Category: Meta

In episode 11 of The AI Fix, OpenAI battles a Shakespearean lawyer, Graham sings an uncanny bluegrass acrostic, Google drops the ball with a terrible AI ad, and Mark wonders why there's no sound on a video of an AI dentist. Graham finds religion with a little help from a man named "L Ron", a traffic cone saves the world, and Mark has a heated argument with belligerent ChatGPT. All this and much more is discussed in the latest edition of "The AI Fix" podcast by Graham Cluley and Mark Stockley.

France Cybersecurity Agency, ANSSI, has issued a stark warning regarding the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024, cautioning that the event’s IT infrastructure will face relentless cyber attacks, potentially including sophisticated ransomware variants.

ANSSI disclosed that French government security teams have been diligently preparing for two years to counter such threats. Despite these efforts, there remains uncertainty about their ability to fend off highly advanced ransomware attacks.

The Paris Olympics are scheduled to commence on July 26th and conclude in mid-August, during which organizers, athletes, spectators, and media are expected to encounter unprecedented cyber threats of significant severity.

Amidst suspicions, Russia is reportedly a primary source of these anticipated cyber assaults. This suspicion stems partly from its restricted participation in the 2024 Olympics due to geopolitical tensions, notably its ongoing conflict with Ukraine over the past two years.

To bolster their defenses, ANSSI is leveraging AI technology through its cyber defense division, COMCYBER, linked to the Ministry of Defense. This unit not only aims to thwart incoming attacks but also proactively safeguards the event’s infrastructure against diverse cyber threats until its conclusion.

In other news, Brazil has imposed restrictions on Meta’s use of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), citing concerns over user privacy and data usage in the company’s evolving privacy policies. The Brazilian National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) issued a directive prohibiting Meta from utilizing Gen AI technology with immediate effect.

This regulatory action follows heightened scrutiny after Reuters initially reported on the ban, emphasizing ANPD’s stance on protecting fundamental user rights. Effective July 19, 2024, Brazil has warned of daily fines amounting to approximately $9,000 if Meta fails to comply with the ban.

Meta responded promptly, asserting its commitment to adhere to Brazilian laws while expressing concerns that such restrictions could stifle innovation and hinder AI development, potentially impacting the country’s future technological landscape.

The post France Ransomware warning to Paris Olympics 2024 and Brazil ban on Meta AI data usage appeared first on Cybersecurity Insiders.

Social media fuels conspiracies galore after Donald Trump is shot at a rally, cryptocurrency websites are hijacked after a screw-up at Squarespace, and our guest takes a close look at bottoms on Instagram. All this and much much more is discussed in the latest edition of the "Smashing Security" podcast by cybersecurity veterans Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault, joined this week by Zoë Rose.
Holy mackerel! AI is jumping on the religion bandwagon, ransomware gangs target hospitals, and what's happened to your old mobile phone number? All this and much much more is discussed in the latest edition of the "Smashing Security" podcast by cybersecurity veterans Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault, joined this week by "Ransomware Sommelier" Allan Liska.

Consumer Reports is reporting that Facebook has built a massive surveillance network:

Using a panel of 709 volunteers who shared archives of their Facebook data, Consumer Reports found that a total of 186,892 companies sent data about them to the social network. On average, each participant in the study had their data sent to Facebook by 2,230 companies. That number varied significantly, with some panelists’ data listing over 7,000 companies providing their data. The Markup helped Consumer Reports recruit participants for the study. Participants downloaded an archive of the previous three years of their data from their Facebook settings, then provided it to Consumer Reports.

This isn’t data about your use of Facebook. This data about your interactions with other companies, all of which is correlated and analyzed by Facebook. It constantly amazes me that we willingly allow these monopoly companies that kind of surveillance power.

Here’s the Consumer Reports study. It includes policy recommendations:

Many consumers will rightly be concerned about the extent to which their activity is tracked by Facebook and other companies, and may want to take action to counteract consistent surveillance. Based on our analysis of the sample data, consumers need interventions that will:

  • Reduce the overall amount of tracking.
  • Improve the ability for consumers to take advantage of their right to opt out under state privacy laws.
  • Empower social media platform users and researchers to review who and what exactly is being advertised on Facebook.
  • Improve the transparency of Facebook’s existing tools.

And then the report gives specifics.

In a reminiscent scene of a child complaining to their parents about a friend or schoolmate’s behavior, both Meta and Google have recently voiced their concerns over China’s online conduct. Meta, the owner of the popular social media network, released its Quarterly Adversarial Threat Report, explicitly accusing the Xi Jinping-led nation of engaging in deceptive online strategies. These tactics include the dissemination of misinformation through fake accounts and the circulation of false reports regarding the economic and political landscape of Western nations.

Google, in a parallel move, issued a threat intelligence report revealing that approximately 7,000 hackers allegedly affiliated with Chinese intelligence were employing fake names and profile pictures of Americans to share trending content across various platforms. Notably, much of the content involved in these activities is either directly copied or artfully rephrased, circulating predominantly on platforms like Twitter (referred to as “X”). To add an extra layer of authenticity, hackers reportedly pay genuine Facebook users to re-share the content once it begins trending.

The thematic focus of these dubious posts spans a wide range, encompassing political matters, gaming, history, cyber-attacks, entertainment, fashion, and models.

Security analysts from Meta assert that the creators of such content exhibit a habit of frequently changing their locations, often choosing places like India. This geographical maneuvering is seen as an attempt to tarnish the image of the targeted nation on the international stage.

Both tech giants are combating this issue by leveraging artificial intelligence to identify and eliminate such deceptive accounts. In the year 2022 alone, they collectively succeeded in removing over 7 million accounts from their respective platforms.

The post Google and Meta complain about China’s misbehavior online appeared first on Cybersecurity Insiders.

Norway’s data protection authority, Datatilsynet, has revealed that it is imposing a daily fine of $100,000 on Meta, the parent company of Facebook, due to its unauthorized use of users’ personal information for marketing purposes. This action has been taken without obtaining the necessary consent from users.

In a recent press release, the Norwegian data watchdog stated that it will start enforcing a penalty of one million kroner, equivalent to $98,500, per day beginning on August 14th of this year against Meta, the owner of the popular social networking platform.

The issue arises from Facebook and Instagram’s adoption of behavioral marketing campaigns over the past two years. Datatilsynet had previously issued warnings to these platforms, urging them to cease their utilization of targeted advertising campaigns based on user behaviors. The first warning was issued on June 28th, followed by a subsequent one on July 14th of the same year.

Despite these repeated warnings, Meta persisted in its use of targeted ads, leveraging users’ search patterns and previously recorded browsing interests. These practices raised serious concerns about the violation of data protection rights and the erosion of users’ privacy.

The verdict against Meta was based on its violation of data protection laws, prompting the Norwegian information commission to impose a penalty on the global conglomerate. Additionally, if Meta fails to rectify its non-compliant data processing practices, it could potentially face a significant penalty in the form of a 1-2 year ban in Norway. This would result in the suspension of its services across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, leading to substantial business losses.

Tobias Judin, the head of Datatilsynet’s International Department, confirmed the accuracy of the news and emphasized that Meta will be given an ample timeframe to appeal against the ban before it takes effect.

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Qualcomm and Facebook parent company Meta has announced a collaboration for the development of Llama 2 based AI tech on smart phones and connected PCs. The objective of this alliance is to push AI intelligence onto the edge of devices by integrating it into QUALCOMM snapdragon processor platforms.

Initially, the technology will be made as a mainstream into smart phones and tablets and then will be pushed towards IoT devices.
Edge based technology not only helps in saving costs, but offers increased security, privacy, and greater reliability of applications. It can be used into virtual assistants, content creation tools, apps that are into entertainment like OTT, and other productive suits.

According to a survey made by Statista in 2021, over a billion of gadgets such as smartphones, tablets, XR headsets and glasses will be using QUALCOMM AI based hardware and software by 2025.

Meta will be seeing that its Llama AI usage is done in a responsible way with innovation going hand in hand with the development.

NOTE– Meta Llama 2 based Artificial Intelligence is a language model developed by Meta scientists and can used in the development of chatbots such as Microsoft’s OpenAI ChatGPT. It uses large amounts of generated data to train and tune up the model replicating human intelligence…. hmmm to a certain extent on course! As per some of the conversations taking place on Twitter, it is too early to predict whether the upcoming AI based chat bot will turn into a competitor to ChatGPT.

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