News Roundup

That’s right everyone, I don’t have a specific topic to cover this week, so I’m going to do a little bit of a news roundup on things I’ve been keeping my eye on.

Why did I choose to spell it that way in the title? Because it kills bugs dead. That’s right, first up on the radar is OpenAI announcing the launch of its bug bounty program. This week the artificial intelligence (AI) research lab announced that it would be offering rewards to independent researchers ranging from $200 to $20,000 a bug depending on the severity of the exploit. It’s no wonder, apparently researchers saw a 135 percent increase in AI-enabled social engineering attacks between January and February of this year. My first thought naturally is to wonder if I can ask ChatGPT to locate a flaw or exploit in its programming in order to collect the bounty. Would that work? Am I the last person to think of it? Time will tell.

Another story is the ongoing TikTok saga, which seems on track to ban the program in the West (maybe, probably). The question now is how they do it. As one candidate, the RESTRICT Act, is under fire from digital rights advocates who say ill-defined legal language will grant too broad an authority in the ability to ban mobile and desktop applications. Reportedly, the document doesn’t even mention TikTok or associated company ByteDance, and several politicians and state governments seem just fine with continuing to use TikTok anyway. Florida apparently spent over $30,000 in advertising on the platform for college savings plans. I seem to recall their representatives right alongside the rest of them in the hearings repeating the same tired questions for five hours. I guess they like TikTok just fine.

So, what’s up for the rest of the week? I think I’ve just a little bit more ISC West to get out of my system. After that there’s a feature I’m looking forward to writing about, but I’ll let that one stay a surprise till it's ready.