Security

At least 2.2 million cars on the road today are vulnerable to an attack that allows thieves to lock and unlock doors and immobilize vehicle engines remotely via a Bluetooth connection, computer scientists at the University of California San Diego have found.... Read more

Large language models (LLMs), the computational algorithms underpinning ChatGPT, Gemini and other artificial intelligence (AI)-powered conversational platforms, are now widely used worldwide. These models can rapidly answer questions, source information online, assist users with specific tasks and produce text tailored for specific purposes.... Read more

So-called deepfakes, that is, images and videos generated with the help of artificial intelligence, are becoming increasingly difficult to detect. An international research team from the University of Tokyo and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, Germany, has developed a method that identifies manipulated videos more reliably than... Read more

For a paper published in the International Journal of Applied Cryptography, a team compared 11 leading large language models (LLMs) for software security. They found that no single system consistently outperforms its rivals in detecting vulnerabilities. This, they suggest, means organizations must select such tools according to the specific software... Read more

While security systems based on pseudo-random number generators (PRNGs) have been developed to secure information use, they produce sequences that are not truly random and suffer from inherent vulnerabilities and security breaches. To overcome these limitations, a true random number generator (TRNG) that exploits diverse sources of physical entropy has... Read more

Recently, Andrew Charlton, the federal assistant minister for science and technology, issued a stark warning about artificial intelligence (AI). Speaking at the AI Safety Forum at the University of Sydney, he said powerful AI models "are already doing things their creators never intended: cheating, deceiving, going their own way."... Read more

An AI flaw that can be found today in one model could be quietly replicated across dozens of products and services built on the same underlying technology. Until now, the AI community has lacked a formal pathway to report those flaws, alert affected vendors and coordinate a response. Researchers at... Read more

Summer is time for that well-deserved vacation. To get ready for your trip, make sure to get your tech life in order alongside other tasks like packing and making sure you've got passports and tickets.... Read more

Researchers from North Carolina State University and Rice University have created a nontoxic, stretchable battery that operates by extracting moisture from the ambient environment—even in climates as dry as the desert. The batteries could be useful in Internet of Things (IoT) applications ranging from wearables to advanced surveillance monitors with... Read more

Artificial intelligence doesn't just learn how humans talk. It may also be learning who gets listened to. A new study from researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that large language models, the technology behind popular AI chatbots, change the way they communicate depending on the... Read more

Today's antipersonnel land mines are small and often have plastic casings that standard metal detectors cannot register. Geophysical techniques such as ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry and electromagnetic induction are significantly less effective with plastic mines than with those made of metal.... Read more

Humans have been successfully trained to spot AI-generated faces in a study led by researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) Emotions and Faces Lab. The study, "Training Humans to Detect AI-generated Faces," is published in PNAS.... Read more

Preventing adversaries from interfering with communications is crucial to national security. Tactical satellite communications (SATCOM) focus on securing reliable communications channels against adversaries in contested environments. In support of this mission, a team from MIT Lincoln Laboratory is building a prototype antenna characterized by low size, weight, power and cost... Read more

AI can be used to prevent cybersecurity threats linked to ransomware, says University of Cincinnati researcher Nelly Elsayed.... Read more

In a first for Australian law enforcement, police in Western Australia have deployed live facial recognition technology in marked vans at locations around Perth.... Read more