Good Morning! Apple dropped some big news at WWDC 2024 - they're rolling out a new AI system called Apple Intelligence that's coming to iPhones, iPads, and Macs with the latest software updates. A couple of hackers made a malicious VSCode extension with millions of installs that was installed in big companies. To address privacy concerns as powerful AI models move to the cloud, Apple has created Private Cloud Compute (PCC) - extending its privacy protections to cloud AI processing with secure enclaves, end-to-end encryption, novel security approaches, and unprecedented transparency.

— Forrest Knight & Meghanadh Vasireddy

What is Apple Intelligence (AI)?

Apple dropped some big news at WWDC 2024. They're rolling out a new AI system called Apple Intelligence. It's coming to your iPhones, iPads, and Macs with the latest software updates.

What's the big deal?: Well, Apple's putting privacy first and here’s what you can do with it:

• Write better with AI-powered tools

• Make funky images in the Image Playground app

• Chat with a smarter Siri that gets you and works across apps

They've also teamed up with OpenAI to use ChatGPT for the really complex tasks. Also, if you’re a app developers, you're in luck. There are new tools to use AI in your apps.

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VSCode Add-ons Hacked: A 30-Minute Security Nightmare

Some researchers just showed how easy it is to mess with Visual Studio Code add-ons. They made a fake add-on that looked like the popular "Dracula Official" theme in just 30 minutes. But this sneaky little add-on was actually stealing source code and computer info from users.

The scary part?: This fake add-on took off like wildfire. It shot up the charts on the VSCode Marketplace and even wormed its way into the networks of huge companies. We're talking multi-billion dollar firms here, and even a top security company got hit.

This whole mess shows there's a big security hole in the world of IDE tools. The current checks for add-ons on the marketplace? Yeah, they didn't catch this at all.

So what's the takeaway?

• We need way better checks for these add-ons

• Developers need to wake up to these risks

• If you're using VSCode, be super careful about what add-ons you install

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Apple Introduces Private Cloud Compute for Secure AI

Context: As powerful AI models move to the cloud, ensuring data privacy becomes a major challenge. Traditional cloud security models fall short when it comes to verifiable guarantees and enforceable limits on privileged access.

To address this, Apple has created Private Cloud Compute (PCC) - a revolutionary system that extends the company's industry-leading privacy protections from devices to cloud AI processing.

Custom Apple Silicon Hardware:

• Secure enclaves and verifiable code integrity

• Stateless computation model

Encryption and Ephemerality:

• End-to-end encryption of user data

• Data never persists on PCC nodes, inaccessible even to Apple

Novel Security Approaches:

• Target diffusion prevents attacks targeting specific users

• No privileged runtime access to bypass privacy guarantees

Unprecedented Transparency:

• Full software images and measurements published

• Virtual research environment for security analysis

• Researchers can verify PCC matches public privacy claims

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🔥 More Notes

• Why Swift's type checker is slow

• Oracle Java police start knocking on Fortune 200's doors for first time

• Critical PHP Vulnerability Exposes Servers to Remote Code Execution

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