Security News Bites for March 14, 2025
Musk’s Grok AI Say 75%-85% Probability That Trump is a Russian Asset
Some of you are probably old enough to remember Art Linkletter’s “Kids Say The Darnedest Things”. Grok is like that, apparently. Responding to a prompt from a journalist, Grok, the Maximally Truth Seeking AI, according to Musk, says that there is a 75% to 85% chance that Trump is a Russian asset. Someone is getting fired today. Besides the humor in that, it points to the fact that it is really hard to reign in an AI once you have launched it. I guess this is a case of be careful what you wish for, Elon. Credit: Futurism
Free Sometimes Includes Gifts
The FBI is warning people that online file converters and downloaders sometimes come with a little extra – malware. You upload a file to be converted or you point it to a website to capture a video and when you click on the download button you get the file you want – maybe – plus malware. Depending on the hackers sophistication, your anti-malware software may or may not detect it. Credit: Denver 7
CISA Defunds Threat Sharing for States and Elections – Says it is Not a Priority
A spokesperson for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed Wednesday that federal funding had been terminated for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center. They said they “no longer effectuates department priorities”. So, if you thought attacks at the state and local level were bad before, you ain’t seen nothing yet, because, without federal funding, every state, city and tribe is on its own. Good luck folks. Credit: Data Breach Today
Hacking Your Car Radio to Watch You in Real Time
At Pwn2Own Automotive 2024, NCC Group security researchers Alex Plaskett and McCaulay Hudson combined a trio of zero-day exploits together to burrow inside of the Pioneer DMH and plant spyware capable of exfiltrating a variety of data: phone call and browsing histories, Wi-Fi passwords, geolocations, and more. And because it pulled all that data in real time, Hudson notes, “you could just watch a driver, for example, driving down the street, and see their GPS location moving. Or if they were making a call, you could see who they made the call to.” Credit: Dark Reading
Does Anyone Besides Me Find US Politicos Whining About a Secret Court Just Slightly Disingenuous?
Maybe I am missing something. But I doubt it. Apple has given unambiguous smoke signals that it received a secret technical capability notice to give the UK a back door into your data. Now Google won’t say whether they got one too. The way the UK law works is that it is illegal for a company to tell you that they have been told to implement backdoors into their encryption. Now US politicians are complaining about the secrecy of this court. These are the same US politicians who created the very same secret court in the US called the FISA court. In the UK that court is called the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. It is funny that it is okay for the US to have a secret court but not for anyone else to have one. The UK has so far ignored requests for more transparency. As has the US FISA court. Stay tuned. Definitely funny, though. Credit: The Record
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