Latest news with #Barracuda
Forbes
11 hours ago
- Forbes
AI Is Behind 50% Of Spam — And Now It's Hacking Your Accounts
AI is taking over the spam and phishing sectors. getty Artificial Intelligence is, I admit with a certain amount of begrudging respect, impressive to put it mildly. At least when it is used to help make work more efficient and leisure more, erm, leisurely. However, when AI is misused or employed for nefarious purposes, it becomes a concern for all of us. We've already seen this when the first big story broke as an AI attack on Gmail users went viral in 2024. Things have changed since then, and not for the better, as the latest research reveals. Now, half of your spam is generated by AI, and cyberattacks are increasingly using AI-powered methods. Here's what you need to know. It's official: more than half of the spam that you receive has been created using AI tools. That's the finding of newly published research, a collaboration between Barracuda and researchers from Columbia University and the University of Chicago, which found that, in April 2025, the actual number was 51%. This isn't altogether surprising. After all, AI does a better job, for the most part, in producing less spelling and grammatical errors, ensuring that linguistically the messages are understandable across geographies, and can be tweaked to have just the right tone to convince the reader to respond. And that, dear reader, is concerning. Not from the perspective of spamming in the broader sense, but rather when it comes to cybersecurity implications, as such techniques are applied to phishing attacks. The same report found that, already, 14% of the business email compromise attacks analyzed were AI-generated. Extrapolate that across all phishing attack scenarios, and I'm sorry to say, the situation will soon become untenable. Wei Hao, a PhD student at Columbia University, and one of the researchers behind the report, said that 'spam showed the most frequent use of AI-generated content in attacks, outpacing use in other attack types significantly over the past year.' What the research also found was that AI-generated emails didn't differ significantly from human-generated attack emails, at least not in terms of engendering a sense of urgency. It appears that AI, like human attackers, recognises the effectiveness of this method in persuading a recipient to act and become a victim. 'Urgency is a deliberate tactic commonly used to exert pressure and elicit an unthinking response from the recipient,' Hao said, which suggested 'attackers are primarily using AI to refine their emails and possibly their English rather than to change the tactics of their attacks.'
Euronews
2 days ago
- Business
- Euronews
Rheinmetall partners with Anduril to build military drones for Europe
California-based Anduril Industries and Germany's largest arms manufacturer Rheinmetall announced on Wednesday that they would jointly develop drones and rocket motors under a new strategic partnership to serve European customers. The goal is to extend the available range of autonomous mission systems. Anduril's autonomous drones will be integrated into Rheinmetall's Battlesuite digital platform that links weapons systems As part of the collaboration, the two companies will come up with a European variant of Anduril's Barracuda, a low-cost, mass-producible drone, and Fury, a high-performance, multi-mission drone, both able to propel missiles. Rheinmetall and Anduril also confirmed they were working on rocket motors 'to help ensure European access to a reliable line of propulsion systems offering industrial redundancy and delivery at scale'. 'These systems will be jointly developed and produced by the two companies, incorporating sovereign suppliers and industrial partners throughout Europe,' said their statement. Rheinmetall's share price increased on Wednesday after the announcement, trading nearly 1% higher around midday in Europe. The defence giant has seen its share price nearly triple this year amid a boom in European military spending. Investor enthusiasm also earned the firm a place in the Euro Stoxx 50 benchmark index, in which it is going to start trading on 20 June, replacing Kering. Anduril has been on the lookout for partnerships as EU governments prepare to spend hundreds of billions of euros on defence in the next few years. In an attempt to reduce reliance on the US, the bloc is looking to favour homegrown players, prompting Anduril to emphasise Rheinmetall's active role in the partnership. Meanwhile, the US firm's British branch has recently cut a deal with the UK government to provide drones to Ukraine. In this episode of The Exchange, Laila Humairah explores the impact of Artificial Intelligence on industries worldwide. Laila Humairah speaks to Tanuja Randery, Managing Director at AWS about AI adoption in Europe, while Greg Fallon of explains generative AI solutions and highlights the importance of ethical considerations. Mohamed Elashi reports on Qatar's investments in AI. ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ
Axios
2 days ago
- Business
- Axios
Defense firms flex new weapons and contracts at Paris Air Show
The early days of this year's Paris Air Show brimmed with news, from aircraft purchases to factory floor expansions to missile unveilings. Why it matters: The show is among the world's most prestigious. It's where buyers and sellers go to cut deals — and it's where militaries go to flex hardware. Here are the latest headlines: Anduril Industries and Rheinmetall revealed a new partnership through which European variants of the Barracuda missile and Fury robo-wingman will be produced. Solid rocket motors are also on the table. Boeing officials said the company can "absolutely" handle the U.S. Air Force's F-47 and the U.S. Navy's to-be-awarded F/A-XX at the same time, should it win the latter contract. Honeywell and Near Earth Autonomy revealed they completed the first autonomous test flight of a Leonardo AW139 helicopter. It happened in May in Phoenix. General Atomics unveiled Pele, a semiautonomous 9-foot launched effect optimized for use aboard the company's MQ-9B SkyGuardian. Pele can fly for seven hours and has a 500-nautical-mile range. Portal Space Systems announced it will open a 50,000-square-foot spacecraft manufacturing facility in Bothell, Washington. It will be just 3 miles from the company's existing design-and-testing hub. Portugal agreed to buy a sixth KC-390 Millennium aircraft from Embraer. Lisbon previously said it would buy five. It can be used for cargo transport, evacuation and refueling missions. MBDA rolled out what it's calling "one-way effector" — a relatively cheap drone meant to drain enemy air defenses and coffers. The company said the weapon combines expertise in cruise missiles and remote-controlled munitions. Pratt & Whitney, a part of RTX, will supply TJ150 engines for the Small Cruise Missile, also known as Black Arrow. The arrangement kicked off in April and will run through the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Ursa Major secured a nearly $33 million contract to develop and deliver to Stratolaunch 16 upgraded Hadley H13 engines. Hadleys have powered multiple Talon-A missions at speeds greater than Mach 5. Kratos said it will open a facility in Bristow, Oklahoma, to produce its GEK (GE Aerospace-Kratos) line of turbojet engines. The plant will include three small-engine test cells; they are expected to be operational in 2027. Helsing and Saab completed three Gripen E flights with artificial intelligence, dubbed Centaur, at the controls. Flights happened in May and June.
Axios
2 days ago
- Business
- Axios
A defense-tech perfect storm brews in Europe
If there's any moment Europe should double down on its own defense, it's today. The big picture: European policymakers don't trust Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop at Ukraine, and they can no longer count on the U.S. to protect and arm its NATO allies indefinitely. There's suddenly a lot more money for defense, and a keen interest in accelerating domestic manufacturing. NATO boss Mark Rutte called for a 400% spending increase for air-and-missile defenses, arguing a "quantum leap" is necessary to remain relevant. Meanwhile, President Trump bangs the burden-sharing drum. Stateside defense-tech companies are looking to expand. Chatter of Europe's rearming could serve as a springboard. Driving the news: There is a distinct national-security twist to this year's Paris Air Show, among the highest-profile aerospace get-togethers in the world. Defense News reported that 45% of the show is dedicated to defense and security — a "strong increase" from the previous show in 2023. But there is little Pentagon presence. "We're hearing this directly from European countries: 'We don't know if we can rely on the United States to actually supply us weapons,'" Firestorm Labs CEO Dan Magy said in an interview. "So how they're solving that problem is they're desperately looking to onshore or near-shore — whatever you want to say — their manufacturing." Inside the room: Analysts and executives Axios chatted with see urgency, opportunity and nuance. "The issue for European countries is less about finding the money and resources for defense ... and more about how to spend the funds effectively and in ways that ensure European defense readiness, technological edge and sovereignty, and deterrence, while ensuring interoperability with allies and partners," Federico Borsari, an expert at theCenter for European Policy Analysis, told Axios. "As Europeans rethink and modernize the continent's entire defense ecosystem," he said, "it's essential to avoid following a marketing-centric and techno-fetishist approach." Trae Stephens, a partner at Founders Fund and the executive chairman at Anduril Industries, separately told Axios there are "tremendous opportunities in Europe." Anduril and Germany's Rheinmetall on Wednesday announced a partnership through which European variants of the Barracuda missile and Fury robo-wingman will be produced. Solid rocket motors are on the table, too. Stephens said he would "love to see" one of his company's Arsenal mega-factories "built in continental Europe." (Its first, Arsenal-1, will be erected in Columbus, Ohio.) Yes, but: All these good omens could unravel because of the most universal of challenges: workforce. Competition for top tech talent and skilled tradesmen haunts industries and militaries alike. "It is increasingly clear that Europe faces critical talent scarcity," Randstad CEO Sander van 't Noordende told Axios. (Randstad is among the world's largest recruitment-and-staffing businesses.) "Increased defense spending, while a strategic necessity, will be severely limited without a corresponding investment in human capital," he said. "The growing mismatch between defense investment and workforce readiness demands urgent action." Van 't Noordende in a piece for Fortune this month said Europe has more than 17 million "skilled professionals in adjacent industries" who could make the jump to defense with proper guidance. The bottom line: Increased resources for defense in Europe are a good thing, as "we're stronger together than we are separately," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) told a small group of reporters at the air show. "It's been a priority of this administration in the United States, obviously, to increase European defense spending, and we're seeing a response to that." "If you combine the United States with Europe — whether it's on the economic front or the national security front — we are a lot more formidable," she added. "That's how we should be operating."
Wall Street Journal
3 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Rheinmetall, Anduril Team Up to Jointly Produce Defense Systems for Europe
Germany's Rheinmetall RHM -1.79%decrease; red down pointing triangle and U.S. startup Anduril Industries are teaming up to jointly develop and produce defense systems for Europe, the latest trans-Atlantic partnership to emerge as the continent seeks to ramp up spending on its security. The partnership will start with the development of European variants of Anduril's Barracuda missiles and Fury autonomous air vehicle into Rheinmetall´s digital sovereignty framework, the companies said Wednesday.
