Top 5 Tech News Stories of the Week (June 2 - June 9, 2024).
Chat GPT and Other LLMs Experience Brief Outage
This week, several large language models, including Chat GPT, experienced a temporary outage. Users reported issues generating responses, and the model’s developers quickly resolved the incident.
ChatGPT suffered a significant outage, impacting all users on all plans. The outage affected the web version (chatgpt.com) and the mobile application. The incident started at 2:15 PM GMT and was resolved by 5:01 PM GMT on the same day. The exact cause of the outage has not been specified.
I have to say I missed not being able to access the application; I would use it on average at least 3 to 5 times a day now. From writing draft reports to analysing error codes, it really has become part of my everyday tool kit.
Did the outage affect you, comment bellow.
Major Cyber Attack on Britain’s Healthcare Service.
King’s College Hospital, Guy's and St Thomas', Royal Brompton, and Evelina London Children’s Hospital in London suffered a significant cyber attack this week. The attackers demanded a ransom in cryptocurrency and threatened to leak sensitive patient data.
Ransomware compromised the hospital’s systems, encrypting patient records, appointment schedules, and critical medical data. The hospital’s IT team isolated the affected systems and contacted cybersecurity experts.
According to Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of the UK National Cyber Security Centre, Russian hackers were responsible for the attack on several major London hospitals. These cybercriminals were primarily motivated by financial gain, targeting the pathology services firm Synnovis, which provided blood testing services, including blood transfusions and test results. Negotiations with the attackers are ongoing. Dr. Emily Brown, a cybersecurity analyst, emphasized the need for robust security protocols and regular backups to prevent data loss. Healthcare institutions worldwide must prioritize cybersecurity to safeguard patient information. King's College Hospital, Guy's and St Thomas', Royal Brompton, and Evelina London Children’s Hospital. The attack disrupted services,
The incident involved ransomware, affecting Synnovis, a provider of pathology services. Emergency care continued, but some procedures were cancelled or redirected. Patients faced cancellations and uncertainty about rescheduled appointments. The NHS is actively working to understand the impact of this and ensure patient care. Stay informed and vigilant!
Microsoft’s Recall AI: A Security Nightmare
Recall, touted as a comprehensive record of everything a user does on their PC, aims to provide contextual information to enhance Windows’ understanding of individual users’ needs. It captures screenshots and other data, creating a detailed history of user interactions.
Security researcher Kevin Beaumont has identified significant flaws in implementing Microsoft’s “Recall” feature. Let’s break down the issues.
Unredacted Screenshots: Recall captures screenshots of a user’s PC activity, including sensitive information. By default, Recall does not redact sensitive data, such as usernames, passwords, and health records, which poses a severe privacy risk.
Local Database Vulnerability: Beaumont discovered that the local Recall database can be easily accessed by malicious actors. The vector index, stored as an SQLite database, resides inside the “AppData” folder. This vulnerability allows unauthorized access to Recall data.
Recall’s promise of security is undermined by its flawed implementation. Despite Microsoft’s reassurances, users have encountered issues viewing raw Recall data. Even on unsupported systems, accessing a user’s Recall snapshots is straightforward.
Recall’s security risks demand immediate attention. Users should exercise caution and consider the potential implications of using this feature.
Microsoft maintains that Recall is secure, emphasizing on-device data encryption and privacy controls. However, Beaumont’s findings indicate limitations in the encryption process.
NVIDIA’s Next Wave of AI: Physical AI
In a recent address ahead of the COMPUTEX technology conference, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the transformative potential of physical AI. This next wave of AI is characterized by machines that understand the laws of physics and can work alongside humans. Here are the key points:
Huang predicts that everything will become robotic. Factories, for instance, will be fully automated, with robots orchestrating production processes and building products themselves. Physical AI goes beyond traditional machine learning. It involves AI systems that comprehend physical principles, enabling them to interact more effectively with the real world.
NVIDIA’s AI and accelerated computing innovations are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. They combine GPUs and CPUs to achieve significant performance gains while maintaining energy efficiency. Huang highlights that accelerated computing is sustainable computing. It delivers up to a 100x speedup while only increasing power consumption by a factor of three, resulting in substantial cost savings.
As we move into this new era of AI, physical AI promises to revolutionize industries, enhance productivity, and shape the future of technology.
Irish Government Websites Hit by Cyber Attack
Several Irish government websites experienced a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack over the weekend, temporarily disrupting services.
Hackers overwhelmed government servers with a type of cyberattack called a Denial of Service (DDoS). Essentially, this is akin to hundreds of thousands of users attempting to visit a website simultaneously, overloading the server and causing it to fail or shut down.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) mitigated the attack and restored services. Dr. Aoife Murphy, a cybersecurity consultant, stressed the importance of proactive monitoring and incident response plans.
The affected websites included Irish Rail, Bus Éireann, Transport for Ireland, the Houses of the Oireachtas, the Leap Card app, and the voter registration portal Voter.ie. The attack was a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack in which attackers continuously reloaded the websites until they crashed.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) identified four groups behind the attack, primary Pro Rusian groups.
Fortunately, the attack's effect was minimal, and the websites were eventually restored. Notably, the attack did not involve viruses or ransomware.
The NCSC anticipated such cyber attacks in the lead-up to the elections. A 2017 report highlighted a “medium” risk of cyber attacks posing a substantial threat to Ireland’s electoral system and recommended improving cybersecurity awareness and security measures. The NCSC worked closely with local authorities and the Electoral Commission to protect election infrastructure.
As cyber threats continue to evolve, vigilance and proactive measures are crucial to safeguarding critical systems and ensuring the integrity of democratic processes.
That wraps up another week. As evident, the IT landscape is evolving rapidly. Remember to share, like, and comment on this news story.
