Belgium’s Hard-Worked F-16 with P&W F100 engines Fighter Fleet Has Just Been Grounded

Belgium’s entire fleet of F-16 fighter jets, the backbone of its combat air force, has been grounded since yesterday after one of the Vipers experienced problems with its Pratt & Whitney F100 engine. As of today, the air defense of the European country has now been taken over by the neighboring Netherlands. “While technicians work Read more about Belgium’s Hard-Worked F-16 with P&W F100 engines Fighter Fleet Has Just Been Grounded[…]

Construction Of A Large Runway Suddenly Appears On Highly Strategic Island In The Red Sea

Satellite imagery shows that, earlier this year, construction began on a new, approximately 6,150-foot-long runway on Perim, an island right in the middle of the highly strategic Bab Al Mandeb Strait, which links the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. In addition to its location inside this critical maritime junction, which is an important Read more about Construction Of A Large Runway Suddenly Appears On Highly Strategic Island In The Red Sea[…]

Hackers Looted Passenger Data From Some of the Biggest Airlines through Supplier SITA

SITA, a data firm that works with some of the world’s largest airlines, announced Thursday that it had been the victim of a “highly sophisticated cyberattack,” the likes of which compromised information on hundreds of thousands of airline passengers all over the world. The attack, which occurred in February, targeted data stored on SITA’s Passenger Service Read more about Hackers Looted Passenger Data From Some of the Biggest Airlines through Supplier SITA[…]

Facebook uses one billion Instagram photos to build massive object-recognition AI that partly trained itself

Known as SEER, short for SElf-supERvised, this massive convolutional neural network contains over a billion parameters. If you show it images of things, it will describe in words what it recognizes: a bicycle, a banana, a red-and-blue striped golfing umbrella, and so on. While its capabilities aren’t all that novel, the way it was trained Read more about Facebook uses one billion Instagram photos to build massive object-recognition AI that partly trained itself[…]

Results of US ‘Universal Basic Income’ Program? Employment Increased

After getting $500 per month for two years without rules on how to spend it, 125 people in California paid off debt, got full-time jobs and reported lower rates of anxiety and depression, according to a study released Wednesday. The program in the Northern California city of Stockton was the highest-profile experiment in the U.S. Read more about Results of US ‘Universal Basic Income’ Program? Employment Increased[…]

Furious AI Researcher Creates Site Shaming Non-Reproducible Machine Learning Papers

The Next Web tells the story of an AI researcher who discovered the results of a machine learning research paper couldn’t be reproduced. But then they’d heard similar stories from Reddit’s Machine Learning forum: “Easier to compile a list of reproducible ones…,” one user responded. “Probably 50%-75% of all papers are unreproducible. It’s sad, but Read more about Furious AI Researcher Creates Site Shaming Non-Reproducible Machine Learning Papers[…]

Waymo simulated (not very many) real-world (if the world was limited to 100 sq miles) crashes to prove its self-driving cars can prevent deaths

In a bid to prove that its robot drivers are safer than humans, Waymo simulated dozens of real-world fatal crashes that took place in Arizona over nearly a decade. The Google spinoff discovered that replacing either vehicle in a two-car crash with its robot-guided minivans would nearly eliminate all deaths, according to data it publicized Read more about Waymo simulated (not very many) real-world (if the world was limited to 100 sq miles) crashes to prove its self-driving cars can prevent deaths[…]

The “Crazy Huge Hack” of Microsoft, Explained – it dwarfs SolarWinds

Last week, Microsoft announced that the on-premises version of its widely used email and calendaring product Exchange had several previously undisclosed security flaws. These flaws, the company said, were being used by foreign threat actors to hack into the networks of U.S. businesses and governments, primarily to steal large troves of email data. Since then, Read more about The “Crazy Huge Hack” of Microsoft, Explained – it dwarfs SolarWinds[…]

Hackers Target Surveillance Firm, Exposing thousands Live Camera Feeds at Tesla, Cloudflare, Hospitals, Jails, Police, etc etc etc in anti-surveillance ideology

A hacker group claims to have broken into the networks of cloud-based surveillance startup Verkada, gaining unfiltered access to thousands and thousands of live security camera feeds in the process. The hack first gained public attention Tuesday afternoon, when a Twitter user who goes by the name “Tillie” began leaking purported images of the hack Read more about Hackers Target Surveillance Firm, Exposing thousands Live Camera Feeds at Tesla, Cloudflare, Hospitals, Jails, Police, etc etc etc in anti-surveillance ideology[…]

Russian Cracker / Cybercrime Forums Hacked

n the latest in a string of “hits” on Russian dark web forums, the prominent crime site Maza appears to have been hacked by someone earlier this week. This is kind of big news since Maza (previously called “Mazafaka”) has long been a destination for all assortment of criminal activity, including malware distribution, money laundering, Read more about Russian Cracker / Cybercrime Forums Hacked[…]

GPS jamming around Cyprus gives our air traffic controllers a headache, says Eurocontrol

[…] Jamming of the essential navigational satellite signal has caused enough headaches for the EU air traffic control organisation to prompt an investigation, complete with an instrumented aircraft designed to detect signs of GPS jamming. Airliners rely on GPS to a great extent, and air traffic management (the science of making sure airliners don’t come Read more about GPS jamming around Cyprus gives our air traffic controllers a headache, says Eurocontrol[…]

Volumetric OLED Display Shows Bladerunner Vibe, Curious Screen Tech

Sean Hodgins] is out with his latest video and it’s a piece of art in itself. Beyond a traditional project show and tell, he’s spun together a cyberpunk vibe to premiere the volumetric display he built from an OLED stackup. The trick of a volumetric display is the ability to add a third dimension for Read more about Volumetric OLED Display Shows Bladerunner Vibe, Curious Screen Tech[…]

Bag maker Peak Design calls out Amazon for its copycat ways

Amazon is well-known for its copycat ways, but it’s not so often that another company calls it out on it, much less in a way that’s funny. But that’s exactly what Peak Design did today when it uploaded a video to YouTube comparing its Everyday Sling to a camera bag from AmazonBasics that shares the Read more about Bag maker Peak Design calls out Amazon for its copycat ways[…]

RAWGraphs releases version 2

RAW Graphs is an open source data visualization framework built with the goal of making the visual representation of complex data easy for everyone. Primarily conceived as a tool for designers and vis geeks, RAW Graphs aims at providing a missing link between spreadsheet applications (e.g. Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, OpenRefine) and vector graphics editors (e.g. Read more about RAWGraphs releases version 2[…]

Posted in Art

Hackers exploit websites to give them excellent SEO before deploying malware

According to Sophos, the so-called search engine “deoptimization” method includes both SEO tricks and the abuse of human psychology to push websites that have been compromised up Google’s rankings. […] In a blog post on Monday, the cybersecurity team said the technique, dubbed “Gootloader,” involves deployment of the infection framework for the Gootkit Remote Access Read more about Hackers exploit websites to give them excellent SEO before deploying malware[…]

ICANN Refuses to Accredit Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Due to His ‘Background’

Peter Sunde was one of the key people behind The Pirate Bay in the early years, a role for which he was eventually convicted in Sweden. While Sunde cut his ties with the notorious torrent site many years ago, he remains an active and vocal personality on the Internet. […] Sunde is also involved with Read more about ICANN Refuses to Accredit Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Due to His ‘Background’[…]

SpaceX Mars prototype rocket nails landing for the first time – then explodes

SpaceX rocket prototype, known as SN10, soared over South Texas during test flight Wednesday before swooping down to a pinpoint landing near its launch site. Approximately three minutes after landing, however, multiple independent video feeds showed the rocket exploding on its landing pad. SpaceX’s SN10, an early prototype of the company’s Starship Mars rocket, took Read more about SpaceX Mars prototype rocket nails landing for the first time – then explodes[…]

How I cut GTA Online loading times by 70% (GTA fix JSON handler pls)

[…] tl;dr There’s a single thread CPU bottleneck while starting up GTA Online It turns out GTA struggles to parse a 10MB JSON file The JSON parser itself is poorly built / naive and After parsing there’s a slow item de-duplication routine R* please fix If this somehow reaches Rockstar: the problems shouldn’t take more Read more about How I cut GTA Online loading times by 70% (GTA fix JSON handler pls)[…]

Ticketcounter leaks data for millions of people, didn’t delete sensitive data and was outed

Data of visitors to Diergaarde Blijdorp, Apenheul, Dierenpark Amersfoort and dozens of other theme parks are on the street. Ticket seller Ticketcounter is also extorted for 3 tons. An employee accidentally posted data online where they didn’t have to. As a result, the data could be found there for months (from 5 August 2020 to Read more about Ticketcounter leaks data for millions of people, didn’t delete sensitive data and was outed[…]

First Fully Weaponized Spectre Exploit Discovered Online

A fully weaponized exploit for the Spectre CPU vulnerability was uploaded on the malware-scanning website VirusTotal last month, marking the first time a working exploit capable of doing actual damage has entered the public domain. The exploit was discovered by French security researcher Julien Voisin. It targets Spectre, a major vulnerability that was disclosed in Read more about First Fully Weaponized Spectre Exploit Discovered Online[…]

EU law requires companies to fix electronic goods for up to 10 years

Companies that sell refrigerators, washers, hairdryers, or TVs in the European Union will need to ensure those appliances can be repaired for up to 10 years, to help reduce the vast mountain of electrical waste that piles up each year on the continent. The “right to repair,” as it is sometimes called, comes into force Read more about EU law requires companies to fix electronic goods for up to 10 years[…]

Far-Right Platform Gab Has Been Hacked, Private Data and all – not encrypted in the backend

When Twitter banned Donald Trump and a slew of other far-right users in January, many of them became digital refugees, migrating to sites like Parler and Gab to find a home that wouldn’t moderate their hate speech and disinformation. Days later, Parler was hacked, and then it was dropped by Amazon web hosting, knocking the Read more about Far-Right Platform Gab Has Been Hacked, Private Data and all – not encrypted in the backend[…]