FFT news digest — 28 April 2023
FFT news digest — 28 April 2023
The week in AI
Scammers are flooding Apple’s App Store with fake or flawed ChatGPT apps, according to a month-long investigation. “Most of these apps are nothing but cheap imitations or outright scams that fail to deliver on their promises,” Alex Kleber found . The apps are easy to find by searching for keywords such as ’OpenAI” and “ChatGPT.” They all look similar, reuse colours and icons, and have become some of the most downloaded apps in their Mac App Store. What’s less clear is how they have managed to circumvent Apple’s notoriously picky review process. On a more positive note, ChatGPT has released a new feature that enables users to protect their information by turning off their chat history. Once enabled, the setting prevents the platform from using the user’s data to train and improve other AI models. “When chat history is disabled, we will retain new conversations for 30 days and review them only when needed to monitor for abuse, before permanently deleting,” OpenAI says . This is obviously a good thing, though the equally obvious question is why this feature wasn’t included from the outset. OpenAI also says it’s working on a subscription tier for businesses which will give them more control over any data they enter. In other AI news, US surveillance giant, Palantir, demonstrated an AI tool designed to be used to support battlefield operations. A Stanford University student has developed a Charisma-as-a-Service chatbot that he says will banish “awkward dates and job interviews” by telling its user what to say. And University of Glasgow researchers looked at how AI could be used to crack passwords by analysing thermal images to identify the traces of heat left when a key is pressed.
Threats
Facebook : Group-IB has found more than 3,200 Facebook profiles impersonating Meta support staff as part of a campaign to fool users into revealing their Facebook credentials. Be sceptical! Remote : Attackers are targeting remote workers with fake versions of apps including Cisco AnyConnect, Citrix Workspace and Zoom, as well as ChatGPT assistants. If you need an app, ask IT for it! Secureworks Adult content : Malwarebytes has a good article explaining how “malvertising” works and why it’s worth avoiding websites that ask you to confirm your age. In this case, the victims are advertisers who are defrauded by fake clicks but the same approach can also be deployed against computer users themselves. EvilExtractor : An “all-in-one” tool is being sold on the Dark Web. Fortinet says it’s designed to steal browser data and other information from compromised Windows devices. Like so many other similar tools, it arrives as a booby-trapped PDF document. PDF : Meanwhile, macOS devices are being targeted with a variant on the PDF theme. It’s distributed as an “Internal PDF Viewer” which is in fact simply malicious software. To install it, a user would have to override Apple’s inbuilt Gatekeeper protections. Jamf Jobs : North Korean attackers are using an ingenious approach to try to persuade targets to open a document about a non-existent job offer. ESET says they use a special character that looks like a dot but can trick a file manager into treating the file as an executable program. WordPress : A legitimate but outdated plugin is being used to compromise WordPress websites. Despite not having been updated for more than 10 years, EvalPHP is still being downloaded by thousands of users. Abandoned WordPress plugins are a vast risk and must be avoided and/or eliminated. Sucuri
China watch
https://www.aspi.org.au/report/gaming-public-opinion A rash of stories underlines the ongoing and “pervasive” threat from attackers linked to the Chinese government. The senior US cybersecurity official Rob Joyce told The Washington Post that the “trend is just how brazen China is.” As evidence of this, recently leaked intelligence documents include a CIA assessment that says China is building sophisticated cyber weapons to seize control of enemy satellites and render them useless. Within China, ESET has details of a campaign targeting an international NGO. It says the attacks used the update channels of legitimate apps such as Tencent QQ. And an Australian think tank warns about China’s covert influence operations on social media which it says “have become more frequent, sophisticated, and effective in targeting democracies, disrupting foreign policies and decision-making processes.”
Even by Elon Musk’s chaotic standards, this was a pretty dreadful week for Twitter - although it’s provided evidence that, now more than ever, scepticism should be applied to what you see on the site. As well as verifying a fake Disney account, the platform managed to breathe new life into the accounts of several dead celebrities including Michael Jackson and Chadwick Boseman by suggesting they had verified their phone numbers. Twitter also seems to have decided that advertisers must pay for verification in order to continue buying space on the platform. Slate describes it as a “week-long master class in business failure.” On a practical level, The Conversation looks at how to spot misinformation (which amounts to never taking what you read at face value).
In brief
Empty-handed : VPN provider Mullvad said Swedish police demanded customer data but had to leave empty handed after being told the company didn’t retain any. What does your VPN provider know about you? Brian Krebs Pesky kids : One of the “most prevalent” security threats at the moment is a group of teenagers and individuals in their 20s from the US and the UK, according to Mandiant. The Register iOS : 9to5Mac says Apple has been testing a more sophisticated system that would restrict features based on a user’s location. Currently, such restrictions are hard coded into an iPhone’s hardware or software settings.
Naughty Norton
African Union : An infamous Russian hacking group has paralysed the African Union, according to internal communications obtained by Le Monde. BlackCat is demanding a $3 million ransom. Russia : A proposed law would force retailers to pre-install Russian operating systems on all new PCs sold in the country. Kommersant Cars : It looks like an old Nokia phone or a Bluetooth speaker but inside it is everything a thief needs to break into a modern vehicle. Motherboard explains .