🌍 Google Drops Carbon Neutral Claim, RADIUS Attack, $11B Crypto Scam

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, July 10. Today we are covering:

• Google Is No Longer Claiming to Be Carbon Neutral 

• New Blast-RADIUS attack breaks 30-year-old protocol used in networks everywhere

• The $11 Billion Marketplace Enabling the Crypto Scam Economy  

• You can now protect your high-risk Google account with just your phone 

• Near-zero cost labor: The disruptive economics of humanoid robots

Let’s dive in

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Google Is No Longer Claiming to Be Carbon Neutral 

By Akshat Rathi via Bloomberg

• Google has ceased claiming to be carbon neutral due to rising emissions from artificial intelligence and has stopped purchasing cheap carbon offsets.

• The company now aims to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.

• Google's previous carbon neutrality since 2007 was based on buying offsets to cover emissions from its operations, including buildings, data centers, and business travel.

𝕏: Since 2007, Google has been buying cheap carbon offsets to say it’s carbon neutral. Now, as generative AI has cause its emissions to soar, it’s stopped buying those offsets and no longer claims carbon neutrality. - Paris Marx (@parismarx)

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New Blast-RADIUS attack breaks 30-year-old protocol used in networks everywhere 

By Dan Goodin via Ars Technica 

• A newly discovered Blast-RADIUS attack exploits vulnerabilities in the RADIUS protocol, used in a wide range of environments from industrial controllers to telecommunications.

• The attack leverages MD5 hash function weaknesses, allowing adversaries to gain administrator access to devices that use RADIUS for authentication.

• RADIUS has not been updated to remove MD5, making it susceptible to this attack, with security bulletins and patches being released by at least 90 vendors.

𝕏: Very sophisticated attack against the RADIUS protocol that uses flaws in the protocol as well as a novel variant of the MD5 chosen prefix collision. Cryptography from the 90s never goes away! - Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green)

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The $11 Billion Marketplace Enabling the Crypto Scam Economy 

By Andy Greenberg via WIRED 

• The crypto scam known as "pig butchering" has evolved into a major criminal industry, stealing tens of billions annually, supported by an ecosystem of tools and services.

• A key player in this ecosystem is Huione Guarantee, a Cambodian platform linked to the ruling family, facilitating $11 billion in transactions since 2021, including $3.4 billion this year.

• Elliptic's research highlights the platform's offerings, from scam tools to money laundering services, and suggests international sanctions to disrupt the criminal marketplace.

𝕏: Crypto-tracing firm Elliptic found a Cambodian online market offering every product and service for the crypto scam industry: Money laundering, victim data, shackles for slave labor. It's done $11B in sales and is linked to the country's ruling family. - Andy Greenberg (@a_greenberg)

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You can now protect your high-risk Google account with just your phone 

By Wes Davis via The Verge

• Google has simplified its Advanced Protection Program setup, allowing high-risk users to enroll with a single passkey using built-in biometric authentication on a Pixel phone or iPhone.

• The program, designed for individuals like journalists and political campaign workers, previously required two physical security keys for activation.

• Users can now easily activate the program through the Google Advanced Protection Program page, using passkeys or physical security keys, with recovery options like phone numbers and email addresses.

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Near-zero cost labor: The disruptive economics of humanoid robots

RethinkX

• Humanoid robots are poised to disrupt labor markets, offering near-zero cost labor by the end of the 2030s due to advancements in batteries, sensors, AI, and robotics.

• Initial deployment costs of humanoid robots are estimated between $40,000 and $200,000, with a projected cost per hour of $2 to $10 by 2025, improving by an order of magnitude every eight years.

• The widespread adoption of humanoid robots could lead to annual GDP growth rates exceeding 10% by the early 2030s and up to 100% by the late 2030s, radically transforming productivity and the socioeconomic status quo.

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Trending in AI

• A Beloved Tech Blog Is Now Publishing AI Articles Under the Names of Its Old Human Staff

• Microsoft, Apple Drop OpenAI Board Plans as Scrutiny Grows

• Andreessen Horowitz Is Building a Stash of More Than 20,000 GPUs to Win AI Deals 

• Mouse brain research is helping us better understand human minds

• A Journalist's Guide to Investigating Artificial Intelligence: In Conversation with Garance Burke

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— Jose Montes de Oca

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