Ransomware Paid: Schools Locked Out

A significant ransomware attack recently disrupted over 9,000 schools and universities, locking students and teachers out of Canvas learning platforms during finals. The company Infrastructure, which owns Canvas, reportedly paid the responsible hackers to recover data and restore services, a move that may incentivize future cybercriminal activity. This incident highlights the ongoing threat of ransomware and the challenges of recovery without adequate preparation.

Meanwhile, AI is increasingly being weaponized in cybersecurity threats. Security experts' predictions are proving true as hackers have used AI to actively search for zero-day vulnerabilities. While Google researchers successfully identified and helped patch a campaign before it could cause widespread damage, the trend indicates a growing sophistication in cyberattacks. Concurrently, Microsoft is developing its own AI model designed to rapidly uncover software vulnerabilities, already identifying over a dozen Windows flaws.

Adding to the week's security concerns, AI chatbots have been identified as a source for divulging personal information, including phone numbers. Many large language models are trained on vast datasets, sometimes unintentionally revealing private details. Instances have been reported where chatbots provided personal phone numbers when users sought assistance, leading to a significant increase in privacy-related requests for data removal services. This raises questions about the handling of public data like voter registrations and court records by AI systems.

In mobile security, Android 17 is set to introduce expanded protections against scams and robocalls, including enhanced spam notifications and automatic disconnection of known scammer calls. Google is also bolstering its Live Threat Detection to combat spyware and stalkerware by monitoring app behavior. However, a separate report indicates that a traffic leak bug exists in recent Android versions, where any app can potentially leak data when a VPN is connected, a fix for which Google has deemed infeasible.