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WASHINGTON: Alphabet&#39;s Google said hackers are sending extortion emails to an unspecified number of executives, claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle business applications, Reuters reported.&nbsp;In a statement, Google said a group claiming affiliation with the ransomware gang cl0p was sending emails to &quot;executives at numerous organizations claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle E-Business Suite.&quot;&nbsp;Google cautioned that it &quot;does not currently have sufficient evidence to assess the veracity of these claims definitively.&quot;&nbsp;Messages seeking comment from cl0p and Oracle were not immediately returned. Google described the email campaign as &quot;high-volume&quot; but declined to share further details. What is cl0p? Cl0p is a&nbsp;cybercriminal group notorious for targeting major corporations using advanced malware designed to encrypt files and demand ransoms for their release or deletion. In 2023, Cl0p was implicated in a widespread cyberattack exploiting vulnerabilities in MOVEit &mdash; a file transfer software widely used by companies and institutions to handle sensitive data.&nbsp; The group claimed to have accessed data from hundreds of organizations through this exploit. Prominent victims of the attack included Shell Plc, IAG SA&rsquo;s British Airways, and the BBC. In June 2023, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a public advisory warning about Cl0p, describing it as &quot;one of the largest distributors of phishing and malspam globally.&quot; The agency estimated that the group had breached over 3,000 organizations in the United States and more than 8,000 worldwide. With input from wires.

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Google cautions it "does not currently have sufficient evidence to assess the veracity of these claims definitively."

Google says hackers are sending extortion emails to executives

WASHINGTON: Tech giant Oracle will receive a copy of the algorithm powering TikTok to operate for US users, according to a senior official in President Donald Trump&#39;s administration on Monday.&nbsp;Determining next steps for the algorithm, currently owned by the Beijing-based ByteDance, has been one of the most closely watched issues during negotiations over TikTok&#39;s future.&nbsp;The Trump administration official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the emerging deal, said they believe the plan will satisfy national security concerns if TikTok divests from its Chinese parent, ByteDance. President Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation before leaving office, requiring the Chinese company to sell its assets to an American company or face a ban.&nbsp;American officials have previously warned the algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that&rsquo;s difficult to detect.&nbsp;&ldquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t be in compliance if the algorithm is Chinese. There can&rsquo;t be any shared algorithm with ByteDance,&rdquo; said a spokesperson for the House Select Committee on China. Oracle would receive a copy of the algorithm and oversee the app&#39;s security operations.&nbsp;The algorithm would be &ldquo;fully inspected and retrained,&rdquo; the senior White House official said Monday. In a call with reporters, the official later emphasised that the content recommendation formula would be retrained only on US data in order to make sure the system is &ldquo;behaving appropriately.&rdquo; It is currently unclear if retraining the U.S. copy of the algorithm on local data would essentially create a separate TikTok experience just for domestic users.&nbsp;&ldquo;What the president will sign later this week is an executive order, essentially declaring that the terms of this deal meets America&rsquo;s national security needs,&rdquo; the White House official said. He notes that China is expected to sign and approve a framework deal for TikTok&#39;s divestment by the end of the week, upon which Trump will issue a 120 day reprieve, giving both nations time to get necessary agreements finalised.&nbsp;Full details on investors have not been released. However, the official confirmed that the US operations will be a new joint venture with a board of directors that will have a majority of American members. Oracle and Silver Lake, a private equity firm, are the only confirmed consortium participants so far.&nbsp;The White House official also said that under the preliminary deal, which still requires Chinese officials to sign off on a framework agreement, the United States will not take equity stake in the new venture or have representation on the controlling committee.&nbsp;Trump, a Republican, has extended the deadline several times as he worked to reach a deal to keep TikTok available. He spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.

Oracle will get a copy of TikTok’s algorithm to run for US users under a Trump deal, retraining it on American data.

Oracle to manage TikTok algorithm for US users under Trump administration

Jamie McGeever

The eye-watering surge in U.S. tech giant Oracle&#39;s share price on Wednesday added fuel to a fiery debate: is the U.S. artificial intelligence stock boom a bubble destined to burst?&nbsp;This is a question that has dogged Wall Street for months, as AI euphoria has helped the S&amp;P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq hit new highs seemingly every day, swatting away the chaos and uncertainty surrounding tariffs, Washington politics and Fed independence.&nbsp;But Wednesday felt different. It&#39;s not every day that one of the country&#39;s biggest tech companies sees its share price skyrocket by as much as 43%. Oracle is not a penny stock, startup or meme stock. A surge of this magnitude should make everyone reassess where markets are, and whether this boom is moving into unsustainable territory.&nbsp;Below are five charts that suggest what former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan termed &quot;irrational exuberance&quot; may be engulfing AI and tech.&nbsp;1. Oracle&#39;s soaring valuation&nbsp;Oracle, the cloud computing giant, saw its stock trade at nearly 50x estimated 12-month forward earnings on Wednesday, the highest since the dotcom crash when its forward PE topped 120. Its share price rose as much as 43% on the day, causing it to virtually double since June.&nbsp;Oracle did say it expects cloud revenue to exceed half a trillion dollars and announced four new multi-billion contracts, so some optimism is warranted. But should the company truly be worth twice as much as it was only three months ago?&nbsp;&nbsp;2. The Nvidia juggernautNvidia&#39;s share price has doubled since April, rising an eye-popping 300% in the last two years. The AI chip superpower is now the world&#39;s most valuable company with a market cap of $4.3 trillion, larger than every country&#39;s listed stock exchange apart from the US, China, Japan and India, according to Deutsche Bank.&nbsp;Sure, Nvidia continue to churn out cash, but just two customers made up 39% of its revenue in the last quarter. Is that sustainable?&nbsp;&nbsp;3. Record-high concentrationThe combined weighting of the top 5 companies in the S&amp;P 500 is nearing 30%, higher than the &#39;Nifty Fifty&#39; in the late 1960s/early 1970s and much higher than tech companies in 2000 before the dotcom bust.&nbsp;This doesn&#39;t automatically mean we&#39;re in a bubble, but the market is in unchartered territory and heavily dependent on a handful of companies - all of them in one industry. History suggests this level of concentration rarely ends well.&nbsp;&nbsp;4. Lofty valuationsThe S&amp;P 500 tech sector is nearing its most expensive levels since 2002 when the dust from the dotcom bust was still settling. Of course, this can be sustained as long as the cash keeps rolling in.&nbsp;But the amount of AI-related capex needed to develop the industry &ndash; an estimated $6.7 trillion worldwide by 2030, according to McKinsey - means the amount of cash that will need to keep coming in is enormous. When the bar is that high, even sound companies might struggle to meet it.&nbsp;&nbsp;5. Stretched positioningBank of America&#39;s August fund manager survey showed that the most crowded trade in world markets currently is once again &quot;long Magnificent 7&quot;, according to 45% of those polled. A majority, 52%, say they see no AI bubble, suggesting this packed trade could get even more crowded before it unwinds.&nbsp;Investors have little incentive to go against this trade as long as it remains a winning one. But when a crowded trade reverses it can be sudden, and not everyone gets out the exit door in time. A lot of investors could lose a lot of money.&nbsp;&nbsp;- The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters

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Oracle’s massive stock surge intensifies debate over whether the U.S. AI tech boom is a risky market bubble.

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Google says hackers are sending extortion emails to executives

Oracle to manage TikTok algorithm for US users under Trump administration

Oracle surge pours fuel on fiery AI bubble debate