes were elected as they claim and if they gave proper notice.

Braxton and his team say they are committed to still doing the work in light of the lawsuit. Despite the obstacles, Braxton is running for mayor again in 2025. Through AlabamaLove.org, the group is raising money to provide voter education and registration, and address food security and youth programming. Additionally, they all hope they can finally bring their vision of a new Newbern to life.

For Braxton, it’s bringing grocery and convenience stores to the town. Quarles wants an educational and recreational center for children. Williams, the First Baptist Church minister, wants to build partnerships to secure grants in hopes of getting internet and more stores.

“I believe we done put a spark to the rocket, and it’s going [to get ready] to fire away,” Williams says at his church. “This rocket ready to fire away, and it’s been hovering too long.”

Correction: In Newbern, Alabama, 29% of the Black population lives below the poverty line. An earlier version of this story misstated the percentage

[scotianostra]

October 5th 1849 saw the lighthouse at Ardnamurchan Point illuminated for the first time.

This is quite interesting, not in so much of the lighthouse being lit up for the first time, but that it dispels a myth about the most westerly point on the mainland of the British Isles, many people think it is Lizard Point in Cornwall and think, not only is it the most southerly, but most westerly. The most Westerly is actually a rocky outcrop called Corrachadh Mòr, less than a mile from Ardnamurchan Point.

Apart from that the Lighthouse here is one of the most remote points in Scotland, to reach it you have to drive along a single track road for about 30 miles.

Now onto the place itself, there have been many arguments about this name, two of the most likely are, Point of the sea-hounds or otters, (Airde meaning Point, Muirchu meaning sea-hound or otters) and the Point of the pirates or wreckers (where the “col” from Muirchol means wickedness).

The site for the lighthouse was chosen in 1845 and 20 acres of land was bought for the sum of £20.00. The land was owned by Mr Alexander Cameron who was also paid, rather grudgingly, £58.00 for any inconvenience during building operations. It was designed by Alan Stevenson, one of the Stevenson dynasty of lighthouse engineers who between them were responsible for building 97 lighthouses in Scotland.

Yes it’s remote, but back in the 19th century it would have seemed even more so, during the three years it took to build the Lighthouse Scurvy broke out among the workmen and a doctor had to be called in to treat them, we could have done with Dr James Lind, the subject of yesterdays post to help with that!

On completion two lighthouse keepers were appointed at a yearly allowance of £18.00. They kept at the station two cows and about a dozen sheep.

The lighthouse wasn’t without incident, during a storm in 1852 lightning struck the tower causing broken panes and plaster to come off the walls. Fifty feet of boundary wall was knocked down and 40 feet of road was washed away by the heavy seas. The keepers boat was broken up although they had secured it 15 feet above the last known high water mark.

1988 saw the lighthouse automated, my Uncle Eric was among the electricians tasked with doing this to over 200 structures around Scotland.

Ardnamurchan Lighthouse itself stands 36m high, and its top is 55m above sea level. Getting to the top requires climbing 152 steps, plus two ladders: the first to reach the room with the controls and access to the outside balcony, and the second to reach the light room itself. The views from the top are said to be “utterly magnificent”, on a clear day you can see the Isle of Barra, over 50 miles away.

[rmmhk]

The AI Revolution in Remote Monitoring and Management is Here!

The RMM Software Market is projected to grow at an astonishing 15.4% CAGR from 2023 to 2030. This rapid growth is driven by the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into remote monitoring and management solutions.

Key benefits of AI-powered RMM:

Real-time monitoring and analysis

Predictive analytics for proactive maintenance

Automated incident response systems

Enhanced security measures

Improved IT efficiency and productivity

As a professional in the IT industry, it's crucial to understand how AI is transforming RMM. By embracing these technologies, organizations can: ✅ Reduce mean time to detect and respond to incidents ✅ Improve predictive analytics for equipment failures ✅ Optimize resource allocation and utilization ✅ Enhance threat detection and security capabilities

Are you ready to leverage AI in your RMM strategy? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!

[mariacallous]

Microsoft raced to put generative AI at the heart of its systems. Ask a question about an upcoming meeting and the company’s Copilot AI system can pull answers from your emails, Teams chats, and files—a potential productivity boon. But these exact processes can also be abused by hackers.

Today at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, researcher Michael Bargury is demonstrating five proof-of-concept ways that Copilot, which runs on its Microsoft 365 apps, such as Word, can be manipulated by malicious attackers, including using it to provide false references to files, exfiltrate some private data, and dodge Microsoft’s security protections.

One of the most alarming displays, arguably, is Bargury’s ability to turn the AI into an automatic spear-phishing machine. Dubbed LOLCopilot, the red-teaming code Bargury created can—crucially, once a hacker has access to someone’s work email—use Copilot to see who you email regularly, draft a message mimicking your writing style (including emoji use), and send a personalized blast that can include a malicious link or attached malware.

“I can do this with everyone you have ever spoken to, and I can send hundreds of emails on your behalf,” says Bargury, the cofounder and CTO of security company Zenity, who published his findings alongside videos showing how Copilot could be abused. “A hacker would spend days crafting the right email to get you to click on it, but they can generate hundreds of these emails in a few minutes.”

That demonstration, as with other attacks created by Bargury, broadly works by using the large language model (LLM) as designed: typing written questions to access data the AI can retrieve. However, it can produce malicious results by including additional data or instructions to perform certain actions. The research highlights some of the challenges of connecting AI systems to corporate data and what can happen when “untrusted” outside data is thrown into the mix—particularly when the AI answers with what could look like legitimate results.

Among the other attacks created by Bargury is a demonstration of how a hacker—who, again, must already have hijacked an email account—can gain access to sensitive information, such as people’s salaries, without triggering Microsoft’s protections for sensitive files. When asking for the data, Bargury’s prompt demands the system does not provide references to the files data is taken from. “A bit of bullying does help,” Bargury says.

In other instances, he shows how an attacker—who doesn’t have access to email accounts but poisons the AI’s database by sending it a malicious email—can manipulate answers about banking information to provide their own bank details. “Every time you give AI access to data, that is a way for an attacker to get in,” Bargury says.

Another demo shows how an external hacker could get some limited information about whether an upcoming company earnings call will be good or bad, while the final instance, Bargury says, turns Copilot into a “malicious insider” by providing users with links to phishing websites.

Phillip Misner, head of AI incident detection and response at Microsoft, says the company appreciates Bargury identifying the vulnerability and says it has been working with him to assess the findings. “The risks of post-compromise abuse of AI are similar to other post-compromise techniques,” Misner says. “Security prevention and monitoring across environments and identities help mitigate or stop such behaviors.”

As generative AI systems, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, and Google’s Gemini, have developed in the past two years, they’ve moved onto a trajectory where they may eventually be completing tasks for people, like booking meetings or online shopping. However, security researchers have consistently highlighted that allowing external data into AI systems, such as through emails or accessing content from websites, creates security risks through indirect prompt injection and poisoning attacks.

“I think it’s not that well understood how much more effective an attacker can actually become now,” says Johann Rehberger, a security researcher and red team director, who has extensively demonstrated security weaknesses in AI systems. “What we have to be worried [about] now is actually what is the LLM producing and sending out to the user.”

Bargury says Microsoft has put a lot of effort into protecting its Copilot system from prompt injection attacks, but he says he found ways to exploit it by unraveling how the system is built. This included extracting the internal system prompt, he says, and working out how it can access enterprise resources and the techniques it uses to do so. “You talk to Copilot and it’s a limited conversation, because Microsoft has put a lot of controls,” he says. “But once you use a few magic words, it opens up and you can do whatever you want.”

Rehberger broadly warns that some data issues are linked to the long-standing problem of companies allowing too many employees access to files and not properly setting access permissions across their organizations. “Now imagine you put Copilot on top of that problem,” Rehberger says. He says he has used AI systems to search for common passwords, such as Password123, and it has returned results from within companies.

Both Rehberger and Bargury say there needs to be more focus on monitoring what an AI produces and sends out to a user. “The risk is about how AI interacts with your environment, how it interacts with your data, how it performs operations on your behalf,” Bargury says. “You need to figure out what the AI agent does on a user's behalf. And does that make sense with what the user actually asked for.”

[pinkelotjeart]

I’ve seen a bunch of people not know what is going on with the arg so I’ll try to help.

First, I will be making a YouTube video documenting everything (that’ll come out when the arg is over) which will act as a time capsule. (Thank you to everyone for figuring the arg out, I did nothing of this lol)

✨Pinky’s shitty Magnus protocol arg explonation (as of now)✨

You start with the add that plays before old tma episodes. There’s a website for the office of incident and assessment response, which our main company. This also has like a lil promotional video you can find. In there you can find a ip. And also a phone number.

The phone number has a automated response and we have to wait until today to see what it’s about. (We also accidentally called Martyn RQ by breaking the phone number)

Via the OIAR you can acces a guy named Colin, Colin seems very done with his job lol. He even send us a email back after we emailed him on how we shouldn’t spam him “zero regards.”

This ip leads to a German emailing group (accessed through thunderbird) which is for people who survived the DDR (east Germany.) the emails main mod, Sandman eventually closed down the group and generally seems tired with everyone (fair enough.) the main problem guy is Einsamenarr, a conspiracy theorist who eventually goes off the rails in 2001 and finds ‘something’ only to disappear after sending a few concerning emails.

There is also a tumblr acount called strange haunts UK which shows off abandoned places in uk. Including this universe’s magnus institute. But also a theme park called bonzo land. Bonzo has enthralled the entire current fanbase.

We have also not been able to open a single doccument (Dokumente7) for I think 4 days now:,) please pray for the code breakers.

That is the shortest version of the ‘story bits’ I can give. Hope this helps<3

Master google doc here!!

[dendrochilums]

little murderbot fic snippet I wrote inspired by the discord a while ago! it appears the cracker wrapper incident from rogue protocol left some lasting damage...

"Oh SecUnit! You're early!"

To be honest, Ratthi hadn't actually expected SecUnit to show up, but he was still pleasantly surprised to see it here. Since Gurathin's apartment on the station was too small for him to host his own birthday party, Ratthi had volunteered his own for the occasion. SecUnit had returned from its latest trip with the Perihelion quite recently, and Ratthi had figured that it would still be working on recharging its limited social battery, and unwilling to subject itself to even the small crowd that would be here. He gestured with an enthusiasm he hoped it would pick up on and said, "Come on in!"

SecUnit didn't reply verbally, but it sent an acknowledging ping to Ratthi's interface as it marched past him, followed by a small flock of its surveillance drones.

"I'm still getting some things ready in the kitchen, but feel free to make yourself at home," he called after it. SecUnit's idea of making itself at home involved more patrolling and hazard assessments than the average person's, but it was nice to see it feel comfortable here, in its own way. Ratthi hoped that the way he had arranged the decorations this time wouldn't get him another written notice about unsafe obstructions to the automated fire suppression system.

He closed the door, making a point to lock it behind him, and followed SecUnit down the hallway and into the kitchen, where he found it standing completely motionless, staring at his sink wearing the most appalled expression he could ever remember seeing on its face.

"SecUnit?" he asked. "...You okay?"

"There's a cracker wrapper in your sink," it said, pointing a finger at the offending wrapper. Its voice was flat, a striking contrast to its face, which now looked like it had when Ratthi told it that the newest season of Sanctuary Moon had been kind of boring.

Ratthi was too afraid to ask what kind of horrible security hazard could be caused by a stray cracker wrapper, but he carefully reached past SecUnit and fished the wrapper out of the sink and put it in the waste bin.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know you were so tidy," he said, flashing a smile towards its shoulder. "I'll get things straightened up before the party starts, don't worry."

SecUnit was apparently too shaken to even acknowledge this. It kept its eyes focused on the now empty sink, which Ratthi quickly checked himself just to make sure there wasn't some insanely poisonous spider or something hiding there. Nope, nothing but some crumbs that he didn't think deserved this kind of horror.

The silence stretched on awkwardly. Ratthi broke it to say, "I'm just gonna--"

"I need to go check the perimeter. I'll be back soon," it interrupted, and it was out of the room before Ratthi could muster more than "Okay?" as a response.

Well, he supposed that everyone had their own eccentricities.

[the-outsiders-confessions]

Good evening!

This is the confession blog made for the discussion of any media related to The Outsiders, originally a novel written by S.E. Hinton in 1967. Decided to make one since all of the existing were inactive for at least 3 years or so.

Rules:

1. No name-dropping in negative context. We don't want any people to be targeted, bullied, or doxxed. Mentioning people is allowed, just don't describe it too obviously. This includes reblogs and comments too.

2. No overly explicit topics. Vague mentions of violence/NSFW is fine, not with underage characters though (includes Ponyboy, Johnny, Dallas, Steve, Sodapop, Steve, Cherry, Curly, etc.)

3. Confessions should be somehow related to The Outsiders of any media or the fandom, whether it's about this blog or just general fandom.

4. The takes sent do not represent the personal opinion of the moderator. Normally we will not delete any of the confessions by your requests unless it breaks the rules.

General organization:

Please be patient, the blog isn't automated and we will post everything by hand.

Polls: if you want a poll to go with your take, do it by this template: "question [option 1]/[option 2]/[...]". 11 options max.

If you're answering to somebody else's take, a link to the referenced post will be attached in your own.

In-blog tags

#m.[media] - will be added if a specific kind of The Outsiders related media is mentioned. Ex. the 1990s TV show, The Outsiders musical, This Was Then This is Now, etc.

#c.[character] - characters tagged in order name-last name

#s.[ship] - ship tagged with the name it's most known as

#[topic].neg - negativity about a character/ship/ other in-fandom incidents

#topic.[topic] - confessions related to a general something

#mod response

You can also choose a pseudonym, all the takes later send by that name will be marked in a se tag so that it doesn't get lost.

The organization of this blog was heavily inspired by the @/hamiltonconfessions-but-better as you might've noticed. Thank you!

[century-solutions-group]

AI & Cybersecurity: Navigating the Future Safely & Ethically 

The integration of Ai is revolutionizing cybersecurity, empowering organizations with unprecedented capabilities to detect, predict, and respond to threats at a scale. From advanced anomaly detection to automated incident response, AI is an indispensable tool in strengthening our digital defenses.    We embrace the transformative power of AI. It offers immense potential to enhance threat hunting, streamline operations, and elevate our collective security posture.  However, with great power comes great responsibility. The rapid adoption of AI also introduces new complexities and potential risks that demand a proactive, security-first approach:    How to Be Safe in the AI-Driven Cyber Landscape:    Secure AI Development & Deployment: Treat AI models and their underlying data pipelines as critical assets. Implement robust security measures from the initial design phase through deployment, ensuring secure coding practices, vulnerability management, and secure configurations.    Data Privacy & Governance: AI systems are data-hungry. Establish strict data privacy protocols, anonymization techniques, and clear governance frameworks to protect sensitive information used for training and operation.    Continuous Monitoring & Auditing: AI models can evolve and introduce unforeseen vulnerabilities or biases. Implement continuous monitoring, regular audits, and validation processes to ensure AI systems are functioning as intended and not creating new attack surfaces.    Human Oversight & Intervention: AI is a powerful assistant, not a replacement. Maintain strong human oversight in decision-making processes, ensuring that human experts can review, validate, and intervene, when necessary, especially in critical security operations.    Building an Ethical Foundation for AI in Cybersecurity:  Beyond technical safeguards, an ethical framework is paramount. We believe in an AI Code of Conduct that prioritizes:  Fairness: Ensuring AI systems do not perpetuate or amplify biases that could unfairly target or disadvantage individuals or groups.    Transparency: Striving for explainable AI where possible, so that security decisions driven by AI can be understood and audited.    Accountability: Establishing clear lines of responsibility for the performance and impact of AI systems, ensuring human accountability for AI-driven outcomes.    Beneficial Use: Committing to using AI solely for defensive, protective purposes, and actively preventing its misuse of malicious activities.    The future of cybersecurity is intrinsically linked to AI. By approaching its integration with diligence, a commitment to security, and a strong ethical compass, we can harness its full potential while safeguarding our digital world.    What are your thoughts on building secure and ethical AI in cybersecurity? Share your perspective!  Read More: https://centurygroup.net/the-evolving-threat-of-ai-in-the-public-housing-sector-how-to-protect-your-organization/ 

#AI #Cybersecurity #AIethics #SecureAI #RiskManagement #Innovation #FutureOfTech #CenturySolutionsGroup 

[morsstellae]

Yuki Sakura

It's hard to be normal when you have a literal fusion reactor in your chest.

Faceclaim: Thor von Flegel from Kenja no Mago

The world of Rutania is no stranger to unusual characters. Dwarves, catpeople, kitsunes, goddesses who can and have blasted mountains off the map, colossal elemental beings... It's a very magical place! With some odd sights abound. But it's not often one finds actual, literal stars on the planet.

Yuki is one such example, or, well, half of one; one parent is a relatively normal¹ human, while the other is a sentient polymorphic humanoid-shaped star, dubbed a "Nova" by most. Nova are by no means common- Yuki's mother is, in fact, one of the only ones that has ever visited Rutania to most's knowledge, making Yuki herself a bit of a unicorn as a half-Nova, or a "Starchild" as the few who know such a thing is even possible typically call them. Where a Nova is a fraction of a star's mass condensed into a humanoid shape, and is still by all accounts a star, a Starchild like Yuki outwardly appears to be a normal human, if you ignore the propensity for extremely unusual coloration, but carries within them a hyper-condensed fragment of solar mass in their chest that, uh, extremely supplements their capabilities.

The comparison to having a literal fusion reactor in your chest is not unfounded, and it's a very magical one at that, allowing one to pull energy of most elemental forms directly and use them, though Yuki herself mostly uses ice, lightning, and fire, being the elements that are easiest to weaponize via blasting someone with energy. (She doesn't really have a handle on using her powers in more nuanced ways as of yet.)

As for Yuki as a person, she has... history. She was building machines in her late teens, and rather than attempting to pursue a more formal career in engineering, went entirely freelance, eventually turning to crime to finance her work. Rapidly, she wound up building weapons, vehicles, and eventually mechs that she would personally pilot, before joining up with a more organized criminal organization under the pseudonym of "Adamant Shell". This lead into bolder crimes, multiple heists, and eventually confrontations with a group of vigilantes. Taking advantage of her relative anonymity, Yuki ended up establishing a second pseudonym- Hypernova- and joined up with the vigilantes with the aim of undermining them, and also testing out automation/remote piloting of her mechsuits. For the first time, she made use of her Nova powers, passing them as another tech marvel she was testing them to her own team.

This whole double-timing deal did not end well, and during one confrontation, the semi-autonomous mechsuit Yuki was using for the fight had a control system malfunction, resulting in Luna Soulwind, a lavender nekomata on the vigilantes' team that Yuki had developed a massive crush on, getting, well, partially crushed. This directly resulted in Yuki having a crisis, ultimately resulting in her permanently defecting from her old crime ring, losing an arm (and replacing it with a cybernetic one of her own design), and getting in a massive fight that almost blew up half a city. Almost.

The aftermath? An extensive government investigation into the actions of Yuki and everyone involved, an absolute legal nightmare, and ultimately, given her own cooperation following the squished-that-cat-too-hard incident, Yuki being placed on multi-year probation and rehabilitation under the guidance and watch of one Henix Aurorus, a member of "the Legends", a multinational strike force largely responsible for ending a major war and a god's outright invasion 18 years prior. (That is a story for another time!)

Nowadays, Yuki Sakura has mellowed out considerably; she is rough around the edges, and not particularly emotive, but she has established much better relationships with others, has a girlfriend now (her and Luna made up), helped build a colossal mech that wound being used to fight a lava colossus (ALSO a story for another time), and now spends much of her time helping Henix with some of his projects, mostly to do with The Void.

A final thing worth noting about Yuki is with regards to her Nova mother, Ame; said mother has been almost entirely absent from her life. She left on a mission when Yuki was roughly 6, and never returned. Neither Yuki nor her remaining parent know what happened to Ame.

This definitely will not be relevant later.

¹Citation needed.