Arstechnia

• The Internet is (once again) awash with IoT botnets delivering record DDoSes

  Bigger, badder DDoSes are flooding the Internet. Dismal IoT security is largely to blame.

• Cutting-edge Chinese “reasoning” model rivals OpenAI o1—and it’s free to download

  DeepSeek R1 is free to run locally and modify, and it matches OpenAI's o1 in several benchmarks.

• Home Microsoft 365 plans use Copilot AI features as pretext for a price hike

  "Classic" plans without AI or price increases are only for current subscribers.

• Microsoft patches Windows to eliminate Secure Boot bypass threat

  File that neutered Secure Boot passed Microsoft's internal review process.

• US splits world into three tiers for AI chip access

  While close US allies get unrestricted AI chip access, the rest of the world has numerical limits.

• 161 years ago, a New Zealand sheep farmer predicted AI doom

  Butler's "Darwin among the machines" warned of a future mechanical race that could subjugate humanity.

• Microsoft sues service for creating illicit content with its AI platform

  Service used undocumented APIs and other tricks to bypass safety guardrails.

• AI could create 78 million more jobs than it eliminates by 2030—report

  As AGI talk sparks job loss fears, new WEF report projects AI-driven net job growth by 2030.

• Ongoing attacks on Ivanti VPNs install a ton of sneaky, well-written malware

  In-the-wild attacks tamper with built-in security tool providing infection warnings.

• How the UK was connected to the Internet for the first time

  And a few months later, the Internet's first password.

• Here’s how hucksters are manipulating Google to promote shady Chrome extensions

  How do you stash 18,000 keywords into a description? Turns out it's easy.

• Nvidia unveils $3,000 desktop AI computer for home researchers

  Project DIGITS can run a local chatbot or other AI models up to 200B parameters in size.

• Widely used DNA sequencer still doesn’t enforce Secure Boot

  A firmware-dwelling bootkit in the iSeq 100 could be a key win for threat actors.

• Sam Altman says “we are now confident we know how to build AGI”

  The race to replace human workers continues in Big Tech, but not everyone is convinced it will happen so soon.

• Time to check if you ran any of these 33 malicious Chrome extensions

  Two separate campaigns have been stealing credentials and browsing history for months.

• Passkey technology is elegant, but it’s most definitely not usable security

  Just in time for holiday tech-support sessions, here's what to know about passkeys.

• 2024: The year AI drove everyone crazy

  What do eating rocks, rat genitals, and Willy Wonka have in common? AI, of course.

• Health care giant Ascension says 5.6 million patients affected in cyberattack

  Intrusion caused medical errors and diversion of emergency services.

• 12 days of OpenAI: The Ars Technica recap

  Did OpenAI's big holiday event live up to the billing?

• OpenAI announces o3 and o3-mini, its next simulated reasoning models

  o3 matches human levels on ARC-AGI benchmark, and o3-mini exceeds o1 at some tasks.