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Getting our head around a notable adversaryInterested in an upcoming event?Interested in Next-Gen Cyber AI? With an ever evolving world, the only option for the ambitious secpro is to stay ahead of the game. Check out our upcoming conference with big names like Mark Simos, Nikhil Kumar, and Katie Paxton-Fear, who have a lot to say about the way they are overcoming new problems with AI and supporting others following their paths!Check it out on Eventbrite!#213: Crushing SpidersGetting our head around a notable adversaryWelcome to another_secpro!This week, we dive into getting a better understanding of Scattered Spider, dealing with the adversary, and keeping your organisation safe. Also, check out our news, academic reviews, and memes to stretch your skills and check your mental chops!Check out _secpro premiumIf you want more, you know what you need to do: sign up to the premium and get access to everything we have on offer. Click the link above to visit our Substack and sign up there!Cheers!Austin MillerEditor-in-ChiefHere's a little meme to keep you going...Source: RedditThis week's articleScattered Spider: an in-depth technical and contextual reportScattered Spideris a loosely organised, financially motivated cybercriminal collective that first attracted major public attention in2023and has remained active through 2024 and 2025. The group is notable not for extremely sophisticated zero-day exploits but for a focused, repeatable playbook that combines targeted social engineering, identity compromise, and opportunistic use of legitimate administrative tools to gain and expand access inside large companies.Read the rest here!Interested in our Next-Gen AI Conference?If you're looking forward to our upcoming conference or just want a little insight into who these industry-leading speakers are, here's a little bio on two of our closest collaborators: Mark Simos and Nikhil Kumar.Introducing Mark SimosMark Simos is Lead Cybersecurity Architect for Microsoft where he leads the development of cybersecurity reference architectures, best practices, reference strategies, prescriptive roadmaps, CISO workshops, and other guidance to secure organizations in the digital age.Check out the conference on Eventbrite!Introducing Nikhil KumarNikhil is an industry expert and thought leader in Digital Transformation, Zero Trust and InfoSec, AI, Cloud Computing, APIs and SOA, with a passion for applying technology in an actionable manner. An entrepreneur with over 20 years experience, he is known as a servant leader able to create amazing solutions and bridge people, process, business and technology.Check out the conference on Eventbrite!News BytesThe Era of AI-Generated Ransomware Has Arrived: Cybercriminals are increasingly harnessing generative AI tools like Anthropic’s Claude and Claude Code to automate the creation of ransomware—even by those lacking technical expertise. One group, GTG-5004, used AI to craft and market ransomware with sophisticated evasion techniques, while another, GTG-2002, automated the full attack lifecycle—from finding targets to drafting ransom notes. Separately, ESET uncovered “PromptLock,” the first known AI-powered ransomware prototype that generates attack scripts using locally hosted models. Though not yet deployed, it underscores a worrying shift toward AI-driven cybercrime.Enterprise Security Faces New Challenge as Attackers Master Digital Impersonation: A threat collective known as Scattered Spider (also tracked as UNC3944, Oktapus, and Muddled Libra) is advancing enterprise-targeted social engineering techniques. Their tactics include vishing, smishing, SIM-swap attacks, and helpdesk impersonation, bypassing MFA and abusing admin tools like PowerShell and AnyDesk—a strategy known as “Living off the Land.” The report urges organizations to fortify defenses via behavioral analytics, advanced email and endpoint protection, and thorough security awareness training.Data I/O Shuts Down Systems in Wake of Ransomware Attack: Electronics manufacturer Data I/O experienced a ransomware attack in August 2025—prompting a full shutdown of internal IT systems to contain the breach. The disruption affected communication, shipping, receiving, and manufacturing support, though business operations themselves aren’t yet severely impacted. Given Data I/O’s role as a supplier to major tech players like Tesla, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, experts warn of broader supply-chain risks and underscore the need for adversarial emulation and proactive defense strategies.Ransomware Attack Disrupts Maryland’s Paratransit Service for Disabled Travellers: The Maryland Transit Administration’s Mobility paratransit service, serving disabled passengers, was hit by a ransomware attack, rendering it unable to process new ride requests. While core transit services—like buses, light rail, and MARC—remain operational, the breach underscores a disturbing trend of cyber threats targeting critical accessibility services. Maryland officials are urging affected users to use the alternative Call-A-Ride program while recovery efforts are underway.Nevada Hit by Cyberattack: State Offices Shut for Two Days: A cyberattack forced Nevada state offices to close for two days, causing outages across government websites and phone lines. While emergency services and citizen data are reportedly unaffected, the incident highlights how public infrastructure remains a high-value target—and the urgent need for hardened defenses and rapid recovery plans.This week's academiaNot on my watch: ransomware detection through classification of high-entropy file segments (Fran Casino; Darren Hurley-Smith; Julio Hernandez-Castro; Constantinos Patsakis): Proposes a method to distinguish encrypted bitstreams (typical of ransomware writes) from other high-entropy data like compression. The approach improves adaptability and accuracy and is positioned for integration into EDR systems. Journal of Cybersecurity.Enhancing ransomware defense: deep learning-based detection and family-wise classification of evolving threats (Amjad Hussain; Ayesha Saadia; Musaed Alhussein; Ammara Gul; Khursheed Aurangzeb): Introduces a GN-BiLSTM model that detects ransomware, classifies category, and attributes family on obfuscated datasets and a large self-collected corpus; reports high accuracy across all tasks. PeerJ Computer Science.A Machine Learning-Based Ransomware Detection Method for Attackers’ Neutralization Techniques Using Format-Preserving Encryption (Jaehyuk Lee; Jinwook Kim; Hanjo Jeong; Kyungroul Lee): Studies how attackers use format-preserving encryption to evade entropy-based detectors and presents ML models that detect such files with strong precision across datasets. Sensors, 25.Source: Reddit*{box-sizing:border-box}body{margin:0;padding:0}a[x-apple-data-detectors]{color:inherit!important;text-decoration:inherit!important}#MessageViewBody a{color:inherit;text-decoration:none}p{line-height:inherit}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{mso-hide:all;display:none;max-height:0;overflow:hidden}.image_block img+div{display:none}sub,sup{font-size:75%;line-height:0} @media (max-width: 100%;display:block}.mobile_hide{min-height:0;max-height:0;max-width: 100%;overflow:hidden;font-size:0}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{display:table!important;max-height:none!important}}

Who's leading the race - and why your stack might change.AI_Distilled #110: What’s New in AI This WeekWelcome to this week’s issue. The pulse of AI feels more layered than ever. On one end, cultural critics are questioning originality as machines begin shaping art and literature. On the other, classrooms, chip markets, and smartphones are being rebuilt around AI infrastructure. Researchers are probing whether large models echo the brain’s reasoning patterns, while new systems are tackling problems as varied as circuit design and wildlife trafficking.Taken together, these stories capture a moment of contrast: excitement and caution, breakthroughs and controversies, short-term jitters and long-term momentum. From the electricity grid to the fashion runway, AI is no longer something that happens “over there.” It is embedded—sometimes quietly, sometimes dramatically—into the systems that govern culture, economy, and daily life.LLM Expert Insights,Packt📈LATEST DEVELOPMENTRethinking originality in the machine eraWhat happened:Joshua Rothman’s latest essay in The New Yorker examines the growing role of AI in cultural production—stories, images, music, and more. He raises a stark question: when algorithms can generate endless creative output, what becomes of human originality? (newyorker.com)Why it matters:The rise of AI-authored media challenges long-standing ideas about authorship and value. For researchers and developers, this cuts to the core of how society perceives creativity and who gets credit for it. As these systems spread into publishing, film, and design, the balance between human imagination and algorithmic production will shape not just industries but culture itself.Google and Grok closing the gap on ChatGPTWhat happened:A16z’s latest report shows that while ChatGPT remains the most widely adopted consumer AI app, Google’s Gemini and xAI’s Grok are gaining ground. Both platforms are seeing stronger traction than many expected, suggesting that ChatGPT’s early lead is narrowing. (TechCrunch)Why it matters:The competition among top models is no longer a two-horse race. For developers and researchers, this widening field matters when evaluating APIs, shaping integration strategies, or deciding where to place long-term bets. A more balanced market also opens space for differentiation: models that specialize in reasoning, multimodality, or industry-specific use cases will find room to thrive.Emerging AI patterns that mimic human reasoningWhat happened:Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for Human-Centered AI have created an AI model named Centaur that predicts human behavior with 64% accuracy. Trained on over 10 million decisions from 60,000 participants across 160 psychology experiments, Centaur anticipates choices in scenarios it hasn’t encountered before, adapting dynamically to context. (Helmholtz Munich newsroom)Why it matters:Centaur bridges behavioral modeling and cognitive simulation. For researchers in psychology, education, or human-computer interaction, it opens the door to simulating decision processes without running new experiments. It functions like a virtual lab, capable of modeling how students learn or how people respond to novel situations. While it doesn’t prove that it thinks like a human, its capacity to forecast human choices is a notable step toward understanding cognition in AI.AI’s economic pulse: is the boom cooling—or ramping up?What’s happening:On one hand, Nvidia’s Q2 results sparked concern as the company projected a modest revenue outlook, hinting at possible slackening in the AI chip market. Investors reacted with caution amid geopolitical uncertainty and tighter export rules. (Financial Times and Nvidia)On the other hand, the U.S. may still owe much of its growth to AI. Federal forecasts suggest that AI-related spending could contribute nearly half of the expected 1.4% GDP growth this year, with Big Tech making record investments in AI infrastructure. (The Washington Post)Why it matters:These two narratives reflect different stages of the same cycle. Slowing execution or tougher politics don’t invalidate the longer-term trend toward sustained investment. As AI moves from novelty to infrastructure, the question is how to distinguish between short-term market signals and structural economic transformation. For researchers, tech builders, and policy makers, the key is aligning expectations with real-world execution and recognizing that today’s caution may follow yesterday’s frenzy—but tomorrow’s momentum could still be very real.A language model built for analog circuit designWhat happened:Researchers led by Zihao Chen and colleagues from multiple institutions introduced AnalogSeeker, an opensource foundation LLM tailored for analog electronics. They assembled a domainspecific corpus of textbooks and technical documents, then used a multiagent distillation method to convert unstructured knowledge into granular questionanswer pairs with reasoning steps. Finetuning Qwen2.532BInstruct yielded a model that outperforms its base by about 15 percentage points—scoring 85 % on the analogcircuit benchmark AMSBenchTQA—and performing well on realworld design tasks. The model is available for research use. (arxiv.org)Why it matters:Analog circuit design has long been a tight-lipped, data-sparse domain. AnalogSeeker bridges that gap by distilling structured technical knowledge into a learnable format, enabling LLMs to assist with complex design reasoning. For engineers and researchers exploring domain-specific AI, this demonstrates a scalable approach to fine-tuning in knowledge-constrained fields. And because the model is open-sourced, it’s ready for collaborative experimentation and further enhancement.Become the AI Generalist that makes big $$ Using AIJoin Outskill's 2 day AI- Mastermind this weekend (usually for $895) and become an AI expert.When: Saturday and Sunday, 10 AM - 7 PM.Register Now for FreeEXPERT INSIGHTSFrom the Packt Bookshelf: AI Agents in Practice, Valentina AltoThe foundation of intelligent AI agents – orchestration, memory, and contextIn her book, AI Agents in Practice, Valentina Alto reflects on the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence and argues that the journey from simple, reactive models to sophisticated, autonomous agents marks a new frontier.The true power of modern AI agents lies not in their individual components but in their ability to orchestrate a symphony of tools, manage a wealth of information, and maintain a consistent sense of self across interactions. This article explores the critical roles of AI orchestration and the need for robust memory and context management, which are the two pillars that enable AI agents to operate intelligently, autonomously, and at scale.Read the full article on Substack →Built something cool? Tell us.Whether it's a scrappy prototype or a production-grade agent, we want to hear how you're putting generative AI to work. Drop us your story at nimishad@packtpub.com or reply to this email, and you could get featured in an upcoming issue of AI_Distilled.📢 If your company is interested in reaching an audience of developers and, technical professionals, and decision makers, you may want toadvertise with us.If you have any comments or feedback, just reply back to this email.Thanks for reading and have a great day!That’s a wrap for this week’s edition of AI_Distilled 🧠⚙️We would love to know what you thought—your feedback helps us keep leveling up.👉 Drop your rating hereThanks for reading,The AI_Distilled Team(Curated by humans. Powered by curiosity.)*{box-sizing:border-box}body{margin:0;padding:0}a[x-apple-data-detectors]{color:inherit!important;text-decoration:inherit!important}#MessageViewBody a{color:inherit;text-decoration:none}p{line-height:inherit}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{mso-hide:all;display:none;max-height:0;overflow:hidden}.image_block img+div{display:none}sub,sup{font-size:75%;line-height:0} @media (max-width: 100%;display:block}.mobile_hide{min-height:0;max-height:0;max-width: 100%;overflow:hidden;font-size:0}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{display:table!important;max-height:none!important}}