The world’s most-surveilled cities – China, US, UK, UAE, Australia and India: you are being spied on!

Cities in China are under the heaviest CCTV surveillance in the world, according to a new analysis by Comparitech. However, some residents living in cities across the US, UK, UAE, Australia, and India will also find themselves surrounded by a large number of watchful eyes, as our look at the number of public CCTV cameras Read more about The world’s most-surveilled cities – China, US, UK, UAE, Australia and India: you are being spied on![…]

Smart TVs, smart-home devices found to be leaking sensitive user data to all kinds of companies

Smart-home devices, such as televisions and streaming boxes, are collecting reams of data — including sensitive information such as device locations — that is then being sent to third parties like advertisers and major tech companies, researchers said Tuesday. As the findings show, even as privacy concerns have become a part of the discussion around Read more about Smart TVs, smart-home devices found to be leaking sensitive user data to all kinds of companies[…]

A Moon Space Elevator Is Actually Feasible and Inexpensive: Study

In a paper published on the online research archive arXiv in August, Columbia astronomy students Zephyr Penoyre and Emily Sandford proposed the idea of a “lunar space elevator,” which is exactly what it sounds like—a very long elevator connecting the moon and our planet. The concept of a moon elevator isn’t new. In the 1970s, Read more about A Moon Space Elevator Is Actually Feasible and Inexpensive: Study[…]

Scotiabank slammed for ‘muppet-grade security’ after internal source code and credentials spill onto open internet

Scotiabank leaked online a trove of its internal source code, as well as some of its private login keys to backend systems, The Register can reveal. Over the past 24 hours, the Canadian financial giant has torn down GitHub repositories, inadvertently left open to the public, that contained this sensitive information, after The Register raised Read more about Scotiabank slammed for ‘muppet-grade security’ after internal source code and credentials spill onto open internet[…]

Spotify wants to know where you are and will be checking in

Spotify knows a lot about its users — their musical tastes, their most listened-to artists and their summer anthems. Spotify will also want to know where you live or to obtain your location data. It’s part of an effort to detect fraud and abuse of its Premium Family program. Premium Family is a $15-a-month plan Read more about Spotify wants to know where you are and will be checking in[…]

Windows 7’s July 2019 Security Patch Includes Telemetry – but you can disable it in task scheduler

To the surprise of Windows watchers, the latest Windows 7 “security-only” update includes telemetry. The telemetry in question is Microsoft’s “Compatibility Appraiser,” which checks PCs for problems that could prevent upgrading to Windows 10. As Woody Leonhard points out on Computerworld, this is pretty odd on Microsoft’s part—the telemetry code was previously available and is Read more about Windows 7’s July 2019 Security Patch Includes Telemetry – but you can disable it in task scheduler[…]

Congress Is Investigating Apple’s Repair Monopoly

The United States House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee is launching an antitrust investigation into Apple and its anti-competitive behavior. Part of the investigation will focus on Apple’s repair monopoly, which for years has given the company control over the useful life of its products. In a letter to Apple, the committee asked Apple to turn Read more about Congress Is Investigating Apple’s Repair Monopoly[…]

Millions of Americans’ medical images and data are available on the Internet

Medical images and health data belonging to millions of Americans, including X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans, are sitting unprotected on the Internet and available to anyone with basic computer expertise. The records cover more than 5 million patients in the United States and millions more around the world. In some cases, a snoop could use Read more about Millions of Americans’ medical images and data are available on the Internet[…]

Logging into NL gov costs in incredible 14 cents per time!

Logius is absolutely minting it, considering that almost every interaction with the government, locality, insurance company is done through DigiID. Unbelievably, this price is down from EUR 3,50 in 2006, but up from last years’ 12 cents per login. So now we know why government IT projects cost such an inane amount of money – Read more about Logging into NL gov costs in incredible 14 cents per time![…]

Period Tracker Apps: Maya And MIA Fem Are telling Facebook when you last had sex and more

Period tracker apps are sending deeply personal information about women’s health and sexual practices to Facebook, new research has found. UK-based advocacy group Privacy International, sharing its findings exclusively with BuzzFeed News, discovered period-tracking apps including MIA Fem and Maya sent women’s use of contraception, the timings of their monthly periods, symptoms like swelling and Read more about Period Tracker Apps: Maya And MIA Fem Are telling Facebook when you last had sex and more[…]

New prosthetic legs let amputees feel their foot and knee in real-time

There’s been a lot of research into how to give robots and prosthesis wearers a sense of touch, but it has focused largely on the hands. Now, researchers led by ETH Zurich want to restore sensory feedback for leg amputees, too. In a paper published in Nature Medicine today, the team describes how they modified Read more about New prosthetic legs let amputees feel their foot and knee in real-time[…]

UK Government Plans to Collect ‘Targeted and Personalized’ Data on Internet Users to Prepare For Brexit: Report

The UK government is planning to collect “targeted and personalized information,” on anyone who visits the government’s various websites, according to a new report from BuzzFeed News. Politicians in the UK are being told that it’s a “top priority” and that the information is needed to prepare for Brexit, the UK’s departure from the European Read more about UK Government Plans to Collect ‘Targeted and Personalized’ Data on Internet Users to Prepare For Brexit: Report[…]

Facebook: Remember how we promised we weren’t tracking your location? Psych! Can’t believe you fell for that

For years the antisocial media giant has claimed it doesn’t track your location, insisting to suspicious reporters and privacy advocates that its addicts “have full control over their data,” and that it does not gather or sell that data unless those users agree to it. No one believed it. So, when it (and Google) were Read more about Facebook: Remember how we promised we weren’t tracking your location? Psych! Can’t believe you fell for that[…]

Objects can now change colors like a chameleon with spray on programmable ink

team from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has brought us closer to this chameleon reality, by way of a new system that uses reprogrammable ink to let objects change colors when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) and visible light sources. Dubbed “PhotoChromeleon,” the system uses a mix of photochromic dyes that can be Read more about Objects can now change colors like a chameleon with spray on programmable ink[…]

No Bones about It: People Recognize Objects by Visualizing Their “Skeletons”

Humans effortlessly know that a tree is a tree and a dog is a dog no matter the size, color or angle at which they’re viewed. In fact, identifying such visual elements is one of the earliest tasks children learn. But researchers have struggled to determine how the brain does this simple evaluation. As deep-learning Read more about No Bones about It: People Recognize Objects by Visualizing Their “Skeletons”[…]

Report: Massive Fraud Network Uncovered, Targeting Groupon & Online Ticket Vendors

vpnMentor’s research team, led by Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, recently exposed a massive criminal operation that has been defrauding Groupon and other major online ticket vendors at least since 2016. As part of a larger web mapping research project, we discovered a cache of 17 million emails on an unsecured database. Our initial research Read more about Report: Massive Fraud Network Uncovered, Targeting Groupon & Online Ticket Vendors[…]

Weakness in Intel chips DDIO lets researchers steal encrypted SSH keystrokes through side channel attacks

In late 2011, Intel introduced a performance enhancement to its line of server processors that allowed network cards and other peripherals to connect directly to a CPU’s last-level cache, rather than following the standard (and significantly longer) path through the server’s main memory. By avoiding system memory, Intel’s DDIO—short for Data-Direct I/O—increased input/output bandwidth and Read more about Weakness in Intel chips DDIO lets researchers steal encrypted SSH keystrokes through side channel attacks[…]

D-Link, Comba network gear leave passwords open for potentially whole world to see

DSL modems and Wi-Fi routers from D-Link and Comba have been found to be leaving owners’ passwords out in the open. Simon Kenin, a security researcher with Trustwave SpiderLabs, took credit for the discovery of five bugs that leave user credentials accessible to attackers. For D-Link gear, two bugs were discovered in the firmware for Read more about D-Link, Comba network gear leave passwords open for potentially whole world to see[…]

Combating prison recidivism with plants

A study out of Texas State University attempted to determine the number of available horticultural community service opportunities for individuals completing community service hours per their probation or parole requirements, and whether that brand of community service generates a calculable offset against the common nature of repeat offenses for an inmate population once released. […] Read more about Combating prison recidivism with plants[…]

Marine plastic pollution hides a neurological toxin in our food

In the mid-1950s, domesticated cats in Minamata, Japan mysteriously began to convulse and fall into the bay. The people of Minamata took on similar symptoms shortly after, losing their ability to speak, move, and think. Chisso Corp., a Japanese chemical company, had dumped more than 600 tons of mercury into the bay between 1932 and Read more about Marine plastic pollution hides a neurological toxin in our food[…]

The Windows 10 Privacy Settings You Should Check Right Now

If you’re at all concerned about the privacy of your data, you don’t want to leave the default settings in place on your devices—and that includes anything that runs Windows 10. Microsoft’s operating system comes with a variety of controls and options you can modify to lock down the use of your data, from the Read more about The Windows 10 Privacy Settings You Should Check Right Now[…]

New York attorney general launches a multistate antitrust probe into Facebook

New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced Friday she is launching a multistate investigation into Facebook for possible antitrust violations. Facebook shares were down about 0.5% in Friday’s premarket, but did not seem to react to James’ announcement. Attorneys general of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and the District of Columbia Read more about New York attorney general launches a multistate antitrust probe into Facebook[…]

New Data Science Cheat Sheet, by Maverick Lin

Below is an extract of a 10-page cheat sheet about data science, compiled by Maverick Lin. This cheatsheet is currently a reference in data science that covers basic concepts in probability, statistics, statistical learning, machine learning, deep learning, big data frameworks and SQL. The cheatsheet is loosely based off of The Data Science Design Manual by Steven Read more about New Data Science Cheat Sheet, by Maverick Lin[…]

Cops did hand over photos for King’s Cross facial-recog CCTV to 3rd parties after all – a property developer, between 2016-2018

London cops have admitted they gave photos of people to a property developer to use in a facial-recognition system in the heart of the UK capital. Back in July, Siân Berry, co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, asked London Mayor Sadiq Khan whether the Met Police had collaborated with any retailers or Read more about Cops did hand over photos for King’s Cross facial-recog CCTV to 3rd parties after all – a property developer, between 2016-2018[…]