The Linkielist

Linking ideas with the world

Robinhood fintech app admits to storing some passwords in cleartext

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Stock trading service Robinhood has admitted today to storing some customers’ passwords in cleartext, according to emails the company has been sending to impacted customers, and seen by ZDNet. “On Monday night, we discovered that some user credentials were stored in a readable format within our internal system,” the company said. “We resolved the issue, Read more about Robinhood fintech app admits to storing some passwords in cleartext[…]

‘No doubt left’ about scientific consensus on global warming, say experts

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The scientific consensus that humans are causing global warming is likely to have passed 99%, according to the lead author of the most authoritative study on the subject, and could rise further after separate research that clears up some of the remaining doubts. Three studies published in Nature and Nature Geoscience use extensive historical data Read more about ‘No doubt left’ about scientific consensus on global warming, say experts[…]

Airbus A350 software bug forces airlines to turn planes off and on every 149 hours – must have borrowed some old Boeing 787 code

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Some models of Airbus A350 airliners still need to be hard rebooted after exactly 149 hours, despite warnings from the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) first issued two years ago. In a mandatory airworthiness directive (AD) reissued earlier this week, EASA urged operators to turn their A350s off and on again to prevent “partial or Read more about Airbus A350 software bug forces airlines to turn planes off and on every 149 hours – must have borrowed some old Boeing 787 code[…]

France Is Making Space-Based Anti-Satellite Laser Weapons

Posted on by Robin Edgar

France will develop satellites armed with laser weapons, and will use the weapons against enemy satellites that threaten the country’s space forces. The announcement is just part of a gradual shift in acceptance of space-based weaponry as countries reliant on space for military operations in the air, on land, and at sea—as well as for Read more about France Is Making Space-Based Anti-Satellite Laser Weapons[…]

Waymo and DeepMind mimic evolution to develop a new, better way to train self-driving AI

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The two worked together to bring a training method called Population Based Training (PBT for short) to bear on Waymo’s challenge of building better virtual drivers, and the results were impressive — DeepMind says in a blog post that using PBT decreased by 24% false positives in a network that identifies and places boxes around Read more about Waymo and DeepMind mimic evolution to develop a new, better way to train self-driving AI[…]

Cyberlaw wonks squint at NotPetya insurance smackdown: Should ‘war exclusion’ clauses apply to network hacks?

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In June 2017, the notorious file-scrambling software nasty NotPetya caused global havoc that affected government agencies, power suppliers, healthcare providers and big biz. The ransomware sought out vulnerabilities and used a modified version of the NSA’s leaked EternalBlue SMB exploit, generating one of the most financially costly cyber-attacks to date. Among the victims was US Read more about Cyberlaw wonks squint at NotPetya insurance smackdown: Should ‘war exclusion’ clauses apply to network hacks?[…]

Google to Pay only $13 Million for sniffing passwords and emails over your wifi using Street View cars between 2007 – 2010

Posted on by Robin Edgar

After nearly a decade in court, Google has agreed to pay $13 million in a class-action lawsuit alleging its Street View program collected people’s private data over wifi from 2007 to 2010. In addition to the moolah, the settlement—filed Friday in San Francisco—also calls for Google to destroy all the collected data and teach people Read more about Google to Pay only $13 Million for sniffing passwords and emails over your wifi using Street View cars between 2007 – 2010[…]

Big Tech faces broad U.S. Justice Department antitrust probe

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it was opening a broad investigation of major digital technology firms into whether they engage in anticompetitive practices, the strongest sign the Trump administration is stepping up its scrutiny of Big Tech. The review will look into “whether and how market-leading online platforms have achieved market power and Read more about Big Tech faces broad U.S. Justice Department antitrust probe[…]

Tinder Bypasses Google Play, Revolt Against App Store “Fee” (30% monopolistic arm wrench)

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Tinder joined a growing backlash against app store taxes by bypassing Google Play in a move that could shake up the billion-dollar industry dominated by Google and Apple Inc. The online dating site launched a new default payment process that skips Google Play and forces users to enter their credit card details straight into Tinder’s Read more about Tinder Bypasses Google Play, Revolt Against App Store “Fee” (30% monopolistic arm wrench)[…]

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[…]