The Trump administration's radical changes to United States fiscal policy, foreign relations, and global strategy--combined with mass firings across the federal government--have created uncertainty around US cybersecurity priorities that was on display this week at two of the country's most prominent digital security conferences in Las Vegas. "We are not retreating, we're advancing in a new direction," Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency chief information officer Robert Costello said on Thursday during a critical infrastructure defense panel at Black Hat. As in other parts of the federal government, the Trump administration has been combing intelligence and cybersecurity agencies to remove officials seen as disloyal to its agenda. Alongside these shifts, the White House has also been hostile to former US cybersecurity officials. In April, for example, Trump specifically directed all departments and agencies to revoke the security clearance of former CISA director Chris Krebs.

This week, WIRED reported that a group of prolific scammers known as the Yahoo Boys are openly operating on major platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, and Telegram. Evading content moderation systems, the group organizes and engages in criminal activities that range from scams to sextortion schemes. On Wednesday, researchers published a paper detailing a new AI-based methodology to detect the "shape" of suspected money laundering activity on a blockchain. The researchers--composed of scientists from the cryptocurrency tracing firm Elliptic, MIT, and IBM--collected patterns of bitcoin transactions from known scammers to an exchange where dirty crypto could get turned into cash. They used this data to train an AI model to detect similar patterns.

The Senate on Wednesday, July 14, said that the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy has established a centre for artificial intelligence and robotics to deploy the use of robots and artificial intelligence in combating crime and criminality in Nigeria. The Senate stated this during the consideration of a report on'the spate of growing insecurity in Nigeria. The report was submitted by the Joint Committee on Legislative Compliance and Communications. The Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator Adelere Adeyemi Oriolowo (APC, Osun West), in his presentation, said there were programmes and projects by the Ministry and its agencies to support security agencies in fighting crime. Oloriowo disclosed that a total of twenty-three Emergency Communication Centres using the 112 code have been commissioned, with an additional 12 almost ready for commissioning.

Artificial intelligence is the most powerful technology in generations with the potential to impact U.S. security, welfare and global leadership. U.S. national security agencies must develop and integrate AI-enabled capabilities to compete and defend in the AI era. However, standard methods and AI technologies fall short for the high-consequence and specialized missions of national security. The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and National Laboratories are developing the Next-Generation of AI -- innovative methods and technologies designed for national security challenges and operational concepts. National security agencies should leverage NNSA's Next-Generation AI research and development to accelerate AI innovation and enable an AI-ready force.

Content monitoring through AI technologies, smart cameras for facial identification, DNA profiling algorithms are some of the techniques witnessing a surge throughout the world. Technologies provide us with reliable and trustable data to bank upon, but the questions arising on its accuracy can be a debatable issue. Let's have a look at a recent case to understand the apprehension. Recently, in two separate judgements -- a judge from the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey and a federal judge in Pennsylvania in the United States have ordered the prosecutor to hand over the source code of TrueAllele by Cybergenetics. The software program ran different DNA data available on a gun through complex statistical algorithms to compare the probability of a specific person's DNA being present.

Let us consider a scenario: one night, an executive responsible for operations for a remote downstream oil and gas refinery gets a call from one of their subordinates saying things started acting up ever since they plugged in a USB they brought from home. Multiple processes have become unstable and commands sent to equipment are not executed as requested. Panicking, they say there has been a cyber attack on the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. Valves, pumps, and compressors connected to the system are going haywire, and the organisation's legacy systems were not equipped to prevent whatever new malware snuck into the system. Production comes to a halt for two days.

WASHINGTON – All but the smallest civilian drones would have to broadcast radio tracking data to ensure greater safety and prevent terrorism under a sweeping proposal unveiled by U.S. regulators Thursday. The long-awaited draft rules call for a massive new tracking network for everything from toys to larger commercial drones so that law enforcement can spot the devices flying anywhere, from congested urban areas to the most rural zones. The controversial measure by the Federal Aviation Administration, which is subject to public comment and could change before it becomes final, is a key foundation to advance drone-driven commerce, including deliveries of consumer goods by companies such as Alphabet Inc.'s Wing and Amazon.com The rules would come into full force three years after being finalized. "Remote ID technologies will enhance safety and security by allowing the FAA, law enforcement and federal security agencies to identify drones flying in their jurisdiction," Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said in a press release.

As society has evolved, technology has as well, and there is a growing awareness that already-established police techniques -- if used exclusively -- are somewhat out-of-date and oftentimes quite expensive for what they offer. When departments sink valuable resources into maintaining old systems instead of investing into newer, more efficient, and cost-effective technologies -- especially in an era of budget cuts where law enforcement agencies are forced to make difficult decisions as to where to cut funding -- these agencies are missing out on a valuable source of information. One only needs to look at history to witness the evolution of criminal investigations. Fingerprinting, DNA analysis, and computer information systems such as CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) and NDIS (National DNA Index System) have improved investigatory efforts considerably; however, as technology continues to evolve -- and criminals are openly taking advantage of this new technology -- law enforcement agencies may be missing out on a valuable opportunity if they don't embrace more openly the tremendous benefits such new technology brings. The United States spends more than $100 billion annually on law enforcement and incarceration, and this figure does not even consider other economic impacts of crime in terms of victims' costs, property devaluation, and higher outlays for companies to ensure their security.

Robots that train themselves in battle tactics by playing video games could be used to mount cyber-attacks, the UK military fears. The warning is in a Ministry of Defence report on artificial intelligence. Researchers in Silicon Valley are using strategy games, such as Starcraft II, to teach systems how to solve complex problems on their own. But artificial intelligence (AI) programs can then "be readily adapted" to wage cyber-warfare, the MoD says. Officials are particularly concerned about the ability of rogue states and terrorists to mount advanced persistent threat attacks, which can disable critical infrastructure and steal sensitive information.

WASHINGTON – The world's largest manufacturer of civilian drones is proposing that the craft continually transmit identification information to help government security agencies and law enforcement figure out which might belong to rogue operators. DJI, a Chinese company, said in a paper released Monday that radio transmissions of an identification code, possibly the operator's Federal Aviation Administration's registration number, could help allay security concerns while also protecting the operator's privacy. The paper suggests steps that can be taken to use existing technologies to develop an identification system, and that operators could include more identification information in addition to a number if they wish. Anyone with the proper radio receiver could obtain those transmissions from the drone, but only law enforcement officials or aviation regulators would be able to use that registration number to identify the registered owner. Law enforcement agencies and the U.S. military raised security concerns last year after FAA officials proposed permitting more civilian drone flights over crowds and densely populated areas.