In a landmark ruling against Meta, a New Mexico judge likened the company’s social media platforms to factories. The psychological harm to children who use Facebook and Instagram, he said, can be seen as their pollution. Judge Bryan Biedscheid fined the company $567 million in his ruling Thursday, but he also prescribed steps to clean...Read More
OpenAI has temporarily paused some internal work on its next-generation artificial intelligence model, code-named Astra, after preliminary evaluations indicated the system may possess “critical” cybersecurity capabilities that could autonomously execute sophisticated cyberattacks. The San Francisco-based startup disclosed the findings on Thursday, triggering safety protocols that will keep the unreleased model confined to heavily guarded, isolated...Read More
As AI and automation increasingly become embedded into healthcare operations, securing these technologies becomes critical, especially for organizations managing protected health information (PHI), which are frequent targets for cybersecurity threats such as data breaches and unauthorized access. To safeguard this sensitive data, regulatory agencies like the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)...Read More
A New Mexico judge branded Facebook and Instagram owner Meta a “public nuisance,” and ordered the company to pay $567 million into a fund to remediate harms its apps caused to children. Judge Bryan Biedscheid found in his ruling late Thursday that teenagers in the state were in the midst of a mental health crisis...Read More
A court in the US state of New Mexico has ordered “Meta” to pay another $567 million for failing to warn children about the platformʼs dangers, the largest fine ever imposed on a company in a child safety case. The BBC writes about this. Judge Brian Bidscheid declared “Meta” a “public menace” and compared the...Read More
By JAN McLAUGHLIN BG Independent News Scammers aren’t choosy about who they fleece. But some view senior citizens as easy pickings. So Wood County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Dobson and Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn are taking their scam tip show on the road to senior centers across the county. Last week, they preached fraud prevention...Read More
The attorney general’s office said victims are then connected to someone posing as a law enforcement officer or government investigator. That person claims the accounts have been compromised and instructs the victim to withdraw savings, buy gold bars or coins from legitimate dealers, and turn them over to supposed authorities for safekeeping. The scammers also...Read More
The Calvert County Board of County Commissioners has approved a $420 million Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget that maintains current tax rates while increasing investments in education, school safety, transportation infrastructure, and employee compensation. The budget keeps the county’s local income tax rate at 3.2% and property tax rate at 96.7 cents per $100 of...Read More
The Sutter County Sheriff’s Office arrested multiple people following a multi-day undercover operation targeting online child exploitation. Deputies posed as minors online from July 22 through July 24, arresting suspects who showed up to a local hotel believing they were meeting underage children — with more details expected at a press conference on August...Read More
Maksim Silnikau, considered by U.S. authorities as the creator and leader of Ransom Cartel, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for his involvement in one of the most active ransomware-as-a-service operations in recent years. Silnikau, 40, used aliases such as J.P. Morgan, targa, xxx, and lansky and had been linked to underground cybercrime...Read More
