Regulators race to rescue failing banks, the DOJ investigates AI, and Australian researchers create electricity from ‘thin-air’.
Welcome to trending hashtags for Tuesday, March 14
I’m your host Jim Love, CIO of IT World Canada and TechNewsday in the US – here’s today’s top tech news.
The governments of the US, Canada and the UK are trying to contain the damage caused by the failure of the Silicon Valley Bank. The SVB failed when depositors, panicked by the financial condition of the banks, began withdrawing heavily, in what could be called a “run on the bank”, which ultimately led to the ultimate failure and subsequent crackdown by the government agencies responsible for banking regulation. Became a pioneer for
The Treasury Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve in the US announced that the FDIC’s insurance funds would be used to prevent depositors who had more than $250,000 guaranteed by deposit insurance at a Silicon Valley bank, money. from losing
“Depositors will have access to all their money starting Monday, March 13,” said a joint statement from the three agencies. But they were careful to add that – any damages associated with the resolution of the Silicon Valley bank will not be borne by the taxpayer. Will go.”
These extraordinary actions, the last of which were implemented in the early days of the pandemic and during the global financial crisis of 2008, are apparently being put in place to prevent widespread bank failures. and subsequent financial crisis,
The Fed also said these actions would reduce stress on the financial system and minimize the impact on any businesses, households or taxpayers.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden confirmed in a statement that his administration would hold accountable those responsible for the failure.
Despite that reassurance there will certainly be and will be resentment over any attempt to protect against losses – as prosperous tech investors can be seen.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management tweeted support for swift government action. Ackman tweeted that the SVB was not a bailout: ,Those who have messed up will have to face the consequences. And he added, that the government “has done the right thing by protecting depositors.”
ekman forward warned that there could be additional failures beyond SVB and two other banks that have also run into liquidity problems.
In this light, there will undoubtedly be more discussion of the regulation of medium-sized banks and the $250,000 limit on deposit insurance.
Also expect banks to move aggressively to prevent repeat episodes without a cash cushion if customers withdraw their deposits.
Source: axios
New-York-based crypto-bank, Signature Bank was another victim of the banking crisis, as regulators struggled to prevent further deterioration from the collapse of SVB.
Signature Bank, once known as one of the most crypto-friendly institutions on Wall Street, has 40 branches in five states: New York, California, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Nevada.
by December 2022Signature Bank had total assets of approximately $110 billion and total deposits of approximately $83 billion.
All of its deposits and almost all of its assets were transferred to a new entity called “Signature Bridge Bank”, which is now operated by the FDIC, which says it has “deposited the institution for its value for future sale”. controlled to maximize and maintain Banking services in communities formerly served by Signature Bank.
It is expected that the depositors of Signature Bank will also receive the same deposit protection provided to SVB customers.
Source: axios
The US Department of Justice is eyeing Artificial Intelligence. That was according to DOJ antitrust chief Jonathan Cantor when he spoke at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.
Known for his aggressive antitrust cases against Google, Cantor sounded a warning that the development and application of AI “will not escape regulatory scrutiny”, according to a report by Axios.
He also said during a New York taping Times’ Hard Fork podcast that “when we think about AI, we think about it as a tool … it’s really important that we understand it, so we (namely the DOJ) have data scientists hired and bringing in the expertise to make sure we have the ability to understand that technology,”
Cantor said the DOJ is calling its AI effort “Project Gretzky” after hockey legend Wayne Gretzky — known for his famous line not about where the skating is, but “where the puck is going.”
Source: axios
A fake-ChatGPT Chrome extension has been found capable of hijacking Facebook accounts.
The extension can create rogue administrator accounts, one of the major methods used by cyber criminals to distribute malware.
browser add-on, promoted by Facebook through sponsored posts, provides the user with the ability to connect ChatGPT, but secretly harvests cookies and Facebook account data using an active, authenticated session.
It uses two fake Facebook applications – Portal and msg_kig – to maintain backdoor access and gain complete control of target profiles.
Guardio Labs researcher Nati Tal said in a technical report that “by hijacking high-profile facebook business accounts, the threat actor creates an elite army of Facebook bots and a malicious paid media ecosystem.
Extension, branded as “Quick Access to ChatGPT”.It is said to have attracted 2,000 installations per day since then March 3, 2023 And has since been pulled by Google from the Chrome Web Store as of March 9, 2023.
With the viral success of ChatGPT, Google Play Store and App Store are plagued with many fake and malicious extensions.
Last month, Cyble also disclosed a social engineering campaign that relied on an unofficial ChatGPT social media page to direct users to malicious domains that downloaded information stealers such as RedLine, Lumma, and Aurora. Is.
Source: hacker news
Imagine someone being able to see all the areas of your company you are trying to protect and spying on you by turning your own security monitoring against you. It sounds like the beginning of a movie, but according to a new report from cyber risk company BitSight, it’s not fiction. One in 12 organizations with internet-facing webcams or similar devices have failed to properly secure them, leaving them vulnerable to compromise.
Three percent of organizations tracked by BitSight had at least one Internet-facing video or audio device. Of those, nine percent had at least one device that had an open video or audio feed, allowing someone to directly view those feeds or pay attention to conversations.
BitSight analyzed organizations in the hospitality, education, technology and government sectors. The education sector was the most vulnerable, with one in four using Internet-facing webcams and similar devices, which were susceptible to video or audio compromise.
Most of the devices tested included webcams But also network video recorder, smart doorbell, smart vacuum.
Internet-facing devices were behind neither a firewall nor a VPN, some were improperly configured, some lacked a password, or had an obvious password—others were stuck with security flaws, Specifically what is called a specific access control vulnerability Unprotected direct object reference vulnerability (IDOR).
The IDOR is most worrisome, according to BitSight, because it allows hackers to obtain information from any device ID, regardless of the user account the device is signed into.
At a minimum, the video or audio feed should Must be protected by access control measures. Any savvy hacker can view the video feed or spy on the conversation or alter the exposed feed to spread misinformation.
BitSight recommends organizations using Internet-facing webcams to analyze the security of these devices, placing them behind a firewall or VPN, set up access control And, for devices with vulnerabilities, a developer needs to take steps to plug these vulnerabilities and protect the devices from attacks.
Source: techrepublic
Australian researchers claim they have achieved a “beautiful” moment by generating lightning in the air.
Using a common soil bacterium that consumes small amounts of hydrogen from the air to help power its metabolism, the researchers managed to isolate and harness the enzyme that enables this process.
The researchers showed that the enzyme, named Hq, was able to convert even the tiniest amount of atmospheric hydrogen into an electric current.
the bacteria that enzyme is extracted According to research author Rice Grinter, is non-pathogenic, grows rapidly and is easy to work with in the laboratory. The enzyme is stable and long-lasting and can tolerate extreme temperatures, he says.
Because it draws hydrogen from the air, a battery based on Huc could theoretically last indefinitely, or at least as long as the enzyme does. And scientists say they’re hoping to engineer it to last for years.
Talking about the use cases of this discovery, Grinter explained that “the real place for this technology is things that require a constant, relatively small amount of power. Especially for those things, he said An exciting prospect is biometric and implanted medical devices or remote sensors that need 24/7 power access or power.
The researchers also discovered that when they applied Huc to a circuitthe more hydrogen they feed This This produces more electricity. This could open up exciting avenues for engineers to develop ways to integrate the enzyme into hydrogen-based fuel cells. – the kind that could power an electric car.
Those days however remain well into the future, researchers say, but the potential for further study is immense.
Source: toronto star
That’s the top tech news for today
Links to these stories can be found in articles posted at itworldcanada.com/podcasts. You can also find more great stories and more in-depth coverage at itworldcanada.com or Technewsday.com in the US.
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