Author: Robin Edgar

Organisational Structures | Technology and Science | Military, IT and Lifestyle consultancy | Social, Broadcast & Cross Media | Flying aircraft

European police hacked encrypted phones used by thousands of criminals

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In one of the largest law enforcement busts ever, European police and crime agencies hacked an encrypted communications platform used by thousands of criminals and drug traffickers. By infiltrating the platform, Encrochat, police across Europe gained access to a hundred million encrypted messages. In the UK, those messages helped officials arrest 746 suspects, seize £54 Read more about European police hacked encrypted phones used by thousands of criminals[…]

Uncovered: 1,000 phrases that incorrectly trigger Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant

Posted on by Robin Edgar

As Alexa, Google Home, Siri, and other voice assistants have become fixtures in millions of homes, privacy advocates have grown concerned that their near-constant listening to nearby conversations could pose more risk than benefit to users. New research suggests the privacy threat may be greater than previously thought. The findings demonstrate how common it is Read more about Uncovered: 1,000 phrases that incorrectly trigger Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant[…]

Ads are taking over Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones — and it needs to stop

Posted on by Robin Edgar

I’ve used a Samsung Galaxy smartphone almost every day for nearly 4 years. I used them because Samsung had fantastic hardware that was matched by (usually) excellent software. But in 2020, a Samsung phone is no longer my daily driver, and there’s one simple reason that’s the case: Ads. Ads Everywhere Ads in Samsung phones Read more about Ads are taking over Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones — and it needs to stop[…]

Zoom misses its own deadline to publish its first transparency report

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How many government demands for user data has Zoom received? We won’t know until “later this year,” an updated Zoom blog post now says. The video conferencing giant previously said it would release the number of government demands it has received by June 30. But the company said it’s missed that target and has given Read more about Zoom misses its own deadline to publish its first transparency report[…]

Consumer orgs ask world’s competition watchdogs: Are you really going to let Google walk off with all Fitbit’s data?

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Twenty consumer and citizen rights groups have published an open letter [PDF] urging regulators to pay closer attention to Google parent Alphabet’s planned acquisition of Fitbit. The letter describes the pending purchase as a “game-changer” that will test regulators’ resolve to analyse how the vast quantities of health and location data slurped by Google would Read more about Consumer orgs ask world’s competition watchdogs: Are you really going to let Google walk off with all Fitbit’s data?[…]

Purism’s quest against Intel’s Management Engine black box CPU now comes in 14 inches

Posted on by Robin Edgar

This latest device succeeds the previous Librem 13 laptop, which ran for four generations, and includes a slightly bigger display, a hexa-core Ice Lake Intel Core i7 processor, gigabit Ethernet, and USB-C. As the name implies, the Librem 14 packs a 14-inch, 1920×1080 IPS display. Purism said this comes without increasing the laptop’s dimensions thanks Read more about Purism’s quest against Intel’s Management Engine black box CPU now comes in 14 inches[…]

Facebook says 5,000 app developers got user data after Cambridge Analytica scandal cutoff date

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The company said that it continued sharing user data with approximately 5,000 developers even after their application’s access expired. The incident is related to a security control that Facebook added to its systems following the Cambridge Analytica scandal of early 2018. Responding to criticism that it allowed app developers too much access to user information, Read more about Facebook says 5,000 app developers got user data after Cambridge Analytica scandal cutoff date[…]

Microsoft is forcing Edge on Windows users with a malware-like install

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If I told you that my entire computer screen just got taken over by a new app that I’d never installed or asked for — it just magically appeared on my desktop, my taskbar, and preempted my next website launch — you’d probably tell me to run a virus scanner and stay away from shady Read more about Microsoft is forcing Edge on Windows users with a malware-like install[…]

After a second stage failure, Rocket Lab loses seven satellites

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On Sunday morning, local time in New Zealand, Rocket Lab launched its 13th mission. The booster’s first stage performed normally, but just as the second stage neared an altitude of 200km, something went wrong and the vehicle was lost. In the immediate aftermath of the failure, the company did not provide any additional information about Read more about After a second stage failure, Rocket Lab loses seven satellites[…]

New mathematical idea reins in AI bias towards making unethical and costly commercial choices

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Researchers from the University of Warwick, Imperial College London, EPFL (Lausanne) and Sciteb Ltd have found a mathematical means of helping regulators and business manage and police Artificial Intelligence systems’ biases towards making unethical, and potentially very costly and damaging commercial choices—an ethical eye on AI. Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly deployed in commercial situations. Read more about New mathematical idea reins in AI bias towards making unethical and costly commercial choices[…]

Google Just Acquired Smart Glasses Startup North, then kills off the product

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Last Friday, it was reported that Canadian smart glasses startup North was on the verge of being snapped up by Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Today, it’s official. North announced the acquisition on both Twitter and in an official blog. Details regarding the terms of the sale were scant, though a Globe and Mail scoop from Read more about Google Just Acquired Smart Glasses Startup North, then kills off the product[…]

The internet becomes trademarkable, sort of, with near-unanimous Supreme Court ruling on Booking.com

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The internet’s domain names have become potentially trademarkable following a decision by the US Supreme Court today that Booking.com can in fact be registered with America’s Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) – against officials’ objections. The near-unanimous decision [PDF] – Justice Stephen Breyer was the sole rebel – went against the PTO’s legal arguments that Read more about The internet becomes trademarkable, sort of, with near-unanimous Supreme Court ruling on Booking.com[…]

Three words you do not want to hear regarding a ‘secure browser’ called SafePay… Remote. Code. Execution

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Folks running Bitdefender’s Total Security 2020 package should check they have the latest version installed following the disclosure of a remote code execution bug. Wladimir Palant, cofounder of Adblock-Plus-maker Eyeo, tipped off Bitdefender about the flaw, CVE-2020-8102, after discovering what he called “seemingly small weaknesses” that could be exploited by a hostile website to take Read more about Three words you do not want to hear regarding a ‘secure browser’ called SafePay… Remote. Code. Execution[…]

Burger King Is Leveraging Tesla Autopilot’s Confusion To Sell Whoppers

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the Monarch of Meat announced a campaign that takes advantage of some sloppy sign recognition in the Tesla Autopilot’s Traffic Light and Stop Sign control, specifically in instances where the Tesla confuses a Burger King sign for a stop sign (maybe a “traffic control” sign?) and proceeds to stop the car, leaving the occupants of Read more about Burger King Is Leveraging Tesla Autopilot’s Confusion To Sell Whoppers[…]

Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. Comcast to handle DNS-over-HTTPS for Firefox-using subscribers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Comcast has agreed to be the first home broadband internet provider to handle secure DNS-over-HTTPS queries for Firefox browser users in the US, Mozilla has announced. This means the ISP, which has joined Moz’s Trusted Recursive Resolver (TRR) Program, will perform domain-name-to-IP-address lookups for subscribers using Firefox via encrypted HTTPS channels. That prevents network eavesdroppers Read more about Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. Comcast to handle DNS-over-HTTPS for Firefox-using subscribers[…]

Russia returns to space tourism and offers a first citizen spacewalk

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Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has re-entered the space tourism market and this time will offer one person the chance to spacewalk. The agency on Thursday announced a new deal with US outfit Space Adventures to take two people to the International Space Station atop a Soyuz rocket. One of the tourists, according to Space Adventures’ Read more about Russia returns to space tourism and offers a first citizen spacewalk[…]

As advertisers revolt, Facebook commits to flagging ‘newsworthy’ political speech that violates policy

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As advertisers pull away from Facebook to protest the social networking giant’s hands-off approach to misinformation and hate speech, the company is instituting a number of stronger policies to woo them back. In a livestreamed segment of the company’s weekly all-hands meeting, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recapped some of the steps Facebook is already taking, and Read more about As advertisers revolt, Facebook commits to flagging ‘newsworthy’ political speech that violates policy[…]

Apple: We’re defending your privacy by nixing 16 browser APIs. Rivals: You mean defending your bottom line

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Apple has said it has decided not to implement 16 web APIs in its Safari browser’s WebKit engine in part because they pose a privacy threat. Critics of the iGiant, including competitors like Google, see Apple’s stance as a defense against a competitive threat. These APIs, developed in recent years to allow web developers to Read more about Apple: We’re defending your privacy by nixing 16 browser APIs. Rivals: You mean defending your bottom line[…]

OpenAI GPT-2 creates credible texts from minimal input

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We’ve trained a large-scale unsupervised language model which generates coherent paragraphs of text, achieves state-of-the-art performance on many language modeling benchmarks, and performs rudimentary reading comprehension, machine translation, question answering, and summarization—all without task-specific training. Our model, called GPT-2 (a successor to GPT), was trained simply to predict the next word in 40GB of Internet Read more about OpenAI GPT-2 creates credible texts from minimal input[…]

Experiment confirms 50-year-old theory describing how black holes could generate energy

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In 1969, British physicist Roger Penrose suggested that energy could be generated by lowering an object into the black hole’s ergosphere—the outer layer of the black hole’s event horizon, where an object would have to move faster than the speed of light in order to remain still. Penrose predicted that the object would acquire a Read more about Experiment confirms 50-year-old theory describing how black holes could generate energy[…]

Depixelizing Video Game Characters using AI Creates Monsters

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A new digital tool built to depixelize photos sounds scary and bad. Another way to remove privacy from the world. But this tool is also being used for a sillier and not terrible purpose: Depixelizng old game characters. The results are…nevermind, this is also a terrible use of this tool. “Face Depixelizer” is a tool Read more about Depixelizing Video Game Characters using AI Creates Monsters[…]

Big Tech on the hook for billions in back taxes after US Supreme Court rejects Altera stock options case hearing

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and a host of other tech giants will have to pay billions of dollars in extra tax after the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on a stock-option case. America’s top court said [PDF] on Monday it will not review a decision by the Ninth Circuit of Appeals that stock-based Read more about Big Tech on the hook for billions in back taxes after US Supreme Court rejects Altera stock options case hearing[…]

‘BlueLeaks’ Exposes Files, personal and banking details, emails from Hundreds of Police Departments spanning 24 years

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Hundreds of thousands of potentially sensitive files from police departments across the United States were leaked online last week. The collection, dubbed “BlueLeaks” and made searchable online, stems from a security breach at a Texas web design and hosting company that maintains a number of state law enforcement data-sharing portals. The collection — nearly 270 Read more about ‘BlueLeaks’ Exposes Files, personal and banking details, emails from Hundreds of Police Departments spanning 24 years[…]