Category: Security

Russia’s war in Ukraine

Posted on By AdminPKZ

US believes Russia has recovered some small pieces of debris from downed drone, US official says

From CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Oren Liebermann

The US believes Russia has recovered some debris in the Black Sea from the downed US surveillance drone, a US official familiar with the matter told CNN. The official described the recovered wreckage as pieces of fiberglass or small bits of the MQ-9 Reaper drone. 

CNN reported on Wednesday that Russia had reached the location where the US surveillance drone went down in the Black Sea, approximately 70-80 miles southwest of Crimea.

But the Biden administration downplayed the significance of the drone wreckage or the potential to glean any sensitive intelligence from the remains of the aircraft. 

“We made it impossible for them to be able to glean anything of intelligence value off the remnants of that drone, whatever remnants there might be on the surface of the water,” John Kirby, the National Security Council strategic communications coordinator, told CNN on Wednesday. 

After the collision between the US drone and the Russian fighter jets early Tuesday morning, the drone operators took steps to erase the sensitive software of the drone before it fell into the Black Sea, according to US officials.

“Whatever’s left … that’s floating will probably be flight control surfaces, that kind of thing. Probably nothing of real intrinsic value to them in terms of terms of reengineering or anything like that,” Kirby said.

The drone landed in water that may be nearly a mile deep, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley said at a press conference on Wednesday. 

“That’s US property and, and we’ll, we’ll leave it that at this point, but it probably broke up. There’s probably not a lot to recover, frankly,” he said.

GCHQ spy chiefs warn Microsoft’s ChatGPT and other AI chatbots pose a security risk – as City law firm bans workers from using it in case client data is leaked

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Spy organisation GCHQ says Artificial Intelligence powered chatbots like ChatGPT are emerging security threats.

In a blog post yesterday the National Cyber Security Centre says companies operating the technology – like Microsoft and Google – are able to read questions typed into the chatbots.

The centre admits that with any emerging technology, there is always concern around how secure it is.

And it advises users not to include sensitive information in queries or anything that could lead to issues if everyone saw them.

The blog points out: ‘The query be visible to the organisation providing the LLM (so in the case of ChatGPT, to OpenAI).

‘Those queries are stored and will almost certainly be used for developing the LLM service or model at some point.

‘This could mean that the LLM provider (or its partners/contractors) are able to read queries, and may incorporate them in some way into future versions. As such, the terms of use and privacy policy need to be thoroughly understood before asking sensitive questions.’

The Telegraph reports City firm Mishcon de Reya has banned its lawyers from typing client data into ChatGPT over security fears, as has Accenture.

It was revealed on Monday that ChatGPT will soon be able to do much more than send human-like text messages.

In September, rival tech giant Meta unveiled its own AI system that generates videos from text prompts
'Make-A-Video' was trained on images with captions to help it learn about the world and how it is described, and unlabeled videos to determine how the world moves

In September, rival tech giant Meta unveiled its own AI system that generates videos from text prompts. ‘Make-A-Video’ was trained on images with captions to help it learn about the world and how it is described, and unlabeled videos to determine how the world moves

A Microsoft executive has revealed that the next version – set to be released this week – will be able to turn text prompts into unique videos.

The tech giant has invested heavily in ChatGPT, and has already unveiled a host of new products which incorporate it as an AI assistant, like search engine Bing.

But this updated version, dubbed GPT-4 and tipped to launch on Thursday, will have ‘multimodal models’, according to Microsoft Germany CTO Andreas Braun.

This means that it will be able to generate content in multiple formats, like audio clips, images and video clips, from a text prompt.

ChatGPT is a large language model that has been trained on a massive amount of text data, allowing it to generate human-like text responses to a given prompt.

Russian jet collides with US drone over Black Sea

Posted on By AdminPKZ

A Russian fighter jet has collided with a US drone, causing the unmanned US aircraft to crash into the Black Sea, the American military says.

Reaper drones are full-size aircraft designed for high-altitude reconnaissance and surveillance

It says the drone was on a routine mission in international airspace when two Russian jets tried to intercept it.

The US European Command said the crash on Tuesday was the result of an “unprofessional act by the Russians”.

US and allied forces will continue to operate in the area, it added. There is no word on the incident from Russia.

“Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” the US statement said.

Several times before the collision the Su-27 fighter jets dumped fuel on the drone in a “reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner”.

MQ-9 Reaper drones are large unmanned aircraft with a 20m (66ft) wingspan designed for high-altitude surveillance.

Shashank Joshi, defence editor for the Economist magazine, said the Russians may have been trying to intimidate the drone as it was hoovering up their communications.

White House spokesman John Kirby said Russian intercepts of US aircraft were not uncommon over the Black Sea, but it was the first time that one had resulted in a crash.

Tensions have risen in the region ever since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine the US and the UK have stepped up reconnaissance and surveillance flights, though always operating in international airspace.

AUKUS nuclear pact ‘great news’ for global security: British premier

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First UK submarines will be delivered in late 2030s, according to official statement

U.S. President Joe Biden (C), Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom (R) and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia (L) arrive for the Australia – United Kingdom – United States (AUKUS) Partnership meeting at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, California, United States on March, 13, 2023.

LONDON

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Monday that the AUKUS nuclear pact has been “great news” for both global security and British jobs. 

AUKUS is a three-way strategic defense alliance between Australia, the UK and the US initially to build a class of nuclear-propelled submarines.

But Its primary objective is “to uphold peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and to deter and defend against rapidly evolving threats to the international order and system there,” according to the US White House.

It is also designed to enhance cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, where the rise of China is seen as a growing threat, and to develop wider technologies.

“The AUKUS partnership, and the submarines we are building in British shipyards, are a tangible demonstration of our commitment to global security. This partnership was founded on the bedrock of our shared values and resolute focus on upholding stability in the Indo-Pacific and beyond,” Sunak said in a statement.

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said the pact will support thousands of jobs across the UK, particularly in the northwest of England, adding “this endeavor will boost prosperity across our country and showcase the prowess of British industry to our allies and partners.”

A new fleet of submarines will be built by the UK and Australia based on the UK’s nuclear-powered submarine design.

The first UK submarines will be delivered in the late 2030s to replace the current Astute-Class vessels and the first Australian submarines will follow in the early 2040s.

The agreement is seen by many as significant because it marks the first time the US has shared nuclear propulsion technology with an ally other than the UK.

In 2021, as a result of this alliance, Australia decided to cancel a contract with France which was awarded in 2016 to build 12 diesel electric-powered submarines to replace its existing Collins Class submarine fleet.

Director of National Intelligence delivers the Congressional Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena! Finally!

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It’s a bit late (due October 31st, 2022) but it is now in the public’s hands -at least the unclassified version is!

There are a few nuggets that are interesting but the report mostly details procedures going forward as to how to categorize UAP, methods to evaluate reports, and how multiple government agencies like Dod and NASA, and civilian organizations will interact. While not mentioned in the report, MUFON has been providing assessments to the new All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

The meat of the report for UFO researchers and enthusiasts is on page 5. The report suggests that a little less than half of the reports garnered in the last year remain unidentified!  Page 5 reads in part as follows:

Since its establishment in July 2022, AARO has formulated and started to leverage a robust analytic process against identified UAP reporting. Once completed, AARO’s final analytic findings will be available in their quarterly reports to policymakers. AARO’s initial analysis and characterization of the 366 newly-identified reports, informed by a multi-agency process, judged more than half as exhibiting unremarkable characteristics:
 26 characterized as Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) or UAS-like entities;
 163 characterized as balloon or balloon-like entities; and
 6 attributed to clutter.
Initial characterization does not mean positively resolved or unidentified. This initial characterization better enables AARO and ODNI to efficiently and effectively leverage resources against the remaining 171 uncharacterized and unattributed UAP reports. Some of these uncharacterized UAP appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis.

Source:
https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Unclassified-2022-Annual-Report-UAP.pdf

Ransomware Attacks Have Entered a ‘Heinous’ New Phase

Posted on By AdminPKZ

With victims refusing to pay, cybercriminal gangs are now releasing stolen photos of cancer patients and sensitive student records.

Ransomware is a form of malware designed to encrypt files on a device, rendering any files and the systems that rely on them unusable. Malicious actors then demand ransom in exchange for decryption.

IN FEBRUARY, ATTACKERS from the Russia-based BlackCat ransomware group hit a physician practice in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, that’s part of the Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN).

At the time, LVHN said that the attack “involved” a patient photo system related to radiation oncology treatment. The health care group said that BlackCat had issued a ransom demand, “but LVHN refused to pay this criminal enterprise.”