Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Was “safety and accuracy” attacked? Would they admit it if it had been?
Malfunction Shuts Vietnam’s Main Stock Exchange for a Second Day
Vietnam’s main stock exchange, home to the nation’s benchmark VN Index, will remain shut for a second day on Wednesday following a malfunction, its longest halt in nearly 10 years.
The Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange said that while the technical issue that occurred on Monday has been solved, it needs to run tests with securities firms to ensure the “safety and accuracy” of the trading system.
… “Being shut for multiple days will start to have an affect on market sentiment, especially from the offshore foreign investors who have recently joined, or are planning on joining the market,” he said. “What we are hoping to hear is clarity from the exchange on what the causes are, when we can expect trading to resume and that the issues have been resolved.”




Something to get my Data Management and my Computer Security students thinking.
Ian Health reports that Appleby, a firm at the centre of the Paradise Papers data leak, has hired a high-profile media lawyer to help block further releases of confidential client data. Health reports:
Appleby have maintained that the documents were illegally hacked from their files and have since initiated legal proceedings against the BBC and the Guardian, who they claim have not co-operated with information requests they have made.
The firm issued a claim for breach of confidence on 4 December, as well as an application for disclosure and information. Appleby says that it needs to know what documents were taken from its files so it can advise its clients.
Read more on Jersey Evening Post.
For its part, Appleby issued the following media statement to explain its reasons for its litigation: [Omitted. Bob]




All that you save by not securing data will disappear at the first hint of a breach?
Tinder's Lack of Encryption Lets Strangers Spy on Your Swipes
… On Tuesday, researchers at Tel Aviv-based app security firm Checkmarx demonstrated that Tinder still lacks basic HTTPS encryption for photos. Just by being on the same Wi-Fi network as any user of Tinder's iOS or Android app, the researchers could see any photo the user did, or even inject their own images into his or her photo stream. And while other data in Tinder's apps are HTTPS-encrypted, Checkmarx found that they still leaked enough information to tell encrypted commands apart, allowing a hacker on the same network to watch every swipe left, swipe right, or match on the target's phone nearly as easily as if they were looking over the target's shoulder. The researchers suggest that lack of protection could enable anything from simple voyeuristic nosiness to blackmail schemes.




Stolen IDs are cheaper than Health Insurance?
Protenus, Inc. has released its 2017 review of breaches involving health data. It is the second annual review they have published since we began collaborating on data collection and analyses.
[...]
You can access Protenus’s full report here. Obviously, they are not responsible for my opinions or my predictions. They have enough problems without taking responsibility for me.




Remember that scene in “The Hunt for Red October” where the Captain assures his XO that you don’t need papers to travel state-to-state?
That anywhere within 100 miles of the border means that agents can demand pretty much anyone in Florida on a bus to show proof of citizenship. Do you carry your papers with you everywhere you go? I sure as hell don’t…. nor should I have to within my own country.
Jenny Jarvie reports:
The two uniformed U.S. Border Patrol agents clambered aboard a Greyhound bus in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and instructed passengers to show proof of citizenship.
“This is new?” a woman on the bus from Orlando to Miami asked fellow passengers as agents questioned another woman several seats in front of them. “You ridden on the bus before?”
“Yeah,” another passenger replied. “A police officer is not even allowed to ask for immigration papers.… You have no right to stop me and ask me for ID.”
Minutes later, the agents escorted the woman they had been questioning off the bus.
Read more on the Los Angeles Times.




Perspective. What if they all started to whisper, “Vote for Oprah?” What if they knew what might convince you to vote for Oprah?
Apple says that 500 million customers use Siri
… Apple doesn't specify what exactly counts as a "user," nor whether these are daily or monthly users; the latter being more likely.
Before the press release, Apple had given an update on Siri usage last June, at its 2017 WWDC conference, where it said that some 375 million customers regularly used it.
"Siri, now actively used on over half a billion devices, has developed a deep knowledge of music and understands your preferences and tastes," the statement reads.


(Related) AR needs to know what you see to avoid things like placing game “treasure” in dangerous places (like a highway median). Incidentally, that means they know a lot about your home or office.
Apple’s AR system can now recognize more real-world objects


(Related) And it’s not just Apple.
If you’re using an Android phone, Google may be tracking every move you make


(Related) It’s not limited to phones. Any connected device will do.
Cory Doctorow writes:
Millions of new cars sold in the US and Europe are “connected,” having some mechanism for exchanging data with their manufacturers after the cars are sold; these cars stream or batch-upload location data and other telemetry to their manufacturers, who argue that they are allowed to do virtually anything they want with this data, thanks to the “explicit consent” of the car owners — who signed a lengthy contract at purchase time that contained a vague and misleading clause deep in its fine-print.
Car manufacturers are mostly warehousing this data (leaving it vulnerable to leaks and breaches, search-warrants, government hacking and unethical employee snooping), and can’t articulate why they’re saving it or how they use it.
Read more on BoingBoing.




I’ve programmed my computer to think about this.
… It’s critical for companies to understand the range of opinions on this issue, because implicitly or explicitly, they will influence the way business leaders create the workforce of the future.
… In a new Accenture survey (titled Reworking the Revolution, which will be published on January 23rd) of 1,200 C-level executives worldwide, 75% say that they are currently accelerating investments in AI and other intelligent technologies. And 72% say they are responding to a competitive imperative — they recognize the need for new tools to keep up with rivals, both by improving productivity and by finding new sources of growth. Some companies are transforming themselves into “intelligent enterprises,” in which all processes are digitized, decisions are data-driven, and machines do the heavy lifting — both physical and cognitive.




Something to share with my geeks.
If you wish Windows was open source, you should look into ReactOS!
… In this article, we’ll take a look at what ReactOS is, how to install it, and how it handles some existing Windows applications.
… The main goal of the project is to build an operating system that will run any Windows application you throw at it.




A programming resource!
Programming Notes for Professionals books


No comments: