FFT news digest — 23 June 2023
FFT news digest — 23 June 2023
Surveillance
Amid all the talk of data breaches and the threat from artificial intelligence, perhaps the real focus should be on the vast amount of information that’s already available about us because we give it away. This week, the US government discussed the personal data it buys from commercial companies. A declassified report from its top spy agency said , “Today, in a way that far fewer Americans seem to understand, and even fewer of them can avoid, [Commercially Available Information] includes information on nearly everyone that is of a type and level of sensitivity that historically could have been obtained, if at all, only through targeted (and predicated) collection.” This information comprises pretty much everything done online and normally the government wouldn’t be able to obtain it without a court order. But the fact that it’s commercially available means it’s free to exploit it at will. The report was published thanks to the efforts of Oregon Senator, Ron Wyden, who has specialised in privacy and technology issues. He’s been leading a long-running campaign to pass legislation to prevent the government buying such data. “Congress needs to pass legislation to put guardrails around government purchases, to rein in private companies that collect and sell this data, and keep Americans’ personal information out of the hands of our adversaries,” he said . Meanwhlle, a procurement document emerged that suggests the US Department of Defence is scanning social media to monitor “positive or negative” sentiment about senior Pentagon officials. The document, obtained by The Intercept, says it plans “to use these tools not just to detect online “threats,” but also pinpoint their exact location by combining various surveillance techniques and data sources.” In the UK, the government published its updated Geospatial Strategy which aims “to unlock the significant economic, social and environmental opportunities offered by location data.” Location, it says, is the “glue to bring different data sets together based on place, combining information to generate and enable important insights and services.”
Threats
USB : Malicious software that spreads through infected USB drives has resurfaced. Check Point says Chinese state-sponsored attackers accessed a European healthcare institution after an employee brought back a compromised pen drive from a conference in Asia. He then used it to share a presentation with his colleagues. Discord : NBC News says the messaging tool has been used to groom children as a prelude to extorting them and, in some cases, attempting to abduct them. WhatsApp : Two Android messaging apps, called BingeChat and Chatico, turned out to be designed to steal information from any devices on which they were installed. ESET Watches : The US Army says service members have received unsolicited smartwatches in the post. It says the devices auto-connected to WiFi networks and cell phones without prompting their users. Lookalike : Infoblox has a detailed report on the various attacks that use web addresses designed to look like the real thing. They’re devious and can be highly effective. Automated checks are a good thing (which of course is the sales point of Infoblox’s report.) Bellingcat : The investigative outfit is warning that scammers are impersonating one of its reporters to try to scam victims out of money. OnlyFans : Adult content is being used as a lure to get people to install a nasty tool that allows attackers to access their devices remotely. eSentire Illluminati : A campaign called ‘Grand Masters’ tries to persuade victims to become part of the world-controlling organisation…and hand over pretty much every bit of information about themselves. Bitdefender
AI
Codes : Ask ChatGPT or Google Bard nicely and they might give you a free Windows 10 or 11 activation code. This definitely belongs in the ‘dreadful ideas’ aisle. Quite apart from security risks, while they might allow a product to be installed there are plenty of reports that full activation doesn’t work. TechRadar Voices : Meta has unveiled its new AI-powered text-to-speech generator which Meta says can create voice clips but also edit existing audio to remove noise or replace misspoken words. It’s looks to be amazing but it’s not available yet. Meta says it’s concerned about the possibility of misuse. Stolen : More than 100,000 accounts on OpenAI’s ChatGPT service have been sold on underground hacking marketplaces over the past year. Group-IB Meetings : A new feature from Otter.ai will enable users to ask questions about meetings. It’s enabled by allowing an “AI meeting genius/participant” to attend the meeting. It will then be able to answer questions and generate to-do lists based on on the content of the call. Microsoft already has a similar feature. The Verge Interviews : A survey by Resume Builder says by next year 43% of organisations are going to be using AI to manage their recruitment interviews. We’re not sure about the headline figure, but it does seem clear this is an unstoppable trend.
In brief
Denial of Service : Most of Microsoft’s key online services were crippled by an attack from a pro-Russia group. The distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack overwhelmed Microsoft’s infrastructure and took down Outlook, OneDrive and Sharepoint. Microsoft Journalism : There’s growing alarm about draft EU legislation that would allow member states to place spyware on journalists’ phones in the name of national security. Media and civic society groups have condemned the draft bill. Guilty : One of Russia’s largest disinformation campaigns since it invaded Ukraine has been trying to blame Kiev and its Western supporters for the explosion that collapsed the Kakhovka dam. Despite its size, the German Marshall Fund said the campaign was largely unsuccessful. Indeed it has simply drawn attention to the more likely scenario Moscow was responsible. Spyware : Spyware traces have been found on the phones of several Belgian magistrates and police officers, according to the country’s Justice Minister. One of them belongs to a magistrate leading an investigation into a corruption scandal in which European Parliament officials are accused of receiving bribes from Qatar, Morocco, and Mauritania. He has now recused himself from the inquiry due to a “conflict of interest.” Celltowers in space : A US company has managed to connect an off-the-shelf Samsung smartphone with a satellite in low earth orbit. It achieved download speeds of 10Mbps which is pretty darn impressive. Engadget