Author: Robin Edgar

Organisational Structures | Technology and Science | Military, IT and Lifestyle consultancy | Social, Broadcast & Cross Media | Flying aircraft

OpenSea (NFT marketplace) 3rd party vendor leaked all customers’ email addresses – perfect suckers for phishing campaign list

Posted on by Robin Edgar

An employee of OpenSea’s email delivery vendor Customer.io “misused” their access to download and share OpenSea users’ and newsletter subscribers’ email addresses “with an unauthorized external party,” Head of Security Cory Hardman warned on Wednesday. “If you have shared your email with OpenSea in the past, you should assume you were impacted,” Hardman continued. To Read more about OpenSea (NFT marketplace) 3rd party vendor leaked all customers’ email addresses – perfect suckers for phishing campaign list[…]

No anti money laundering Checks For Most Transfers To Unhosted Crypto Wallets, EU Policymakers Decide

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The European Union (EU) finally agreed on landmark anti-money laundering rules for crypto transactions Wednesday, despite industry concerns over the law harming privacy and innovation. The final proposals will mean customer identity needs to be verified for even the smallest crypto transfers, if it’s between two regulated digital wallet providers – but payments to unhosted Read more about No anti money laundering Checks For Most Transfers To Unhosted Crypto Wallets, EU Policymakers Decide[…]

It’s alive! Quit a few people believe their AI chatbot is sentient – and maltreated

Posted on by Robin Edgar

AI chatbot company Replika, which offers customers bespoke avatars that talk and listen to them, says it receives a handful of messages almost every day from users who believe their online friend is sentient. “We’re not talking about crazy people or people who are hallucinating or having delusions,” said Chief Executive Eugenia Kuyda. “They talk Read more about It’s alive! Quit a few people believe their AI chatbot is sentient – and maltreated[…]

Apple’s insider trading prevention guy pleads guilty to … insider trading

Posted on by Robin Edgar

One of Apple’s most senior legal executives, whom the iGiant trusted to prevent insider trading, has admitted to insider trading. Gene Levoff pleaded guilty to six counts of security fraud stemming from a February 2019 complaint, according to a Thursday announcement from the US Department of Justice on Thursday. Levoff used non-public information about Apple’s Read more about Apple’s insider trading prevention guy pleads guilty to … insider trading[…]

Google to pay $90m to settle Play Store lawsuit

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Google is to pay $90 million to settle a class-action lawsuit with US developers over alleged anti-competitive behavior regarding the Google Play Store. Eligible for a share in the $90 million fund are US developers who earned two million dollars or less in annual revenue through Google Play between 2016 and 2021. “A vast majority Read more about Google to pay $90m to settle Play Store lawsuit[…]

Open source Fundamentalists SFC quit GitHub, want you to follow – because GitHub charges for Copilot feature

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), a non-profit focused on free and open source software (FOSS), said it has stopped using Microsoft’s GitHub for project hosting – and is urging other software developers to do the same. In a blog post on Thursday, Denver Gingerich, SFC FOSS license compliance engineer, and Bradley M. Kuhn, SFC policy Read more about Open source Fundamentalists SFC quit GitHub, want you to follow – because GitHub charges for Copilot feature[…]

‘We Asked GPT-3 To Write an Academic Paper About Itself – Then We Tried To Get It Published’

Posted on by Robin Edgar

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Scientific American, written by Almira Osmanovic Thunstrom: On a rainy afternoon earlier this year, I logged in to my OpenAI account and typed a simple instruction for the company’s artificial intelligence algorithm, GPT-3: Write an academic thesis in 500 words about GPT-3 and add scientific references and citations Read more about ‘We Asked GPT-3 To Write an Academic Paper About Itself – Then We Tried To Get It Published’[…]

New Firefox privacy feature strips URLs of tracking parameters

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Numerous companies, including Facebook, Marketo, Olytics, and HubSpot, utilize custom URL query parameters to track clicks on links. For example, Facebook appends a fbclid query parameter to outbound links to track clicks, with an example of one of these URLs shown below. https://www.example.com/?fbclid=IwAR4HesRZLT-fxhhh3nZ7WKsOpaiFzsg4nH0K4WLRHw1h467GdRjaLilWbLs With the release of Firefox 102, Mozilla has added the new ‘Query Read more about New Firefox privacy feature strips URLs of tracking parameters[…]

A wide range of routers are under attack by new, unusually sophisticated malware

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…]researchers from Lumen Technologies’ Black Lotus Labs say they’ve identified at least 80 targets infected by the stealthy malware, infecting routers made by Cisco, Netgear, Asus, and DrayTek. Dubbed ZuoRAT, the remote access Trojan is part of a broader hacking campaign that has existed since at least the fourth quarter of 2020 and continues to Read more about A wide range of routers are under attack by new, unusually sophisticated malware[…]

‘Toxic’ open source GitHub discussions analyzed in study

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Toxic discussions on open-source GitHub projects tend to involve entitlement, subtle insults, and arrogance, according to an academic study. That contrasts with the toxic behavior – typically bad language, hate speech, and harassment – found on other corners of the web. Whether that seems obvious or not, it’s an interesting point to consider because, for Read more about ‘Toxic’ open source GitHub discussions analyzed in study[…]

Too Little, Too Late, WTO Finally Eases Patent Rights On COVID Vaccines

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In what definitely feels like a case of way too little, way too late, the WTO last week finally decided to grant the TRIPS waiver on COVID vaccines, allowing others to make more of the vaccine without violating patent rights. The WTO has long had this ability to issue a patent waiver as part of Read more about Too Little, Too Late, WTO Finally Eases Patent Rights On COVID Vaccines[…]

Historic borders, Mapping the boundaries of history

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Historical country borders through time     While geographic boundaries can often seem like a semi-static thing, they’ve changed a lot when you look at them on the scale of centuries. Point in History, by Hans Hack, presents a map of what boundaries used to be. Click anywhere to see the history. The map is Read more about Historic borders, Mapping the boundaries of history[…]

Cloudflare explains hour long outage which broke a lot of internets

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The incident began at 0627 UTC (2327 Pacific Time) and it took until 0742 UTC (0042 Pacific) before the company managed to bring all its datacenters back online and verify they were working correctly. During this time a variety of sites and services relying on Cloudflare went dark while engineers frantically worked to undo the Read more about Cloudflare explains hour long outage which broke a lot of internets[…]

South Korea Launches First Satellite With Homegrown Rocket

Posted on by Robin Edgar

South Korea conducted its first successful satellite launch using a domestically developed rocket on Tuesday, officials said, boosting its growing aerospace ambitions and demonstrating it has key technologies needed to launch spy satellites and build larger missiles amid tensions with rival North Korea. The three-stage Nuri rocket placed a functioning “performance verification” satellite at a Read more about South Korea Launches First Satellite With Homegrown Rocket[…]

Transparent Display Hacked to Look Like Shower Door

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] The most practical use for transparent LCDs has been in hospitals, where rooms with large windows can be made private at the push of a button that causes the panels to instantly become opaque. µProto「Wipe Fake」 That’s presumably what inspired this team of designers from IMG SRC, who in just two months created the Read more about Transparent Display Hacked to Look Like Shower Door[…]

Popular blockchains can be centralised fairly easily | Trail of Bits study funded by DARPA

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…]Over the past year, Trail of Bits was engaged by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to examine the fundamental properties of blockchains and the cybersecurity risks associated with them. DARPA wanted to understand those security assumptions and determine to what degree blockchains are actually decentralized. […] The report also contains links to the Read more about Popular blockchains can be centralised fairly easily | Trail of Bits study funded by DARPA[…]

How to Search Reddit and Actually Find What You Want using keywords

Posted on by Robin Edgar

These keywords allow you to tell Reddit to search for only specific things, rather than the entirety of Reddit. These aren’t menu-based, meaning you’ll need to know which terms to enter into the search bar to get the results you want. There are eight in total, and you can use them in the following ways: Read more about How to Search Reddit and Actually Find What You Want using keywords[…]

Miners flood market with GPUs they no longer need as cryptocurrencies crash

Posted on by Robin Edgar

As the cryptocurrency market currently goes through one of its worst nosedives in recent years, miners are trying to get rid of their mining hardware. Due to the crashing prices of popular crypto coins, numerous Chinese miners and e-cafes are flooding the market with graphics cards they no longer need. Miners, e-cafes, and scalpers are Read more about Miners flood market with GPUs they no longer need as cryptocurrencies crash[…]

Spain, Austria not convinced location data is personal

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] EU privacy group NOYB (None of your business), set up by privacy warrior Max “Angry Austrian” Schrems, said on Tuesday it appealed a decision of the Spanish Data Protection Authority (AEPD) to support Virgin Telco’s refusal to provide the location data it has stored about a customer. In Spain, according to NOYB, the government Read more about Spain, Austria not convinced location data is personal[…]

The 10 Best Illusions of the Year 2021

Posted on by Robin Edgar

the finalists of this year’s Best Illusion of the Year Contest aren’t going to leave your brain feeling any less raddled, confused, or exhausted as we quickly approach the new year. As they do every year, a group of talented neurologists, visual scientists, ophthalmologists, and artists have come together to create and celebrate the best Read more about The 10 Best Illusions of the Year 2021[…]

Scientists develop antimicrobial, plant-based food wrap designed to replace plastic

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Aiming to produce environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic food wrap and containers, a Rutgers scientist has developed a biodegradable, plant-based coating that can be sprayed on foods, guarding against pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms and transportation damage. The scalable process could potentially reduce the adverse environmental impact of plastic food packaging as well as protect human Read more about Scientists develop antimicrobial, plant-based food wrap designed to replace plastic[…]

Virpil VPC Desk Mount linear rail adapter for MongoosT / WarBRD / Stream Deck by SciMonster – Thingiverse

Posted on by Robin Edgar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWXf6EsfZ4c&t=62s Mount your Virpil Throttle and Stick to linear rails so you can slide them along your desk. This allows you to move your HOTAS aside when you use the computer for other work. When flying your aircraft or spaceship, a spring-loaded locking meachanism holds your HOTAS securely in place. The files are designed for Read more about Virpil VPC Desk Mount linear rail adapter for MongoosT / WarBRD / Stream Deck by SciMonster – Thingiverse[…]

Attacking ML systems by changing  the order of the training data

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Machine learning is vulnerable to a wide variety of attacks. It is now well understood that by changing the underlying data distribution, an adversary can poison the model trained with it or introduce backdoors. In this paper we present a novel class of training-time attacks that require no changes to the underlying dataset or model Read more about Attacking ML systems by changing  the order of the training data[…]