Musk Takes Apple and OpenAI to Court in Surprise Lawsuit

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The world’s largest known botnet, called Methbot, once faked 300 million video ad views per day, costing advertisers an estimated $5 million daily. Instead of crashing networks like RapperBot, it quietly drained ad budgets with fake clicks. Who knew the same type of hijacked devices could either drown the Pentagon in traffic or bankrupt Madison Avenue?

 🚨 Daily Cyber + AI Watch:  What You Need to Know

• 🧨 Elon Musk Picks His Newest Fight Over AI on the iPhone

• 📱 When a Spy App’s Security Hole Turns Against Its Own Users

• ⚔️ A Low-Cost Botnet Just Tested Its Strength on the Pentagon

• 🕷️ The First Scattered Spider Hacker Faces a Decade Behind Bars

• 🎨 Meta Turns to Midjourney to Power Its Next Wave of AI Art

🧨 Elon Musk Picks His Newest Fight Over AI on the iPhone

Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI has filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of manipulating iOS to push users toward ChatGPT over competing apps like Grok. The complaint claims Apple’s deep integration of OpenAI services unfairly tilts the App Store ecosystem, making it harder for rivals to compete. OpenAI called the suit “meritless harassment,” while Apple hasn’t commented yet. The legal battle throws three of tech’s biggest players into a rare courtroom showdown.

🔑 Why It Matters: Apple controls one of the world’s largest distribution channels, and ChatGPT is now baked directly into that ecosystem. If Musk can prove favoritism, the case could challenge Apple’s gatekeeper role in the $100+ billion mobile app economy and decide whether new AI challengers even get a fair shot at reaching iPhone users.

Source: WIRED – Elon Musk’s xAI Sues Apple and OpenAI

📱 When a Spy App’s Security Hole Turns Against Its Own Users

A new flaw in TheTruthSpy, a popular phone spyware app, lets attackers reset any user’s password and take over accounts. Researcher Swarang Wade discovered the issue, which stems from insecure reset links that never expire. When contacted, the spyware’s operator admitted the source code was “lost,” meaning the bug likely can’t be patched. That leaves victims—already surveilled without consent—vulnerable to even more outsiders.

🔑 Why It Matters:Stalkerware already blurs legal and ethical lines, but a flaw this blatant shows how dangerous unregulated spyware can be. Victims face double jeopardy: being tracked by abusers and now hacked by strangers.

Source: TechCrunch – Security Flaw in TheTruthSpy Spyware

⚔️ A Low-Cost Botnet Just Tested Its Strength on the Pentagon

The Pentagon confirmed its networks were struck by RapperBot, a for-hire botnet known for hijacking routers and IoT devices. Prosecutors say 22-year-old Ethan Foltz ran the operation, which infected up to 95,000 machines and launched at least three distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the Department of Defense Information Network this year. At its peak, the botnet flooded targets with nearly 6 terabits per second of junk traffic.

🔑 Why It Matters: DDoS-for-hire schemes aren’t new, but seeing a military network tested at this scale shows how criminal cyber tools can spill into national security domains. It’s a wake-up call about the fragility of connected infrastructure.

Source: DefenseScoop – Pentagon Hit by RapperBot Attacks

🕷️ The First Scattered Spider Hacker Faces a Decade Behind Bars

Noah Michael Urban, a 20-year-old hacker tied to the notorious Scattered Spider crew, has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. Prosecutors linked him to SIM-swapping, phishing, and account takeover schemes that stole millions from companies including MGM and Caesars Entertainment. Urban, who used aliases like “King Bob” and “Noah Da Don,” must also pay $13 million in restitution.

🔑 Why It Matters: This is the first major sentencing connected to Scattered Spider, a group infamous for targeting telecoms and casinos. It signals prosecutors are finally catching up with high-profile social engineering crews.

Source: TechCrunch – Developer Gets Prison Time for Network Sabotage

🎨 Meta Turns to Midjourney to Power Its Next Wave of AI Art

Meta has signed a deal with Midjourney to license its image-generation models for Meta AI, the company’s virtual assistant. Instead of relying solely on in-house research, Meta will now blend Midjourney’s creative strengths into its AI ecosystem. The move underscores Meta’s race to keep pace with competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic by boosting the quality of its generative tools.

🔑 Why It Matters: By licensing Midjourney, Meta is admitting its in-house image models can’t match the market’s best—at least not yet. The deal shows how competitive pressure from rivals like OpenAI’s DALL·E is pushing giants to buy outside creativity, a move that could reshape how AI labs monetize their models.

Source: The Verge – Meta Strikes Midjourney Licensing Deal