Someone has to create Skynet, and to date, Google appeared to be in the lead, but Microsoft has started ramping up their own efforts to create a cloud-based AI infrastructure based on super-fast, dedicated, custom-designed AI chipsets. Called Project Olympus,  a Microsoft spokesperson described the work as “… server design, silicon, and AI to enable cloud workloads.” “We actually design a lot of our own silicon that goes into the data centers,” said Jason Zander, executive vice president for Azure. Clues to Microsoft’s silicon efforts has been found in 3 recent job postings. Three months ago, Microsoft published at least three job openings within its Azure public cloud division, looking for candidates to work on features for an AI chip. In April Microsoft listed an opening for a silicon program manager, and “an engineer for software/hardware co-design and optimization for AI acceleration.” Microsoft has invested in custom silicon before, using field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chips to create Project Brainwave, again to accelerate AI training. This effort is separate from that, however, a Microsoft spokesman confirmed. Microsoft has also talked about their new Holographic Programming Unit for the HoloLens 2 which will feature boosted AI-based capabilities. There's more posted on OUR FORUM.

Cybercriminals are currently developing a new strain of malware targeting Android devices which blends the features of a banking trojan, keylogger, and mobile ransomware. Named MysteryBot, this malware strain is still under development, according to security researchers from ThreatFabric, who recently ran across this new threat. ThreatFabric says MysteryBot appears to be related to the well-known and highly popular LokiBot Android banking trojan. "Based on our analysis of the code of both Trojans, we believe that there is indeed a link between the creator(s) of LokiBot and MysteryBot," a ThreatFabric spokesperson told Bleeping Computer via email today. "This is justified by the fact that MysteryBot is clearly based on the LokiBot bot code," the spokesperson added. Furthermore, according to a report the company published yesterday, the recent MysteryBot malware sends data to the same command and control (C&C) server used in a past LokiBot campaign, clearly suggesting they are being controlled and developed by the same person or group. The reasons why the LokiBot group is now developing MysteryBot are unknown, but they may be related to the fact that the LokiBot source code leaked online a few months back. There's more detailed information on OUR FORUM.