More than 46 million signals of potential cyber attacks are spotted by cyber security experts every day around the world, according to new data from BT. The telecoms giant said more than 530 signals of potential attack were logged per second. It said hackers were relentlessly scanning devices connected to the internet looking for weaknesses by using automation and machine learning to identify vulnerabilities in cyber defences. The BT data showed that over the last 12 months the IT, defence, banking and insurance sectors were the most targeted by cyber criminals, followed by the retail, hospitality and education industries. According to the figures, around 785,000 cyber attacks also targeted charities over the last year. The company warned that these trends should be of greater concern when over half of businesses (61%) told a BT survey in May that they find keeping up with cyber security measures increasingly difficult. BT has published the figures to mark Cyber Security Awareness Month, and has also launched a new podcast series called True Cybercrime Stories by BT, which details the true stories behind some of the world’s most notable cyber attacks. Tris Morgan, manager director for security at BT, said: “The volume of cyber threats in the UK is rising at an alarming rate, so it’s really concerning that so many businesses and public services are leaving themselves open to attack. “The fabric of the modern business has changed, and there’s now more connected tech for hackers to exploit, more valuable data to target and a bigger prize at stake if they make it through. “With more than a million business customers, BT is the first line of cyber defence for organisations across the world – and we’re proud of our long heritage of protecting people, businesses and critical national infrastructure. That’s why we’re launching the True Cybercrime Stories podcast: to shine a light on the shocking impact this crime epidemic can have, raise awareness of the risks and encourage everyone to think about what they could be doing to protect our businesses and essential services.” Read More AI being used to create child abuse imagery, watchdog warns ChatGPT and other chatbots ‘can be tricked into making code for cyber attacks’ Tinder adds Matchmaker feature to let friends recommend potential dates

Attorneys general from 33 states, including New York AG Letitia James, have filed a lawsuit against tech giant Meta alleging it designed harmful features that contributed to the youth mental health crisis. The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, alleges that Mark Zuckerberg’s company knowingly created addictive and “psychologically manipulative” features targeted at young people while falsely assuring the public it was safe to use. Some of the features, they say, include infinite scrolling, filters that change a person’s face or body, notifications that call young people back to Meta’s social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook and more. “Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem,” Ms James said in a statement. “Social media companies, including Meta, have contributed to a national youth mental health crisis and they must be held accountable,” she added. Multiple studies have shown that children and teenagers’ prolonged exposure to social media can have negative impacts on their mental health due to disrupting their sleep, exposing them to bullying, rumour spreading, unrealistic views of people’s lives and more Plaintiffs in the lawsuit allege that Meta internally knew the impact of social media on young people but denied and downplayed the potential harm anyway in order to maximize profit – something a Facebook whistleblower testified to Congress about in 2021. The lawsuit seeks to force Meta to drastically change some of its design features that they allege are harmful to young people as well as impose financial penalties under each state’s specific consumer protection law. In a statement provided to The Independent, a spokesperson for Meta said, “We share the attorneys general’s commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online, and have already introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families.” Some of the “tools” Meta has implemented to help young people include age verification, preventing content that promotes harmful behaviours, giving users the option to hide “like” counts, prompting young people to take breaks or set timers and more. “We’re disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path,” the spokesperson added. The lawsuit is the latest action taken against tech giants as concern about the impact of social media on young people grows. Read More People’s Instagram posts are showing where they are not expected Google and Meta withdraw from upcoming Web Summit Mark Zuckerberg uses Meta’s new AI Ray-Bans to braid daughter’s hair WhatsApp update will change how you log in forever Instagram Threads adds yet more features as it tries to take over from Twitter Viral WhatsApp warning of cyberattack targeting Jewish people is fake

Big tech appears to be continuing its strong growth turnaround from last year, as it kicks off earnings report season for the quarter ended in September.

(Reuters) -Snap on Tuesday forecast quarterly revenue largely above estimates as efforts to revamp the ad targeting tools of its

Apple announced its second product event of the season, a month after introducing its new iPhone 15 lineup. New iMacs are likely.

By Dan Levine and Hyunjoo Jin An attorney suing Tesla over a fatal accident cited an internal safety

Apple has announced a surprise event, at which it is expected to unveil new Macs. The event is unusual in a number of ways, including its much later start than Apple’s regular events: it will begin at 5pm local pacific time, or midnight in the UK. Apple events almost always begin at 10am local time, and it did not give any indication of why it had changed its time. It will also take place notably late in the year, on 30 October. Apple appeared to reference the proximity to Hallowe’en in its invitation, which used the title “Scary fast”. It will also be entirely virtual, with no in-person attendance. Apple switched to fully virtual events during the pandemic, but has since opened up physical attendance as restrictions have lifted. Unlike many recent Apple events, it is unclear what exactly the company is planning – though Apple’s website used the “Finder” icon from the Mac operating system, all but confirming a focus on its computers. Apple seems likely to introduce a new version of its iMac, which was last updated in April 2021 and is now far behind all of the rest of Apple’s line-up. It still uses Apple’s M1 chip, and the event will presumably at least bring it up to speed with the existing M2 processors. The company might unveil its first M3 processors, however. Apple’s first M2 computers arrived last summer, inside updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, and so those computers could also be updated with the latest generation. Some reports have also suggested that Apple could be planning an update for its most high-end and expensive 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, too. Those were overhauled earlier this year, however, with the introduction of the M2 Pro and M2 Max, meaning that any new update might be less likely or could be more minor. Recent weeks brought rumours that Apple was planning to update at least some of its iPads. The rumoured launch day only brought a new Apple Pencil, however – which may mean that the iPads were delayed for the upcoming event, or may mean that Apple opted not to make any changes to the iPad and released the Apple Pencil to clear the way for its new Macs. The latest launch comes the month after Apple held another live event – at its usual time – to launch the new iPhone 15 and other products. Read More Apple ‘is planning surprise Mac announcement soon’ Apple just released a new Pencil after days of excitement Sadiq Khan, Met Commissioner to ask phone companies to ‘design out’ theft

A new experiment demonstrates that commercial solar farms in space could one day be possible, according to the researchers behind it. Scientists from the UK say that a satellite launched into space to test the opportunities to gather sunlight for power has shown more success than expected. The experiment showed that it was possible to make lightweight solar panels at low cost that would be able to work in space, researchers said. They sent one of those units into space and examined how it worked over a period of six years and 30,000 orbits. It was able to withstand the solar radiation and other damage of space, they said, and continue generating power. “We are very pleased that a mission designed to last one year is still working after six. These detailed data show the panels have resisted radiation and their thin-film structure has not deteriorated in the harsh thermal and vacuum conditions of space,” said Craig Underwood from the University of Surrey, “This ultra-low mass solar cell technology could lead to large, low-cost solar power stations deployed in space, bringing clean energy back to Earth – and now we have the first evidence that the technology works reliably in orbit.” The panels were made at the University of Swansea, and used a new kind of solar cell made out of cadmium telluride. That material allows for larger panels at lighter weights, which provide more power and are relatively cheap. Colleagues at the University of Surrey then built those panels into a satellite that could be delivered to space, as well as the technology to measure how they continued to perform once they were in orbit. Those measurements showed that the panels gradually became less efficient, but researchers say they nonetheless showed that the panels could eventually be commercially viable. Solar farms in space would overcome many of the problems with existing renewable infrastructure on Earth. The solar farms could allow for more space on the ground, but more notably would be able to avoid issues caused by weather and benefit from more intense sunlight than there is on the surface. Making units that are able to withstand the difficulties of space is just one of a number of challenges for solar farms in space. There would also need to be a way to get the energy back down to us, for instance – though this summer researchers were able to successfully beam power down to Earth using microwaves. A study describing the findings, ‘IAC-22-C3.3.8 Six years of spaceflight results from the AlSat-1N Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experiment’, is published in the journal Acta Astronautica. Read More Scientists receive powerful ‘radio burst’ that travelled billions of years Apple announces surprise event: ‘Scary fast’ ChatGPT and other chatbots ‘can be tricked into making code for cyber attacks’

Instagram posts are appearing elsewhere – without the knowledge of the people posting them, and with no way for them to stop it once they do find out. Users of the company’s new Instagram Threads app are finding that their posts are being automatically pushed into their Facebook feeds. The company said that it was “listening” to complaints from users who did not want their posts appearing on Facebook. But it does not appear to be offering a way for people to stop it happening. Meta has often used its various platforms to promote other ones. New apps and features have often been shown in the Facebook news feed especially, as the company looks to introduce them to other users. Facebook has long shown posts from Instagram Reels, for instance. And companies on WhatsApp can buy ads that show on Facebook. The new behaviour means that people loading up their Facebook news feed may see posts that their friends have put on Instagram Threads. Users complained that the behaviour was unwanted, however. “How do I keep my Threads from showing up on Facebook? I want [them] separate and I don’t want my Threads randomly showing up on Facebook in someone’s “for you” or any place else,” one user wrote in response to the company. In response, it confirmed that it had made the change but did not appear to suggest it would be changed. The update was intended “to make it easier for people to see the latest content from Threads directly on Facebook and Instagram”, it said, but it is “listening to feedback like yours as we continue to build on this”. Author and YouTuber Hank Green was one of many who pleaded with the company to go back to keeping posts on the various apps separate. “It’s really true that threads and Facebook have very different cultures and I choose specifically what I want to go where. For other people, that can actually be a little unsafe. Let people opt out. Next time, build that first. Move slow, fix things. We’re doing good here,” he wrote in response to the official Threads account. Read More Google and Meta withdraw from upcoming Web Summit Mark Zuckerberg uses Meta’s new AI Ray-Bans to braid daughter’s hair WhatsApp update will change how you log in forever

Dozens of U.S. states are suing Meta Platforms and its Instagram unit, accusing them of contributing to a

Dozens of states sued Instagram-parent Meta on Tuesday, accusing the social media giant of harming young users' mental health through allegedly addictive features such as infinite news feeds and frequent notifications that demand users' constant attention.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT can be tricked into producing malicious code which could be used to launch cyber attacks, according to research. A study by researchers from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Computer Science found that it was possible to manipulate chatbots into creating code capable of breaching other systems. Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT can create content based on user commands or prompts and are expected to have a substantial impact on daily life as they become more widely used in industry, education and healthcare. But the researchers have warned that vulnerabilities exist, and said their research found they were able to trick the chatbots into helping steal sensitive personal information, tamper with or destroy databases, or bring down services using denial-of-service attacks. In reality many companies are simply not aware of these types of threats and due to the complexity of chatbots, even within the community, there are things that are not fully understood Xutan Peng, University of Sheffield PhD student In all, the university study found vulnerabilities in six commercial AI tools – of which ChatGPT was the most well-known. On Chinese platform Baidu-Unit, the scientists were able to use malicious code to obtain confidential Baidu server configurations and tampered with one server node. In response, the research has been recognised by Baidu, which addressed and fixed the reported vulnerabilities and financially rewarded the scientists, the university said. Xutan Peng, a PhD student at the University of Sheffield, who co-led the research, said: “In reality many companies are simply not aware of these types of threats and due to the complexity of chatbots, even within the community, there are things that are not fully understood. “At the moment, ChatGPT is receiving a lot of attention. It’s a standalone system, so the risks to the service itself are minimal, but what we found is that it can be tricked into producing malicious code that can do serious harm to other services.” The risk with AIs like ChatGPT is that more and more people are using them as productivity tools, rather than a conversational bot, and this is where our research shows the vulnerabilities are Xutan Peng, University of Sheffield PhD student The researchers also warned that people using AI to learn programming languages was a danger, as they could inadvertently create damaging code. “The risk with AIs like ChatGPT is that more and more people are using them as productivity tools, rather than a conversational bot, and this is where our research shows the vulnerabilities are,” Peng said. “For example, a nurse could ask ChatGPT to write an (programming language) SQL command so that they can interact with a database, such as one that stores clinical records. “As shown in our study, the SQL code produced by ChatGPT in many cases can be harmful to a database, so the nurse in this scenario may cause serious data management faults without even receiving a warning.” The UK will host an AI Safety Summit next week, with the Government inviting world leaders and industry giants to come together to discuss the opportunities and safety concerns around artificial intelligence. Read More Tinder adds Matchmaker feature to let friends recommend potential dates Google and Meta withdraw from upcoming Web Summit ‘Game-changing’ facial recognition technology catches prolific shoplifters Facial recognition firm Clearview AI overturns UK data privacy fine Sadiq Khan, Met Commissioner to ask phone companies to ‘design out’ theft Microsoft gets go-ahead to buy Call of Duty maker Activision