The Linkielist

Linking ideas with the world

Hackers Stole Over $20 Million From Misconfigured Ethereum Clients

A group of hackers has stolen over $20 million worth of Ethereum from Ethereum-based apps and mining rigs, Chinese cyber-security firm Qihoo 360 Netlab reported today. The cause of these thefts is Ethereum software applications that have been configured to expose an RPC [Remote Procedure Call] interface on port 8545. The purpose of this interface Read more about Hackers Stole Over $20 Million From Misconfigured Ethereum Clients[…]

Blockchain’s Once-Feared 51% Attack Is Now Becoming Regular among smaller coins

Monacoin, bitcoin gold, zencash, verge and now, litecoin cash. At least five cryptocurrencies have recently been hit with an attack that used to be more theoretical than actual, all in the last month. In each case, attackers have been able to amass enough computing power to compromise these smaller networks, rearrange their transactions and abscond Read more about Blockchain’s Once-Feared 51% Attack Is Now Becoming Regular among smaller coins[…]

EU Copyright law could put end to net memes

Memes, remixes and other user-generated content could disappear online if the EU’s proposed rules on copyright become law, warn experts. Digital rights groups are campaigning against the Copyright Directive, which the European Parliament will vote on later this month. The legislation aims to protect rights-holders in the internet age. But critics say it misunderstands the Read more about EU Copyright law could put end to net memes[…]

Cisco Removes Backdoor Account, Fourth in the Last Four Months

For the fourth time in as many months, Cisco has removed hardcoded credentials that were left inside one of its products, which an attacker could have exploited to gain access to devices and inherently to customer networks. This time around, the hardcoded password was found in Cisco’s Wide Area Application Services (WAAS), which is a Read more about Cisco Removes Backdoor Account, Fourth in the Last Four Months[…]

The first 3D printed houses will be built in the Netherlands this year

The city of Eindhoven soon hopes to boast the world’s first commercially-developed 3D-printed homes, an endeavor known as Project Milestone. Artist’s rendering of 3D printed home neighborhood. (3dprintedhouse.nl) Construction on the first home begins this year and five houses will be on the rental market by 2019, project organizers say. Within a week of releasing Read more about The first 3D printed houses will be built in the Netherlands this year[…]

Facebook gave some companies special access to data on users’ friends

Facebook granted a select group of companies special access to its users’ records even after the point in 2015 that the company has claimed it stopped sharing such data with app developers. According to the Wall Street Journal, which cited court documents, unnamed Facebook officials and other unnamed sources, Facebook made special agreements with certain companies called “whitelists,” Read more about Facebook gave some companies special access to data on users’ friends[…]

Ticketfly exposes data on 27m customers in hack

Ticketfly was the target of a malicious cyber attack last week In consultation with third-party forensic cybersecurity experts we can now confirm that credit and debit card information was not accessed. However, information including names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers connected to approximately 27 million Ticketfly accounts was accessed. It’s important to note that Read more about Ticketfly exposes data on 27m customers in hack[…]

The hits keep coming for Facebook: Web giant made 14m people’s private posts public

about 14 million people were affected by a bug that, for a nine-day span between May 18 and 27, caused profile posts to be set as public by default, allowing any Tom, Dick or Harriet to view the material. “We recently found a bug that automatically suggested posting publicly when some people were creating their Read more about The hits keep coming for Facebook: Web giant made 14m people’s private posts public[…]

VPNFilter router malware is a lot worse than everyone thought

ASUS, D-Link, Huawei, Ubiquiti, UPVEL, and ZTE: these are the vendors newly-named by Cisco’s Talos Intelligence as being exploited by the malware scum running the VPNFilter attacks, and the attack’s been spotted hitting endpoints behind vulnerable kit. As well as the expanded list of impacted devices, Talos warned that VPNFilter now attacks endpoints behind the Read more about VPNFilter router malware is a lot worse than everyone thought[…]

How programmers addict you to social media, games and your mobile phone

If you look at the current climate, the largest companies are the ones that hook you into their channel, whether it is a game, a website, shopping or social media. Quite a lot of research has been done in to how much time we spend watching TV and looking at our mobiles, showing differing numbers, Read more about How programmers addict you to social media, games and your mobile phone[…]

EFAIL: PGP and S/MIME (encrypted email) are no longer safe

EFAIL describes vulnerabilities in the end-to-end encryption technologies OpenPGP and S/MIME that leak the plaintext of encrypted emails. Email is a plaintext communication medium whose communication paths are partly protected by TLS (TLS). For people in hostile environments (journalists, political activists, whistleblowers, …) who depend on the confidentiality of digital communication, this may not be Read more about EFAIL: PGP and S/MIME (encrypted email) are no longer safe[…]

Uh oh! Here’s yet more AI that creates creepy fake talking heads

Video Machine-learning experts have built a neural network that can manipulate facial movements in videos to create fake footage – in which people appear to say something they never actually said. It could be used to create convincing yet faked announcements and confessions seemingly uttered by the rich and powerful as well as the average Read more about Uh oh! Here’s yet more AI that creates creepy fake talking heads[…]

AI learns to copy human gaming behaviour by watching Youtube

Deep reinforcement learning methods traditionally struggle with tasks where environment rewards are particularly sparse. One successful method of guiding exploration in these domains is to imitate trajectories provided by a human demonstrator. However, these demonstrations are typically collected under artificial conditions, i.e. with access to the agent’s exact environment setup and the demonstrator’s action and Read more about AI learns to copy human gaming behaviour by watching Youtube[…]

AI better than dermatologists at detecting skin cancer, study finds

or the first time, new research suggests artificial intelligence may be better than highly-trained humans at detecting skin cancer. A study conducted by an international team of researchers pitted experienced dermatologists against a machine learning system, known as a deep learning convolutional neural network, or CNN, to see which was more effective at detecting malignant Read more about AI better than dermatologists at detecting skin cancer, study finds[…]

AI can tell who you are by your gait using only floor sensors

Human footsteps can provide a unique behavioural pattern for robust biometric systems. We propose spatio-temporal footstep representations from floor-only sensor data in advanced computational models for automatic biometric verification. Our models deliver an artificial intelligence capable of effectively differentiating the fine-grained variability of footsteps between legitimate users (clients) and impostor users of the biometric system. Read more about AI can tell who you are by your gait using only floor sensors[…]

Robots fight weeds in challenge to agrochemical giants

In a field of sugar beet in Switzerland, a solar-powered robot that looks like a table on wheels scans the rows of crops with its camera, identifies weeds and zaps them with jets of blue liquid from its mechanical tentacles. Undergoing final tests before the liquid is replaced with weedkiller, the Swiss robot is one Read more about Robots fight weeds in challenge to agrochemical giants[…]

Epyc fail? We can defeat AMD’s virtual machine encryption, say boffins

German researchers reckon they have devised a method to thwart the security mechanisms AMD’s Epyc server chips use to automatically encrypt virtual machines in memory. So much so, they said they can exfiltrate plaintext data from an encrypted guest via a hijacked hypervisor and simple HTTP or HTTPS requests. […] a technique dubbed SEVered can, Read more about Epyc fail? We can defeat AMD’s virtual machine encryption, say boffins[…]

You know that silly fear about Alexa recording everything and leaking it online? It just happened

It’s time to break out your “Alexa, I Told You So” banners – because a Portland, Oregon, couple received a phone call from one of the husband’s employees earlier this month, telling them she had just received a recording of them talking privately in their home. “Unplug your Alexa devices right now,” the staffer told Read more about You know that silly fear about Alexa recording everything and leaking it online? It just happened[…]

Over 900,000 personal records of South Africans leaked online

Barely a year after South Africa’s largest data leak was revealed in 2017, the country has suffered yet another data leak as 934,000 personal records of South Africans have been leaked publicly online. The data includes, among others, national identity numbers (ID numbers), e-mail addresses, full names, as well as plain text passwords to what Read more about Over 900,000 personal records of South Africans leaked online[…]

Using generative models to make dental crowns better than humans can

Computer vision has advanced significantly that many discriminative approaches such as object recognition are now widely used in real applications. We present another exciting development that utilizes generative models for the mass customization of medical products such as dental crowns. In the dental industry, it takes a technician years of training to design synthetic crowns Read more about Using generative models to make dental crowns better than humans can[…]

Spectre comes back to haunt Processor Makers Confirm New Security Flaws, So Update Now

Intel is finally confirming that its computer processors are vulnerable to an additional variant of Spectre, the nasty security vulnerability that affects nearly every CPU currently in devices and in the marketplace. German computing magazine C’t first reported the additional flaws, which can be exploited in a browser setting using a runtime (think Javascript), on Read more about Spectre comes back to haunt Processor Makers Confirm New Security Flaws, So Update Now[…]

Google sued for ‘clandestine tracking’ of 4.4m UK iPhone users’ browsing data

Google is being sued in the high court for as much as £3.2bn for the alleged “clandestine tracking and collation” of personal information from 4.4 million iPhone users in the UK. The collective action is being led by former Which? director Richard Lloyd over claims Google bypassed the privacy settings of Apple’s Safari browser on Read more about Google sued for ‘clandestine tracking’ of 4.4m UK iPhone users’ browsing data[…]

Memory Transferred between Snails using RNA, Challenging Standard Theory of How the Brain Remembers

UCLA neuroscientists reported Monday that they have transferred a memory from one animal to another via injections of RNA, a startling result that challenges the widely held view of where and how memories are stored in the brain. The finding from the lab of David Glanzman hints at the potential for new RNA-based treatments to Read more about Memory Transferred between Snails using RNA, Challenging Standard Theory of How the Brain Remembers[…]

Teensafe spying app leaked thousands of user passwords

At least one server used by an app for parents to monitor their teenagers’ phone activity has leaked tens of thousands of accounts of both parents and children. The mobile app, TeenSafe, bills itself as a “secure” monitoring app for iOS and Android, which lets parents view their child’s text messages and location, monitor who Read more about Teensafe spying app leaked thousands of user passwords[…]