Author: esimantiras

MacOS vs Windows: Which Desktop OS Is Safest?

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MacOS vs Windows: Which Desktop OS Is Safest?

source: pcmag.com  |  image: pexels.com

 

Still think Macs can’t get viruses? That outdated thinking puts you and your data at risk.

 

It’s a tale as old as computing itself: Macs can’t get viruses. It’s not true, but a new survey by security site All About Cookies(Opens in a new window) seems to indicate that far too many macOS users believe their systems are immune, even though they’re security-conscious about other aspects of computing—at least, compared with Windows users.

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How Your Real Flight Reservation Can Be Used to Scam You

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How Your Real Flight Reservation Can Be Used to Scam You

source: wired.com  |  image: pexels.com

 

Scammers use a booking technicality, traveler confusion, and promises of dirt-cheap tickets to offer hot deals that are anything but.

HOW DO YOU tell that your plane ticket is real? If it checks out on the airline’s website, you’re good to go, right? Don’t be sure. Fraudsters are abusing a little-known but decades-old technicality in how airline reservations work to con people out of their cash.

Mevonnie Ferguson, who lives in Kent in the UK, says she was scammed out of £994 ($1,267) by someone claiming to work at a travel agency called Infinity Global Travel. A single working mother of two daughters, Ferguson says she was sold what appeared to be a valid British Airways ticket from London to Kingston, Jamaica. When she looked up the reservation on BA’s website using the confirmation number and her last name, it showed up valid and fine. But about two weeks after purchasing this ticket from Infinity Global Travel, and just days before her scheduled departure date, the reservation disappeared from BA’s website without a trace.

Ferguson, who also relayed her story to the UK’s Channel 5, contacted the airline and explained her situation, but she was told there were no flights booked in her name. BA would not release information to Ferguson, as she was not the party who had directly booked the reservation with the airline, she says. After some persuasion, the BA representative ultimately told Ferguson that while the reservation code she provided was correct, there was no record of an e-ticket number.

Ferguson has since tried to get a refund from the supposed travel agent, who has neither returned her money nor responded to subsequent calls and emails. A BA spokesperson asked WIRED for additional details so they could investigate but did not otherwise respond to a request for comment.

This problem isn’t unique to British Airways or any one airline in particular. In fact, it’s an intentional part of the air travel industry’s reservation process that scammers can abuse. 

Hold Up

Like many travelers, Ferguson did not understand the difference between a “confirmed” and a “ticketed” reservation, travel industry jargon terms that are not synonymous. The system makes it possible to create what appears to be a valid flight reservation, but which is actually a mere temporary reservation “hold.” 

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Google Flooded the Internet With AI News. Where’s Apple?

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Google Flooded the Internet With AI News. Where’s Apple?

source: cnet.com, contributed by Artemus FAN, Steve Page  |  image: pixabay.com

 

Apple hasn’t publicly entered the generative AI race yet. But there’s a good chance we’ll see the technology baked into its upcoming software.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard the term “generative AI” at least a handful of times now, perhaps thanks to the wildly popular ChatGPT service. The AI-powered chatbot’s success didn’t just shine a spotlight on OpenAI, the creator behind it, but it also catalyzed an AI arms race in the tech industry – a race from which Apple has been noticeably absent.  

Earlier this month, Google made a flurry of AI-related announcements at its annual developer conference, including a new AI-infused version of search and Bard, its AI-powered chatbot, which is being rolled out across the world. It’s not just Google. Before that, Microsoft built generative AI into its suite of long-established productivity apps like Word, PowerPoint and Outlook in a move that’s changing how more than a billion people work. In February, Meta released its own sophisticated AI model, which has many of the same capabilities at ChatGPT and Bard, as open-source software for public use.

But what about Apple? 

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Hints of cyber’s role in Taiwan

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Hints of cyber’s role in Taiwan

source: axios.com, contributed by Artemus FAN, Bill Amshey  |  image: pixabay.com

 

he latest evidence of China-linked hackers infiltrating U.S. critical infrastructure is highlighting what role cyberattacks could end up playing in a possible invasion of Taiwan.

What’s happening: Earlier this week, researchers at Microsoft unveiled that a Chinese state-sponsored groupknown as Volt Typhoon has been targeting critical infrastructure organizations in the U.S. and Guam.

  • Affected organizations spanned a long list of sectors: communications, manufacturing, utility, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology and education.
  • Volt Typhoon, which has been in operation since mid-2021, infiltrated these organizations by targeting internet-facing devices running Fortinet’s FortiGuard products, per Microsoft.
  • Once inside, the hackers can start “living off the land” and obtain access to a network by stealing user credentials and rerouting any suspicious traffic through home routers, Microsoft said.

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China is doubling down on its race to the moon

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China is doubling down on its race to the moon

source: fastcompany.com  |  image: pixabay.com

China cemented its lunar goals in June 2021, when it formed the International Lunar Research Station.

China has set out a road map to compete with the Artemis program in a race to the moon, grabbing the attention of NASA and U.S. lawmakers. 

As NASA pursues increased funding to ensure the U.S. lands first, questions remain regarding China’s ability to finance the endeavor.

“China’s funding is a bit of a black box,” says Kevin Pollpeter, a China space program expert at the Center for Naval Analyses. “But if they felt they could not afford to go to the moon, they would not have gotten it approved.” 

CHINA’S 2023 LUNAR ROAD MAP

China has recently released a flurry of new details on its lunar goals, including accelerated timelines and a slew of technical designs. In just the first five months of the year, Beijing has:

  • Unveiled designs for its lunar lander;
  • Released details on its fully reusable Long March 9 rocket;
  • Begun building an international coalition for its moon base;
  • Announced plans to break ground on a lunar base by 2028;
  • Declared its goal of landing a crew on the moon by 2030.

​​“By 2030, the Chinese people will definitely be able to set foot on the moon. That’s not a problem,” said Wu Weiren, chief designer of the lunar program at China’s Space Day last month. 

HUGE INVESTMENT 

Landing humans on the moon is a pricey undertaking. From 2012 through 2028, NASA will spend an estimated $102.5 billion on the Artemis program. 

  • 2012-2023: $61 billion of program expenditures, according to NASA’s inspector general and recent budget allocations
  • 2024-2028: $41.5 billion, according to a NASA update on May 15, 2023
CHINA’S BUDGET

Research firm Euroconsult estimates that China spent roughly $12 billion on its space program in 2022; $12 billion per year would likely be insufficient for China to fund both the Tiangong low Earth orbit station and a $100 billion-plus lunar program, though it’s possible more is currently being spent in opaque budgets. 

As China ramps up its lunar program, funding will need to balloon alongside of it, possibly mixing with much larger military budgets. 

ILRS VS. ARTEMIS

China cemented its lunar goals in June 2021, when it formed the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). The goal of the ILRS program is similar to Artemis: to build a permanent scientific base on the moon.

Beijing has tapped Russia as its key partner for the effort. However, with Russia occupied by its war efforts, set back by sanctions, and generally limited by a smaller gross domestic product, China has taken the lead on ILRS funding and program direction.

The South China Morning Post reported that China and Russia have thus far secured ILRS cooperation agreements or letters of intent with the following nations:

  • Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (consisting of eight Asian nations)
  • Argentina
  • Pakistan
  • Brazil
  • United Arab Emirates, which is also a signee of the Artemis Accords

The agreements may be more ceremonial in nature, as no financial commitments or technology transfers have been announced.

LUNAR AMBITIONS

China’s interest in the moon holds potential economic, military, and reputation benefits for Beijing.

  • Economic: China believes the cislunar economy will grow to $10 trillion per year by 2050. 
  • Military: The Chinese Communist Party is focused on counteracting U.S. space dominance and its rising Space Force budget. 
  • Reputation: Chinese President Xi Jinping is eager to establish the nation as a leader in space and science. 

“There is a prestige factor involved. Going to the moon would be a big feather in China’s cap,” Pollpeter says. “This is a way for them to demonstrate themselves on the world stage.”

China’s play at the moon has gotten the attention of top U.S. officials at NASA, the Department of Defense, and on Capitol Hill. “We are in a space race with China,” NASA chief Bill Nelson testified at a Senate hearing on the space agency’s FY24 budget. 

TECHNICAL MILESTONES

The Artemis program is a number of years ahead of China’s lunar timeline. The U.S. has already launched its heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket, begun testing its Starship lunar lander, and commenced construction on a Lunar Gateway. 

China, on the other hand, faces numerous technical hurdles in landing on the moon. While China has released a slew of technical mock-ups of spacecraft and station designs, they remain in the early stages of engineering and testing. 

Paralysed man walks again via thought-controlled implants

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Paralysed man walks again via thought-controlled implants

source: yahoo news, contributed by Artemus Founder, Bob Wallace  |  image: pexels.com

 

A paralysed man has regained the ability to walk smoothly using only his thoughts for the first time, researchers said on Wednesday, thanks to two implants that restored communication between brain and spinal cord.

The patient Gert-Jan, who did not want to reveal his surname, said the breakthrough had given him “a freedom that I did not have” before.

The 40-year-old Dutchman has been paralysed in his legs for more than a decade after suffering a spinal cord injury during a bicycle accident.

But using a new system he can now walk “naturally”, take on difficult terrain and even climb stairs, according to a study published in the journal Nature.

The advance is the result of more than a decade of work by a team of researchers in France and Switzerland.

Last year the team showed that a spinal cord implant — which sends electrical pulses to stimulate movement in leg muscles — had allowed three paralysed patients to walk again.

But they needed to press a button to move their legs each time.

Gert-Jan, who also has the spinal implant, said this made it difficult to get into the rhythm of taking a “natural step”.

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AI: The good, the bad and the ugly…

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AI: The good, the bad and the ugly. The team discuss AI’s evolution over the past six months.

source: infosecurity-magazine.com  |  image: pexels.com

 

Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 the cybersecurity world has been abuzz with talk of AI and its usefulness as well as the threat it poses.

In this episode of the podcast the team discuss how cybersecurity vendors are leveraging AI, what threats AI has brought to the technology landscape and what to be cautious of when using large language models.

Beth Maundrill also sits down with Sergey Shykevich, Threat Intelligence Group Manager at Check Point Research, to dispel some of the myths around threat actors’ use of AI and what Check Point has observed over the past six months. Shykevich also provides his thoughts on the future of AI in cybersecurity. 

 

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Searching for AI Tools? Watch Out…

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Searching for AI Tools? Watch Out for Rogue Sites Distributing RedLine Malware

 

source: thehackernews.com  | image:  pixabay.com

 

Malicious Google Search ads for generative AI services like OpenAI ChatGPT and Midjourney are being used to direct users to sketchy websites as part of a BATLOADER campaign designed to deliver RedLine Stealer malware.

“Both AI services are extremely popular but lack first-party standalone apps (i.e., users interface with ChatGPT via their web interface while Midjourney uses Discord),” eSentire said in an analysis.

“This vacuum has been exploited by threat actors looking to drive AI app-seekers to imposter web pages promoting fake apps.”

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Solar-Powered Biofuel That Produces Net Zero Carbon Emissions

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Solar-Powered Biofuel That Produces Net Zero Carbon Emissions

source: technologynetworks.com  |  image: pixabay.com

 

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, harnessed the power of photosynthesis to convert CO2, water and sunlight into multicarbon fuels – ethanol and propanol – in a single step. These fuels have a high energy density and can be easily stored or transported.

Unlike fossil fuels, these solar fuels produce net zero carbon emissions and completely renewable, and unlike most bioethanol, they do not divert any agricultural land away from food production.

While the technology is still at laboratory scale, the researchers say their ‘artificial leaves’ are an important step in the transition away from a fossil fuel-based economy. The results are reported in the journal Nature Energy.

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FBI repeatedly misused surveillance tool…

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FBI repeatedly misused surveillance tool, unsealed FISA order reveals

source: thehill.com  |  image: fbi.gov

 

The FBI repeatedly misused a surveillance tool in searching for foreign intelligence to use in cases pertaining to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and 2020 racial justice protests, according to an April 2022 court order publicly released Friday. 

The order, which was released by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, is significantly redacted but reveals thousands of violations of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the federal government to collect communications between certain targeted foreign individuals outside the U.S. 

The court has legal oversight of the U.S. government’s espionage activities. 

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