Security News Bites for July 18, 2025
DOGE Staffer Leaked Private xAI API Key
This does not appear to be malicious but both careless and of questionable judgement. Marko Elez, a special government employee who recently worked on systems at Treasury, Social Security and Homeland, published code to his GitHub. The code contained a private API key that exposed dozens of models developed by xAI, including Grok. He removed the key from GitHub, but the key has not been revoked, meaning anyone who has it can still access all of the models. If this is how he handles sensitive data, he probably should not be anywhere near taxpayer data. Likely the models have been downloaded and are circulating on the Darkweb. Credit: Brian Krebs
Reading Terms of Service – Necessary but not Fun
WeTransfer, the file transfer service for transferring large files changed its terms of service and the Internet exploded. According to this clause, users who agree to these terms and conditions grant WeTransfer the right to use the content sent via the service to train artificial intelligence (AI) models. It’s also been noted that in case a user sends their artwork through WeTransfer, this work can be put in an AI platform, where it’s used to make by-products of such work, and there’s nothing users can do about it. Due to the fury this created, WeTransfer said “oh, our changes were not clear, we will fix them. They were perfectly clear – they just got caught. So read those TOSes. Sorry, I know it is not fun. but neither is losing control of your IP. Contact us for other solutions. Credit: Cybernews
TikTok Global Sues ByteDance for $58 Billion Over Sale
TikTok Global is accusing TikTok Inc., ByteDance, and ByteDance’s founder, Yiming Zhang, of antitrust violations and conspiracy to keep control of TikTok’s US operations ahead of the looming ban. The Florida-based limited liability company, which is responsible for overseeing operations in the US, was supposedly tricked out of acquiring ByteDance’s TikTok Inc. The TikTok drama continues. Credit: Cybernews
China’s Rare Earth Elements are Hot Stuff – Hot as in Stolen
As China continues to “negotiate” with the president over trade by severely restricting the export of critical rare earth elements, opportunists figure that crazed buyers will be willing to buy what amounts to stolen material to feed their manufacturing. China says that foreign intelligence agencies colluded with “domestic lawbreakers” to steal rare earth items from China, posing a serious threat to China’s national security. In China that likely has deadly consequences. Credit: Cybernews
Meta Investors Settle With Zuckerberg over $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit
Meta investors were suing Zuck over Cambridge Analytica (remember them?). The investors said Zuck mishandled it and the company paid a $5 billion fine to make it go away. They want him to pay back the $5 billion along with other costs. It was supposed to go to trial this week. That trial was never going to happen because it would require Zuck and others to testify and that would get ugly. Since it is a civil lawsuit, they can’t plead the fifth, so they had to settle. For how much is not known – at least not yet, but I doubt the investors, who lost $5 billion or more are going to settle for a few million. Credit: The Record
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