Month: August 2019

Skype, Cortana also have humans listening to you. The fine print says it listens to your audio recordings to improve its AI, but it means humans are listening.

Posted on by Robin Edgar

If you use Skype’s AI-powered real-time translator, brief recordings of your calls may be passed to human contractors, who are expected to listen in and correct the software’s translations to improve it. That means 10-second or so snippets of your sweet nothings, mundane details of life, personal information, family arguments, and other stuff discussed on Read more about Skype, Cortana also have humans listening to you. The fine print says it listens to your audio recordings to improve its AI, but it means humans are listening.[…]

Take-Two Sends Investigators To YouTuber’s House To Crack Down On Borderlands 3 Leaks – wait you can send your own police force to muscle on people in the USA? Kafka-esque experience follows with service shutdowns

Posted on by Robin Edgar

After two weeks of no uploads, a notable Borderlands personality on YouTube returned to the platform yesterday with a video explaining his absence. He said that the game’s publisher Take-Two Interactive hit his channel with several copyright strikes and sent investigators to his home in response to months of Borderlands coverage on his channel, which Read more about Take-Two Sends Investigators To YouTuber’s House To Crack Down On Borderlands 3 Leaks – wait you can send your own police force to muscle on people in the USA? Kafka-esque experience follows with service shutdowns[…]

A reminder why Open Source is so important: Someone audited Kubernetes

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) today released a security audit of Kubernetes, the widely used container orchestration software, and the findings are about what you’d expect for a project with about two million lines of code: there are plenty of flaws that need to be addressed. The CNCF engaged two security firms, Trail of Read more about A reminder why Open Source is so important: Someone audited Kubernetes[…]

Amazon’s Ring Is Teaching Cops How to Persuade Customers to Hand Over Surveillance Footage

Posted on by Robin Edgar

according to a new report, Ring is also instructing cops on how to persuade customers to hang over surveillance footage even when they aren’t responsive to police requests. According to a police memo obtained by Gizmodo and reported last week, Ring has partnerships with “over 225 law enforcement agencies,” Ring is actively involved in scripting Read more about Amazon’s Ring Is Teaching Cops How to Persuade Customers to Hand Over Surveillance Footage[…]

Democratic Senate campaign group exposed 6.2 million Americans’ emails

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Data breach researchers at security firm UpGuard found the data in late July, and traced the storage bucket back to a former staffer at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, an organization that seeks grassroots donations and contributions to help elect Democratic candidates to the U.S. Senate. Following the discovery, UpGuard researchers reached out to the Read more about Democratic Senate campaign group exposed 6.2 million Americans’ emails[…]

Epic Store Rage Has Gotten Out Of Hand

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The developers of cutesy Animal Crossing–Pokemon mashup Ooblets just had a weekend from hell. After trying to preempt a tidal wave of rage over their newly announced Epic Games Store exclusivity, they got hit with a swirling tsunami of foaming-at-the-mouth anger, up to and including death threats and anti-Semitic hoaxes. This is the worst overreaction Read more about Epic Store Rage Has Gotten Out Of Hand[…]

We’ve, um, changed our password policy, says CafePress amid reports of 23m pwned accounts

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Twee T-shirts ‘n’ merch purveyor CafePress had 23 million user records swiped – reportedly back in February – and this morning triggered a mass password reset, calling it a change in internal policy. Details of the security breach emerged when infosec researcher Troy Hunt’s Have I Been Pwned service – which lists websites known to Read more about We’ve, um, changed our password policy, says CafePress amid reports of 23m pwned accounts[…]

You Can’t Trust Companies to Tell the Truth About Data Breaches

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Last week, online sneaker-trading platform StockX asked its users to reset their passwords due to “recently completed system updates on the StockX platform.” In actuality, the company suffered a large data breach back in May, and only finally came clean about it when pressed by reporters who had access to some of the leaked data. Read more about You Can’t Trust Companies to Tell the Truth About Data Breaches[…]

Amazon Squeezes Sellers That Offer Better Prices on Walmart

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Amazon constantly scans rivals’ prices to see if they’re lower. When it discovers a product is cheaper on, say, Walmart.com, Amazon alerts the company selling the item and then makes the product harder to find and buy on its own marketplace — effectively penalizing the merchant. In many cases, the merchant opts to raise the Read more about Amazon Squeezes Sellers That Offer Better Prices on Walmart[…]

Monzo online bank stored bank card codes in log files as plain text

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Trendy online-only Brit bank Monzo is telling hundreds of thousands of its customers to pick a new PIN – after it discovered it was storing their codes as plain-text in log files. As a result, 480,000 folks, a fifth of the bank’s customers, now have to go to a cash machine, and reset their PINs. Read more about Monzo online bank stored bank card codes in log files as plain text[…]

It’s 2019 – and you can completely pwn a Qualcomm-powered Android over the air

Posted on by Robin Edgar

It is possible to thoroughly hijack a nearby vulnerable Qualcomm-based Android phone, tablet, or similar gadget, via Wi-Fi, we learned on Monday. This likely affects millions of Android devices. Specifically, the following two security holes, dubbed Qualpwn and found by Tencent’s Blade Team, can be leveraged one after the other to potentially take over a Read more about It’s 2019 – and you can completely pwn a Qualcomm-powered Android over the air[…]

E3 Expo Leaks The Personal Information Of Over 2,000 Journalists

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A spreadsheet containing the contact information and personal addresses of over 2,000 games journalists, editors, and other content creators was recently found to have been published and publicly accessible on the website of the E3 Expo. The Entertainment Software Association, the organization that runs E3, has since removed the link to the file, as well Read more about E3 Expo Leaks The Personal Information Of Over 2,000 Journalists[…]

CASE Act Tackles Online Copyright Abuse by allowing copyright “owners” (trolls) to fine anyone they like for $15 – 30k, force immediate content take downs with no oversight

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In July, members of the federal Senate Judiciary Committee chose to move forward with a bill targeting copyright abuse with a more streamlined way to collect damages, but critics say that it could still allow big online players to push smaller ones around—and even into bankruptcy. Known as the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (or Read more about CASE Act Tackles Online Copyright Abuse by allowing copyright “owners” (trolls) to fine anyone they like for $15 – 30k, force immediate content take downs with no oversight[…]

Another Study Finds Our Galaxy Is ‘Warped and Twisted’

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A team of Polish astronomers has created the most accurate three-dimensional map of the Milky Way to date, revealing surprising distortions and irregularities along the galactic disk. Building an accurate map of the Milky Way is not easy. Our location deep inside the gigantic structure means we can’t observe our galaxy externally, forcing us to Read more about Another Study Finds Our Galaxy Is ‘Warped and Twisted’[…]

Cops Are Giving Amazon’s Ring Your Real-Time 911 Caller Data, with location info

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Amazon-owned home security company Ring is pursuing contracts with police departments that would grant it direct access to real-time emergency dispatch data, Gizmodo has learned. The California-based company is seeking police departments’ permission to tap into the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) feeds used to automate and improve decisions made by emergency dispatch personnel and cut down Read more about Cops Are Giving Amazon’s Ring Your Real-Time 911 Caller Data, with location info[…]

AI system ‘should be recognised as inventor’

Posted on by Robin Edgar

An artificial intelligence system should be recognised as the inventor of two ideas in patents filed on its behalf, a team of academics says. The AI has designed interlocking food containers that are easy for robots to grasp and a warning light that flashes in a rhythm that is hard to ignore. Patents offices insist Read more about AI system ‘should be recognised as inventor’[…]

FTC blames applicants for getting hacked by Equifax, won’t pay out settlement figure because they fined Equifax too little

Posted on by Robin Edgar

America’s trade watchdog has officially told millions in the US not to apply for the $125 it promised each of them as part of the deal it struck with Equifax – and instead take up an offer of free credit monitoring. In a memo on Wednesday, FTC assistant director Robert Schoshinski said the regulator has Read more about FTC blames applicants for getting hacked by Equifax, won’t pay out settlement figure because they fined Equifax too little[…]

LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Since unfurling the spacecraft’s silver solar sail last week, mission managers have been optimizing the way the spacecraft orients itself during solar sailing. After a few tweaks, LightSail 2 began raising its orbit around the Earth. In the past 4 days, the spacecraft has raised its orbital high point, or apogee, by about 2 kilometers. Read more about LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light[…]