#deepfakes explained 2023 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mariacallous · 4 months

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The latest in a series of duels announced by the European Commission is with Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. Brussels suspects that the giant based in Redmond, Washington, has failed to properly moderate content produced by the generative AI systems on Bing, Copilot, and Image Creator, and that as a result, it may have violated the Digital Services Act (DSA), one of Europe’s latest digital regulations.

On May 17, the EU summit requested company documents to understand how Microsoft handled the spread of hallucinations (inaccurate or nonsensical answers produced by AI), deepfakes, and attempts to improperly influence the upcoming European Parliament elections. At the beginning of June, voters in the 27 states of the European Union will choose their representatives to the European Parliament, in a campaign over which looms the ominous shadow of technology with its potential to manipulate the outcome. The commission has given Microsoft until May 27 to respond, only days before voters go to the polls. If there is a need to correct course, it may likely be too late.

Europe’s Strategy

Over the past few months, the European Commission has started to bang its fists on the table when dealing with the big digital giants, almost all of them based in the US or China. This isn’t the first time. In 2022, the European Union hit Google with a fine of €4.1 billion because of its market dominance thanks to its Android system, marking the end of an investigation that started in 2015. In 2023, it sanctioned Meta with a fine of €1.2 billion for violating the GDPR, the EU’s data protection regulations. And in March it presented Apple with a sanction of €1.8 billion.

Recently, however, there appears to have been a change in strategy. Sanctions continue to be available as a last resort when Big Tech companies don’t bend to the wishes of Brussels, but now the European Commission is aiming to take a closer look at Big Tech, find out how it operates, and modify it as needed, before imposing fines. Take, for example, Europe’s Digital Services Act, which attempts to impose transparency in areas like algorithms and advertising, fight online harassment and disinformation, protect minors, stop user profiling, and eliminate dark patterns (design features intended to manipulate our choices on the web).

In 2023, Brussels identified 22 multinationals that, due to their size, would be the focus of its initial efforts: Google with its four major services (search, shopping, maps, and play), YouTube, Meta with Instagram and Facebook, Bing, X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Amazon, Booking, Wikipedia, Apple’s App Store, TikTok, Alibaba, Zalando, and the porn sites Pornhub, XVideos, and Stripchat. Since then, it has been putting the pressure on these companies to cooperate with its regulatory regime.

The day before the Bing investigation was announced, the commission also opened one into Meta to determine what the multinational is doing to protect minors on Facebook and Instagram and counter the “rabbit hole” effect—that is, the seamless flood of content that demands users’ attention, and which can be especially appealing to younger people. That same concern led it to block the launch of TikTok Lite in Europe, deeming its system for rewarding social engagement dangerous and a means of encouraging addictive behavior. It has asked X to increase its content moderation, LinkedIn to explain how its ad system works, and AliExpress to defend its refund and complaint processes.

A Mountain of Laws …

On one hand, the message appears to be that no one will escape the reach of Brussels. On the other, the European Commission, led by President Ursula von der Leyen, has to demonstrate that the many digital laws and regulations that are in place actually produce positive results. In addition to the DSA, there is the Digital Markets Act (DMA), intended to counterbalance the dominance of Big Tech in online markets; the AI Act, Europe’s flagship legislation on artificial intelligence; and the Data Governance Act (DGA) and the Data Act, which address data protection and the use of data in the public and private sectors. Also to be added to the list are the updated cybersecurity package, NIS2 (Network and Information Security); the Digital Operational Resilience Act, focused on finance and insurance; and the digital identity package within eIDAS 2. Still in the draft stage are regulations on health data spaces and much-debated chat measures which would authorize law enforcement agencies and platforms to scan citizens’ private messages, looking for child pornography.

Brussels has deployed its heavy artillery against the digital flagships of the United States and China, and a few successful blows have landed, such as ByteDance’s suspension of the gamification feature on TikTok Lite following its release in France and Spain. But the future is uncertain and complicated. While investigations attract media interest, the EU’s digital bureaucracy is a large and complex machine to run.

On February 17, the DSA became law for all online service operators (cloud and hosting providers, search engines, e-commerce, and online services) but the European Commission doesn’t and can’t control everything. That is why it asked states to appoint a local authority to serve as a coordinator of digital services. Five months later, Brussels had to send a formal notice to six states (Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Poland, Portugal, and Slovakia) to urge them to designate and fully empower their digital services coordinators. Those countries now have two months to comply before Brussels will intervene. But there are others who are also not in the clear. For example, Italy’s digital services coordinator, the Communications Regulatory Authority (abbreviated AGCOM, for Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni, in Italian), needs to recruit 23 new employees to replenish its staff. The department told WIRED Italy that it expects to have filled all of its appointments by mid-June.

The DSA also introduced “trusted flaggers.” These are individuals or entities, such as universities, associations, and fact-checkers, committed to combating online hatred, internet harassment, illegal content, and the spread of scams and fake news. Their reports are, one hopes, trustworthy. The selection of trusted flaggers is up to local authorities but, to date, only Finland has formalized the appointment of one, specifically Tekijänoikeuden tiedotus- ja valvontakeskus ry (in English, the Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Center). Its executive director, Jaana Pihkala, explained to WIRED Italy that their task is “to produce reports on copyright infringements,” a subject on which the association has 40 years of experience. Since its appointment as a trusted flagger, the center’s two lawyers, who perform all of its functions, have sent 816 alerts to protect films, TV series, and books on behalf of Finnish copyright holders.

… and a Mountain of Data

To assure that the new commission is respected by the 27 states, the commission set up the DSA surveillance system as quickly as possible, but the bureaucrats in Brussels still have a formidable amount of research to do. On the one hand, there is the anonymous reporting platform with which the commission hopes to build dossiers on the operations of different platforms directly from internal sources. The biggest scandals that have shaken Meta have been thanks to former employees, like Christopher Wylie, the analyst who revealed how Cambridge Analytica attempted to influence the US elections, and Frances Haugen, who shared documents about the impacts of Instagram and Facebook on children’s health. The DSA, however, intends to empower and fund the commission so that it can have its own people capable of sifting through documents and data, analyzing the content, and deciding whether to act.

The commission boasts that the DSA will force platforms to be transparent. And indeed it can point to some successes already, for example, by revealing the absurdly inadequate numbers of moderators employed by platforms. According to the latest data released last November, they don’t even cover all the languages spoken in the European Union. X reported that it had only two people to check content in Italian, the language of 9.1 million users. There were no moderators for Greek, Finnish, or Romanian even though each language has more than 2 million subscribers. AliExpress moderates everything in English while, for other languages, it makes do with automatic translators. LinkedIn moderates content in 12 languages of the European bloc—that is, just half of the official languages.

At the same time, the commission has forced large platforms to standardize their reports of moderation interventions to feed a large database, which, at the time of writing this article, contains more than 18.2 billion records. Of these cases, 69 percent were handled automatically. But, perhaps surprisingly, 92 percent concerned Google Shopping. This is because the platform uses various parameters to determine whether a product can be featured: the risk that it is counterfeited, possible violations of site standards, prohibited goods, dangerous materials, and others. It can thus be the case that several alerts are triggered for the same product and the DSA database counts each one separately, multiplying the shopping numbers exponentially. So now the EU has a mass of data that further complicates its goal of being fully transparent.

Zalando’s Numbers

And then there’s the Big Tech companies’ legal battle against the fee they have to pay to the commission to help underwrite its supervisory bodies. Meta, TikTok, and Zalando have challenged the fee (though paid it). Zalando is also the only European company on the commission’s list of large platforms, a designation Zalando has always contested because it does not believe it meets the criteria used by Brussels. One example: The platforms on the list must have at least 45 million monthly users in Europe. The commission argues that Zalando has 83 million users, though that number, for example, includes visits from Portugal, where the platform is not marketed, and Zalando argues those users should be deducted from its total count. According to its calculations, the activities subject to the DSA reach only 31 million users, under the threshold. When Zalando was assessed its fee, it discovered that the commission had based it on a figure of 47.5 million users, far below the initial 83 million. The company has now taken the commission to court in an attempt to assure a transparent process.

And this is just one piece of legislation, the DSA. The commission has also deployed the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a package of regulations to counterbalance Big Tech’s market dominance, requiring that certain services be interoperable with those of other companies, that apps that come loaded on a device by default can be uninstalled, and that data collected on large platforms be shared with small- and medium-size companies. Again, the push to impose these mandates starts with the giants: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, ByteDance, and Microsoft. In May, Booking was added to the list.

Big Tech Responds

Platforms have started to respond to EU requests, with lukewarm results. WhatsApp, for instance, has been redesigned to allow chatting with other apps without compromising its end-to-end encryption that protects the privacy and security of users, but it is still unclear who will agree to connect to it. WIRED US reached out to 10 messaging companies, including Google, Telegram, Viber, and Signal, to ask whether they intend to look at interoperability and whether they had worked with WhatsApp on its plans. The majority didn’t respond to the request for comment. Those that did, Snap and Discord, said they had nothing to add. Apple had to accept sideloading—i.e., the possibility of installing and updating iPhone or iPad applications from stores outside the official one. However, the first alternative that emerged, AltStore, offers very few apps at this time. And it has suffered some negative publicity after refusing to accept the latest version of its archenemy Spotify’s app, despite the fact that the audio platform had removed the link to its website for subscriptions.

The DMA is a regulation that has the potential to break the dominant positions of Big Tech companies, but that outcome is not a given. Take the issue of surveillance: The commission has funds to pay the salaries of 80 employees, compared to the 120 requested by Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton and the 220 requested by the European Parliament, as summarized by Bruegel in 2022. And on the website of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), Adam Kovacevich, founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress, a politically left-wing tech industry coalition (all of the digital giants, which also fund CEPA, are members), stated that the DMA, “instead of helping consumers, aims to help competitors. The DMA is making large tech firms’ services less useful, less secure, and less family-friendly. Europeans’ experience of large tech firms’ services is about to get worse compared to the experience of Americans and other non-Europeans.”

Kovacevich represents an association financed by some of those same companies that the DMA is focused on, and there is a shared fear that the DMA will complicate the market and, in the end, benefit only a few companies—not necessarily those most at risk because of the dominance of Silicon Valley. It is not only lawsuits and fines, but also the perceptions of citizens and businesses that will help to determine whether EU regulations are successful. The results may come more slowly than desired by Brussels as new legislation is rarely positively received at first.

Learning From GDPR and Gaia-X

Another regulatory act, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), has become the global industry standard, forcing online operators to change the way they handle our data. But if you ask the typical person on the street, they’ll likely tell you it’s just a simple cookie wall that you have to approve before continuing on to a webpage. Or it’s viewed as a law that has required the retention of dedicated external consultants on the part of companies. It is rarely described as the ultimate online privacy law, which is exactly what it is. That said, while the act has reshaped the privacy landscape, there have been challenges, as the digital rights association Noyb has explained. The privacy commissioners of Ireland and Luxembourg, where many web giants are based for tax purposes, have had bottlenecks in investigating violations. According to the latest figures from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), 19,581 complaints have been submitted in the past five years, but the body has made only 37 formal decisions and only eight of those began with complaints. Noyb recently conducted a survey of 1,000 data protection officers; 74 percent were convinced that if privacy officers investigated the typical European company, they would find at least one GDPR violation.

The GDPR was also the impetus for another unsuccessful operation: separating the European cloud from the US cloud in order to shelter the data of EU citizens from Washington’s Cloud Act. In 2019, France and Germany announced with great fanfare a federation, Gaia-X, that would defend the continent and provide a response to the cloud market, which has been split between the United States and China. Five years later, the project has become bogged down in the process of establishing standards, after the entry of the giants it was supposed to counter, such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Huawei, and Alibaba, as well as the controversial American company Palantir (which analyses data for defense purposes). This led some of the founders, such as the French cloud operator Scaleway, to flee, and that then turned the spotlight on the European Parliament, which led the commission to launch an alternative, the European Alliance for Industrial Data, Edge and Cloud, which counts among its 49 members 26 participants from Gaia-X (everyone except for the non-EU giants) and enjoys EU financial support.

In the meantime, the Big Tech giants have found a solution that satisfies European wishes, investing en masse to establish data centers on EU soil. According to a study by consultancy firm Roland Berger, 34 data center transactions were finalized in 2023, growing at an average annual rate of 29.7 percent since 2019. According to Mordor Intelligence, another market analysis company, the sector in Europe will grow from €35.4 billion in 2024 to an estimated €57.7 billion in 2029. In recent weeks, Amazon web services announced €7.8 billion in investments in Germany. WIRED Italy has reported on Amazon’s interest in joining the list of accredited operators to host critical public administration data in Italy, which already includes Microsoft, Google, and Oracle. Notwithstanding its proclamations about sovereignty, Brussels has had to capitulate: The cloud is in the hands of the giants from the United States who have found themselves way ahead of their Chinese competitors after diplomatic relations between Beijing and Brussels cooled.

The AI Challenge

The newest front in this digital battle is artificial intelligence. Here, too, the European Union has been the first to come up with some rules under its AI Act, the first legislation to address the different applications of this technology and establish permitted and prohibited uses based on risk assessments. The commission does not want to repeat the mistakes of the past. Mindful of the launch of the GDPR, which in 2018 caused companies to scramble to assure they were compliant, it wants to lead organizations through a period of voluntary adjustment. Already 400 companies have declared their interest in joining the effort, including IBM.

In the meantime, Brussels must build a number of structures to make the AI Act work. First is the AI Council. It will have one representative from each country and will be divided into two subgroups, one dedicated to market development and the other to public sector uses of AI. In addition, it will be joined by a committee of technical advisers and an independent committee of scientists and experts, along the lines of the UN Climate Committee. Secondly, the AI Office, which sits within Directorate-General Connect (the department in charge of digital technology), will take care of administrative aspects of the AI Act. The office will assure that the act is applied uniformly, investigate alleged violations, establish codes of conduct, and classify artificial intelligence models that pose a systemic risk. Once the rules are established, research on new technologies can proceed. After it is fully operational, the office will employ 100 people, some of them redeployed from General Connect while others will be new hires. At the moment, the office is looking to hire six administrative staff and an unknown number of tech experts.

On May 29, the first round of bids in support of the regulation expired. These included the AI Innovation Accelerator, a center that provides training, technical standards, and software and tools to promote research, support startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises, and assist public authorities that have to supervise AI. A total of €6 million is on the table. Another €2 million will finance management and €1.5 million will go to the EU’s AI testing facilities, which will, on behalf of countries’ antitrust authorities, analyze artificial intelligence models and products on the market to assure that they comply with EU rules.

Follow the Money

Finally, a total of €54 million is designated for a number of business initiatives. The EU knows it is lagging behind. According to an April report by the European Parliament’s research service, which provides data and intelligence to support legislative activities, the global AI market, which in 2023 was estimated at €130 billion, will reach close to €1.9 trillion in 2030. The lion’s share is in the United States, with €44 billion of private investment in 2022, followed by China with €12 billion. Overall, the European Union and the United Kingdom attracted €10.2 billion in the same year. According to Eurochamber researchers, between 2018 and the third quarter of 2023, US AI companies received €120 billion in investment, compared to €32.5 billion for European ones.

Europe wants to counter the advance of the new AI giants with an open source model, and it has also made its network of supercomputers available to startups and universities to train algorithms. First, however, it had to adapt to the needs of the sector, investing almost €400 million in graphics cards, which, given the current boom in demand, will not arrive anytime soon.

Among other projects to support the European AI market, the commission wants to use €24 million to launch a Language Technology Alliance that would bring together companies from different states to develop a generative AI to compete with ChatGPT and similar tools. It’s an initiative that closely resembles Gaia-X. Another €25 million is earmarked for the creation of a large open source language model, available to European companies to develop new services and research projects. The commission intends to fund several models and ultimately choose the one best suited to Europe’s needs. Overall, during the period from 2021 to 2027, the Digital Europe Program plans to spend €2.1 billion on AI. That figure may sound impressive, but it pales in comparison to the €10 billion that a single company, Microsoft, invested in OpenAI.

The €25 million being spent on the European large language model effort, if distributed to many smaller projects, risks not even counterbalancing the €15 million that Microsoft has spent bringing France’s Mistral, Europe’s most talked-about AI startup, into its orbit. The big AI models will become presences in Brussels as soon as the AI Act, now finally approved, comes into full force. In short, the commission is making it clear in every way it can that a new sheriff is in town. But will the bureaucrats of Brussels be adequately armed to take on Big Tech? Only one thing is certain—it’s not going to be an easy task.

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bookgeekgrrl · 10 months

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My media this week (12-18 Nov 2023)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🙂 Stuff Like Love (lambchop33) - 51K, stucky no-powers friends-to-lovers AU; enjoyable enough, lots of angsty pining

🥰 Stargazer (LemonadeGarden) - 47K, delicious angsty batfam feels, mostly between Jason & Bruce

😍 Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) (Martha Wells, author; Kevin R Free, narrator) - Murderbot reread in prep for System Collapse

😍 Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries #3) (Martha Wells, author; Kevin R Free, narrator)

😍 Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries #4) (Martha Wells, author; Kevin R Free, narrator)

😍 Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (The Murderbot Diaries, #4.5) (Martha Wells)

😍 Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries #6) (Martha Wells, author; Kevin R Free, narrator)

😍 Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries #5) (Martha Wells, author; Kevin R Free, narrator)

😍 System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries #7) (Martha Wells, author; Kevin R Free, narrator) - MURDERBOT IS BACK! And so is ART! Murderbot has PTSD! [this is my surprised face] Another fantastic episode and I already want more.

😊 Murder at the Highland Castle (Miss Underhay Mystery #14) (Helena Dixon) - Kitty & Matt go to a remote Scottish castle for a case in time for Hogmanay

💖💖 +120K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

My Big Fat Wolf Wedding (AggressiveWhenStartled, galwednesday, quietnight, silentwalrus, skellerbvvt) - MCU: stucky, 12K - reread; comic accidental marriage between vamp!Steve & werewolf!Bucky

Crocodile Jock (entanglednow) - Stranger Things: steddie, 4K - short but super hot

Slide To Answer (relenafanel) - MCU: stucky, 6K - reread, forever fave; no powers wrong number AU

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Shakespeare & Hathaway - s1, e6

QI - series Q, ep 15

QI - series T, ep 12-14

Oops: 250,000 people came to your book club

Aabria Iyengar On Dimension 20: Burrow's End, Critical Role & Much More

Finding Your Roots - "Breaking Silences" (s6, e15): Gayle King, Jordan Peele, Issa Rae

Finding Your Roots - "Far From Home" (s9, e4): Cyndi Lauper, Danny Trejo, Jamie Chung

D20: Burrow's End - "The First Stoats" (s20, e7)

D20: Adventuring Party - "If I Had A Nickel" (s15, e7)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Vibe Check - The Battle None of You Have Been Waiting For

Outward - Amy Schneider is a Champion

Culture Gabfest - Does Voice-Over Kill the Killer?

Ologies with Alie Ward - Road Ecology (ROAD KILL) with Ben Goldfarb

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Lightning Field

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Tiny Bread Box

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Montezuma Well

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Café 't Mandje

What Next: TBD - How Deepfake Porn Infected a School

Dear Prudence - My Family Won't Let Me Host for the Holidays. Help!

Today, Explained - F1: Gears and Loathing in Las Vegas

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Dolly Parton’s Dreambox

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - A Long Walk Home

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Gregynog Hall

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Immovable Ladder

Switched on Pop - Why Country Music Dominated 2023's Charts

Ed Zitron's 15 Minutes In Hell - Max Collins

Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals - S01E02 The Tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Welcome to Night Vale #238 - The Big Dig

Cautionary Tales - Laser Versus Parchment: Doomsday for the Disc

99% Invisible #559 - The Six-Week Cure

Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - Sounds That Sell

Song Exploder - Sampha - Spirit 2.0

Shedunnit - The Pimlico Poisoning Mystery

99% Invisible #560 - Home on the Range

Cautionary Tales - Wrong Tools Cost Lives

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Iron Maiden

Presenting Blue Öyster Cult

Rockstar [Dolly Parton] {2023}

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dojae-huh · 2 years

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Completely agree with your standpoint on the NCT Home app issue.

I personally think that it was harmless, except for the fact that SM is capitalising on fans nonstop but what's new? They'd do anything to promote the Neos, even if making them into controllable avatars.

Maybe they view it as dehumanising since the movement of the graphics seems very unsettling, and with the rising issue of how deepfakes are ruining people's lives could explain the mass fear of the app. But the Neos have agreed to the idea, given if they were briefed and signed a contract before shooting all the angles. So what's the big harm? They consented, just as how other form of fanservice they have done.

Fans should address the "dehumanising" issue from another standpoint - how SM is less focusing on their musical talent and promoting their idol image as products. Nowadays it's all about looks - all these merchandises with their beautiful images being sold and of course fans (and me) will spend some money (for Doyoung's pretty smile). SM and the NCT team needs to reflect on what even started the Neo movement, because now it's getting pretty stale... How the "Neo" brand is presented to the public... It's what made NCT special from other groups, and I really love their uniqueness and bravery to challenge different concepts each time. Hopefully after all this SM mess die down, we'll get NCT 2020 back (one of their best comebacks).

Thanks for reading my 2 cents, love your blog!

I agree, AI imitating art, deep fakes, body shape enhancing and skin smoothing filters are very new phenomenas, people are still sorting out how they feel about it, where is the line, what is ethical and what is not. Because there is no consensus, it attracts attention and provokes thought.

I can't be sure, however, I suspect that Japanese and Koreans saw no problem with the app. They are much more accustomed to virtual reality and virtual idols, the idea of robots looking like humans, etc. Look at how idols often play with face demorphing filters. It is fun, not scary. At least at this stage, when the line moved just a tad, when it is still "just a game".

To make it clear, I agree with the fans who don't like the app. It is better to stop a malpractice at the beginning than fear SM will release your bias avatars in the future for sell. I would prefer to have Naevis kind of avatars, completely made from scratch. Still, is there really a big difference between making a digital likeness of an idol to open its mouth and making a flesh-and-blood idol to open his mouth by showing a funny cartoon as an instruction to action? In the first case it's emotionless pixels, in the second case it's a real person with feelings you have an eye contact with in a situation where you are in a position of power over him for a minute.

There are "class clown' people who will do a lot to get attention, ilicit a laugh and be cheered on. These type of people do aegyo and everything else with ease. And, surelly, there are "dancer"/"show off" type of people who are very in tune with their body and sexuality and are not afraid of being sexy or even provocative at all. It doesn't apply to all idols. Some have to bear through the tasks, psychologically adjust, internalise their feelings because "it's what the fans want, it's what is needed to be done to achieve popularity". However, because "it is the norm", only extreme cases "warrant" concern from fans.

The Neoness... I'm waiting for the new comeback. 127 and NCT2023's run in 2023 will tell if the new SM showrunners remember the roots and the main idea or not.

Do you know that idol pictures evolved from prints of portraits of Japanese kabuki actors? Ans that mostly the actors survived thanks to their patrons not tickets? Koreans imported a lot of J-pop practices in the beginning.

As said as it is, the music doesn't sell on its own. It is well known that even cello players who cover rock bands and modernise classic pieces have to be conventionally attractive to make it big in general public. And, let's be completely brutally honest, many of neos are not that talented to make it on singing/dancing skills alone. Not even Doyoung. Therefore, I just accept the promotional idol part of things. I agree, though, that 127 need to comeback to neoness. Taeyong's hairdo in "Ay-Yo" was a breath of fresh air...

The solos released by SM these past months for other SM artists make me be at ease. The music is good, the albums are nice to look at, there are thought-through concepts. Jaehyun got a nice video for his solo song. It was promoted in a quite way, by the way. Many magazines included it in the top 20 songs of the year lists. Renjun does a lot of covers for YT. Taeyong released several dance videos for his unreleased tracks.

"Killing voice" happened. Karaoke sessions and singing in a cafe live were shot and uploaded to YT. Xiaojun was sent to shows where he sang live. So SM staff does some work in this direction. Not enough, I agree. It will be nice to see neos more often on those programmes that allow to showcase vocal abilities.

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adrl-pt · 2 months

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BBC and Insider Investigations: Fake Media and Disinformation Campaigns by Russian Intelligence in the West

You are watching news from the weekly rally at the Russian Embassy in Lisbon. Today is July 6, 2:30 PM.

On July 3, journalists from the fact-checking groups “BBC Verify” and “BBC News” revealed who creates fake news for Americans. Thousands of news articles are generated using artificial intelligence and posted on numerous sites with very "American" names. Most of these articles are based on real news and are signed with the names of non-existent journalists. This creates the illusion that these sites are sources of reliable news, but hidden among the content are fabricated stories. Fake documents and doctored YouTube videos featuring people posing as “whistleblowers” or “independent journalists” are used to bolster these bogus stories.

A frequent target of these attacks is Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is falsely portrayed as either buying a Bugatti sports car with American military aid money or making racist remarks toward employees of a jewelry store in New York.

Clint Watts, head of Microsoft's Digital Threat Intelligence Center, explains that it is now much more common to encounter "information laundering" - the repeated reprinting of fake news in regular news stories to obscure their original source. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c72ver6172do

On July 4, The Insider detailed how the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service organizes disinformation campaigns in the West. From a report found in the hacked correspondence of SVR employees responsible for the “information war” with the West, presented in 2022 at the Federation Council, journalists learned that TV channels RT, Sputnik, and loyal Telegram channels do not meet expectations.

The strategy was also revealed: “Posting in foreign segments of the Internet… materials supposedly on behalf of public pro-Kyiv organizations containing new demands… of a political, economic, social nature. Due to the frequency, intrusiveness, aggressive form, and incorrect presentation, one should expect negative reactions from the target audience."

The Insider journalists also found the “Ice Pick” project in the correspondence, aimed at discrediting a banker who sponsored the Anti-Corruption Foundation and moved to the United States. https://theins.ru/politika/272852

Anti-Semitic graffiti that appeared later in Paris, fake quotes from Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, Ronaldo demanding an end to aid to Ukraine, and a deepfake with a fake voice of Tom Cruise warning of terrorist attacks at the Olympics all align with this strategy. https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/12/27/fact-check-did-celebrities-like-taylor-swift-and-cristiano-ronaldo-criticise-ukraine

Pro-Kremlin resources often appeal to freedom of speech when they face resistance. It is important to remember that Russian authorities have nearly destroyed independent journalism in their country. Since March 2023, they have detained The Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, accusing him of spying for the CIA. Last week, the Yekaterinburg court began considering his case, which could result in up to 20 years in prison. Evan's colleagues shave their heads in solidarity with him. #IStandWithEvan https://x.com/holodmedia/status/1808777869331488948

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aijustborn · 2 months

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#UberduckAI

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biblenewsprophecy · 4 months

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China, AI, Bioweapons, and Lyme Disease

@bible-news-prophecy-radio

COGwriter

The USA and China are scheduled to hold talks about trying to reduce the risk of conflict due to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI):

US and China to hold first talks to reduce risk of AI ‘miscalculation’

May 13, 2024

Chinese and US officials will on Tuesday hold the first meeting in a dialogue on artificial intelligence that Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agreed at a summit in San Francisco last year. … the meeting would focus on risk and safety with an emphasis on advanced AI systems but was not designed to deliver outcomes. The official said the US would outline its stance on tackling AI risks, explain its approach on norms and principles of AI safety, in addition to holding discussions on the role of international governance. But he said the US would also voice concern about Chinese AI activity that threatened American national security. He said China had made AI development a “major” priority and was rapidly deploying capabilities in civilian and military areas that in many cases “we believe undermines both US and allied national security”. https://www.ft.com/content/e10b034d-ac25-476c-b3a5-c09aae8eb7f9

While AI can be useful, there are many risks with it.

One is that it often gives wrong information. I had two AI programs admit they gave wrong answers to research inquiries I made in the past few days after I challenged their responses.

Another risk is that people will defer to AI when it makes suggestions that could be wrong.

A military risk is that attacks could begin if AI controls various offensive systems.

Ignoring the accidental risks of conflict between the USA and China, consider the following risk related to AI:

BIOWEAPONS

The American intelligence community, think tanks and academics are increasingly concerned about risks posed by foreign bad actors gaining access to advanced AI capabilities. Researchers at Gryphon Scientific and Rand Corporation noted that advanced AI models can provide information that could help create biological weapons.

Gryphon studied how large language models (LLM) – computer programs that draw from massive amounts of text to generate responses to queries – could be used by hostile actors to cause harm in the domain of life sciences and found they “can provide information that could aid a malicious actor in creating a biological weapon by providing useful, accurate and detailed information across every step in this pathway.”

They found, for example, that an LLM could provide post-doctoral level knowledge to trouble-shoot problems when working with a pandemic-capable virus.

Rand research showed that LLMs could help in the planning and execution of a biological attack. They found an LLM could for example suggest aerosol delivery methods for botulinum toxin. 05/09/24 https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/from-deepfakes-to-bioweapons-all-you-need-to-know-about-threats-posed-by-ai-5627182

Getting back to China, last December NewsMax reported the following:

Gordon Chang to Newsmax: China Working on Bioweapons

December 25, 2023 8:30 pm

Gordon G. Chang, author of “The Coming Collapse of China,” told Newsmax that Beijing is experimenting with what appears to be biological weapons targeting human brains. …

“These are biological weapons, and China isn’t part of the Biological Weapons Convention that would outlaw this,” Chang explained. …

The Times’ report cited recent studies by the Chinese Communist Party on biological weapons designed to induce sleep or sleep-related disturbances in enemy troops.

Other potential weapons would create a connection between the brain and external devices, as well as pharmaceuticals designed to impair people genetically and physiologically.

“This whole idea of ‘genetic drugs,’ although it has not really been fleshed out, clearly it is a biological weapon. And certainly, the other weapons that we’ve been talking about in this Washington Times report … [are] essentially biological-influenced,” Chang stated.

Chang believes it is time now more than ever to challenge China on their biological weapons program, which he suggested could be responsible for the global COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/gordon-chang-china-brain/2023/12/25/id/1147150/

So, since China did not sign the treaty saying it would not do so, it may well be that it is working on these type of weapons.

As far as biological warfare and China goes, back in January 2020, we put out the following video:

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17:01

Biological Warfare and Prophecy

Is biological warfare possible? Was it prophesied? Scientists have long warned that pathogenic organisms like the coronavirus could be weaponized. Furthermore, back in 2017, there were concerns that the biological research facility being constructed in Wuhan, China was risky and that a coronavirus from it could be released. On January 25, 2020, China’s President Xi Jinping publicly stated that the situation with the Wuhan-related strain of the coronavirus was grave. Did Church of God writers like the late evangelist Raymond McNair warn that engineered viruses (the “Doomsday bug”) were consistent with prophecies from Jesus? Did a warning from CCOG leader Bob Thiel warn about risks of genetically-modified (GMO) mosquitoes come to pass? Could human research and/or the consumption of biblically-unclean animals such as bats and snakes be a factor in current outbreaks or coming future pestilences? What about famines? How devastating have pestilences been? How devastating are the prophesied ones going to be? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more.

Here is a link to our video: Biological Warfare and Prophecy.

That said, treaty or not, other nations, including the USA are involved in biological warfare research–which does imply the ability to produce biological weapons.

There have been many reports over the years about the USA being involved with pathogen research for use in biological warfare. Last summer, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was interviewed by Tucker Carlson about that. Here is something about that:

RFK Jr. Warns Of Thousands Of “DEATH SCIENTISTS” Developing Killer Microbes In America

“We are making bioweapons.”

August 15, 2023

During an interview with Tucker Carlson, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr warned that there are thousands of so called ‘scientists’ developing killer bioweapons inside America without oversight.

The topic was raised when the pair began to discuss biolabs in Ukraine, with Kennedy noting that the U.S. “has biolabs in Ukraine because we are making bioweapons.”

He then went on to state that “Anthony Fauci got all the responsibility for bio-weapons development,” adding that after three bugs escaped from three labs in the U.S. “In 2014, 300 scientists wrote to President Obama and said ‘you’ve gotta shut down Anthony Fauci, because he is going to create a microbe that will cause a global pandemic.’”

“And so Obama signed a moratorium and shut down the 18 worst of Anthony Fauci’s experiments, where most of them were taking place in North Carolina by a scientist called Ralph Baric,” Kennedy added. https://summit.news/2023/08/15/video-rfk-jr-warns-of-thousands-of-death-scientists-developing-killer-microbes-in-america/

Could the USA be so involved?

Well, it is not supposed to be:

The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) effectively prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological and toxin weapons. It was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning an entire category of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

The United States officially agreed to it in 1975, as did most nations in the world.

Officially, the USA claims it has no biological weapons.

However, it admits that it is involved with biological research on pathogenic microorganisms, as are many other countries. The USA and many others claim that the research is entirely peaceful and that the biological pathogenic agents can be, and supposedly are, under complete control.

One of the reasons for this post today, is that I saw the following article:

Exposing the Link Between Lyme Disease and Secret U.S. Biowarfare Experiments

May 11, 2024

Declassified documents reveal that the seemingly innocuous island off the coast of Connecticut may have been ground zero for government experiments with weaponized ticks, possibly unleashing Lyme disease upon an unsuspecting public.

In 2008, Kris Newby, after extensive research, released a groundbreaking documentary on Lyme disease. The film sparked widespread discussion about the origins of Lyme disease and the reasons behind its increasing prevalence. …

Plum Island, an 840-acre island located just a mile off the north fork at the eastern end of Long Island, is notorious for its secretive government experiments involving bioweapons. Newby highlighted this in a discussion with Tucker Carlson, emphasizing the island’s mysterious and concerning activities.

Bioweapons Testing Facility and Disease Cluster

People living near Plum Island started getting diseases like Lyme arthritis, rickettsiosis, and babesiosis all around the same time. Tucker Carlson discussed this and wondered if these diseases came from government experiments.

https://rairfoundation.com/exposing-link-between-lyme-disease-secret-u-s/

Whether or not Lyme Disease was human-engineered, it can be a very, very difficult disease to treat. But sadly, humans (and apparently also with the use of AI) are looking to make more devastating diseases.

And as it turns out, it is usually not difficult to turn biological pathogens into weapons.

The USA certainly has dangerous biological agents from which it could do so. So do many other nations.

Remember that Jesus Himself warned that the “signs” of the end of the age would include pestilences:

7…And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:7-8)

11 And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. (Luke 21:11)

Biological warfare agents certainly can be a factor in pestilences.

Furthermore, in the sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation, the ride of four horsemen are described. The passages about the fourth horseman are as follows:

7 When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” 8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:7-8)

So, the opening of the fourth seal is the time that the pale horse of death is apparently increasing death by war, hunger, and pestilences (the beasts of the earth).

Could humans intentionally cause some of that?

Certainly.

More pestilences are coming (Revelation 6:7-8).

In the summer of 2023, we put out the following video:

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14:53

Biological Weapons and the 4th Horseman of the Apocalypse

Tucker Carlson interviewed Democratic presidential party candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK). During that interview, RFK asserted that the United States has had thousands of scientists working on making bioweapons. Officially, the USA has denied this as it is a party to the Biological Weapons Convention. RFK states that Anthoy Fauci was responsible for biological weapons development. Does the ‘Global South’ consider that the West may intend to exterminate people through biological warfare? Did Jesus prophesy pestilences? Have humans engaged in biological or germ warfare for millennia? What were some things that Raymond McNair warned about over 50 years ago? Can we trust scientists to totally safely control all the infectious agents they work with? Could humankind be developing, knowingly or unknowingly, biological agents that could be responsible for many of the deaths that are prophesied to occur with the ride of the ‘pale horse of death,’ which is the fourth of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse to ride? Steve Dupuie and Dr. Thiel address these matters.

Here is a link to our video: Biological Weapons and the 4th Horseman of the Apocalypse.

Biological pathogens developed by humans are a real threat.

Do NOT trust the scientists who say that they are simply trying to help us fight diseases and can always control them–they DO NOT KNOW all the risks, no matter what they say.

Humans, directly or indirectly, will be a factor in the coming, more severe pestilences. Adding AI to the mix adds additional risk.

Read more on govindhtech.com

#CCPA #admttechnology #dataprivacy #DataProtection #aimodels #news #technews #technology #technologynews #technologytrends #govindhtech

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digital-learning-point · 5 months

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AI-Powered Content Marketing: Unleashing the Future

FUTURE OF CONTENT MARKETING WITH AI

What is Artificial Intelligence?

The technology that allows computers and other devices to replicate human intelligence and capacity for problem-solving is commonly referred to as artificial intelligence or AI.

In other words, The scientific discipline of artificial intelligence studies how to build machines with human-like cognitive abilities. It can perform tasks that are considered “smart.” AI technology is capable of handling massive quantities of data in various ways, unlike humans. The goal of artificial intelligence is to imitate human skills like judgement, pattern recognition, and decision making.

In what respects may artificial intelligence be damaging?

Artificial intelligence poses addresses that the IT world has long taken into account. Some of the major risks posed by AI have been identified as the virtual elimination of jobs, the spread of fake news, and a hazardous arms race of weapons driven by AI.

1. AI’s Lack Of Honesty And Clarity

It might be difficult to understand AI and deep learning models, even for individuals who work directly with the technology. This makes it harder to comprehend what information AI systems employ or the reasons behind any potentially dangerous or biased conclusions they may make. Consequently, there’s a lack of transparency about how and why AI makes its conclusions. These concerns have led to an increase in the popularity of explainable AI, but transparent AI systems are still a ways off from becoming the norm.

2. AI Automation-Related Job Damage

"The lower-wage employment opportunities in the service industry have been reasonably substantially created by this economy, which is largely why we have a low unemployment rate, which doesn't capture people that aren't looking for work," futurist Martin Ford told Built In. Nevertheless, "I don't think that's going to continue" given the growth of AI.

3. Employ AI systems for Social Disguise

Online media and journalism have grown even more confusing with AI-generated images and videos, AI voice changers, and deepfakes infiltrating the political and social spheres. These technologies enable the substitution of a figure’s image in an already existing image or video, as well as the generation of lifelike images, videos, and audio clips. This creates a situation where it can be very challenging to distinguish between genuine and fake news, giving dishonest people a new avenue to distribute misinformation and propaganda for conflict.

4. AI-Based Social Tracking Innovation

Apart from the potential imminent concern intelligence presents, Ford seems especially concerned about the negative impact AI will have on security and privacy. China's usage of facial recognition technology in workplaces, educational institutions, as well as other environments is an outstanding instance. The Chinese government could be able to obtain enough information to keep tabs on someone's activities, relationships, and political opinions in addition to tracking their whereabouts.

5. Inadequate data privacy using AI instruments

AI systems often collect personal data to help in training AI models or to personalize user experiences. You must have experienced a chatGPT bug incident during 2023 which allowed some users to see titles from another active user’s chat history, you could not even think that data sent to an AI system is safe from others.

6. Biases Caused By AI

The narrow knowledge base of AI developers may help shed light on why specific spoken languages and accents remain tricky for speech detection Algorithms to understand, or why businesses overlook the potential repercussions of a chatbot posing as well-known historical individuals. More caution ought to be utilized by business organizations and entrepreneurs to avoid the replication of strong biases and prejudices that endanger minority communities.

The consequences of AI-generated content for the writing profession in the future

The writing industry is already being overhauled by the use of AI in content creation, and this trend is only predicted to continue in the future. AI-powered writing tools will continue to be more crucial to the creation of content processes as they advance in functionality.

The possibility for AI-generated material to automate several repetitive chores currently completed by human writers is one of its most important implications. Artificial Intelligence systems can generate different types of content, such as product descriptions and news stories, with varying levels of human involvement. This could result in cheaper expenses and much faster and more efficient content generation.

Concerns exist, meanwhile, regarding how AI-generated content will affect the writing industry. There are risks that the widespread use of AI in content creation could replace human writers entirely or at least decrease the need for human writers. While AI can create certain kinds of content, it is questionable that AI will ever completely replace human writers. Instead, the future of AI-generated content is likely to consist of a blend of content created by machines and humans. Artificial intelligence will be used to automate boring tasks and provide smart suggestions for improving the quality and engagement of content, but human authors will still be needed for the uniqueness and complexity that only humans can provide.

In conclusion, AI-generated content has a lot of exciting and undiscovered possibilities ahead of it. Artificial intelligence is not projected to replace human writers, even though it will likely be employed more frequently in the content creation process. Instead, it’s more likely that in the future, both human and machine-developed content will exist together with AI-powered tools assisting human writers in creating engaging, excellent content.

Ending Remarks

Future developments in the field of AI-powered content authoring have the potential to fundamentally alter how we create, distribute, and consume content. Artificial intelligence enabled writing tools are already redefining the content market by providing valuable data on audience behavior and content success, as well as assisting content creators in creating personalized materials of the highest capability at scale. Additionally, content is being optimized for a variety of platforms and channels, such as email marketing, social media, and search engines, by using AI-powered writing tools. This greatly increases the content’s reach and engagement.

#digital marketing #ecommerce #marketing #economy #commercial #branding #entrepreneur

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infradapt · 7 months

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Deepfake Technology Powers Advanced Malware Attacks on Mobile Banking

Identification of Cyber Threat Actor GoldFactory and its Advanced Banking Trojans

GoldFactory, a cybercrime group that communicates in Chinese, has been identified as the creators of advanced banking trojans. This includes a previously unknown iOS malware named GoldPickaxe, which is designed to collect identity documents, facial recognition data, and intercept SMS messages. According to a detailed report by Group-IB, a Singapore-based cybersecurity firm, the GoldPickaxe family of malware is operational on both iOS and Android platforms. It is believed that GoldFactory maintains strong ties with Gigabud, another cybercrime organization.

Since its inception in mid-2023, GoldFactory has been linked to the creation of other Android-based banking malware. These include GoldDigger and its advanced version GoldDiggerPlus, which incorporates an embedded trojan known as GoldKefu.

Targeted Social Engineering Campaigns in Asia-Pacific

The malware created by GoldFactory has been distributed through social engineering campaigns, primarily aimed at the Asia-Pacific region. Thailand and Vietnam have been specifically targeted, with the malware disguising itself as local banks and government organizations. In these campaigns, potential victims receive phishing and smishing messages that direct them to switch to instant messaging applications like LINE. They are then sent fraudulent URLs that install GoldPickaxe on their devices.

Some of the malicious Android applications are hosted on fake websites designed to mimic the Google Play Store or corporate websites, thus facilitating the installation process.

iOS Distribution Scheme and Sophisticated Evasion Techniques

The iOS version of GoldPickaxe utilizes a different distribution method. It employs successive versions that take advantage of Apple’s TestFlight platform and malicious URLs. These URLs prompt users to download a Mobile Device Management (MDM) profile, which provides complete control over the iOS device and enables the installation of the rogue app.

The Thailand Banking Sector CERT (TB-CERT) and the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) uncovered these propagation techniques in November 2023.

GoldPickaxe also showcases its sophistication by circumventing security measures implemented by Thailand. These measures necessitate users to verify large transactions using facial recognition to deter fraudulent activities.

Deepfake Videos and Unauthorized Fund Transfers

Security researchers Andrey Polovinkin and Sharmine Low explain that GoldPickaxe tricks victims into recording a video as a confirmation method in the fake application. This recorded video is then utilized as a source for creating deepfake videos using face-swapping artificial intelligence services.

Both the Android and iOS versions of the malware are capable of collecting victims’ ID documents and photos, intercepting incoming SMS messages, and routing traffic through the compromised device. It is believed that GoldFactory actors use their own devices to log into the banking application and execute unauthorized fund transfers.

Comparing the Functionality of iOS and Android Variants

The iOS variant of GoldPickaxe has fewer functionalities compared to its Android counterpart. This is largely due to the closed nature of the iOS operating system and its relatively stricter permissions.

The Android version, considered an evolved version of GoldDiggerPlus, disguises itself as over 20 different applications from Thailand’s government, financial sector, and utility companies. Its main aim is to steal login credentials from these services. However, the exact use of this stolen information by the threat actors remains unclear.

Abuse of Android’s Accessibility Services and Code-Level Similarities

A noteworthy feature of the malware is its exploitation of Android’s accessibility services to log keystrokes and extract content displayed on the screen.

GoldDigger shares code-level similarities with GoldPickaxe, although it is primarily designed to steal banking credentials, while GoldPickaxe is more focused on collecting personal information from victims. To date, no GoldDigger artifacts aimed at iOS devices have been discovered.

Targeting Vietnamese Financial Companies

“The primary feature of GoldDigger is that it targets over 50 applications from Vietnamese financial companies, including their packages’ names in the trojan,” the researchers said. “Whenever the targeted applications open, it will…

Unveiling the GoldDigger Malware and its Evolution

GoldDigger, a base version of a malicious software, was first identified in June 2023. Even though it continues to circulate in the digital space, it has given rise to more advanced versions, including GoldDiggerPlus. This upgraded variant is embedded with an additional Trojan APK component known as GoldKefu, which triggers the malicious activities.

Introduction to GoldDiggerPlus and GoldKefu

GoldDiggerPlus made its first appearance in September 2023. GoldKefu, on the other hand, masquerades as a widely used Vietnamese messaging application to extract banking information from ten different financial institutions. Unlike GoldDigger, which primarily relies on Android’s accessibility services, the Android Trojan, used in combination with GoldKefu, leverages fake overlays to gather login details if the most recently opened application is on the target list.

GoldKefu’s Integration with Agora SDK

GoldKefu also collaborates with the Agora Software Development Kit (SDK) to enable interactive voice and video calls. It deceives victims into reaching out to a fake bank customer service by sending counterfeit alerts. These alerts create an artificial urgency by falsely claiming that a fund transfer of 3 million Thai Baht has occurred in their accounts.

The Lucrative Mobile Malware Landscape

This development is indicative of the mobile malware landscape’s lucrative nature for cybercriminals seeking quick financial gain. These criminals continuously devise methods to bypass the defensive strategies implemented by banks to combat such threats. It also highlights the continuously evolving and dynamic nature of social engineering schemes designed to deliver malware to victims’ devices.

Mitigating Risks Posed

To reduce the risks posed by GoldFactory and its mobile banking malware suite, it is strongly recommended to avoid clicking on suspicious links and installing apps from untrusted sites. These sites are a common source of malware. Regularly reviewing the permissions granted to apps, especially those that request Android’s accessibility services, is also advised.

The Resourcefulness of the GoldFactory Team

The GoldFactory team is skilled in various tactics, including impersonation, accessibility keylogging, creating fake banking websites, sending fake bank alerts, creating fake call screens, and collecting identity and facial recognition data. The team is divided into separate development and operator groups, each dedicated to specific regions.

The Operational Maturity of the Gang

The gang has well-established processes and operational maturity. They continuously enhance their toolkit to match the targeted environment, demonstrating a high level of expertise in malware development.

https://www.infradapt.com/news/deepfake-technology-powers-advanced-malware-attacks-on-mobile-banking/

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digitaltransformationworld · 8 months

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Decoding the black in BlackMamba; How does the world of malware look

With advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), experts believe that there has been a rise in AI-driven malware. From what it’s understood, fraudsters can use machine learning techniques such as Generative AI to create malware. By using generative AI, user’s data could be misused and synthesised for fraudulent activities. Reportedly, hackers use predictive AI to predict the defence mechanism of the target. In alignment with this, experts have predicted a new malware ‘BlackMamba’ which uses AI-powered techniques to stay hidden from endpoint detection and response (EDR) security solutions. “ In 2024, the future can combine the ongoing success of many current attack tactics, such as identity compromise, with an emerging landscape dominated by AI-powered cyberattacks,” Parag Khurana, country manager, Barracuda Networks (India) Pvt Ltd, a cloud-based cybersecurity platform, told FE-TransformX, adding that global shortage of cybersecurity professionals means organisations need to look to integrated-end-to-end security solutions, third-party security operations centers and ongoing employee security awareness training, to fortify their defences.

Decoding BlackMamba

From what it is understood, BlackMamba uses a benign executable which reaches out to an API (OpenAI) at runtime, so it can return synthesised, malicious code needed to steal an infected user’s keystroke. The code is then used as a benign programme using Python’s exec function, with the malicious polymorphic portion remaining in memory. Case in point, by using its built-in keylogging ability, BlackMamba collected sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and other personal or confidential data, among others, that a user entered in Microsoft Teams, as per insights from Security Boulevard. These were later sold on the dark web for fraudulent activities.

In 2023, about 400 million malware was found across 8.5 million endpoints, as per insights from Seqrite,a cybersecurity solutions provider. In March 2023, over eight percent of responding employees had used ChatGPT at least once in the workplace, and around three percent had entered confidential corporate data into ChatGPT. The most commonly exposed type of corporate data was the sensitive data intended for internal use only, as per insights from Statista. Reportedly, illegal activists had been selling chatbot services such as DarkBART, FraudGPT and WormGPT, among others, as per insights from Seqrite, a cybersecurity solutions provider.

The dark side of generative AI

AI-powered attacks can become common as threat actors create polymorphic malware such as BlackMamba, using ChatGPT and other data-intelligence systems based on large language models (LLM), as per insights from HYAS Labs researchers. “AI also poses challenges and risks for the cybersecurity landscape as it can be used by malicious actors to launch attacks, evade detection and exploit vulnerabilities, among others. One of the main challenges that AI poses is that it can increase the scale, speed and complexity of cyberattacks” Sanjay Agrawal, chief product officer, Quick Heal Technologies Ltd, a cybersecurity platform, explained.

Industry experts believe that the rise of AI-driven attacks, ranging from deepfakes to intricate phishing techniques, poses a challenge to digital security and public trust alike. Threat actors employ BlackMamba to evade detection, intensifying the complexity of the cybersecurity landscape. Every time BlackMamba executes, it re-synthesises its keylogging capability, making the malicious component of this malware polymorphic. “Amidst these challenges, AI has the ability to equip cybersecurity professionals with the tools to fortify digital environments, fostering a proactive stance against emerging threats. Its ability to discern patterns, mitigate risks, and enable real-time responses can reshape the cybersecurity paradigm,” Shibu Paul, vice president, international sales, Array Networks, a security platform, highlighted.

The road ahead

By 2027, 50% of enterprise chief information security officers (CISOs) can adopt human-centric security design practices to reduce cybersecurity-induced friction and upgrade control adoption, as per insights from Gartner. “The integration of decentralised identity systems, AI-driven deception techniques and focus on cyber-resilience postures can set new paradigms. The complexities of the digital realm underscore the need for robust cybersecurity measures. Quantum-resistant algorithms, the convergence of Internet of Things (IoT) vulnerabilities and the role of human-centric security strategies can emerge as the key areas in 2024,” Ajay Kabra, senior director, global business excellence, Xebia, a cloud solution provider, said.

Experts believe that this transformation shouldn’t overshadow the need for human expertise. The collaboration of AI-backed defences with human talent can be the strategy for fortifying cyber fortresses. “The trajectory of 2024 in cybersecurity will use the dual approach of inclusion of AI-powered defences and investment in human skills, along with the guidance of C-suite executives. This convergence can form the bedrock for resilience in an age that is dominated by relentless cyber challenges,” Vishal Gupta, CEO, Seclore, a data-centric security platform, concluded.

Source Link: https://www.financialexpress.com/business/digital-transformation-decoding-the-black-in-blackmamba-how-does-the-world-of-malware-looknbsp-3355804/

Website Link: https://xebia.com/apac/

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review-with-metul · 9 months

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👉 Read More: https://review-with-metul.com/xmas-bundle-review-2023/

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