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News.com.au
08-08-2025
- News.com.au
‘Serial killer': Cops forced to issue message on viral fear after string of deaths on the Gold Coast
Queensland authorities have clapped back at theories a 'serial killer' is on the loose after a string of mysterious deaths on the Gold Coast. Four bodies were found in the state's waters over a five-day period last month. It began on July 19, when the body of a man in his sixties was discovered on the rocks at Tallebudgera Creek's Echo Beach. Local grandmother Elizabeth Kelly, 73, was then found dead on the beach outside the Palm Beach SLC on the morning of Sunday, July 20. A deceased man believed to be aged in his twenties was also discovered in the vicinity of a swimming pool at Main St, Varsity Lakes, that day. Finally, on the afternoon of July 23, the body of a woman was found floating in Currumbin Creek near Whitsunday Dr. Police have deemed all of the deaths non-suspicious, but that didn't stop local content creator Big Daddy News, who boasts more than 160,000 followers on TikTok, from warning his followers that 'there may be a serial killer active in Australia in Queensland the Gold Coast'. 'There are no updated news about these multiple deaths and they are happening consecutively weeks apart (sic),' the man said. 'People are scared and people want answers, and the online community is basically crying for help saying that, is this a serial killer? 'Most people are saying, yes it is.' The video was flooded with supportive comments from other online sleuths. 'Two bodies is a coincidence. Three bodies is a pattern. Five bodies is a serial killer,' one claimed. 'Detectives will keep any information about serial killers low because it creates panic,' another insisted. Gold Coast personal trainer Aaron Boundy added to the confusion when he made a TikTok claiming there was a 'murderer on the loose' in the Gold Coast. 'There's been four dead bodies found within a 10km radius of each other, which happens to be in the area I live,' Mr Boundy said in the frantic video filmed in his car. 'Is this not f***ed? Why isn't this being documented more? '...Four dead bodies, 10 kilometre radius in two weeks. Can we f***ing panic a bit?' In response to the swirling online rumours, Queensland Police have called for calm. 'Now, we have had a whole lot of deaths in the last two weeks,' Acting Superintendent Michelle Piket told reporters last Monday. 'There are a lot of conspiracy theories floating around on social media. 'So, I'd just like to tell everyone, please don't believe what you see on social media. 'All of these matters were unrelated and non-suspicious and have been referred to the coroner. 'We know that they're non-suspicious, we've done our investigations, and we're happy with what's happened (with those investigations).' Queensland Police's official TikTok account also replied to Mr Boundy's video last Monday. 'Hey QLD, we want to reassure the public that there is no risk to community safety,' the account said. 'All matters are being treated as non-suspicious and unrelated.' Mr Boundy wasn't satisfied, however, falsely claiming that the body of the woman found in Carrumbin Creek had been 'wrapped in plastic' and 'tied up'. A police spokesperson said at the time the woman was found fully clothed and wearing a backpack with a rope tied at the front holding the shoulder straps together.
Daily Mail
08-08-2025
- Daily Mail
How sinister conspiracy theories are running rife about the sudden deaths of four Aussies on the Gold Coast - forcing cops to issue an extraordinary message addressed to an entire state
A spate of four sudden, highly-publicised deaths in the Gold Coast has sparked conspiracy theories about a serial killer on the loose - even though authorities have shut down the false claims. The city - blessed with sunshine, beaches and theme parks - was a magnet to almost five million tourists last year, but in recent weeks has been rocked by a string of deaths, with four bodies found in its waters over a five-day period. The most recent incident occurred when shocked neighbours found the submerged body of a fully-clothed woman in Currumbin Creek on July 23. That came just days after the lifeless body of Elizabeth Kelly, 73, was discovered by early morning beachgoers near the shore at Palm Beach on July 20. A man, 31, was found dead in a pool at a Varsity Lakes unit complex that same day. And 24 hours earlier, a man was found dead on the rocks metres away from young families at Echo Beach in Tallebudgera. Queensland Police have since declared all four deaths as non-suspicious - with medical episodes, self-harm, and misadventure deemed the causes. But their assurances have done nothing to stop the internet from going into overdrive, with amateur sleuths speculating that a single person could be responsible. 'There may be a serial killer active on the Gold Coast,' a local who goes by Big Daddy News wrongly claimed on TikTok. 'There is no updated news about these multiple deaths and they're happening consecutively, weeks apart. 'People are scared and they want answers. 'The online community are crying out for help, asking if this is a serial killer. 'Most people are saying it is.' He's not the only one running with the claims. 'Why is nobody talking about how there is a f***ing murderer on the loose in the Gold Coast right now,' personal trainer Aaron Boundy said in another TikTok. 'There's been four dead bodies found within a 10km radius of each other, which happens to be in the area I live. 'Why isn't this being documented more?' Mr Boundy's clip sparked a response from Queensland Police. 'Hey Queensland. We want to reassure the public that there is no risk to community safety. All matters are being treated as non-suspicious and unrelated,' it commented. Longtime Byron Bay fears The Gold Coast is just 100km north of the popular tourist hotspot of Byron Bay, where a suspected serial killer has been linked to dozens of murders and disappearances since the 1970s. NSW State MLC Jeremy Buckingham highlighted an 'alarming similarity' between 67 murder and missing persons cases between Newcastle and Byron Bay in state parliament last year and called for a special inquiry. Dozens of men are among those who have vanished or died in similar circumstances in the Byron Bay region since 2019. This week marked one year since the remains of Gage Wilson, 31, were found in bushland 10km from his Mullumbimby home, three months after he vanished without a trace. He disappeared almost five years to the day after Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez, 18, who vanished after leaving Cheeky Monkeys bar in Byron Bay on May 31, 2019. His remains have never been found. The circumstances of Mr Wilson's death remain shrouded in mystery. His family recently told Daily Mail they have been informed an inquest will be held in the coming months. Queensland Police said understand why the recent incidents on the Gold Coast have caused concern but want to reassure the public that there is no risk to community safety. A spokeswoman reiterated that the recent four deaths were non-suspicious and directed Daily Mail to its recent TikTok response regarding the wild theories swirling around. 'Now, we have had a whole lot of deaths in the last two weeks,' Acting Superintendent Michelle Piket told reporters last week. 'There are a lot of conspiracy theories floating around on social media. 'So, I'd just like to tell everyone, please don't believe what you see on social media. 'All of these matters were unrelated and non-suspicious and have been referred to the coroner.' 'We know that they're non-suspicious, we've done our investigations, and we're happy with what's happened (with) those investigations.' Australian Missing Persons Register director Nicole Morris also warned that speculation of a coastal serial killer could be harmful to police investigations and the families of missing persons. 'It's dangerous to say all these people were killed by one person because it means you're not investigating each individual disappearance or homicide,' she told Woman's Day magazine recently. 'Most of our population live by the coast, and we're talking about a time period over 50 years, so it's a statistical fact that more people go missing from these areas.'
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AI security risks are in the spotlight—but hackers say models are still alarmingly easy to attack
Hello and welcome to Eye on AI! In today's edition…Elon Musk's xAI releases Grok 3 AI chatbot; OpenAI CEO teases future open-source AI project; South Korea suspends DeepSeek AI chatbot; and Perplexity offers its own Deep Research tool similar to OpenAI's. One of the biggest AI vibe shifts of 2025 so far is the sudden, massive pivot from AI 'safety' to AI 'security.' Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, AI safety advocates, who typically focus on broad, long-term and often theoretical risks, have held the spotlight. There have been daily headlines about concerns that humans could lose control of AI systems that seek to harm humanity, or that rogue nations could use AI to develop genetically modified pandemics that then cause human extinction. There was the May 2023 open letter that called on all AI labs to 'immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4'—signed by 30,000, including Elon Musk. The Biden Administration spun out the AI Safety Institute as part of the small NIST agency (the National Institute of Standards and Technology), while the U.K. launched its own AI Safety Institute and held the first of three high-profile AI Safety Summits. Oh, how times have changed: The head of the U.S. AI Safety Institute, Elizabeth Kelly, has departed, a move seen by many as a sign that the Trump administration was shifting course on AI policy. The third AI Safety Summit held in Paris earlier this month was renamed the AI Action Summit. There, the French government announced a national institute to 'assess and secure AI,' while U.S. Vice President JD Vance focused squarely on AI and national security, saying 'we will safeguard American AI and chip technologies from theft and misuse.' Focusing on keeping AI models secure from those seeking to break in may seem more immediate and actionable than tackling the potential for all-powerful AI that could conceivably go off the rails. However, the world's best ethical hackers, or those who test systems in order to find and fix weaknesses before malicious hackers can exploit them, say AI security—like traditional cybersecurity—is far from easy. AI security risks are no joke: A user could trick an LLM into generating detailed instructions for conducting cyberattacks or harmful activities. An AI model could be manipulated to reveal sensitive or private data in its training set. Meanwhile, self-driving cars could be subtly modified; deepfake videos could spread misinformation; and chatbots could impersonate real people as part of scams. More than two years since OpenAI's ChatGPT burst onto the scene, hackers from the Def Con security conference, the largest annual gathering for ethical hackers, have warned that it is still far too easy to break into AI systems and tools. In a recent report called the Hackers' Almanack published in partnership with the University of Chicago, they said that AI vulnerabilities would continue to pose serious risks without a fundamental overhaul of current security practices. At the moment, most companies focus on 'red teaming' their AI models. Red teaming means stress-testing an AI model by simulating attacks, probing for vulnerabilities, and identifying weaknesses. The goal is to uncover security issues like the potential for jailbreaks, misinformation and hallucinations, privacy leaks, and 'prompt injection'—that is, when malicious users trick the model into disobeying its own rules. But in the Hackers' Almanack, Sven Cattell, founder of Def Con's AI Village and AI security startup said red teaming is 'B.S.' The problem, he wrote, is that the processes created to monitor the flaws and vulnerabilities of AI models are themselves flawed. With a technology as powerful as LLMs there will always be 'unknown unknowns' that stress-testing and evaluations miss, Cattell said. Even the largest companies can't imagine and protect against every possible use and restriction that could ever be projected onto generative AI, he explained. 'For a small team at Microsoft, Stanford, NIST or the EU, there will always be a use or edge case that they didn't think of,' he wrote. The only way for AI security to succeed is for security organizations to cooperate and collaborate, he emphasized, including creating versions of time-tested cybersecurity programs that let companies and developers disclose, share, and fix AI 'bugs,' or vulnerabilities. As Fortune reported after the Def Con conference last August, there is currently no way to report vulnerabilities related to the unexpected behavior of an AI model, and no public database of LLM vulnerabilities, as there has been for other types of software for decades. 'If we want to have a model that we can confidently say 'does not output toxic content' or 'helps with programming tasks in Javascript, but also does not help produce malicious payloads for bad actors' we need to work together,' Cattell wrote. And with that, here's more AI news. Sharon This story was originally featured on
