OpenAI disrupts influence operations that used generative AI.

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Summary

By the CyberWire staff

At a glance.

OpenAI disrupts influence operations that used generative AI.
Russia's GRU targets European defense and transportation organizations.
Clarity.fm breach exposed personal information of business leaders and celebrities.

OpenAI disrupts influence operations that used generative AI.

OpenAI has published a report outlining foreign influence operations that attempted to abuse the company's AI models. The company says it disrupted five influence operations that attempted to use the AI models "for a range of tasks, such as generating short comments and longer articles in a range of languages, making up names and bios for social media accounts, conducting open-source research, debugging simple code, and translating and proofreading texts." Two of the operations were Russian, one was Chinese, one originated in Iran, and one was run by a commercial company in Israel.

OpenAI says "[t]he content posted by these various operations focused on a wide range of issues, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza, the Indian elections, politics in Europe and the United States, and criticisms of the Chinese government by Chinese dissidents and foreign governments." The company adds that "these operations do not appear to have benefited from meaningfully increased audience engagement or reach as a result of our services."

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Russia's GRU targets European defense and transportation organizations.

Recorded Future describes an espionage campaign attributed to Russia's GRU that deployed the Headlace malware against networks across Europe between April and December 2023. The threat actor, which Recorded Future tracks as "BlueDelta," used credential-harvesting pages that targeted "the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, Ukrainian weapons import and export companies, European railway infrastructure enterprises, and a think tank based in Azerbaijan."

Recorded Future notes, "Successfully infiltrating networks associated with Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence and European railway systems could allow BlueDelta to gather intelligence that potentially shapes battlefield tactics and broader military strategies. Moreover, BlueDelta’s interest in the Azerbaijan Center for Economic and Social Development suggests an agenda to understand and possibly influence regional policies."

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Clarity.fm breach exposed personal information of business leaders and celebrities.

A data breach at Clarity.fm, a consulting platform that connects entrepreneurs, industry experts, and celebrities, exposed data belonging to 121,000 member accounts, HackRead reports. The leaked data includes full names, phone numbers, email addresses, consultation content, hourly consultation rates, and payment records related to previous consulting sessions. The breach was discovered by cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler, who notes that the leaked data could be exploited in targeted social engineering attacks against high-profile individuals.

Notes.

Today's issue includes events affecting Azerbaijan, China, Iran, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States.

Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities

Pirated Microsoft Office delivers malware cocktail on systems (BleepingComputer) Cybercriminals are distributing a malware cocktail through cracked versions of Microsoft Office promoted on torrent sites.

BBC Pension Scheme Breached, Exposing Employee Data (Infosecurity Magazine) The BBC said that personally identifiable information of current and former employees has been breached following an incident affecting its pension scheme

Mystery malware destroys 600,000 routers from a single ISP during 72-hour span (Ars Technica) An unknown threat actor with equally unknown motives forces ISP to replace routers.

Meta and OpenAI say they disrupted influence operations linked to Israeli company (NBC News) OpenAI said in a report that the company operated a network that posted anti-Hamas and pro-Israel content across the web.

Legislation, Policy, and Regulation

Senate chairman wants new White House-led panel to streamline federal cyber rules (The Record) Democratic Sen. Gary Peters wants the Office of the National Cyber Director to take the lead on an effort to streamline and better coordinate federal cybersecurity regulations.

Industry Events

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Events

2024 State of the Space Industrial Base (Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, May 29 - 31, 2024) Don’t miss out! Mark your calendars and join us for a dynamic hybrid workshop that is a “must attend” space industry event. Participants will learn how the strength of the industrial base has advanced in the last year, and they will contribute to progressing solutions that support the Space industrial base, increase prosperity and ensure national security. Please sign up to learn more about the 2024 Space Industrial Conference and SSIB Workshop! Stay tuned for more details about the 2024 Space Industrial Conference and SSIB Hybrid Workshop!

SANS Stay Sharp: May 2024 (Virtual, May 29 - 31, 2024) At SANS Stay Sharp: May 2024, choose from 48 interactive courses with hands-on labs. Practice your skills and compete against your peers during NetWars Tournaments, and network with your instructor and industry colleagues in real-time. Each course includes electronic and printed books, and several courses align with GIAC certifications!

NICE Conference & Expo: Strengthening Ecosystems (Dallas, Texas, USA, Jun 3 - 5, 2024) This year’s conference theme “Strengthening Ecosystems: Aligning Stakeholders to Bridge the Cybersecurity Workforce Gap” highlights the collective effort to strengthen the cybersecurity landscape. By joining forces with key partners, we can foster a more robust cybersecurity ecosystem to bridge the workforce gap.

AWS re: Inforce (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, Jun 10 - 12, 2024) AWS re: Inforce is a conference that addresses AWS security and confidentiality for customers. The conference covers: Proactive security: Considerations and approaches; How AWS secures data, even from trusted operators and services; Identity and access management; Security mindfulness; Cryptography from the future: Research & innovation to protect customer data; Compliance and governance; Data protection and privacy; and Security operations.

Cyber Civil Defense Summit (Washington DC, Jun 13, 2024) The Cyber Civil Defense Summit brings together a community of cyber defenders, academics, and policymakers with the shared mission of protecting our most vulnerable public infrastructure against cybersecurity threats. This in-person event hosts exclusive keynotes and panels with government and industry leaders in cybersecurity, creating an intimate space for cross-sector conversations between academics, volunteers, and policymakers on how we can work together to protect vulnerable community organizations like hospitals, cities, school districts, and nonprofits.

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Daily Briefing for 05.31.24

Upcoming webinar: VPN and Phishing Attacks Exposed

2024 N2K CyberWire Audience Survey

At a glance.

OpenAI disrupts influence operations that used generative AI.

Russia's GRU targets European defense and transportation organizations.

Clarity.fm breach exposed personal information of business leaders and celebrities.

Notes.

Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities

Legislation, Policy, and Regulation

Events