The United States Department of Justice has charged a man with fraud after he allegedly told clients he could decrypt files locked up by ransomware but actually paid ransoms – and seemingly got away with it for years. The Feds allege that Zohar Pinhasi – aka “Zack Silver” and “Zack Green” – ran a Florida company called “MonsterCloud” that advised ransomware victims not to pay because it had a way to recover encrypted data. “The charges relate to Pinhasi’s claimed ability to decrypt ransomware without paying cybercriminals, purportedly using ‘proprietary tools’ and ‘advanced decryption techniques' on behalf of distressed business owners who came to his company,” according to a DoJ press release. “In fact, Pinhasi allegedly used a portion of his clients’ fees to pay off the ransomware attackers, and then kept the rest, often extracting a substantial markup.” In one case, Pinhasi allegedly charged his client $150,000, paid the $8,200 ransom, and pocketed the rest – but didn’t admit he had paid the ransom. That scheme allegedly worked so well that Pinhasi charged clients more than $19 million and paid more than $8 million in ransom payments. The DOJ’s indictment [PDF] says MonsterCloud’s website mentions its use of “advanced decryption techniques and cutting-edge technology” – the same language found on this monstercloud.com page. The site also contains this claim: “At MonsterCloud, we are not a team of IT Experts. We are the most sophisticated Counter Cyber Terrorism team in the world.” The indictment suggests MonsterCloud was nothing of the sort, and that its claims rang hollow for years. “MonsterCloud's website included ‘testimonials’ and other promotional content, including from at least one compensated spokesperson,” the indictment states. “In May 2019, one such spokesperson – an individual who had provided a paid testimonial for the MonsterCloud website – contacted the defendant Zohar Pinhasi with questions about Pinhasi’s business practices and truthfulness.” “Among other things, the spokesperson asked Pinhasi whether MonsterCloud actually had any proprietary software that would allow MonsterCloud to decrypt encrypted data. Pinhasi responded: ‘MonsterCloud doesn't hold any proprietary technology [to] decrypt the ransomware data.’” Pinhasi faces two counts of wire fraud, and one of wire fraud conspiracy. He could do twenty years on each count, if convicted. The FBI is investigating this case, and it appears further charges could follow as the indictment states Pinhasi had “multiple co-conspirators, individuals whose identities are both known and unknown to the Grand Jury, including MonsterCloud employees and contractors.” ®

Singapore’s Monetary Authority, which acts as both central bank and finance industry regulator, wants all local industry players to seek independent review of AI use cases before deployment. The island nation’s combination of strict regulation and low taxes have made it one of the world’s premier finance hubs. One of the roles of Singapore’s Monetary Authority (MAS) is ensuring the nation retains that status, but in its first Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence Risk Management for Financial Institutions, published on Wednesday, warns that AI increases risk. “The use of AI can improve performance across business and functional areas but its complexity and probabilistic nature can lead to greater uncertainty, as well as unexpected or more biased behaviour that is harder to identify compared to the use of simpler methods,” the guidelines state. And that’s MAS’s view of old-school AI: it rates generative AI as even riskier. “The greater complexity of Generative AI gives rise to even greater uncertainty and unexpected behaviour compared to AI,” MAS warns, citing “noise that is inherent in training data, training data that may not be representative, or when the model encounters scenarios that are not present in its training data” as sources of risk. The regulator fears agentic AI “could further amplify these risks.” MAS therefore calls for financial institutions (FIs) to expand their risk management frameworks to cover AI and expects board and senior management to make that happen. The regulator also wants all AI use cases to undergo independent review before going into production. “Prior to deployment, an FI should subject the AI use case, including its underlying systems or models, to reviews by parties not involved in its development to ensure that the relevant controls, such as evaluation and testing, have been adhered to,” the guidelines state. MAS also wants regulated entities to run technology and cybersecurity reviews “to ensure that AI can be deployed into the production environment in a controlled and secure manner.” If an AI project survives those reviews, MAS wants ongoing monitoring of both the FI’s own systems and any third-party AI powering an application. “Given the uncertainties associated with AI, their dynamic nature and the potential for model staleness and performance degradation due to data or model drifts over time, ongoing monitoring is critical to ensure that deployed AI operates as intended and remains fit for purpose over time,” the guidelines state. MAS does not see failings by third-party AI suppliers as an acceptable excuse for AI problems at entities it regulates, and it wants FIs to monitor their suppliers’ products and services to ensure they remain stable and secure. “FIs remain accountable for AI used in the services they deliver, including AI developed, operated or provided by third parties,” the regulator explained. “FIs should obtain sufficient assurance from third-party providers, assess whether third-party AI is suitable for their intended use, and apply compensating controls where practical constraints or assurance gaps arise. If the risks cannot be brought within the FI’s risk appetite, it should consider limiting, suspending or replacing the use of the third-party AI service.” The regulator also wants Singaporean FIs to maintain up-to-date inventories of all AI used in their business. If that’s not possible due to third-party services using AI without revealing it, financial institutions need to find ways to manage the risk of unknowable AI contributions. Another of the guidelines calls for FIs to develop contingency plans and fallback options for AI used in high-risk applications. Those plans should include “alternative systems or manual processes, to ensure business continuity in case of AI failure or unexpected behavior.” The guidelines come into force on October 7, 2027. ®

Exclusive: Revelation comes after company’s executive told parliamentary inquiry he did not believe AI had been used to write message

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OpenAI used AI to help write the email to the Australian government advising that its AI agent had hacked into key departmental websites, Guardian Australia can reveal.

On Tuesday, one of the company’s executives told a parliamentary inquiry that he didn’t believe that its own technology had been used to create the email, but said the company needed to confirm this.

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Death toll from latest attack wave on Ukraine climbs to 28; Moscow says it ​hit military cargo vessel and port infrastructure. What we know on day 1,688

The death toll from Russia’s latest attack on Ukraine has climbed to 28, its interior minister, Ivan Vyhivskyi, has said. Russia pounded Ukraine with waves of missiles and drones on Wednesday. The heaviest losses were in ⁠Pryluky, in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, where ​a Russian missile obliterated a five-storey residential building. Twenty people died in the attack, including five children, said Pryluky’s regional governor, Vyacheslav Chaus. On Wednesday evening, prosecutors in Kyiv said falling debris from a drone killed two people in a suburb of the capital.

In ‌Pryluky, an excavator and dozens of rescuers with ‌shovels sifted through rubble at the site where several sections of the apartment block had collapsed. Emergency workers used ladders to get to the upper floors of what remained of the building, and as they worked their way down brought out ‌15 survivors. About 55 people were wounded in the town, regional officials said.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the Pryluky attack one of Russia’s “most vile”. “The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively,” the Ukrainian president said. “This was one of the most vile strikes.”

Russia’s ⁠defence ministry has said ⁠its ⁠forces struck a ⁠vessel heading ⁠to the ​Ukrainian ‌Black ‌seaport of ‌Odesa with cargo for the Ukrainian military. The ‌statement on Telegram on Wednesday gave ​no further details of the strike. The ⁠ministry also said ​Russian ​drones had ​hit ​infrastructure in ‌Ukrainian ​ports, without ​elaborating.

Bulgarian president Iliana Yotova blamed Russia’s war in Ukraine for worsening security in the Black Sea on Wednesday. Early on Tuesday, two ⁠ships were hit in ​a drone attack in Bulgaria’s Black Sea exclusive economic zone, with one sinking and the other damaged. The crew of the damaged ship were rescued but the crew of the ⁠sunken one remain missing. Yotova did not directly blame Russia, but said on Wednesday that the war had led to “a significant deterioration” in security for commercial vessels in the region. Bulgaria has halted its search for the missing ⁠crew.

European Union envoys approved 1,646 new designations under the bloc’s sanctions regime for Russia, with most focused ⁠on the country’s military industrial complex, three EU diplomats said on Wednesday. More than half of the newly added entities and individuals are involved in the ⁠chain of production of Russia’s ballistic missiles.

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MIT computer scientist led development of software for moon mission and earned Presidential Medal of Freedom

Margaret Hamilton, the computer pioneer whose software powered the first moon landing, has died, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced on Wednesday. She was 90.

In an era before titles such as software engineer and computer scientist became mainstream, Hamilton, who died on 30 September, learned to program under the tutelage of a renowned MIT meteorologist.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Alphabet's Google and gaming tools developer Unity Software announced a new platform that will allow people to create video games from simple text prompts, marking the latest incursion of generative artificial intelligence into artistic and creative industries. The initiative, called Playground, will "put game creation in the hands of millions of new creators, and bring new experiences to billions of players worldwide," the companies said in a statement on Oct 7.

With its debut, Playground will let people 18 and older generate and customize games using natural language prompts, "no coding required." Later in 2026, a new expanded creation experience called Unity Spark, will be integrated with Playground, providing "robust, professional-level" mechanics and high-fidelity 3D capabilities. Creators will be able to build "immersive, superlative experiences" with a simple text prompt, according to the release. Playground builds on Google's push into world models, a type of AI that generates virtual environments in real time from text prompts, rather than just video. Google and Unity's partnership "could reduce fears that AI will make Unity's core game-building software less necessary, while posing limited medium-term risk to Roblox's advantage as a social gaming platform," says Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Nathan Naidu.

The introduction of Unity Spark later in 2026 "could broaden Unity's creator base and support its game-development business," which represent about a third of sales.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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A chaya (lit. teahouse) is an exclusive type of restaurant where guests are entertained by geisha who perform song and dance. During the Edo Period (1603 - 1868), chaya were found in designated entertainment districts, usually just outside the city limits. Kanazawa has three, well preserved chaya districts: Higashi Chayagai (Eastern Chaya District), Nishi Chayagai (Western Chaya District) and Kazuemachi.

Of the three districts, the Higashi Chaya District (東茶屋街, Higashi Chayagai) is the largest and by far the most interesting. Two chaya, the Shima Teahouse and Kaikaro Teahouse, are open to the public. Other buildings along the central street now house cafes and shops. One of the shops, Hakuza, sells gold leaf products, a specialty of Kanazawa, and displays a tea ceremony room which is completely covered in gold leaf.

Source: www.japan-guide.com/e/e4206.html

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Nagasaki, Japan

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Lights seemingly pass through this young lady with a transparent umbrella.

On a photo workshop w/ Lukasz Palka of Eye Explore www.youtube.com/@EYExplore (Highly recommended!)

Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan

CAMBRIDGE (ANP) - Margaret Hamilton, de baanbrekende onderzoekster die hielp het vakgebied software-engineering te creëren en wier code de Apollo-astronauten van NASA op de maan liet landen, is overleden. Dat melden diverse Amerikaanse media, waaronder CNN. Ze werd 90 jaar.

Hamilton ging in 1959 bij de universiteit MIT aan de slag en bleef er tot halverwege de jaren zeventig werken. In die tijd leidde ze de Software Engineering Division van het MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. Die afdeling kreeg in 1961 een contract van NASA binnen. Uiteindelijk stond ze aan het hoofd van een team van honderd ingenieurs dat de software ontwierp voor de Apollo-missies van NASA.

Dankzij haar werk geldt Hamilton ook als een van de grondleggers van software-engineering, een term die zij zelf bedacht. In 2016 ontving Hamilton uit handen van president Barack Obama de Presidential Medal of Freedom voor haar bijdrage aan de wetenschap en de ruimtevaart.

WASHINGTON (ANP) - Het Pentagon heeft het Amerikaanse Central Command (CENTCOM) enkele dagen geleden opdracht gegeven de voorbereidingen af te ronden om de grootschalige gevechtsoperaties in Iran te hervatten, zeggen Amerikaanse functionarissen tegen Axios.

Het Pentagon noemde daarbij geen concrete datum voor het begin van de aanvallen, en president Trump heeft nog geen definitieve besluiten genomen. Maar volgens Amerikaanse en Israëlische bronnen kan het gebeuren voor de Amerikaanse tussentijdse verkiezingen en mogelijk ook voor de Israëlische verkiezingen, die een week eerder plaatsvinden.

Als de grootschalige gevechtsoperaties worden hervat, gaat het volgens bronnen naar verwachting om zware bombardementen op Iraanse energie-, infrastructuur- en nucleaire doelen.

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Isle of Wight

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North Adelaide, South Australia

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Gover Street, North Adelaide

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Walter Street, North Adelaide, South Australia