Current frameworks for training offensive penetration testing agents with deep reinforcement learning struggle to produce agents that perform well in real-world scenarios, due to the reality gap in simulation-based frameworks and the lack of scalability in emulation-based frameworks. Additionally, existing frameworks often use an unrealistic metric that measures the agents' performance on the training data. NASimEmu, a new framework introduced in this paper, addresses these issues by providing both a simulator and an emulator with a shared interface. This approach allows agents to be trained in simulation and deployed in the emulator, thus verifying the realism of the used abstraction. Our framework promotes the development of general agents that can transfer to novel scenarios unseen during their training. For the simulation part, we adopt an existing simulator NASim and enhance its realism. The emulator is implemented with industry-level tools, such as Vagrant, VirtualBox, and Metasploit. Experiments demonstrate that a simulation-trained agent can be deployed in emulation, and we show how to use the framework to train a general agent that transfers into novel, structurally different scenarios. NASimEmu is available as open-source.

Machine learning models are known to be susceptible to adversarial perturbation. One famous attack is the adversarial patch, a sticker with a particularly crafted pattern that makes the model incorrectly predict the object it is placed on. This attack presents a critical threat to cyber-physical systems that rely on cameras such as autonomous cars. Despite the significance of the problem, conducting research in this setting has been difficult; evaluating attacks and defenses in the real world is exceptionally costly while synthetic data are unrealistic. In this work, we propose the REAP (REalistic Adversarial Patch) benchmark, a digital benchmark that allows the user to evaluate patch attacks on real images, and under real-world conditions. Built on top of the Mapillary Vistas dataset, our benchmark contains over 14,000 traffic signs. Each sign is augmented with a pair of geometric and lighting transformations, which can be used to apply a digitally generated patch realistically onto the sign. Using our benchmark, we perform the first large-scale assessments of adversarial patch attacks under realistic conditions. Our experiments suggest that adversarial patch attacks may present a smaller threat than previously believed and that the success rate of an attack on simpler digital simulations is not predictive of its actual effectiveness in practice. We release our benchmark publicly at https://github.com/wagner-group/reap-benchmark.

This paper presents a new type of hybrid models for Bayesian optimization (BO) adept at managing mixed variables, encompassing both quantitative (continuous and integer) and qualitative (categorical) types. Our proposed new hybrid models merge Monte Carlo Tree Search structure (MCTS) for categorical variables with Gaussian Processes (GP) for continuous ones. Addressing efficiency in searching phase, we juxtapose the original (frequentist) upper confidence bound tree search (UCTS) and the Bayesian Dirichlet search strategies, showcasing the tree architecture's integration into Bayesian optimization. Central to our innovation in surrogate modeling phase is online kernel selection for mixed-variable BO. Our innovations, including dynamic kernel selection, unique UCTS (hybridM) and Bayesian update strategies (hybridD), position our hybrid models as an advancement in mixed-variable surrogate models. Numerical experiments underscore the hybrid models' superiority, highlighting their potential in Bayesian optimization. Keywords: Gaussian processes, Monte Carlo tree search, categorical variables, online kernel selection. The discussion of different types of encodings can be found in Cerda et al. (2018). 1 Introduction Our motivating problem is to optimize a "black-box" function with "mixed" variables, lacking an analytic expression. "Mixed" signifies the function's input variables comprise both continuous (quantitative) and categorical (qualitative) variables, common in machine learning and scientific computing tasks like performance tuning of mathematical libraries and application codes at runtime and compile-time (Balaprakash et al., 2018). Bayesian optimization (BO) with Gaussian process (GP) surrogate models is a prevalent method for optimizing noisy, expensive black-box functions, primarily designed for continuous-variable functions (Shahriari et al., 2016; Sid-Lakhdar et al., 2020). Extending BO to mixed-variable functions presents theoretical and computational challenges due to variable type differences (Table 1). Continuous variables have uncountably many values with magnitudes and intrinsic ordering, allowing natural gradient definition. In contrast, categorical variables, having finitely many values without intrinsic ordering or magnitude, require encoding in the GP context, potentially inducing discontinuity and degrading GP performance (Luo et al., 2021). The empirical rule of thumb for handling an integer variable (Karlsson et al., 2020) is to treat it as a categorical variable if the number of integer values (i.e., number of categorical values) is small, or as a continuous variable with embedding (a.k.a.

President Zelensky has described seaborne drones as Ukraine's "eyes and protection on the frontline", with claims of a series of successful strikes against Russian ships in the Black Sea and on a key bridge to Crimea. These remote-controlled devices are playing an increasingly prominent role, with both sides ramping up their use for attacks and reconnaissance. The BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner and BBC Verify examine their influence on the conflict.

Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel calls for'transparency' and says President Biden is showing signs of cognitive slowing on'Fox Report.' Reality star Kim Kardashian recently praised the wellness trend of undertaking whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) screening -- saying these screenings save lives. Many medical experts, however, share a larger context from their point of view and even some caveats when it comes to the health care benefits overall. "I recently did this @prenuvo scan and had to tell you all about this life-saving machine," the 42-year-old media personality recently wrote on Instagram. "The Prenuvo full-body scan has the ability to detect cancer and diseases such as aneurysms in its earliest stages, before symptoms arise," Kardashian also wrote.

Newly unsealed court filings reveal how much data Xwitter has handed over to the January 6 investigation. This includes all tweets sent, drafted, liked and retweeted – even if they were subsequently deleted – by Donald Trump's official account. This cache also included DMs sent, received or stored in draft form, as well as linked accounts used on the same device. Even more interesting is the company handed over records of all searches made by the account, too. We already knew Xwitter had fought the order tooth-and-nail, leading to a court battle and a hefty fine. But the list of what was available should also serve as a warning to everyone else that the platform stores a lot more data on its users than you might expect.

One of two firefighting helicopters that collided in midair over a Southern California brush fire lacked an electronic warning device that alerts pilots to approaching aircraft -- a critical deficiency, according to at least one former wildland fire pilot. As the National Traffic Safety Board continues to investigate the fatal, Aug. 6 crash of two contract California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection helicopters, a career pilot and advocate for collision avoidance systems is calling attention to the fact that one of the choppers lacked a traffic collision-avoidance system, or TCAS, which audibly alerts pilots when another aircraft is nearby. "I'm frankly shocked that this is not required on contract helicopters to this day," said Juan Browne, a former U.S. Forest Service lead plane pilot who now flies Boeing 777s out of Los Angeles for a major airline. "That's the one last piece of safety equipment that could have prevented this accident," he said. The helicopter crash, which killed three, marks a rare instance in which an aviation battle of a California fire has resulted in a midair collision.

Fox News correspondent Gillian Turner has the latest on the president's focus amid calls for an impeachment inquiry on'Special Report.' The deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom is speculating that the proliferation of artificial intelligence will have a bigger impact on the nation than the Industrial Revolution. "This is a total revolution that is coming," deputy PM Oliver Dowden told The Times. "It's going to totally transform almost all elements of life over the coming years, and indeed, even months, in some cases." "It is much faster than other revolutions that we've seen and much more extensive, whether that's the invention of the internal combustion engine or the Industrial Revolution," he added.

Fox News correspondent Gillian Turner has the latest on the president's focus amid calls for an impeachment inquiry on'Special Report.' House Democrats are launching a working group aimed at crafting artificial intelligence policy, the latest attempt by federal lawmakers to wrap their heads around legislating the rapidly-advancing sector. The New Democrat Coalition, a group of nearly 100 House Democrats that touts itself as "pragmatic," unveiled the new initiative this week. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., one of the initiative's vice chairs, told Fox News Digital he hopes the working group will "help develop real, practicable ideas that will put guardrails in place for AI. "I continue to be focused on a variety of areas related to AI, including safety and security, transparency, the future of work, preventing civil rights abuses, health care and suicide prevention, and more, and have discussions ongoing about legislation in these areas with members of both parties," Beyer said. "Congress has to get up to speed on this issue, and I think the New Dems' AI working group will be a constructive setting for progress." The Biden administration and Congress are examining how to regulate AI. Working group Chair Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., suggested it could lay the groundwork for an AI regulatory framework in the House of Representatives. "We are already seeing how breakthroughs in this emerging technology present both great opportunities and challenges with potential disruptions for workers, for democracy, and for national security," Kilmer said. "As AI's applications expand and change, it is incumbent on lawmakers to address its unique opportunities and challenges by creating a regulatory framework that both encourages growth while guarding against potential risks." WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)? Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., another member of the working group and a Marine veteran, said he was concerned with how AI would "transform warfare" and called on Congress to put up responsible guardrails against the technology's most devastating possibilities. "It's going to be impossible for Congress to really stay ahead of AI, but what we can and should do is to take very seriously AI's most dangerous use cases and develop solutions and safeguards that apply directly to those cases," Moulton told Fox News Digital. "I'm also particularly concerned about how AI will transform warfare.

'Woke Inc.' author Vivek Ramaswamy called the relationship between Big Tech and the government threat to liberty because'each can do what the other cannot.' The political fable, "Animal Farm," written by visionary George Orwell, was published on this day in history, Aug. 17, 1945. The plot of "Animal Farm" is based on the story of the Russian Revolution and its betrayal by Joseph Stalin and is deemed an allegory, according to Britannica.com The novella tells the story of a group of barnyard animals that overthrow and chase off their exploitative human masters -- and set up an egalitarian society of their own, the same source chronicles. As "Animal Farm" opens, Mr. Jones, the owner of Manor Farm, is intoxicated and heading to bed.