Wednesday, October 04, 2017

Again I say, the numbers never seems to go down.
Yahoo says all three billion accounts hacked in 2013 data theft
Yahoo on Tuesday said that all 3 billion of its accounts were hacked in a 2013 data theft, tripling its earlier estimate of the size of the largest breach in history, in a disclosure that attorneys said sharply increased the legal exposure of its new owner, Verizon Communications Inc.




Not a unique idea.
Russia Targets NATO Soldier Smartphones, Western Officials Say
… Troops, officers and government officials of North Atlantic Treaty Organization member countries said Russia has carried out a campaign to compromise soldiers’ smartphones. The aim, they say, is to gain operational information, gauge troop strength and intimidate soldiers.


(Related). 18.02.2017
State-Sponsored Hackers Took Over Israeli Soldiers’ Android Phones
New research has revealed that state-sponsored hackers have been using malware to spy on soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force through their smartphones.
Reports indicate that more than 100 Israeli servicemen were first affected by this attack this in July 2016, and that the most recent reported attacks happened just this month. The malware, called "ViperRAT," was specifically designed to target Android devices, with hackers gaining access to the phone’s location, video, audio and SMS functions.


(Related). Even earlier: 19 Nov 2014
Russian spy threat to troops' phones and computers




Update.
Researchers Link CCleaner Attack to State-sponsored Chinese Hackers
The sophisticated supply chain attack that resulted in millions of users downloading a backdoored version of the popular CCleaner PC software utility was the work of state-sponsored Chinese hackers, according to a new report.
Investigation into the attack revealed that the backdoored code was only the first stage of the intended user compromise, and that a second-stage payload had been delivered to a small number of selected targets.




I wonder if the President even remembers this?
Daniel Rivero and Brendan O’Connor report:
In April, the Trump Administration launched what it called the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) hotline, with a stated mission to “provide proactive, timely, adequate, and professional services to victims of crimes committed by removable aliens.” But internal logs of calls to VOICE obtained by Splinter show that hundreds of Americans seized on the hotline to lodge secret accusations against acquaintances, neighbors, or even their own family members, often to advance petty personal grievances.
The logs—hundreds of which were available for download on the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement web site despite containing extremely sensitive personal information—call to mind the efforts of closed societies like East Germany or Cuba to cultivate vast networks of informants and an atmosphere of fear and suspicion.
Read more on Splinter News.




Looks like Congress is starting to hear from the voters.
'I don't think we can pass a law that fixes stupid': Lawmakers berate Equifax ex-CEO
Equifax Inc.’s former chief executive trekked to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to offer contrition and explanation for the credit reporting company’s massive data breach. He was met with bipartisan incredulity and calls for tougher cybersecurity laws to protect Americans’ sensitive information.
… He blamed the breach on “human error and technology errors.”
Equifax failed to apply a software patch for a consumer dispute website in March, and the company’s systems did not detect the vulnerability until July 29, Smith said.
Lawmakers were dumbfounded by the company’s failure to patch the software and then, once the problem was discovered, to delay notifying the public for nearly six weeks.
… Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said he thought financial penalties were needed to force companies to take security of sensitive consumer information more seriously.
“You’re really only required to notify people and say, ‘So sorry, so sad,’” Barton said. “It seems to me you might pay more attention to security if you had to pay everybody who got hacked a couple thousand bucks or something.”




It won’t result in a Theory of Relativity, but it is interesting.
How will AI change strategy? That’s the single most common question the three of us are asked from corporate executives, and it’s not trivial to answer. AI is fundamentally a prediction technology. As advances in AI make prediction cheaper, economic theory dictates that we’ll use prediction more frequently and widely, and the value of complements to prediction – like human judgment – will rise. But what does all this mean for strategy?
Here’s a thought experiment we’ve been using to answer that question. Most people are familiar with shopping at Amazon. Like with most online retailers, you visit their website, shop for items, place them in your “basket,” pay for them, and then Amazon ships them to you. Right now, Amazon’s business model is shopping-then-shipping.
… At some point, as they turn the knob, the AI’s prediction accuracy crosses a threshold, such that it becomes in Amazon’s interest to change its business model. The prediction becomes sufficiently accurate that it becomes more profitable for Amazon to ship you the goods that it predicts you will want rather than wait for you to order them. Every week, Amazon ships you boxes of items it predicts you will want, and then you shop in the comfort and convenience of your own home by choosing the items you wish to keep from the boxes they delivered.




I can’t imagine anything that could possibly go wrong. (Think of the hacks!)
Available soon: Sex robots with artificial intelligence
Come January, lifelike sex robots will be one step closer. That’s when a Southern California company will unveil Harmony, an anatomically correct sex doll with a patented animatronic talking head with programmable personality and memory.


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