Microsoft server hack impacts 100 organizations globally
Microsoft issued an alert on Saturday warning of 'active attacks' on self-hosted SharePoint servers, though cloud-based instances remain unaffected. The flaw, classified as a 'zero-day' due to its prior obscurity, enables unauthorized access to sensitive data.
Netherlands-based Eye Security and the Shadowserver Foundation identified nearly 100 victims before the hacking method became widely known. 'It's unambiguous,' said Vaisha Bernard, chief hacker at Eye Security. 'Who knows what other adversaries have done since to place other backdoors.'
Most affected organizations are in the US and Germany, with government agencies among the victims. Shadowserver estimates over 9,000 servers could be vulnerable, including industrial firms, banks, and healthcare providers.
Google linked some attacks to a 'China-nexus threat actor,' though Beijing denies involvement. The FBI and UK's National Cyber Security Center are investigating, urging affected entities to apply security patches immediately.
Daniel Card of PwnDefend warned, 'Just applying the patch isn't all that is required here,' emphasizing the need for thorough security reviews. - Reuters
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The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
This robot uses Japanese tradition and AI for sashimi that lasts longer and is more humane
A Los Angeles-area startup is using artificial intelligence and robotics in an unlikely way: making sashimi and other fish dishes taste better, last longer and more humane. El Segundo, California-based Shinkei Systems wants to bring a traditional Japanese method of handling fish to fine dining in America, using technology to replace the labour-intensive process historically handled by practitioners on board ships. Investors have just bet millions that it will succeed. The company's AI-driven robot – called Poseidon – has been designed to do a traditional form of fish handling called ikejime in Japanese. It is a method of killing fish that enthusiasts say enhances flavour, texture and shelf life. Although fish processed in this way is found in some of the best restaurants in Japan, it hasn't been promoted in the US because it is generally too expensive. Automating the process will make it more readily available to Americans, said Saif Khawaja, the company's chief executive. "My end goal is that you're walking into your local grocery store and can buy fish that lasts three times as long, tastes better and is handled humanely," he said. The company raised US$22mil (RM 94.10mil) in a funding round last month, co-led by Founders Fund and Interlagos, bringing total funding to US$30mil (RM 128.32mil) since its inception. It has four Poseidons working on ships in the Pacific and Atlantic and hopes to have 10 more working in the coming year. The ikejime process involves taking live fish that has just been caught and quickly putting them out of their misery by killing them with a spike through the brain and cutting their gills. This stops the stress hormone and lactic acid buildup that can hurt flavor and texture when fish are left to asphyxiate. Although traditional practitioners sometimes add a step in which the spinal cord is destroyed, Poseidon just does the first steps of the ikejime technique. The method has remained largely artisanal even in Japan, where only some fishermen will make the effort to process batches of fish in this way to sell to specific sushi chefs who are obsessed with having the highest-quality ingredients. Even in Japan, the method "is still too labour-intensive to replicate at a high speed without damaging the fish," Khawaja said, adding that, "It's impractical and unsustainable for fishermen to adopt methods that require significant hands-on work," in the US. Shinkei says it also has a higher calling than just better-tasting fish. Khawaja said one of the motivations for developing the technology was to try to find a kinder, gentler way to kill fish than letting them die gasping for air. During childhood fishing trips with his father in the Red Sea, he remembers it being "very hard to watch" fish suffocating after they were caught. Poseidon is roughly refrigerator-sized and sits on fishing boat decks. — Courtesy Shinkei Systems/TNS While he was in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, Khawaja was moved by an essay that argued that fish suffer inhumane deaths because they cannot vocalise pain. He even once considered developing sensors to make fish's pain audible. Shinkei provides Poseidon machines to fishermen, who then sell fish processed through the machines back to Shinkei at a premium. Shinkei in turn sells the fish to restaurants and other retailers under its fish company Seremoni. Poseidon is roughly refrigerator-sized and sits on fishing boat decks. It processes fish within seconds of being caught. The fish is fed through an opening in the machine and into a small vinyl cavity. The machine then uses AI to identify what kind of fish it is and where exactly its brain and gills are. Fish emerge with a hole in the head and incisions near the gills before being placed in an ice slurry for blood drainage. Quickly killing the fish, bleeding it and chilling it without freezing leads to fish that is noticeably better, Khawaja said. "There's going to be a flavour profile difference and there's going to be texture profile difference," he said. The company chose Los Angeles for its headquarters and production because it has the right mix of potential employees as well as customers. It has the mechanical engineering talent as well as a major fishing fleet and lots of high-end restaurants. "The best mechanical engineering talent in the world, in my opinion, is in Southern California," said Seremoni co-founder Reed Ginsberg. The city is also a major health and consumer products hub as well as a trend setter for cutting-edge food fads. Chef Michael Cimarusti, co-owner of the Michelin starred Providence restaurant in Los Angeles, says he tries to buy local ikejime fish when he can because it preserves the quality and color. The fish preserved using ikejime look as if they "were just pulled from the water minutes ago," he said in an interview posted on YouTube by the American Fishing Tackle Co. Shinkei currently processes thousands of pounds weekly across operations in Washington, Central California and Massachusetts, with expansion to Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico planned this year. After feedback from fishermen that the bots took up too much deck space, the company developed "Block 2" robots that have roughly half the footprint while processing fish twice as fast. Currently, black cod and black sea bass processed through Poseidon are sold under Shinkei's brand Seremoni at retailers such as Happier Grocery and served at upscale restaurants including Atomix and Sushi Zo. This summer, the company plans to add salmon and red snapper to its offerings. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
HK universities see success in drive to attract more top talent from abroad
HONG KONG: Professor Gao Yang, a prominent scholar in the fields of robotics and aerospace, left King's College London to join the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in May after being approached to take up new roles there. While her move back to Asia was primarily driven by her family's needs, she said Hong Kong's current focus on developing its scientific fields at a world-class level as a strategic driver for long-term growth was a major pull factor for her. At the same time, the geopolitical and economic climates elsewhere in the world – in particular, Western countries – have become increasingly challenging for academics to navigate. Said Prof Gao: 'Compared with the greater uncertainties in the UK and Europe, the situation in Hong Kong in terms of the volume and scale of support poured into research, innovation and commercialisation looks a lot more positive, stable and sustainable. The investment in (my field of) aerospace programming definitely seems more determined and committed.' The mainland China-born academic, who has spent 20 years teaching in the United Kingdom after a decade of studying in Singapore, now heads HKUST's Centre for AI Robotics in Space Sustainability as well as its Space Science and Technology Institute, and teaches at its department of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Professor Gao Yang said she was drawn by Hong Kong's current focus on developing its scientific fields at a world-class level. Prof Gao is one of the successes that Hong Kong is seeing in its drive to attract more international talent to teach at the city's top universities. It comes as the Asian financial hub ramps up efforts to develop its artificial intelligence and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) industries as engines to power future growth in the city. The city has also been increasingly aligning its economic development with China's objectives, which include ramping up technological innovation and scientific research in competition with the United States. Statistics from some Hong Kong universities have shown a notable rise in new faculty appointments from abroad. But that many of these scholars are of mainland Chinese origin has raised some concerns about talent diversity. HKUST, one of the city's eight publicly funded universities, said it had 'welcomed more than 100 top scholars and scientists from mainland China, the United States, Germany, France, South Korea, Singapore and other countries' since it started a global recruitment campaign in October 2022. It 'aims to hire another 100 faculty members', the university told The Straits Times. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), also publicly funded, told ST it had 'recruited over 150 leading international and promising young scholars from 15 regions including mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America' since 2023. Its programmes have been 'attracting top non-local research talents to Hong Kong to participate in innovation and technology development', it added. Hong Kong's education chief Christine Choi also revealed in April that 'world-renowned professors from US institutions are relocating to Hong Kong', driven by tighter visa policies and geopolitical tensions affecting traditional Western study destinations. She declined, however, to provide more details, citing a 'need for discretion to ensure smooth transitions'. Among prominent international scholars who have relocated to Hong Kong over the past year are meteorologist Chen Fei, who worked at the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research for 26 years, and Harvard University-trained economist Jin Keyu, who was a tenured professor at the London School of Economics for 15 years. Both academics joined HKUST. HKUST has been among the most proactive of the city's tertiary institutions in taking advantage of global developments to attract international talent, academics and students alike, to Hong Kong. In May, it promised unconditional offers to Harvard University students immediately after the US government moved to halt foreign enrolment at the college. In Britain, the flagging economy has affected research funding for many academics, as grants are based on a proportion of the country's gross domestic product, noted Prof Gao. 'As this situation carries on, it is likely to affect more domains and bring more academics to Asia,' she told ST. Of her experience in Hong Kong so far, Prof Gao said she was 'completely surprised and amazed by the proactive engagement from sectors including the decision-making think-tanks, businesses, the government and industry to build dialogue' in her field. 'Such seamless collaboration between the scientific community and think-tanks will help make a more profound impact on society beyond just academia,' she added. Over at CUHK, global Stem scholar and prominent mathematics professor Wei Juncheng moved back to Hong Kong in late 2024 after 11 years of teaching at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada. Professor Wei Juncheng said tensions between the US and China have spilt over into Canada, affecting academia as well. Prior to his stint at UBC, Wuhan-born Professor Wei, 57, had taught for 18 years at CUHK after obtaining his doctorate from the University of Minnesota in the US. 'In the last few years, tensions between the US and China have somehow also spilled over into Canada, affecting the environment in academia as well,' Prof Wei told ST. 'Applying for research grants has become more difficult and political for some academics (in Canada),' he said, adding that many mainland-born scholars applying for funding were now required to fill up more forms delving into their backgrounds and specify that they were not researching in areas of strategic sensitivity or those that would help China. Tighter visa restrictions have also impeded global exchanges as the once-frequent Chinese government-sponsored academic visitors can no longer obtain visas to visit Canadian universities for learning and collaboration, he added. There have also been reports of the Chinese authorities restricting educators from leaving the country or visiting universities overseas. Prof Wei said he has observed a large and growing number of mainland-origin academics leaving the West in recent years. 'Despite having been educated in the US, many of my mainland-born academia friends there have moved back to China, with the influx accelerating especially in 2025,' he said. 'I chose to return to Hong Kong as I'm already familiar with CUHK's environment and I still prefer the internet and academic freedom we enjoy here.' The recent inflow of internationally trained scholars into Hong Kong comes after the city's public universities reported a record number of academic staff departures two years ago. Some 7.6 per cent of staff, or 380 out of about 5,000 in the eight institutes, quit in the 2022/2023 academic year, while 7.4 per cent left the year before. The departures coincided with a mass exodus of both local and foreign talent following the Covid-19 pandemic and the imposition of a national security law in Hong Kong in 2020. Some analysts have raised concerns, however, that those hired to fill the vacancies are tilted heavily towards mainland-born scholars, potentially affecting academic diversity. Mainland-origin academics have outnumbered their local counterparts at nearly all of the eight publicly funded universities since 2023. Some 41 per cent of all of the institutes' academic staff are now from mainland China, according to official data. Student numbers in Hong Kong's universities have also increasingly veered towards mainlanders, accounting for 74 per cent of the city's pool of non-local first-year students in the 2024/2025 academic year. Hong Kong's growing number of mainland-born academics is due to both push and pull factors, according to Associate Professor Alfred Wu from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. 'The push factor is the increasing difficulty for these scholars to continue operating in the West, while the pull factor is that – with Hong Kong now paying a lot more attention to research that integrates well into the Greater Bay Area's (GBA) development plans – it makes academic collaboration much smoother for these scholars, as they understand mainland Chinese culture much better,' Prof Wu told ST. The GBA refers to the region comprising Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in mainland China's Guangdong province. But the consequent drop in diversity within academia could hinder the city's ability to innovate, adapt to global changes and maintain its competitiveness as an international hub, Prof Wu suggested. 'People need to think long term – having diversity means that we try to reduce our risks by not putting all our eggs into one basket,' he said. 'Decreasing diversity in Hong Kong universities may not be a problem now, but the situation may be different a decade or two down the road if Hong Kong's focus for growth has to shift away from its alignment with mainland China.' - The Straits Times/ANN
The Star
5 hours ago
- The Star
AI researchers are negotiating US$250mil pay packages. Just like NBA stars
SAN FRANCISCO: Over the summer, Matt Deitke got a phone call from Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive. Zuckerberg wanted Deitke, a 24-year-old artificial intelligence researcher who had recently helped found a startup, to join Meta's research effort dedicated to 'superintelligence,' a technology that could hypothetically exceed the human brain. The company promised him around US$125mil (RM534.7mil) in stock and cash over four years if he came aboard. The offer was not enough to lure Deitke, who wanted to stick with his startup, two people with knowledge of the talks said. He turned Zuckerberg down. So Zuckerberg personally met with Deitke. Then Meta returned with a revised offer of around US$250mil (RM1bil) over four years, with potentially up to US$100mil (RM427.8mil) of that to be paid in the first year, the people said. The compensation jump was so startling that Deitke asked his peers what to do. After many discussions, some of them urged him to take the deal – which he did. Silicon Valley's AI talent wars have become so frenzied – and so outlandish – that they increasingly resemble the stratospheric market for NBA stars. Young AI researchers are being recruited as if they are Steph Curry or LeBron James, with nine-figure compensation packages structured to be paid out over several years. To navigate the froth, many of the 20-somethings have turned to unofficial agents and entourages to strategise. And they are playing hardball with the companies to get top dollar, much as basketball players shop for the best deals from teams. The difference is that unlike NBA teams, deep-pocketed AI companies like Meta, OpenAI and Google have no salary caps. (Curry's most recent four-year contract with the Golden State Warriors was US$35mil/RM150mil less than Deitke's deal with Meta.) That has made the battles for AI talent even wilder. Over the past few weeks, recruiting AI free agents has become a spectacle on social media, much like the period before a trade deadline in sports. As Meta, Microsoft, Google and OpenAI have poached employees from one another, job announcements have been posted online with graphics resembling major sports trades, made by the online streaming outlet TBPN, which hosts an ESPN-like show about the tech and business world. 'BREAKING: Microsoft has poached over 20 staff members from DeepMind over the last six months,' read one recent TBPN post about Microsoft's hiring from Google's DeepMind lab. Jordi Hays, a co-host of TBPN, said that as tech and AI have gone mainstream, more people are following the recruitment fray 'the way our friends from college obsess over sports – the personalities, the players, the leagues.' On Wednesday, Zuckerberg said Meta planned to continue throwing money at AI talent 'because we have conviction that superintelligence is going to improve every aspect of what we do.' Superintelligent AI would not just improve the company's business, he said, but would also become a personal tool that 'has the potential to begin an exciting new era of individual empowerment.' A Meta spokesperson declined to comment. Deitke did not respond to a request for comment. The job market for AI researchers has long had parallels to professional sports. In 2012, after three academics at the University at Toronto published a research paper describing a seminal AI system that could recognise objects like flowers and cars, they auctioned themselves off to the highest corporate bidder – Google – for US$44mil (RM188.21mil). That kicked off a race for talent across the tech industry. By 2014, Peter Lee, Microsoft's head of research, was likening the market to that for up-and-coming pro football players, many of whom were making about US$1mil (RM4.28mil) a year. 'Last year, the cost of a top, world-class deep learning expert was about the same as a top NFL quarterback prospect,' Lee told Bloomberg BusinessWeek at the time, referring to a type of AI specialist. 'The cost of that talent is pretty remarkable.' The leverage that AI researchers have in negotiating job terms has only increased since OpenAI released the ChatGPT chatbot in 2022, setting off a race to lead the technology. They have been aided by scarcity: Only a small pool of people have the technical know-how and experience to work on advanced artificial intelligence systems. That's because AI is built differently from traditional software. These systems learn by analysing enormous amounts of digital data. Few researchers have experience with the most advanced systems, which require giant pools of computing power available to only a handful of companies. The result has been a fresh talent war, with compensation soaring into the hundreds of millions of dollars a year, from millions of dollars a year. In April, Zuckerberg – whose company was struggling to advance its AI research – dived in by sending personal messages to potential recruits, offering them larger and larger sums. His approach was similar to that of sports franchise owners, two Meta employees said. Even if the offers seemed absurd, if the new hires could help increase revenue by even half a percent – especially for a company that is closing in on a US$2 trillion (RM8.56 trillion) market capitalisation – it would be worth it, the people said. 'If I'm Zuck and I'm spending US$80bil (RM342.20bil) in one year on capital expenditures alone, is it worth kicking in another US$5bil (RM22.4bil) or more to acquire a truly world-class team to bring the company to the next level?' Hays said. 'The answer is obviously yes.' Meta's initial offers to engineers varied but hovered in the mid-tens of millions of dollars, three people familiar with the process said. The company also offered recruits something that was arguably more attractive than money: computing power. Some potential hires were told they would be allotted 30,000 graphical processing units, or GPUs, for their AI research, one of the people said. GPUs, which are powerful chips ideal for running the calculations that fuel AI, are highly coveted. Zuckerberg has hired with the help of the List, a document with the names of the top minds in AI, two people familiar with the effort said. Many on the List have three main qualifications: a doctorate in an AI-related field, experience at a top lab and contributions to AI research breakthroughs, one of the people said. The Wall Street Journal previously reported some details of the List. Some researchers on the List have created chat groups on Slack and Discord to discuss offers, two people in the groups said. When someone lands an offer, they can drop the details in the group chats and ask peers to weigh in. (AI is a tight-knit field where people often know one another.) They trade information about which companies to approach for another offer so they can build up their price, the people said. Working with friends can be just as important as the money. After a researcher joins a new lab, the first thing that person often does is try to recruit friends, two people familiar with the process said. The talent wars have started causing pain. OpenAI has changed its compensation structure to account for the shift in the market, employees at the company said, and is asking those approached by competitors to consult executives before immediately accepting offers. 'Are we countering? Yes,' Mark Chen, OpenAI's chief research officer, said at a company meeting this month, according to a recording reviewed by The New York Times. But he added that OpenAI had not matched Meta's offers because 'I personally think that in order to work here, you have to believe in the upside of OpenAI.' OpenAI declined to comment. (The Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement in relation to news content related to AI systems. The two companies have denied the claims.) Not all of Meta's overtures have succeeded. The company has been rebuffed by some researchers, two people said, partly because Zuckerberg's vision for artificial intelligence was unclear compared to those at other companies. Still, the frenzy has allowed even little-known researchers like Deitke to chart their own destinies. Deitke, who recently dropped out of a computer science PhD program at the University of Washington, had moonlighted at a Seattle AI lab called the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. There, he led the development of a project called Molmo, an AI chatbot that juggles images, sounds and text – the kind of system that Meta is trying to build. In November, Deitke and several Allen Institute colleagues founded Vercept, a startup that is trying to build AI agents, which can use other software on the Internet to autonomously perform tasks. With about 10 employees, Vercept has raised US$16.5mil (RM70.6mil) from investors such as former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. Then came Deitke's back-and-forth with Zuckerberg. After Deitke accepted Meta's roughly US$250mil four-year offer, Vercept's CEO posted on social media, 'We look forward to joining Matt on his private island next year.' – © 2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times
