Lifeboat Foundation

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Today in the Moscone Center, San Francisco, at RSA Conference 2023 (RSAC), Google Cloud announced Google Cloud Security AI Workbench, a security platform powered by Sec-PaLM, a large language model (LLM) designed specifically for cybersecurity use cases.

Sec-PaLM modifies the organization’s existing PaLM model and processes Google’s proprietary threat intelligence data alongside Mandiant’s frontline intelligence to help identify and contain malicious activity, and coordinate response actions.

Play ransomware is notable for not only utilizing intermittent encryption to speed up the process, but also for the fact that it’s not operated on a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model. Evidence gathered so far points to Balloonfly carrying out the ransomware attacks as well as developing the malware themselves.

Grixba and VSS Copying Tool are the latest in a long list of proprietary tools such as Exmatter, Exbyte, and PowerShell-based scripts that are used by ransomware actors to establish more control over their operations, while also adding extra layers of complexity to persist in compromised environments and evade detection.

Another technique increasingly adopted by financially-motivated groups is the use of the Go programming language to develop cross-platform malware and resist analysis and reverse engineering efforts.

A new “all-in-one” stealer malware named EvilExtractor (also spelled Evil Extractor) is being marketed for sale for other threat actors to steal data and files from Windows systems.

“It includes several modules that all work via an FTP service,” Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher Cara Lin said. “It also contains environment checking and Anti-VM functions. Its primary purpose seems to be to steal browser data and information from compromised endpoints and then upload it to the attacker’s FTP server.”

The network security company said it observed a surge in attacks spreading the malware in the wild in March 2023, with a majority of the victims located in Europe and the U.S. While marketed as an educational tool, EvilExtractor has been adopted by threat actors for use as an information stealer.

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Harvard.

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To protect its Confidential Computing cloud infrastructure and gain critical insights, Google leans on its relationships with chipmakers.

Pneumonia is a potentially fatal lung infection that progresses rapidly. Patients with pneumonia symptoms – such as a dry, hacking cough, breathing difficulties and high fever – generally receive a stethoscope examination of the lungs, followed by a chest X-ray to confirm diagnosis. Distinguishing between bacterial and viral pneumonia, however, remains a challenge, as both have similar clinical presentation.

Mathematical modelling and artificial intelligence could help improve the accuracy of disease diagnosis from radiographic images. Deep learning has become increasingly popular for medical image classification, and several studies have explored the use of convolutional neural network (CNN) models to automatically identify pneumonia from chest X-ray images. It’s critical, however, to create efficient models that can analyse large numbers of medical images without false negatives.

Now, K M Abubeker and S Baskar at the Karpagam Academy of Higher Education in India have created a novel machine learning framework for pneumonia classification of chest X-ray images on a graphics processing unit (GPU). They describe their strategy in Machine Learning: Science and Technology.

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Since its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, has been causing quite a stir because of the software’s surprisingly human and accurate responses.

The auto-generative system reached a record-breaking 100 million monthly active users only two months after launching. However, while its popularity continues to grow, the current discussion within the cybersecurity industry is whether this type of technology will aid in making the internet safer or play right into the hands of those trying to cause chaos.

Chinese hackers could also attack the networks of companies that provide services to the military or to critical infrastructure operators, holding their systems hostage for ransom payments.

“If you get the right supply chain, it can have a lot of effects against a lot of targets,” said John Hultquist, head of Mandiant Intelligence Analysis at Google Cloud.

Continue reading “What it will look like if China launches cyberattacks in the U.S.” »

Trained across security and networking disciplines and armed with trillions of data signals, Security Copilot dramatically increases the reach, speed and effectiveness of any security team

REDMOND, Wash. — March 28, 2023 — Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced it is bringing the next generation of AI to cybersecurity with the launch of Microsoft Security Copilot, giving defenders a much-needed tool to quickly detect and respond to threats and better understand the threat landscape overall. Security Copilot will combine Microsoft’s vast threat intelligence footprint with industry-leading expertise to augment the work of security professionals through an easy-to-use AI assistant.

“Today the odds remain stacked against cybersecurity professionals. Too often, they fight an asymmetric battle against relentless and sophisticated attackers,” said Vasu Jakkal, corporate vice president, Microsoft Security. “With Security Copilot, we are shifting the balance of power into our favor. Security Copilot is the first and only generative AI security product enabling defenders to move at the speed and scale of AI.”