By Chris Chinchilla There are a handful of challenges that many developers like to tackle as something of a rite of passage to prove their coding worth. One is creating a compiler. That fundamental building block of many programming languages ​​​​translates the more human-understandable code into something a computer understands. Another and far more ambitious challenge is building an operating system. The scope is almost limitless. You could create a Linux distribution, which often requires less coding, but more assembling of pre-existing packages and dependencies. You could create a command line operating system that works on limited hardware or on a low-level machine.…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Hisan Kidwai Tower defense games are a staple on Roblox, and the latest addition to the genre is…
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When officials working for the incoming Trump administration decided they wanted to email the entire federal workforce last week, they didn’t hang about.

Far from it: A new private class action lawsuit brought by two anonymous US executive branch employees alleges that they simply turned up at the HQ of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which handles HR, and demanded to plug in their email server and get going as soon as possible.

The one person who could have refused authorization for such a move — Melvin Brown II, who took control of the agency’s IT systems only a week before — had already been sidelined.

The suit was filed after OPM sent two test emails to an estimated 2.3 million federal employees in a way that, the suit alleges, broke the E-Government Act of 2002 and was inherently insecure. Those rules require that a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) be carried out first.

The day after the suit was filed, the OPM sent another email to federal employees, inviting them to resign.

In addition to its allegations of using an insecure email server, the suit claimed that the person who received the data from the email campaign was a non-OPM employee connected to Elon Musk, raising questions about how any personally identifiable information (PII) arising from it will be stored and secured and whether normal security and procurement protocols were flouted.

Phishing test

On the other side of this campaign were employees who rarely receive mass emails from the OPM’s HR department in a system that normally channels communications through individual agencies.

That might explain why some employees were confused by the unexpected contacts. The first email, which arrived on January 24 from an OPM [email protected] email address, stated that it was testing “a new distribution and response list” designed to allow direct OPM communication with employees. Employees were asked to reply “yes” to the message and asked to visit an OPM website announcing the test.

On January 26 a second email from the same address arrived in inboxes, again asking employees to reply “yes” even if they had already replied to the first email test. With no sense of irony, the message warned employees to be wary of unknown emails:

“As a reminder, always check the ‘From’ address to confirm that an email is from a legitimate government account and be careful about clicking on links, even when the email originates from the government.”

Some employees took them at their word, posting suspicions on Reddit that the emails might be part of a phishing attack or test. It was also noticed that the emails weren’t digitally signed, a standard way of authenticating a sending email server.

“This is EXACTLY how to design a phishing email. Is this a joke? Is this an active cybersecurity operation by a bad actor???,” read one comment.

Walked right in

The employee lawsuit alleges that last week’s emails were part of a wider and hastily assembled campaign to collect data on government employees. 

As part of that, it references a message posted to Reddit by a someone claiming to be an OPM employee with knowledge of the matter, saying that lists compiled from email replies were to be sent to Amanda Scales, an employee who works for Elon Musk and not the OPM.

“Someone literally walked into our building and plugged in an email server to our network to make it appear that emails were coming from OPM. It’s been the one sending those various ‘test’ messages you’ve all seen. We think they’re building a massive email list of all federal employees to generate mass RIF notices down the road,” said a Reddit post referring to reductions in force (layoffs), according to the lawsuit.

Not coincidentally perhaps, this week the OPM emailed a controversial “deferred resignation offer” to all federal employees offering eight months of pay and benefits for anyone who agrees within seven days to resign their positions.

“Type the word ‘Resign’ into the “Subject” line of the email. Hit ‘Send’,” it read. The notice was entitled “Fork in the Road”, perhaps a reference to an artwork of the same name Musk commissioned in 2022.

OPM breach

The OPM, of course, has form when it comes to data security. In 2015, it detected a huge data breach affecting 22.1 million employee records, including PII such as social security numbers. That led to Congressional hearings and several government reports that identified a depressing list of underlying causes.

But with this history in mind, the idea that an unknown party could simply plug their email server into the OPM network without security vetting of either the server itself or its data collection and storage routines will astonish anyone in cybersecurity.

The incident suggests a culture where speed and shock matters above all. It’s not clear how many employees were forewarned that the emails might turn up but asking employees to reply to an email or click on a link is lax in an era of phishing attacks. That’s before considering the possibility that the email server or its data might itself be targeted.

The OPM did not immediately respond to questions sent to the [email protected] email address.

Source:: Computer World

Two years after participating in a groundbreaking four-day work week experiment, 200 companies in the UK have chosen to adopt the policy permanently, marking a significant shift in workplace norms.

By continuing the policy, as many as 5,000 employees at those companies will work one day less a week with no reduction in pay.

The pilot program was conducted by the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global, the UK’s 4 Day Week Campaign and Autonomy, a think tank. It guided the companies and their workers through a six-month test of a 32-hour, four-day week. Including a previous study of companies in US and Ireland.

Boston College Professor Juliet Schor, the lead researcher in the 4-Day Work Week study, said she was not surprised the companies continued their truncated schedules, as almost all of the firms in the study reported positive results.

“They are continuing because it is successful,” Schor said. “There are a few reasons for this. Employee well-being goes up a lot. Self-reported productivity goes up even more. So, the companies are getting happier, healthier employees who are typically as productive (or more) than on a five-day schedule.”

The companies that participated in the UK experiment and chose to continue include charities, marketing and technology firms.

Many US and Canadian companies have also adopted four-day work weeks, Schor said. Companies worldwide, including in Ireland, Australia, NZ, Germany, Portugal, and Brazil, have seen similar positive results from trials.

A number of new countries are planning trials and research, as well. Italian, Nordic, French and Belgian trials are already in process, according to Schor. “And I think there are a few more that people are trying to organize,” she said.

In the US, the concept of a four-day workweek is also beginning to germinate. A 2024 Harris Poll for the American Psychological Association found that 81% of 2,027 employed adults believe they could be as effective working four days a week — and 67% think a four-day work week will become the norm in the US during their lifetime.

Additionally, the study found the percentage of US employers offering four-day work weeks rose from 14% in 2022 to 22% last year.

Iceland was among the first nations to pilot large-scale field trials that reduced the workweek to 35 hours with full pay in large-scale, and it saw “extremely encouraging results,” said Nora Keller, a senior researcher at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

Keller, who has studied workplace productivity and organizational change, said despite reductions in working hours, productivity and performance remained steady or even increased in Iceland’s trials. Additionally, reducing working hours can cut carbon emissions, reduce traffic, and lower company electricity costs as offices remain open less and fewer employees spend time in traffic.

“The effects had staying power, not just measured in productivity; employees were healthier and less stressed,” she said. “This is good for companies — healthy, happy employees are more engaged, creative, and loyal.”

Joe Ryle, campaign director of the 4 Day Week Foundation, argues that the traditional 9-to-5, five-day work week, introduced by Henry Ford in 1926 and which became the office norm by the mid-20th century, is outdated. Initially, the five-day, 40-hour schedule was seen as a balance between productivity and leisure. However, over time, many have criticized it, calling for more flexibility and better work-life balance.

In fact, the 40-hour workweek, introduced by Ford, is an example of boosting productivity by reducing hours without lowering pay; Ford reduced hours from 48 to 40 a week in his factories.

Over the past century, both the nature of work, work norms, and the priorities of employees have continued to change significantly, Keller said.

“The 40-hour work week has its origins in assembly-line work, not office work in a fast-paced information age,” she said.” Working 40 hours a week assumes that you have a partner at home, doing the lion’s share of the care work. Shortening the working week can contribute to equalizing the care work burden between men and women. Finally, Gen Z puts more emphasis on work-life balance, and it’s a key factor in choosing an employer.”

A survey by UK-based Spark Market Research found that 78% of 18- to 34-year-olds expect a four-day workweek to become common in the next five years, while 65% oppose a return to traditional full-time office work.

“This group also say[s] that mental health and improving their overall wellbeing are their top priorities, so a four-day week is a really meaningful benefit and a key enabler of their overall quality of life,” said Lynsey Carolan, managing director of Spark Market Research.

Source:: Computer World

By Thomas Macaulay Shares in ASML have bounced back from the hit inflicted by DeepSeek’s AI advances. Celebrating the results, ASML predicted that the sudden emergence of low-cost models will boost demand for the firm’s semiconductor machines. The company’s stock price rose by over 10% on Wednesday after the Dutch business reported impressive orders for its chip-making equipment. The tools produce the most advanced semiconductors in the world — and ASML is the only company that manufactures them. This dominant position has made ASML the second most valuable tech firm in Europe. But the business was shaken on Monday by DeepSeek’s rapid AI…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Kirstie McDermott From 2013 to 2023, the number of ICT specialists in the EU increased by 59.3% according to Eurostat. In that period, most of these tech workers were found in Germany, which provided employment for 21.5% of the EU’s ICT specialists—unsurprising when you consider the fact that the country is home to a myriad of high-tech companies and organisations such as SAP, Siemens, Bosch, and Audi. France had the second largest share at 13.8%, with Italy and Spain representing 9.9% and 9.6% respectively. While the demand for tech workers is increasing, this is happening in tandem with a worsening skills gap.…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By The Conversation DeepSeek sent ripples through the global tech landscape this week as it soared above ChatGPT in Apple’s app store. The meteoric rise has shifted the dynamics of US-China tech competition, shocked global tech stock valuations, and reshaped the future direction of artificial intelligence (AI) development. Among the industry buzz created by DeepSeek’s rise to prominence, one question looms large: what does this mean for the strategy of the third leading global nation for AI development – the United Kingdom? The generative AI era was kickstarted by the release of ChatGPT on November 30 2022, when large language models (LLMs) entered…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

There is a special Copilot key on some Windows laptops that can be used to launch Microsoft’s AI assistant — and now support for the key is coming to Linux.

That support has been added in version 6.14 of Linux, though exactly what it will be used for depends on which Linux-based operating system you are running. Most users are likely to use the key to open any generative AI assistant.

Version 6.14 offers several other new features, including expanded support for hand controllers, according to Phoronix.

Source:: Computer World

They may be stressed about shadow IT, security, endpoint management, and the recent proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. They’re challenged not just by static budgets and rising costs, but by the proliferation of tools they now must use to do their job. And while IT admins are not exactly struggling for work, there is plenty for them to do.

Those are some of the findings in JumpCloud’s latest survey of IT admin decision-makers across the US, UK, and Australia. The report confirms that the workplace continues to become increasingly multi-platform, with 27% of enterprise employees now preferring to use Macs, up from low-single figures at the turn of the century.

JumpCloud, which this week acquired Stack Identity, is one of the larger unified device, identity, and access management platforms to provide support for the burgeoning Apple enterprise.

Windows down, macOS and Linux up

“Windows use has shown the most significant decrease over the last six months, compared to macOS and Linux, which both increased,” said JumpCloud.

When asked about the breakdown of their organization’s device type, admins reported Windows devices comprise 56% (down from 63% in Q3 2024), macOS 27% (up from 24% in Q3 2024), and Linux 20% (up from 18% in Q3 2024).

Mac adoption in the enterprise is certain to continue to climb. The tech support cost overhead of managing Windows systems means a migration might represent low-hanging fruit for many enterprise leaders working to squeeze more from their budgets. Initial cost aside (and the difference between Mac and equivalent Windows systems is smaller now than ever), the total cost of ownership has a significant impact on budgets.

Make no mistake. Budget-wrangling really is a thing: 39% spend up to half of their entire budget on licensing fees. While this reflects the grim reality that tech providers of all kinds are forcing subscriptions onto their customers, it represents a massive increase in such costs. In Q3, 2024 just 28% of admins endured similar budget erosion for licensing fees. 

What do you get for your money?

Windows and other Microsoft devices were seen as the most difficult things to manage by 23% of respondents. To be fair, Apple devices were seen as difficult to manage by 19% of IT admins, with Linux winning unspoken praise — just 14% of admins saw it as the most difficult.

All the same, what that difference in Windows-vs-Mac management difficulty means is that the Windows experience is more abrasive, which — in conjunction with the upcoming Windows licensing replacement cycle — means IT will be tempted to look at alternatives.

Perhaps that’s why 43% of admins expect macOS device use to increase in the coming year, though 54% also anticipate increased use of Windows. The default rate — enterprises dropping support for either platform — is fairly equal, though Apple has the edge. 

On-prem, off-prem, and multicloud

Admins are also frustrated at the complexity of managing cloud and multi-cloud setups. That’s turning into a big opportunity for managed service providers (MSPs) who increasingly offer to ease the pain of managing multi-cloud setups. MSPs aren’t just about cloud services management, of course. But it does appear to be their time to shine, with 93% of organizations already using or considering an MSP. Their role also seems to be changing, as they’re increasingly seen as trusted advisors.

Can AI supplement IT roles? Admins see the technology as both a risk and an opportunity. But organizations appear to be accelerating AI deployments, with 15% of admins warning the tech is being put in place too fast and 67% believing these deployments are outpacing organizational ability to protect against threats.

“Keeping pace with all the improvements and changes keeps me up at night,” one anonymous survey respondent told JumpCloud. “AI has bought a new way of doing business and requires major adjustments.” 

Back to the (AI) future

It’s not just deployment that has admins spooked. Thirty-seven percent of them fear AI will take their jobs — and 56% of corporate vice presidents now worry AI will replace them, up from 29% a year ago. All the same, fear of redundancy is endemic across every role.

How is AI being managed? Most enterprises are taking steps to accommodate its use, with just 21% having taken no steps or put AI restrictions in position. Almost half (49%) of companies have developed policies to guide employee use of AI, with 47% encouraging use of tools such as ChatGPT. 

With data being the new gold, it’s no surprise that 28% of IT admins said their companies now have controls in place to prevent employee use of AI. “To harness [AI’s] power responsibly, organizations must lead with clear governance and innovation frameworks that balance opportunity with risk,” JumpCloud said.

All the same, unauthorized use of AI continues, and just like any other form of Shadow IT this proliferation is a big problem for IT.

The usual suspects

The number of admins concerned about the use of apps and devices that aren’t managed has increased again, with 88% of IT admins now worried about this. They estimate that most employees use between one and five unauthorized applications.

There are lots of reasons for this, one of them being the speed at which businesses are moving, which means the current needs aren’t being met, driving employees to seek solutions that fit. And while you’d expect IT to spend time handling this, lack of time and lack of visibility into all the apps employees use means that just as fiscal budgets demand careful juggling, so too does precious IT time.

What else is eating that time? Security. It currently consumes the lion’s share of IT budgets. A plurality of organizations (47%) spend between 10% and 25% of their yearly IT budget on cybersecurity; another 24% spend 26% to 50%; 5% spend more than half their budget on security; and 24% less than 9% on security. In other words, security remains a tidy little earner for vendors, and a significant revenue expenditure line item for IT. 

You’d think with all that money spent, security would already be tightly constrained, but that’s not the case. 

Almost half (46%) of organizations report that they have fallen victim to a cyberattack. AI-augmented attacks are also proliferating — this is now the third-biggest security concern after phishing and shadow IT. Man-in-the-middle attacks, MFA hacks and security breaches in partner organizations are also on the rise.

In other words, security is an endless feast of fear for some, and of revenue for others. Of course, things might be better if there were platform choices that could mitigate this attack surface.

You can explore some of the highlights from a previous JumpCloud survey here.

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, Mastodon, and MeWe. 

Source:: Computer World

By Thomas Macaulay DeepSeek proves that Silicon Valley can’t monopolise AI innovation, according to a European AI entrepreneur. Muj Choudhury, the CEO and co-founder of British voice processing startup RocketPhone, welcomed DeepSeek’s rapid rise. He hopes the Chinese company signals a shift in the balance of AI power. “AI development has long been dominated by Silicon Valley’s powerful VC firms, which wield immense influence by pouring vast sums into the technology and shaping its trajectory,” he said. “In this landscape, an outsider like DeepSeek breaking through is not just impressive. It’s necessary. The industry needs challengers to drive real innovation and prevent AI’s future…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Deepti Pathak Imagine sharing your favorite photos, videos, or apps from your iPhone on the big screen of…
The post How to Connect Your iPhone to a Samsung TV: A Step-By-Step Guide appeared first on Fossbytes.

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By Deepti Pathak Snapchat stories are a fun way to share your favorite moments, but have you ever been…
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By Siôn Geschwindt Remember when spotting a drone in the sky was a novelty? Now it’s like playing whack-a-mole with flying machines. Delivery drones, military drones, AI drones, hobby drones — our skies are busier than the queue at airport security. Without air traffic control, we’re one step away from midair collisions and drones arguing over parking spots.  Enter AirDodge, a Norwegian startup that’s stepping in to tame the chaos. The Oslo-based company just secured a $500,000 pre-seed funding round, led by VC firms Nordic Makers and Antler. The investment will help AirDodge develop its U-Space software platform, designed to manage large-scale drone…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Two years ago, OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched a new wave of AI disruption that left the tech industry reassessing its future. Now within the space of a week a small Chinese startup called DeepSeek appears to have pulled off a similar coup, this time at OpenAI’s expense.

Nevertheless, DeepSeek’s sudden success — the company’s free chatbot mobile app quickly surpassed even ChatGPT for downloads on Apple’s App Store — has prompted questions. Is the DeepSeek story too good to be true? And should businesses in the US and allied countries allow employees to use an app when the company’s Chinese background and operation are so opaque?

What happened

The DeepSeek storm hit on January 20 when DeepSeek launched its R1 LLM model to the public, complete with big claims around performance.

Using smaller “distilled” LLM models, which require significantly less processing power while replicating the capability of larger models, DeepSeek’s R1 matched or exceeded OpenAI’s equivalent, o1-mini, in important math and reasoning tests.

That performance generated a surge of interest. By Monday the DeepSeek app had overtaken ChatGPT and Temu to become the iPhone App Store’s top free download — and DeepSeek was reporting delays in new registrations to use the app due to what it described as “large-scale malicious attacks” on its services.

Nobody saw this coming. Somehow, R1 was doing this with less hardware. Moreover, DeepSeek-R1 is available through an open-source MIT license, which allows for unrestricted commercial use, including modification and distribution.

With AI sector share prices unsettled by all of this, the implication is that perhaps usable models don’t need the huge chip clusters deployed by the established players and organizations shouldn’t be paying high prices to access them.

Furthermore, if a tiny startup can get by on more limited hardware while training LLMs for a fraction of the cost, perhaps strenuous US attempts to limit the export of the most powerful AI chips to most of the world including China, are already obsolete before they’ve been fully implemented.

Zero day AI

The speed of DeepSeek’s rise is a case of ‘zero-day disruption.’ Organizations have no time to react, and not just because developers across the world have piled in to test DeepSeek-R1 via its API by the thousand. Releasing a free app gives this capability to everyone, including employees who might enter sensitive data into it. By now, DeepSeek is everywhere, which makes it difficult to control.

“The app has raced to the top of the app charts, but I would advise anyone considering installing it and using it to exercise some caution,” warned tech commentator, Graham Cluley, who also hosts the AI Fix podcast.

That said, organizations should already be used to coping with this issue. “Human nature being what it is, there will surely be just as much sensitive data entered into DeepSeek as we’ve seen entered into every other AI out there,” said Cluley. Organizations should probably hold back until it has been more thoroughly audited in the same way they would with any new app.

Or perhaps focusing on the risks is too negative. DeepSeek will ignite more competition in the sector, potentially turning powerful LLMs from an expensive service for the deep pocketed into a cheap utility anyone can access. Rather than dumping existing AI services, organizations should demand a better deal while avoiding becoming too locked into one LLM as new innovations appear.

Censored language model

A lurking possibility is that DeepSeek isn’t as good as it seems, with some skepticism already appearing around its price-performance claims. Stacy Rasgon, a senior analyst at Bernstein Research, questioned DeepSeek’s underlying costs.

“Did DeepSeek really build OpenAI for $5M? Of course not,” he wrote in a client note. “The oft quoted $5M number is calculated by assuming a $2/GPU-hour rental price for this infrastructure, which is fine, but not really what they did, and does not include all the other costs associated with prior research and experiments on architectures, algorithms, or data.”

In use, DeepSeek makes elementary errors, not dissimilar to the ones that afflicted ChatGPT in its early days. Some of its responses also underline that the app imposes guard rails when run from a Chinese host. A good example is this report of its refusal to acknowledge the Tiananmen Square massacre, something the Chinese Government goes to extreme lengths to hide.

In the short term, DeepSeek’s appearance underlines the unstable nature of AI itself. Tech is used to periodic disruptions. AI suggests that these might become more routine, including of its own capabilities. It is unlikely to be the last such breakthrough in a sector that will prove harder to dominate than has been assumed.

Investors and government regulators trying to control AI development won’t like this but if it offers cheaper and earlier AI access across the economy it could still work as a net positive. According to Cluley, DeepSeek should be something for Silicon Valley to worry about.

“If it’s accurate that the Chinese have been able to develop a competitive AI that massively undercuts the US-based giants in terms of development cost and with a fraction of the hardware commitment then that is clearly going to upset the applecart and have a tech billionaire or two crying into their Cheerios this morning,” he said.

Source:: Computer World

By Thomas Macaulay Stunning AI advances from Chinese startup DeepSeek have sent tech stocks tumbling across the US and Europe. DeepSeek released a free chatbot and new open-source AI models last week. Within days, the chatbot had overtaken ChatGPT to reach the top spot on the Apple App Store’s free app rankings. The new R1 models sent further shockwaves through the AI world. R1 promised performance to rival OpenAI top’s reasoning model — at just a fraction of the cost. Marc Andreessen, one of the world’s most powerful VCs, called the release “AI’s Sputnik moment.” The markets were also astounded. Shaken by the…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Though there are a variety of cool extensions for the Chrome browser, there are also malicious extensions that pose a security threat. To increase security, Google has now launched the Chrome Web Store for Enterprises, a new store specifically designed for business users.

For example, businesses can create a list of approved extensions to ensure employees do not install malicious extensions on their own. Companies can also add their own logos and images to the store if they wish, making it clear to users what applies.

And, according to Bleeping Computer, it will soon also be possible for IT administrators to remotely remove add-ons, if necessary.

Source:: Computer World

By Nick Godt A surge in sales of electric vehicles in the final months of last year could continue well into 2025, as consumers continue to take advantage of federal tax incentives while they last.,

Source:: Digital Trends

Not to be outdone by its close rival OpenAI, Meta has announced its plans to spend $60 to $65 billion on AI infrastructure this year, and is building a data center almost as big as Manhattan.

In a Facebook post, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced his company’s intent to build a 2GW data center, bring roughly 1GW of compute online in 2025, and end the year with more than 1.3 million GPUs.

Included in his post was a blueprint of the planned “Richland Parish Center Data Center” superimposed on a map of Manhattan (the data center will actually be in northeast Louisiana).

Source:: Computer World

The US Department of Justice this week announced that it had indicted two North Korean nationals and three other men, accusing them of participating in a conspiracy designed to trick US companies into funding the North Korean regime.

According to the indictment, which was filed in federal court in Miami, the scheme leveraged stolen identity documents and paid henchmen in the US to direct well-paid IT work and company computers to two North Korean men, Jin Sung-Il and Pak Jin-Song. The idea, the Justice Department said, was to funnel money back to the North Korean regime, which has limited opportunities to generate cash through legal means thanks to heavy international sanctions.

The conspiracy, according to the indictment, centers on North Korean nationals posing as foreign workers in other nations, or as US nationals, and gaining employment via online platforms that allow companies to advertise for contract IT workers. Using fake or altered identity documents, the North Koreans took on contracts for several US companies, which were not identified by name in the indictment. Those businesses then shipped company laptops to three US-based co-conspirators, Pedro Ernesto Alonso De Los Reyes, Erick Ntekereze Prince, and Emanuel Ashtor, who, the Justice Department said, installed remote access software on them so that they could be operated by Jin and Pak.

The US-based members of the group also used their own companies as fronts for the conspiracy, invoicing several of the victim firms and funneling payments to the North Koreans. The indictment stated that at least 64 US companies were victimized, and payments from ten of them generated at least $866,255 in revenue over the duration of the scheme, which ran for more than six years.

All five defendants are charged with conspiracy to damage a protected computer, mail and wire fraud, money laundering, and transferring false identification documents. The two North Koreans are additionally charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Each could face up to 20 years in prison.

Highlights risk from North Korea

“The indictments announced today should highlight to all American companies the risk posed by the North Korean government,” said Assistant Director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, Bryan Vorndran, in a statement.

While the indictments announced Thursday characterized this conspiracy as largely focused on diverting money to the heavily embargoed North Korean government, similar efforts by that country have been aimed at compromising corporate secrets and sensitive information. The “laptop farm” — where a US-based associate such as Prince and Ashtor hosted the provided company laptops in their own homes to conceal the North Korean involvement — has been a known technique for North Korean cyberwarfare since at least 2022, and has been used not just to collect a salary, but to steal data, explore sensitive parts of strategically significant infrastructure, and attempt to extort victimized firms.

The operations are growing in both numbers and sophistication, according to security firms who spoke to CSO in November. One recent case saw a bad actor use deepfake video technology and automated voice translation in a video interview, though this didn’t work particularly well and the interviewers were easily able to tell that something was wrong.

“Her eyes weren’t moving, the lips weren’t in sync, and the voice was mechanical,” Kirkwood told CSO. “It was like something from a 1970s Japanese Godzilla movie.”

Google-owned threat intelligence provider Mandiant told CSO that the number of North Korean IT workers looking to gain valuable freelance positions number in the thousands, and although not all are engaged in purely nefarious activity, the number of intrusion incidents linked to North Korean workers is high.

Source:: Computer World

President Donald Trump’s executive order removing Biden-Administration rules governing AI development is being cast as an opening of AI development flood gates, which could fast track advances in the still-new technology, but could also pose risks.

Signed on Thursday, the executive order (EO) overturns former President Joe Biden’s 2023 policy, which mandated that AI developers conduct safety testing and share results with the government before releasing systems that could pose risks to national security, public health, or the economy.

The revocation of the 2023 Eo shifts federal oversight from mandates to voluntary commitments, reducing requirements such as safety training submissions and large-scale computer acquisition notices, enabling less regulated innovation.

“This means some states may continue to follow the regulatory guidance in the 2023 EO, while others may not,” said Lydia Clougherty Jones Sr., a director analyst at Gartner Research.

Trump’s policy states its purpose is to “sustain and enhance America’s dominance in AI,” and promote national security. The EO directs the creation of an “AI Action Plan” within 180 days, led by the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, the White House AI and Crypto Czar, and the National Security Advisor. Michael Kritsios (former US CTO under the Trump administration), David Sacks (venture capitalist and former PayPal executive), and US Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), have been nominated or appointed, respectively, to these positions.

The EO states part of its purpose is to “enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.”

Mark Brennan, who leads the global technology and telecommunications industry sector group for the Washington-based law firm of Hogan Lovel, said setting a 180-day deadline to develop a new AI action plan means the group drafting the plan will need to quickly “gather input and start writing.”

The mention of “human flourishing” is also “sure to spark diverse interpretations,” Brennan said.

A public-private partnership on AI

Along with the order, Trump also unveiled the Stargate initiative, a public-private venture that would create a new company to build out the nation’s AI infrastructure, including new data centers and new power plants to feed them. Initially, Stargate will team up the US government with OpenAI, Oracle, and Softbank. The companies will initially invest $100 billion in the project, with plans to reach $500 billion. Trump said the move would create 100,000 US jobs.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, for example, said 10 new AI data centers are already under construction. He linked the project to the use of AI for digital health records, noting the technology could help develop customized cancer vaccines and improve disease treatment.

Not everyone is, however, upbeat about the loosening of government oversight of AI development and partnerships with the private sector.

The Stargate announcement, along with the Trump Administration’s reversal of the earlier AI safety order, could replace many federal workers in key public service roles, according to Cliff Jurkiewicz, vice president of global strategy at Phenom, a company specializing in AI-enabled human resources.

 “While it’s impressive to see such a significant investment by the federal government and private businesses into the nation’s AI infrastructure, the downside is that it has the potential to disenfranchise federal workers who are not properly trained and ready to use AI,” Jurkiewicz said. “Federal employees need training to use AI effectively; it can’t just be imposed on them.”

Stargate will speed up what Jurkiewcz called “the Great Recalibration” — a shift in how work is performed through an human-AI partnership. Over the next 12 to 18 months, businesses will realize they can’t fully replace human knowledge and experience with technology, “since machines don’t perceive the world as we do,” he said.

The move could put smaller AI companies at a competitive disadvantage by stifling innovation, Jurkiewicz said. “Stargate could also deepen inequities, as those who know how to use AI will have a significant advantage over those who don’t.”

Removing AI regulations, however, won’t inherently lead to a completely unbridled technology that can mimic human intelligence in areas such as learning, reasoning, and problem-solving.

Commercial risk will drive responsible AI, with investment and success shaped by the private market and state regulations, according to Gartner. Industry commitments and consortia will advance AI safety and development to meet societal needs, independent of federal or state policies.

AI unleashed to become Skynet?

Some predict AI will become as ubiquitous as electricity or the internet, in that it will eventually be operating behind the scenes and woven into everyday life, silently powering countless systems and services without drawing much attention.

“I’m sure the whole Terminator thing could happen. I don’t consider it likely,” said John Veitch, dean of the School of Business and Management at Notre Dame de Namur in Belmont, CA. “I see lots of positive things with AI and taking the guardrails off of it.”

Regulating something as transformative as AI is challenging, much like the early internet. “If we had foreseen social media’s impact in 1999, would we have done things differently? I don’t know,” Veitch said.

Given AI’s complexity, less regulation might be better than more, at least for now, he said.

AI is valuable as the US faces an aging population and a shrinking labor force, Veitch said. With skilled workers harder to find and expensive to hire, AI can replace call centers or assist admissions teams, offering cost-effective solutions. For example, Notre Dame de Namur’s admissions team uses generative AI to follow up on enrollment requests.

Trump’s executive order prioritizes “sovereign AI” affecting the private market, while shifting most regulatory oversight to state and local governments. For example, New York plans to restrict government use of AI for automated decisions without human monitoring, while Colorado’s new AI law, effective in 2026, will require businesses to inform consumers when they’re interacting with AI, Gartner’s Jones said.

The revocation of Biden’s 2023 order reduces federal oversight of model development, removing requirements such as submitting safety training results or sending notifications about large-scale computer cluster acquisitions, which could encourage faster innovation, according to Jones. “Thus, it was not a surprise to see the Stargate announcement and the related public-private commitments,” she said.

Strengthening sovereign AI, Jones said, will boost public-private partnerships like Stargate to maintain US competitiveness and tech leadership.

What enterprises should focus on

Now that the regulatory buck has been passed to states, so to speak, organizations should monitor US state AI executive orders, laws, and pending legislation, focusing on mandates that differentiate genAI from other AI techniques and apply to government use, according to a Gartner report.

“We have already seen diverse concerns unique to individual state goals across the nearly 700 pieces of state-level AI-proposed legislation in 2024 alone,” Gartner said.

According to Gartner:

By 2029, 10% of corporate boards globally are expected to use AI to challenge key executive decisions.

By 2027, Fortune 500 companies will redirect $500 billion from energy operating expenses to microgrids to address energy risks and AI demands.

By 2027, 15% of new applications will be fully generated by AI, up from 0% today.

Executives should identify patterns in new laws, especially those addressing AI biases or errors, and align responsible AI with company goals. Companies are also being urged to document AI decision-making and manage high-risk use cases to ensure compliance and reduce harm.

Organizations should also assess opportunities and risks from federal investments in AI and IT modernization. For global operations, companies will need to monitor AI initiatives in regions like the EU, UK, China, and India, Gartner said.

“Striking a balance between AI innovation and safety will be challenging, as it will be essential to apply the appropriate level of regulation,” the researcher said. “Until the new administration determines this balance, state governments will continue to lead the way in issuing regulations focusing on AI innovation and safety-centric measures that impact US enterprises.”

Source:: Computer World