Geostrategies
Rethinking the Global AI Race
(Lt. Gen. (ret.) John (Jack) N.T. Shanahan and Kevin Frazier – Just Security – 21 July 2025) The global competition over artificial intelligence is increasingly framed in stark and dramatic terms, often compared to the Manhattan Project, a new arms race, or a moonshot project requiring incredible resources to attain a difficult, if not, impossible goal. These analogies all suffer from a common flaw: they point us toward the wrong goal. AI is not a discrete project with a clear endpoint, like building a nuclear weapon or landing on the moon. It is a long-term, society-wide effort to develop powerful tools and ensure their benefits reach classrooms, battlefields, factories, and start-ups alike. The country that leverages advances in AI to establish and maintain substantial economic and military advantages will not necessarily be the one that develops the most advanced models in the shortest amount of time. The United States is not going to win the AI race against China, for example, simply because U.S.-made OpenAI models beat Chinese-made DeepSeek or Kimi K2 models on capability benchmarks. Instead, countries that learn how to bridge the gap between invention and widespread societal adoption will reap the most crucial benefits in the long term. By taking a longer view, the United States can make smarter decisions about how to align technological progress with national security and public welfare. If it continues to frame AI primarily as a short-term sprint toward technical milestones, it risks falling behind global peers and adversaries. – https://www.justsecurity.org/117137/rethinking-global-ai-race/
The U.K.’s Decryption Order, the CLOUD Act, and Recommended Next Steps
(Jennifer Daskal – Lawfare – 21 July 2025) According to the Financial Times, the UK is now seeking to get out of its encryption fight with Apple. If true, this is good news. The turnaround appears to be the result of pushing by Vice-President J.D. Vance and others, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and a bipartisan group of members of Congress. At issue is a still-secret, yet widely discussed order, issued under the U.K.’s Investigative Powers Act, that reportedly directs Apple to design its systems so that it can respond to lawfully issued government demands for data. To date, however, the UK has not yet pulled the plug on its court case with Apple. The following suggests ways for the United States to use the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (CLOUD) to the United States’ advantage–as additional leverage–in pushing back on the U.K. and others that seek to impose decryption mandates on U.S. tech companies. The piece starts with background on the dispute, details the key legal provisions at issue, and then makes recommendations as to how to leverage the CLOUD Act in the dispute with the U.K, and more broadly, to better protect digital security. – https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-u.k.-s-decryption-order–the-cloud-act–and-recommended-next-steps
West should coordinate to support Pacific cyber development
(Jason Van der Schyff – The Strategist – 21 July 2025) The Pacific is no longer an afterthought in global strategic competition. Stretching across a vast ocean, the region’s scattered island nations are navigating a digital transition that will shape their economic development, national security and geopolitical alignment. The question is no longer whether they will connect to the digital world, but through whom. For the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the European Union, this is a moment of strategic clarity. Closing the Pacific’s digital divide is not just a development priority. It is a litmus test for whether the West can offer a coherent and compelling alternative to China’s digital sphere of influence. – https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/west-should-coordinate-to-support-pacific-cyber-development/
Security
PoisonSeed Hackers Bypass FIDO Keys Using QR Phishing and Cross-Device Sign-In Abuse
(The Hacker News – 21 July 2025) Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a novel attack technique that allows threat actors to downgrade Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) key protections by deceiving users into approving authentication requests from spoofed company login portals. FIDO keys are hardware- or software-based authenticators designed to eliminate phishing by binding logins to specific domains using public-private key cryptography. In this case, attackers exploit a legitimate feature—cross-device sign-in—to trick victims into unknowingly authenticating malicious sessions. – https://thehackernews.com/2025/07/poisonseed-hackers-bypass-fido-keys.html
3,500 Websites Hijacked to Secretly Mine Crypto Using Stealth JavaScript and WebSocket Tactics
(The Hacker News – 21 July 2025) A new attack campaign has compromised more than 3,500 websites worldwide with JavaScript cryptocurrency miners, marking the return of browser-based cryptojacking attacks once popularized by the likes of CoinHive. Although the service has since shuttered after browser makers took steps to ban miner-related apps and add-ons, researchers from the c/side said they found evidence of a stealthy miner packed within obfuscated JavaScript that assesses the computational power of a device and spawns background Web Workers to execute mining tasks in parallel without raising any alarm. More importantly, the activity has been found to leverage WebSockets to fetch mining tasks from an external server, so as to dynamically adjust the mining intensity based on the device capabilities and accordingly throttle resource consumption to maintain stealth. – https://thehackernews.com/2025/07/3500-websites-hijacked-to-secretly-mine.html
Nearly 2 million patients affected in healthcare cyberattack
(DigWatch – 21 July 2025) Anne Arundel Dermatology, a network of over 100 clinics across seven states, has confirmed a cyberattack that compromised patient data for nearly 1.9 million individuals. The breach between 14 February and 13 May 2025 may have exposed sensitive personal and medical records. The company responded swiftly by isolating affected systems, working with forensic experts and completing a full file review by 27 June. – https://dig.watch/updates/nearly-2-million-patients-affected-in-healthcare-cyberattack
Radiology Associates of Richmond data breach impacts 1.4 million people
(Security Affairs – 20 July 2025) Radiology Associates of Richmond has disclosed a data breach that impacted personal and health information of over 1.4 million individuals. Radiology Associates of Richmond (RAR) is a private radiology practice founded in 1905 and based in central Virginia. With over 100 years of continuous operation, RAR provides comprehensive diagnostic and interventional imaging services, including X‑rays, CT scans, MRI, ultrasound, mammography, nuclear medicine, and advanced vascular and neuro‑interventional procedures, across several hospital and outpatient facilities in the Richmond area. The organization discovered that threat actors gained access to its systems between April 2 and 6, 2024. The investigation confirmed on May 2, 2025, that the security breach exposed protected health and personal information. The practice quickly secured its network with the help of external cybersecurity experts and is assessing the impact. – https://securityaffairs.com/180128/data-breach/radiology-associates-of-richmond-data-breach-impacts-1-4-million-people.html
From streets to screens: fighting crime in the digital domain
(Europol – 18 July 2025) With European Union citizens spending up to half of their waking hours online, criminals are increasingly abusing this domain. Criminal actors exploit the existing digital infrastructure to its fullest, leveraging technology and online systems to facilitate illegal activities while evading law enforcement. To prevent online communities from becoming lawless spaces, police forces will have to establish an online presence. Europol’s Innovation Lab and the European Clearing Board’s Strategic Group on Online Policing have authored a concept paper on ‘policing in an online world’. Based on practical experience collected from partners across the EU, paired with academic insight and the discussion of wider societal trends, this concept paper delivers not only a situational snapshot but a set of guiding principles – https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/streets-to-screens-fighting-crime-in-digital-domain
Frontiers
Billee Technologies Secures $9.15M in Seed Funding to Disrupt Utility Management for Multifamily
(AI Insider – 21 July 2025) Billee Technologies has raised $9.15M in a Seed round led by RET Ventures to scale its AI-powered utility billing platform for the multifamily housing sector. The platform replaces manual billing processes with automation and real-time AI insights, helping operators avoid errors, improve compliance, and realize up to 52% in cost savings. Founded by proptech veteran John Hinckley, Billee aims to modernize utility billing and will use the funding to grow its R&D and expand its AI-driven solutions. – https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/07/21/billee-technologies-secures-9-15m-in-seed-funding-to-disrupt-utility-management-for-multifamily/
World’s first quantum teleportation sends telecom qubit into solid-state memory device
(Interesting Engineering – 21 July 2025) Quantum teleportation, once the stuff of science fiction, is rapidly becoming a central pillar in the race to build the next version of the internet. Instead of transmitting particles or signals through wires or airwaves, this process transfers the quantum state of a particle from one place to another, instantly and without physically moving the particle itself. It works by leveraging quantum entanglement, a phenomenon where two particles become so deeply connected that the state of one instantly affects the other, no matter how far apart they are. – https://interestingengineering.com/science/quantum-teleportation-telecom-memory-breakthrough
Figure unveils fireproof humanoid robot battery with 94% more energy capacity
(Interesting Engineering – 21 July 2025) Figure, a California-based robotics company, has introduced the F03 battery, the third generation of its in-house energy platform designed specifically for its humanoid robots. Built entirely at the company’s BotQ facility, the new battery delivers 2.3 kilowatt-hours of energy. That’s enough juice, the company claims, to enable up to five hours of peak performance runtime. It is also the first battery in the humanoid robotics sector undergoing certification for both UN38.3 and UL2271 safety standards – https://interestingengineering.com/energy/figure-unveils-fireproof-humanoid-robot-battery
OpenAI Releases ChatGPT Agent, Its Most Powerful AI Task Assistant to Date
(AI Insider – 21 July 2025) OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Agent, a new general-purpose AI tool designed to complete complex digital tasks directly within ChatGPT. The rollout (…) marks OpenAI’s most advanced move yet to transform its chatbot into an autonomous AI assistant that can navigate calendars, generate slide decks, execute code, and synthesize research using natural language prompts. – https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/07/21/openai-releases-chatgpt-agent-its-most-powerful-ai-task-assistant-to-date/
New AI device brings early skin cancer diagnosis to remote communities
(DigWatch – 21 July 2025) A Scottish research team has developed a pioneering AI-powered tool that could transform how skin cancer is diagnosed in some of the world’s most isolated regions. The device, created by PhD student Tess Watt at Heriot-Watt University, enables rapid diagnosis without needing internet access or direct contact with a dermatologist. Patients use a compact camera connected to a Raspberry Pi computer to photograph suspicious skin lesions. – https://dig.watch/updates/new-ai-device-brings-early-skin-cancer-diagnosis-to-remote-communities
5G Advanced lays the groundwork for 6G, says 5G Americas
(DigWatch – 21 July 2025) 5G Americas has released a new white paper outlining how 5G Advanced features in 3GPP Releases 18 to 20 are shaping the path to 6G. The report highlights how 5G Advanced is evolving mobile networks through embedded AI, scaled IoT, improved energy efficiency, and broader service capabilities. Viet Nguyen, President of 5G Americas, called it a turning point for wireless systems, offering more intelligent, resilient, and sustainable connectivity. AI-native networking is a key innovation which brings machine learning into the radio and core network. The innovation enables zero-touch automation, predictive maintenance, and self-organising systems, cutting fault detection by 90% and reducing false alarms by 70%. – https://dig.watch/updates/5g-advanced-lays-the-groundwork-for-6g-says-5g-americas
Eric Schmidt warns that AI growth is limited by electricity
(DigWatch – 20 July 2025) Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has warned that electricity, rather than semiconductors, will limit the future growth of AI. Speaking on the Moonshots podcast, Schmidt said the push towards artificial superintelligence—AI that exceeds human cognitive ability in almost all domains—will depend on securing sufficient power instead of just developing more advanced chips. Schmidt noted the US alone may require an extra 92 gigawatts of electricity to support AI growth, equivalent to dozens of nuclear power stations. – https://dig.watch/updates/eric-schmidt-warns-that-ai-growth-is-limited-by-electricity
Mistral Launches Voxtral, Its First Open Audio AI Model for Businesses
(AI Insider – 18 July 2025) French AI startup Mistral has entered the speech AI arena with the launch of Voxtral, a new family of open-weight audio models designed to bring advanced speech intelligence to businesses at a fraction of the cost of closed systems. The release marks Mistral’s latest push to challenge proprietary AI incumbents by offering developers greater affordability and control. – https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/07/18/mistral-launches-voxtral-its-first-open-audio-ai-model-for-businesses/