OpenAI Pulls the Plug on Sora, Ending $1 Billion Disney Partnership 
Britain Courts Anthropic Amid US Defense Department Dispute 
Microsoft Eyes $7B Texas Energy Deal to Power AI Data Centers 
California's AI Executive Order Pushes Responsible Tech Use in State Contracts 
Samsung Electronics Eyes Record Q1 Profit Amid AI-Driven Chip Boom 
Makemation: a Nollywood movie that shows AI in action in Africa 
Nanya Technology Shares Surge 10% After $2.5 Billion Private Placement from Sandisk and Cisco 
TSMC Japan's Second Fab to Produce 3nm Chips by 2028 
Apple Turns 50: From Garage Startup to AI Crossroads 
Rubio Directs U.S. Diplomats to Use X and Military Psyops to Counter Foreign Propaganda 
Chinese Universities with PLA Ties Found Purchasing Restricted U.S. AI Chips Through Super Micro Servers 
SMIC Allegedly Supplies Chipmaking Tools to Iran's Military, U.S. Officials Warn 
NASA Artemis II: First Crewed Moon Mission Since Apollo Takes Four Astronauts on 10-Day Lunar Journey 
Meta and Google just lost a landmark social media addiction case. A tech law expert explains the fallout 
Australia's Social Media Ban for Under-16s Sparks Global Movement 
Reflection AI Eyes $25 Billion Valuation in Massive $2.5 Billion Funding Round 
OurMine has been causing trouble for a lot of influential people over the last few months; with the most publicized being the hacking of social media accounts owned by celebrities and tech industry big boys. Now, the self-proclaimed cyber security group is at it again and the latest target is Variety. Subscribers to the site have received an avalanche of emails that were sent by the hackers, essentially containing a bragging message about how they breached the entertainment website’s security.
Subscribers to Variety ended up receiving dozens of the same message from the hacker group after they left a post on the website, which could almost be mistaken for a security advisory. Variety is just the latest publisher to get hit by the group, Digital Trends reports, with the technology-centric website Tech Crunch also getting targeted recently.
Our team is working to resolve the unauthorized communications sent from @variety. Please ignore/delete them.
— Variety (@Variety) September 3, 2016
OurMine has shown that its members have absolutely no problem taking on some of the biggest names and companies in the world when it targeted Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg. As such, it isn’t really surprising that they would hit major publishers.
The most jarring part of their hacking activities, however, is the fact that they are basically breaking through the security of these major organizations to offer their services so as to prevent similar events from happening in the future. In the case of Variety, the hackers left this message: “Hello Variety, it’s #OurMine, don’t worry we are just testing your security, please contact us on ourmine.org -> Contact to show you how…”
Instead of gaining customers, Engadget points out that this is only going to make victims and potential targets more keen on getting rid of the group altogether. Even though Variety has already removed the post and is currently hard at work in fixing the spam bombs that afflicted subscribers, the incident will leave a distinct smell that will be difficult to wash off. More than that, it’s almost certain that OurMine will have more victims in the near future.
