Wednesday, July 08, 2020


These are trivial, unless they happen to you. Do you have a procedure that would defeat this type of crime?
Far North council scammed out of $100,000 after supplier's email hacked
The Far North District Council has ramped up its cyber security systems after being scammed out of just over $100,000 by computer hackers.
The cyber-attack occurred last December, when one of its Auckland-based supplier's emails was hacked and the council received a request to change the supplier's bank account details.
The council implemented the change and paid $100,600.30 into the fraudulent bank account over the holiday period.
"We have since added extra measures to our verification process and these will significantly reduce the likelihood of this type of fraud occurring again."




The evolution of hacking crime. Is your data worth more to a crook than it is to you?
Sodinokibi Gang Starts a New Trend Among Ransomware Operators by Launching an Auction Site
The mantra of having a data backup to protect oneself from ransomware attacks has gone for a toss. Today, ransomware gangs have upped their tactics by stealing their victims’ data and in some cases auctioning it off on dark web markets with an intent to make quick money.




A (video) podcast. There is a transcript.
Does conscious AI deserve rights?
Does AI—and, more specifically, conscious AI—deserve moral rights? In this thought exploration, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, ethics and tech professor Joanna Bryson, philosopher and cognitive scientist Susan Schneider, physicist Max Tegmark, philosopher Peter Singer, and bioethicist Glenn Cohen all weigh in on the question of AI rights.




Technically, access is a yes or no decision.
If there’s anyone’s amicus brief on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) I’d want to read, it would be Orin Kerr’s. Today, he is submitting an amicus brief to the Supreme Court on a big CFAA case: Nathan Van Buren v. United States of America.
From his brief, the “INTEREST OF THE AMICUS CURIAE” section:
Orin S. Kerr is a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He has written extensively about 18 U.S.C. § 1030, known as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). His experience includes working as a lawyer in CFAA cases fromthe prosecution side, criminal defense side, and civil defense side; testifying about the law before congressional committees; and helping to draft amendments to it. The interest of amicus is the sound development of the law.
Here’s just one paragraph to hopefully encourage you all to read the whole brief:
This case asks the Court to settle what makes access unauthorized—in the words of the statute, either an access “without authorization” or an act that “exceeds authorized access.” 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2). The question is hard because two different theories of authorization exist. The first theory, based on technology, is universally accepted. The second theory, based on words, is deeply controversial. This case asks whether CFAA liability is limited to the first theory or if it also extends to the second theory.
You can read his brief here.




Perspective.
Cognitive Electronic Warfare Could Revolutionize How America Wages War With Radio Waves
The U.S. military, like many others around the world, is investing significant time and resources into expanding its electronic warfare capabilities across the board, for offensive and defensive purposes, in the air. at sea, on land, and even in space. Now, advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence mean that electronic warfare systems, no matter what their specific function, may all benefit from a new underlying concept known as advanced "Cognitive Electronic Warfare," or Cognitive EW. The main goal is to be able to increasingly automate and otherwise speed up critical processes, from analyzing electronic intelligence to developing new electronic warfare measures and countermeasures, potentially in real-time and across large swathes of networked platforms.
Over the Horizon, an online journal that officers and academics from the U.S. Air Force's Air Command and Staff College established, published an interesting piece on the principles behind Cognitive EW and the potential benefits of its application on July 3, 2020. The article, which Air Force Major John Casey wrote, is worth reading in full.




Perspective. Covid is getting expensive.
Economists Think Congress Could Create An Economic Disaster This Summer
Congress has less than a month to hammer out a deal on the next round of stimulus before expanded unemployment benefits expire. State and local governments are starting to feel the pinch of budget shortfalls. And while the U.S. got a piece of (relatively) good news in last week’s jobs report, which featured an unemployment rate 2.2 percentage points lower in June than it had been in May, the economy has been thrown back into chaos in the meantime, with a number of states pulling back on their reopenings amid spiking COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.
Our newest survey of economists highlights just how consequential governmental decisions over the next month may be: On average, these economists think that a refusal by Congress to extend unemployment benefits or bail out state and local governments is just as likely to hurt the economy as local economies staying open in spite of COVID-19 spikes — or even closing because of the virus.


(Related) Another look at Covid economics.
The Great Innovation Deceleration
The rise of the West is often traced back to the Black Death of the mid-1300s, which killed over 40% of Europe’s population. For example, some historians think that the resulting labor scarcity increased the bargaining power of peasants in the West, which led to the end of serfdom and to higher standards of living but failed to bring about institutional change in the East.
Many parallels between COVID-19 and the Black Death have been drawn, but most of them are unhelpful. In a medieval economy, fewer people meant more land per person and a higher income for the average citizen. The opposite is true in today’s knowledge-based economy, since ideas are non-rivalrous and, unlike land, can be used by everyone simultaneously.




Perspective. Is this worth $98?
Walmart’s Amazon Prime competitor will launch in July
Walmart+ will cost $98 a year and include same-day delivery of groceries, fuel discounts, and other perks.




Culture for shut-ins.
The Voyage Complete – Remarkable Reading of The Rime of The Ancient Mariner
University of Plymouth – The Arts Institute – The Ancient Mariner Big Read – “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a founding fable of our modern age. We are the wedding guests, and the albatross around the Mariner’s neck is an emblem of human despair and our abuse of the natural world. Yet in its beautiful terror there lies a wondrous solution – that we might wake up and find ourselves saved. Art knows no boundaries. The Ancient Mariner Big Read is an inclusive, immersive work of audio and visual art from the 21st century that reflects the sweeping majesty and abiding influence of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 18th century epic poem.



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