Month: December 2017

Apparent Google update glitch disconnects student Chromebooks in schools across the U.S. – GeekWire

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Tens of thousands, perhaps millions, of Google Chromebooks, widely prized by schools due to their low cost and ease of configuration, were reported to be offline for several hours on Tuesday. The apparent cause? A seemingly botched WiFi policy update pushed out by Google that caused many Chromebooks to forget their approved network connection, leaving Read more about Apparent Google update glitch disconnects student Chromebooks in schools across the U.S. – GeekWire[…]

China Has Launched the World’s First All-Electric Cargo Ship

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Constructed by Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Ltd, it can travel 80 kilometers (approximately 50 miles) after being charged for 2 hours. As noted by Clean Technica, 2 hours is roughly the amount of time it would take to unload the ship’s cargo while docked.Other stats for China’s cargo ship include being 70.5 meters (230 feet) Read more about China Has Launched the World’s First All-Electric Cargo Ship[…]

HP laptops found to have hidden keylogger – BBC News

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Hidden software that can record every letter typed on a computer keyboard has been discovered pre-installed on hundreds of HP laptop models.Security researcher Michael Myng found the keylogging code in software drivers preinstalled on HP laptops to make the keyboard work.HP said more than 460 models of laptop were affected by the “potential security vulnerability”.It Read more about HP laptops found to have hidden keylogger – BBC News[…]

Airgapping via PLC

Posted on by Robin Edgar

CyberX demonstrated how to inject specially-crafted ladder logic code into a Siemens S7-1200 PLC. The code uses memory copy operations to generate frequency-modulated RF signals slightly below the AM band (340kHz-420kHz), with the modulation representing encoded data.The emitted RF signals are a byproduct of repeatedly writing to PLC memory in a specific way.Once transmitted the Read more about Airgapping via PLC[…]

AI in storytelling: Machines as cocreators

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Sunspring debuted at the SCI-FI LONDON film festival in 2016. Set in a dystopian world with mass unemployment, the movie attracted many fans, with one viewer describing it as amusing but strange. But the most notable aspect of the film involves its creation: an artificial-intelligence (AI) bot wrote Sunspring’s screenplay. ome researchers have already used Read more about AI in storytelling: Machines as cocreators[…]

New battery boffinry could ‘triple range’ of electric vehicles • The Register

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A new battery designed at the University of Waterloo in Ontario could triple the range of electric vehicles, a new paper has claimed. The development, described by the article An In Vivo Formed Solid Electrolyte Surface Layer Enables Stable Plating of Li Metal (PDF) in energy journal Joule, is due to an improvement in the Read more about New battery boffinry could ‘triple range’ of electric vehicles • The Register[…]

New Ruski hacker clan exposed: They’re called MoneyTaker, and they’re gonna take your money • The Register

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The group has conducted more than 20 successful attacks on financial institutions and legal firms in the USA, UK and Russia in the last two months alone, according to Russian incident response firm Group-IB. MoneyTaker has primarily targeted card processing systems, including the AWS CBR (Russian Interbank System) and purportedly SWIFT (US).In addition to banks, Read more about New Ruski hacker clan exposed: They’re called MoneyTaker, and they’re gonna take your money • The Register[…]

Email tracking now extends to your acquantances: 1 in 5!

Posted on by Robin Edgar

According to OMC’s data, a full 19 percent of all “conversational” email is now tracked. That’s one in five of the emails you get from your friends. And you probably never noticed.“Surprisingly, while there is a vast literature on web tracking, email tracking has seen little research,” noted an October 2017 paper published by three Read more about Email tracking now extends to your acquantances: 1 in 5![…]

New Google Home Mini update 1.29 restores top tap functionality with long-press on the side: doesn’t record everything anymore?

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Google Home Mini is a super-affordable way to get Google Assistant in your life, but Google was forced to hobble the device shortly after launch because a sticky touch sensor caused Artem’s Mini to record everything he said. Part of that functionality is now coming back with a small tweak. Instead of tapping the Read more about New Google Home Mini update 1.29 restores top tap functionality with long-press on the side: doesn’t record everything anymore?[…]

AI-Assisted Fake Porn Is Here and We’re All Fucked – Motherboard

Posted on by Robin Edgar

There’s a video of Gal Gadot having sex with her stepbrother on the internet. But it’s not really Gadot’s body, and it’s barely her own face. It’s an approximation, face-swapped to look like she’s performing in an existing incest-themed porn video.The video was created with a machine learning algorithm, using easily accessible materials and open-source Read more about AI-Assisted Fake Porn Is Here and We’re All Fucked – Motherboard[…]

Twenty-five EU states sign PESCO defense pact

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The European Council has adopted the decision to establish a European Union defense pact, known as PESCO. The 25 participating EU states are set to begin working on a series of joint-defense projects next year. The Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), which was first set out in the Lisbon Treaty, will allow member states to jointly Read more about Twenty-five EU states sign PESCO defense pact[…]

System76 will disable Intel Management engine on its Linux laptops via firmware update

Posted on by Robin Edgar

System76 is one a handful of companies that sells computers that run Linux software out of the box. But like most PCs that have shipped with Intel’s Core processors in the past few years, System76 laptops include Intel’s Management Engine firmware. Intel recently confirmed a major security vulnerability affecting those chips and it’s working with Read more about System76 will disable Intel Management engine on its Linux laptops via firmware update[…]

Mailsploit: It’s 2017, and you can spoof the ‘from’ in email to fool filters

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Penetration tester Sabri Haddouche has reintroduced the world to email source spoofing, bypassing spam filters and protections like Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC), thereby posing a risk to anyone running a vulnerable and unpatched mail client.What he’s found is that more than 30 mail clients including Apple Mail, Thunderbird, various Windows clients, Yahoo! Read more about Mailsploit: It’s 2017, and you can spoof the ‘from’ in email to fool filters[…]

DeepMind’s AI became a superhuman chess (and shogi and go) player in a few hours using generic reinforcement learning

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In the paper, DeepMind describes how a descendant of the AI program that first conquered the board game Go has taught itself to play a number of other games at a superhuman level. After eight hours of self-play, the program bested the AI that first beat the human world Go champion; and after four hours Read more about DeepMind’s AI became a superhuman chess (and shogi and go) player in a few hours using generic reinforcement learning[…]

NiceHash Hacked, $62 Million of Bitcoin May Be Stolen

Posted on by Robin Edgar

New submitter Chir breaks the news to us that the NiceHash crypto-mining marketplace has been hacked. The crypto mining pool broke the news on Reddit, where users suggest that as many as 4,736.42 BTC — an amount worth more than $62 million at current prices — has been stolen. The NiceHash team is urging users Read more about NiceHash Hacked, $62 Million of Bitcoin May Be Stolen[…]

Asus NovaGo: laptop built on an ARM mobile phone processor runs Windows

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A 2-in-1 Windows 10 laptop powered by a smartphone chip The chipset behind the Asus NovaGo comes straight from smartphones, so we were into the fact that the volume and power keys are aligned along the right side of the laptop. This is shaping up to be the always-connected laptop counterpart to a smartphone in Read more about Asus NovaGo: laptop built on an ARM mobile phone processor runs Windows[…]

The Underground Uber Networks Driven by Russian Hackers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Uber’s ride-sharing service has given birth to some of the most creative criminal scams to date, including using a GPS-spoofing app to rip off riders in Nigeria, and even ginning up fake drivers by using stolen identities.Add to those this nefariously genius operation: Cybercriminals, many working in Russia, have created their own illegitimate taxi services Read more about The Underground Uber Networks Driven by Russian Hackers[…]

Scientists Added Two New Letters to DNA’s Code

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Back in 2014, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in California reported that they’d engineered bacteria whose DNA used a whole new pair of letters, nicknamed X and Y. That same team now reports that they’ve gotten the bacteria to actually use these new letters. The biological possibilities, as a result, now seem endless.“The resulting Read more about Scientists Added Two New Letters to DNA’s Code[…]

This frostbitten black metal album was created by an artificial intelligence

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Coditany of Timeness” is a convincing lo-fi black metal album, complete with atmospheric interludes, tremolo guitar, frantic blast beats and screeching vocals. But the record, which you can listen to on Bandcamp, wasn’t created by musicians.Instead, it was generated by two musical technologists using a deep learning software that ingests a musical album, processes it, Read more about This frostbitten black metal album was created by an artificial intelligence[…]

Sopranica: an Anonymous, DIY Cell Phone Network

Posted on by Robin Edgar

For the past few years, Gingerich has been laying the groundwork for Sopranica, an open source, DIY cell network that allows smartphone owners to make calls, send texts and eventually browse the internet with total anonymity.In January, Gingerich published the code for the first part of Sopranica called JMP. This is essentially a way of Read more about Sopranica: an Anonymous, DIY Cell Phone Network[…]

Announcing the Initial Release of Mozilla’s Open Source Speech Recognition Model and Voice Dataset

Posted on by Robin Edgar

I’m excited to announce the initial release of Mozilla’s open source speech recognition model that has an accuracy approaching what humans can perceive when listening to the same recordings. We are also releasing the world’s second largest publicly available voice dataset, which was contributed to by nearly 20,000 people globally. […] This is why we Read more about Announcing the Initial Release of Mozilla’s Open Source Speech Recognition Model and Voice Dataset[…]

‘Grinch bots’ are stealing Christmas

Posted on by Robin Edgar

“Bots come in and buy up all the toys and then charge ludicrous prices​ a​midst the holiday shopping bustle​,” the New York Democrat said on Sunday. “​Cyber bots ​— ​we call them ‘Grinch bots’ — ​are expanding their reach and​ ​unfairly scooping up the hottest toys your parents can’t even click buy.​”​​For example, Schumer said, Read more about ‘Grinch bots’ are stealing Christmas[…]