Merry Christmas ethical hackers.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/websites-legally-hack/
5 Websites That Teach You How to Hack Legally
To learn ethical hacking, you have to hack like a criminal but be smart about it. Get started with these websites you can legally hack.
(Related) For those of us who can’t wait to hack a self-driving car…
Autonomous vehicle makers should be held responsible for accidents, says Law Commission
What do you call the person behind the wheel of a self-driving car? Are they a passenger or owner or are they still the driver? Whatever they’re called, the UK‘s Law Commission says they shouldn’t be held responsible if their “autonomous” vehicle is in an accident.
Under a new proposal from the UK‘s Law Commission, the “user in charge” of the vehicle would not be prosecuted for careless or dangerous driving, speeding, or breaking red lights when the car was in self-driving mode, the Telegraph reports.
Failure of the people charged with protecting the country…
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/18/suspected-russian-hack-on-us-is-much-worse-than-first-feared.html
Suspected Russian hack is much worse than first feared: Here’s what you need to know
The scale of a sophisticated cyberattack on the U.S. government that was unearthed this week is much bigger than first anticipated.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a summary Thursday that the threat “poses a grave risk to the federal government.”
It added that “state, local, tribal, and territorial governments as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations” are also at risk.
CISA believes the attack began at least as early as March.
… “The magnitude of this ongoing attack is hard to overstate,” former Trump Homeland Security Advisor Thomas Bossert said in a piece for The New York Times on Thursday. “The Russians have had access to a considerable number of important and sensitive networks for six to nine months.”
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the accusations, according to the Tass news agency.
(Related)
https://www.makeuseof.com/microsoft-confirms-solarwinds-breach/
Microsoft Confirms SolarWinds Breach Affecting Core Products
… An NSA advisory released on 17 December 2020 referenced Microsoft products such as Azure and Active Directory, which the technology giant later confirmed.
… Other targets include the US Energy Department and, perhaps most worryingly of all, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the US nuclear arsenal.
Microsoft's report indicates that around 80 percent of affected organizations are based in the US. There are also victims in the UK, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Israel, and the UAE. More victims are expected to appear in the coming days and weeks.
(Related)
Joe Biden warns he will be tough on state sponsors of cyberattacks, as U.S. suffers massive hack
…This timeline suggests that it will be Biden, not outgoing President Donald Trump, who is ultimately responsible for determining what retaliatory actions, if any, are warranted against those behind the attacks. Biden will take office on Jan. 20.
Trump has yet to personally respond to the latest attack. White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday that the administration is “taking a hard look on this.”
We’ll see…
Massachusetts governor won’t sign facial recognition ban
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has refused to sign a law banning most government use of facial recognition. The Boston Globe reported last week that Baker sent an omnibus police reform bill back to state lawmakers, asking for changes that included striking the facial recognition rules.
Massachusetts legislators passed the first major state-level facial recognition ban, following a model set by individual cities like Boston and San Francisco. The bill says public agencies, including police departments, can’t use or acquire biometric surveillance systems. It makes exceptions for running facial recognition searches against a motor vehicles registration database, as long as police obtain a warrant or demonstrate “immediate danger” that requires a search. It would help fill a gap left by federal lawmakers, who haven’t passed a nationwide framework for using potentially invasive facial recognition technologies.
But in a letter to lawmakers, Baker said the reform package “ignores the important role [facial recognition] can play in solving crime.” His office told the Globe that he plans to veto the bill if lawmakers don’t make changes.
Beware of active cell phone users!
Gun Detection AI is Being Trained With Homemade ‘Active Shooter’ Videos
Companies are using bizarre methods to create algorithms that automatically detect weapons. AI ethicists worry they will lead to more police violence.
Keeping up with satellite tech.
https://www.pogowasright.org/a-new-satellite-can-peer-inside-buildings-day-or-night/
A New Satellite Can Peer Inside Buildings, Day or Night
Dan Robitzski reports:
A few months ago, a company called Capella Space launched a satellite capable of taking clear radar images of anywhere in the world, with incredible resolution — even through the walls of some buildings.
And unlike most of the huge array of surveillance and observational satellites orbiting the Earth, its satellite Capella 2 can snap a clear picture during night or day, rain or shine.
Read more on Futurism.
For history buffs.
https://www.bespacific.com/lc-complete-digitization-of-23-early-presidential-collections/
LC Complete Digitization of 23 Early Presidential Collections
Library of Congress Blog: “The Library of Congress has completed a more than two decade-long initiative to digitize the papers of nearly two dozen early presidents. The Library holds the papers of 23 presidents from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge, all of which have been digitized and are now available online. The Library plans to highlight each presidential collection on social media in the weeks leading up to the next presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021. “Arguably, no other body of material in the Manuscript Division is of greater significance for the study of American history than the presidential collections,” said Janice E. Ruth, chief of the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress. “They cover the entire sweep of American history from the nation’s founding through the first decade after World War I, including periods of prosperity and depression, war and peace, unity of purpose and political and civil strife.” The 23 presidential collections in the Library’s holdings, acquired through donation or purchase, are of such significant value that Congress enacted a law in 1957 directing the Library to arrange, index and microfilm the papers, an enormous job that concluded in 1976. With the dawn of the digital age, the collections of presidential papers were among the first manuscripts proposed for digitization. The conclusion of this effort marks the addition of more than 3.3 million images to the Library’s online archives…”
After a mere 95 years…
https://www.bespacific.com/january-1-2021-is-public-domain-day-works-from-1925-are-open-to-all/
January 1, 2021 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1925 are open to all
Duke Law, Center for the Study of the Public Domain – On January 1, 2021, copyrighted works from 1925 will enter the US public domain,1 where they will be free for all to use and build upon. These works include books such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, and Franz Kafka’s The Trial (in the original German), silent films featuring Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, and music ranging from the jazz standard Sweet Georgia Brown to songs by Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, W.C. Handy, and Fats Waller. This is not just the famous last line from The Great Gatsby. It also encapsulates what the public domain is all about. A culture is a continuing conversation between present and past. On Public Domain Day, we all have a “green light,” in keeping with the Gatsby theme, to use one more year of that rich cultural past, without permission or fee. Works from 1925 were supposed to go into the public domain in 2001, after being copyrighted for 75 years. But before this could happen, Congress hit a 20-year pause button and extended their copyright term to 95 years.2 Now the wait is over. In 2021, there is a lot to celebrate. 1925 brought us some incredible culture. The Harlem Renaissance was in full swing. The New Yorker magazine was founded. The literature reflected both a booming economy, whose fruits were unevenly distributed, and the lingering upheaval and tragedy of World War I. The culture of the time reflected all of those contradictory tendencies. The BBC’s Culture website suggested that 1925 might be “the greatest year for books ever,” and with good reason. It is not simply the vast array of famous titles. The stylistic innovations produced by books such as Gatsby, or The Trial, or Mrs. Dalloway marked a change in both the tone and the substance of our literary culture, a broadening of the range of possibilities available to writers, while characters such as Jay Gatsby, Hemingway’s Nick Adams, and Clarissa Dalloway still resonate today.
How will people celebrate this trove of cultural material? The Internet Archive will add books, movies, music, and more to its online library. HathiTrust will make tens of thousands of titles from 1925 available in its digital repository. Google Books will offer the full text of books from that year, instead of showing only snippet views or authorized previews. Community theaters can screen the films. Youth orchestras can afford to publicly perform, or rearrange, the music. Educators and historians can share the full cultural record. Creators can legally build on the past—reimagining the books, making them into films, adapting the songs. Here are some of the works that will be entering the public domain in 2021. (To find more material from 1925, you can visit the Catalogue of Copyright Entries.)…”
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