The Linkielist

Linking ideas with the world

McAfee’s Cryptocurrency Leaks Personal Information for Thousands of Investors

Posted on by Robin Edgar

On Mar 30, researchers at Kromtech Security identified a database open to the public containing full names, addresses, email addresses, encrypted passwords, wallet information, along with links to scanned passports, driver’s licenses, and other IDs for over 25,000 investors of the newly created Bezop. The information was found within a MongoDB database without any security. Read more about McAfee’s Cryptocurrency Leaks Personal Information for Thousands of Investors[…]

Gaia creates richest star map of our Galaxy – and beyond / Gaia / Space Science / Our Activities / ESA

Posted on by Robin Edgar

ESA’s Gaia mission has produced the richest star catalogue to date, including high-precision measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars and revealing previously unseen details of our home Galaxy. A multitude of discoveries are on the horizon after this much awaited release, which is based on 22 months of charting the sky. The new data includes Read more about Gaia creates richest star map of our Galaxy – and beyond / Gaia / Space Science / Our Activities / ESA[…]

Researchers are keeping pig brains alive outside the body

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In a step that could change the definition of death, researchers have restored circulation to the brains of decapitated pigs and kept the reanimated organs alive for as long as 36 hours. The feat offers scientists a new way to study intact brains in the lab in stunning detail. But it also inaugurates a bizarre Read more about Researchers are keeping pig brains alive outside the body[…]

The World’s First Working Projector Smartwatch Turns Your Arm Into a Big Touchscreen

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag. GIF: Carnegie Mellon University & ASU Tech Some smartwatches come with powerful processors, lots of storage, and robust software, but have limited capabilities compared to smartphones thanks to their tiny touchscreens. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, however, have now created a smartwatch prototype with a built-in projector Read more about The World’s First Working Projector Smartwatch Turns Your Arm Into a Big Touchscreen[…]

The Golden State Killer Suspect’s DNA Was in a Publicly Available Database, and Yours Might Be Too

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Plenty of people have voluntarily uploaded their DNA to GEDmatch and other databases, often with real names and contact information. It’s what you do if you’re an adopted kid looking for a long-lost parent, or a genealogy buff curious about whether you have any cousins still living in the old country. GEDmatch requires that you Read more about The Golden State Killer Suspect’s DNA Was in a Publicly Available Database, and Yours Might Be Too[…]

‘Forget the Facebook leak’: China is mining data directly from workers’ brains on an industrial scale

Posted on by Robin Edgar

the workers wear caps to monitor their brainwaves, data that management then uses to adjust the pace of production and redesign workflows, according to the company. The company said it could increase the overall efficiency of the workers by manipulating the frequency and length of break times to reduce mental stress. Hangzhou Zhongheng Electric is Read more about ‘Forget the Facebook leak’: China is mining data directly from workers’ brains on an industrial scale[…]

Chinese government admits collection of deleted WeChat messages

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Chinese authorities revealed over the weekend that they have the capability of retrieving deleted messages from the almost universally used WeChat app. The admission doesn’t come as a surprise to many, but it’s rare for this type of questionable data collection tactic to be acknowledged publicly.As noted by the South China Morning Post, an anti-corruption Read more about Chinese government admits collection of deleted WeChat messages[…]

AI boffins rebel against closed-access academic journal Nature

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Thousands of machine-learning wizards have signed an open statement boycotting a new AI-focused academic journal, disapproving of the paper’s policy of closed-access.Nature Machine Intelligence is a specialized journal concentrating on intelligent systems and robotics research. It’s expected to launch in January next year, and is part of Nature Publishing Group, one of the world’s top Read more about AI boffins rebel against closed-access academic journal Nature[…]

Revealed: how bookies use AI to keep gamblers hooked | Technology | The Guardian

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The gambling industry is increasingly using artificial intelligence to predict consumer habits and personalise promotions to keep gamblers hooked, industry insiders have revealed.Current and former gambling industry employees have described how people’s betting habits are scrutinised and modelled to manipulate their future behaviour.“The industry is using AI to profile customers and predict their behaviour in Read more about Revealed: how bookies use AI to keep gamblers hooked | Technology | The Guardian[…]

Europe divided over robot ‘personhood’

Posted on by Robin Edgar

While autonomous robots with humanlike, all-encompassing capabilities are still decades away, European lawmakers, legal experts and manufacturers are already locked in a high-stakes debate about their legal status: whether it’s these machines or human beings who should bear ultimate responsibility for their actions. The battle goes back to a paragraph of text, buried deep in a European Read more about Europe divided over robot ‘personhood’[…]

Tried checking under the sofa? Indian BTC exchange Coinsecure finds itself $3.5m lighter

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Indian Bitcoin exchange Coinsecure has mislaid 438.318 BTC belonging to its customers. In a statement by parent firm Secure Bitcoin Traders Pvt, posted late on Thursday, the biz said its chief security officer had extracted a bunch of Bitcoin to distribute to punters – and discovered the funds were “lost in the process.” The vanished Read more about Tried checking under the sofa? Indian BTC exchange Coinsecure finds itself $3.5m lighter[…]

Google uses AI to seperate out audio from a single person in a high noise rate video

Posted on by Robin Edgar

People are remarkably good at focusing their attention on a particular person in a noisy environment, mentally “muting” all other voices and sounds. Known as the cocktail party effect, this capability comes natural to us humans. However, automatic speech separation — separating an audio signal into its individual speech sources — while a well-studied problem, Read more about Google uses AI to seperate out audio from a single person in a high noise rate video[…]

Watch artificial intelligence create a 3D model of a person—from just a few seconds of video

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Transporting yourself into a video game, body and all, just got easier. Artificial intelligence has been used to create 3D models of people’s bodies for virtual reality avatars, surveillance, visualizing fashion, or movies. But it typically requires special camera equipment to detect depth or to view someone from multiple angles. A new algorithm creates 3D models Read more about Watch artificial intelligence create a 3D model of a person—from just a few seconds of video[…]

Whois is dead as Europe hands DNS overlord ICANN its arse :(

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Whois public database of domain name registration details is dead. In a letter [PDF] sent this week to DNS overseer ICANN, Europe’s data protection authorities have effectively killed off the current service, noting that it breaks the law and so will be illegal come 25 May, when GDPR comes into force. The letter also Read more about Whois is dead as Europe hands DNS overlord ICANN its arse 🙁[…]

Orkut Hello: The Man Behind Orkut Says His ‘Hello’ Platform Doesn’t Sell User Data

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In 2004, one of the world’s most popular social networks, Orkut, was founded by a former Google employee named Orkut Büyükkökten. Later that year, a Harvard University student named Mark Zuckerberg launched ‘the Facebook’, which over the course of a year became ubiquitous in Ivy League universities and was eventually called Facebook.com. Orkut was shut Read more about Orkut Hello: The Man Behind Orkut Says His ‘Hello’ Platform Doesn’t Sell User Data[…]

Do you have a browser based bitcoin wallet? Check you’re not hacked if it’s JavaScript based

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A significant number of past and current cryptocurrency products contain a JavaScript class named SecureRandom(), containing both entropy collection and a PRNG. The entropy collection and the RNG itself are both deficient to the degree that key material can be recovered by a third party with medium complexity. There are a substantial number of variations Read more about Do you have a browser based bitcoin wallet? Check you’re not hacked if it’s JavaScript based[…]

Cops Around the Country Can Now Unlock iPhones, Records Show

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Police forces and federal agencies around the country have bought relatively cheap tools to unlock up-to-date iPhones and bypass their encryption, according to a Motherboard investigation based on several caches of internal agency documents, online records, and conversations with law enforcement officials. Many of the documents were obtained by Motherboard using public records requests.   Read more about Cops Around the Country Can Now Unlock iPhones, Records Show[…]

India completes its GPS alternative, for the second time

Posted on by Robin Edgar

India has successfully conducted the satellite launch needed to re-construct its Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). The Indian Space Research Organisation’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C41 ascended on Thursday, April 12th. Atop the craft was a satellite designated IRNSS-1L, the last of seven satellites in India’s constellation of navigational craft. India understands that satellite Read more about India completes its GPS alternative, for the second time[…]

This AI Can Automatically Animate New Flintstones Cartoons

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Researchers have successfully trained artificial intelligence to generate new clips of the prehistoric animated series based on nothing but random text descriptions of what’s happening in a scene. A team of researchers from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, trained an AI by feeding it over 25,000 three-second clips Read more about This AI Can Automatically Animate New Flintstones Cartoons[…]

Properly random random number generator generated

Posted on by Robin Edgar

From dice to modern electronic circuits, there have been many attempts to build better devices to generate random numbers. Randomness is fundamental to security and cryptographic systems and to safeguarding privacy. A key challenge with random-number generators is that it is hard to ensure that their outputs are unpredictable1,2,3. For a random-number generator based on a Read more about Properly random random number generator generated[…]

Data exfiltrators send info over PCs’ power supply cables

Posted on by Robin Edgar

If you want your computer to be really secure, disconnect its power cable. So says Mordechai Guri and his team of side-channel sleuths at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The crew have penned a paper titled PowerHammer: Exfiltrating Data from Air-Gapped Computers through Power Lines that explains how attackers could install malware that regulates Read more about Data exfiltrators send info over PCs’ power supply cables[…]

FDA approves AI-powered software to detect diabetic retinopathy

Posted on by Robin Edgar

30.3 million Americans have diabetes according to a 2015 CDC study. An additional 84.1 million have prediabetes, which often leads to the full disease within five years. It’s important to detect diabetes early to avoid health complications like heart disease, stroke, amputation of extremities and vision loss. Technology increasingly plays an important role in early Read more about FDA approves AI-powered software to detect diabetic retinopathy[…]

After Millions of Trials, These Simulated Humans Learned to Do Perfect Backflips and Cartwheels

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Using well-established machine learning techniques, researchers from University of California, Berkeley have taught simulated humanoids to perform over 25 natural motions, from somersaults and cartwheels through to high leg kicks and breakdancing. The technique could lead to more realistic video gameplay and more agile robots. […] UC Berkeley graduate student Xue Bin “Jason” Peng, along Read more about After Millions of Trials, These Simulated Humans Learned to Do Perfect Backflips and Cartwheels[…]