News of the Cyber World

[kyonides]

UN calls for human rights safeguards on artificial intelligence

The United Nations’ top human rights official Wednesday called for a global moratorium on the sale and use of artificial intelligence systems that pose human rights concerns until safeguards are put in place.

“We cannot afford to continue playing catch-up regarding AI – allowing its use with limited or no boundaries or oversight, and dealing with the almost inevitable human rights consequences after the fact,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said alongside the release of a report on the emerging technology. “The power of AI to serve people is undeniable, but so is AI’s ability to feed human rights violations at an enormous scale with virtually no visibility.”

The U.N. did not list specific AI tools that governments should ban. Instead, the report points to a number of ways the technology is used in decision-making that can have life-altering consequences, including the rise in the use of facial recognition technology in policing and subsequent cases of false arrests.

It would have been better if they ever had listed some AI tools at least.

Apple patches against alleged NSO Group zero-click exploit used on activists

Apple released a patch Monday against two security vulnerabilities, one of which the Israeli surveillance company NSO Group has exploited, according to researchers.

The updated iOS software patches against a zero-click exploit that uses iMessage to launch malicious code, which in turn allows NSO Group clients to infiltrate targets — including the phone of a Saudi activist in March, researchers at Citizen Lab said.

The exploit uses a manipulated gif to crash Apple’s image rendering library. It then launches spyware that researchers say shares distinct features with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. Researchers have named the exploit “FORCEDENTRY.”

Zero-click exploits prove especially dangerous because they don’t require users to open the malicious message or link for hackers to gain access to your phone.