Cybersecurity

Ann Arbor startup Laplace Intelligence, founded a year ago by Howie Sun and his former University of Michigan PhD adviser Henry Liu, builds high-fidelity simulations reconstructed from the real world plus an AI agent that hunts for failure points in robots and autonomous vehicles. Their 2023 paper on the approach was a Nature cover story. The company says it already earns revenue, mostly from autonomous driving customers such as trucking firm Bot Auto and a major Japanese carmaker, and is running a smart-city traffic pilot in San Jose with Nvidia and T-Mobile.

Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt as protesters gathered outside, Flock CEO Garrett Langley argued that if society wants criminals held accountable, "we shouldn't pause progress," and compared the trade-offs to driverless cars. TechCrunch reports he deflected questions about the backlash that has cost Flock contracts and led to layoffs.

Langley also said Flock's gunshot-detection microphones detect "just gunshots." Flock's website says the audio product can also detect street takeovers, severe crashes, fireworks and sideshows, and when the feature launched the company said it would listen for "screaming" before changing that to "sounds of human distress" and later pulling distress detection.

The Justice Department said it had indicted and arrested at least two people and searched more than 40 suspected "laptop farms" across Texas, seizing more than 180 computers that companies had shipped to new hires who were in fact North Korean workers using stolen US identities. Prosecutors said at least 70 US companies, in healthcare, retail, communications, manufacturing and cyber support across Ohio and 16 other states plus DC, were infiltrated, generating about $3 million. CrowdStrike helped the FBI investigate; the FBI separately warned there are "thousands" of such workers at Western companies.

Pluto Security came out of stealth with $42 million (an $8.5 million seed led by TLV Partners and a $34 million Series A led by Jump Capital) for software that gives companies visibility and control over employees' AI tools and connectors. CEO Shahar Bahat says a new AI tool can show up inside a company within two hours of release and that about 60% of the risks Pluto detects are in tools vibe-coded by non-developers, with finance departments the biggest source. Pluto says it has more than 30 enterprise customers and over $2 million in annual recurring revenue since starting sales in April.

Federal prosecutors charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, who joined OpenAI's product team in July 2025, with using an electronic device to intercept oral communications after a recording device was found plugged into the back of a TV in an executive conference room in OpenAI's San Francisco office. He was fired and arrested on October 9. OpenAI says it has no indication that model weights, source code or customer data were accessed. FBI Director Kash Patel said the aim was to capture communications about the company's technology; the charge carries up to five years.

Ledger confirmed that some of its hardware wallets sold through CryptoBilis, a Malaysia-based reseller operating across Southeast Asia, contained an unauthorized hardware implant that drained users' crypto. Ledger opened an investigation on October 9, asked the reseller to stop selling its devices, and says all reports of unexpected drains trace to devices sold there and that the affected volume is "limited." It advises buyers from that reseller not to set the device up, or to move funds to a new device with a new seed. Researchers had been showing the implant since September 16, saying tampered devices sold for nearly half the original price.