Whenever an AI data center thinks really, really hard, it can increase its power consumption so much to trigger disruptions and possibly even blackouts and gear malfunctions. So, is it possible for a malicious actor to trigger this scenario deliberately, in order to cause physical harm?
Multiple researchers from the Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, wrote a research paper titled “Bit2Watt: A Cyber-Physical Vulnerability Exploiting GPU Workloads Across Power and Computing Infrastructures.”
In it, they claim that a malicious cloud tenant is, in theory, capable of launching GPU workloads so intensive that they cause physical damage.
Read more…
Source: TechRadar News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- RagnarLocker ransomware hits EDP energy giant, asks for €10M
April 14, 2020
Attackers using the Ragnar Locker ransomware have encrypted the systems of Portuguese multinational energy giant Energias de Portugal (EDP) and are now asking for a 1580 BTC ransom ($10.9M or €9.9M). EDP Group is one of the largest European operators in the energy sector (gas and electricity) and the world’s 4th largest producer of wind energy. The company is present ...
- Malicious Attackers Target Government and Medical Organizations With COVID-19 Themed Phishing Campaigns
April 14, 2020
Despite prior reporting by various sources indicating that some cyber threat attacker activity may subside in some respects during the COVID-19 pandemic, Unit 42 has observed quite the opposite with regard to COVID-19 themed threats, particularly in the realm of phishing attacks. While the various COVID-19 themed phishing campaigns observed by Unit 42 are numerous, this blog ...
- Threat Spotlight: Gootkit Banking Trojan
April 14, 2020
Gootkit is a sophisticated banking Trojan which can perform various malicious activities such as: web injection, taking screenshots, video recording, email parsing, and so on. Gootkit emerged during the summer of 2014 but is still active, making it a viable threat to financial institutions to this day. BlackBerry most recently observed a Gootkit campaign via AZORult infostealer ...
- Coronavirus Update App Leads to Project Spy Android and iOS Spyware
April 14, 2020
Trend Micro has discovered a potential cyberespionage campaign, which we have named Project Spy, that infects Android and iOS devices with spyware (detected by Trend Micro as AndroidOS_ProjectSpy.HRX and IOS_ProjectSpy.A, respectively). Project Spy uses the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as a lure, posing as an app called Coronavirus Updates. We also found similarities in two older samples ...
- Overlay Malware Leverages Chrome Browser, Targets Banks and Heads to Spain
April 14, 2020
Researchers are warning of a remote overlay malware attack that leverages a fake Chrome browser plugin to target the accounts of banking customers in Spain. Grandoreiro is a type of remote overlay banking trojan, designed to help attackers overtake devices and display a full-screen overlay image when victim accesses their online banking account. In the background, meanwhile, the ...
- APT41 Using New Speculoos Backdoor to Target Organizations Globally
April 13, 2020
On March 25, 2020, FireEye published a research blog regarding a global attack campaign operated by an espionage motivated adversary group known as APT41. This attack campaign was thought to have operated between January 20 and March 11, specifically targeting Citrix, Cisco, and Zoho network appliances via exploitation of recently disclosed vulnerabilities. Based on WildFire and AutoFocus ...