WikiLeaks Releases Trove of Alleged C.I.A. Hacking Documents
In what appears to be the largest leak of C.I.A documents
in history, WikiLeaks released on Tuesday thousands of
pages describing sophisticated software tools and techniques used by the agency
to break into smartphones, computers and even Internet-connected televisions.
The documents
amount to a detailed, highly technical catalog of
tools. [Not the actual tools. Bob] They include instructions for
compromising a wide range of common computer tools for use in spying: the
online calling service Skype; Wi-Fi networks; documents in PDF format; and even
commercial antivirus programs of the kind used by millions of people to protect
their computers.
The initial release, which WikiLeaks said was only the
first installment in a larger collection of secret C.I.A. material, included
7,818 web pages with 943 attachments, many of them partly redacted by WikiLeaks
editors to avoid disclosing the actual code
for cyberweapons. The entire
archive of C.I.A. material consists of several hundred million lines of
computer code, the group claimed.
… In some regard,
the C.I.A. documents confirmed and filled in the details on abilities that have
long been suspected in technical circles.
I thought I had reported this earlier.
Jason Meisner and Steve Schmadeke report:
In the latest skirmish over privacy in the
cellphone age, a federal judge in Chicago has rejected a law enforcement
request to force potential targets in an ongoing investigation to provide
fingerprints to unlock any iPhones or other Apple devices.
The order by U.S. Magistrate Judge David Weisman
concerned a request for a warrant to search a residence where investigators
believed someone was using the internet to traffic images of child pornography,
court records show.
The prosecution filing seeking the search warrant
on the FBI’s behalf remains under seal, but the judge’s opinion said the
government requested “the authority to compel any individual who is present at
the subject premises at the time of the search” to provide a fingerprint or
thumbprint needed to unlock an Apple device.
Read more on Chicago
Tribune
I know some IP lawyers who will be watching this like
hawks. Did this AI turn criminal on its
own or was it programmed that way?
Microsoft’s AI Is Now Writing Its Own Code by Looting Other
Programs (MSFT)
Thou Shall Not Steal. [Unless thou
hast a good lawyer? Bob] It’s a guiding principle that applies to
everything. But not anymore. Not after a team of researchers from software
giant Microsoft
and Cambridge University built DeepCoder — a highly intelligent and
sophisticated computer system that makes it possible for machines to write
their own programs, by stealing code from other people (or other machines). And if you forget the stealing part, its
intentions are actually good.
With DeepCoder, it will now be possible for people who
can’t code very well or don’t know how to code at all to write their own
programs. All they have to do is
describe what it is they want done, and the computer will write the appropriate
code to get it done. Even better, it can
create programs in a matter of seconds, unlike its older predecessors which
needed several minutes to do the job. Ideally, this means that people will have more
time to spend on productive, rather than trivial
stuff. [Rather insulting to us programmers!
Bob]
… “The potential
for automation that this kind of technology offers could really signify an
enormous [reduction] in the amount of effort it takes to develop code. Generating a really big piece of code in one
shot is hard, and potentially unrealistic. But really big pieces of code are built by
putting together lots of little pieces of code.”
Just another thing on that Internet of Things. No doubt they will phone or text if anything
changes.
Pirelli, Goodyear Look to Gain Grip With Smart Tires
Companies show concept tires that send data including
pressure, wear and temperature to a mobile app
Interesting to me, because they had to succeed at least
2,000 times to make $6,000,000
It’s finally over: Mastermind behind Prenda Law porn trolls
pleads guilty
… After years of
denial, John
Steele admitted Monday that he and co-defendant Paul Hansmeier made more
than $6 million by threatening Internet users with copyright lawsuits.
It's perfectly legal to sue Internet pirates—but not the
way Steele did it. Steele and Hansmeier
set up "sham entities" to get copyrights to pornographic movies,
"some of which they filmed themselves," according to the Department
of Justice's statement
on the plea. Steele and Hansmeier
then uploaded those movies to file-sharing websites such as The Pirate Bay and
then sued the people who downloaded the content.
Perspective. We are
moving toward an ‘all mobile’ society.
Android Poised To Topple Windows As World’s Most Used
Operating System
It looks as though Google’s Android operating system
is on the verge of making history. According
to analytics firm StatCounter, the current trending shows Android quickly
approaching parity with Windows
as the world’s most popular operating system among all computing
devices.
What more striking, however, is the fact that Microsoft
has been losing overall market share at a rapid pace since 2012. At that time, Microsoft was riding high with
82 percent share of all global OS traffic. But it has been a steady march downward, and
today Microsoft’s Windows-based operating systems have a collective 38.6
percent share of the global OS market according to StatCounter.
… “The idea of
Android almost matching Windows would have been unthinkable five years ago,”
said StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen. “Windows
has won the desktop war but the battlefield has moved on.”
The
changing of the guard can no doubt be attributed to the declining importance of
PCs in the everyday lives of consumers, and the increasing ubiquity of
smartphones as our “go to” tool for communications.
Perspective. We do need broadcast TV or cable TV.
CTA – Number of Streaming Video Viewers Now Equal To Paid TV
Subscribers
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on Mar 7, 2017
“For the first time ever, the percentage of free or paid
streaming video subscribers in the U.S. (68 percent) has caught up to the
number of paid TV subscribers (67 percent), according to new research from the
Consumer Technology Association (CTA) ™. The new study, The
Changing Landscape for Video and Content, also shows the time
consumers spend watching video content on TVs (51 percent in 2016, down 11
points since 2012) is now equaled by – within the sampling margin of error –
time spent watching video content on all other consumer technology devices (49
percent) including laptops, tablets and smartphones. “More and more consumers are embracing the
freedom of connectivity – in this case, the anytime/anywhere access to video
content,” said Steve Koenig, senior director of market research, CTA. “This is one of the driving trends of our
time. Today’s advancement of technology
delivers ‘content convenience’ that results in cultural changes such as binge
watching, second screen behavior, content recommendations and the screens
consumers use to consume video. And we
expect streaming subscribers to surpass paid TV services – and by a fair margin
– in the next year or so.”
Perspective. Groceries
is a very low margin business. I
wondered how delivery services would make an money without pricing themselves
out of business.
Instacart raises $400 million at a $3.4 billion valuation to
deliver groceries on-demand
… As TechCrunch
has previously reported, Instacart has multiple revenue streams. The company charges customers a markup on
groceries, plus a fee for delivering items to their doors. In addition, consumer packaged goods brands
pay Instacart to advertise on its platform. And the startup strikes revenue share
agreements with partners including grocery chains like Whole Foods.
Imagine what this company would be worth if it was capable
of making a profit!
Digital Financial Startup BankMobile to Be Sold for $175
Million
BankMobile, a two-year-old digital-banking upstart founded
by a veteran executive of financial firms, announced Wednesday that it is being
sold for $175 million after its parent company said it wouldn’t be able to operate
the business profitably.
Something for the toolkit?
This could be handy!
… Markticle,
available for Web, Chrome, and Android, is the solution.
It helps you mark your reading progress in articles so
that you can come back to the exact spot on the webpage later. In brief, it is a read-it-later bookmark tool
that homes in not only to the article but also the particular line you want
saved for later.
A warning for gamers? Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Do we need an App that monitors your health
and stops the game (or calls the ambulance) when you get over-stimulated?
Man suffers fatal heart attack after catching one of the
rarest creatures in ‘Pokemon Go’
Pokemon Go has gotten countless players up off of
the couch and on their feet in search of the endlessly charming creatures, and it’s
been hailed as a great fitness tool
for that very reason. Unfortunately, it
seems the pure joy of snatching a particularly elusive monster was a bit too
much for one Singaporean man who, after nabbing a prized catch, suffered a
fatal heart attack.
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