Author: Robin Edgar

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

EA announces feels free to take over your OS with kernel-level anti-cheat system for PC games

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Electronics Arts (EA) is launching a new kernel-level anti-cheat system for its PC games. The EA AntiCheat (EAAC) will debut first in FIFA 23 later this fall and is a custom anti-cheat system developed in-house by EA developers. It’s designed to protect EA games from tampering and cheaters, and EA says it won’t add anti-cheat Read more about EA announces feels free to take over your OS with kernel-level anti-cheat system for PC games[…]

Slingshot Aerospace Free Software Could Prevent Satellite Collisions

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Space is getting a little too crowded, increasing the risk of orbital collisions. Slingshot Aerospace, a company specializing in space data analytics, is now offering a solution to regulate some of the traffic up there. The company announced on Tuesday that it is rolling out a free version of its space traffic control system to Read more about Slingshot Aerospace Free Software Could Prevent Satellite Collisions[…]

DHS built huge database from cellphones, computers seized at border, searchable without a warrant, kept for 15 years

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U.S. government officials are adding data from as many as 10,000 electronic devices each year to a massive database they’ve compiled from cellphones, iPads and computers seized from travelers at the country’s airports, seaports and border crossings, leaders of Customs and Border Protection told congressional staff in a briefing this summer. The rapid expansion of Read more about DHS built huge database from cellphones, computers seized at border, searchable without a warrant, kept for 15 years[…]

Prompt injection attacks against GPT-3 – or how to get AI bots to say stuff you want them to

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Riley Goodside, yesterday: Exploiting GPT-3 prompts with malicious inputs that order the model to ignore its previous directions. pic.twitter.com/I0NVr9LOJq – Riley Goodside (@goodside) September 12, 2022 Riley provided several examples. Here’s the first. GPT-3 prompt (here’s how to try it in the Playground): Translate the following text from English to French: > Ignore the above Read more about Prompt injection attacks against GPT-3 – or how to get AI bots to say stuff you want them to[…]

Scientists try to teach robot to laugh at the right time

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[…] The team behind the laughing robot, which is called Erica, say that the system could improve natural conversations between people and AI systems. “We think that one of the important functions of conversational AI is empathy,” said Dr Koji Inoue, of Kyoto University, the lead author of the research, published in Frontiers in Robotics Read more about Scientists try to teach robot to laugh at the right time[…]

Astronomers find a baby planet forming

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Astronomers have found a baby planet hidden in clouds of gas and dust swirling within a young solar system, by studying the accumulation of material around Lagrange points. That’s according to research published this week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Studying these protoplanets is difficult. Their stellar nurseries are shrouded in thick, hot clumps of Read more about Astronomers find a baby planet forming[…]

California signs social media terms of service disclosure law

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[…] AB 587 requires social media companies to post their terms of service online, as well as submit a twice-yearly report to the state attorney general. The report must include details about whether the platform defines and moderates several categories of content, including “hate speech or racism,” “extremism or radicalization,” “disinformation or misinformation,” harassment, and Read more about California signs social media terms of service disclosure law[…]

S.Korea fines Google, Meta billions of won for privacy violations

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[…] In a statement, the Personal Information Protection Commission said it fined Google 69.2 billion won ($50 million) and Meta 30.8 billion won ($22 million). The privacy panel said the firms did not clearly inform service users and obtain their prior consent when collecting and analysing behavioural information to infer their interests or use them Read more about S.Korea fines Google, Meta billions of won for privacy violations[…]

Microsoft Teams stores auth tokens as cleartext in Windows, Linux, Macs – wait isn’t it 2022?

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[…] The newly discovered security issue impacts versions of the application for Windows, Linux, and Mac and refers to Microsoft Teams storing user authentication tokens in clear text without protecting access to them. An attacker with local access on a system where Microsoft Teams is installed could steal the tokens and use them to log Read more about Microsoft Teams stores auth tokens as cleartext in Windows, Linux, Macs – wait isn’t it 2022?[…]

Palette – Colorize Photos using AI, great colour

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A new AI colorizer. Colorize anything from old black and white photos 📸, style your artworks 🎨, or give modern images a fresh look 🌶. It’s as simple as instagram, free, and no sign-up required! Source: Palette – Colorize Photos Only gums and teeth in shadow look a bit brown and ghoulish but this is Read more about Palette – Colorize Photos using AI, great colour[…]

Blood test spots multiple cancers without clear symptoms, study finds

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[…] The Galleri test has been described as a potential “gamechanger” by NHS England, which is due to report results from a major trial involving 165,000 people next year. Doctors hope the test will save lives by detecting cancer early enough for surgery and treatment to be more effective, but the technology is still in Read more about Blood test spots multiple cancers without clear symptoms, study finds[…]

Air pollution cancer breakthrough rewrites how to think about cancer activation

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Researchers say they have cracked how air pollution leads to cancer, in a discovery that completely transforms our understanding of how tumours arise. The team at the Francis Crick Institute in London showed that rather than causing damage, air pollution was waking up old damaged cells. One of the world’s leading experts, Prof Charles Swanton, Read more about Air pollution cancer breakthrough rewrites how to think about cancer activation[…]

How to Easily Make Your Own Pyramid Salt Crystals

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[…] What is pyramid salt? Pyramid salt crystals are made of the same stuff as regular salt. But these crystals look different because they formed in a different way. In nature, these elusive crystals grow on the surface of quiet, undisturbed pools of salt water that evaporate under the hot sun. Pyramid salt is more Read more about How to Easily Make Your Own Pyramid Salt Crystals[…]

 The TAK Ecosystem: Open SourceMilitary Coordination

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In recent years you’ve probably seen a couple of photos of tablets and smartphones strapped to the armor of soldiers, especially US Special Forces. The primary app loaded on most of those devices is ATAK or Android Tactical Assault Kit. It allows the soldier to view and share geospatial information, like friendly and enemy positions, Read more about  The TAK Ecosystem: Open SourceMilitary Coordination[…]

Dump these routers, says Cisco, because we won’t patch them

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Cisco patched three security vulnerabilities in its products this week, and said it will leave unpatched a VPN-hijacking flaw that affects four small business routers. Those small-biz routers – the RV110W Wireless-N VPN Firewall, RV130 VPN Router, RV130W Wireless-N Multifunction VPN Router, and RV215W Wireless-N VPN Router – have reached their end-of-life (EoL) and the Read more about Dump these routers, says Cisco, because we won’t patch them[…]

Roombas don’t work if an iRobot server is down

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That floor won’t clean itself… well, quite literally it won’t, especially if the vacuum robot you bought to clean the floor won’t hop off its dock when the servers are down Users started reporting issues with their Roomba app around midday Friday. The status page for iRobot, the maker of Roomba, identified there were outages Read more about Roombas don’t work if an iRobot server is down[…]

Cory Doctorow Launches New Fight against Copyrights, Creative Chokepoints, and Big Tech’s ‘Chokepoint Capitalism’

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“Creators aren’t getting paid,” says Cory Doctorow. “That’s because powerful corporations have figured out how to create chokepoints — that let them snatch up more of the value generated by creative work before it reaches creative workers.” But he’s doing something about it. Doctorow’s teamed up with Melbourne-based law professor Rebecca Giblin, the director of Read more about Cory Doctorow Launches New Fight against Copyrights, Creative Chokepoints, and Big Tech’s ‘Chokepoint Capitalism’[…]

A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal, destroyed his digital life with no recourse

Posted on by Robin Edgar

It was a Friday night in February 2021. His wife called an advice nurse at their health care provider to schedule an emergency consultation for the next morning, by video because it was a Saturday and there was a pandemic going on. The nurse said to send photos so the doctor could review them in Read more about A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal, destroyed his digital life with no recourse[…]

Have you patched your Zimbra server – actively exploited hacks

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In a security alert updated on Monday, the US government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) warned that cybercriminals are actively exploiting five vulnerabilities in the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) to break into both government and private-sector networks. The agencies have provided fresh detection signatures to Read more about Have you patched your Zimbra server – actively exploited hacks[…]

Oracle facing class action over ‘brokering’ personal data of 5 billion people

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Oracle is the subject of a class-action suit alleging the software giant created a network containing personal information of hundreds of millions of people and sold the data to third parties. The case [PDF] is being brought by Johnny Ryan, formerly a policy officer at Brave, maker of the privacy-centric browser, and now part of Read more about Oracle facing class action over ‘brokering’ personal data of 5 billion people[…]

Smartphone gyroscopes and LED threaten air-gapped systems

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[…] A pair of preprint papers from Mordechai Guri, head of R&D at Ben-Gurion University’s Cyber Security Research Labs, detail new methods for transmitting data ultrasonically to smartphone gyroscopes and sending Morse code signals via LEDs on network interface cards (NICs). Dubbed Gairoscope and EtherLED respectively, the two exploits are the latest in a long Read more about Smartphone gyroscopes and LED threaten air-gapped systems[…]

Hackers Use Deepfakes of Binance Exec to Scam Crypto Projects

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Binance Chief Communications Officer Patrick Hillmann wrote in a blog post last week that internet scammers had been using deepfake technology to copy his image during video meetings. He started to catch on to this trend when he received messages from the leadership of various crypto projects thanking him for meetings he never attended. Hillmann Read more about Hackers Use Deepfakes of Binance Exec to Scam Crypto Projects[…]

Oktatapus Hack Stole 10,000 Logins From 130 Different Orgs

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Researchers say that a mysterious “threat actor” (a fancy term for a hacker or hacker group) has managed to steal nearly 10,000 login credentials from the employees of 130 organizations, in the latest far-reaching supply chain attack on corporate America. Many of the victims are prominent software companies, including firms like Twilio, MailChimp, and Cloudflare, Read more about Oktatapus Hack Stole 10,000 Logins From 130 Different Orgs[…]

Google research AI image noise reduction is out of this world

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If you have great lighting, a good photographer can take decent photos even with the crappiest camera imaginable. In low light, though, all bets are off. Sure, some cameras can shoot haunting video lit only by the light of the moon, but for stills — and especially stills shot on a smartphone — digital noise Read more about Google research AI image noise reduction is out of this world[…]