Tech News

1. AI and Data Security:

   • Google confirmed that Android SafetyCore uses AI to classify content on devices to detect unwanted material, but it only classifies content when an app requests it and with user control. 👉 thehackernews.com

2. Ransomware and Data Breach:

   • The FBI, Europol, and NCA took down 8Base ransomware data leak and negotiation sites. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • US Justice Department announced the names of two Phobos ransomware affiliates arrested in Thailand, charging them on 11 counts due to their involvement in more than a thousand cyberattacks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom have sanctioned Zservers, a Russia-based bulletproof hosting (BPH) services provider, for supplying essential attack infrastructure for the LockBit ransomware gang. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

3. Vulnerability Exploits and Patches:

   • Progress Software has addressed high-severity security flaws in its LoadMaster software that could be exploited by malicious actors to execute arbitrary system commands or download any file from the system. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • Apple released security updates to address a zero-day vulnerability, CVE-2025-24200, in iOS and iPadOS, which has been exploited in the wild. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • Apple released emergency security updates to patch a zero-day vulnerability that was exploited in targeted and "extremely sophisticated" attacks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Fortinet warned that attackers are exploiting a now-patched zero-day bug in FortiOS and FortiProxy to hijack Fortinet firewalls and breach enterprise networks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • SonicWall firewall exploit lets hackers hijack VPN sessions, patch now. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Over 12,000 GFI KerioControl firewall instances are exposed to a critical remote code execution vulnerability tracked as CVE-2024-52875. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

4. Malware and Cyberattacks:

   • Threat actors have been observed leveraging Google Tag Manager (GTM) to deliver credit card skimmer malware targeting Magento-based e-commerce websites. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • Russian military cyber-espionage group Sandworm is targeting Windows users in Ukraine with trojanized Microsoft Key Management Service (KMS) activators and fake Windows updates. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Threat actors have observed the increasingly common ClickFix technique to deliver a remote access trojan named NetSupport RAT. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • Massive brute force attack uses 2.8 million IPs to target VPN devices. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

5. Corporate Actions and Strategies:

   • Apple is renaming the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America in Apple Maps, following Google, first for users in the US and soon for all users globally. 👉 bloomberg.com^$
   • Meta is in talks to acquire South Korean AI chip startup FuriosaAI, which has raised ~$115M since its 2017 founding; the deal could close this month. 👉 forbes.com^$
   • Apple is partnering with Chinese internet and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group to roll out artificial intelligence features. 👉 theinformation.com
   • Shopify shutters Ye's store, which began selling swastika shirts before a Super Bowl ad boosted traffic to the site, saying it violated Shopify's ToS. 👉 nbcnews.com

6. YouTube's Shift to TV:

   • YouTube CEO Neal Mohan says that TV screens have overtaken mobile as the primary device for YouTube viewing in the US. 👉 hollywoodreporter.com

7. AI and Machine Learning:

   • EU plans to mobilize €200B to invest in AI to catch the US and China. 👉 wsj.com^$
   • Sam Altman says “OpenAI is not for sale”. 👉 axios.com
   • Thomson Reuters wins the first major US AI copyright ruling against fair use. 👉 wired.com
   • China's BYD unveils "God's Eye" self-driving system and aims to install it on its entire lineup, including its ~$9,600 Seagull hatchback. 👉 t.co

8. Government and Regulations:

   • The US and the UK refuse to join France, China, India, and 57 other countries in signing the international agreement in Paris promoting “transparent”, “safe” AI. 👉 bbc.com
   • Paris AI summit: US VP JD Vance warns the EU that excessive AI regulation could strangle the tech and rejects content moderation as “authoritarian censorship”. 👉 reuters.com
   • Elon Musk's six companies score benefits from Trump shake-ups. 👉 nytimes.com^$

9. Financial and Economic News:

   • SMIC reports Q4 profit down 38% YoY, revenue up 32% YoY. 👉 reuters.com
   • Google is scheduling I/O 2025 for May 20 and 21, with a main keynote on May 20 at 10am PT; announcements on Gemini, Android 16, and more are expected. 👉 9to5google.com
   • DoorDash reports Q4 revenue up 25% YoY and plans to buy back shares worth up to $5B in FY 2025. 👉 reuters.com
   • Lyft reports Q4 revenue up 27% YoY and announces a $500M buyback plan. 👉 marketwatch.com

10. Security Practices and Recommendations:

    • Report highlights four ways to keep MFA from becoming too much of a good thing. 👉 thehackernews.com
    • The article recommends assessing the risks in the software supply chain before deployment to avoid attacks and to emphasize the need for security solutions. 👉 thehackernews.com
    • The article stresses the importance of not overlooking the critical Okta security configurations to strengthen security. 👉 thehackernews.com
    • It's critical to gain visibility into who's using which AI apps and where they are connected to other business applications, so it is recommendet to get a complete (and free) AI inventory today with Nudge Security. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

11. Brave Browser's New Feature:

    • Brave Browser is getting a new feature called 'custom scriptlets' that lets advanced users inject their own JavaScript into websites, allowing deep customization and control over their browsing experience. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

12. Cybersecurity and AI Trends:

    • As cloud security evolves in 2025 and beyond, organizations must adapt to both new and evolving realities, including the increasing reliance on cloud infrastructure for AI-driven workflows and the vast quantities of data being migrated to the cloud. 👉 thehackernews.com

13. Other cyber activity:

    • In a January paper, three computer scientists presented a faster hash table, one of the oldest data structures, disproving a 40-year-old data science conjecture. 👉 quantamagazine.org
    • Lee Enterprises, one of the largest newspaper groups in the United States, says a cyberattack that hit its systems caused an outage last week and impacted its operations. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • An Alabama man pleaded guilty to hijacking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) account on X in a January 2024 SIM swapping attack. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • Four distributors of the encrypted communications service Sky ECC, used extensively by criminals, were arrested in Spain and the Netherlands. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • The SEC and Binance have jointly asked a judge to stay the regulator's lawsuit against the crypto exchange for 60 days, citing Trump admin changes. 👉 reuters.com

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