A stranger can learn a lot about you in 5 minutes online
ZDNET – how to check and delete it ASAP [with the caveat that such deletions may not stick as your personal data is constantly refreshed online]: ” You might be worried about cybercriminals scouring the internet for your data, but far more searches happen much closer to home. It takes a second for someone to look you up online, and the reasons they might do vary:
a first date could be coming up and the person you’re meant to meet wants to make sure you are who you say you are; your new landlord wants to see what sort of person they are going to be renting to; past friends or no-contact family members might be trying to track you down; or the hiring manager of a job you applied for could be running a check to see how you behave on social media…There’s far more of your information out there than you realize, and with it, someone can work out your movements, habits, and more. Here’s how it’s done and what you can do to stop it…
Gemini Hacked Three Companies in First Known Breakout by Google’s AI
WSJ – no paywall – The episode resembled similar hacks by other AI models, but Google said it didn’t consider it an instance of model misalignment: “Google’s Gemini model accessed the internet and hacked other companies during a test of its cybersecurity capabilities, the first known example of the company’s artificial-intelligence systems autonomously committing such an act.
The hacks, which the company confirmed on Friday, occurred in May as part of a test run by the company Irregular, which was also involved in similar incidents disclosed by OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta. In one of the cases, the model guessed passwords until it gained access to a protected system. In the other two cases, the model found credentials in a public repository that allowed it to then access protected systems.
In each case, the model ended the intrusion after determining it had accessed a real company’s systems, Google said. Irregular notified Google about the hacks at the end of July, Google and Irregular said, in the wake of the discovery that OpenAI’s agents had hacked the AI software company Hugging Face.
Google didn’t disclose the hacks until The Wall Street Journal reached out with inquiries this week. Companies are wrestling with how and when to disclose instances of security breaches and model misbehavior, amid a steady drumbeat of such incidents and rising fears over out-of-control AI.
Some security breaches have been voluntarily disclosed by the companies themselves; others have been discovered by security researchers and revealed in the media, including a May cyberattack conducted by OpenAI agents against a popular online service for coders…”
Hackers Say They Have Data on All FBI Employees
404 Media: “A high profile hacking group [comprised of perhaps one person] claims it has breached multiple FBI-related services and stolen data “on all FBI employees and applicants.”
A representative of the group, called ShinyHunters, told 404 Media the data includes FBI agents’ names, home addresses, phone number, and information on their spouse. The data breach could be massively significant and may have all sorts of national security and counterintelligence implications.
Criminals from the same ecosystem as ShinyHunters have previously used hacked data like phone records to track, intimidate, and harass the FBI agents investigating them. The highly sensitive data could also be a boon to foreign intelligence agencies who want to better understand how one of the most important law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the U.S. operates.
And if the data fell into the hands of more criminals, FBI agents and their spouses could face serious threats to their safety. “We hacked the FBI. We hold data on all FBI employees and applicants,” the representative of the group told 404 Media.
The representative provided 404 Media with a sample appearing to contain the personal data of 5,000 FBI employees. That data included an alleged address, phone number, date of birth, and in some cases details on their spouse…”
“What worries me most is how any criminal with a grudge could use this data to target and physically harm not only the F.B.I. agents who investigated them, but also those agents’ families,” former senior FBI official Cynthia Kaiser said.
