Biz & IT

terminator’s-cameron-joins-ai-company-behind-controversial-image-generator

Terminator’s Cameron joins AI company behind controversial image generator

AI, Biz & IT, image synthesis, James Cameron, machine learning, SKYNET, Stability AI, Terminator, video synthesis / /

a net in the sky —

Famed sci-fi director joins board of embattled Stability AI, creator of Stable Diffusion.

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A photo of filmmaker James Cameron.

Enlarge / Filmmaker James Cameron.

On Tuesday, Stability AI announced that renowned filmmaker James Cameron—of Terminator and Skynet fame—has joined its board of directors. Stability is best known for its pioneering but highly controversial Stable Diffusion series of AI image-synthesis models, first launched in 2022, which can generate images based on text descriptions.

“I’ve spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what’s possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories,” said Cameron in a statement. “I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I’ve stayed on the cutting edge since. Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave.”

Cameron is perhaps best known as the director behind blockbusters like Avatar, Titanic, and Aliens, but in AI circles, he may be most relevant for the co-creation of the character Skynet, a fictional AI system that triggers nuclear Armageddon and dominates humanity in the Terminator media franchise. Similar fears of AI taking over the world have since jumped into reality and recently sparked attempts to regulate existential risk from AI systems through measures like SB-1047 in California.

In a 2023 interview with CTV news, Cameron referenced The Terminator‘s release year when asked about AI’s dangers: “I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn’t listen,” he said. “I think the weaponization of AI is the biggest danger. I think that we will get into the equivalent of a nuclear arms race with AI, and if we don’t build it, the other guys are for sure going to build it, and so then it’ll escalate.”

Hollywood goes AI

Of course, Stability AI isn’t building weapons controlled by AI. Instead, Cameron’s interest in cutting-edge filmmaking techniques apparently drew him to the company.

“James Cameron lives in the future and waits for the rest of us to catch up,” said Stability CEO Prem Akkaraju. “Stability AI’s mission is to transform visual media for the next century by giving creators a full stack AI pipeline to bring their ideas to life. We have an unmatched advantage to achieve this goal with a technological and creative visionary like James at the highest levels of our company. This is not only a monumental statement for Stability AI, but the AI industry overall.”

Cameron joins other recent additions to Stability AI’s board, including Sean Parker, former president of Facebook, who serves as executive chairman. Parker called Cameron’s appointment “the start of a new chapter” for the company.

Despite significant protest from actors’ unions last year, elements of Hollywood are seemingly beginning to embrace generative AI over time. Last Wednesday, we covered a deal between Lionsgate and AI video-generation company Runway that will see the creation of a custom AI model for film production use. In March, the Financial Times reported that OpenAI was actively showing off its Sora video synthesis model to studio executives.

Unstable times for Stability AI

Cameron’s appointment to the Stability AI board comes during a tumultuous period for the company. Stability AI has faced a series of challenges this past year, including an ongoing class-action copyright lawsuit, a troubled Stable Diffusion 3 model launch, significant leadership and staff changes, and ongoing financial concerns.

In March, founder and CEO Emad Mostaque resigned, followed by a round of layoffs. This came on the heels of the departure of three key engineers—Robin Rombach, Andreas Blattmann, and Dominik Lorenz, who have since founded Black Forest Labs and released a new open-weights image-synthesis model called Flux, which has begun to take over the r/StableDiffusion community on Reddit.

Despite the issues, Stability AI claims its models are widely used, with Stable Diffusion reportedly surpassing 150 million downloads. The company states that thousands of businesses use its models in their creative workflows.

While Stable Diffusion has indeed spawned a large community of open-weights-AI image enthusiasts online, it has also been a lightning rod for controversy among some artists because Stability originally trained its models on hundreds of millions of images scraped from the Internet without seeking licenses or permission to use them.

Apparently that association is not a concern for Cameron, according to his statement: “The convergence of these two totally different engines of creation [CGI and generative AI] will unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined. Stability AI is poised to lead this transformation.”

Terminator’s Cameron joins AI company behind controversial image generator Read More »

broadcom-responds-to-at&t’s-vmware-support-lawsuit:-at&t-has-“other-options”

Broadcom responds to AT&T’s VMware support lawsuit: AT&T has “other options”

AT&T, Biz & IT, Broadcom, vmware / /

Legal battle —

Broadcom defends against renewal, citing “End of Availability” provision.

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Wooden gavel on table in a courtroom

Broadcom is accusing AT&T of trying to “rewind the clock and force” Broadcom “to sell support services for perpetual software licenses… that VMware has discontinued from its product line and to which AT&T has no contractual right to purchase.” The statement comes from legal documents Broadcom filed in response to AT&T’s lawsuit against Broadcom for refusing to renew support for its VMware perpetual licenses [PDF].

On August 29, AT&T filed a lawsuit [PDF] against Broadcom, alleging that Broadcom is breaking a contract by refusing to provide a one-year renewal for support for perpetually licensed VMware software. Broadcom famously ended perpetual VMware license sales shortly after closing its acquisition in favor of a subscription model featuring about two bundles of products rather than many SKUs.

AT&T claims its VMware contract (forged before Broadcom’s acquisition closed in November) entitles it to three one-year renewals of perpetual license support, and it’s currently trying to enact the second one. AT&T says it uses VMware products to run 75,000 virtual machines (VMs) across about 8,600 servers. The VMs are for supporting customer services operations and operations management efficiency, per AT&T. AT&T is asking the Supreme Court of the State of New York to stop Broadcom from ending VMware support services for AT&T and for “further relief” as deemed necessary.

On September 20, Broadcom filed for AT&T’s motion to be denied. Its defense includes its previously taken stance that VMware was moving toward a subscription model before Broadcom bought it. The transition from perpetual licenses to subscriptions was years in the making and, thus, something for which AT&T should have prepared, according to Broadcom. Broadcom claims that AT&T has admitted that it intends to migrate away from VMware software and that AT&T could have spent “the last several months or even years” doing so.

The filing argues: “AT&T resorts to sensationalism by accusing Broadcom of using ‘bullying tactics’ and ‘price gouging.’ Such attacks are intended to generate press and distract the Court from a much simpler story.”

Broadcom claims the simple story is that:

… the agreement contains an unambiguous “End of Availability” provision, which gives VMware the right to retire products and services at any time upon notice. What’s more, a year ago, AT&T opted not to purchase the very Support Services it now asks the Court to force VMware to provide. AT&T did so despite knowing Defendants were implementing a long planned and well-known business model transition and would soon no longer be selling the Support Services in question.

Broadcom says it has been negotiating with AT&T “for months” about a new contract, but the plaintiff “rejected every proposal despite favorable pricing.”

Broadcom’s filing also questions AT&T’s request for mandatory injunction, claiming that New York only grants those in “rare circumstances,” which allegedly don’t apply here.

AT&T has options, Broadcom says

AT&T’s lawsuit claims losing VMware support will cause extreme harm to itself and beyond. The lawsuit says that 22,000 of AT&T’s VMware VMs are used for support “of services to millions of police officers, firefighters, paramedics, emergency workers, and incident response team members nationwide… for use in connection with matters of public safety and/or national security.” It also claimed that communications for the Office of the President are at risk without VMware’s continued support.

However, Broadcom claims that AT&T has other choices, saying:

AT&T does have other options and, therefore, the most it can obtain is monetary damages. The fact that AT&T has been given more than eight-months’ notice and has in the meantime failed to take any measures to prevent its purported harm (e.g., buy a subscription for the new offerings or move to another solution) is telling and precludes any finding of irreparable harm. Even if AT&T thinks it deserves better pricing, it could have avoided its purported irreparable harm by entering in a subscription based deal and suing for monetary damages instead of injunctive relief.

AT&T previously declined to answer Ars Technica’s questions about its backup plans for supporting such important customers should it lose VMware support.

Broadcom has rubbed some customers the wrong way

Broadcom closed its VMware acquisition in November and quickly made dramatic changes. In addition to Broadcom’s reputation for overhauling companies after buying them, moves like ending perpetual licenses, taking VMware’s biggest customers directly instead of using channel partners, and raising costs by bundling products and issuing higher CPU core requirements have led customers and partners to reconsider working with the company. Migrating from VMware can be extremely challenging and expensive due to its deep integration into some IT environments, but many are investigating migration, and some expect Broadcom to face years of backlash.

As NAND Research founder and analyst Steve McDowell told TechTarget about this case:

It’s very unusual for customers to sue their vendors. I think Broadcom grossly underestimated how passionate the customer base is, [but] it’s a captive audience.

As this lawsuit demonstrates, Broadcom’s VMware has brought serious customer concerns around ongoing support. Companies like Spinnaker Support are trying to capitalize by offering third-party support services.

Martin Biggs, VP and managing director of EMEA and strategic initiatives at Spinnaker, told Ars Technica that his company provides support so customers can spend time determining their next move, whether that’s buying into a VMware subscription or moving on:

VMware customers are looking for options; the vast majority that we have spoken to don’t have a clear view yet of where they want to go, but in all cases the option of staying with VMware for the significantly increased fees is simply untenable. The challenge many have is that not paying fees means not getting support or security on their existing investment.

VMware’s support for AT&T was supposed to end on September 8, but the two companies entered an agreement to continue support until October 9. A hearing on a preliminary injunction is scheduled for October 15.

Broadcom responds to AT&T’s VMware support lawsuit: AT&T has “other options” Read More »

11-million-devices-infected-with-botnet-malware-hosted-in-google-play

11 million devices infected with botnet malware hosted in Google Play

android, Biz & IT, botnet, google play, malware, Security / /

NECRO —

Necro infiltrated Google Play in 2019. It recently returned.

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A computer screen filled with ones and zeros also contains a Google logo and the word hacked.

Five years ago, researchers made a grim discovery—a legitimate Android app in the Google Play market that was surreptitiously made malicious by a library the developers used to earn advertising revenue. With that, the app was infected with code that caused 100 million infected devices to connect to attacker-controlled servers and download secret payloads.

Now, history is repeating itself. Researchers from the same Moscow, Russia-based security firm reported Monday that they found two new apps, downloaded from Play 11 million times, that were infected with the same malware family. The researchers, from Kaspersky, believe a malicious software developer kit for integrating advertising capabilities is once again responsible.

Clever tradecraft

Software developer kits, better known as SDKs, are apps that provide developers with frameworks that can greatly speed up the app-creation process by streamlining repetitive tasks. An unverified SDK module incorporated into the apps ostensibly supported the display of ads. Behind the scenes, it provided a host of advanced methods for stealthy communication with malicious servers, where the apps would upload user data and download malicious code that could be executed and updated at any time.

The stealthy malware family in both campaigns is known as Necro. This time, some variants use techniques such as steganography, an obfuscation method rarely seen in mobile malware. Some variants also deploy clever tradecraft to deliver malicious code that can run with heightened system rights. Once devices are infected with this variant, they contact an attacker-controlled command-and-control server and send web requests containing encrypted JSON data that reports information about each compromised device and application hosting the module.

The server, in turn, returns a JSON response that contains a link to a PNG image and associated metadata that includes the image hash. If the malicious module installed on the infected device confirms the hash is correct, it downloads the image.

The SDK module “uses a very simple steganographic algorithm,” Kaspersky researchers explained in a separate post. “If the MD5 check is successful, it extracts the contents of the PNG file—the pixel values in the ARGB channels—using standard Android tools. Then the getPixel method returns a value whose least significant byte contains the blue channel of the image, and processing begins in the code.”

The researchers continued:

If we consider the blue channel of the image as a byte array of dimension 1, then the first four bytes of the image are the size of the encoded payload in Little Endian format (from the least significant byte to the most significant). Next, the payload of the specified size is recorded: this is a JAR file encoded with Base64, which is loaded after decoding via DexClassLoader. Coral SDK loads the sdk.fkgh.mvp.SdkEntry class in a JAR file using the native library libcoral.so. This library has been obfuscated using the OLLVM tool. The starting point, or entry point, for execution within the loaded class is the run method.

Necro code implementing steganography.

Enlarge / Necro code implementing steganography.

Kaspersky

Follow-on payloads that get installed download malicious plugins that can be mixed and matched for each infected device to perform a variety of different actions. One of the plugins allows code to run with elevated system rights. By default, Android bars privileged processes from using WebView, an extension in the OS for displaying webpages in apps. To bypass this safety restriction, Necro uses a hacking technique known as a reflection attack to create a separate instance of the WebView factory.

This plugin can also download and run other executable files that will replace links rendered through WebView. When running with the elevated system rights, these executables have the ability to modify URLs to add confirmation codes for paid subscriptions and download and execute code loaded at links controlled by the attacker. The researchers listed five separate payloads they encountered in their analysis of Necro.

The modular design of Necro opens myriad ways for the malware to behave. Kaspersky provided the following image that provides an overview.

Necro Trojan infection diagram.

Enlarge / Necro Trojan infection diagram.

Kaspersy

The researchers found Necro in two Google Play apps. One was Wuta Camera, an app with 10 million downloads to date. Wuta Camera versions 6.3.2.148 through 6.3.6.148 contained the malicious SDK that infects apps. The app has since been updated to remove the malicious component. A separate app with roughly 1 million downloads—known as Max Browser—was also infected. That app is no longer available in Google Play.

The researchers also found Necro infecting a variety of Android apps available in alternative marketplaces. Those apps typically billed themselves as modified versions of legitimate apps such as Spotify, Minecraft, WhatsApp, Stumble Guys, Car Parking Multiplayer, and Melon Sandbox.

People who are concerned they may be infected by Necro should check their devices for the presence of indicators of compromise listed at the end of this writeup.

11 million devices infected with botnet malware hosted in Google Play Read More »

when-you-call-a-restaurant,-you-might-be-chatting-with-an-ai-host

When you call a restaurant, you might be chatting with an AI host

AI, AI voice chat, ai voice generation, Biz & IT, restaurants, syndication / /

digital hosting —

Voice chatbots are increasingly picking up the phone for restaurants.

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Drawing of a robot holding a telephone.

Getty Images | Juj Winn

A pleasant female voice greets me over the phone. “Hi, I’m an assistant named Jasmine for Bodega,” the voice says. “How can I help?”

“Do you have patio seating,” I ask. Jasmine sounds a little sad as she tells me that unfortunately, the San Francisco–based Vietnamese restaurant doesn’t have outdoor seating. But her sadness isn’t the result of her having a bad day. Rather, her tone is a feature, a setting.

Jasmine is a member of a new, growing clan: the AI voice restaurant host. If you recently called up a restaurant in New York City, Miami, Atlanta, or San Francisco, chances are you have spoken to one of Jasmine’s polite, calculated competitors.  

In the sea of AI voice assistants, hospitality phone agents haven’t been getting as much attention as consumer-based generative AI tools like Gemini Live and ChatGPT-4o. And yet, the niche is heating up, with multiple emerging startups vying for restaurant accounts across the US. Last May, voice-ordering AI garnered much attention at the National Restaurant Association’s annual food show. Bodega, the high-end Vietnamese restaurant I called, used Maitre-D AI, which launched primarily in the Bay Area in 2024. Newo, another new startup, is currently rolling its software out at numerous Silicon Valley restaurants. One-year-old RestoHost is now answering calls at 150 restaurants in the Atlanta metro area, and Slang, a voice AI company that started focusing on restaurants exclusively during the COVID-19 pandemic and announced a $20 million funding round in 2023, is gaining ground in the New York and Las Vegas markets.

All of them offer a similar service: an around-the-clock AI phone host that can answer generic questions about the restaurant’s dress code, cuisine, seating arrangements, and food allergy policies. They can also assist with making, altering, or canceling a reservation. In some cases, the agent can direct the caller to an actual human, but according to RestoHost co-founder Tomas Lopez-Saavedra, only 10 percent of the calls result in that. Each platform offers the restaurant subscription tiers that unlock additional features, and some of the systems can speak multiple languages.

But who even calls a restaurant in the era of Google and Resy? According to some of the founders of AI voice host startups, many customers do, and for various reasons. “Restaurants get a high volume of phone calls compared to other businesses, especially if they’re popular and take reservations,” says Alex Sambvani, CEO and co-founder of Slang, which currently works with everyone from the Wolfgang Puck restaurant group to Chick-fil-A to the fast-casual chain Slutty Vegan. Sambvani estimates that in-demand establishments receive between 800 and 1,000 calls per month. Typical callers tend to be last-minute bookers, tourists and visitors, older people, and those who do their errands while driving.

Matt Ho, the owner of Bodega SF, confirms this scenario. “The phones would ring constantly throughout service,” he says. “We would receive calls for basic questions that can be found on our website.” To solve this issue, after shopping around, Ho found that Maitre-D was the best fit. Bodega SF became one of the startup’s earliest clients in May, and Ho even helped the founders with trial and error testing prior to launch. “This platform makes the job easier for the host and does not disturb guests while they’re enjoying their meal,” he says.

When you call a restaurant, you might be chatting with an AI host Read More »

secret-calculator-hack-brings-chatgpt-to-the-ti-84,-enabling-easy-cheating

Secret calculator hack brings ChatGPT to the TI-84, enabling easy cheating

AI, AI hacks, Biz & IT, calculator, chatgpt, chatgtp, GPT-4o, hacks, machine learning, ti-84 / /

Breaking free of “test mode” —

Tiny device installed inside TI-84 enables Wi-Fi Internet, access to AI chatbot.

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An OpenAI logo on a TI-84 calculator screen.

On Saturday, a YouTube creator called “ChromaLock” published a video detailing how he modified a Texas Instruments TI-84 graphing calculator to connect to the Internet and access OpenAI’s ChatGPT, potentially enabling students to cheat on tests. The video, titled “I Made The Ultimate Cheating Device,” demonstrates a custom hardware modification that allows users of the graphing calculator to type in problems sent to ChatGPT using the keypad and receive live responses on the screen.

ChromaLock began by exploring the calculator’s link port, typically used for transferring educational programs between devices. He then designed a custom circuit board he calls “TI-32” that incorporates a tiny Wi-Fi-enabled microcontroller, the Seed Studio ESP32-C3 (which costs about $5), along with other components to interface with the calculator’s systems.

It’s worth noting that the TI-32 hack isn’t a commercial project. Replicating ChromaLock’s work would involve purchasing a TI-84 calculator, a Seed Studio ESP32-C3 microcontroller, and various electronic components, and fabricating a custom PCB based on ChromaLock’s design, which is available online.

The creator says he encountered several engineering challenges during development, including voltage incompatibilities and signal integrity issues. After developing multiple versions, ChromaLock successfully installed the custom board into the calculator’s housing without any visible signs of modifications from the outside.

“I Made The Ultimate Cheating Device” YouTube Video.

To accompany the hardware, ChromaLock developed custom software for the microcontroller and the calculator, which is available open source on GitHub. The system simulates another TI-84, allowing people to use the calculator’s built-in “send” and “get” commands to transfer files. This allows a user to easily download a launcher program that provides access to various “applets” designed for cheating.

One of the applets is a ChatGPT interface that might be most useful for answering short questions, but it has a drawback in that it’s slow and cumbersome to type in long alphanumeric questions on the limited keypad.

Beyond the ChatGPT interface, the device offers several other cheating tools. An image browser allows users to access pre-prepared visual aids stored on the central server. The app browser feature enables students to download not only games for post-exam entertainment but also text-based cheat sheets disguised as program source code. ChromaLock even hinted at a future video discussing a camera feature, though details were sparse in the current demo.

ChromaLock claims his new device can bypass common anti-cheating measures. The launcher program can be downloaded on-demand, avoiding detection if a teacher inspects or clears the calculator’s memory before a test. The modification can also supposedly break calculators out of “Test Mode,” a locked-down state used to prevent cheating.

While the video presents the project as a technical achievement, consulting ChatGPT during a test on your calculator almost certainly represents an ethical breach and/or a form of academic dishonesty that could get you in serious trouble at most schools. So tread carefully, study hard, and remember to eat your Wheaties.

Secret calculator hack brings ChatGPT to the TI-84, enabling easy cheating Read More »

google-calls-for-halting-use-of-whois-for-tls-domain-verifications

Google calls for halting use of WHOIS for TLS domain verifications

Biz & IT, Security, tls, transport layer security, WHOIS / /

WHOWAS —

WHOIS data is unreliable. So why is it used in TLS certificate applications?

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Google calls for halting use of WHOIS for TLS domain verifications

Getty Images

Certificate authorities and browser makers are planning to end the use of WHOIS data verifying domain ownership following a report that demonstrated how threat actors could abuse the process to obtain fraudulently issued TLS certificates.

TLS certificates are the cryptographic credentials that underpin HTTPS connections, a critical component of online communications verifying that a server belongs to a trusted entity and encrypts all traffic passing between it and an end user. These credentials are issued by any one of hundreds of CAs (certificate authorities) to domain owners. The rules for how certificates are issued and the process for verifying the rightful owner of a domain are left to the CA/Browser Forum. One “base requirement rule” allows CAs to send an email to an address listed in the WHOIS record for the domain being applied for. When the receiver clicks an enclosed link, the certificate is automatically approved.

Non-trivial dependencies

Researchers from security firm watchTowr recently demonstrated how threat actors could abuse the rule to obtain fraudulently issued certificates for domains they didn’t own. The security failure resulted from a lack of uniform rules for determining the validity of sites claiming to provide official WHOIS records.

Specifically, watchTowr researchers were able to receive a verification link for any domain ending in .mobi, including ones they didn’t own. The researchers did this by deploying a fake WHOIS server and populating it with fake records. Creation of the fake server was possible because dotmobiregistry.net—the previous domain hosting the WHOIS server for .mobi domains—was allowed to expire after the server was relocated to a new domain. watchTowr researchers registered the domain, set up the imposter WHOIS server, and found that CAs continued to rely on it to verify ownership of .mobi domains.

The research didn’t escape the notice of the CA/Browser Forum (CAB Forum). On Monday, a member representing Google proposed ending the reliance on WHOIS data for domain ownership verification “in light of recent events where research from watchTowr Labs demonstrated how threat actors could exploit WHOIS to obtain fraudulently issued TLS certificates.”

The formal proposal calls for reliance on WHOIS data to “sunset” in early November. It establishes specifically that “CAs MUST NOT rely on WHOIS to identify Domain Contacts” and that “Effective November 1, 2024, validations using this [email verification] method MUST NOT rely on WHOIS to identify Domain Contact information.”

Since Monday’s submission, more than 50 follow-up comments have been posted. Many of the responses expressed support for the proposed change. Others have questioned the need for a change as proposed, given that the security failure watchTowr uncovered is known to affect only a single top-level domain.

An Amazon representative, meanwhile, noted that the company previously implemented a unilateral change in which the AWS Certificate Manager will fully transition away from reliance on WHOIS records. The representative told CAB Forum members that Google’s proposed deadline of November 1 may be too stringent.

“We got feedback from customers that for some this is a non-trivial dependency to remove,” the Amazon representative wrote. “It’s not uncommon for companies to have built automation on top of email validation. Based on the information we got I recommend a date of April 30, 2025.”

CA Digicert endorsed Amazon’s proposal to extend the deadline. Digicert went on to propose that instead of using WHOIS records, CAs instead use the WHOIS successor known as the Registration Data Access Protocol.

The proposed changes are formally in the discussion phase of deliberations. It’s unclear when formal voting on the change will begin.

Google calls for halting use of WHOIS for TLS domain verifications Read More »

microsoft-releases-a-new-windows-app-called-windows-app-for-running-windows-apps

Microsoft releases a new Windows app called Windows App for running Windows apps

Biz & IT, Remote Desktop Connection, Tech, Windows 10, Windows 11, windows app / /

heard you like apps —

Windows App replaces Microsoft Remote Desktop on macOS, iOS, and Android.

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The Windows App runs on Windows, but also macOS, iOS/iPadOS, web browsers, and Android.

Enlarge / The Windows App runs on Windows, but also macOS, iOS/iPadOS, web browsers, and Android.

Microsoft

Microsoft announced today that it’s releasing a new app called Windows App as an app for Windows that allows users to run Windows and also Windows apps (it’s also coming to macOS, iOS, web browsers, and is in public preview for Android).

On most of those platforms, Windows App is a replacement for the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, which was used for connecting to a copy of Windows running on a remote computer or server—for some users and IT organizations, a relatively straightforward way to run Windows software on devices that aren’t running Windows or can’t run Windows natively.

The new name, though potentially confusing, attempts to sum up the app’s purpose: It’s a unified way to access your own Windows PCs with Remote Desktop access turned on, cloud-hosted Windows 365 and Microsoft Dev Box systems, and individual remotely hosted apps that have been provisioned by your work or school.

“This unified app serves as your secure gateway to connect to Windows across Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, Remote Desktop, Remote Desktop Services, Microsoft Dev Box, and more,” reads the post from Microsoft’s Windows 365 Senior Product Manager Hilary Braun.

Microsoft says that aside from unifying multiple services into a single app, Windows App’s enhancements include easier account switching, better device management for IT administrators, support for the version of Windows 365 for frontline workers, and support for Microsoft’s “Relayed RDP Shortpath,” which can enable Remote Desktop on networks that normally wouldn’t allow it.

On macOS, iOS, and Android, the Windows App is a complete replacement for the Remote Desktop Connection app—if you have Remote Desktop installed, an update will change it to the Windows App. On Windows, the Remote Desktop Connection remains available, and Windows App is only used for Microsoft’s other services; it also requires some kind of account sign-in on Windows, while it works without a user account on other platforms.

For connections to your own Remote Desktop-equipped PCs, Windows App has most of the same features and requirements as the Remote Desktop Connection app did before, including support for multiple monitors, device redirection for devices like webcams and audio input/output, and dynamic resolution support (so that your Windows desktop resizes as you resize the app window).

Microsoft releases a new Windows app called Windows App for running Windows apps Read More »

ever-wonder-how-crooks-get-the-credentials-to-unlock-stolen-phones?

Ever wonder how crooks get the credentials to unlock stolen phones?

Biz & IT, lost phone, phishing, phishing-as-a-service, phone theft, Security / /

BUSTED —

iServer provided a simple service for phishing credentials to unlock phones.

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Ever wonder how crooks get the credentials to unlock stolen phones?

Getty Images

A coalition of law-enforcement agencies said it shut down a service that facilitated the unlocking of more than 1.2 million stolen or lost mobile phones so they could be used by someone other than their rightful owner.

The service was part of iServer, a phishing-as-a-service platform that has been operating since 2018. The Argentina-based iServer sold access to a platform that offered a host of phishing-related services through email, texts, and voice calls. One of the specialized services offered was designed to help people in possession of large numbers of stolen or lost mobile devices to obtain the credentials needed to bypass protections such as the lost mode for iPhones, which prevent a lost or stolen device from being used without entering its passcode.

iServer's phishing-as-a-service model.

Enlarge / iServer’s phishing-as-a-service model.

Group-IB

Catering to low-skilled thieves

An international operation coordinated by Europol’s European Cybercrime Center said it arrested the Argentinian national that was behind iServer and identified more than 2,000 “unlockers” who had enrolled in the phishing platform over the years. Investigators ultimately found that the criminal network had been used to unlock more than 1.2 million mobile phones. Officials said they also identified 483,000 phone owners who had received messages phishing for credentials for their lost or stolen devices.

According to Group-IB, the security firm that discovered the phone-unlocking racket and reported it to authorities, iServer provided a web interface that allowed low-skilled unlockers to phish the rightful device owners for the device passcodes, user credentials from cloud-based mobile platforms, and other personal information.

Group-IB wrote:

During its investigations into iServer’s criminal activities, Group-IB specialists also uncovered the structure and roles of criminal syndicates operating with the platform: the platform’s owner/developer sells access to “unlockers,” who in their turn provide phone unlocking services to other criminals with locked stolen devices. The phishing attacks are specifically designed to gather data that grants access to physical mobile devices, enabling criminals to acquire users’ credentials and local device passwords to unlock devices or unlink them from their owners. iServer automates the creation and delivery of phishing pages that imitate popular cloud-based mobile platforms, featuring several unique implementations that enhance its effectiveness as a cybercrime tool.

Unlockers obtain the necessary information for unlocking the mobile phones, such as IMEI, language, owner details, and contact information, often accessed through lost mode or via cloud-based mobile platforms. They utilize phishing domains provided by iServer or create their own to set up a phishing attack. After selecting an attack scenario, iServer creates a phishing page and sends an SMS with a malicious link to the victim.

An example phishing message sent.

Enlarge / An example phishing message sent.

When successful, iServer customers would receive the credentials through the web interface. The customers could then unlock a phone to disable the lost mode so the device could be used by someone new.

Ultimately, criminals received the stolen and validated credentials through the iServer web interface, enabling them to unlock a phone, turn off “Lost mode” and untie it from the owner’s account.

To better camouflage the ruse, iServer often disguised phishing pages as belonging to cloud-based services.

Phishing message asking for passcode.

Enlarge / Phishing message asking for passcode.

Group-IB

Phishing message masquerades as a cloud-based service with a map once passcode is entered.

Enlarge / Phishing message masquerades as a cloud-based service with a map once passcode is entered.

Group-IB

Besides the arrest, authorities also seized the iserver.com domain.

The iServer site as it appeared before the takedown.

Enlarge / The iServer site as it appeared before the takedown.

Group-IB

The iServer website after the takedown.

Enlarge / The iServer website after the takedown.

Group-IB

The takedown and arrests occurred from September 10–17 in Spain, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Authorities in those countries began investigating the phishing service in 2022.

Ever wonder how crooks get the credentials to unlock stolen phones? Read More »

due-to-ai-fakes,-the-“deep-doubt”-era-is-here

Due to AI fakes, the “deep doubt” era is here

AI, Biz & IT, Danielle K. Citron, deep doubt, Deepfakes, Donald Trump, doubt, facebook, history, image synthesis, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Liar's Dividend, machine learning, media literacy, music synthesis, Politics, Robert Chesney, Social Media, text synthesis, video synthesis, voice synthesis, X / /
A person writing

Memento | Aurich Lawson

Given the flood of photorealistic AI-generated images washing over social media networks like X and Facebook these days, we’re seemingly entering a new age of media skepticism: the era of what I’m calling “deep doubt.” While questioning the authenticity of digital content stretches back decades—and analog media long before that—easy access to tools that generate convincing fake content has led to a new wave of liars using AI-generated scenes to deny real documentary evidence. Along the way, people’s existing skepticism toward online content from strangers may be reaching new heights.

Deep doubt is skepticism of real media that stems from the existence of generative AI. This manifests as broad public skepticism toward the veracity of media artifacts, which in turn leads to a notable consequence: People can now more credibly claim that real events did not happen and suggest that documentary evidence was fabricated using AI tools.

The concept behind “deep doubt” isn’t new, but its real-world impact is becoming increasingly apparent. Since the term “deepfake” first surfaced in 2017, we’ve seen a rapid evolution in AI-generated media capabilities. This has led to recent examples of deep doubt in action, such as conspiracy theorists claiming that President Joe Biden has been replaced by an AI-powered hologram and former President Donald Trump’s baseless accusation in August that Vice President Kamala Harris used AI to fake crowd sizes at her rallies. And on Friday, Trump cried “AI” again at a photo of him with E. Jean Carroll, a writer who successfully sued him for sexual assault, that contradicts his claim of never having met her.

Legal scholars Danielle K. Citron and Robert Chesney foresaw this trend years ago, coining the term “liar’s dividend” in 2019 to describe the consequence of deep doubt: deepfakes being weaponized by liars to discredit authentic evidence. But whereas deep doubt was once a hypothetical academic concept, it is now our reality.

The rise of deepfakes, the persistence of doubt

Doubt has been a political weapon since ancient times. This modern AI-fueled manifestation is just the latest evolution of a tactic where the seeds of uncertainty are sown to manipulate public opinion, undermine opponents, and hide the truth. AI is the newest refuge of liars.

Over the past decade, the rise of deep-learning technology has made it increasingly easy for people to craft false or modified pictures, audio, text, or video that appear to be non-synthesized organic media. Deepfakes were named after a Reddit user going by the name “deepfakes,” who shared AI-faked pornography on the service, swapping out the face of a performer with the face of someone else who wasn’t part of the original recording.

In the 20th century, one could argue that a certain part of our trust in media produced by others was a result of how expensive and time-consuming it was, and the skill it required, to produce documentary images and films. Even texts required a great deal of time and skill. As the deep doubt phenomenon grows, it will erode this 20th-century media sensibility. But it will also affect our political discourse, legal systems, and even our shared understanding of historical events that rely on that media to function—we rely on others to get information about the world. From photorealistic images to pitch-perfect voice clones, our perception of what we consider “truth” in media will need recalibration.

In April, a panel of federal judges highlighted the potential for AI-generated deepfakes to not only introduce fake evidence but also cast doubt on genuine evidence in court trials. The concern emerged during a meeting of the US Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules, where the judges discussed the challenges of authenticating digital evidence in an era of increasingly sophisticated AI technology. Ultimately, the judges decided to postpone making any AI-related rule changes, but their meeting shows that the subject is already being considered by American judges.

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Real-time Linux is officially part of the kernel after decades of debate

Biz & IT, Linus Torvalds, Linux, RTOS, steven rostedt, Tech / /

No RTO needed for RTOS —

Now you can run your space laser or audio production without specialty patches.

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CNC laser skipping across a metal surface, leaving light trails in long exposure.

Enlarge / Cutting metal with lasers is hard, but even harder when you don’t know the worst-case timings of your code.

Getty Images

As is so often the case, a notable change in an upcoming Linux kernel is both historic and no big deal.

If you wanted to use “Real-Time Linux” for your audio gear, your industrial welding laser, or your Mars rover, you have had that option for a long time (presuming you didn’t want to use QNX or other alternatives). Universities started making their own real-time kernels in the late 1990s. A patch set, PREEMPT_RT, has existed since at least 2005. And some aspects of the real-time work, like NO_HZ, were long ago moved into the mainline kernel, enabling its use in data centers, cloud computing, or anything with a lot of CPUs.

But officialness still matters, and in the 6.12 kernel, PREEMPT_RT will likely be merged into the mainline. As noted by Steven Vaughan-Nichols at ZDNet, the final sign-off by Linus Torvalds occurred while he was attending Open Source Summit Europe. Torvalds wrote the original code for printk, a debugging tool that can pinpoint exact moments where a process crashes, but also introduces latency that runs counter to real-time computing. The Phoronix blog has tracked the progress of PREEMPT_RT into the kernel, along with the printk changes that allowed for threaded/atomic console support crucial to real-time mainlining.

What does this mean for desktop Linux? Not much. Beyond high-end audio production or replication (and even that is debatable), a real-time kernel won’t likely make windows snappier or programs zippier. But the guaranteed execution and worst-case latency timings a real-time Linux provides are quite useful to, say, the systems that monitor car brakes, guide CNC machines, and regulate fiendishly complex multi-CPU systems. Having PREEMPT-RT in the mainline kernel makes it easier to maintain a real-time system, rather than tend to out-of-tree patches.

It will likely change things for what had been, until now, specialty providers of real-time OS solutions for mission-critical systems. Ubuntu, for example, started offering a real-time version of its distribution in 2023 but required an Ubuntu Pro subscription for access. Ubuntu pitched its release at robotics, automation, embedded Linux, and other real-time needs, with the fixes, patches, module integration, and testing provided by Ubuntu.

“Controlling a laster with Linux is crazy,” Torvalds said at the Kernel Summit of 2006, “but everyone in this room is crazy in his own way. So if you want to use Linux to control an industrial welding laser, I have no problem with your using PREEMPT_RT.” Roughly 18 years later, Torvalds and the kernel team, including longtime maintainer and champion-of-real-time Steven Rostedt, have made it even easier to do that kind of thing.

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Landmark AI deal sees Hollywood giant Lionsgate provide library for AI training

AI, Ai video, AI-generated video, Biz & IT, Gen-3 Alpha, Lionsgate, machine learning, Reid Southen, Runway, Runway Gen-3, video synthesis / /

The silicon screen —

Runway deal will create a Lionsgate AI video generator, but not everyone is happy.

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An illustration of a filmstrip with a robot, horse, rocket, and whale.

On Wednesday, AI video synthesis firm Runway and entertainment company Lionsgate announced a partnership to create a new AI model trained on Lionsgate’s vast film and TV library. The deal will feed Runway legally clear training data and will also reportedly provide Lionsgate with tools to enhance content creation while potentially reducing production costs.

Lionsgate, known for franchises like John Wick and The Hunger Games, sees AI as a way to boost efficiency in content production. Michael Burns, Lionsgate’s vice chair, stated in a press release that AI could help develop “cutting edge, capital efficient content creation opportunities.” He added that some filmmakers have shown enthusiasm about potential applications in pre- and post-production processes.

Runway plans to develop a custom AI model using Lionsgate’s proprietary content portfolio. The model will be exclusive to Lionsgate Studios, allowing filmmakers, directors, and creative staff to augment their work. While specifics remain unclear, the partnership marks the first major collaboration between Runway and a Hollywood studio.

“We’re committed to giving artists, creators and studios the best and most powerful tools to augment their workflows and enable new ways of bringing their stories to life,” said Runway co-founder and CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela in a press release. “The history of art is the history of technology and these new models are part of our continuous efforts to build transformative mediums for artistic and creative expression; the best stories are yet to be told.”

The quest for legal training data

Generative AI models are master imitators, and video synthesis models like Runway’s latest Gen-3 Alpha are no exception. The companies that create them must amass a great deal of existing video (and still image) samples to analyze, allowing the resulting AI models to re-synthesize that information into new video generations, guided by text descriptions called prompts. And wherever that training data is lacking, it can result in unusual generations, as we saw in our hands-on evaluation of Gen-3 Alpha in July.

However, in the past, AI companies have gotten into legal trouble for scraping vast quantities of media without permission. In fact, Runway is currently the defendant in a class-action lawsuit that alleges copyright infringement for using video data obtained without permission to train its video synthesis models. While companies like OpenAI have claimed this scraping process is “fair use,” US courts have not yet definitively ruled on the practice. With other potential legal challenges ahead, it makes sense from Runway’s perspective to reach out and sign deals for training data that is completely in the clear.

Even if the training data becomes fully legal and licensed, different elements of the entertainment industry view generative AI on a spectrum that seems to range between fascination and horror. The technology’s ability to rapidly create images and video based on prompts may attract studios looking to streamline production. However, it raises polarizing concerns among unions about job security, actors and musicians about likeness misuse and ethics, and studios about legal implications.

So far, news of the deal has not been received kindly among vocal AI critics found on social media. On X, filmmaker and AI critic Joe Russo wrote, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grosser string of words than: ‘to develop cutting-edge, capital-efficient content creation opportunities.'”

Film concept artist Reid Southen shared a similar negative take on X: “I wonder how the directors and actors of their films feel about having their work fed into the AI to make a proprietary model. As an artist on The Hunger Games? I’m pissed. This is the first step in trying to replace artists and filmmakers.”

It’s a fear that we will likely hear more about in the future as AI video synthesis technology grows more capable—and potentially becomes adopted as a standard filmmaking tool. As studios explore AI applications despite legal uncertainties and labor concerns, partnerships like the Lionsgate-Runway deal may shape the future of content creation in Hollywood.

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Massive China-state IoT botnet went undetected for four years—until now

Biz & IT, Security / /

OVER 260,000 PWNED —

75% of infected devices were located in homes and offices in North America and Europe.

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Massive China-state IoT botnet went undetected for four years—until now

Getty Images

The FBI has dismantled a massive network of compromised devices that Chinese state-sponsored hackers have used for four years to mount attacks on government agencies, telecoms, defense contractors, and other targets in the US and Taiwan.

The botnet was made up primarily of small office and home office routers, surveillance cameras, network-attached storage, and other Internet-connected devices located all over the world. Over the past four years, US officials said, 260,000 such devices have cycled through the sophisticated network, which is organized in three tiers that allow the botnet to operate with efficiency and precision. At its peak in June 2023, Raptor Train, as the botnet is named, consisted of more than 60,000 commandeered devices, according to researchers from Black Lotus Labs, making it the largest China state botnet discovered to date.

Burning down the house

Raptor Train is the second China state-operated botnet US authorities have taken down this year. In January, law enforcement officials covertly issued commands to disinfect Internet of Things devices that hackers backed by the Chinese government had taken over without the device owners’ knowledge. The Chinese hackers, part of a group tracked as Volt Typhoon, used the botnet for more than a year as a platform to deliver exploits that burrowed deep into the networks of targets of interest. Because the attacks appear to originate from IP addresses with good reputations, they are subjected to less scrutiny from network security defenses, making the bots an ideal delivery proxy. Russia-state hackers have also been caught assembling large IoT botnets for the same purposes.

An advisory jointly issued Wednesday by the FBI, the Cyber National Mission Force, and the National Security Agency said that China-based company Integrity Technology Group controlled and managed Raptor Train. The company has ties to the People’s Republic of China, officials said. The company, they said, has also used the state-controlled China Unicom Beijing Province Network IP addresses to control and manage the botnet. Researchers and law enforcement track the China-state group that worked with Integrity Technology as Flax Typhoon. More than half of the infected Raptor Train devices were located in North America and another 25 percent in Europe.

Raptor Train concentration by continent.

Enlarge / Raptor Train concentration by continent.

IC3.gov

Raptor Train concentration by country.

Enlarge / Raptor Train concentration by country.

IC3.gov

“Flax Typhoon was targeting critical infrastructure across the US and overseas, everyone from corporations and media organizations to universities and government agencies,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday at the Aspen Cyber Summit. “Like Volt Typhoon, they used Internet-connected devices, this time hundreds of thousands of them, to create a botnet that helped them compromise systems and exfiltrate confidential data.” He added: “Flax Typhoon’s actions caused real harm to its victims who had to devote precious time to clean up the mess.”

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