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Car dealerships in the US with public share ownership have posted notices of possible adverse impacts on their business. Think that the browser extensions you download from the Google store are safe? Not according to a new study. All those great announcements about Apple Intelligence, might not be coming to European Apple owners and the company blames European regulations for the hold up. And a major bank says that more than half of banking jobs could be displaced by AI. And insurance won’t fair much better.
All this and more on the “you can take that to the bank” edition of Hashtag Trending. I’m your host Jim Love, let’s get into it.
Car dealerships across the US are still facing significant disruptions as CDK Global, a major software provider for the industry, grapples with a cyber incident. CDK’s software manages crucial operations for nearly 15,000 dealerships, including sales, accounting, and inventory.
Reports are emerging that the hack is the work of the BlackSuit ransomware gang. This gain has been known to target US critical infrastructure and most recently attacked the Kansas City Police Department. But the group has not yet formally claimed credit for this attack on their site.
The impact is so severe that several large automotive groups have filed Form 8-Ks with the SEC to inform shareholders. 8k’s are the forms that US public companies must file to disclose “material events” that are important to shareholders.
Some dealerships have resorted to pen-and-paper operations, while others report substantial disruption to sales in North America. CDK has told customers that recovery will take days rather than weeks, which is feeding rumors that the company is considering paying a ransom to an Eastern European cybercrime gang.
Lisa Finney, a CDK spokesperson, stated, “We remain vigilant in our efforts to reinstate our services and get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible.”
Sources include: The Register
Your risk of downloading a malicious web browser extension may be greater than you think.
A new study by researchers from Stanford University and Germany’s CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security challenges Google’s claim that less than 1% of Chrome Web Store installs contain malware.
The study found that over 346 million users installed what they call “Security-Noteworthy Extensions” in the past three years. These include extensions with malware, policy violations, or vulnerable code.
A co-author of the study, said in a recent interview, “I think we are more aware of the risks now compared to say 10 years ago when extensions were just starting out.”
Researchers discovered that malicious extensions can remain in the Chrome Web Store for an average of 380 days, with one lasting a staggering 8.5 years.
They also found that user ratings are ineffective at identifying risky extensions.
Google’s move to its new Manifest v3, the API that governs how extensions communicate with the browser aims to improve on security by introducing new features and restrictions. And Google is promising to accelerate the “de-activation” of any browser extensions which have not upgraded to this new platform. The researchers agree that this move will have a significant impact on safety.
In response, a Google spokesperson said, “We appreciate the work of the research community, and always welcome suggestions for ways to maintain the safety of the Chrome Web Store.”
Sources include: The Register
Apple has announced that it’s so called Apple Intelligence, including three major features coming to iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia won’t be available to European users this fall. These include iPhone screen mirroring on Mac, SharePlay screen sharing, and the entire Apple Intelligence suite of generative AI features.
Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz explained, “Due to the regulatory uncertainties brought about by the Digital Markets Act (DMA) we do not believe that we will be able to roll out these features to our EU users this year.”
The company is concerned that the DMA’s interoperability requirements could compromise user privacy and data security. While Apple is committed to working with the European Commission to find a solution, no timeline has been given for when these features might become available in the EU.
This isn’t the first time EU regulations have led to differences in Apple’s offerings. Recently, Apple opened iOS to third-party app stores in Europe due to EU regulations, a change not implemented in other regions.
And just today, the EU announced that Apple was found guilty of breaching EU competition rules. These European anti-trust rules were implemented to protect smaller competitors against the big tech platforms. The timing might lead the more cynical among us to think that depriving European residents of what might be one of the biggest new features in Apple’s recent history – might be done to put some pressure on the European governments.
But nah, no tech company would hold back on popular services to punish a government for regulations it doesn’t like. What were we thinking?
Sources include: ArsTechnica
A new report from Citigroup suggests that artificial intelligence could have a massive impact on the banking industry, potentially displacing over half of all banking jobs. The study found that 54% of banking roles are at risk of AI-led job displacement, with another 12% likely to be augmented by AI.
David Griffiths, chief technology officer at Citi, stated, “The pace of adoption and impact of Gen AI across industries has been astounding as it becomes clear that it has the potential to revolutionize the banking industry and improve profitability.”
While the banking sector is expected to be hit hardest, other industries are also at risk. Insurance could see 48% of jobs displaced, energy 43%, and capital markets 40%.
It’s not bad news for investors, though. Citigroup estimates that AI adoption could increase the global banking sector’s profit pool by 9%, or $170 billion, potentially growing from $1.7 trillion to about $2 trillion.
Sources include: Forbes
And that’s our show for today.
Hashtag Trending goes to air 5 days a week with a daily news show, with a weekend interview show we call the Weekend Edition.
Show notes are at technewsday.ca or .com – either one works.
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I’m your host Jim Love. Have a Terrific Tuesday.
