10.17.25 Security News Bites
10.17.25 Security News Bites
If You Have Connected a Chatbot to Your Email/Calendar. Or other Apps. You May Want to disconnect it.
Gemini and other chatbots (such as Grok) can be compromised by hidden input. The example is Gemini and mail and calendar integration. You can construct a prompt, embed it invisibly into an email or calendar invite and no telling what it might be able to do. If AI developers assume that the LLM companies will protect them from this, they are wrong. With great power comes … at least a fair amount of risk. I think that is a very interesting attack vector. Pretty much invisible. And damn easy to launch. Credit: CSO Online
Texas Town to Become a City to Quiet Bitcoin Miner
A little place in rural Texas Hood County has tried to quiet a Bitcoin miner data center that runs 24/7 and sounds like a non-stop leaf blower. Turns out counties in Texas can’t stop that noise. So the 600 residents (and one stop sign) are going to vote in November to become a city. If approved, they can create a noise ordinance and force the issue. Seems like a sledgehammer to an ant, but if everything else fails … Credit: Route Fifty
Netherlands Invokes “Special Powers” Against Chinese Owned Semiconductor Company Operating in the Netherlands
The Netherlands announced on Sunday it was invoking special powers allowing the government to overrule business decisions made by the Chinese-owned semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia if it assessed those decisions risked undermining the availability of “crucial technological knowledge and capabilities.” This is another attempt to cut down on Chinese espionage of intellectual property. Credit: The Record
Tor Browser Bucking The Norm – Removing All AI
The Tor Project, which the government historically funded to actually make browsing secure, is ripping all of the AI crap out of Firefox (which Tor is based on) saying that it is totally impossible to figure out whether it is safe or not. Tor 15.0 will be released, if all goes well, the last week of October. Interesting strategy and understandable – do you want private browsing or cute AI features, PICK ONLY ONE. Learn more at the link. Credit: Tor Project
Carmakers Worry We Could See Chip Shortages and Assembly Line Shutdowns Again
Major vehicle manufacturers – cars, trucks, buses and vans – are worried that the Dutch government placing chip maker Nexperia under “special administrative measures” could cause a chip shortage and, as we learned during Covid, chip shortages equal car shortages. And, of course, this all ties back to the US president’s trade war with China. Of course. Nothing is simple. Credit: The Register
by 