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:
- ScarCruft APT Adds Bluetooth Harvester to its Malware Bag of Tricks
May 11, 2019
The ScarCruft Korean-speaking APT is changing up its espionage tactics to include an unusual piece of malware devoted to harvesting Bluetooth information – while also showing some overlap with the DarkHotel APT. An analysis of ScarCruft’s binary infection procedure by Kaspersky Lab shows that in a campaign that continued over the course of 2018, the group used ...
- North Korea debuts new Electricfish malware in Hidden Cobra campaigns
May 10, 2019
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have released a joint security advisory warning of a new strain of malware being used in North Korean cyberattacks. Dubbed Electricfish, the malware was uncovered while the departments were tracking the activities of Hidden Cobra, a threat group believed to be state-sponsored and ...
- Lax Telco Security Allows Mobile Phone Hijacking and Redirects
May 9, 2019
As anyone who has called into a bank or utility provider lately knows, security for customer service routines – the prescribed ways in which support reps verify the identity of customers that call in – are being continually upgraded. Two-factor authentication, voice passwords, various security questions (“what was the name of your first pet,” for ...
- FIN7.5: the infamous cybercrime rig “FIN7” continues its activities
May 8, 2019
On August 1, 2018, the US Department of Justice announced that it had arrested several individuals suspected of having ties to the FIN7 cybercrime rig. FIN7 operations are linked to numerous intrusion attempts having targeted hundreds of companies since at least as early as 2015. Interestingly, this threat actor created fake companies in order to ...
- Surge of MegaCortex ransomware attacks detected
May 6, 2019
UK cyber-security firm Sophos reported detecting a spike in ransomware attacks at the end of last week from a new strain named MegaCortex. Sophos said the ransomware appears to have been designed to target large enterprise networks as part of carefully planned targeted intrusions –in a tactic that is known as “big-game hunting.” The modus operandi is ...
- Compromised Office 365 Accounts Used to Send 1.5 Million Email Threats in March
May 6, 2019
Microsoft Office 365 remains an attractive target for cybercriminals as it continues to be used by businesses worldwide. In a new report from Barracuda Networks, the company revealed that more than 1.5 million malicious and spam emails were sent from thousands of compromised Office 365 accounts of their customers in March 2019 alone. The increase in the ...