Looking for love? Be careful what you wish for.
A loose-knit community of scammers known as Yahoo Boys has begun using real-time face-swapping technology to woo victims with romance scams. Using a variety of tools and techniques, scammers use AI-powered apps to appear as completely different people on video calls. Just remember: if someone you’ve never met in real life asks you for money, just say no.
Elsewhere in the world of harmful deepfakes, two major websites used to create fake images of naked people are now blocked in the UK. The censorship, which appears self-imposed, comes just days after the United Kingdom proposed legislation that would ban sexualized and non-consensual AI-generated images.
A Russian cybercriminal gang called the Cyber Army of Russia Reborn appears to have been created with the help of Sandworm, the famous Russian military hacking unit that has carried out devastating cyberattacks against Ukraine for years. The difference? The Cyber Army of Russia Reborn is even more brazen, taking credit for attacks on critical infrastructure in Europe and the United States.
The Change Healthcare ransomware saga entered a new chapter this week. A cybercriminal group called RansomHub claims to be selling highly sensitive patient information stolen from the company. The sale follows claims by RansomHub that it holds terabytes of data stolen in a February attack by another ransomware gang known as AlphV or Black Cat, which was paid $22 million in March. Change Healthcare says it has spent $872 million responding to the ransomware attack as of March 31.
The largest global surveillance program carried out by the United States may be about to get bigger. A two-year renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which technically expired on Friday, will soon come up for a vote in the US Senate after passing the House last week. The legislation includes a provision that would greatly expand the number of companies that could be recruited to spy on behalf of the US government, which critics have called the “Stasi provision.” One of the biggest lobbying firms for big tech companies has opposed the provision out of fear that tech industry workers could be forced to become whistleblowers.
Thats not all. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn’t cover in depth. Click on the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.
There is a kernel of truth in all good fiction, which is why the very real Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, is a constant resource for programs like the X Files and games like Solid metal gear. It usually appears whenever an obscure government agency is needed to reverse engineer a stolen alien artifact or build a giant killer robot. However, Darpa’s announcement this Thursday sounds too much like the opening sequence of a Hideo Kojima game: With the help of the US Air Force Test Pilot School, the agency says that an experimental plane known as X-62 was successfully flown by artificial intelligence during a simulated dogfight against a human pilot in an F-16. “The potential for autonomous air-to-air combat has been imaginable for decades,” says US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, “but reality has remained a distant dream until now.”
Details about the impact are scarce, but for at least several hours this week, hackers took down computer systems supporting the work of the New York state legislature. While an attack on something called the Legislative Bill Drafting Commission is not as surprising as one against a power plant or a naval base, the LBDC is one of a dozen required stops that New York legislation must make in the path to becoming law. Bills cannot be introduced, amended or reviewed by a committee without it, much less get a vote. Fortunately, the agency reports that it was able to recover within a few hours using a “backup system.” An investigation into the attack is underway.
An army of law enforcement agencies arrested 37 suspects around the world last weekend in an operation targeting LabHost, reportedly one of the world’s largest phishing-as-a-service platforms. The investigation was led by the London Metropolitan Police in cooperation with Europol. Researchers discovered a whopping 40,000 phishing domains operated by up to 10,000 users around the world, Europol says. LabHost charged a monthly fee of $249. That cybercriminals have discovered the psychological benefits of price just below It is yet another sign of the growing popularity and sophistication of these markets.
Encrypted messaging applications WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram disappeared the way of winnie the pooh. Citing “national security concerns,” China ordered Apple to remove “certain apps” from its Chinese App Store this week, the tech giant announced (without specifying which ones). Apple reportedly met with Chinese authorities to express concerns about how banning the apps would affect its users, but relented after encountering a stone wall. “We are required to follow the laws of the countries where we operate,” the company said, “even when we disagree.” Apple relies heavily on the Chinese workforce to manufacture its products, and sales in the region have exceeded $70 billion in recent years. That Apple is indebted to the Chinese government because of this is It’s not a big secret anymore..
