Articles by Frank Bajak

Bajak is AP Technology Writer.

US Intelligence Agencies’ Embrace of Generative AI Is Wary and Urgent

Long before generative AI’s boom, a Silicon Valley firm contracted to collect and analyze non-classified data on illicit Chinese fentanyl trafficking made a compelling case for its embrace by U.S. intelligence agencies. The operation’s results far exceeded human-only analysis, finding …

Georgia’s Largest County Still Repairing Damage from January Cyberattack

Georgia’s largest county is still repairing damage inflicted on its government a month ago by hackers who shut down office phone lines, left clerks unable to issue vehicle registrations or marriage licenses and threatened to publicly release sensitive data they …

HP Enterprise Discloses Hack by Suspected State-Backed Russian Hackers

Hewlett Packard Enterprise disclosed Wednesday that suspected state-backed Russian hackers broke into its cloud-based email system and stole data from cybersecurity and other employees. The provider of information technology products and services said in a Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory …

Retail Mortgage Lender loanDepot Struggles With Cyberattack

The U.S. retail mortgage lender loanDepot is struggling to recover from a cyberattack that impacted its loan processing and phone service. In a filing on Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said data was encrypted by the …

Breaches by Iran-Affiliated Hackers Spanned Multiple States

A small western Pennsylvania water authority was just one of multiple organizations breached in the United States by Iran-affiliated hackers who targeted a specific industrial control device because it is Israeli-made, U.S. and Israeli authorities say. “The victims span multiple …

FBI, European Partners Seize Major Malware Network in Blow to Global Cybercrime

U.S. officials said Tuesday that the FBI and its European partners infiltrated and seized control of a major malware network used for more than 15 years to commit a gamut of online crimes including crippling ransomware attacks. They then remotely …

Don’t Expect Quick Fixes in ‘Red-Teaming’ of AI Models; Security Was an Afterthought

White House officials concerned by AI chatbots’ potential for societal harm and the Silicon Valley powerhouses rushing them to market are heavily invested in a three-day competition ending Sunday at the DefCon hacker convention in Las Vegas. Some 3,500 competitors …

White House Holds First-Ever Summit on Ransomware Crisis Plaguing Public Schools

The White House on Tuesday held its first-ever cybersecurity “summit” on the ransomware attacks plaguing U.S. schools, in which criminal hackers have dumped online sensitive student data, including medical records, psychiatric evaluations and even sexual assault reports. “If we want …

Ransomware Criminals Are Dumping Kids’ Private Files Online After School Hacks

The confidential documents stolen from schools and dumped online by ransomware gangs are raw, intimate and graphic. They describe student sexual assaults, psychiatric hospitalizations, abusive parents, truancy — even suicide attempts. “Please do something,” begged a student in one leaked …

Microsoft Says Early June Disruptions to Outlook, Cloud Platform Were Cyberattacks

In early June, sporadic but serious service disruptions plagued Microsoft’s flagship office suite โ€“ including the Outlook email and OneDrive file-sharing apps โ€“ and cloud computing platform. A shadowy hacktivist group claimed responsibility, saying it flooded the sites with junk …