Daily Archives: August 29, 2018

​Google just put an AI in charge of keeping its data centers cool

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Google is putting an artificial intelligence system in charge of its data center cooling after the system proved it could cut energy use.

Now Google and its AI company DeepMind are taking the project further; instead of recommendations being implemented by human staff, the AI system is directly controlling cooling in the data centers that run services including Google Search, Gmail and YouTube.

“This first-of-its-kind cloud-based control system is now safely delivering energy savings in multiple Google data centers,” Google said.

Data centers use vast amount of energy and as the demand for cloud computing rises even small tweaks to areas like cooling can produce significant time and cost savings. Google’s decision to use its own DeepMind-created system is also a good plug for its AI business.

Every five minutes, the AI pulls a snapshot of the data center cooling system from thousands of sensors. This data is fed into deep neural networks, which predict how different choices will affect future energy consumption.

The AI system then identifies tweaks that could reduce energy consumption, which are then sent back to the data center, checked by the local control system and implemented.

Google said giving the AI more responsibility came at the request of its data center operators who said that implementing the recommendations from the AI system required too much effort and supervision.

“We wanted to achieve energy savings with less operator overhead. Automating the system enabled us to implement more granular actions at greater frequency, while making fewer mistakes,” said Google data center operator Dan Fuenffinger.

Source: ​Google just put an AI in charge of keeping its data centers cool | ZDNet

How AI Can Spot Exam Cheats and Raise Standards

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AI is being deployed by those who set and mark exams to reduce fraud — which remains overall a small problem — and to create far greater efficiencies in preparation and marking, and to help improve teaching and studying. From a report, which may be paywalled: From traditional paper-based exam and textbook producers such as Pearson, to digital-native companies such as Coursera, online tools and artificial intelligence are being developed to reduce costs and enhance learning. For years, multiple-choice tests have allowed scanners to score results without human intervention. Now technology is coming directly into the exam hall. Coursera has patented a system to take images of students and verify their identity against scanned documents. There are plagiarism detectors that can scan essay answers and search the web — or the work of other students — to identify copying. Webcams can monitor exam locations to spot malpractice. Even when students are working, they provide clues that can be used to clamp down on cheats. They leave electronic “fingerprints” such as keyboard pressure, speed and even writing style. Emily Glassberg Sands, Cousera’s head of data science, says: “We can validate their keystroke signatures. It’s difficult to prepare for someone hell-bent on cheating, but we are trying every way possible.”

Source: How AI Can Spot Exam Cheats and Raise Standards – Slashdot

Spyware Company Leaves ‘Terabytes’ of Selfies, Text Messages, and Location Data Exposed Online

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A company that sells surveillance software to parents and employers left “terabytes of data” including photos, audio recordings, text messages and web history, exposed in a poorly-protected Amazon S3 bucket.

Image: Shutterstock

This story is part of When Spies Come Home, a Motherboard series about powerful surveillance software ordinary people use to spy on their loved ones.

A company that markets cell phone spyware to parents and employers left the data of thousands of its customers—and the information of the people they were monitoring—unprotected online.

The data exposed included selfies, text messages, audio recordings, contacts, location, hashed passwords and logins, Facebook messages, among others, according to a security researcher who asked to remain anonymous for fear of legal repercussions.

Last week, the researcher found the data on an Amazon S3 bucket owned by Spyfone, one of many companies that sell software that is designed to intercept text messages, calls, emails, and track locations of a monitored device.

Source: Spyware Company Leaves ‘Terabytes’ of Selfies, Text Messages, and Location Data Exposed Online – Motherboard

Woman sentenced to more than 5 years for leaking info about Russia hacking attempts. Trump still on the loose.

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A former government contractor who pleaded guilty to leaking U.S. secrets about Russia’s attempts to hack the 2016 presidential election was sentenced Thursday to five years and three months in prison.

It was the sentence that prosecutors had recommended — the longest ever for a federal crime involving leaks to the news media — in the plea deal for Reality Winner, the Georgia woman at the center of the case. Winner was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and no fine, except for a $100 special assessment fee.

The crime carried a maximum penalty of 10 years. U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall in Augusta, Georgia, was not bound to follow the plea deal, but elected to give Winner the amount of time prosecutors requested.

Source: Reality Winner sentenced to more than 5 years for leaking info about Russia hacking attempts

How a hacker network turned stolen press releases into $100 million

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At a Kiev nightclub in the spring of 2012, 24-year-old Ivan Turchynov made a fateful drunken boast to some fellow hackers. For years, Turchynov said, he’d been hacking unpublished press releases from business newswires and selling them, via Moscow-based middlemen, to stock traders for a cut of the sizable profits.

Oleksandr Ieremenko, one of the hackers at the club that night, had worked with Turchynov before and decided he wanted in on the scam. With his friend Vadym Iermolovych, he hacked Business Wire, stole Turchynov’s inside access to the site, and pushed the main Moscovite ringleader, known by the screen name eggPLC, to bring them in on the scheme. The hostile takeover meant Turchynov was forced to split his business. Now, there were three hackers in on the game.

Newswires like Business Wire are clearinghouses for corporate information, holding press releases, regulatory announcements, and other market-moving information under strict embargo before sending it out to the world. Over a period of at least five years, three US newswires were hacked using a variety of methods from SQL injections and phishing emails to data-stealing malware and illicitly acquired login credentials. Traders who were active on US stock exchanges drew up shopping lists of company press releases and told the hackers when to expect them to hit the newswires. The hackers would then upload the stolen press releases to foreign servers for the traders to access in exchange for 40 percent of their profits, paid to various offshore bank accounts. Through interviews with sources involved with both the scheme and the investigation, chat logs, and court documents, The Verge has traced the evolution of what law enforcement would later call one of the largest securities fraud cases in US history.

Source: How a hacker network turned stolen press releases into $100 million – The Verge

Android data slurping measured and monitored – scary amounts and loads of location tracking

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Google’s passive collection of personal data from Android and iOS has been monitored and measured in a significant academic study.

The report confirms that Google is no respecter of the Chrome browser’s “incognito mode” aka “porn mode”, collecting Chrome data to add to your personal profile, as we pointed out earlier this year.

It also reveals how phone users are being tracked without realising it. How so? It’s here that the B2B parts of Google’s vast data collection network – its publisher and advertiser products – kick into life as soon the user engages with a phone. These parts of Google receive personal data from an Android even when the phone is static and not being used.

The activity has come to light thanks to research (PDF) by computer science professor Douglas Schmidt of Vanderbilt University, conducted for the nonprofit trade association Digital Content Next. It’s already been described by one privacy activist as “the most comprehensive report on Google’s data collection practices so far”.

[…]

Overall, the study discovered that Apple retrieves much less data than Google.

“The total number of calls to Apple servers from an iOS device was much lower, just 19 per cent the number of calls to Google servers from an Android device.

Moreover, there are no ad-related calls to Apple servers, which may stem from the fact that Apple’s business model is not as dependent on advertising as Google’s. Although Apple does obtain some user location data from iOS devices, the volume of data collected is much (16x) lower than what Google collects from Android,” the study noted.

Source: Android data slurping measured and monitored • The Register

The amount of location data slurped is scary – and it continues to slurp location in many different ways, even if wifi is turned off. It’s Big Brother in your pocket, with no opt out.

Bitcoin mining now apparently accounts for almost one percent of the world’s energy consumption

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According to testimony provided by Princeton computer scientist Arvind Narayanan to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, no matter what you do to make cryptocurrency mining harware greener, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the overall network’s flabbergasting energy consumption. Instead, Narayanan told the committee, the only thing that really determines how much energy Bitcoin uses is its price. “If the price of a cryptocurrency goes up, more energy will be used in mining it; if it goes down, less energy will be used,” he told the committee. “Little else matters. In particular, the increasing energy efficiency of mining hardware has essentially no impact on energy consumption.”

In his testimony, Narayanan estimates that Bitcoin mining now uses about five gigawatts of electricity per day (in May, estimates of Bitcoin power consumption were about half of that). He adds that when you’ve got a computer racing with all its might to earn a free Bitcoin, it’s going to be running hot as hell, which means you’re probably using even more electricity to keep the computer cool so it doesn’t die and/or burn down your entire mining center, which probably makes the overall cost associated with mining even higher.

Source: Bitcoin mining now accounts for almost one percent of the world’s energy consumption | The Outline

Huawei reverses its stance, will no longer allow bootloader unlocking – will lose many customers

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In order to deliver the best user experience and prevent users from experiencing possible issues that could arise from ROM flashing, including system failure, stuttering, worsened battery performance, and risk of data being compromised, Huawei will cease providing bootloader unlock codes for devices launched after May 25, 2018. For devices launched prior to the aforementioned date, the termination of the bootloader code application service will come into effect 60 days after today’s announcement. Moving forward, Huawei remains committed to providing quality services and experiences to its customers. Thank you for your continued support.

When you take into consideration that Huawei — for years — not only supported the ROM community but actively assisted in the unlocking of Huawei bootloaders, this whole switch-up doesn’t make much sense. But, that’s the official statement, so do with it what you will.

Original Article: For years now, the custom ROM development community has flocked to Huawei phones. One of the major reasons for this is because Huawei made it incredibly easy to unlock the bootloaders of its devices, even providing a dedicated support page for the process.

Source: Huawei reverses its stance, will no longer allow bootloader unlocking