Author: HackWatchit

In a recent special hosted by Oprah Winfrey titled “AI and the Future of Us”, some of the biggest names in technology and law enforcement discussed artificial intelligence (AI) and its wide-ranging effects on society. The conversation included insights from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, tech influencer Marques Brownlee, and FBI Director Christopher Wray. These experts explored both the promises and potential pitfalls of this rapidly advancing technology. As AI continues to shape our world, it’s crucial to understand its complexities—especially for those unfamiliar with the nuances of AI technology.One of the most significant concerns raised in the special was the…

The Defense Department and the military services all have major modernization efforts underway. They all include cloud, data, cyber and acquisition innovations. Where do Pentagon leaders want to see progress soonest? What is happening on the ground across the military services? What challenges have been overcome, what benefits recouped already and what lies ahead? To find out, join Federal News Network on March 25 and 26 at 1 p.m. ET each day for our DoD Modernization Exchange. We’ll be hosting Defense and industry leaders who will share the holistic view of technological advancement and modernization. In particular, these experts will…

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is a powerful technique that enhances language models by incorporating external information retrieval mechanisms. While standard RAG implementations improve response relevance, they often struggle in complex retrieval scenarios. This article explores the limitations of a vanilla RAG setup and introduces advanced techniques to enhance its accuracy and efficiency. The Challenge with Vanilla RAG To illustrate RAG’s limitations, consider a simple experiment where we attempt to retrieve relevant information from a set of documents. Our dataset includes: Using a standard RAG setup, we query the system with: Helper Functions To enhance retrieval accuracy and streamline query processing, we…

Payment Orchestration Platforms streamline transactions by routing payments through multiple providers, reducing costs, boosting approval rates, and enhancing security. How Does Payment Orchestration Work? A Payment Orchestration Platform (POP) functions as an intelligent intermediary between merchants and multiple payment service providers (PSPs). It facilitates seamless payment transactions by dynamically selecting the best route for each payment, optimizing approval rates, reducing costs, and enhancing security. By leveraging real-time analytics and machine learning, POPs improve transaction efficiency by identifying the most reliable and cost-effective payment pathway. Additionally, advanced security protocols, such as tokenization and AI-driven fraud detection, protect customer data. With payment…

Editor’s note: This report was authored by Kimberley Bromley, Hayden Evans, and Joseph Keyes. Today, we’re proud to present the ReliaQuest Annual Cyber-Threat Report: 2025. Now in its third year, this report offers a close look at the top cyber threats our customers faced throughout 2024. Built on in-depth analysis of true-positive customer incidents, it provides a clear and accurate view of what really happens when attackers strike. Last year was a defining one for cybercrime. We saw a record-breaking number of ransomware attacks, a rise in vulnerability exploitation for initial access, and AI-assisted attacks becoming a reality. But defenders…

A data leak exposes the operations of the Chinese private firm TopSec, which provides Censorship-as-a-Service Pierluigi Paganini February 24, 2025 A leak suggests that Chinese cybersecurity firm TopSec offers censorship-as-a-service services, it provided bespoke monitoring services to a state-owned enterprise facing a corruption scandal. SentinelLABS researchers analyzed a data leak that suggests that the Chinese cybersecurity firm TopSec offers censorship-as-a-service services. The origin of the data leak is unclear, the leak is large and inconsistently formatted, complicating the full analysis. TopSec was founded in 1995, it offers cybersecurity services such as Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and vulnerability scanning, along…

In June of last year, under the leadership of then-President Joe Biden, the United States became the first nation to implement a sweeping ban on Kaspersky products and services, prohibiting their use across all federal agencies. This move, driven by concerns about national security, set the stage for other countries to take similar actions.  Most recently, the Australian government followed suit, announcing a ban on Kaspersky’s software in all its federal agencies. This decision was made following an order issued by the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs over the past weekend, and it is part of the nation’s…

OpenAI says it blocked several North Korean hacking groups from using its ChatGPT platform to research future targets and find ways to hack into their networks. “We banned accounts demonstrating activity potentially associated with publicly reported Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)-affiliated threat actors,” the company said in its February 2025 threat intelligence report. “Some of these accounts engaged in activity involving TTPs consistent with a threat group known as VELVET CHOLLIMA (AKA Kimsuky, Emerald Sleet), while other accounts were potentially related to an actor that was assessed by a credible source to be linked to STARDUST CHOLLIMA (AKA APT38,…

As a Developer Advocate working on Project Falco, Nigel Douglas plays a key role in driving education for the Open-Source Detection and Response (D&R) segment of cloud-native security at Sysdig. He spends his time drafting articles, blogs, and taking the stage to help bring awareness to how security needs to change in the cloud. In cloud-native environments, where applications scale up and down much faster than traditional monolithic application architectures, the ability to proactively identify and respond to threats in real time is paramount. As more organizations embrace cloud-native architectures for application delivery, more robust security measures need to be…