Thursday, May 19, 2022

It’s called collateral damage. This is not the first time it has happened.

https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-cyberattacks-on-ukraine-may-have-gotten-out-of-hand-2022-5?r=US&IR=T

Cyberattacks quietly launched by Russia before its invasion of Ukraine may have been more damaging than intended

Russian hackers went after a variety of Ukrainian targets in the private and public sectors, but one cyber weapon aimed at a specific military target spilled over and affected tens of thousands of devices outside Ukraine.

A few hours before the Russian invasion began on February 24, Russian hackers launched a cyberweapon against Viasat, an American satellite communications company that has been providing communication services to the Ukrainian military.

Named "AcidRain," the cyberweapon was a kind of malware known as a "wiper" that targeted Viasat modems and routers and erased all their data before permanently disabling them.

However, the Russian hackers appear to have let AcidRain run amok, either not able or not caring to limit the attack to Ukrainian devices.





Interesting language to describe a “research” vessel...

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3178382/chinas-world-first-drone-carrier-new-marine-species-using-ai

China’s world-first drone carrier is a new ‘marine species’ using AI for unmanned maritime intelligence

China launched the world’s first drone carrier capable of operating on its own on Wednesday.

The unmanned ship, which can be controlled remotely and navigate autonomously in open water, will be a powerful tool for the nation to carry out marine scientific research and observation, according to the state-run Science and Technology Daily.

It comes as artificial intelligence plays an increasingly important role in maintaining maritime security, controlling sea lanes and competing for marine resources. China aims to use AI technology to expand its maritime influence.

The wide deck of the ship can carry dozens of unmanned vehicles, including drones, unmanned ships and submersibles, and the equipment will be able to form a network to observe targets, according to the report.

Last year, Zhuhai Yunzhou Intelligence Technology Co, a leading developer of unmanned surface vehicles, announced the company had developed an unmanned high-speed vessel, a breakthrough in its “dynamic cooperation confrontation technology”, according to the state-owned Global Times.

The report said the vessel could quickly intercept, besiege and expel invasive targets and it marked a milestone in the development of unmanned maritime intelligence equipment.





Do lawyers often use such pretexts to extract data? Just asking, because there may be something profitable here…

https://www.pogowasright.org/a-sham-website-chhabria-questions-legitimacy-of-plaintiff-in-subpoena-to-unveil-anonymous-twitter-user/

A Sham Website’?: Chhabria Questions Legitimacy of Plaintiff in Subpoena to Unveil Anonymous Twitter User

Meghann M. Cuniff reports:

A federal judge has said he’s ready to quash a subpoena to Twitter over an anonymous user after pressing for more information about the limited liability company behind it, accusing its website of being a “sham” and suggesting its attorney doesn’t want an investigation into the people behind it.
Lawrence Hadley, a Glaser Weil Fink Howard Avchen & Shapiro attorney representing Bayside LLC, told U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California he doesn’t wish to submit further evidence in support of the subpoena, but Chhabria wondered if he can push for it, mentioning his ability to issue sanctions and suggesting he has “an independent duty to explore whether Bayside has abused the judicial process.”

Read more at The Recorder.





Governance or another layer of bureaucracy?

https://www.airforcemag.com/new-pentagon-office-overseeing-data-and-ai-nearing-foc/

New Pentagon Office Overseeing Data and AI Nearing FOC

As the Defense Department looks to accelerate use of artificial intelligence and to connect its sensors and shooters into one massive data network, a new office overseeing those efforts will reach full operating capability in the coming weeks.

The Office of the Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) will reach FOC by June 1, John Sherman, the Pentagon’s chief information officer and acting CDAO, told lawmakers May 18.

In the meantime, those already in the office are working to define its structure. To this point, AI projects across the Pentagon have formed a massive sprawling enterprise—there are more than 600 efforts currently underway, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has said—making consolidation a key point.

And it’s not just the larger DOD-wide offices and efforts that need to be coordinated—the services have their own AI ambitions. The Department of the Air Force, in particular, has already named its new chief data and AI officer, Brig. Gen. John M. Olson, and pursued projects to integrate AI into unmanned autonomous aircraft and target identification.

… “Just as when the world came to terms with the horrors of chemical weapons in World War I, and the Geneva Convention was the result, I think this is a second Geneva Convention moment,” said Moulton, who served as an officer in the Marine Corps. “… I get that this basically falls under the State Department. But I don’t think enough people in State appreciate how important this is, and as one of the leaders in our government on the use and employment of AI, I would strongly encourage you to help mount an effort to work on this broader problem.”

Palmieri agreed with Moulton and revealed that DOD is “in the last few weeks of coordination” in developing a strategy for responsible AI.





The IRS is looking at a “face tax?”

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/05/senators-urge-ftc-to-probe-id-me-over-selfie-data/

Senators Urge FTC to Probe ID.me Over Selfie Data

Some of more tech-savvy Democrats in the U.S. Senate are asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate identity-proofing company ID.me for “deceptive statements” the company and its founder allegedly made over how they handle facial recognition data collected on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service, which until recently required anyone seeking a new IRS account online to provide a live video selfie to ID.me.





Resources. Completing my SciFi collection.

https://www.makeuseof.com/best-websites-second-hand-books/

The 5 Best Websites to Buy Second-Hand Books

If you're looking to score a bargain on expanding your book collection, second-hand sites are a good way to go. Here are five of the best.





Perspective.

https://www.bespacific.com/robophobia/

Robophobia

University of Colorado Law Review > Printed > Volume 93 > Issue 1 > Robophobia by Andrew Keane Woods

Robots—machines, algorithms, artificial intelligence—play an increasingly important role in society, often supplementing or even replacing human judgment. Scholars have rightly become concerned with the fairness, accuracy, and humanity of these systems. Indeed, anxiety about machine bias is at a fever pitch. While these concerns are important, they nearly all run in one direction: we worry about robot bias against humans; we rarely worry about human bias against robots. This is a mistake. Not because robots deserve, in some deontological sense, to be treated fairly—although that may be true—but because our bias against nonhuman deciders is bad for us. For example, it would be a mistake to reject self-driving cars merely because they cause a single fatal accident. Yet all too often this is what we do. We tolerate enormous risk from our fellow humans but almost none from machines. A substantial literature—almost entirely ignored by legal scholars concerned with algorithmic bias—suggests that we routinely prefer worse-performing humans over better-performing robots. We do this on our roads, in our courthouses, in our military, and in our hospitals. Our bias against robots is costly, and it will only get more so as robots become more capable. This Article catalogs the many different forms of antirobot bias and suggests some reforms to curtail the harmful effects of that bias. The Article’s descriptive contribution is to develop a taxonomy of robophobia. Its normative contribution is to offer some reasons to be less biased against robots. The stakes could hardly be higher. We are entering an age when one of the most important policy questions will be how and where to deploy machine decision-makers.”





Perspective. (Lawyer automation)

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/legal-ai-series-chapter-nine-early-case-9773382/

Legal AI Series [Chapter Nine]: Early Case Assessment Software: AI’s “Inner Eye” to Discovery Processes

Artificial intelligence has given legal professionals an arsenal of tools to help them tackle the challenges of ESI and its unprecedented growth in the modern world. However, so far in our AI Legal Revolution series, the tools we’ve discussed have largely been reactive; solutions that attempt to resolve problems instead of anticipate them.

In other words, an alley-oop to attorneys who are desperately scrambling to play catch up.

Don’t get us wrong, these “catch up” tools are a much-needed boost over some of document review’s biggest hurdles. But what if AI software could do more than just react… what if, instead, it could act?

With early case assessment (ECA) software, attorneys now have the ability to do just that.

Here’s a closer look at the clairvoyant powers of ECA software, and how this technology can be used to improve discovery processes for legal professionals around the globe.



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