Should we trust Bloomberg? Perhaps this is Fake news? Would Apple and Amazon deny this because of some potential negative trust issues?

https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/4/17935868/chinese-spies-microchip-hack-servers-apple-amazon-supermicro

Chinese spies reportedly inserted microchips into servers used by Apple, Amazon, and others

Chinese spies have infiltrated the supply chain for servers used by nearly 30 US companies, including government contractors, Apple, and Amazon, according to an explosive report from Bloomberg Businessweek.

The operation is perhaps the most audacious example of hardware hacking by a nation state ever publicly reported, with a branch of China’s armed forces reportedly forcing Chinese manufacturers to insert microchips into US-designed servers.

… Both Amazon and Apple strongly refute the story. Amazon says it is “untrue” that it knew of “servers containing malicious chips or modifications in data centers based in China,” or that it “worked with the FBI to investigate or provide data about malicious hardware.” Apple is equally definitive, telling Bloomberg: “On this we can be very clear: Apple has never found malicious chips, ‘hardware manipulations’ or vulnerabilities purposely planted in any server.”

New election, same old problems? Does Titter believe they have solved this problem or are they simply not interested?

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/04/653454568/most-twitter-accounts-linked-to-2016-disinformation-are-still-active-report-find

Most Twitter Accounts Linked To 2016 Disinformation Are Still Active, Report Finds: NPR

… Most of the Twitter accounts that spread disinformation during the 2016 presidential campaign remain active now, according to an ambitious new study released on Thursday.

… "The persistence of so many easily identified abusive accounts is difficult to square with any effective crackdown," write authors Matthew Hindman of George Washington University and Vlad Barash of the social media analysis company Graphika.

Disinformation networks continue pumping out false posts at an incredible rate: in a typical day they publish more than a million tweets, the authors found.

These disinformation campaigns are largely automated. In the ecosystem of Twitter accounts pumping out false information and linking to conspiracy websites, "the true proportion of automated accounts may have exceeded 70 percent," the authors write.

(Related) Another backgrounder for my students.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/build-fake-news-campaign/

Why Fake News Campaigns Are So Effective

In this opinion piece, Eric K. Clemons, a Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions, looks under the hood of fake news campaigns to explain how we have become so vulnerable to them.

… As Kara Swisher has noted, Facebook was not hacked in the 2016 Elections or the Brexit Referendum. Facebook was designed from the beginning to be used exactly as Russian hackers and others have used it.

We need a policy for minimizing the damage from the abuse of social media. Facebook will not design such a policy quickly, because any changes that minimize the impact of fake news will directly reduce Facebook revenues; enabling fake news is profitable for Facebook.

A backgrounder on Privacy.

https://hbr.org/2018/09/stop-thinking-about-consent-it-isnt-possible-and-it-isnt-right

Why Data Privacy Based on Consent Is Impossible

… Even if you tried to create totally transparent consent, you couldn’t. Well-meaning companies don’t know everything that happens with the data they collect, particularly those that have succumbed, against their better judgment, to the pressures of online tracking and behavioral targeting. They don’t know where the data is going or how it will be utilized. It’s an ever-changing landscape. On the one hand, requiring consent for every use isn’t reasonable and may prevent as many good outcomes as bad ones.

In my classrooms, T-Mobile users did not get the Alert. Other T-Mobile users did.

https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/10/didnt_get_presidential_alert_s.html

Didn't get presidential alert? What to do now; FEMA explanation

If you didn't get today's presidential alert, you can help FEMA figure out why by emailing FEMA-National-Test@fema.dhs.gov. Quartz reports you should include your cell phone provider, model, carrier and whether you were indoors or outdoors, stationary or moving, and in a rural or urban setting.

… if a user is on a call, or with an active data session open on their phone, they might not have received the message."

… Some AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile users are reporting they didn't receive the message despite being on a compatible phone and near a cell phone tower.