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Chinese cyberspies breached dozens of telecom firms, govt agencies

Google’s Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG), Mandiant, and partners disrupted a global espionage campaign attributed to a suspected Chinese threat actor that used SaaS API calls to hide malicious traffic in attacks targeting telecom and government networks.

The campaign has been active since at least 2023 and has impacted 53 organizations in 42 countries, with suspected infections in at least 20 more countries.

The initial access vector is unknown, but the researchers note that the threat actor, which Google tracks internally as UNC2814, has previously gained access by exploiting flaws in web servers and edge systems.

Spain arrests suspected hacktivists for DDoSing govt sites

Spanish authorities have arrested four alleged members of a hacktivist group believed to have carried out cyberattacks targeting government ministries, political parties, and various public institutions.

The group, which called itself “Anonymous Fénix” and claimed they were affiliated with the Anonymous hacker collective, conducted distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against targets in Spain and several South American countries, according to the Spanish Civil Guard.

The first attacks occurred in April 2023 and peaked after the flash floods that struck Valencia in late October 2024, when the group’s members attacked multiple government websites, claiming Spanish authorities were responsible for the deaths and destruction caused by the storm.

Advances and Integrations of Computer-Assisted Planning,… : Operative Neurosurgery

ONSNew ONSReview Advances and Integrations of Computer-Assisted Planning, Artificial Intelligence, and Predictive Modeling Tools for Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy in Neurosurgical Oncology by Warman et al Johns Hopkins Medicine Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) Isaac Yang.

E to surrounding healthy tissue, LiTT offers promising therapeutic outcomes for both newly diagnosed and recurrent tumors. However, challenges such as postprocedural edema, unpredictable heat diffusion near blood vessels and ventricles in real time underscore the need for improved planning and monitoring. Incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) presents a viable solution to many of these obstacles. AI has already demonstrated effectiveness in optimizing surgical trajectories, predicting seizure-free outcomes in epilepsy cases, and generating heat distribution maps to guide real-time ablation. This technology could be similarly deployed in neurosurgical oncology to identify patients most likely to benefit from LiTT, refine trajectory planning, and predict tissue-specific heat responses.

Japanese government panel endorses Sumitomo Pharma’s iPS-derived treatment for Parkinson’s

The expert council of the Japanese Ministry of Health has approved two regenerative medicine drugs based on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) — a cure for Parkinson’s disease and heart failure. If the health minister approves the experts’ decision, Japan will become the first country in the world to allow the commercial sale of such products — almost 20 years after the discovery of the technology itself.

Japan’s health ministry said on Thursday a panel of specialists had endorsed Sumitomo Pharma’s iPS cell-derived treatment for Parkinson’s disease, paving the way for the world’s first medical products based on the technology.

Researcher skeptical of ‘Havana syndrome’ tested secret weapon on himself

“Working in strict secrecy, a government scientist in Norway built a machine capable of emitting powerful pulses of microwave energy and, in an effort to prove such devices are harmless to humans, in 2024 tested it on himself. He suffered neurological symptoms similar to those of ”Havana syndrome,” the unexplained malady that has struck hundreds of U.S. spies and diplomats around the world.

The bizarre story, described by four people familiar with the events, is the latest wrinkle in the decade-long quest to find the causes of Havana syndrome, whose sufferers experience long-lasting effects including cognitive challenges, dizziness and nausea. The U.S. government calls the events Anomalous Health Incidents (AHIs).

The secret test in Norway has not been previously reported. The Norwegian government told the CIA about the results, two of the people said, prompting at least two visits in 2024 to Norway by Pentagon and White House officials.

The CIA investigated a Norwegian government experiment with a pulsed-energy machine in which a researcher built and tested a ”Havana syndrome” device on himself.

The Deflationary Singularity: Why Everything is Going to ZERO w/ Salim Ismail

The rapid advancement of technologies, particularly AI, is driving the world towards an economic singularity where the marginal cost of essentials approaches zero, leading to a deflationary future and a potential transformation of traditional systems and societies ##

## Questions to inspire discussion.

Education Transformation.

🎓 Q: How will AI reduce education time while improving effectiveness?

A: AI will customize education to each child’s learning style, reducing daily learning time to 1 hour per day while delivering 5 times more effective learning compared to traditional methods, with costs falling to zero within 3–5 years and breaking the university industry that currently creates massive student debt.

Healthcare Revolution.

Continue reading “The Deflationary Singularity: Why Everything is Going to ZERO w/ Salim Ismail” | >

Overtime with Bill Maher: Jonathan Haidt, Stephanie Ruhle, H.R. McMaster (HBO)

Artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing to the point where it may be able to write its own code, potentially leading to significant job displacement, societal problems, and concerns about unregulated use in areas like warfare.

## Questions to inspire discussion.

Career Adaptation.

🎯 Q: How should workers prepare for AI’s impact on employment? A: 20% of jobs including coders, medical, consulting, finance, and accounting roles will be affected in the next 5 years, requiring workers to actively learn and use large language models to enhance productivity or risk being left behind in the competitive landscape.

Economic Policy.

📊 Q: What systemic response is needed for AI-driven job displacement? A: Government planning is essential to manage massive economic transitions and job losses as AI’s exponential growth reaches a tipping point, extending beyond manufacturing into white-collar professions across multiple sectors.

Continue reading “Overtime with Bill Maher: Jonathan Haidt, Stephanie Ruhle, H.R. McMaster (HBO)” | >

CISA flags critical Microsoft SCCM flaw as exploited in attacks

CISA ordered U.S. government agencies on Thursday to secure their systems against a critical Microsoft Configuration Manager vulnerability patched in October 2024 and now exploited in attacks.

Microsoft Configuration Manager (also known as ConfigMgr and formerly System Center Configuration Manager, or SCCM) is an IT administration tool for managing large groups of Windows servers and workstations.

Tracked as CVE-2024–43468 and reported by offensive security company Synacktiv, this SQL injection vulnerability allows remote attackers with no privileges to gain code execution and run arbitrary commands with the highest level of privileges on the server and/or the underlying Microsoft Configuration Manager site database.

12 Emerging Innovative Technology Areas for Government Prioritization

By Chuck Brooks

#technology #government #security

By Chuck Brooks, president of Brooks Consulting International

The future of innovation in both government and industry will not be distinguished by singular breakthroughs, but rather by the convergence and meshing of a number of different new technologies. Going forward, industries, national security, economic competitiveness, privacy and almost every aspect of everyday life will all be reshaped as a result of this integrated ecosystem, which encompasses artificial intelligence, quantum computing, improved connectivity, space systems and other areas.

12 Emerging Innovative Technology Areas for Government Prioritization

Twelve crucial technical domains will help propel the federal government toward this convergent transformation.

The Frontier Labs War: Opus 4.6, GPT 5.3 Codex, and the SuperBowl Ads Debacle

Questions to inspire discussion AI Model Performance & Capabilities.

🤖 Q: How does Anthropic’s Opus 4.6 compare to GPT-5.2 in performance?

A: Opus 4.6 outperforms GPT-5.2 by 144 ELO points while handling 1M tokens, and is now in production with recursive self-improvement capabilities that allow it to rewrite its entire tech stack.

🔧 Q: What real-world task demonstrates Opus 4.6’s agent swarm capabilities?

A: An agent swarm created a C compiler in Rust for multiple architectures in weeks for **$20K, a task that would take humans decades, demonstrating AI’s ability to collapse timelines and costs.

🐛 Q: How effective is Opus 4.6 at finding security vulnerabilities?

Continue reading “The Frontier Labs War: Opus 4.6, GPT 5.3 Codex, and the SuperBowl Ads Debacle” | >
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