Remember RSA Conference 2023 when Chris Stapleton joined us as a panelist to discuss AI’s impact on the music industry? I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit that I only knew Stapleton by name, and if I’m being honest, I probably remember more lines from that panel discussion than I do of his lyrics. In fact, I’ve oft quoted Professor Hany Farid who shared examples of the ways in which disinformation has compromised society’s perception of facts, noting, “it’s easy to deny reality when something can be fake.”
Not surprisingly, oodles of topics for RSA Conference 2024 have come in during the Call for Submissions (which has been extended to October 13, 2023) on AI as it relates to everything. This week, Farid joined Bloomberg’s AI IRL program to discuss AI’s Disinformation Problem. I’m again struck, and somewhat haunted by Farid’s words. After identifying the myriad ways that information can be manipulated to intentionally sow discord, Farid asked, “How do you have a society, how do you have a democracy if you can’t agree on basic facts?”
Although, I have to admit I took solace in Farid’s prediction that in the same way privacy become front of mind for the masses, “people are getting frustrated not having the ability to believe what they see.”
Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, also a guest on the episode, posed the really important question that must be asked when thinking about solutions to the problem of disinformation: “Who gets to be the arbiter of truth?”
Certainly, these conversations will continue, as they should, as developers, academics, and legislators think about security and AI. Have a perspective you want to share on the topic? RSA Conference 2024 will host an entire track on the Intersection of Security & AI, so submit today!
Now let’s look at what else made industry headlines this week.
Oct. 6: “A global cybercriminal operation called BadBox has infected the firmware of more than 70,000 Android smartphones, CTV boxes, and tablets with the Triada malware,” Security Week reported.
Oct. 5: Threat hunting and incident response teams at NSA and CISA have identified the top 10 most common network misconfigurations with, “default configurations of software applications,” ranking #1.
Oct. 5: Infosecurity Magazine reported, “Chinese threat actors are positioning themselves to deploy major cyber-attacks against US critical national infrastructure (CNI) in the event of an escalation of hostilities between the two nations.”
Oct. 4: Reuters reported, “Canadian technology company BlackBerry, said on Wednesday it would separate its Internet of Things (IoT) and cybersecurity business units and target a subsidiary initial public offering for the IoT business next fiscal year.”
Oct. 4: Apple issued a security update to address a vulnerability that could allow a local attacker to gain elevated privileges.
Oct. 3: Jury selection got underway in preparation for the trial of crypto exchange FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.
Oct. 2: UC San Diego Today reported, “Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have been awarded $9.5 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) as part of the DIGIHEALS initiative, which supports innovative research that aims to protect the United States health care system against hostile cyber threats.”
Oct. 2: A Russian hacking group, dubbed KillNet, claimed to be the culprits behind a DDoS attack that took the website of Britain’s royal family offline for approximately 90 minutes.
Oct. 2: “North Korea's state-sponsored Lazarus Group appears to have added a complex and still evolving new backdoor to its malware arsenal, first spotted in a successful cyber compromise of a Spanish aerospace company,” Dark Reading reported.