Two security professionals, Gary DeMercurio and Justin Wynn, received a $600,000 settlement from an Iowa county after being wrongfully arrested in 2019 for conducting an authorized security assessment of a county courthouse. The lawsuit alleged wrongful arrest and defamation.
DeMercurio and Wynn, employed by Colorado-based security firm Coalfire Labs at the time, had written authorization from the Iowa Judicial Branch to perform "red-team exercises," which are attempted security breaches designed to mimic techniques used by criminal hackers, according to Ars Technica. The purpose of these exercises is to test the resilience of existing defenses.
In other news, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is utilizing AI video generators from Google and Adobe to create and edit content for public consumption, according to a document released on Wednesday by MIT Technology Review. The DHS is using Google's Veo 3 video generator and Adobe Firefly for editing images, videos, and other public affairs materials. This comes as immigration agencies have increased their social media presence with content, some of which appears to be AI-generated.
Separately, Microsoft reported a significant increase in its demand backlog, which more than doubled to $625 billion, boosted by OpenAI, Fortune reported. However, the tech giant's stock tumbled nearly 5% in after-hours trading following the release of its second-quarter earnings, which revealed a slowdown in Azure revenue growth. Microsoft admitted that capacity constraints would extend to at least the end of its fiscal year in June. During an earnings call with analysts, Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella and Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood addressed investor concerns about the slowdown in revenue growth for the Azure platform amid soaring capital expenditure.
The rise of AI is also impacting cybersecurity, with Fortune reporting that hacking is becoming cheaper due to AI. Gal Nagli, head of threat exposure at cloud security startup Wiz, and Omer Nevo, cofounder and CTO at Irregular, a Sequoia-backed company, have expressed concerns about the current cybersecurity landscape. According to Fortune, businesses are struggling to secure systems in a world where AI agents are no longer just answering questions, but acting autonomously.
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