The Linkielist

Linking ideas with the world

Microsoft Bribes U.S. gov with $25 Million to End U.S. Probe Into Bribery Overseas

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Microsoft Corp. agreed to pay $25 million to settle U.S. government investigations into alleged bribery by former employees in Hungary. The software maker’s Hungarian subsidiary entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and a cease-and-desist order with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Microsoft said in an email to employees from Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith that Read more about Microsoft Bribes U.S. gov with $25 Million to End U.S. Probe Into Bribery Overseas[…]

UK cops want years of data from victims phones for no real reason, but it is being misused

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A report (PDF), released today by Big Brother Watch and eight other civil rights groups, has argued that complainants are being subjected to “suspicion-less, far-reaching digital interrogations when they report crimes to police”. It added: “Our research shows that these digital interrogations have been used almost exclusively for complainants of rape and serious sexual offences Read more about UK cops want years of data from victims phones for no real reason, but it is being misused[…]

Researchers Reveal That Anonymized Data Is Easy To Reverse Engineer

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Researchers at Imperial College London published a paper in Nature Communications on Tuesday that explored how inadequate current techniques to anonymize datasets are. Before a company shares a dataset, they will remove identifying information such as names and email addresses, but the researchers were able to game this system. Using a machine learning model and Read more about Researchers Reveal That Anonymized Data Is Easy To Reverse Engineer[…]

IBM gives cancer-killing drug AI projects to the open source community

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Researchers from IBM’s Computational Systems Biology group in Zurich are working on AI and machine learning (ML) approaches to “help to accelerate our understanding of the leading drivers and molecular mechanisms of these complex diseases,” as well as methods to improve our knowledge of tumor composition. “Our goal is to deepen our understanding of cancer Read more about IBM gives cancer-killing drug AI projects to the open source community[…]

Quantum interference allows huge data sets to be sifted through much more quickly

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Contemporary science, medicine, engineering and information technology demand efficient processing of data—still images, sound and radio signals, as well as information coming from different sensors and cameras. Since the 1970s, this has been achieved by means of the Fast Fourier Transform algorithm (FFT). The FFT makes it possible to efficiently compress and transmit data, store Read more about Quantum interference allows huge data sets to be sifted through much more quickly[…]

The Constellations | IAU

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Over half of the 88 constellations the IAU recognizes today are attributed to ancient Greek, which consolidated the earlier works by the ancient Babylonian, Egyptian and Assyrian. Forty eight of the constellations we know were recorded in the seventh and eighth books of Claudius Ptolemy’s Almagest, although the exact origin of these constellations still remains Read more about The Constellations | IAU[…]

Google and Facebook might be tracking your porn history, researchers warn

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Being able to access porn on the internet might be convenient, but according to researchers it’s not without its security risks. And they’re not just talking about viruses. Researchers at Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania analyzed 22,484 porn sites and found that 93% leak user data to a third party. Normally, Read more about Google and Facebook might be tracking your porn history, researchers warn[…]

Permission-greedy apps delayed Android 6 upgrade so they could harvest more user data

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Android app developers intentionally delayed updating their applications to work on top of Android 6.0, so they could continue to have access to an older permission-requesting mechanism that granted them easy access to large quantities of user data, research published by the University of Maryland last month has revealed. The central focus of this research Read more about Permission-greedy apps delayed Android 6 upgrade so they could harvest more user data[…]

Humans may be able to live on Mars within walls of aerogel – a wonder material that can trap heat and block radiation

Posted on by Robin Edgar

We may be able to survive and live on Mars in regions protected by thin ceilings of silica aerogel, a strong lightweight material that insulates heat and blocks harmful ultraviolet radiation while weighing almost nothing. Researchers at Harvard University in the US, NASA, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland envision areas of Mars enclosed Read more about Humans may be able to live on Mars within walls of aerogel – a wonder material that can trap heat and block radiation[…]

Machine learning has been used to automatically translate long-lost languages

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Jiaming Luo and Regina Barzilay from MIT and Yuan Cao from Google’s AI lab in Mountain View, California. This team has developed a machine-learning system capable of deciphering lost languages, and they’ve demonstrated it by having it decipher Linear B—the first time this has been done automatically. The approach they used was very different from Read more about Machine learning has been used to automatically translate long-lost languages[…]

Bulb smart meters in England wake up from comas miraculously speaking fluent Welsh

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Smart meters in England are suddenly switching to Welsh language displays, much to the confusion of owners. Several people report that the meters, made by energy provider Bulb, are spontaneously opting for Welsh instead of English, sometimes after freezing and being restarted. This would be unhelpful even for many residents of Wales, but the problem Read more about Bulb smart meters in England wake up from comas miraculously speaking fluent Welsh[…]

Evite Invites Over 100 Million People to Their Data Breach – with cleartext passwords

Posted on by Robin Edgar

“In April 2019, the social planning website for managing online invitations Evite identified a data breach of their systems. Upon investigation, they found unauthorised access to a database archive dating back to 2013. The exposed data included a total of 101 million unique email addresses, most belonging to recipients of invitations. Members of the service also Read more about Evite Invites Over 100 Million People to Their Data Breach – with cleartext passwords[…]

Good luck deleting someone’s private info from a trained neural network – it’s likely to bork the whole thing

Posted on by Robin Edgar

AI systems have weird memories. The machines desperately cling onto the data they’ve been trained on, making it difficult to delete bits of it. In fact, they often have to be completely retrained from scratch with the newer, smaller dataset. That’s no good in an age where individuals can request their personal data be removed Read more about Good luck deleting someone’s private info from a trained neural network – it’s likely to bork the whole thing[…]

Galileo Satellite Positioning Service Outage

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Galileo satellite positioning service is currently unavailable, with all satellites marked as in outage . Galileo is the European-built and operated alternative to GPS. The outage is being attributed to problems at the Precise Timing Facility in Italy. The availability of multiple Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and the relative newness of Galileo (the Read more about Galileo Satellite Positioning Service Outage[…]

Microsoft Office 365: Banned in German schools over privacy fears

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Schools in the central German state of Hesse have been have been told it’s now illegal to use Microsoft Office 365. The state’s data-protection commissioner has ruled that using the popular cloud platform’s standard configuration exposes personal information about students and teachers “to possible access by US officials”. That might sound like just another instance Read more about Microsoft Office 365: Banned in German schools over privacy fears[…]

Microsoft tells resellers: ‘We listened to you, and we have acted’ (PS: Plz keep making us money)

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Faced with continued rumbles of discontent from its reseller network on the eve of its Inspire conference, Microsoft has climbed down from plans to pull free software licences from its channel chums. Doubtless fearful of a keynote sabotaged by a baying mob of angry resellers, Microsoft corporate veep for commercial partners Gavriella Schuster was tasked Read more about Microsoft tells resellers: ‘We listened to you, and we have acted’ (PS: Plz keep making us money)[…]

Bitpoint cryptocurrency exchange hacked for $32 million

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint announced it lost 3.5 billion yen (roughly $32 million) worth of cryptocurrency assets after a hack that happened late yesterday, July 11. The exchange suspended all deposits and withdrawals this morning to investigate the hack, it said in a press release. Thoroughly compromised In a more detailed document released by RemixPoint, Read more about Bitpoint cryptocurrency exchange hacked for $32 million[…]

FTC Fines Facebook $5 Billion for Cambridge Analytica – not  very much considering earnings – and does not curtail future breaches

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Federal Trade Commission, which has been investigating Facebook in the wake of its massive Cambridge Analytica scandal, has voted to approve levying a massive $5 billion fine against the social media giant, according to reporting in both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. It’s the single largest fine against a tech company Read more about FTC Fines Facebook $5 Billion for Cambridge Analytica – not  very much considering earnings – and does not curtail future breaches[…]

Palantir’s Top-Secret User Manual for Cops shows how easily they can find scary amounts of information on you and your friends

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Through a public record request, Motherboard has obtained a user manual that gives unprecedented insight into Palantir Gotham (Palantir’s other services, Palantir Foundry, is an enterprise data platform), which is used by law enforcement agencies like the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center. The NCRIC serves around 300 communities in northern California and is what is Read more about Palantir’s Top-Secret User Manual for Cops shows how easily they can find scary amounts of information on you and your friends[…]

It turns out Bystanders do Help Strangers in Need

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Research dating back to the late 1960s documents how the great majority of people who witness crimes or violent behavior refuse to intervene. Psychologists dubbed this non-response as the “bystander effect”—a phenomenon which has been replicated in scores of subsequent psychological studies. The “bystander effect” holds that the reason people don’t intervene is because we Read more about It turns out Bystanders do Help Strangers in Need[…]

Carbon nanotube device channels heat into light, could increase solar panel efficiency

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The ever-more-humble carbon nanotube may be just the device to make solar panels—and anything else that loses energy through heat—far more efficient. Rice University scientists are designing arrays of aligned single-wall carbon nanotubes to channel mid-infrared radiation (aka heat) and greatly raise the efficiency of solar energy systems. Gururaj Naik and Junichiro Kono of Rice’s Read more about Carbon nanotube device channels heat into light, could increase solar panel efficiency[…]

Reddit Is Down as the Summer of Outages Continues

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Users began to report outages a little over an hour ago. For this writer, the problem first presented as weirdness with Reddit’s login server and front page timeline, but it quickly worsened. Now navigating to reddit.com is rewarding many with 503 errors. The outage seems to have hit users visiting Reddit on desktop the hardest. Read more about Reddit Is Down as the Summer of Outages Continues[…]

Microsoft stirs suspicions by adding telemetry spyware to security-only update

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Under Microsoft’s rules, what it calls “Security-only updates” are supposed to include, well, only security updates, not quality fixes or diagnostic tools. Nearly three years ago, Microsoft split its monthly update packages for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 into two distinct offerings: a monthly rollup of updates and fixes and, for those who are want only those Read more about Microsoft stirs suspicions by adding telemetry spyware to security-only update[…]