Tech News

1. AI Models:

   • Meta has launched Llama 4, featuring Maverick (400B parameters) and Scout (109B parameters with a 10M context window), and previewed Behemoth (2T parameters). 👉 ai.meta.com
   • Meta AI is set to release a Llama 4 Reasoning model soon. 👉 engadget.com
   • OpenAI will release o3 and o4-mini, and plans for GPT-5. 👉 techcrunch.com

2. Cybersecurity and Data Breaches:

   • The Port of Seattle disclosed that a ransomware breach compromised the personal information of approximately 90,000 individuals in August 2024. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • The Texas State Bar has warned of a data breach following claims of an attack by the INC ransomware gang. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • A Europcar GitLab breach resulted in the exposure of data from up to 200,000 customers, including source code for mobile applications. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • The Texas State Bar is warning it suffered a data breach after the INC ransomware gang claimed to have breached the organization. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

3. Vulnerability and Malware:

   • Ivanti released a patch for a critical zero-day vulnerability in Connect Secure, which has been actively exploited since mid-March. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Microsoft credited EncryptHub for disclosing Windows security flaws. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • A WinRAR flaw can bypass Windows Mark of the Web security alerts, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Hunters International is shifting from ransomware to pure data extortion. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • A max severity remote code execution (RCE) flaw discovered in widely used Apache Parquet. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

4. AI and Cybersecurity:

   • Microsoft used AI to discover vulnerabilities in open-source bootloaders, including GRUB2, U-Boot, and Barebox. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Google launched Sec-Gemini v1, an AI model to improve cybersecurity defense. 👉 it.slashdot.org
   • Google's Open Source Security Team announced a stable model-signing library with digital signatures for verifying AI model integrity. 👉 pypi.org

5. Phishing and Credential Stuffing:

   • An Australian pension funds were hit by a wave of credential stuffing attacks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • PoisonSeed phishing campaign is distributing emails with crypto seed phrases to drain cryptocurrency wallets. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Microsoft warns of tax-themed email attacks using PDFs and QR codes to deliver malware. 👉 thehackernews.com

6. Government and Policy:

   • President Trump's tariffs are causing tech companies to pause IPO plans. 👉 pymnts.com
   • A TikTok deal was put on hold after China indicated it would reject the deal over President Trump's tariffs. 👉 reuters.com
   • President Trump signed an executive order to extend TikTok operations by 75 days. 👉 cbsaustin.com
   • New Jersey's governor signed a law criminalizing the creation and sharing of "deceptive and dangerous deepfakes". 👉 arstechnica.com
   • The UK's AI copyright plan faces rejection from OpenAI and Google. 👉 politico.eu

7. Social Media and Content Moderation:

   • Meta's US fact-checking program will end on Monday, and Community Notes will start appearing on Facebook, Threads, and Instagram. 👉 techcrunch.com

8. AI and Machine Learning Threats:

   • The advent of LLMs and machine learning-based applications has opened the door to new security threats, including model and data poisoning, prompt injection, prompt leaking, and prompt evasion. 👉 userpages.cs.umbc.edu

9. Space Exploration:

   • NASA is seeking proposals for two private astronaut missions to the International Space Station, scheduled after May of 2026 and mid-2027. 👉 spacenews.com
   • SpaceX's Fram2 mission returned safely after the first crewed spaceflight to orbit directly over Earth's poles. 👉 edition.cnn.com

10. Gaming News:

    • Schedule 1, a drug-dealing simulator, tops Steam charts. 👉 thegamer.com
    • Microsoft unveils a replica of Quake II generated using its Muse AI model. 👉 theverge.com
    • Nintendo delays Switch 2 preorders, were set to start on April 9, “to assess the potential impact” of Trump's tariffs. 👉 theverge.com

11. Other Tech and Business News:

    • Miami-based remittance startup Felix Pago, which uses stablecoins, raised a $75M Series B led by QED. 👉 bloomberg.com^$
    • Python's PyPI is making progress on its rollout of organization accounts to fund staff. 👉 mailchi.mp
    • Web crawlers collecting training data for AI models are overwhelming Wikipedia's infrastructure. 👉 diff.wikimedia.org

12. Tributes:

    • Network engineer and Internet activist Dave Täht has died. 👉 en.wikipedia.org

13. Natural Sciences:

    • A busy hurricane season is likely across the Atlantic this year. 👉 msn.com
    • Bonobos can combine vocal calls in ways that mirror human language. 👉 theguardian.com

14. International Issues:

    • Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's plan to create new rice farms in eastern Merauke Regency faces strong criticism. 👉 science.org

15. Applications:

    • Cal AI, an AI-powered calorie-counting app built by two teenagers, has generated over 5 million downloads and $2 million in revenue. 👉 techcrunch.com

News

1. AI Models and Releases:

   • Meta has launched Llama 4, featuring Maverick (400B parameters) and Scout (109B parameters with a 10M context window), and previewed Behemoth (2T parameters). It offers native multimodality and a mixture-of-experts architecture. 👉 ai.meta.com
   • Meta AI is set to release a Llama 4 Reasoning model soon. 👉 engadget.com
   • OpenAI will release o3 and o4-mini, after all, but delays GPT-5. 👉 techcrunch.com

2. Cybersecurity and Data Breaches:

   • The Port of Seattle disclosed that a ransomware breach compromised the personal information of approximately 90,000 individuals in August 2024. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • The Texas State Bar has warned of a data breach following claims of an attack by the INC ransomware gang. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • A Europcar GitLab breach resulted in the exposure of data from up to 200,000 customers, including source code for mobile applications. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

3. Vulnerability and Malware:

   • Ivanti released a patch for a critical zero-day vulnerability in Connect Secure, which has been actively exploited since mid-March to deploy TRAILBLAZE and BRUSHFIRE malware. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com 👉 thehackernews.com
   • Microsoft credited EncryptHub for disclosing Windows security flaws. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • A WinRAR flaw can bypass Windows Mark of the Web security alerts, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • A maximum severity remote code execution (RCE) flaw discovered in widely used Apache Parquet. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

4. AI and Cybersecurity:

   • Microsoft used AI to discover vulnerabilities in open-source bootloaders, including GRUB2, U-Boot, and Barebox. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Google launched Sec-Gemini v1, an AI model to improve cybersecurity defense, outperforming others on the CTI-MCQ threat intelligence benchmark. 👉 it.slashdot.org
   • Google's Open Source Security Team announced a stable model-signing library with digital signatures for verifying AI model integrity. 👉 pypi.org

5. Phishing and Credential Stuffing:

   • An Australian pension funds were hit by a wave of credential stuffing attacks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • PoisonSeed phishing campaign is distributing emails with crypto seed phrases to drain cryptocurrency wallets. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Microsoft warns of tax-themed email attacks using PDFs and QR codes to deliver malware, using redirection methods. 👉 thehackernews.com

6. Data Exfiltration:

   • Ukrainian state systems were targeted with WRECKSTEEL malware. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • Malicious Python packages on PyPI, downloaded 39,000+ times, steal sensitive data. 👉 thehackernews.com

7. Cybercrime:

   • Hunters International is shifting from ransomware to pure data extortion under the name World Leaks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • The NSFOCUS IB team have exposed how cybercriminals are selling access to Chinese surveillance cameras, due to many failing to patch critical vulnerabilities. 👉 threatpost.com
   • OPSEC failure exposes Coquettte’s malware campaigns on bulletproof hosting servers. 👉 thehackernews.com

8. Government and Policy:

   • SF Mayor Lurie asks tech CEOs: ‘How can we get you back?’. 👉 techcrunch.com
   • President Trump's tariffs are causing tech companies to pause IPO plans. 👉 pymnts.com
   • A TikTok deal was put on hold after China indicated it would reject the deal over President Trump's tariffs. 👉 reuters.com
   • President Trump signed an executive order to extend TikTok operations by 75 days. 👉 cbsaustin.com
   • New Jersey's governor signed a law criminalizing the creation and sharing of "deceptive and dangerous deepfakes". 👉 arstechnica.com
   • The UK's AI copyright plan faces rejection from OpenAI and Google. 👉 politico.eu
   • Trump fires head of National Security Agency and Cyber Command. 👉 techcrunch.com

9. Supply Chain Attacks

   • The theft of a SpotBugs access token identified as root cause of GitHub supply chain attack. 👉 thehackernews.com
   • North Korean hackers deploy BeaverTail malware via malicious npm packages. 👉 thehackernews.com

10. Social Media and Content Moderation:

    • Meta's US fact-checking program will end, and Community Notes will start appearing on Facebook, Threads, and Instagram. 👉 techcrunch.com

11. Financial News:

    • Klarna and StubHub delay IPOs because of Trump tariff turmoil. 👉 techcrunch.com
    • Turbine raises $22M to help VC investors get cash without selling their stakes. 👉 techcrunch.com

12. Other Tech News:

    • Microsoft starts testing Windows 11 taskbar icon scaling. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • CISA warns of Fast Flux DNS evasion used by cybercrime gangs. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • Genetic data site openSNP will close and delete data over privacy concerns. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • Sam Altman says OpenAI plans to release o3 and o4-mini after all. 👉 techcrunch.com

13. AI in Recruitment:

    • Zoho discusses the rise of AI in recruitment. 👉 techmeme.com

14. Hacks and Leaks:

    • Student Loan Breach Exposes 2.5M Records. 👉 threatpost.com
    • There are Fake Reservation Links Preying on Weary Travelers. 👉 threatpost.com
    • A Vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks’ PAN-OS is Under Active Attack Triggering CISA Warning. 👉 threatpost.com
    • The USA is urging iPhone Users to Update to Patch 2 Zero-Days Under Attack. 👉 threatpost.com
    • A Twitter Whistleblower Complaint reveals is being Blasted for security and privacy lapses. 👉 threatpost.com
    • "Cybercriminals Are Selling Access to Chinese Surveillance Cameras". 👉 threatpost.com
    • "Tentacles of ‘0ktapus’ Threat Group Victimize 130 Firms". 👉 threatpost.com

1743898200000