TOP OF THE DAY
Security
New AI Challenges Will Test CISOs & Their Teams in 2025
(Josh Lemos – Dark Reading – 9 January 2025) Security teams have always had to adapt to change, but new developments that will play out over the next year could make 2025 particularly challenging. The accelerating pace of AI innovation, increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, and new regulatory mandates will require chief information security officers (CISOs) to navigate a more complex landscape. Vendors are rapidly adding AI-enabled features to existing products, and the foundational large language models (LLMs) they are using present a new attack surface that malicious actors will try to exploit. CISOs will need to understand their level of exposure to these threats and how to mitigate them. – https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/new-ai-challenges-test-ciso-teams-2025
Some Winston-Salem city services knocked offline by cyberattack
(Jonathan Greig – The Record – 9 January 2025) Winston-Salem, North Carolina, residents are not able to pay their utility bills online after a post-Christmas cyberattack knocked the city’s systems offline. City officials initially announced a cyberattack on December 30, telling residents that they discovered issues with their digital platforms one day after Christmas. – https://therecord.media/winston-salem-north-carolina-services-offline-cyberattack
PowerSchool Reportedly Pays Ransom to Prevent Student Data Leak
(James Coker – Infosecurity Magazine – 9 January 2025) North American school software provider PowerSchool has reportedly paid a ransom to prevent attackers from releasing stolen data of students and teachers. A message to parents by the Howard-Suamico School District in Wisconsin, US, seen by news outlet NBC 26, read: “PowerSchool confirmed that this was not a ransomware attack but it did pay a ransom to prevent the data from being released.” – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/powerschool-pays-ransom-data-leak/
We Need to Talk About the Insider Risk from AI
(Paul Martin CBE, Sarah Mercer – RUSI – 8 January 2025) As AI systems increasingly undertake tasks previously performed by humans, organisations face a growing security risk from artificial insiders as well as human ones. This complex security risk is poorly understood. Fortunately, some of the approaches that protective security practitioners use for managing risks from human insiders are also applicable to AIs. – https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/we-need-talk-about-insider-risk-ai
Governance and Legislation
Rogue AI Moves Three Steps Closer
(Peter N. Salib – Lawfare – 9 January 2025) Will humans lose control over advanced AI systems? Three developments from the final weeks of 2024 should make us worry. In short: Two empirical evaluations showed that systems like GPT-4 and Claude sometimes actively resist human efforts to alter their behavior. Those AIs try to resist human control by lying, faking compliance, disabling oversight mechanisms, and even copying themselves to external servers. Claude and GPT-4, however, are not yet smart enough to succeed at subverting human control. But OpenAI’s new o3 model—unveiled mid-December but not yet available to the public—suggests that it will not be long before AI systems are as smart as their human minders, or smarter. – https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/rogue-ai-moves-three-steps-closer
EU Commission Liable for Breaching EU’s Own Data Protection Rules
(James Coker – Infosecurity Magazine – 9 January 2025) The EU Commission has been found liable for breaching the EU’s own data protection rules in a landmark ruling that could open the door to class action lawsuits in the region. In a civil litigation action brought by an EU citizen living in Germany, the General Court of the EU found that the Commission infringed the individual’s right to the protection of their personal data by transferring their details to recipients in the US. At the time of the data transfer it could not be ensured that the US had an adequate level of protection for the personal data of EU citizens. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/eu-commission-liable-data/
Government Launches £1.9m Initiative to Boost UK’s Cyber Resilience
(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine – 9 January 2025) The UK government has provided more details of a new scheme designed to help the nation better protect itself from cyber-threats. It announced £1.9m ($2.3 m) in government and private sector funding for 30 “Cyber Local” projects across England and Northern Ireland, which it hopes will protect the digital economy and grow the UK’s cyber skills. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/government-19m-boost-uks-cyber/
Analysis: Meta’s fact-checking pullback will have global consequences
(Mark Scott – Atlantic Council – 8 January 2025) On January 7, 2025, Meta announced a wholesale change to how the company polices harmful, illegal and divisive content on Facebook and Instagram. The updates include the closure of its fact-checking program, starting in the US, that cuts off funding for independent groups to debunk falsehoods posted on its social media networks. – https://dfrlab.org/2025/01/08/analysis-metas-fact-checking-pullback-will-have-global-consequences/
Frontiers
South Korea to Form Quantum Strategy Committee
(Matt Swayne – Quantum Insider – 9 January 2025) South Korea plans to establish a Quantum Strategy Committee by the first quarter of this year to drive its national quantum technology development, according to Vice Minister Lee Chang-yoon. The committee, created under the “Act on the Promotion of Quantum Science and Technology and Quantum Industry,” will involve government ministries, academia and industry to shape strategies for advancing quantum innovation. Despite delays due to political challenges, preparations for the committee’s launch are complete, with experts predicting 2025 will be a transformative year for South Korea’s quantum technology sector. – https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/01/09/south-korea-to-form-quantum-strategy-committee/
University of Birmingham and Paragraf Collaboration Receives $4.2M to Scale Graphene for Quantum Technologies
(Cierra Choucair – Quantum Insider – 9 January 2025) The University of Birmingham and Paragraf have launched a collaboration, funded with £3.4 million (approximately $4.2 million), to scale graphene production and explore its potential for quantum computing and other advanced technologies. The partnership focuses on addressing challenges in manufacturing graphene at scale and understanding its cryogenic properties, which are relevant for quantum applications like qubit stability. Researchers will test graphene magnetic sensors, which offer high precision at ultra-low temperatures, for use in both quantum computing and electric vehicle battery management systems. – https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/01/09/university-of-birmingham-and-paragraf-collaboration-receives-4-2m-to-scale-graphene-for-quantum-technologies/
UConn, NORDITA, and Google Reveal Gravity As Both Friend and Foe of Quantum Technology
(Cierra Choucair – Quantum Insider – 9 January 2025) Researchers from UConn, Google Quantum AI, and NORDITA quantified the effects of gravitational redshift on transmon qubits, revealing how gravity subtly influences energy levels in quantum systems and creates a universal dephasing channel. The study modeled gravitational effects on vertically aligned qubit arrays, such as Google’s Sycamore chip, showing that while negligible for individual qubits, the impact becomes measurable at scale. The team developed a high-precision measurement protocol to detect gravitational phase shifts, presenting challenges for qubit coherence but also opportunities for advanced gravitational sensing applications. Current quantum hardware cannot experimentally detect these effects due to sensitivity limitations, but the research lays a theoretical foundation for future validation and innovations like GPS-free navigation systems. – https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/01/09/uconn-nordita-and-google-reveal-gravity-as-both-friend-and-foe-of-quantum-technology/
Quantum and AI Projects Make List of Intel’s 2024 Triumphs
(Matt Swayne – Quantum Insider – 9 January 2025) Intel Labs highlighted its leadership in quantum computing and artificial intelligence with major advances in silicon qubit control, post-quantum cryptography and neuromorphic systems. A key milestone was the demonstration of cryogenic silicon spin qubit control electronics, addressing scalability challenges and paving the way for quantum systems with millions of qubits. Intel contributed to a NIST post-quantum cryptography standard with its SLH-DSA algorithm, ensuring data integrity against future quantum threats. – https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/01/09/quantum-and-ai-projects-make-list-of-intels-2024-triumphs/
Researchers Introduce Refrigerator to Autonomously Cool Superconducting Qubits to Record Low Temperature
(Matt Swayne – Quantum Insider – 9 January 2025) Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Maryland have developed an autonomous quantum refrigerator that cools superconducting qubits to record-low temperatures, improving quantum computation reliability. The refrigerator operates without external control, using heat from the environment to achieve qubit ground-state probabilities of 99.97%, a significant boost for error-free quantum computing. By leveraging thermal interactions between qubits, this innovative system demonstrates the first practical application of an autonomous quantum thermal machine, offering a breakthrough in qubit cooling. – https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/01/09/researchers-introduce-refrigerator-to-autonomously-cool-superconducting-qubits-to-record-low-temperature/
EQUSPACE Consortium Receives 3.2 Million Euros From The European Innovation Council to Develop Quantum Tech
(Matt Swayne – Quantum Insider – 9 January 2025) The EQUSPACE consortium, led by the University of Jyväskylä, has secured €3.2 million from the European Innovation Council’s Pathfinder Open program to pioneer scalable silicon-based quantum technologies. The four-year project unites researchers from three EU countries to develop a quantum platform using silicon spin qubits, leveraging existing semiconductor infrastructure for quantum computing and sensing. EQUSPACE aims to modernize Europe’s quantum industry, countering global competition by fostering a robust research network and advancing silicon quantum applications through interdisciplinary expertise. – https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/01/09/equspace-consortium-receives-3-2-million-euros-from-the-european-innovation-council-to-develop-quantum-tech/
50 Robotics Companies to Watch in 2025[6–10]
(James Dargan – AI Insider – 9 January 2025) Welcome to the second installment of AI Insider’s series, highlighting 50 groundbreaking robotics companies making waves in 2025. This edition features five more innovative organizations pushing the boundaries of what robotics and AI can achieve. These companies showcase the diverse applications and limitless potential of robotics in shaping our future. – https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/01/09/50-robotics-companies-to-watch-in-20256-10/
NVIDIA CEO Sees AI as Transformational Driver of Self-Driving Cars and Robotics
(James Dargan – AI Insider – 9 January 2025) Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO and founder, is clear-eyed about the transformative power of artificial intelligence. Speaking at CES, he described NVIDIA’s pivotal role in shaping industries like robotics, self-driving cars, and AI-driven computing systems. – https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/01/09/nvidia-ceo-sees-ai-as-transformational-driver-of-self-driving-cars-and-robotics/