Daily Archives: July 2, 2022

Valorant will start listening in to and recording your voice chat in July

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Riot Games will begin background evaluation of recorded in-game voice communications on July 13th in North America, in English. In a brief statement (opens in new tab) Riot said that the purpose of the recording is ultimately to “collect clear evidence that could verify any violations of behavioral policies.”

For now, however, recordings will be used to develop the evaluation system that may eventually be implemented. That means training some kind of language model using the recordings, says Riot, to “get the tech in a good enough place for a beta launch later this year.”

Riot also makes clear that voice evaluation from this test will not be used for reports. “We know that before we can even think of expanding this tool, we’ll have to be confident it’s effective, and if mistakes happen, we have systems in place to make sure we can correct any false positives (or negatives for that matter),” said Riot.

Source: Valorant will start listening to your voice chat in July | PC Gamer

Oh, not used for reports. That’s ok then. No problem invading your privacy there then.

Google now selling Earth Engine access to all businesses and governments

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For the past decade, researchers in academia and the nonprofit world have had access to increasingly sophisticated information about the Earth’s surface, via the Google Earth Engine. Now, any commercial or government entity will have access to Google Cloud’s new enterprise-grade, commercial version of the computer program.

Google originally launched Earth Engine for scientists and NGOs in 2010. One of the world’s largest publicly available Earth observation catalogs, it combines data from satellites and other sources continuously streaming into Earth Engine. The data is combined with massive geospatial cloud-computing resources, which lets organizations use the raw data for timely, accurate, high-resolution insights about the state of the world. That means they can keep a near-constant eye on the world’s forests, water sources, ecosystems and agriculture — and how they’re all changing.

Google Cloud says it’s commercializing Earth Engine now to cater to business customers that are prioritizing sustainability. Businesses are under pressure — from regulators, investors and customers — to reduce their carbon emissions. So, Google is rolling out new products that promise to help them meet their sustainability goals with more and better data.

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Google says Earth Engine will still be available at no cost for nonprofits, academic research and educational use cases.

Source: Google makes Earth Engine available to all businesses and governments | ZDNet

UK decides AI still cannot patent inventions

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A recent IPO consultation found many experts doubted AI was currently able to invent without human assistance.

Current law allowed humans to patent inventions made with AI assistance, the government said, despite “misperceptions” this was not the case.

Last year, the Court of Appeal ruled against Stephen Thaler, who had said his Dabus AI system should be recognised as the inventor in two patent applications, for:

  • a food container
  • a flashing light

The judges sided, by a two-to-one majority, with the IPO, which had told him to list a real person as the inventor.

“Only a person can have rights – a machine cannot,” wrote Lady Justice Laing in her judgement.

“A patent is a statutory right and it can only be granted to a person.”

But the IPO also said it would “need to understand how our IP system should protect AI-devised inventions in the future” and committed to advancing international discussions, with a view to keeping the UK competitive.

In July 2021, in a case also brought by Mr Thaler, an Australian court decided AI systems could be recognised as inventors for patent purposes.

Days earlier, South Africa had issued a similar ruling.

However, the Australian decision was later overturned on appeal.

Many AI systems are trained on large amounts of data copied from the internet.

And, on Tuesday, the IPO also announced plans to change copyright law to allow anyone with lawful access – rather than only those conducting non-commercial research, as now – to do this, to “promote the use of AI technology, and wider ‘data mining’ techniques, for the public good”.

Rights holders will still be able to control and charge for access to their works but no longer charge extra for the ability to mine them.

An increasing number of people are using AI tools such as DALL.E 2 to create images resembling a work of human art.

And Mr Thaler has recently sued the US Copyright Office over its refusal to recognise a software system as the “author” of an image, the Register reported.

Source: UK decides AI still cannot patent inventions – BBC News

FBI warns crooks are using deepfake videos in job interviews

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The US FBI issued a warning on Tuesday that it was has received increasing numbers of complaints relating to the use of deepfake videos during interviews for tech jobs that involve access to sensitive systems and information.

The deepfake videos include a video image or recording convincingly manipulated to misrepresent someone as the “applicant” for jobs that can be performed remotely. The Bureau reports the scam has been tried on jobs for developers, “database, and software-related job functions”. Some of the targeted jobs required access to customers’ personal information, financial data, large databases and/or proprietary information.

“In these interviews, the actions and lip movement of the person seen interviewed on-camera do not completely coordinate with the audio of the person speaking. At times, actions such as coughing, sneezing, or other auditory actions are not aligned with what is presented visually,” said the FBI in a public service announcement.

To lend an air of authenticity to their applications, the dodgy job seekers used stolen personal identification information. The victims whose data was stolen reported their identities being used for pre-employment background checks and more.

[…]

Source: FBI warns crooks are using deepfake videos in job interviews • The Register

DeGiro online broker fined EUR 2 million for failing to report unusual transactions

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On 23 December 2021, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) appears to have imposed an administrative fine of 2 million euros on the DeGiro of the German company flatexDEGIRO Bank AG (FlatexDeGiro) because the online broker reported unusual transactions too late and incorrectly to Financial Intelligence. Unit – Netherlands (FIU).

DeGiro did this late in 27 cases and an incorrect transaction date was reported in ten cases. Unusual transactions may indicate money laundering by investors.

Investment firms, such as DeGiro, are required to report unusual transactions to the FIU. DeGiro made a total of 36 reports from mid-2019 to mid-2020. The majority of those reports came in too late, sometimes a few months after the legal deadline.

The transaction date was also incorrect for almost one in three. In doing so, DeGiro violated the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act (Wwft). Because DeGiro was absorbed into FlatexDeGiro through a legal merger in May 2021, the fine is imposed on that company.

Source: Fikse boete voor onlinebroker DeGiro – Emerce (original in Dutch)

China has photographed all of Mars from orbit

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China is claiming that as of Wednesday, its Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter has officially photographed the entire Red Planet. And it’s shown off new photos of the southern polar cap and a volcano to prove it.

“It has acquired the medium-resolution image data covering the whole globe of Mars, with all of its scientific payloads realizing a global survey,” state-sponsored media quoted the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announcing.

Among the images are one of Ascraeus Mons with its crater, shots of the South Pole whose ice sheet is believed to consist of solid carbon dioxide and ice, the seven-kilometer deep Valles Marineris canyon, and the geomorphological characteristics of the rim of the Mund crater.

Ascraeus Mons

Ascraeus Mons, above … Source: CNSA. Click to enlarge any image

Mars South Pole

Mars South Pole

Valles Marineris

Valles Marineris

Geomorphology of the rim of the Mund Crater

Mund crater

Tianwen-1 had been in orbit around Mars for 706 days. The orbiter circled Mars 1,344 times, as of an announcement from CNSA. The space org said Tianwen-1 has completed its scheduled missions.

In conjunction with its rover Zhurong, Tianwen-1 amassed 1,040 gigabytes of raw scientific data through 13 onboard scientific payloads.

The mission has allowed CNSA to observe solar occultation and solar wind together with international observatories – including those in Russia, Germany, Italy, Australia and South Africa – to improve the accuracy of space weather forecasts.

[…]

Source: China says it has photographed all of Mars from orbit • The Register

I really don’t understand why the doubtful reporting.

FreeYourMusic Transfers Your Music Library and Playlists Among Any Streaming Services

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[…]

FreeYourMusic is a paid app available for Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux that will transfer your data between Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Deezer, Pandora, Tidal, Soundcloud, and at least a dozen other streaming apps. It also lets you back up and store some of your data locally on your device.

Image for article titled Transfer Your Music Library and Playlists Among Any Streaming Services With This App
Image: FreeYourMusic

FreeYourMusic’s backup and transfer tools cost $15, but that’s a one-time purchase that grants you lifetime access on all supported devices and streaming apps.

[…]

Source: Transfer Your Music Library and Playlists Among Any Streaming Services With This App

Supreme Court Rules Environmental Protection Agency can’t protect Environment In West Virginia v EPA lawsuit

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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday in West Virginia vs. EPA in favor of plaintiffs who argued that the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the power to regulate carbon dioxide from power plants—the country’s second-largest source of CO2 emissions—without input from Congress.

The ruling almost completely disrupts any major plans to fight climate change at the federal level in the U.S., and is likely to have wide-ranging implications for federal agencies looking to protect public health under bedrock laws like the Clean Air Act. It also signals how the court is likely to rule in other environmentally damaging cases in the pipeline.

The vote was 6 to 3, with the court’s three liberal members in dissent. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said that Congress had not explicitly given the EPA the authority to regulate emissions as it designed the Clean Power Plan to do.

“There is little question that the petitioner States are injured, since the rule requires them to more stringently regulate power plant emissions within their borders,” Roberts wrote in the opinion.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the court’s decision “strips the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the power Congress gave it to respond to ‘the most pressing environmental challenge of our time.’”

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Source: Supreme Court Rules For Polluters In West Virginia v EPA

America is broken

How mercenary hackers sway litigation battles – based on trove of Indian hackers

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At least 75 U.S. and European companies, three dozen advocacy and media groups and numerous Western business executives were the subjects of these hacking attempts, Reuters found.

The Reuters report is based on interviews with victims, researchers, investigators, former U.S. government officials, lawyers and hackers, plus a review of court records from seven countries. It also draws on a unique database of more than 80,000 emails sent by Indian hackers to 13,000 targets over a seven-year period. The database is effectively the hackers’ hit list, and it reveals a down-to-the-second look at who the cyber mercenaries sent phishing emails to between 2013 and 2020.

The data comes from two providers of email services the spies used to execute their espionage campaigns. The providers gave the news agency access to the material after it inquired about the hackers’ use of their services; they offered the sensitive data on condition of anonymity.

Reuters then vetted the authenticity of the email data with six sets of experts. Scylla Intel, a boutique cyber investigations firm, analyzed the emails, as did researchers from British defense contractor BAE, U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant, and technology companies Linkedin, Microsoft and Google.

Each firm independently confirmed the database showed Indian hacking-for-hire activity by comparing it against data they had previously gathered about the hackers’ techniques. Three of the teams, at Mandiant, Google and LinkedIn, provided a closer analysis, finding the spying was linked to three Indian companies – one that Gupta founded, one that used to employ him and one he collaborated with.

“We assess with high confidence that this data set represents a good picture of the ongoing operations of Indian hack-for-hire firms,” said Shane Huntley, head of Google’s cyber threat analysis team.

Reuters reached out to every person in the database – sending requests for comment to each email address – and spoke to more than 250 individuals. Most of the respondents said the attempted hacks revealed in the email database occurred either ahead of anticipated lawsuits or as litigation was under way.

The targets’ lawyers were often hit, too. The Indian hackers tried to break into the inboxes of some 1,000 attorneys at 108 different law firms, Reuters found.

[…]

Source: How mercenary hackers sway litigation battles

It’s an elaborate article with many examples. Well worth the read

A few months in space leads to decades worth of bone loss

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Abstract

Determining the extent of bone recovery after prolonged spaceflight is important for understanding risks to astronaut long-term skeletal health. We examined bone strength, density, and microarchitecture in seventeen astronauts (14 males; mean 47 years) using high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT; 61 μm). We imaged the tibia and radius before spaceflight, at return to Earth, and after 6- and 12-months recovery and assessed biomarkers of bone turnover and exercise. Twelve months after flight, group median tibia bone strength (F.Load), total, cortical, and trabecular bone mineral density (BMD), trabecular bone volume fraction and thickness remained − 0.9% to − 2.1% reduced compared with pre-flight (p ≤ 0.001). Astronauts on longer missions (> 6-months) had poorer bone recovery. For example, F.Load recovered by 12-months post-flight in astronauts on shorter (< 6-months; − 0.4% median deficit) but not longer (− 3.9%) missions. Similar disparities were noted for total, trabecular, and cortical BMD. Altogether, nine of 17 astronauts did not fully recover tibia total BMD after 12-months. Astronauts with incomplete recovery had higher biomarkers of bone turnover compared with astronauts whose bone recovered. Study findings suggest incomplete recovery of bone strength, density, and trabecular microarchitecture at the weight-bearing tibia, commensurate with a decade or more of terrestrial age-related bone loss.

[…]

Source: Incomplete recovery of bone strength and trabecular microarchitecture at the distal tibia 1 year after return from long duration spaceflight | Scientific Reports

Windows Defender Bug Could Be Slowing Down Your PC

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A bug, discovered by TechPowerUp associate software author Kevin Glynn, causes Windows Defender to “randomly start using all seven hardware performance counters provided by Intel Core processors.” A utility Glynn created that monitors and logs performance counters on Intel Core CPUs since 2008 found that the strange behavior results in significantly reduced performance.

Bogged down by Defender hogging CPU time, a Core i9-10850K running at 5GHz loses 1,000 Cinebench points, which is about a 6% drop from the norm. Owners with Intel Core 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Gen processors, on both desktops and laptops, have noted similar performance hits.

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As TechPowerUp notes, the underlying problem is that Windows Defender will randomly start using all seven hardware performance counters, including three fixed-function ones. Each counter can be programmed to a different privilege mode and is shared among multiple programs. For whatever reason, Defender is randomly changing the privilege level of the counters, creating a conflict with the programs trying to use them at a different level. It can happen at boot and sporadically thereafter.

To be clear, this is not an issue with Intel processors, because manually overriding the counters and resetting them returns a system to normal performance. There is no way to prevent Windows Defender from harassing your Intel processor unless you download third-party software.

[…]

Another way of overcoming this bug is by downloading software created by Glynn called Counter Control, which identifies when Defender starts using all seven performance counters and “resets” them to their appropriate state.

A more permanent solution is to download TechPowerUp’s ThrottleStop v9.5 software and enable a feature called “Windows Defender Boost” in “Options.” This setting activates a programmable timer that Defender sees and reacts to by ceasing to use all the counters.

[…]

Source: Windows Defender Bug Could Be Slowing Down Your PC

Coinbase Is Selling Data on Crypto and ‘Geotracking’ to ICE

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Coinbase Tracer, the analytics arm of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has signed a contract with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement that would allow the agency access to a variety of features and data caches, including “historical geo tracking data.”

Coinbase Tracer, according to the website, is for governments, crypto businesses, and financial institutions. It allows these clients the ability to trace transactions within the blockchain. It is also used to “investigate illicit activities including money laundering and terrorist financing” and “screen risky crypto transactions to ensure regulatory compliance.”

The deal was originally signed September 2021, but the contract was only now obtained by watchdog group Tech Inquiry. The deal was made for a maximum amount of $1.37 million, and we knew at the time that this was a three year contract for Coinbase’s analytic software. The now revealed contract allows us to look more into what this deal entails.

This deal will allow ICE to track transactions made through twelve different currencies, including Ethereum, Tether, and Bitcoin. Other features include “Transaction demixing and shielded transaction analysis,” which appears to be aimed at preventing users from laundering funds or hiding transactions. Another feature is the ability to “Multi-hop link analysis for incoming and outgoing funds” which would give ICE insight into the transfer of the currencies. The most mysterious one is access to “historical geo tracking data,” and ICE gave a little insight into how this tool may be used.

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Source: Coinbase Is Selling Data on Crypto and ‘Geotracking’ to ICE

‘Cryptoqueen’ On FBI’s Most Wanted List – on the run with $2.5 billion ponzi-ing suckers

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FBI officials and federal prosecutors announced Ignatova’s new designation in a press conference Thursday. Ignatova was charged in 2019 with wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering for her part in the OneCoin crypto company that prosecutors alleged was just a ponzi scheme.

Michael Driscoll, the FBI’s assistant director-in-charge for New York declined to answer Reuters’ questions whether they had any leads, but said Ignatova “left with a tremendous amount of cash,” adding, “money can buy a lot of friends.”

Ignatova was part of a Bulgaria-based crypto company called OneCoin. The company claimed they were performing a regular crypto mining operation—generating new tokens added to a blockchain—and pumped out $3.78 billion in revenue from the end of 2014 to the middle of 2016. But despite the upward momentum, investigators from the U.S. Department of Justice reported that OneCoin’s value was rigged internally, that the coins were essentially worthless, and users could not even trace ownership of the coins. The DOJ alleged those at the head of the company made nearly $2.5 billion in profit that they squirreled away in company bank accounts.

Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, told reporters Ignatova capitalized “on the frenzied speculation of the early days of cryptocurrency.”

In an FBI-provided video of Ignatova speaking at a London company event dated June, 2016, Ignatova boasted about her two million active users, adding “no other cryptocurrency has as many users as we do,”

Bloomberg reported that after Ignatova grew suspicious that the feds were onto her, she fled to Greece and then investigators lost track of her.

In 2019, the U.S. unsealed an indictment against Ignatova, charging her with the previously mentioned litany of financial crimes. That same year, Konstantin Ignatova, one of OneCoin’s founders and Ruja’s brother, was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Konstantin managed to get a plea deal, and though his sentencing was set for May 13, his attorneys adjourned the date for 90 days so he could further cooperate with authorities.

The Cryptoqueen has evaded police custody and remains at large to this day. So, the FBI says it’ll pay up to a $100,000 reward for any info that leads to an arrest.

[…]

Source: ‘Cryptoqueen’ Lands a Spot On the FBI’s Most Wanted List

OpenSea (NFT marketplace) 3rd party vendor leaked all customers’ email addresses – perfect suckers for phishing campaign list

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An employee of OpenSea’s email delivery vendor Customer.io “misused” their access to download and share OpenSea users’ and newsletter subscribers’ email addresses “with an unauthorized external party,” Head of Security Cory Hardman warned on Wednesday.

“If you have shared your email with OpenSea in the past, you should assume you were impacted,” Hardman continued.

To be clear: that is a whole lot of email addresses.

OpenSea is basically a virtual super-mall where people buy and sell non-fungible tokens — essentially an electronic receipt on a blockchain for some type of digital asset, like art, music or collectibles. In other words: nothing, which many, including Bill Gates, consider a very foolish purchase indeed.

OpenSea claims to be the largest NFT marketplace, and it boasts a transaction volume of over $20 billion and more than 600,000 users, all of which presumably provided their email addresses at one point.

Plus, there’s likely more that simply subscribed to the online bazaar’s email list.

[…]

Source: OpenSea says rogue insider leaked customers’ email addresses • The Register

No anti money laundering Checks For Most Transfers To Unhosted Crypto Wallets, EU Policymakers Decide

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The European Union (EU) finally agreed on landmark anti-money laundering rules for crypto transactions Wednesday, despite industry concerns over the law harming privacy and innovation.

The final proposals will mean customer identity needs to be verified for even the smallest crypto transfers, if it’s between two regulated digital wallet providers – but payments to unhosted private wallets will largely be left out of laundering checks.

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EU lawmaker Ondřej Kovařík confirmed the provisional deal in a tweet, saying that it “strikes the right balance in mitigating risks for fighting money laundering in the crypto sector without preventing innovation and overburdening businesses.”

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Kovařík said those unhosted wallet rules would only apply when transfers were made to a person’s own private wallet, and only when the value was over 1,000 euros ($1,052). A further source briefed on talks has confirmed those details.

Ernest Urtasun, a member of the European Greens party, who jointly led parliament’s negotiations on the law, tweeted that the rules were “putting an end to the wild west of unregulated crypto, closing major loopholes in the European anti-money laundering rules.”

Urtasun confirmed that the final deal would mean that, for transactions between regulated wallets, customer identity details have to be recorded for even the smallest transaction. That makes crypto rules unlike those for the conventional banking sector, which only catch those worth over 1,000 euros.

Lawmakers and governments overturned European Commission plans to exempt small transactions, arguing that price volatility and the ability to break up payments into smaller chunks would make it unworkable for crypto.

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Source: No AML Checks For Most Transfers To Unhosted Crypto Wallets, EU Policymakers Decide