Companies are drowning in AI, Meta’s Threads App is a new playground for cyber attackers, and Oracle emerges as a champion of Open-Source.

 

These and more top tech news stories on Hashtag Trending.  

I’m your host Jim Love, CIO of IT World Canada and Tech News Day in the US.

A couple of quick stories came my way today thanks to my colleague Howard Solomon, who hosts our popular podcast Cybersecurity Today. 

Howard wanted me to remind you that today is the start of two days of Amazon Prime deals. That also means crooks will be sending phishing messages with so-called Amazon Prime Day deals. They want to steal your username, password and credit or debit card number.  Be suspicious of links or attachments in emails that lead to what looks like an Amazon login page. Go to Amazon yourself and login there rather than through an email link. 

Also, Howard points out that the release of Meta’s Twitter-like service Threads is catching the attention of cybercrooks. According to researchers at Veriti they are creating hundreds of domains with variations on the name ‘Threads’ they can include in email phishing lures to sucker people into downloading malicious apps, or to fool people in other ways. These are websites like ‘threadsexpert’, ‘threadsapp’, ‘metathreads’ and more. If you don’t want to be a victim, only download the Threads app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

There’s a link to the full Veriti story with the text version of the podcast and a link to Howard’s podcast if you want to keep up on the latest cybersecurity stories.

Sources include: Cybersecurity Today

Once again, counterfeit Samsung Solid State Drives (SSDs) have been discovered in the inventory of a well-known retailer. The fakes were exposed when suspiciously cheap devices were subjected to an examination and benchmarking testing, revealing its shockingly slow performance and several glaring inconsistencies. 

A well know YouTuber examined several SSDs, including a “Samsung 980 EVO 4 TB,” listed on AliExpress. The SSD, priced at a mere 40 Euros ($44), raised eyebrows as Samsung doesn’t even have a 980 EVO model. The box also had several discrepancies, and the device itself bore no mention of Samsung. 

Testing revealed that while the drive did have a 4TB size, its performance was abysmal. 

We’ve covered other stories of counterfeit equipment sold through Amazon and other reputable online sources. 

Companies need to double down on exercising care in purchasing, especially when buying “bargain” equipment.  

The incident also serves as a reminder for manufacturers to strengthen their supply chain security to prevent the infiltration of counterfeit products, which can damage their brand reputation and customer trust.

Sources include: Techspot

Oracle has emerged as an unlikely but welcome champion of keeping Linux open and free for the global Linux community. 

There has been a controversy in the Linux world resulting from IBM’s recent decision to stop publicly releasing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) source code. The debate about this has been, to put it mildly, fractious.  IBM and Red Hat maintain that they are merely trying to stop companies from “freeloading” and taking advantage of the work that Red Hat does. Those in opposition, maintain IBM has reneged on commitments and is not playing by the spirit of the open-source movement. 

No matter what side of the argument that one takes, this does threaten to fragment the Linux community. 

Edward Screven, Chief Corporate Architect, and Wim Coekaerts, Head of Oracle Linux Development, highlighted Oracle’s significant corporate contributions to the Linux kernel, file systems, and tools over the past 25 years. 

But they pointed out that Oracle has promised to make the binaries and source code for Oracle Linux publicly and freely available as long as it distributes Linux. The company also welcomes downstream distributions of all kinds and is committed to working with distributors to ensure Oracle software products are certified on their distribution. 

Oracle says that their commitment to Linux freedom is a clear stance against IBM’s recent actions, which they believe are not in the best interest of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and the broader Linux community. They’ve issued an invitation to Linux developers who share their belief in Linux freedom to join their team, promising to continue their work on Linux as transparently and openly as always.

As you always have to question – is this merely an attempt to throw shade at a competitor – in this case IBM. Or is it a sincere statement of principle? Or does it even matter what the motivation is?  Whether one agrees with what IBM is doing, we have to remember that a thriving open-source community is what gave us Linux and other innovations. 

Sources include: Oracle Corp Blog

According to a report published in The Wall Street Journal, many companies are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of AI systems being implemented within their organizations. The rush to adopt AI without proper evaluation and strategic alignment has resulted in a proliferation of AI tools that fail to deliver desired outcomes.

One of the key findings of the study is the lack of expertise and understanding among business leaders when it comes to AI implementation. This knowledge gap often leads to unrealistic expectations and misguided decision-making in selecting AI tools and partners.

Additionally, the report points out the challenges related to data quality and management. Companies struggle with data silos, incomplete datasets, and inadequate infrastructure, which negatively impact the performance and reliability of AI systems. Flawed outcomes due to inaccurate or biased data can significantly hinder the potential benefits of AI.

To address these issues, the report emphasizes the importance of a strategic and measured approach to AI adoption. Just because it’s happening at the speed of light, doesn’t mean you have to respond at the speed of hype. It recommends organizations to prioritize careful planning, invest in AI education and training, and establish cross-functional teams to oversee AI initiatives. Creating a culture of responsible AI use, including ethical considerations and transparency, is also highlighted as a crucial aspect.

On a personal note, I’ve recommended that organizations focus not on AI itself, but on finding real and meaningful, early manageable problems that they can tackle using AI tools. 

I’ll be hosting a series and a workshop over the next few weeks called “Practical AI” to help organizations find early successes as they move forward.   

Sources include: Wall Street Journal

And that’s the top tech news stories for today.

Hashtag Trending goes to air five days a week with a special weekend interview episode called Hashtag Trending, the Weekend Edition.  You can follow us on Google, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. 

We’re also on YouTube five days a week with a video newscast only there we are called Tech News Day. 

If you want to catch up on more news quickly, you can read these and more at TechNewsDay.com and at ITWorldCanada.com on the home page.

We love your comments. You can find me on Linked In, Twitter or on our Mastodon site technews.social where I’m @therealjimlove.

Or just go to the article at itworldcanada.com/podcasts and you’ll find a text version with additional links and references.  Click on the x if you didn’t like the stories, or the check mark if you did, and tell us what you think. 

I’m your host, Jim Love. Have a Terrific Tuesday!

The post Hashtag Trending Jul.11- Companies drown in AI; Threads new playground for cyberattackers; Oracle a champion of open source first appeared on IT World Canada.