Pro-China influence campaign infiltrates U.S. news websites
source: washington post, courtesy of FAN, Bill Amshey | image: pixabay.com
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Author: esimantiras
Destroying Just 250 Satellites Would Make Orbit ‘Totally Useless’ in 40 Years: STUDY
source: themessenger.com, contributed by Artemus Founder, Bob Wallace | image: pixabay.com
So far human conflicts haven’t spilled into attacking each others’ satellites with missiles, but the technology exists
Should countries begin blowing each others satellites up in a war, it would spell doom for almost all of the technology orbiting the Earth, according to calculations published in a new study.
So far human conflicts haven’t spilled into attacking each others’ satellites with missiles, but the technology exists: In November, 2021, the Russian military tested out its Nudol missile by blowing up a defunct satellite. The explosion created a cloud of thousands of fragments, many of them not trackable due to their size, traveling at thousands of miles per hour around the globe.
Continue reading “Destroying Just 250 Satellites Would Make Orbit ‘Totally Useless’ in 40 Years”
Scientists get $600,000 grant to merge more AI
with human brain cells
source: msn.com | image: pixabay.com
- The funds came via Australia’s Defense Dept. and Office of National Intelligence
- The researchers hope their ‘beautiful’ interfaces between computer chips and brain cells will soon be ‘giving Australia a significant strategic advantage’
A team of Australian scientists collaborating across academia and private industry have just received a three-year grant to weaponize their work growing brain cell cultures that are capable of communicating with machines.
Over the past two years, the team has already succeeded in teaching a brain cell culture of approximately 800,000 neurons how to successfully play the 1970s video game Pong from its Petri dish.
The $600,000 grant was awarded by the Australian government’s military and intelligence communities and will be managed by the Australian Research Council.
‘The beautiful and pioneering aspect of this work rests on equipping the neurons with sensations: the feedback,’ as one of the Pong project’s co-researchers, theoretical neuroscientist Karl Friston, put it last October.
Continue reading “Scientists get $600,000 grant to merge more AI with human brain cells”
Threads overtakes ChatGPT as fastest growing app ever
source: cybernews.com | image: pexels.com
Threads, an Instagram app, has signed up 100 million users in less than five days since launch, a feat that took ChatGPT two months to achieve.
Meta’s Twitter rival hit the 100 million mark in the early hours of Monday (July 10th), according to the data platform Quiver Quantitative, beating an earlier record set by OpenAI’s ChatGPT app.
ChatGPT made history in January when it added 100 million active users in just two months after its launch. It took TikTok nine months and Instagram two and a half years to hit this milestone.
The user estimate for Threads is based on the account numbers shown on Instagram pages. It is too early to say how many of those will use the app regularly.
Continue reading “Threads overtakes ChatGPT as fastest growing app ever”
Russia-Linked RomCom Hackers Targeting NATO Summit Guests
source: securityweek.com | image: pixabay.com
A recent RomCom cyber operation has been targeting NATO Summit guests and other entities supporting Ukraine.
As part of a recently identified cyber operation, a Russia-linked threat actor known as RomCom has been targeting entities supporting Ukraine, including guests at the 2023 NATO Summit taking place July 11-12, the cybersecurity unit at BlackBerry reports.
Taking place in Vilnius, Lithuania, the NATO Summit has on the agenda talks focusing on the war in Ukraine, as well as new memberships in the organization, including Sweden and Ukraine itself.
Taking advantage of the event, RomCom has created malicious documents likely to be distributed to supporters of Ukraine, and appears to have dry-tested its delivery on June 22 and a few days before the command-and-control (C&C) domain used in the campaign went live,BlackBerry explains.
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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
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?
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?
Continue reading “Google Flooded the Internet With AI News. Where’s Apple?”
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.
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.