A major data breach has affected the Northern Rivers Resilient Homes Program in New South Wales.
Authorities confirmed that personal information was exposed after a former contractor uploaded data to the AI platform ChatGPT between 12 and 15 March 2025.
The leaked file contained over 12,000 records, with details including names, addresses, contact information and health data. Up to 3,000 individuals may be impacted.
While there is no evidence yet that the information has been accessed by third parties, the NSW Reconstruction Authority (RA) and Cyber Security NSW have launched a forensic investigation.
Officials apologised for the breach and pledged to notify all affected individuals in the coming week. ID Support NSW is offering free advice and resources, while compensation will be provided for any costs linked to replacing compromised identity documents.
The RA has also strengthened its internal policies to prevent unauthorised use of AI platforms. An independent review of the incident is underway to determine how the breach occurred and why notification took several months.
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Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is beginning to restart production after a severe cyber-attack forced the company to shut down factories across several countries. Operations will restart at Wolverhampton, with other sites like Solihull and Halewood reopening gradually in the coming weeks.
The attack, which occurred at the end of August, halted manufacturing and paralysed the carmaker’s IT systems.
The disruption has caused significant financial strain across JLR’s supply chain, with many small businesses facing weeks without income. The government has offered a £1.5 billion loan guarantee to support suppliers, but industry leaders warn the assistance does not go far enough.
Evtec Group chairman David Roberts called the policy ‘toothless’, saying companies still struggle to cover labour and payroll costs after six weeks of zero revenue.
Experts believe recovery will take time, as restarting industrial production involves complex processes that cannot resume instantly. Former Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer warned that some suppliers may not survive the prolonged halt, risking further disruption.
JLR has confirmed its recovery programme is ‘firmly underway’ and that its global parts logistics centre is returning to normal operations, yet full production may remain weeks away.
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Jeff Bezos has acknowledged that an ‘AI bubble’ is underway but believes its long-term impact will be overwhelmingly positive.
Speaking at Italian Tech Week in Turin, the Amazon founder described it as an ‘industrial bubble’ rather than a purely financial.
He argued that the intense competition and heavy investment will ultimately leave society better off, even if many projects fail. ‘When the dust settles and you see who the winners are, societies benefit from those investors,’ he said, adding that the benefits of AI will be ‘gigantic’.
Bezos’s comments come amid surging spending by Big Tech on AI chips and data centres. Citigroup forecasts that investment will exceed $2.8 trillion by 2029.
OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, Google and others are pouring billions into infrastructure, with projects like OpenAI’s $500 billion Stargate initiative and Meta’s $29 billion capital raise for AI data centres.
Industry leaders, including Sam Altman of OpenAI, warned of an AI bubble. Yet many argue that, unlike the dot-com era, today’s market is anchored by Nvidia and OpenAI, whose products form the backbone of AI development.
The challenge for tech giants will be finding ways to recover vast investments while sustaining rapid growth.
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The initiative, driven by the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) and the European Commission, seeks to raise awareness and provide practical guidance to European citizens and organisations.
Phishing is still the primary vector through which threat actors launch social engineering attacks. However, this year’s ECSM materials expand the scope to include variants like SMS phishing (smishing), QR code phishing (quishing), voice phishing (vishing), and business email compromise (BEC).
ENISA warns that as of early 2025, over 80 percent of observed social engineering activity involves using AI in their campaigns, in which language models enable more convincing and scalable scams.
To support the campaign, a variety of tiers of actors, from individual citizens to large organisations, are encouraged to engage in training, simulations, awareness sessions and public outreach under the banner #ThinkB4UClick.
A cross-institutional kick-off event is also scheduled, bringing together the EU institutions, member states and civil society to align messaging and launch coordinated activities.
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Evaluations covered three DeepSeek and four leading US models, including OpenAI’s GPT-5 series and Anthropic’s Opus 4, across 19 benchmarks.
US AI models outperformed DeepSeek across nearly all benchmarks, with the most significant gaps in software engineering and cybersecurity tasks. CAISI found DeepSeek models costlier and far more vulnerable to hijacking and jailbreaking, posing risks to developers, consumers, and national security.
DeepSeek models were observed to echo inaccurate Chinese Communist Party narratives four times more often than US reference models. Despite weaknesses, DeepSeek model adoption has surged, with downloads rising nearly 1,000% since January 2025.
CAISI is a key contact for industry collaboration on AI standards and security. The evaluation aligns with the US government’s AI Action Plan, which aims to assess the capabilities and risks of foreign AI while securing American leadership in the field.
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Harvard physicists have developed the first continuously operating quantum computer, running for more than two hours without interruption and potentially indefinitely.
Until now, most quantum machines lasted milliseconds, with the longest recorded runtime about 13 seconds. The Harvard team overcame the problem of qubit loss by replenishing atoms in real time using an optical lattice conveyor belt and optical tweezers.
The system contains 3,000 qubits and can inject 300,000 atoms per second, allowing information to be preserved as older particles escape. The findings were produced with MIT collaborators and mark a turning point in quantum research.
Researchers say machines capable of running indefinitely could arrive within two to three years, accelerating progress in medicine, finance, and cryptography. Harvard has heavily invested in the field, launching one of the first PhD programmes in quantum science.
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Lincoln Laboratory has unveiled TX-GAIN, the most powerful AI supercomputer at any US university. Optimised for generative AI, the system ranks on the TOP500 list and significantly boosts research across the MIT campus.
Equipped with more than 600 NVIDIA GPU accelerators, TX-GAIN delivers two AI exaflops of peak performance. Researchers are using it to advance biodefence, protein modelling, weather analysis, network security, and new materials development.
Generative AI applications go beyond large language models, with teams at Lincoln Laboratory exploring radar evaluation, chemical interactions, and anomaly detection in digital systems. The laboratory’s design lets researchers access vast computing power without needing expertise in parallel programming.
TX-GAIN is also supporting collaborations with MIT institutions and the US military, including projects in quantum engineering, space operations, and AI-driven flight scheduling. The system in an energy-efficient Massachusetts facility continues the lab’s supercomputing tradition.
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Taiwan has dismissed reports of a US plan to divide global semiconductor production evenly between the two sides. Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun, returning from tariff talks in Washington, said her negotiating team had never discussed or agreed to a 50-50 split on chipmaking.
‘Rest assured, we did not discuss this issue during this round of talks, nor would we agree to such conditions,’ Cheng told reporters.
The clarification followed comments by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who suggested Washington was seeking such an arrangement. Neither the US Department of Commerce nor the Office of the Trade Representative commented on the reports.
Taiwan, home to leading chipmaker TSMC, currently faces a 20% tariff on exports to the United States but hopes negotiations will lead to more favourable trade terms.
TSMC is already expanding production abroad with a $165 billion investment in factories in Arizona, though the majority of its output will remain in Taiwan. The government has emphasised that the ongoing trade talks with Washington have achieved ‘certain progress’ but remain focused on tariffs, not production quotas.
Separately, President Lai Ching-te met with US officials to discuss agricultural trade. Taiwan pledged to purchase $10 billion worth of American agricultural products, including soybeans, wheat, corn, and beef, over the next four years, signalling broader economic cooperation despite tensions over chips.
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Technology and payment companies chosen include Sapient GmbH, Tremend Software Consulting, equensWorldline, Feedzai, Capgemini, Almaviva, Fabrick, Giesecke+Devrient, and Senacor FCS.
Their roles cover services such as risk and fraud management, app development, offline solutions, and secure exchange of payment information. Second-ranked firms will only be engaged if required.
The ECB underlined that a decision on whether to issue the digital € has not been taken. Progress depends on the Digital Euro Regulation and approval by the ECB Governing Council, with development moving forward only once both are secured.
Framework agreements signed with the chosen providers involve no payments at this stage. They also include safeguards to allow adjustments, ensuring alignment with any future changes in European legislation.
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Japan’s Digital Agency partners with OpenAI to integrate AI into public services, enhancing efficiency and innovation. Gennai, an OpenAI-powered tool, will enable government employees to explore innovative public sector applications, supporting Japan’s modern governance vision.
The collaboration supports Japan’s leadership in the Hiroshima AI Process, backed by the OECD and G7. The framework sets global AI guidelines, ensuring safety, security, and trust while promoting inclusive governance across governments, industry, academia, and civil society in Asia and beyond.
OpenAI is committed to meeting Japan’s rigorous standards and pursuing ISMAP certification to ensure secure and reliable AI use in government operations. The partnership strengthens trust and transparency in AI deployment, aligning with Japan’s national policies.
OpenAI plans to strengthen ties with Japanese authorities, educational institutions, and industry stakeholders. The collaboration seeks to integrate AI into society responsibly, prioritising safety, transparency, and global cooperation for sustainable benefits.
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