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Microsoft is adding safety and security tools to Azure AI Studio, the company’s cloud-based toolkit for building generative AI applications. The new tools include protection against prompt injection attacks, detection of hallucinations in model output, system messages to steer models toward safe output, model safety evaluations, and risk and safety monitoring.

Microsoft announced the new features on March 28. Safety evaluations are now available in preview in Azure AI Studio. The other features are coming soon, Microsoft said. Azure AI Studio, also in preview, can be accessed from ai.azure.com.

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In December 2023, delegates from almost 200 countries met in Dubai for the UN’s climate-change conference, COP28, to discuss the pressing need to reduce emissions, as reported by IEEE in this article.

According to the website sustainability scoring tool Ecograder, and as the authors are quick to point out, the COP28 website produces 3.69 grams of CO2 per page load. Those webpage hits add up. If the site gets 10,000 monthly views for a year, its emissions would be slightly more than a one-way flight from San Francisco to Toronto.

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• Today: AM sprinkle, partly cloudy, high 61
• Tonight: Showers arrive, low 46
• Saturday: Sct'd rain, breezy, high 66
• Sunday: Iso. AM shower, rain later, high 61
• Monday: Rain & storms, high 64
• Tuesday: Rain & storms, high 65

Happy Friday!

We start the day with just a few isolated sprinkles across the region, but that will gradually clear by about daybreak, and we'll have a dry rest of the day ahead. Expect highs to warm to the lower 60s, with just a light breeze. We'll see partly cloudy skies this afternoon.

Rain then moves in tonight and into Saturday. Expect scattered showers Saturday morning that clear up by about early afternoon. We'll then see several dry hours during the afternoon, with highs warming into the middle 60s, and a strong breeze. More scattered rain then moves in during the evening.

For Sunday, we start the early morning with just an isolated, light shower or two. Then we'll see lots of dry time during the daytime hours, which is good news for outdoor Easter plans! We'll see highs in the lower 60s. Rain then moves back in Sunday evening and overnight into Monday.

We've got several rounds of rain and thunderstorms on tap for both Monday and Tuesday as a cold front starts to near the area. Temperatures hold steady in the middle 60s. These are both days we will be watching for the potential for a few stronger storms, and flood prone areas will want to be mindful, as we will see a decent amount of rain the next few days.

-McKenna

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) – NBC4 is working to learn more about the path forward for the Circleville Police Department, as three people in city leadership roles have been fired or placed on administrative leave in three weeks. 

NBC4 requested the personnel files for the former director of public safety who was hired and fired in one week, as well as the personnel file of the acting police chief, who was put on administrative leave on March 25.

In the pages of documents NBC4 received there were a lot of redactions and very few specific reasons for the turnover.

Documents show that Steven Wilkinson, the former director of public safety resigned under investigation from his role as a Circleville reserve police officer on March 8. That same day he took the oath of office for the public safety director role.

The documents show he was fired on March 15, just one week later. In the documents NBC4 received there is no reason given.

Last week, Wilkinson gave an 8-minute speech in front of council alleging misconduct in the police department, and with then-acting police chief Douglas Davis.

About a week later Davis was placed on administrative leave, for what a statement from the mayor said is an investigation into alleged misconduct.

That statement said in full: "On March 25, Acting Chief Doug Davis was placed on paid administrative leave from the Circleville Police Department due to an investigation into alleged employee misconduct. In the meantime, the Circleville Police Department is in the capable hands of experienced leaders within the Agency. The City took this action in order to protect the integrity of the department while the investigation is ongoing."

Documents NBC4 requested about Davis show he alleged to city staff and former Chief Shawn Baer ongoing instances of retaliation and a hostile work environment due to what he believes is his disability.

This isn’t the first time Davis has been placed on administrative leave. In April of 2022 he wrote a letter to Chief Baer saying “There are many things happening in this city and here in this department that I am no longer willing to accept.”

A few days later he was placed on administrative leave with pay. Other documents point to previous investigations into him as well.

This all comes almost three weeks after Circleville police chief Shawn Baer was put on administrative leave.

He is being investigated for potential misconduct. The allegations include harassment, intimidation, retaliation, and threats of discipline.

Circleville police confirm Sergeant Kenny Fisher was sworn in as acting police chief on March 26. When NBC4 asked for an interview,  the police department said it had no comment. 

In the request, NBC4 asked for: 

• Steven Wilkinson's personnel file including any complaints against him, investigations and disciplinary action.
• Deputy Chief Douglas Davis's personnel file including any complaints against him, investigations and disciplinary action.
• Records of Circleville police state firearm standards training completion.
• Any and all reports of civil rights violations by any Circleville police staff.

These are the documents NBC4 received: 

• Steven Wilkinson Personnel File
• Notice of Charge of Discrimination
• EOCC form
• Signed Form 5 charge
• EEOC document
• Determination and Notice of Rights
• Acting Chief of Police promotion
• Douglas Davis Personnel File
• Davis 3/25 Administrative Leave
• EEOC respondent portal
• Affidavits - McIlroy, Baer, Dilley
• Employee job descriptions
• Davis Documents 1
• Davis Documents 2
• Davis Documents 3
• Davis Documents 4
• Davis Documents 5
• Davis Documents 6
• Davis Documents 7
• Davis Documents 8
• Davis Documents 9
• EEOC response documents
• CPD Impact Munitions Qualification and Less Lethal Impact Weapons Test
• Range Proficiency Record Shotgun
• Range Proficiency Record Submachine Gun Select Fire
• Range Proficiency Record Patrol Rifle Carbine

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A juvenile is in critical condition following a shooting in west Columbus on Thursday afternoon. 

At about 12:28 p.m., Columbus police officers were called to the 100 block of North Burgess Avenue in the Highland West neighborhood on the report of a shooting. 

When officers arrived, they found a juvenile victim suffering from a gunshot wound. The victim was transported to a local hospital in life threatening condition but was later upgraded to critical condition, according to the Columbus Division of Police. 

Police said the investigation is ongoing and have not released any further information as of 9:40 p.m. CPD asks anyone with information to contact Felony Assault Unit Detective Thomas Armentrout at 614-645-4141 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.

Thread hijacking attacks. They happen when someone you know has their email account compromised, and you are suddenly dropped into an existing conversation between the sender and someone else. These missives draw on the recipient’s natural curiosity about being copied on a private discussion, which is modified to include a malicious link or attachment. Here’s the story of a recent thread hijacking attack in which a journalist was copied on a phishing email from the unwilling subject of a recent scoop.

In Sept. 2023, the Pennsylvania news outlet LancasterOnline.com published a story about Adam Kidan, a wealthy businessman with a criminal past who is a major donor to Republican causes and candidates, including Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa).

The LancasterOnline story about Adam Kidan.

Several months after that piece ran, the story’s author Brett Sholtis received two emails from Kidan, both of which contained attachments. One of the messages appeared to be a lengthy conversation between Kidan and a colleague, with the subject line, “Re: Successfully sent data.” The second missive was a more brief email from Kidan with the subject, “Acknowledge New Work Order,” and a message that read simply, “Please find the attached.”

Sholtis said he clicked the attachment in one of the messages, which then launched a web page that looked exactly like a Microsoft Office 365 login page. An analysis of the webpage reveals it would check any submitted credentials at the real Microsoft website, and return an error if the user entered bogus account information. A successful login would record the submitted credentials and forward the victim to the real Microsoft website.

But Sholtis said he didn’t enter his Outlook username and password. Instead, he forwarded the messages to LancasterOneline’s IT team, which quickly flagged them as phishing attempts.

LancasterOnline’s Executive Editor Tom Murse said the two phishing messages from Mr. Kidan raised eyebrows in the newsroom because Kidan had threatened to sue the news outlet multiple times over Sholtis’s story.

“We were just perplexed,” Murse said. “It seemed to be a phishing attempt but we were confused why it would come from a prominent businessman we’ve written about. Our initial response was confusion, but we didn’t know what else to do with it other than to send it to the FBI.”

The phishing lure attached to the thread hijacking email from Mr. Kidan.

In 2006, Kidan was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to defrauding lenders along with Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist whose corruption became a symbol of the excesses of Washington influence peddling. He was paroled in 2009, and in 2014 moved his family to a home in Lancaster County, Pa.

The FBI hasn’t responded to LancasterOnline’s tip. Messages sent by KrebsOnSecurity to Kidan’s emails addresses were returned as blocked. Messages left with Mr. Kidan’s company, Empire Workforce Solutions, went unreturned.

No doubt the FBI saw the messages from Kidan for what they likely were: The result of Mr. Kidan having his Microsoft Outlook account compromised and used to send malicious email to people in his contacts list.

Thread hijacking attacks are hardly new, but that is mainly true because many Internet users still don’t know how to identify them. The email security firm Proofpoint says it has tracked north of 90 million malicious messages in the last five years that leverage this attack method.

One key reason thread hijacking is so successful is that these attacks generally do not include the tell that exposes most phishing scams: A fabricated sense of urgency. A majority of phishing threats warn of negative consequences should you fail to act quickly — such as an account suspension or an unauthorized high-dollar charge going through.

In contrast, thread hijacking campaigns tend to patiently prey on the natural curiosity of the recipient.

Ryan Kalember, chief strategy officer at Proofpoint, said probably the most ubiquitous examples of thread hijacking are “CEO fraud” or “business email compromise” scams, wherein employees are tricked by an email from a senior executive into wiring millions of dollars to fraudsters overseas.

But Kalember said these low-tech attacks can nevertheless be quite effective because they tend to catch people off-guard.

“It works because you feel like you’re suddenly included in an important conversation,” Kalember said. “It just registers a lot differently when people start reading, because you think you’re observing a private conversation between two different people.”

Some thread hijacking attacks actually involve multiple threat actors who are actively conversing while copying — but not addressing — the recipient.

“We call these mutli-persona phishing scams, and they’re often paired with thread hijacking,” Kalember said. “It’s basically a way to build a little more affinity than just copying people on an email. And the longer the conversation goes on, the higher their success rate seems to be because some people start replying to the thread [and participating] psycho-socially.”

The best advice to sidestep phishing scams is to avoid clicking on links or attachments that arrive unbidden in emails, text messages and other mediums. If you’re unsure whether the message is legitimate, take a deep breath and visit the site or service in question manually — ideally, using a browser bookmark so as to avoid potential typosquatting sites.

View the player above for previous coverage.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A Michigan court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by former physician Dr. William Husel against Mount Carmel's parent company, which alleged malicious prosecution.

In April 2023, attorneys for Husel filed a complaint against Trinity Health Corporation, Mount Carmel's parent company, seeking $20 million in damages. The lawsuit alleged the healthcare giant maliciously prosecuted the ousted ICU doctor as part of an orchestrated effort to protect the company’s reputation. 

The lawsuit claimed that Trinity "actively sought [Husel’s] indictment and prosecution" and provided the Franklin County Prosecutor's office with knowingly inaccurate and misleading information while withholding exculpatory evidence. The lawsuit also claimed Trinity instituted a public outreach campaign, including influencing local media, designed to prosecute Husel.

The United States District Court for the Eastern Michigan District sided with Trinity and dismissed the case, finding that Husel failed to argue against the presumption that probable cause existed for his prosecution.

From 2015 to 2018, critically ill patients in Columbus ICU physician Husel’s care died from a potentially excess amount of painkillers. In 2019, Husel faced murder charges in relation to his patient’s deaths. A jury ultimately found him not guilty of 14 counts of murder in 2022. Husel  surrendered his medical license in the aftermath of his trial.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – As the much anticipated solar eclipse gets closer, experts are reminding communities about the proper eyewear needed to safely view the rare event.

“Eclipse glasses are not the same as sunglasses, they’re more than 1,000 times darker than sunglasses," said Susanna Kohler, Press Officer with the American Astronomical Society (AAS). 

The AAS recently shared a warning about counterfeit or fake eclipse glasses. Kohler said most of the eclipse glasses out there are safe.

"Leading up to this solar eclipse initially the ones we were seeing, the ones that were counterfeit, still when we went and tested them were showing that they were safe so the vast majority of the glasses on the market are safe, it's only in recent weeks we’ve seen a couple instances of ones that aren't in fact safe," she said.

The organization identifies counterfeit glasses as ones manufactured by one manufacturer, but printing the name of another manufacturer. It's the ones deemed unsafe which AAS calls fake. 

"Anybody can say their glasses are safe and print that standard on the glasses and we have unfortunately seen a few cases of glasses in the market that have that standard printed on them and are not in fact safe, they aren't any darker than normal sunglasses," Kohler said.

The standard she referred to is ISO 12312-2, which experts said should be on eclipse glasses. 

Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Director of the Ohio Department of Health (ODH), Thursday also discussed the necessity of proper eclipse glasses. A spokesperson for ODH said the department is not aware of any reports of fake or counterfeit eclipse glasses being sold or distributed in Ohio.

“It is very important that you are obtaining any eyewear that you're going to use from a trusted source," he said.

To see a list of places to get eclipse glasses, click here. As April 8 gets closer, it's a good idea to check to make sure they are in stock. The AAS has more information on how to spot fake or counterfeit eclipse glasses here.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Thousands of people will be traveling to Ohio for the solar eclipse, and the state has set aside money in anticipation.  

Last July, Gov. Mike DeWine signed the state’s multi-billion-dollar budget with a $1 million allocation of taxpayer dollars for eclipse safety cost reimbursements. State officials said they are expecting more than a half million people to travel to Ohio to see the eclipse, and Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery) said it's going to strain the state's resources.

“This literally is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Click said.

Click advocated for solar eclipse safety money in the budget. But he said agencies were anticipating a bigger price tag.

“When I talked to DPS, I talked to some folks in the EMA, they actually thought we needed 10 million,” he said. Click said not everyone was on board with that dollar amount.

Now, with $1 million secured in the budget, the rest is now up to the state controlling board, which is authorized to approve and reimburse more funds. Budget experts said the money the controlling board uses will likely come from the state’s emergency purposes fund.

That emergency fund is typically used for things like disaster relief, instances the East Palestine train derailment, or paying the Ohio National Guard when its services are needed.

“Ultimately, we got the 10 million, we just got it shaped a little differently,” Click said. “We have the money, and we have the authorization to spend more as necessary.”

Click said the money will be used for things like extra law enforcement, traffic control and overtime pay. But he said there are other things being done to prepare that people may not think of.

“We’re going to have to put up extra cell towers because the number of people coming in is going to be an overburden to the cell towers,” Click said. “We have to prepare for Life Flight services in case there are any medical emergencies because the roads are going to be jam-packed.”

The Department of Public Safety said reimbursements for solar eclipse safety planning will be coordinated through county EMAs. DeWine has also signed an executive order to ensure all agencies are ready to utilize their personnel.

Watch a previous NBC4 report on Spirit's nonstop flights from Columbus in the video player above.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Spirit announced on Thursday the airline is adding nonstop flights from Columbus to two more popular vacation destinations.

The airline is introducing daily service from John Glenn International Airport to Boston, Massachusetts, and Newark, New Jersey, beginning on May 8. Spirit's new flights will increase the airline's Columbus service to eight nonstop destinations.

The announcement comes after Spirit announced earlier this month the airline is introducing service from Columbus to New York-LaGuardia daily and resuming service to Myrtle Beach four times a week, also beginning on May 8.

"Our new service to these two popular vacation destinations provides convenient, affordable options to reach Myrtle Beach's relaxing coastline and New York City's stunning skyline," said John Kirby, Vice President of Network Planning at Spirit Airlines, at the time of the announcement. "We're happy to add these new high-value flight options for Columbus travelers."

Spirit's existing nonstop service from Columbus includes daily flights to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and twice daily flights to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.

Snowflake on Thursday said it was making its Data Clean Room application generally available for free in the Snowflake Marketplace. The application, which was built on Snowflake’s Native Application Framework, will allow customers to set up data clean rooms at no additional cost, the company said.

Introduced in 2022, Snowflake’s Native Application Framework offers developers the ability to build and run applications inside the Snowflake Data Cloud platform, without the need to move data when building and running those applications.

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BUCYRUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A Crawford County man was arrested Thursday morning under the suspicion of trafficking methamphetamines.

According to the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office, 53-year-old Gary Gallant was the target of an investigation by a Special Response Team and METRICH, who executed a search warrant in the 100 block of Fisher Street in Bucyrus.

At 6 a.m. authorities arrested Gallant and Sandra Gallant, 60, and taken to the Crawford County Justice Center. Sandra Gallant was eventually released pending possible charges at a later date.

Deputies seized an unknown amount of methamphetamines, drug paraphernalia, cash and two firearms from the house. Gary Gallant is currently charged with drug trafficking.

The Sheriff’s Office confirmed that one of the weapons was stolen from California. It asks that anyone with additional information call 419-562-7906.

.NET 7, a version Microsoft’s open-source, cross-platform application framework that was released in November 2022, will reach its end of support on May 14, 2024, Microsoft said on March 27.

After May 14, Microsoft will no longer provide servicing updates including technical support or security fixes. Developers will need to update to .NET 8, released in November 2023, to continue to receive support. .NET 7 is a Standard Term Support release, which receives support for 18 months. It is supported by Microsoft on multiple operating systems, including Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.

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