A series of recent cybersecurity incidents and technological advancements are impacting various sectors, from law enforcement to mathematics, according to multiple reports. These developments include the FBI's struggle to access a journalist's iPhone, allegations of Chinese hackers targeting Notepad++ users, a new AI math startup cracking previously unsolved problems, and the challenges enterprises face when implementing AI strategies.
The FBI has been unable to access data from a Washington Post reporter's iPhone after seizing the device from her home on January 14, according to a court filing reported by Ars Technica. The phone was protected by Apple's Lockdown Mode. However, agents were able to access the reporter's work laptop by using her fingerprint. The search warrant was executed at the Virginia home of reporter Hannah Natanson as part of an investigation into a Pentagon contractor accused of illegally leaking classified information.
In another incident, users of Notepad++, a widely used text editor for Windows, may have been hacked by suspected China-state actors. According to Wired, the infrastructure delivering updates for Notepad++ was compromised for six months, starting last June. Attackers used their control to deliver backdoored versions of the app to select targets by intercepting and redirecting update traffic destined for notepad-plus-plus.org. "I deeply apologize to all users affected by this hijacking," the author of a post published to the official Notepad++ site stated. Multiple investigators tied the attackers to the Chinese government.
On a more positive note, a new AI math startup has reportedly cracked four previously unsolved problems. Wired reported that mathematicians Dawei Chen and Quentin Gendron, while working on a difficult area of algebraic geometry, ran into a roadblock that depended on a strange formula from number theory. Chen recently spent hours prompting ChatGPT in the hopes of getting the AI to come up with a solution to the still unsolved problem, but it wasn't working. Later, during a reception at a math conference in Washington, DC, the problem was solved by a new AI math startup.
Meanwhile, VentureBeat highlighted the challenges enterprises face when implementing AI strategies, pointing to the "hidden tax of 'Franken-stacks' that sabotages AI strategies." According to Raju Malhotra of Certinia, the initial euphoria around Generative and Agentic AI has shifted to a pragmatic, often frustrated, reality. CIOs and technical leaders are questioning why their pilot programs aren't delivering the promised results. "AI doesn’t struggle because it lacks intelligence. It struggles because it lacks context," Malhotra stated. He argued that in the modern enterprise, context is trapped in a maze of disconnected point solutions, brittle APIs, and latency-ridden integrations.
In other news, a US district judge said this week that Donald Trump has so far not intervened to help Elon Musk end a lawsuit raised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over his 2022 Twitter takeover, Ars Technica reported. The SEC lawsuit seeks $150 million in disgorgement, plus interest, as well as civil penalties and an injunction blocking Musk from future wrongdoing. The complaint alleged that Musk quietly acquired a 9 percent stake in Twitter without filing necessary timely disclosures to alert other investors of a potential change in company control. This allowed Musk to acquire over 70 million shares at an artificial price.
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