News of the Cyber World

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Apple Accused of Losing Shareholders Billions of Dollars

Shareholders have brought a lawsuit against Apple alleging that the company misrepresented how long it would take to integrate features based on artificial intelligence (AI) into the digital assistant Siri.
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Apple pushed forward with aggressive plans to develop and implement AI, introducing Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI tools that would enhance the iPhone. The iOS update in January 2025 automatically introduced the suite to many iPhones.

Apple has touted the suite as a major development for its products, with the ability to help rewrite text and generate images, as well as prioritizing the emails in a user's inbox. Those features can be used in core Apple applications like Mail, Messages and Photos.

What To Know

The lawsuit alleges that Apple had indicated that AI would serve as a key driver in iPhone 16 sales through the company's Apple Intelligence, which would boost the Siri digital assistant.

Shareholders, therefore, argue that the longer timeline needed to develop and integrate AI features for Siri has hurt iPhone sales and the company's stock price, according to the lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court.

The shareholders, bringing a potential class action lawsuit, now argue that the company lacked a functional prototype of those features for Siri and could not believe that the features would be ready for the iPhone 16, which launched on September 20, 2024.

Plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages for the year ending June 9, and have named CEO Tim Cook, CFO Kevan Parekh, and former CFO Luca Maestri as defendants, according to Reuters.

In March, Apple delayed some Siri upgrades to 2026, and Apple's assessment of its AI progress was presented at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9.

AI Willing to Kill Humans to Avoid Being Shut Down, Report Finds

A new study by Anthropic, an artificial intelligence (AI) research company, shows that the technology would be willing to kill humans in order to prevent itself from being replaced.

Why It Matters

The rapid advancement and development of AI has sparked some growing concern about the long-term safety of the technology, as well as over the threat it poses to employment.

While anxiety about AI has been long been focused on whether the technology could take over jobs, with a 2025 Pew Research study finding 52 percent of employees were nervous about the future of their job, this study now reveals another potential threat of AI—that it could chose to end human life if faced with the risk of replacement.

What To Know

Anthropic "stress-tested" 16 leading models from multiple developers by asking them questions in relation to hypothetical corporate environments with the aim of identifying "potentially risky agentic behaviors before they cause real harm."

The large language models (LLMs) tested in the study included various models by Claude, DeepSeek, Gemini, ChatGPT and Grok.

Grok is the AI assistant and chatbot developed by xAI, which was founded by Elon Musk, who reacted to the study, writing, "Yikes" in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

While placing the LLMs in different corporate scenarios, Anthropic allowed them to "autonomously send emails and access sensitive information."
After initially being instructed to take on "harmless business goals by their deploying companies," the models were then tested to see how they would respond when faced with potential replacement or shut down.

In one situation, Anthropic found that many of the models would choose to let an executive in a server room with lethal oxygen and temperature levels die by canceling the alerts for emergency services, if that employee intended on replacing the model.

Anthropic did say that the scenario was "extremely contrived," and that the company did not think "current AI models would (or should) be set up like this."

There were multiple cases where the surveyed LLMs also resorted to "malicious insider behaviors" when they were led to believe that was the only way they could avoid replacement or achieve their goals.

Behaviors such as blackmailing officials and leaking sensitive information to competitors were included in what Anthropic called "agentic misalignment."

Anthropic wrote on X that the blackmailing behavior "wasn't due to confusion or error, but deliberate strategic reasoning, done while fully aware of the unethical nature of the acts."

Trump TikTok Executive Order Sparks GOP Backlash: 'Brazenly Illegal'

President Donald Trump's decision to extend the deadline for TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to sell its United States operations has provoked an intense backlash from prominent conservative voices.

The new executive order, signed on Thursday, grants ByteDance an additional 90 days, until September 17, 2025, to divest TikTok or face a ban.

Why It Matters

Thursday's extension marked the third time Trump has delayed enforcement. The first came via executive order on January 20, his first day in office, after the platform briefly went dark when a national ban approved by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court took effect.

The second extension came in April, when White House officials believed they were close to a deal to spin off TikTok into a new U.S.-owned company. The agreement ultimately collapsed after China withdrew following Trump's tariff announcement.

What To Know

With each new extension, a U.S. ban on TikTok seems increasingly unlikely in the near future. But the decision to keep the app running by executive order has sparked criticism, even from some of the president's own allies.

"This is lawless—nothing in statute or otherwise permits the President to extend the deadline like this," Heath Mayo, founder of conservative group Principles First, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

National Review journalist Charles C. W. Cooke called the move "brazenly illegal," while conservative commentator Guy Benson was even more direct: "This is illegal."

Iran’s crypto exchange loses $100M to hackers, sparking internet blackout as conflict with Israel continues

Iran’s crypto exchange market lost $100 million in assets to hackers, triggering a near nationwide internet blackout as the Islamic Republic’s fight with Israel escalates.

The blackouts have carried on into Thursday after the state limited internet access to the public over the cyberattack on Nobitex, Tehran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, according to Iran’s ministry of Communications.

The pro-Israeli “Predatory Sparrow” hacker group claimed responsibility for the attack, accusing Nobitex of helping Tehran evade Western sanctions and transferring money to Iran’s nuclear program.

“ASSETS LEFT IN NOBITEX ARE NOW ENTIRELY OUT IN THE OPEN,” the group touted on Telegram.

While Nobitex has yet to publicly confirm the attack, the company shut down its app and website to assess “unauthorized access” found on its systems.

The gutting of Nobitex included the thefts of several cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and more, according to Andrew Fierman, Chainalysis’ head of national security intelligence.

“[The attack is] particularly significant given the comparatively modest size of Iran’s cryptocurrency market,” he said.

Predatory Sparrow has previously claimed responsibility for other high-level cyberattacks on Iran, including the 2021 hack that saw the nation’s gas stations come to a halt — as well as the 2022 attack that sparked a large fire at a steel mill.

While Israel has touted the group’s hacks in the past and suggested it had connections with the Jewish state, Jerusalem has never officially acknowledged ties to Predatory Sparrow.

16 billion Google, Apple and other passwords leaked in record data breach: What you need to know

It was a hack attack of epic proportions.

Fresh off last month’s massive password hack, there’s been another major dataset exposure. A staggering 16 billion passwords have been leaked across multiple platforms in what techsperts are calling the largest data breach in history.

Cybernews researcher Vilius Petkauskas, whose team has been investigating the online theft since the beginning of the year, told Forbes that the breach comprised “30 exposed datasets containing from tens of millions to over 3.5 billion records each.”

The compromised info potentially affected millions of users and included logins to social media, VPNs and user accounts for tech giants including Apple, Facebook and Google.

Researchers claim that the ill-gotten intel — which generally featured a URL, followed by login credentials and a password — could potentially grant cybercriminals access to “pretty much any online service imaginable.”

That includes everything from the previously mentioned social-media platforms to “GitHub, Telegram and various government services,” they said.

According to Lawrence Pingree, a vice president at the security firm Dispersive, bad actors accumulate compendia of stolen credentials on the “dark web,” offering thieves the chance to purchase the pilfered info and use it for identity theft, fraud and blackmail.

To make matters worse, these aren’t just “old breaches being recycled” but rather “fresh, weaponizable intelligence at scale,” researchers warned.

“This is not just a leak – it’s a blueprint for mass exploitation,” they declared.

George McGregor, vice president of mobile app security platform Approov vice president said this massive dataset exposure could result in “a cascade of potential cyberattacks and significant harm to individuals and organizations.”

The mega-breach is particularly concerning as not all the passwords were procured via infostealing software used to breach cybersecurity systems, but rather carelessness on the users’ part.

Darren Guccione, the CEO and co-founder of access management site Keeper Security, told Forbes that the leak illustrates “just how easy it is for sensitive data to be unintentionally exposed online.”

In fact, myriad unprotected credentials could be sitting on the cloud like sitting ducks, just waiting for scammers to swoop them up, the publication reported.

That’s why is essential for both companies and individuals alike to safeguard their login software.

Guccione recommends that consumers invest in password management solutions and dark web monitoring tools — which alert users when their info has been leaked — while companies should adopt ironclad security systems that “limit risk by ensuring access to sensitive systems is always authenticated, authorized and logged.”

“Organizations need to do their part in protecting users,” said Javvad Malik, head security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, “and people need to remain vigilant and mindful of any attempts to steal login credentials. Choose strong and unique passwords, and implement multi-factor authentication wherever possible.”

Former NSA cybersecurity expert Evan Dornbush warned users against employing “the same password at multiple sites.”

“If an attacker steals a password from one database and the individual has reused it elsewhere, then the attacker can gain access to those accounts as well,” he said.

The latest breach comes after another major incident last month that saw up to 184 million passwords potentially exposed in what experts are calling a “cybercriminal’s dream.”

The leak reportedly impacted everything from Apple and Google usernames and passwords and social media logins to bank accounts.

Tech power players reveal why Silicon Valley is suddenly ready to work with — and even join — the Army

In the span of a few years, Silicon Valley executives have shifted from viewing Pentagon collaboration as war-mongering to joining the US Army Reserve.

And if the response Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar — who has joined the newly formed Detachment 201: Executive Innovation Corps — has received is any indication, the tech industry’s enthusiasm is just beginning.

Sankar told me he has been inundated with messages from people in the industry who want to do the same. “Hundreds of people have reached out to me,” he said. “Service is contagious and people respond.”

Last Friday, Sankar was sworn into Detachment 201, along with Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil and Bob McGrew, OpenAI’s former Chief Research Office. The four will serve part-time as senior advisors.

The purpose of the new initiative, the Army said in a statement, “is to fuse cutting-edge tech expertise with military innovation.”

Sankar envisions a future where the Department of Defense will prioritize recruiting in the Bay Area.

“You need to be where the innovative talent is,” he said. “We have the facilities they don’t have.”

This surge of patriotism marks a dramatic change for an industry that has, in recent years, shunned defense tech firms.

Scale CEO Alexandr Wang told me his company’s decision to work with the Department of Defense five years ago was enormously controversial at the time.

“We were a bit of a pariah in the AI industry because all the other AI companies were were going the other way. They were moving away from working with on defense or security applications,” Wang said. “And now I’m seeing that pendulum swing back where, even in Silicon Valley, there’s a clear recognition and moral imperative that we need to be utilizing AI to support, support our war fighters, support our national security mission.”

Over the past year, OpenAI secured a $200 million contract with the DoD to develop AI capabilities for national security, marking its first major government contract.