A Review of the Best News of the Week on AI, IoT, & Mobile Security

Attack of the cyber-bees: self-learning hivenets to replace botnets (SC Magazine, Nov 17 2017)
Highly destructive, self-learning ‘swarmbots’ driven by hivenets will be the threat trend for next year said Fortinet global security strategist, Derek Manky, speaking at the vendors International Media Conference in Nice this week.

Inside Artificial Intelligence’s First Church (Wired, Nov 15 2017)
The new religion of artificial intelligence is called Way of the Future. It represents an unlikely next act for the Silicon Valley robotics wunderkind at the center of a high-stakes legal battle between Uber and Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle company. Papers filed with the Internal Revenue Service in May name Levandowski as the leader (or “Dean”) of the new religion, as well as CEO of the nonprofit corporation formed to run it.

New scam launches users’ default phone app, points it to fake tech support hotline (Help Net Security, Nov 21 2017)
The latest variants of tech support scams targeting Apple users have done away with the usual visually prominent error messages. Instead, they open the potential victims’ default communication or phone call app, and prompt them to call the fake tech support scam hotline (the number is already prepopulated in the app).


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Privacy Fears Over Artificial Intelligence as Crimestopper (SecurityWeek, Nov 12 2017)
Police in the US state of Delaware are poised to deploy “smart” cameras in cruisers to help authorities detect a vehicle carrying a fugitive, missing child or straying senior.

Artificial Intelligence Is Now Your Coworker (Wired, Nov 15 2017)
Artificial intelligence was supposed to steal our jobs. Instead, they’re reinventing what counts as human work.

Artificial Intelligence Can Hunt Down Missile Sites in China Hundreds of Times Faster Than Humans (Wired, Nov 21 2017)
Teaching deep learning algorithms to find surface-to-air missile sites and much more in satellite images.

Most businesses to invest in artificial intelligence by 2020 (Help Net Security, Nov 21 2017)
Eighty-five per cent of senior executives plan to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) by 2020, according to a new survey of UK digital leaders by Deloitte.

Enterprise Physical Security Drives IoT Adoption (Dark Reading, Nov 14 2017)
The vast majority of respondents to a new survey are deploying IoT technologies for building safety in the form of security cameras.

Infosec expert viewpoint: IoT security initiatives (Help Net Security, Nov 15 2017)
Here’s what infosec experts think about the current state of IoT security, and the many security initiatives that have emerged in the past few years.

Consumers Want IoT Toys Regardless of Security, Survey Finds (eWEEK, Nov 20 2017)
As the holiday shopping season gets underway, many consumers will pick up new IoT devices, even though many of those devices might represent security risks.

Docs should help design medical IoT (Network World Security, Nov 17 2017)
Hacker ER doctor says medical IoT devices are a security disaster.

OnePlus Phones Have an Unfortunate Backdoor Built In (Wired, Nov 14 2017)
A French security researcher has published evidence that nearly every OnePlus phone model comes pre-loaded with a factory testing app that essentially acts as a backdoor, potentially granting hackers full access to your device.

100% of Businesses Have Faced a Mobile Cyberattack (Infosecurity Magazine, Nov 17 2017)
The average number of mobile malware attacks experienced per company stands at 54.

Android Malware Appears Linked to Lazarus Cybercrime Group (McAfee Blogs, Nov 20 2017)
McAfee Mobile Research team recently examined a new threat, Android malware that contains a backdoor file in the executable and linkable format (ELF). The ELF file is similar to several executables that have been reported to belong to the Lazarus cybercrime group.

Germany bans sale, distribution and possession of kids’ smartwatches (Naked Security – Sophos, Nov 21 2017)
The regulator is telling parents it’s up to them to destroy the things

Israeli IoT cybersecurity co SCADAfence raises $10m (Globes, Nov 21 2017)
The Tel Aviv based company provides cybersecurity systems for industrial operational technology (OT) networks.