Tag Archive for: pits

DEF CON’s AI Village Pits Hackers Against LLMs to Find Flaws

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DEF CON 2023 — Las Vegas — DEF CON’s most buzzed-about event, the AI Village, let thousands of hackers take their best shot at making one of eight different large language models (LLMs), including Google, and Open AI, say something dangerous.

According to the spokespeople for the Hack the Future AI Village, the event was a huge hit, but for now that’s all that’s being made public — results won’t be made available for at least a week, maybe more.

The final AI hacking challenge leaderboard showed both first and third place prizes went to handles “cody3” and “cody2” respectively. The DEF CON AI Village itself was tight-lipped about any details about the winner, or even the prizes, but reports identified the person behind both top-three AI Village contest entries as Stanford masters computer science student Truc Cody Ho, adding he entered a total of five times in the competition.

More details about the hacking competition results are forthcoming, according to Avijit Ghosh, one of the authors compiling them.

“We will be going through the anonymized data and finding patterns of vulnerabilities that participants discovered during the challenge and produce a report that will hopefully help ML and security researchers gain better insights into LLMs and policymakers make more informed regulations about AI,” Ghosh says.

While he won’t answer questions directly about any of the winning LLM hacks, Ghosh says he was able to use the LLMs to generate discriminatory code, credit card numbers, misinformation, and more.

Another of the event’s organizers, Jutta Williams, has a day job as Reddit’s senior director and global head of privacy and assurance; and on the side, is the founder of Humane-Intelligence, a nonprofit that provides safety, ethical, and other guidance for companies providing consumers with AI products.

Historic Turnout For Event

Williams touted the event as the “largest LLM red teaming to date.”

All told, Williams said the AI Village attracted 2,240 hackers over the course of DEF CON 31 and explained the goal was to make one of its LLMs “do something unsavory.” That could mean generating misinformation, or using just the right question to prompt the chatbot to do something illegal —…

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Malware Attack Can Lead To Data Loss | by PITS Global Data Recovery Services | Aug, 2023

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Photo by Ed Hardie on Unsplash

With the rise of technology and interconnectivity, the threat of data loss has also grown significantly. One of the most dangerous culprits responsible for data loss is malware. In this blog, we will explain the world of malware, its potential consequences, and the measures you can take to safeguard your data.

Malware, short for “malicious software,” refers to a broad category of software programs designed with malicious intent. Malware is created to gain unauthorized access to systems, steal sensitive information, disrupt computer operations, or cause harm in various ways. Malware can take many forms, including viruses, worms, Trojans, ransomware, spyware, and adware.

  1. Data Theft: One of the primary objectives of malware attacks is to steal valuable data. Cybercriminals may target personal information like login credentials, credit card details, and social security numbers. In the case of businesses, sensitive customer data, intellectual property, and financial records are often the primary targets. Once in the hands of malicious actors, this data can be sold on the dark web, used for identity theft, or leveraged for extortion.
  2. Ransomware: Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts a victim’s data, making it inaccessible until a ransom is paid. Falling prey to a ransomware attack can lead to significant data loss, as organizations might lose access to their critical files and databases. Even if the ransom is paid, there is no guarantee that the attackers will decrypt the data, leaving victims in a devastating situation.
  3. Data Destruction: Some malware is designed explicitly to cause data destruction. These destructive malware types can wipe out entire data systems, rendering them unusable and causing severe data loss. Such attacks can lead to costly downtime, loss of productivity, and reputational damage.
  4. Disruption of Backups: Backups are essential for data recovery in the event of a data loss event. However, advanced malware can infect backup systems, compromising the ability to restore data effectively. If backups are not securely isolated from the network, they may also be subject to the same vulnerabilities as primary data storage.
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Cybersecurity contest pits students against ransomware attackers

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As ransomware attacks continue to plague local government entities — Bexar County Appraisal District was the latest victim — hackers’ methods and organizations have become more sophisticated. At least one hacker group identified by the FBI appears to have an HR department, performance reviews and an “employee of the month.”

Professionals simulated these complex, highly targeted attacks this week at a student competition in San Antonio, sponsored by Raytheon Technologies as a way to train and recruit the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.

The finals of the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, held at the Hyatt Regency Hill County Resort and Spa from Thursday to Saturday, saw 10 teams from 10 schools across the country play defense against coordinated cyberattacks. More than 150 other teams had already been eliminated before this week.

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