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Cyber criminals could exploit emerging technologies including artificial intelligence and machine learning to help conduct attacks against autonomous cars, drones and Internet of Things-connected vehicles, according to a report from the United Nations, Europol and cybersecurity company Trend Micro.

While AI and machine learning can bring "enormous benefits" to society, the same technologies can also bring a range of threats that can enhance current forms of crime or even lead to the evolution of new malicious activity.

"As AI applications start to make a major real-world impact, it's becoming clear that this will be a fundamental technology for our future," said Irakli Beridze, head of the Centre for AI and Robotics at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute. "However, just as the benefits to society of AI are very real, so is the threat of malicious use," he added.

SEE:Cybersecurity: Let's get tactical(ZDNet/TechRepublic special feature) |Download the free PDF version(TechRepublic)

In addition to super-powering phishing, malware and ransomware attacks, the paper warns that by abusing machine learning, cyber criminals could conduct attacks that could have an impact on the physical world.

For example, machine learning is being implemented in autonomous vehicles to allow them to recognise the environment around them and obstacles that must be avoided such as pedestrians.

However, these algorithms are still evolving and it's possible that attackers could exploit them for malicious purposes, to aid crime or just to create chaos. For example, AI systems that manage autonomous vehicles and regular vehicle traffic could be manipulated by attackers if they gain access to the networks that control them.

By causing traffic delays perhaps even with the aid of using stolen credit card details to swamp a chosen area with hire cars cyber attackers could provide other criminals with extra time needed to carry out a robbery or other crime, while also getting away from the scene.

The report notes that as the number of automated vehicles on the roads increases, the potential attack surface also increases, so it's imperative that vulnerabilities and issues are considered sooner rather than later.

But it isn't just road vehicles that cyber criminals could exploit by exploiting new technologies and increased connectivity; there's the potential for attackers to abuse machine learning to impact airspace too.

Here, the paper suggests that autonomous drones could be of particular interest to cyber attackers both criminal or nation-state-backed because they have the potential to carry 'interesting' payloads like intellectual property.

Exploiting autonomous drones also provides cyber criminals with a potentially easy route to making money by hijacking delivery drones used by retailers and redirecting them to a new location taking the package and selling it on themselves.

Not only this, but there's the potential that a drone with a single board computer could also be exploited to collect Wi-Fi passwords or breach routers as it goes about its journeys, potentially allowing attackers access to networks and any sensitive data transferred using them.

SEE: 10 tech predictions that could mean huge changes ahead

And the report warns that these are just a handful of the potential issues that can arise from the use of new technology and the ways in which cyber criminals will attempt to exploit them.

"Cybercriminals have always been early adopters of the latest technology and AI is no different. As this report reveals, it is already being used for password guessing, CAPTCHA breaking and voice cloning, and there are many more malicious innovations in the works," said Martin Roesler, head of forward-looking threat research at Trend Micro

One of the reasons the UN, Europol and Trend Micro have released the report is in the hope that it'll be seen by technology companies and manufacturers and that they become aware of the potential dangers they could face and work to solve problems before they become a major issue.

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Artificial intelligence could be used to hack connected cars, drones warn security experts - ZDNet

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) State officials hope Californias new 10 p.m. stay-at-home order will slow the spread of COVID-19, otherwise, another 10,000 San Diegans are projected to contract the virus in the next 10 days.

Thats according to a new county-by-county forecast from Facebook, which rolled out the prediction software last month.

Facebook projects L.A. County will see the second-largest increase in cases in the country by November 30. San Diego County is projected to add the 15th most cases, reaching a total of 78,594 infections by Nov. 30.

The two-week forecast was released before Governor Gavin Newsom announced enhanced restrictions. Facebook will release a new two-week forecast next week.

Many other forecasts around the world are only predicting caseload at a country or state level, said Laura McGorman with Facebooks Data for Good team. Were trying to be much more local in this approach because we know so much of the COVID-19 response is in fact local.

McGorman said the forecast tool could help county and state officials plan hospital bed space, ICU capacity, ventilators and other critical supplies.

The map is powered by artificial intelligence that draws on seven kinds of data. They use outside metrics like confirmed cases, doctor visits and the weather combined with information Facebook collects like a survey of peoples symptoms and GPS location data.

The location data helps gauge whether people are staying home and isolating or circulating among the community, according to McGorman.

Facebook only pulls data from users who opt in and no, theyre not reading your posts. All of the information, which is aggregated to the county or state level to protect privacy, is available for the public to download.

The tech giant initially started Data for Good three years ago to help with disaster-relief projects, McGorman said. Among other applications, their location data can quickly predict if evacuations are working.

Typically, groups like the Red Cross have to knock door-to-door to see if people are still home, or wait for people to show up at shelters to see if theyve gotten out of harms way, she said.

The software has also been used to detect network outages when a hurricane knocks out cellphone towers, she said.

Facebooks COVID-19 mapping tools have been used to inform policymakers in New York and Mexico, and the data has helped analyze the effectiveness of stay-at-home orders in California, McGorman said.

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Facebook using artificial intelligence to forecast COVID-19 spread in every US county - 10News

In Zach Goldfines view, the fact that it was taking approximately 100 days for veterans to get word that help was coming to process their benefits claims let alone the time to actually receive help was unconscionable.

But that was the reality before the Department of Veterans Affairs launched its Content Classification Predictive Service Application Programming Interface last year. More than 1.5 million claims for disability compensation and benefits were submitted annually, and 65%-80% of them came via mail or fax. And 98.2% of attempts to automate the language in those claims were failing.

A veteran can write whatever, however they think about the injury they suffer. So they might say, My ear hurts and theres a ringing noise constantly but VA doesnt give a benefit for my ear hurts and I have ringing constantly it gives a benefit or gives a monthly payment for hearing loss, said Goldfine, deputy chief technology officer for Benefits at VA. So the problem was that veterans were facing an extra five-day delay in getting the decision on their benefits because there was this back-up of claims at that portion of the process where it required a person to make that translation.

After deploying the API, Goldfine said almost overnight the number of successfully automated claims tripled and it saved VA millions of dollars from reduced time needed to translate claims. This year VA once again reduced wait times with rapidly deployed chatbot to field questions about COVID-19, including what facilities were open.

This was one example of successful artificial intelligence at agencies highlighted during the Impact Summit Series: Artificial Intelligence, presented by the General Services Administrations Office of Technology Transformation Services on Thursday. Goldfine said the API case at VA illustrates how AI can make employees jobs easier, rather than render those employees obsolete a common fear of organizations and managers wary of implementing AI in their offices. Talk to staff and expect to hear different concerns between managers and lower-level workers doing these rote tasks.

We all have parts of our job that we dont like, whether that be like a million emails that we have to respond to or entering certain data elements when we need to take leave there are always monotonous parts of our jobs no matter what our job is and I would guess most folks wish we could automate those away when and where possible, he said. It was manual data reentry in a scenario where, many of them are veterans themselves. Theyd rather be spending their time doing things youd think theyd rather be spending their time doing, like talking with veterans on the phone, understanding whats going on, getting them information they need.

Goldfine also stressed building a multidisciplinary team to implement AI, get buy-in and consider the human impacts. System designers, product managers, user researchers, data scientists, software engineers and even policy experts are all critical.

Alka Patel, head of AI Ethics Policy for DoDs Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, brings a background of engineering and law to her role. She said good engineering principles of design, development, deployment and use are combined with consideration of risk management and government-corporate compliance.

Once DoD adopted its AI ethics principles in February after two years of work leading up to that Patels responsibility was to take those higher-level words and definitions and actually make them tactical.

When it comes to ethical AI, her advice to agencies was to start now and use any existing AI strategy as a framework. And although it may be impossible to predict every scenario or ethical quandary that can arise, some things will probably stay firm, like principles, while testing and evaluations processes are more susceptible to change as technology evolves.

Seeing ethics as an enabler of AI, rather than a hindrance, is the better mindset. In addition, simply stating in an award that contractors must comply with DoD AI ethics principles can help from a signaling standpoint, but Patel was skeptical that it will result in desired objectives.

Im very sensitive to dictating what those requirements need to be done from an agency perspective. I think thats a conversation that needs to happen mutually with our contractors or at least have some insight, she said. We need to be not so prescriptive but we need to be flexible but still have the fidelity of the content and the criteria we are expecting from the contractors themselves.

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Agencies advised to approach AI from an open, collaborative mindset - Federal News Network

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) When it comes to the battle against COVID-19, artificial intelligence is being used on a large scale in order to prevent future pandemics.

As you know, this week offers more positive news in the vaccine world Moderna just announced that its vaccine trial has a 94.5% effective rate this encouraging news is extremely welcomed after Pfizers recent 90%+ vaccine effective rate breakthrough was announced last week as COVID-19 infection rates continue to climb rapidly.

If theres any silver lining we can take away from todays pandemic, its that the use of its collected data in combination with the use of artificial intelligence will better prepare us to prevent and/or more effectively handle any possible future pandemics.

Neil Sahota, Chief Innovation Officer & United Nations A.I. Advisor, joined KUSIs Paul Rudy on Good Morning San Diego to explain how artificial intelligence is being used to right now, to prevent future pandemics.

Sahota gave a Ted Talk on a similar topic that you can view here.

Excerpt from:
Artificial Intelligence being used to collect data amid pandemic to avoid another - - KUSI

Cognite, a global industrial artificial intelligence (AI) software company, and Wood, a global engineering and consulting company, have agreed to a strategic partnership that will accelerate industrial transformation by creating AI solutions that enable more connected, sustainable and data-driven operations for heavy-asset, infrastructure and industrial clients.

The collaboration will deliver value faster and at scale, combining Cognites flagship product, Cognite Data Fusion, with Woods multi-sector domain knowledge, data extraction and technology integration expertise to optimise productivity and performance.

Both companies are committed to deploying performance solutions that address the needs of the energy transition, with the collaboration allowing for greater understanding of existing assets and operations, liberating vast amounts of data trapped in fragmented and legacy systems.

President of Automation and Control at Wood, Mark House, said: Wood and Cognite will leverage physics-based models and AI to quickly provide advanced analytics that drive more profitable and sustainable industrial operations.

Through the partnership, we are addressing a familiar challenge in industry when operational and information technology converge.

John Markus Lervik, CEO of Cognite, said: Working with Wood presents a fantastic opportunity for us to deliver value faster and at scale by playing to each of our strengths. The partnership embraces scalable innovation and value realisation which is accelerated by combining what both Wood and Cognite are best known for in the market.

Through Cognite Data Fusion, data will be transformed from siloed raw information into meaningful digital insights in real-time, to make faster and better-informed business and operational decisions.

Adding Cognites advanced AI data contextualisation and operations product to Woods technology partnership ecosystem is an exciting step as we innovate in connected operations solutions, said Darren Martin, Woods Chief Technology Officer. This collaboration will further enable us to meet the ambitions of our clients and empower them to be future ready now.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/refining/20112020/wood-and-cognite-unite-to-unlock-artificial-intelligence-solutions-for-industrial-operations/

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Wood and Cognite unite to unlock artificial intelligence solutions for industrial operations - Hydrocarbon Engineering