02:25 Re: U.S. DST change proposals and WWVB radio clocks
> ... I'm aware of California and Florida, for example. At least one > Canadian province (British Columbia) is considering doing the same. Massachusetts, too. For some reason, states can opt out of DST, but they can't opt for year-round DST, so if FL or MA does year round DST, they will have to do it by moving to the AST time zone with no DST. If the clocks don't already handle AST, they're not really fit for purpose, since Puerto Rico and the USVI have been on AST for a century.
02:25 App notification for a stranger on my phone
My health insurance provider is the largest provider in my state. They have an iPhone app that can provide alerts for new claims, explanations of benefits, and other related data. About 5 minutes ago I got a notification with wording something like this: “The security questions for Carmello have been updated.'' I'm not Carmello; I don't know anyone by that name. Perhaps coincidentally (though probably not), attempts to log into the app now fail. When I just now tried to log into the website, I got this vague error: “Error - We're sorry, login isn't available at this time. Please log in again later.'' Will I soon be reading about a big data breach at this insurer? I won't be surprised.
02:25 Missing Author
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/us/politics/huawei-ban.html The Trump administration's effort to ban Huawei from overseas wireless networks has suffered from questions over whether the Chinese telecom company poses a threat.
02:25 Tech's Moral Void
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/tech-s-moral-void-1.5056316
02:25 Hashing to prevent spread of hate videos?
The general media has (temporarily) discovered hashing. https://lite.cnn.io/en/article/h_f53c07f70ccd1b7fd21d53163da2c280 I predict a short run of calls for social media platforms to use it to prevent the spread of hate videos, violent videos, revenge pr0n, etc, etc, etc. I've seen hashing in use for some time. Fifteen years ago it was very popular as the increase in the number of viruses exploded. Not so long ago Facebook tried using it in an odd, rather futile, and foolish attempt to prevent revenge pr0n. It's been used to prevent the theft of music and video as intellectual property for some time. It works, a bit, but not terribly well. The idea is to detect something you don't want spread, and then take a hash of it. You can then search, relatively quickly, and compare that hash value against the hash values of either existing files, or newly uploaded files (depending upon your application). I said "relatively" quickly. One of the people quoted in that article said "It's exceedingly fast." It's exceedingly fast compared to more detailed forms of analysis. But when around 10 *hours* of video are uploaded to YouTube alone every *second* (anybody have current statistics?) ... well, hashing does take some time, and little bits add up. And then there is the time to compare every hash against every other hash ... And hashing works only if nothing has been changed. After all, hash values are used, sometimes in digital signatures or certificates, to ensure that something hasn't changed. Again, someone in the article referred to "'robust' hashing—a method that should be able to detect variations on re-uploads." That's an interesting use of the word "robust." I'd think most people in the crypto field would think of a "robust" hash as one that would detect any changes, not one that would allow some changes and still match. But, quite aside from the use of the word "robust," making a hash that will accept some changes and still detect "similar" is a non-trivial task. And such a hash function would likely take even more time to run. It's easy to use hashes to catch direct and identical copies. But videos can be modified in all kinds of ways. They can be edited for length, cut into collections, processed to add comments, or even just drop a few packets during streaming. Any or all of these events could mean that a hash value will not match. No, I don't think hashing will be the silver bullet people are looking for ...
02:25 A slew of CEOs charged in alleged college entrance cheating scam
A slew of CEOs charged in alleged college entrance cheating scam https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/12/a-slew-of-ceos-are-charged-in-alleged-college-entrance-cheating-scam.html FBI accuses wealthy parents, including celebrities, in college-entrance bribery scheme https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-accuses-wealthy-parents-including-celebrities-in-college-entrance-bribery-scheme/2019/03/12/d91c9942-44d1-11e9-8aab-95b8d80a1e4f_story.html College admissions bribery scheme affidavit https://games-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/d216435e-e073-41f6-b6fa-33ed835d053d/note/1310d5d4-ef15-4ea9-ad35-5edaac10cbb5.pdf College Admissions Scandal: Actresses, Business Leaders and Other Wealthy Parents Charged https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/us/college-admissions-cheating-scandal.html >From 'master coach' to a bribery probe: A college consultant who went off the rails https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/from-master-coach-to-a-bribery-probe-a-college-consultant-who-went-off-the-rails/2019/03/12/3e3a6bfe-4501-11e9-aaf8-4512a6fe3439_story.html Why the College-Admissions Scandal Is So Absurd For the parents charged in a new FBI investigation, crime was a cheaper and simpler way to get their kids into elite schools than the typical advantages wealthy applicants receive. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/03/college-admissions-scandal-fbi-targets-wealthy-parents/584695/ Kids Are the Victims of the Elite-College Obsession: Too many families are focusing on college prep, molding the student to fit a school. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/college-bribe-scandal-shows-elite-college-obsession/584719/ [Also: https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/12/us/college-admissions-scheme-how-it-worked/index.html College scam mastermind Photoshopped students' faces onto athletes: prosecutors (NY Post): https://nypost.com/2019/03/12/college-scam-mastermind-photoshopped-students-faces-onto-athletes/ PGN]
02:25 "Security Holes Found in Big Brand Car Alarms"
Dan Simmons, BBC News, 8 Mar 2019, via ACM TechNews; Friday, March 15, 2019 Security researchers in the U.K. have found vulnerabilities in three popular smart car alarm apps, making vehicles susceptible to theft or hijacking. The apps--from the companies Clifford, Viper, and Pandora--control alarms in 3 million vehicles. For example, Pandora Alarms, which had hyped its system as "unhackable," was found to permit users to reset passwords for any account, enabling hackers to activate car alarms, unlock vehicle doors, and start engines. The researchers also determined Clifford's app had a bug that allowed them to use a legitimate account to access other users' profiles, then alter the passwords for those accounts and take control. Viper and Clifford parent firm Directed has corrected the bug, while Pandora also said it has upgraded security. Alan Woodward at the University of Surrey said it was "disappointing" that relatively simple vulnerabilities had been introduced by security companies. https://orange.hosting.lsoft.com/trk/click?ref=znwrbbrs9_6-1ed98x21ae50x069377&
02:25 Women face greater threat from job automation than men: Study
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/women-face-greater-threat-from-job-automation-than-men-study "Women across the economic spectrum are more vulnerable than men to losing their jobs to technology, according to a study released on Wednesday (March 13) by the Institute for Women's Policy Research. "Among the positions with more than a 90 per cent chance of becoming automated were administrative assistant, office clerk, bookkeeper and cashier, all fields dominated by women. "We're already seeing some of that with tasks being replaced by computers," said Ms Chandra Childers, the study director and a senior researcher at the IWPR." Risk: Gender inequality intensified by technology.
02:25 Companies are leaking sensitive files via Box accounts
Catalin Cimpanu for Zero Day | 11 Mar 2019 Companies are leaking sensitive files via Box accounts Leaks discovered at Apple, the Discovery Channel, Herbalife, Schneider Electric, and even Box itself. https://www.zdnet.com/article/companies-are-leaking-sensitive-files-via-box-accounts/ Companies that use Box.com as a cloud-based file hosting and sharing system might be accidentally exposing internal files, sensitive documents, or proprietary technology. The problem lies with Box.com account owners who don't set a default access level of "People in your company" for file/folder sharing links, leaving all newly created links accessible to the public. [What about having a warning message such as 'Warning: The default access has not been set to "People in your company". This is dangerous as outsiders could access information that should remain private.? Do you wish to change this?' [Yes] [Why Not?]] If the organization also allows users to customize the link with vanity URLs instead of using random characters, then the links of these files can be guessed using dictionary attacks. [Risk: Calling it a "vanity" URL. Being able to specify a URL is useful for mnemonic reasons. Is someone going to think the reason for specifying the name is vanity?] This is what Adversis did last year. The company says it scanned Box.com for accounts belonging to large companies and attempted to guess vanity URLs of files or folders that employees shared in the past. Its efforts weren't in vain. In a report published today, Adversis said it found a trove of highly sensitive data such as: [the usual sort of stuff: were you really expecting something else?] Most of these file leaks have been fixed, and Box notified all customers last September of the dangers of using incorrect access permissions for Box.com share links. "We provide admins tools to run various reports on open links across their enterprise, as well as to disable open and custom URLs for their enterprise," a Box spokesperson told us via email. "Admins can also ensure that 'People in the Company' is the default setting for all shared links to limit the potential for a user to set a [file] as public inadvertently." [What about making such a scan being the default action?]
02:25 When your IoT goes dark: Why every device must be open source and multicloud
Earlier this month, owners of the Jibo personal social robot—a servomotor animated smart speaker with a friendly circular display "face" that underwent $73 million of venture capital funding—saw their product's cloud services go dark after the company had its assets sold to SQN Ventures Partners in late 2018. The robot, aware of its impending demise, alerted owners with a sad farewell message: “While it's not great news, the servers out there that let me do what I do are going to be turned off soon. I want to say I've really enjoyed our time together. Thank you very, very much for having me around. Maybe someday, when robots are way more advanced than today, and everyone has them in their homes, you can tell yours that I said hello. I wonder if they'll be able to do this.'' What Jibo, no `Daisy'? So disappointing. https://www.zdnet.com/article/when-your-iot-goes-dark-why-every-device-must-be-open-source-and-multicloud/
02:25 World of hurt: GoDaddy, Apple, and Google misissue >1M certificates
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/03/godaddy-apple-and-google-goof-results-in-1-million-misissued-certificates/
02:25 Toyota patents system to dispense tear gas on car thieves
The website autoblog says: The patent includes a system that will release tear gas into the car. The noxious gas is piped in when the vehicle detects an illegitimate engine start. https://www.autoblog.com/2019/03/11/toyota-patent-tear-gas-anti-theft/ What could possibly go wrong?
02:25 Cancer Patients Are Getting Robotic Surgery; there's no evidence it's better
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/health/robotic-surgery-cancer.html This essay compares surgical outcomes of traditional v. minimally invasive (robotic-assist) surgery for cervical cancer. It also discusses use of robotic-assist surgery for off-label purposes. Between 01/01/2017 and 02/28/2019, the FDA's MAUDE (Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience) database reports the following events: 29 deaths, 72 injuries, 306 malfunctions, and 10 other attributed to Brand Name: da vinci, Manufacturer: intuitive, and product code: nay (System, Surgical, Computer Controlled Instrument). https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/cervix.html estimates 13,240 cases of cervical cancer and 4170 deaths from the disease in 2018. I cannot find a definitive reference for the total number of field deployed Da Vinci units, nor a total count of surgeries between 01JAN2017 and 28FEB2019. These figures are probably closely guarded by Intuitive Surgical, the Da Vinci's manufacturer. Risk: Patient outcome, including death. Refer to earlier comp.risks contributions on Da Vinci and robotic surgery. http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/22/36#subj5.1 http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/26/06#subj4.1 http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/30/89#subj13.1
02:25 How Artificial Intelligence Could Transform Medicine
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/well/live/how-artificial-intelligence-could-transform-medicine.html In Deep Medicine," Dr. Eric Topol looks at the ways that A.I. could improve health care, and where it might stumble.
02:25 American Airlines takes jets out of service, cancels flights due to overhead-bin problem
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/07/american-airlines-overhead-bins-leads-to-flight-cancelations.html
02:25 Boeing promised pilots a 737 software fix last year, but they're still waiting
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/business/boeing-737-software-update.html Comprehensive avionics software qualification of operational flight plans -- that stuff blown into PROMs or CPLDs—requires exceptional organizational maturity to achieve. One life-cycle maturity indicator resides in collaterals: test plans, test results, qualification wall-clock duration, and top-10 defect escapes. These data points can indicate production defect escape suppression effectiveness. Few, if any, businesses willingly publish this content. Correlate it across industrial competition and against mitre.org CVEs to enable and guide consumer purchase decisions. Open source "eyes" help to identify code defects before publication. Shouldn't commercial-grade mission critical software stacks rely on an equivalent inspection mechanism to suppress production defect escape potential? IP protection is important, but so are the life-critical nature of the product, brand resilience, and the end-user. In Boeing's case, there appears to be a maturity gap. Repair deployment delay is one, and deficient transition/training of new capabilities is another, especially in light the emphasis to "reduce deployment and airline operational costs." Risk: Change management maturity deficiency and opaque industrial operations conceal defective product. [Earlier items: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/pressure-on-boeing-grows-as-europe-grounds-the-737-max/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-tries-to-limit-the-fallout-11552523380 https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-safety/the-world-pulls-the-andon-cord-on-the-737-max/ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/13/world/boeing-737-crash-investigation.html Later items: The Aerospace Newcomer Whose Data Helped Make the Difference on Grounding the 737 MAX http://www.wsj.com/articles/aerospace-upstart-changes-how-planes-are-tracked-11552590711 Also, *The Seattle Times* today (18Mar2019) has some outstanding reporting: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/failed-certification-faa-missed-safety-issues-in-the-737-max-system-implicated-in-the-lion-air-crash/ PGN]
02:25 The Rapid Decline Of The Natural World Is A Crisis Even Bigger Than Climate Change
*A three-year UN-backed study from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform On Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services has grim implications for the future of humanity.* EXCERPT: Nature is in freefall and the planet's support systems are so stretched that we face widespread species extinctions and mass human migration unless urgent action is taken. That's the warning hundreds of scientists are preparing to give, and it's stark. The last year has seen a slew of brutal and terrifying warnings about the threat climate change poses to life. Far less talked about but just as dangerous, if not more so, is the rapid decline of the natural world. The felling of forests, the over-exploitation of seas and soils, and the pollution of air and water are together driving the living world to the brink, according to a huge three-year, U.N.-backed landmark study to be published in May. The study from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform On Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), expected to run to over 8,000 pages, is being compiled by more than 500 experts in 50 countries. It is the greatest attempt yet to assess the state of life on Earth and will show how tens of thousands of species are at high risk of extinction, how countries are using nature at a rate that far exceeds its ability to renew itself, and how nature's ability to contribute food and fresh water to a growing human population is being compromised in every region on earth. Nature underpins all economies with the `free' services it provides in the form of clean water, air and the pollination of all major human food crops by bees and insects. In the Americas, this is said to total more than $24 trillion a year. The pollination of crops globally by bees and other animals alone is worth up to $577 billion. The final report will be handed to world leaders not just to help politicians, businesses and the public become more aware of the trends shaping life on Earth, but also to show them how to better protect nature. “High-level political attention on the environment has been focused largely on climate change because energy policy is central to economic growth. But biodiversity is just as important for the future of earth as climate change,'' said Sir Robert Watson, overall chair of the study, in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C. “We are at a crossroads. The historic and current degradation and destruction of nature undermine human well-being for current and countless future generations,'' added the British-born atmospheric scientist who has led programs at NASA and was a science adviser in the Clinton administration. “Land degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change are three different faces of the same central challenge: the increasingly dangerous impact of our choices on the health of our natural environment.'' Around the world, land is being deforested, cleared and destroyed with catastrophic implications for wildlife and people. Forests are being felled across Malaysia, Indonesia and West Africa to give the world the palm oil we need for snacks and cosmetics. Huge swaths of Brazilian rainforest are being cleared to make way for soy plantations and cattle farms, and to feed the timber industry, a situation likely to accelerate under new leader Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist. Industrial farming is to blame for much of the loss of nature, said Mark Rounsevell, professor of land use change at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, who co-chaired the European section of the IPBES study. “The food system is the root of the problem. The cost of ecological degradation is not considered in the price we pay for food, yet we are still subsidizing fisheries and agriculture.'' This destruction wrought by farming threatens the foundations of our food system. A February report from the U.N. warned that the loss of soil, plants, trees and pollinators such as birds, bats and bees undermines the world's ability to produce food. An obsession with economic growth as well as spiraling human populations is also driving this destruction, particularly in the Americas where GDP is expected to nearly double by 2050 and the population is expected to increase 20 percent to 1.2 billion over the same period. [...] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nature-destruction-climate-change-world-biodiversity_n_5c49e78ce4b06ba6d3bb2d44 [Why is this item included in the ACM Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems? Because climate change can affect almost every related system, one way or another. End of story. And perhaps the end of the planet, as well. PGN]
02:25 Do you own a smartwatch, fitness tracker, or other wearable? (Poll of the Week)
Do you own a smartwatch, fitness tracker, or another wearable? If so, which one, and how often do you wear it?
02:25 Google I/O 2019 will have a new topic that's all about gaming
The new Gaming topic joins previous Google I/O topics such as Flutter, Web, Cloud, and more.
02:25 How to get the Google weather app on your phone
The Google weather app isn't listed on the Play Store, but you can still get it on your home screen with just a few taps. Here's how.
02:25 Android Q doesn't let apps automatically toggle Wi-Fi: Here's why that concerns us
Home automation apps stand to lose out after Google removed the ability to toggle Wi-Fi in Android Q.
02:25 Asus reveals which phones will get Android 9 Pie (Update: Arrives April 15 for some)
Asus phones slated to get Android 9 Pie include the ROG Phone, Zenfone Max Pro M2, and many more.
02:25 Leaked renders show off what could be the Samsung Galaxy A40
Expect the Samsung Galaxy A40 to slot in between the previously-announced Galaxy A30 and A50.
02:25 Discover skills in machine learning & data science for just $35
Take a deep dive into machine learning and data analysis across eight courses of beginner-friendly content.
02:25 The Jetson Nano is Nvidia's new $99 AI computer for everyone
Nvidia has launched the Jetson Nano, a $99 AI computing development kit that opens the way to a Raspberry Pi-like revolution.
02:25 Oppo's ColorOS 6 gets a fresh paint job, optimizations, and an app drawer
Good news â” ColorOS 6 includes an app drawer.
01:43 Google Seeking To Promote Rivals To Stave Off EU Antitrust Action
Google is trying to boost price comparison rivals such as Kelkoo in an effort to appease European Union antitrust regulators and ward off fresh fines following a $2.7 billion penalty nearly two years ago. "The European Commission said Alphabet unit Google had used its search engine market power to unfairly promote its own comparison shopping service," reports Reuters. From the report: The company subsequently offered to allow price-comparison rivals to bid for advertising space at the top of a search page, giving them the chance to compete on equal terms. But competitors said the measure failed to create a level playing field. Earlier this month, Google introduced a new link on its search results which aims to drive more traffic to price comparison rivals. British competitor Kelkoo said on its blog that it was one of several companies selected to try out the new link which will initially be available in Germany, France and the Netherlands. EU antitrust enforcers could levy fines up to 5 percent of Google's average daily worldwide turnover if it fails to comply with the 2017 order.
01:43 NVIDIA's Ray Tracing Tech Will Soon Run On Older GTX Cards
NVIDIA's older GeForce GTX 10-series cards will be getting the company's new ray-tracing tech in April. The technology, which is currently only available on its new RTX cards, "will work on GPUs from the 1060 and up, albeit with some serious caveats," reports Engadget. "Some games like Battlefield V will run just fine and deliver better visuals, but other games, like the freshly released Metro Exodus, will run at just 18 fps at 1440p -- obviously an unplayable frame-rate." From the report: What games you'll be able to play with ray-tracing tech (also known as DXR) on NVIDIA GTX cards depends entirely on how it's implemented. In Battlefield V, for instance, the tech is only used for things like reflections. On top of that, you can dial down the strength of the effect so that it consumes less computing horsepower. Metro Exodus, on the other hand, uses ray tracing to create highly realistic "global illumination" effects, simulating lighting from the real world. It's the first game that really showed the potential of RTX cards and actually generated some excitement about the tech. However, because it's so computationally intensive, GTX cards (which don't have the RTX tensor cores) will be effectively be too slow to run it.
NVIDIA explained that when it was first developing the next gen RTX tech, it found chips using Pascal tech would be "monster" sized and consume up to 650 watts. That's because the older cards lack both the integer cores and tensor cores found on the RTX cards. They get particularly stuck on ray-tracing, running about four times slower than the RTX cards on Metro Exodus. Since Metro Exodus is so heavily ray-traced, the RTX cards run it three times quicker than older GTX 10-series cards. However, that falls to two times for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and 1.6 times for Battlefield V, because both of those games use ray tracing less. The latest GTX 1660 and 1660 Ti GPUs, which don't have RT but do have integer cores, will run ray-traced games moderately better than last-gen 10-series GPUs. NVIDIA also announced that Unity and Unreal Engine now support ray-tracing, allowing developers to implement the tech into their games. Developers can use NVIDIA's new set of tools called GameWorks RTX to achieve this. "It includes the RTX Denoiser SDK that enables real-time ray-tracing through techniques that reduce the required ray count and number of samples per pixel," adds Engadget. "It will support ray-traced effects like area light shadows, glossy reflections, ambient occlusion and diffuse global illumination (the latter is used in Metro Exodus). Suffice to say, all of those things will make game look a lot prettier."
00:13 Uber Used Secret Spyware To Try To Crush Australian Startup GoCatch
Uber used a secret spyware program, codenamed Surfcam, to steal drivers from an Australian competitor with the aim of putting that company out of business. The startup was backed by high-profile investors including billionaire James Packer and hedge fund manager Alex Turnbull. ABC News reports: GoCatch was a major competitor to Uber when the U.S. company launched in Australia in 2012. At the time, both companies were offering a new way to book taxis and hire cars using a smartphone app. Surfcam was developed in Uber Australia's head office in Sydney in 2015. A former senior Uber employee has told Four Corners that the idea behind the use of the Surfcam spyware was to starve GoCatch of drivers.
"Surfcam when used in Australia was able to put fledgling Australian competitors onto the ropes," the former employee with direct knowledge of the program said on the condition of anonymity. "Surfcam allowed Uber Australia to see in real time all of the competitor cars online and to scrape data such as the driver's name, car registration, and so on." It allowed Uber to directly approach the GoCatch drivers and lure them to work for Uber. "GoCatch would lose customers due to poaching of its drivers draining their supply. With fewer and fewer drivers, GoCatch would eventually fold," the former Uber employee said. GoCatch's co-founder and chief executive, Andrew Campbell, said Uber's tactics damaged the company. He said: "The fact that Uber used hacking technologies to steal our data and our drivers is appalling. It had a massive impact on our business. It sets a really dangerous precedent for the Australian economy and Australian businesses as well. It tells every multinational company to come to Australia and follow the same practice. As an Australian small business, a technology start-up business based in Australia that's improving efficiency and service levels in the taxi industry, to have a company come to Australia and get away with that type of behavior is ... it's disgusting."
A senior Uber source has confirmed the existence of Surfcam, saying it was developed by a staff member in the Sydney head office who modified off-the-shelf data scraping software. "They said the Sydney employee did it under his own authority, and that once Uber discovered this, they requested he stop," the report says.
00:13 House Democrats Plan April Vote On Net Neutrality Bill
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced that the House will hold a vote next month on the Democrats' bill to reinstate the Obama-era net neutrality rules. "Hoyer said in a letter to colleagues that the House will consider the Save the Internet Act during the week of April 8," reports The Hill. From the report: The Republican-led Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted along party lines in 2017 to repeal the popular regulations prohibiting internet service providers from blocking or throttling websites, or from creating internet fast lanes. Democrats and consumer groups are fighting the repeal with a legal challenge in federal court and have pushed net neutrality regulations at the state level.
While Republicans have floated their own bills to replace the rules, many oppose the Save the Internet Act because it reinstates the provision in the 2015 order that designates broadband providers as common carriers, opening them up to tougher regulation and oversight from the FCC. Though it enjoys widespread support among Democrats, the legislation may have a hard time getting through the GOP-held Senate. The "Save the Internet Act" was introduced earlier this month by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House and Senate Democrats.
23:54 NVIDIA's ray tracing tech will soon run on older GTX cards
NVIDIA has announced that its ray-tracing tech, only available on its new RTX cards so far, is coming to its older GeForce GTX 10-series cards in April. The technology will work on GPUs from the GTX 1060 and up, albeit with some serious caveats. Some...
23:54 Toyota will be first to use NVIDIA's self-driving simulator
NVIDIA has announced that its autonomous vehicle simulation platform Drive Constellation is now available and that Toyota will be the first customer. The cloud based platform, first announced by CEO Jensen Huang last year, will let self-driving car d...
23:54 Atari VCS gets a spec boost and another delay
The nostalgic Atari VCS console has been delayed yet again, but at least this time you're getting more for your money. The creators have pushed back the system's launch to the end of 2019 in return for an upgrade to an as yet unannounced embedded AMD...
23:54 Xiaomi's Black Shark 2 gaming phone packs a pressure-sensitive display
Xiaomi released its third gaming phone today, the Black Shark 2, and this time around, it's using a pressure-sensitive display to cram in even more controls. Not only does the phone have an in-display fingerprint sensor by Samsung, the pressure-sensi...
23:54 'Call of Duty: Mobile' beta opens soon with classic maps and gameplay
Late last year Tencent and Activision started testing an Android mobile version of Call of Duty, and today at GDC, announced that the game will start a beta test soon that's available in regions including Europe as well as North and South America. Ca...
23:11 Brace yourselves: New variant of Mirai takes aim at a new crop of IoT devices
Virulent malware updated to add 11 new exploits.
23:11 Figuring out how an odd, gutless worm regrows its head (or tail)
We've got the genome of the closest living relative to bilaterians.
23:11 Vladimir Putin signs sweeping Internet-censorship bills
Publishing "unreliable socially significant information" can lead to big fines.
23:11 New Jersey becomes second state to ban cashless shops and restaurants
The new law takes aim at Amazon Go and others.
23:11 LG's latest, greatest OLED TVs will start shipping in April
We're still waiting to hear on the low-end B9 and the 8K and rollable variants.
23:11 Boeing downplayed 737 MAX software risks, self-certified much of plane's safety
Recovered "black box" data from Ethiopia crash shows similarities to Lion Air disaster.
22:43 NVIDIA's $99 Jetson Nano is an AI Computer for DIY Enthusiasts
Sophisticated AI generally isn't an option for homebrew devices when the mini computers can rarely handle much more than the basics. NVIDIA thinks it can do better -- it's unveiling an entry-level AI computer, the Jetson Nano, that's aimed at "developers, makers and enthusiasts." From a report: NVIDIA claims that the Nano's 128-core Maxwell-based GPU and quad-core ARM A57 processor can deliver 472 gigaflops of processing power for neural networks, high-res sensors and other robotics features while still consuming a miserly 5W. On the surface, at least, it could hit the sweet spot if you're looking to build your own robot or smart speaker. The kit can run Linux out of the box, and supports a raft of AI frameworks (including, of course, NVIDIA's own). It comes equipped with 4GB of RAM, gigabit Ethernet and the I/O you'd need for cameras and other attachments.
22:43 Education and Science Giant Elsevier Left Users' Passwords Exposed Online
The world's largest scientific publisher, Elsevier, left a server open to the public internet, exposing user email addresses and passwords. "The impacted users include people from universities and educational institutions from across the world," reports Motherboard. "It's not entirely clear how long the server was exposed or how many accounts were impacted, but it provided a rolling list of passwords as well as password reset links when a user requested to change their login credentials." From the report: "Most users are .edu [educational institute] accounts, either students or teachers," Mossab Hussein, chief security officer at cybersecurity company SpiderSilk who found the issue, told Motherboard in an online chat. "They could be using the same password for their emails, iCloud, etc." Motherboard verified the data exposure by asking Hussein to reset his own password to a specific phrase provided by Motherboard before hand. A few minutes later, the plain text password appeared on the exposed server. Elsevier secured the server after Motherboard approached the company for comment. Hussein also provided Elsevier with details of the security issue.
An Elsevier spokesperson told Motherboard in an emailed statement that "The issue has been remedied. We are still investigating how this happened, but it appears that a server was misconfigured due to human error. We have no indication that any data on the server has been misused. As a precautionary measure, we will also be informing our data protection authority, providing notice to individuals and taking appropriate steps to reset accounts."
22:43 New Mirai Malware Variant Targets Signage TVs and Presentation Systems
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Security researchers have spotted a new variant of the Mirai IoT malware in the wild targeting two new classes of devices -- smart signage TVs and wireless presentation systems. This new strain is being used by a new IoT botnet that security researchers from Palo Alto Networks have spotted earlier this year. The botnet's author(s) appears to have invested quite a lot of their time in upgrading older versions of the Mirai malware with new exploits. Palo Alto Networks researchers say this new Mirai botnet uses 27 exploits, 11 of which are new to Mirai altogether, to break into smart IoT devices and networking equipment. Furthermore, the botnet operator has also expanded Mirai's built-in list of default credentials, that the malware is using to break into devices that use default passwords. Four new username and password combos have been added to Mirai's considerable list of default creds, researchers said in a report published earlier today. The purpose and modus operandi of this new Mirai botnet are the same as all the previous botnets. Infected devices scan the internet for other IoT devices with exposed Telnet ports and use the default credentials (from their internal lists) to break in and take over these new devices. The infected bots also scan the internet for specific device types and then attempt to use one of the 27 exploits to take over unpatched systems. The new Mirai botnet is specifically targeting LG Supersign signage TVs and WePresent WiPG-1000 wireless presentation systems.