US Marshals Service Suffers Data Breach
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US Marshals Service Suffers Data Breach
Tuesday's Top Tech News
US Marshals Service Suffers Data Breach and Ransomeware Attack
The US Marshals Service has been hit by a ransomware attack in which hackers stole sensitive information about the agency’s employees and subjects it is investigating. Drew Wade, the Marshals Service public affairs chief, called the attack a “major incident” that affected a “stand-alone USMS system” and included law enforcement sensitive information. The Marshals Service has disconnected the affected system from its network and informed the US Department of Justice, which has launched a forensic investigation. The attack did not impact the agency’s Witness Security Program. It is unclear who carried out the attack or how much information was stolen. This follows a number of cyberattacks on US government agencies in recent years.
Fighting ‘Woke AI,’ Musk Recruits Team to Develop OpenAI Rival
Elon Musk is reportedly seeking to form a new AI research lab to develop an alternative to OpenAI's chatbot, ChatGPT, which he has criticized for having safeguards in place to prevent the production of potentially offensive text. Musk has recruited former Alphabet DeepMind AI researcher Igor Babuschkin to spearhead the project, with the goal of improving the reasoning abilities and factualness of language models. The project is still in the early stages, with no concrete plans to develop specific products, and it may become part of Twitter or a standalone AI lab.
Even Busts Can Be Good for Tech
CEOs of big tech companies are warning of macroeconomic storms and the need for discipline and efficiency. Although the tech industry has seen layoffs, they are a necessary reset after a period of exceptional growth. In the past, government spending has played a significant role in shaping tech business cycles, and the U.S. government is set to inject $80 billion into the tech industry through pandemic-era funding bills. This will give companies a customer for products that are too complex or costly to develop with private resources alone. Government regulation is another factor that shapes tech business cycles, and in some cases, it can feed them. The article also notes that market psychology matters just as much as government policy, and tech hype can sometimes be a bubble that does not reflect solid business fundamentals.