Security News Bites for July 4, 2025
Fake DMV Texts Scam Thousands
This is a variation of the text scams we have seen before. These attacks impersonate DMV authorities and have tricked thousands into handing over sensitive info. The texts point to a scam website that looks like real DMV web sites and threatens license suspension and other legal penalties if people don’t respond immediately. Credit: Hackread
Meta, TikTok to Face Wrongful Death Over Dangerous Challenge
Justice Paul Goetz ruled on Friday that Norma Nazario can try to prove Meta and ByteDance “goaded” her son Zackery into subway surfing by addicting him to Instagram and TikTok, where he viewed content about “dangerous challenges.” While this is a long way from guilty, it could be pretty uncomfortable for them if it goes to trial, especially if it sets a precedent. Zackery Nazario died on February 20, 2023, after he and his girlfriend climbed atop a Brooklyn-bound J train as it crossed the Williamsburg Bridge. Credit: Cybernews
In Controlled Experiment, AI More Accurate at Medical Diagnosis Than Human Doctor
Microsoft, who ran the test using their software, of course, is touting the results. The experiment, on 304 case studies from the New England Journal of Medicine, tested whether the AI would correctly diagnose the disease. They went through a series of steps to get to something the AI could deal with. They claim the tool achieved an accuracy of 80 percent compared to the doctors’ 20 percent, which is pretty impressive. It also reduced costs by 20 percent by selecting less expensive tests and procedures. Microsoft does not know if they are going to turn this into a product or not. The next step would be to run a clinical trial with real doctors and real patients. Credit: Wired
Qualcomm Fixes 3 Zero-Days Being Exploited
Chipmaker giant Qualcomm released patches fixing a series of vulnerabilities in dozens of chips, including three zero-days that the company said may be in use as part of hacking campaigns. According to the company’s bulletin, Google’s Android security team reported the three zero-days (CVE-2025-21479, CVE-2025-21480, and CVE-2025-27038) to Qualcomm in February. It’s now up to device manufacturers to apply the patches provided by Qualcomm, which means some devices may be vulnerable for, potentially, a long time even though patches are available. Credit: Tech Crunch
EU Appeals Court Says Tracking Based Online Ads Illegal
The Brussels Court of Appeal recently ruled that the use of tracking by online advertisers relies on an inadequate consent model and is illegal in Europe. Companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google and X are most impacted by the decision because the court ruled that the pop-ups they use for consent to target advertising do not do enough to counter privacy violations inherent to the so-called real-time bidding process. “Every time you load a website your personal information is shared with thousands of companies who then bid to show you an advert without proper control over your information and that’s a massive privacy breach,”. Credit: The Record
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