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The U.S. National Security Agency teamed up with other stateside departments as well as some in the U.K. to issue a cybersecurity information sheet, or CSI, on artificial intelligence system development.

The guidance, which includes input from the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre and U.S Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, warns against adversarial machine learning attacks that could compromise data in AI technologies.

The CSI emphasizes the implementation of secure design, development, deployment and operation in AI systems. It recommends conducting a holistic assessment of AI-specific threats and using the findings to prepare the system for the evolving attack vectors.

The document also urges developers to compare the benefits and weaknesses of different AI models, taking into consideration factors such as training dataset characteristics, use case appropriateness, model complexity and component supply chains.

We wish we could rewind time and bake security into the start of the internet. We have that opportunity today with AI. We need to seize the chance, NSA Cybersecurity Director and Wash100 awardee Rob Joyce commented.

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NSA Releases International Cybersecurity Guidance on AI System Development; Rob Joyce Quoted - Executive Gov

FORT MEADE, Md.- The National Security Agency (NSA), UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK), U.S Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and other partners have released Guidelines for Secure AI System Development, a Cybersecurity Information Sheet (CSI).

The agencies are releasing the report to help developers, providers, and systems owners develop, deploy, and operate secure Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, including those used in National Security Systems (NSS), by the Department of Defense (DoD), and by the Defense Industrial Base (DIB).

We wish we could rewind time and bake security into the start of the internet. We have that opportunity today with AI. We need to seize the chance, said Rob Joyce, NSA Cybersecurity Director.

According to the CSI, AI systems are subject to security vulnerabilities that need to be considered alongside standard cyber threats. For example, AI systems are vulnerable to adversarial machine learning (AML) attacks, which exploit fundamental vulnerabilities in machine learning (ML) systems, including hardware, software, workflows, and supply chains. Prompt injection and training data poisoning are examples of AML attacks that could enable malicious cyber actors to compromise an ML models classification or regression performance, perform unauthorized actions, or extract sensitive information.

The CSI indicates that secure by design principles are applicable to AI systems. Providers of AI components should implement security controls by design and default within their ML models, pipelines, and systems. Accordingly, the CSI focuses on four key areas of AI system development: secure design, secure development, secure deployment, and secure operation.

The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK) and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) co-authored the CSI with NSA and other partners. The authoring agencies advise that this CSI does not replace general cybersecurity best practices and risk management programs. Recommendations in the CSI should be considered in conjunction with established cybersecurity, risk management, and incident response best practices.

Read the full report here. Visit our full library for more cybersecurity information and technical guidance.

NSA Media Relations MediaRelations@nsa.gov 443-634-0721

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Guidance for Securing AI Issued by NSA, NCSC-UK, CISA, and ... - National Security Agency

[BJP protest: thats Pannun on the poster]

The critical and most worrying aspect of the Gurmeet Singh Nijjar and Gurpatwant Singh Pannun episodes that no one is paying attention to is just how deeply and extensively the US has penetrated the Indian governments communications network and thoroughly compromised it. It is doubtful if even the most secret discussions in Cabinet meetings and in the Prime Ministers Office are safe from the prying eyes and ears of the US National Security Agency (NSA), leave alone Indian embassies in North America and, perhaps, elsewhere.

NSA operates the largest constellation of satellites in low and high earth orbits, and maintains continuous worldwide electronic surveillance generating tons of elecronic intelligence daily. Only Russia and China have erected formidable electronic/cyber barriers to protect at least the communications networks carrying their most highly classified information and data. The NSA, incidentally, has the highest funding priority of any American intelligence agencies, its budget in hundreds of billions of dollars. The bulk of the analysing is done by CIA, among other intelligence receipients, of the raw NSA data. Incidentally, the largest CIA spend is on analysing incoming NSA and other data and information.

Pressed by the US not to reveal the electronic channels or to compromise the NSA means through which the intercepts were received is, in fact, the reason why the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not onpassed evidence that New Delhi has demanded about the alleged Indian official complicity in the killing of Nijjar. This bit of intelligence was given by the US to Ottawa under the Five Eyes intelligence sharing arrangement. If disclosed it would disclose to the Indian government the weaknesses in the Indian communications system or, much worse, pinpoint the mole inside the Indian High Commission as the source. Canada does not have the technical capability to monitor such communications traffic by itself. The US does, and cued the Trudeau dispensation to the contents of telephone calls the RAW station chief supposedly had with whosoever was on the outside.

It is curious the Modi regime has not denied an Indian government role in the conspiracy that Washington claims to have foiled to do in America a Nijjar to the Khalistani troublemaker Pannun who conveniently enjoys dual citizenship of the US and Canada, leaving him free to do mischief in both countries, and in the UK. Why hasnt Delhi demanded details from the US government as it did from Trudeau? Doesnt GOI want to know just how the US became aware of this supposed plot, and through which channels, and why the Americans are so confident about their accusation? Wheres the evidence? And was it generated by NSA/CIA/DIA or some other agency, or is it, as likely as not, another American mole at work in the Indian embassy on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington?

It is important for Indians to know. After all, it was not very long ago that the Head of RAWs Counter-Intelligence Operations (!!!) a Rabinder Singh (if I recall the name right), was identified as being on CIAs payroll. Before he could be nabbed, he was spirited away by the Americans with not a little help from Indian insiders to Kathmandu, and flown to New York city, where last heard he was reportedly living safe and sound, presumably on the CIAs dime.

In the context of a thoroughly exposed and vulnerable Indian official system, PMO was apprised by the US of what it had by way of irrefutable evidence. It may explain New Delhis cagey response, promising investigation and punitive action regarding the Pannun affair, something Trudeau was unable to draw from Delhi in the Nijjar case.

The more serious issue New Delhi and the Indian public ought to worry about is whether the Indian government has any secrets at all worth leaking? Or, is it taken for granted by Indian agencies that Washington is privy to any and all communications within the government between PMO, RAW and other intelligence units, MEA, Home Ministry, are tapped 24/7/365 (366 in leap years!)? Is this an uncomfortable reality the Indian government has to live with?

Such communications surveillance and monitoring, moreover, is facilitated also by the fact that the entire Indian official network, like the commercial mobile telephony infrastructure, is based fully on imported hardware and, run by foreign software.

This last is a problem a few of us have been futilely squawking about for years, and which SITARA (Science, Indigenous Technology and Advanced Research Accelerator) a pioneering organisation founded and run by retired ambassador Smita Purshottam and engaged in yeoman service to the nation, has majorly flagged. It has repeatedly warned the PMO and other departments of the government at the highest levels, of the national security perils of relying on foreign communications gear with frame embedded bugs and on malware infested imported software.

SITARA has had the occasional success. But, by and large, the various departments and ministries of the government seem unconcerned about the perils of purchasing whole European, Chinese and American systems and associated hardware, and usually Western software driving them, because the inherent dangers are not fully appreciated by those in authority. And this, mind you, despite the availability of safe, protected, indigenous counterpart tech of high quality. This is so eggregiously wrong an attitude and policy it boggles the mind, making one wonder if the government willfully makes itself vulnerable, its atmnirbharta rhetoric so much farce!

The fact is the Indian government and its myriad agencies, including the Indian military, despite all the evidence, continue to trust Indian technology, talent and industry IMMENSELY LESS than they do foreign tech, countries and suppliers. This despite Indian firms, mostly MSMEs, having developed fantastically advanced communications technologies and algorithms. And this despite being aware of the trouble such procurement policies can cause with all government communications being open secrets to the US and the West, and to China.

Now try conducting a half-way effective foreign policy when the parties you deal with are all in the know of the nuts and bolts of it!

Despite some little awareness of this fatal weakness in some sections of some ministries, the Indian government has NOT holistically addressed it, nor sought comprehensive solutions to zero out the risk . The problem has to be tackled on a warfooting. The government needs to invest massively in the private sector MSMEs and other tech innovators, producers and manufacturers in the country such that the necessary communictions wherewithal is entirely, completely and certifiably of Indian origin.

India, right now, has standout Indian startups that have already invented, patented and produced elements for a potential 6G photonic communications system using light quanta to carry voice, information, and data. They are pleading for investment, and custom from the government, but find themselves beating their heads against a stone wall. And then there are Indian companies, like Reliance Communications, which imported Nokia hardware from Finland in crates for their Jio mobile telephony service and labeled it indigenous, who enjoy the Indian governments largesse!

SITARA has been informing and canvassing with the PMO, Department of telecommunications, et al, for funds for these small tech innovation companies to integrate their various technologies into a prototype system for the GOI departments to test. But the government appears disinterested, apparently stuck in the global-free trade stream of thinking that more advanced countries long ago trashed.

It has compelled many brilliant but frustrated Indian talents to shift their small ventures (that I know of) to Singapore and Silicon Valley, with US firms, like Qualcom, running after them, offering technology development facilities, a de-bureaucratised business ecosystem, investment capital, and undertakings to buy their cutting edge technologies.

In this dismal scene we can be certain of one thing though: Once these technologies are fully developed and mature, they will be offered for worldwide sale in a few short years, and come back to India with the California cachet and the Silicon Valley stamp, whence the Indian government and the Indian military and hundreds of official agencies and units will scamper after them, ready to fork out thousands of billions of Indian taxpayers dollars in hard currency!

Such are the contours of the latest saga of technology development unfolding as tragedy in India.

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The Pannun Affair reveals a penetrated Indian government ... - Bharat Karnad

The victim is safe and being treated at a hospital for multiple bone fractures.

Authorities in the US have rescued a 20-year-old Indian student, who was held captive for months without access to a bathroom, viciously beaten, and forced to work at three homes by his cousin and two other men in an incident described as "absolutely inhumane and unconscionable." The victim, whose name was not disclosed, spent months trapped in three homes in the US state of Missouri.

On Wednesday, police descended upon a home on a rural highway in St Charles County. They later arrested Venkatesh R Sattaru, Sravan Varma Penumetcha and Nikhil Verma Penmatsa, and on Thursday charged them with offences including human trafficking, kidnapping and assault.

Police were dispatched to investigate the home after a concerned citizen became aware of his situation and called 911.

The victim is safe and being treated at a hospital for multiple bone fractures, as well as lacerations and injuries covering his entire body, said prosecutor Joe McCulloch.

Over seven months, the men locked the student in a basement and forced him to sleep on an unfinished floor without access to a bathroom, charges say.

He scavenged for scraps in nearby restaurant dumpsters and was beaten with electrical wire, PVC pipe, metal rods, wooden boards, sticks and a water supply hose for a washing machine, St Louis Post-Dispatch, a major regional newspaper, reported.

It's absolutely inhumane and unconscionable that one human being could treat another human being like this, said McCulloch at a news conference Thursday.

The three defendants are accused of confining and abusing the victim at three different homes owned by Sattaru in Defiance, Dardenne Prairie and O'Fallon, starting in April 2023, according to St Charles County's official website.

Sattaru was identified by investigators as the ringleader and lives in the O'Fallon home with his wife and children.

The main suspect in the case, Sattaru, 35, is additionally charged with human trafficking for the purpose of slavery and contributing to human trafficking through misuse of documentation.

Penumetcha and Penmatsa live in the home where the student was rescued.

Authorities said the student had come to the US from India last year with hopes of studying at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla. Instead, he was taken to Sattaru's homes beginning in April and was forced to begin chores around 4:30 am, work a full day for Sattaru's IT company and then complete a list of evening tasks.

The student told police he regularly got three hours of sleep on a concrete floor in a locked basement where Sattaru monitored him with a surveillance camera, according to court documents.

If the 20-year-old didn't complete the tasks properly, he was severely beaten. Charges say he was forced to strip down naked and was hit all over his body. He was kicked, stomped and lashed, charges say, and his injuries included previous fractures and breaks that did not heal properly.

No one answered the door at Sattaru's home on Thursday afternoon. None of the three men had attorneys listed in court documents.

They beat him with their fists, they stomped on him, they beat him with electrical wiring, with PVC pipes, McCulloch said. They forced him to sleep in an unfinished basement, they starved him, and limited his access to the public and to restrooms. McCulloch commended that citizen for making the rescue possible.

If you see something, say something. We would much rather check it out and find nothing than have an incident like this that's been going on for nearly a year, McCulloch said.

Because the three suspects are wealthy and have political connections in India, McCulloch said they are being held at the St. Charles County Jail without bond.

Neighbours in O'Fallon were shaken by the arrests on Thursday.

Many said they'd had pleasant interactions with the family, waving as they passed on the street or playing with children in the cul-de-sac.

It's shocking, for sure, said Chirag Shah, who lives down the street from Sattaru's home.

And in Defiance, an unincorporated community of less than 100 people known for its wineries, gift shops and position along the Katy Trail, neighbours watched as police flocked to the home beginning Wednesday morning, the paper reported.

Police were told at first by a man in the home that they couldn't come inside, but the 20-year-old eventually came running from the basement. He was trembling uncontrollably, heavily scarred and suffering from bruising and swelling all over his body, charges say. PTI NSA AKJ NSA NSA

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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"Unconscionable": Indian Student Held Captive, Forced Into Labour In US - NDTV

Recently in an address at the Chief of Defence Intelligence annual conference 2023, National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu remarked that the six-month-old administration of President Tinubu had inherited a bankrupt country which had resulted in budgetary constraints.

He further told the assembled ranks of defence spooks that it is important for you to know that we have inherited a very difficult situation, literally a bankrupt country, no money, to a point where we can say that all the money we are getting now, were paying back what was taken..

As an insider whose duties are at the nexus of issues of national security, the NSAs assessment of the economy must be taken seriously. Indeed President Tinubu confirmed as much a few days later in Saudi Arabia during a discussion with the Vice-President (country programmes) of the Islamic Development Bank Dr Mansur Mukhtar. Said the President at the occasion, We inherited serious liabilities but also assets from our predecessors, but we have no excuses.

Before the NSAs and President Tinubus statements, some of the presidents men namely Bayo Onanuga Bagudu Atiku, Wale Edun and Yemi Cardoso, had all made similar statements on the state of the economy. From all indications in the coming days and months, more of President Tinubus men will repeat the same mantra as the economy continues on its rapid descent and as the government continues to look out for odds.

But it is instructive that while President Tinubu and his men have continued to wax lyrical about the parlous state of the economy they met upon coming to power, Nigerians however observe that ironically by its actions the administration is exacerbating the situation.

It all started with the ill-considered decision by President Tinubu on his inaugural day to endorse the removal of subsidies on petroleum products and a merger of the exchange rates. As this was coming right on the heels of a debilitating ill-thought-out currency reform programme embarked upon by the previous administration of President Buhari in which millions of Nigerians were subjected to untold and undeserving hardships leading to personal and business bankruptcies, it was difficult for Nigerians to believe that the new administration meant well for the people and the country.

We have seen the effect of these policies in the galloping inflation figures rising up to 27% from the latest figures put out by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and the ever-plummeting value of the naira against major currencies. This has led to continuous hardship on the people.

But what is even more galling for the people is that in the midst of its claims of meeting a bankrupt economy, the Tinubu administration is seen embarking on more of the injurious policies the previous administration did to the economy. Instead of prudent management of resources to reflect the lean times the Tinubu administration is on a profligate and reckless spending binge with what is left of the national commonwealth.

The supplementary budget submitted to the national assembly is a pointer to this fact. In all, a large chunk of the about N1.2 trillion budget is proposed for expenditure on luxuries for the president and the vice president.

With the benefit of what we have seen so far most Nigerians are now of the belief that the renewed hope slogan of the Tinubu administration promises more hardship than hope. The excuses being bandied about by its functionaries are clearly indicative of the fact that the administration is in the middle of a crisis of ideas, capacity and will. It is struggling to extricate itself from the spaghetti of contradictions it had created on the one hand and the quiet but ominous hostility of the Nigerian people on the other hand.

But the facts and reality cannot be hidden. The minister of finance, Wale Edun, recently admitted in a speech at a conference of the Institute of Chartered Directors recently that despite the assumptions that the economic policies embarked upon by the Tinubu administration will attract the favour of Western governments and institutions, Foreign investors have shown a reluctance in investing in the Nigerian economy. Invariably this means that without investors coming in, the naira will continue to weaken against major currencies leading to yet more inflation and attendant consequences on the economy. In its forecast for the Nigerian economy for 2024 and beyond, the Economist Intelligence Unit reports that High inflation, low economic growth and unpopular market reforms present substantial political stability risks. More and more Nigerians will fall into poverty as they will not be able to afford even the most basic of necessities for a decent existence.

As the majority of Nigerians are left to their own devices under the most punishing economic regime ever enacted in the country, the Tinubu administration is increasingly looking distinctively weak and vulnerable. Metaphorically in this context, the Tinubu administration is looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an approaching vehicle square and out of odds. Thus the NSAs speech which reads like a desperate plea for understanding and assurance to the armed forces can be viewed in this regard.

Let us face it; President Tinubus economic policies are lacking in the necessary fundamentals to transform the economy. As a result, Nigeria is really transiting on the way to economic and political perdition. The palliatives which the administration presented to cushion the effects of the harsh economic policies have proven to be largely inconsequential to the target groups. And there are no indications that after the first flurry of activities, the administration will be able to sustain it in the coming months.

Indeed the administration has found in the harsh economic policies a cynical tool for weaponization of poverty and as an enabler for political capture. The logic here is that the poorer people are made to be, the more they make themselves amenable to being manipulated politically.

Nigerias economic and political future has never been bleaker. The bandwidth for preventing a social explosion is shrinking by the day. The Tinubu administration must hasten to come to terms with this existential reality before it is too late.

Gadu can be reached via [emailprotected] or 08035355706 (texts only).

Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheCable.

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Tinubu met a bad economy but he's worsening it | TheCable - TheCable