Friday, January 25, 2019

For anyone who relies on (or might be fooled by) emails.
News outlet’s email security gap
Axios: “An Axios study shows that very few news organizations — around 6% of a broad sample — successfully use a critical technology that guarantees emails they send are authentic. The big picture: We’ve written before about the Department of Homeland Security’s struggle to get federal agencies and the White House to implement DMARC, a security protocol that prevents someone from successfully sending an email using someone else’s email address. It’s only fair to turn that lens on our own industry.
Why it matters: As the news industry increases its reliance on email alerts and newsletters (represent!), our credibility makes us a target for spammers, scammers and purveyors of disinformation or fraud.
  • Imagine a news alert that appears to come from a business publication claiming a company was going bankrupt.
  • Or consider a newsletter on Election Day claiming a candidate had suddenly changed position on a key issue.




I should have linked to this yesterday. Worth looking at the Cyber and AI issues.
22nd Annual Global CEO Survey
Last year, our survey revealed record-breaking CEO optimism. This year, chief executives tell a different story. Trade conflicts, political upset, and a projected slowdown in global economic growth have increased uncertainty and decreased confidence in revenue prospects. Explore the strategies organisations are using to navigate this new environment.




As expected, since it significantly tightens controls. It’s getting there that’s hard.
GDPR Compliance Brings Other Benefits: Cisco Study
The Data Privacy Benchmark Study shows that organizations that have invested in customer privacy requirements, mainly to become GDPR compliant and to avoid fines and penalties, are seeing some benefits beyond GDPR compliance.
Meeting data security requirements, internal training, keeping up with evolving developments, complying with privacy-by-design requirements, and meeting data subject access requests were cited as some of the most significant challenges in getting ready for GDPR.
The number of organizations that have reported sales delays due to data privacy concerns has increased to 87%, from 66% in the previous year. However, Cisco found that sales delays were 1-2 weeks shorter in the case of GDPR-ready organizations, compared to ones that expect to become compliant within a year or more.
While a majority of the surveyed companies admitted being hit by a data breach in the past year, the percentage of GDPR-ready organizations affected was 74%, compared to 80% in the case of organizations that expect to become ready in less than a year and 89% for ones that still have a long way to go.
Furthermore, GDPR-ready organizations that have suffered a data breach reported that the average number of impacted records was 79,000, compared to 212,000 reported by non-compliant organizations.
Cisco also found that the system downtime associated with a breach was shorter in the case of GDPR-ready firms, and the costs of dealing with the incident were also considerably smaller.


(Related) You have to get it right in the eyes of each EU country.
Google to Appeal 50-Million-Euro French Data Consent Fine
"We've worked hard to create a GDPR consent process for personalised ads that is as transparent and straightforward as possible, based on regulatory guidance and user experience testing," the company said in a statement.
"We're also concerned about the impact of this ruling on publishers, original content creators and tech companies in Europe and beyond," it added.
"For all these reasons, we've now decided to appeal."




This might work, until I figure how to keep the tag and change the content.
Twitter is testing an 'original tweeter' label for threads
Twitter is testing a way to make it easier to spot the person who started a thread. A small percentage of iOS and Android users are seeing an "original tweeter" label. The company said earlier this month that it would publicly test some context and organization features.
It's a useful feature, and it could reduce some types of abuse, particularly if the original tweeter is, say, Bill Gates and the replies include those from scammy imitation accounts. The label, along with the blue verified checkmark, could make it more immediately obvious when Gates himself is replying




Just in time for my Cryptography lecture.
Zuckerberg Plans to Integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, plans to integrate the social network’s messaging services — WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger — asserting his control over the company’s sprawling divisions at a time when its business has been battered by scandals.
… Mr. Zuckerberg has also ordered all of the apps to incorporate end-to-end encryption, the people said, a significant step that protects messages from being viewed by anyone except the participants in the conversation. After the changes take effect, a Facebook user could send an encrypted message to someone who has only a WhatsApp account, for example. Currently, that isn’t possible because the apps are separate.




Select the new machines as if everyone expects you to rig the election.
Georgia Official Seeks to Replace Criticized Voting Machines
Georgia's new elections chief asked lawmakers Wednesday for $150 million to replace the state's outdated electronic voting machines. In doing so, he all but closed the door on a hand-marked paper balloting system that experts say is cheapest and most secure.
The current machines and Georgia's registration practices became the subject of national criticism during last year's governor's race between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp. Kemp served as secretary of state and refused calls to resign from overseeing his own election. He stepped down two days postelection after declaring himself the winner.




Perhaps we should think about ethics before the AI systems do?
Genevieve Bell and David Thodey push for AI ethics body
High profile Australian business and technology leaders Genevieve Bell and David Thodey are backing a push to create a new organisation to lead the development of an ethical framework for artificial intelligence.
In an open letter to be released on Friday, Ms Bell and Mr Thodey say there are significant challenges that need to be addressed as AI becomes more commonplace, be it the further entrenchment of discrimination on the basis of gender or "minority status", creating "ethical algorithms for autonomous vehicles, bias in AI-powered hiring processes" or "the impact of fake news bots".


(Related)
An MIT researcher who analyzed facial recognition software found eliminating bias in AI is a matter of priorities
When we talk about algorithms and automation, we can't assume that handing responsibilities over to a machine will eliminate human biases. Artificial intelligence, after all, is constructed and taught by humans.
MIT Media Lab researcher and Algorithmic Justice League founder Joy Buolamwini has made it her mission not only to raise awareness of bias in facial recognition software, but also to compel companies around the world to make their software more accurate and to use its capabilities ethically.
… There are real stakes here. As she noted in a viral TED Talk and a New York Times editorial, it's one thing to have Facebook confuse people when analyzing a photo, but another when law enforcement or a potential employer is utilizing such software.




Dilbert continues to explore AI and Self-driving cars.


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