Everything from passwords to emails and other files are at risk. (Photo: Getty Images)

Government and corporate computer systems have come under attack over the last several days by an unknown hacker group exploiting a hole in one of Microsoft’s most popular server software products. 

The attack, a so-called zero-day attack because it targets a previously unknown vulnerability, affects on-premise versions of Microsoft Sharepoint software, which organizations often connect directly to Outlook and other core services, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. That means everything from passwords to emails and other files are at risk. 

According to sources the Post spoke to, at least two U.S. federal agencies have been breached, as have several European government agencies, universities, an energy company, and an Asian telecom company. 

Microsoft issued a patch for one version of the software, but was still working on a patch for two other versions as of Sunday night, according to the Post. “Our team is working urgently to release a security update and will share more details as they become available,” Microsoft said on X, linking to blog post with more details of the attack and actions organizations can take. 

CISA, the U.S. government’s cybersecurity agency, put out an alert Sunday with steps to take to “reduce the risks,” along with a sobering description of what exactly those risks are: The hack “provides unauthenticated access to systems and enables malicious actors to fully access SharePoint content, including file systems and internal configurations, and execute code over the network.” Oof. —AO

Tesla car owners learned last week they were getting a freebie: Starting July 12, all new Tesla vehicles have automatically had the Grok AI chatbot installed and available to use.

The new arrangement between Tesla and xAI will likely make Tesla a significant customer for xAI, though neither company has disclosed any financial details surrounding the partnership. 

One thing to consider: What data sharing may occur now that Grok is installed in Tesla vehicles?

Packed with computers and sensors, Tesla vehicles generate massive amounts of data, and adding in-car Grok will only create more data—something particularly valuable to a company like xAI with a large language model to train.

Tesla says that driver conversations with Grok will be “securely processed by xAI” in line with xAI’s privacy policy, noting that conversations will be anonymized and not linked to individual vehicles. But what exact data will xAI get access to when Grok is used in vehicles? Elon Musk has suggested a “wake-word” will be added, but will that limit which snippets of conversation it captures, or does it listen to everything said in the car once it’s been activated via the vehicle’s home screen? 

Meanwhile, Tesla hasn’t updated its own privacy policy since the July 12 addition of Grok so it’s unclear how the car company itself could potentially use conversations with Grok. —Jessica Mathews

We’ve all heard how AI is going to change the world. Analysts at Bank of America see something even bigger in quantum computing, writing in a report last week that it “could be the biggest revolution for humanity since discovering fire.”

That’s because using subatomic particles to process data offers the potential to leap light years ahead of what’s possible with traditional semiconductor-based electronics. Theoretically, there’s no calculation a quantum computer can’t do, BofA said, adding that it could “change everything,” by creating new drugs and materials, increasing longevity, and enhancing encryption and logistics, to name just a few examples.

But BofA acknowledged we’re not quite there yet, noting that a quantum computer has yet to solve a useful real-world problem faster than a classical computer could. Qubits, the fundamental units of quantum information, still suffer from too much “noise,” or disturbances that can lead to computation errors.

In fact, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said that the most exciting developments in quantum computing are still more than a decade away. Some experts believe that advances in quantum computing will come gradually rather than as a sudden flip of a switch.

“We’re going to be turning the volume steadily,” Rob Schoelkopf, cofounder and chief scientist of Quantum Circuits, said earlier this year. “We can start to hear the music now, and eventually everyone will be able to hear the music.”—Beatrice Nolan

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