Databricks: AI Could Become So Intelligent That It Surpasses Human Intelligence

Databricks is a unified analytics platform that helps businesses accelerate time to insights with data engineering, data science, and machine learning. Databricks is at the front and center of machine learning, and its capabilities are vast.

Some of the key capabilities of Databricks include:

• Data engineering: Databricks makes it easy to ingest, clean, and prepare data for analysis. Databricks also provides a variety of tools for data transformation and data modeling.

• Data science: Databricks provides a complete environment for data scientists to build, train, and deploy machine learning models. Databricks also provides a variety of tools for data visualization and model evaluation.

• Machine learning: Databricks provides a variety of machine learning algorithms and frameworks. Databricks also provides a variety of tools for model deployment and monitoring.

In addition to its core capabilities, Databricks also offers a number of additional features, such as:

• Collaboration: Databricks makes it easy for teams to collaborate on data projects. Databricks provides a variety of tools for sharing data, code, and notebooks.

• Security: Databricks is built on a secure foundation. Databricks provides a variety of features for data security, such as role-based access control, data encryption, and audit logging.

• Governance: Databricks provides a variety of features for data governance, such as data lineage tracking, data quality checks, and data policy enforcement.

Databricks is a powerful platform that can help businesses accelerate time to insights with data engineering, data science, and machine learning. If you are looking for a platform to help you with your data projects, Databricks is a great option.

Here are some additional thoughts on the potential dangers of AI, as raised by Ian Hogarth:

• AI could become so intelligent that it surpasses human intelligence. This could lead to a situation where AI is able to make decisions that are better than humans, but which humans do not understand. This could have a profound impact on society, as humans would no longer be in control of their own destiny.

• AI could become so powerful that it could pose a threat to humanity. This could happen if AI is used for malicious purposes, such as developing autonomous weapons or creating surveillance systems that are too powerful to be controlled by humans.

• AI could become so ubiquitous that it could become difficult to distinguish between humans and machines. This could lead to a situation where humans are no longer unique or special.

It is important to be aware of the potential dangers of AI, and to take steps to mitigate these risks. One way to do this is to ensure that AI is developed and used in a responsible manner. This means ensuring that AI is aligned with human values, and that it is used for good rather than for evil.

It is also important to remember that AI is a tool, and like any tool, it can be used for good or for evil. It is up to us to decide how AI is used, and to ensure that it is used for the benefit of humanity.

3CX DesktopApp Supply Chain Attack: What You Need to Know

After being alerted by several security researchers of an ongoing supply chain attack in its 3CX DesktopApp, 3CX is currently working on a software update. According to the company's CEO, Nick Galea, the malware affects the Windows Electron client for customers running update 7. As an immediate response, the company has advised users to uninstall and reinstall the app, and in the meantime, use its PWA (progressive web application) client instead.

3CX is a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) IPBX software development company with over 600,000 customers and 12 million users in 190 countries. Its 3CX DesktopApp allows users to make calls, chat, video conference, and check voicemail using their desktop. Some of its customers include BMW, Honda, Ikea, Pepsi, and Toyota.

The ongoing attack was detected by security researchers at Sophos, Crowdstrike, and SentinelOne, who observed malicious activity originating from a trojanized version of the 3CX DesktopApp. Sophos reported that the software is a digitally signed version of the softphone desktop client for Windows and is packaged with a malicious payload. The application has been abused by the threat actor to add an installer that communicates with various command-and-control servers.

According to SentinelOne, the threat actor registered a massive attack infrastructure in February 2022 and is tracking the attack under the name SmoothOperator. Researchers noted that it is a chain attack that takes advantage of the DLL side-loading technique to load a malicious DLL that's designed to retrieve an icon file payload. The trojanized 3CX DesktopApp is the first stage in a multi-stage attack chain that pulls ICO files appended with base64 data from GitHub and ultimately leads to a third-stage infostealer DLL still being analyzed as of the time of writing.

Crowdstrike also found that the malicious activity includes beaconing to actor-controlled infrastructure, deployment of second-stage payloads, and hands-on-keyboard activity in a small number of cases. Sophos noted that the DLL side-loading is designed in such a way that users will not realize any difference while using the application. The information stealer can gather system information and sensitive data stored in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Mozilla Firefox browsers.

In conclusion, the ongoing supply chain attack on the 3CX DesktopApp has prompted urgent action from the company, with a software update in progress and a recommendation for users to switch to its PWA client in the meantime. Security researchers have detected malicious activity originating from the trojanized version of the app, which has been abused by the threat actor to communicate with command-and-control servers and steal sensitive data. As always, it is important to stay vigilant and take immediate action in response to any security alerts or warnings.

AI the Future of Cyber Security

AI tools can sift through enormous amounts of data to look for patterns and learn about user behavior. This allows for the early detection of hackers before they cause harm.

Companies involved in cyber security are investing money into these technologies to fend off attacks and are starting to reap the rewards. AI-based technologies' capabilities are growing exponentially, enabling businesses to identify more sophisticated cyber threats before they materialize; more companies will likely start using AI tools as their usability increases.

As a result, more complex attacks will be recognized, making AI a crucial tool in the fight against cybercrime.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming more and more popular among businesses as

Artificial intelligence (AI) functions like a computer program focused on gaining success. Machine learning (ML), on the other hand, is a self-learning tool that evolves as it gains experience. Combining the two can guarantee accuracy and success in the cybersecurity industry.

Traditional Cyber Security

The fundamental problem with traditional cyber security measures is that it cannot keep up with the scale of the threat today. Conventional methods to collect and analyze information lead to an overload of data. It is labor-intensive and, therefore, prone to manual errors. Since they need more visibility into the network, it is also challenging to prepare against a potential threat.

AI in Cyber Security

In comparison, artificial intelligence in cyber security has a higher success in detecting possible threats and defending against them.

1. Network Threat Identification

This is the most basic use case for AI in cyber security today. More than 70% of businesses today are dependent on AI-enabled network security platforms. Furthermore, as enterprises share sensitive data over networks, AI-enabled systems are better equipped to protect the data transmitted or stored.

2. AI Email Monitoring

AI is used today to monitor incoming and outgoing emails to safeguard against cyber threats like phishing. The most probable risks are reported to the security personnel, and appropriate action can be taken. This becomes very important in the finance sector. Here, anomaly detection is used to identify phishing attacks and misdirected emails, prevent data breaches and identify other cyber security threats.

3. AI Endpoint Protection

Traditional anti-virus software can scan files for known viruses. The software cannot safeguard your data without security updates on new viruses. On the other hand, software that uses AI can detect a threat owing to anomaly detection or unusual behavior. Therefore it is better equipped to predict, detect and prevent a cybersecurity threat.

4. AI-based User Behaviour Modeling

In some cyber security attacks, the login id of a person can be manipulated by a complete takeover, without the person's knowledge. The only way to identify and stop this is by identifying a change in the behavior pattern of their activity. With AI technology solutions, such changes can be easily detected and security can then be alerted to investigate the matter further.

Conclusion

Cyber security systems with AI can anticipate a threat and deploy necessary action to prevent an attack. As a result, more and more corporations today are making special allowances in their budgets for upgrading to AI-enabled cyber security systems. As long as companies continue to feed accurate data, the system will swiftly detect any deviation from the baseline.