LONDON – Britain’s cyber security chief warned on Tuesday of a rise in hostile activity in the country’s cyberspace, with the number of incidents handled by officials rising by 16% in 2024 compared to a year ago.

“Hostile activity in UK cyberspace has increased in frequency, sophistication and intensity,” the National Cyber Security Centre’s Richard Horne will say in a speech later on Tuesday, according to a statement released by the government agency.

“Actors are increasingly using our technology dependence against us, seeking to cause maximum disruption and destruction.”

The incident management team at the NCSC handled 430 incidents in 2024, compared to 371 the previous year, the agency said in the statement.

Of those, 347 involved some level of data exfiltration – the intentional, unauthorised, covert transfer of data from a computer or other device – while 20 involved ransomware, said the NCSC, which is part of Britain’s GCHQ spy agency.

The team issued 542 bespoke notifications informing organisations of a cyber incident impacting them and providing advice on mitigation, more than double the 258 notifications issued last year.

In its annual review published alongside the statement, the NCSC said ransomware attacks posed “the most immediate and disruptive” threat to critical infrastructure like energy, water, transportation, health and telecommunications.

The review also warned of the potential of hackers to exploit AI to create more advanced cyber attacks.

“We believe the severity of the risk facing the UK is being widely underestimated,” Horne is set to say in his speech.

“There is no room for complacency about the severity of state-led threats or the volume of the threat posed by cyber criminals.” — Reuters

The United States on Monday launched its third crackdown in three years on China’s semiconductor industry, curbing exports to 140 companies, including chip equipment maker Naura Technology Group 002371.SZ, among other moves.

The effort to hobble Beijing’s chipmaking ambitions also hits Chinese chip toolmakers Piotech, ACM Research and SiCarrier Technology with new export restrictions as part of the package, which also takes aim at shipments of advanced memory chips and more chipmaking tools to China.

The move is one of the Biden administration’s last large-scale efforts to stymie China’s ability to access and produce chips that can help advance artificial intelligence for military applications, or otherwise threaten U.S. national security.

It comes just weeks before the swearing-in of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to retain many of Biden’s tough-on-China measures.

The package includes curbs on China-bound shipments of high bandwidth memory chips, critical for high-end applications like AI training; new curbs on 24 additional chipmaking tools and three software tools; and new export curbs on chipmaking equipment made in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the action aims to prevent “China from advancing its domestic semiconductor manufacturing system, which it will use to support its military modernization.”

Reuters first reported many companies involved and key details of the plan.

The tool controls will likely hurt Lam Research LRCX.O, KLA KLAC.O and Applied Materials AMAT.O, as well as non-U.S. companies like Dutch equipment maker ASM International ASMI.AS.

Chinese companies facing new restrictions include nearly two dozen semiconductor companies, two investment companies and over 100 chipmaking tool makers.

The companies include Swaysure Technology Co, Si’En Qingdao, and Shenzhen Pensun Technology Co, which work with China’s Huawei Technologies. The telecommunications equipment leader has been hobbled by U.S. sanctions and is now at the center of China’s advanced chip production and development.

They will be added to the entity list, which bars U.S. suppliers from shipping to them without first receiving a special license.

Asked about the U.S. curbs, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said such behaviour undermined the international economic trade order and disrupted global supply chains.
China will take measures to safeguard the rights and interests of its firms, he added at a regular press briefing on Monday.

China’s commerce ministry described the U.S. restrictions as a clear example of “economic coercion” and “non-market practices,” according to a statement published on its official website after the new curbs were announced.

China has stepped up its drive to become self-sufficient in the semiconductor sector in recent years, as the U.S. and other countries have restricted exports of the advanced chips and the tools to make them. However, it remains years behind chip industry leaders like Nvidia in AI chips and chip equipment maker ASML in the Netherlands.

The U.S. also is poised to place additional restrictions on Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co. 0981.HK, China’s largest contract chip manufacturer, which was placed on the Entity List in 2020 but with a policy that allowed billions of dollars worth of licenses to ship goods to it to be granted.

For the first time, the U.S. will add three companies that make investments in chips to the entity list. Chinese private equity firm Wise Road Capital, tech firm Wingtech Technology Co  and JAC Capital were added, the department said, because of their role “in aiding China’s government’s efforts to acquire entities with sensitive semiconductor manufacturing capability critical to the defense industrial bases of the United States and its allies with the objective of relocating these entities to China.”

Companies seeking licenses to ship to firms on the Entity List generally get denied.

DUTCH AND JAPANESE EXEMPTED
An aspect of the new package that addresses the foreign direct product rule could hurt some U.S. allies by limiting what their companies can ship to China.

The new rule will expand U.S. powers to curb exports of chipmaking equipment by U.S., Japanese, and Dutch manufacturers made in other parts of the world to certain chip plants in China.
Equipment made in Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan is subject to the rule while Japan and the Netherlands will be exempt.

The expanded foreign direct product rule will apply to 16 companies on the entity list that are seen as the most important to China’s most advanced chipmaking ambitions.

The rule will also lower to zero the amount of U.S. content that determines when certain foreign items are subject to U.S. control. That will allow the U.S. to regulate any item shipped to China from overseas if it contains any U.S. chips.

The new rules are being released after lengthy discussions with Japan and the Netherlands, which, along with the United States, dominate the production of advanced chipmaking equipment.

The Dutch government said it will study the new restrictions, adding that “every country has its own considerations” on national security and export controls.

ASML said on its website that it did not see a material impact on its business, adding that if the Dutch government makes a “similar security assessment,” it could affect exports of some of its chip making tools.

The United States plans to exempt countries that adopt similar controls, sources told Reuters.

Another rule in the package restricts memory used in AI chips that correspond with what is known as “HBM 2” and higher, technology made by South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix and U.S.-based Micron.

Industry sources expect only Samsung Electronics to be affected. Analysts estimate Samsung generates about 30% of its HBM chip sales from China.

The latest rules are the third major package of chip-related export curbs on China adopted under the Biden administration.

In October 2022, the United States published a sweeping set of controls on sale and manufacture of certain high-end chips that was considered to be the biggest shift in its tech policy toward China since the 1990s. — Reuters

After lackluster spending at U.S. stores on a deals-heavy Black Friday, retailers are pulling out all the stops with steep promotions and discounts on their websites and apps to entice people to buy holiday gifts and other merchandise after the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Retailers have been coaxing cautious U.S. shoppers on Cyber Monday — traditionally America’s biggest internet shopping day — with push notifications, emails and other ads touting heavily discounted cosmetics, electronics, toys, clothing and other products.

With just 23 days before Christmas, the discounts this year have been deeper, with shoppers waiting for promotion-heavy days, experts have said. For instance, Target TGT.N said it was offering 50% off thousands of items including video games, home decor and other technology items with a “two-day Cyber Monday” sale that started on Sunday.

The moves follow a mixed holiday season so far, with muted spending in stores on key shopping days such as Black Friday. Sales at brick-and-mortar stores on Friday grew just 0.7% year over year, according to preliminary estimates by payments processor Mastercard. Meanwhile, data firm Facteus said sales were actually lower.

Online, retailers like Walmart and Amazon have relied on generative AI customer service and search features to make it easier for shoppers to find products on websites and mobile apps.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, resident Cheyenne Berens, 29, has been using Amazon’s generative AI chatbot Rufus to track prices of baby merchandise and electronics this holiday season. Amazon launched Rufus in February to give customers product recommendations and details based on its entire catalog of merchandise.

“I have found that using Rufus on Amazon has been extremely helpful in determining whether a ‘deal’ is actually a ‘deal’,” Berens said. She’s been tracking the fluctuating prices of a Pack ‘n’ Play portable playpen and waiting for the right time to buy. The price started at $90 before the holidays, briefly rose to $120 and dropped back to $90, she said.

Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce, a cloud-computing company that tracks global shopping data from more than 1.5 billion consumers, said that GenAI tools such as chatbots to answer online shoppers’ basic questions, such as queries about products, helped retailers protect their profit margins despite rising costs.

On Saturday, retailers using GenAI tools for customer service saw a 15% higher purchase rate by users, according to estimates by Salesforce. Schwartz said the higher so-called conversion rate “is a game changer.”

Consumers are expected to spend $13.2 billion to $13.5 billion online on Monday in the United States, according to preliminary estimates from Adobe Inc. That outlay would follow the roughly $10.8 billion Americans spent online on Black Friday, according to Adobe.

Traffic to retail sites from chatbots or shoppers clicking on a link to a website rose 1,800% from Black Friday through the weekend, Adobe said.

With many Americans recently carrying more debt, many are using third-party “buy now, pay later” services, with spending on the services likely to approach $1 billion, according to projections by Adobe, which keeps track of devices that use its software to help power more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites. — Reuters

NEW YORK – The Nasdaq and S&P 500 scored record closing highs on Monday, boosted by tech-related shares following the market’s strong November gains, as investors awaited this week’s economic data including the key monthly jobs report on Friday.

The Dow finished lower on the day. Both the Dow and S&P 500 recorded on Friday their biggest monthly percentage gains in a year.

The technology, communication services and consumer discretionary sectors rose about 1% each on Monday, while the rest of the S&P 500 sectors were lower. Tesla shares advanced 3.5%, with Stifel raising its price target on the stock.

“We’re seeing a market that’s in a seasonably strong period just creep higher,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New Jersey.

“It’s a tough time for people to bail out, but by the same token, I don’t see an explosive finish to the year. There’s just too much uncertainty to where we’re headed. … No one is quite sure what the plan is economically with the new administration.”

Former U.S. President Donald Trump recaptured the White House in last month’s election and his Republican Party swept both houses of Congress, boosting stocks in November.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 128.65 points, or 0.29%, to 44,782.00. The S&P 500  rose 14.77 points, or 0.24%, to 6,047.15 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 185.78 points, or 0.97%, to 19,403.95.

Strategists have cited Trump’s potential plans for tax cuts and deregulation as a positive for stocks, but tariffs would be negative.

Investors also digested comments from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller that he was inclined to cut the benchmark interest rate at the Dec. 17-18 meeting as monetary policy remained restrictive.

Investors have been expecting a quarter-point rate cut in December, but recent inflation data has raised worries that progress may have stalled.

The Fed began reducing rates in September by a half a point, following that with a quarter-point cut in November.

Earlier on Monday, the Institute for Supply Management reported improved U.S. manufacturing activity in November.

Aside from Friday’s hotly anticipated employment report, investors this week also will see private sector job growth data, the ISM’s services report and the Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims.

Super Micro Computer surged 28.7% after the artificial intelligence server maker began searching for a new finance chief based on recommendations by a special committee formed to review its accounting practices.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.08-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 406 new highs and 64 new lows on the NYSE.

On the Nasdaq, 2,332 stocks rose and 2,060 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.13-to-1 ratio.

Volume on U.S. exchanges totaled 13.64 billion shares, compared with the 14.74 billion full-session average over the last 20 trading days. — Reuters