Another Bangladesh? There could be much more here than is being reported. This is the best article I could find, but lots of “cover-up phrasing remains. The hackers did not “try” to move funds, they succeeded. What caused the shutdown? Did the bank panic or did the hackers gain more control than is being admitted? Watch for more!

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bank-valetta-cyber/cyber-attack-on-malta-bank-tried-to-transfer-cash-abroad-idUSKCN1Q21KZ

Cyber attack on Malta bank tried to transfer cash abroad

Bank of Valletta which accounts for almost half of Malta’s banking transactions, had to shut down all of its operations on Wednesday after hackers broke into its systems and shifted funds overseas.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told parliament the cyber attack involved the creation of false international payments totaling 13 million euros ($14.7 million) to banks in Britain, the United States, the Czech Republic and Hong Kong.

The funds have been traced and the Bank of Valletta is seeking to have the fraudulent transactions reversed. [Have they already been moved? Bob]

Muscat said the attack was detected soon after the start of business on Wednesday when discrepancies were noticed during the reconciliation of international transactions.

Shortly after, the bank was informed by state security services that it had received information from abroad that the company had been the target of a cyber attack.

To minimize risk and review its systems, the Bank of Valletta suspended operations, shuttering its branches on the Mediterranean island, closing ATMs and disabling its website.

… Maltese banks have in the past reported cyber attacks but this was the first time that a lender had to shut down all of its operations as a result.

Haven’t we been saying the hacker is most likely China?

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/13/equifax-mystery-where-is-the-data.html

The great Equifax mystery: 17 months later, the stolen data has never been found, and experts are starting to suspect a spy scheme

The prevailing theory today is that the data was stolen by a nation-state for spying purposes, not by criminals looking to cash in on stolen identities.

… CNBC talked to eight experts, including data "hunters" who scour the dark web for stolen information, senior cybersecurity managers, top executives at financial institutions, senior intelligence officials who played a part in the investigation and consultants who helped support it. All of them agreed that a breach happened, and personal information from 143 million people was stolen.

But none of them knows where the data is now. It's never appeared on any hundreds of underground websites selling stolen information. Security experts haven't seen the data used in any of the ways they'd expect in a theft like this — not for impersonating victims, not for accessing other websites, nothing.

But as the investigations continue, a consensus is starting to emerge to explain why the data has disappeared from sight. Most experts familiar with the case now believe that the thieves were working for a foreign government and are using the information not for financial gain, but to try to identify and recruit spies.

If we are doing this to Iran, why not North Korea?

https://taskandpurpose.com/us-sabotage-iran-rocket-launches

US sabotage may be behind Iran's embarrassing rocket launch failures

… The U.S. has been secretly sabotaging Iranian missiles and rockets, the New York Times reported Wednesday, citing half a dozen current and former officials. Since the program began a little over a decade ago, 67 percent of Iran's orbital launches have failed. The global failure rate for similar launches is only 5 percent.

Should Google also notify me if I happened by a crime scene at the time the crime was committed? Could they flag me as a possible witness without notifying the Police?

How did the police know you were near a crime scene? Google told them

Tony Webster reports:

The suspects in an Eden Prairie home invasion last October wore gloves, dressed in black, and covered their faces with masks. But despite their efforts to remain unseen, a trail of evidence was left behind — not at the crime scene, but with Google.

Knowing the Silicon Valley giant held a trove of consumer mobile phone location data, investigators got a Hennepin County judge to sign a “reverse location” search warrant ordering Google to identify the locations of cellphones that had been near the crime scene in Eden Prairie, and near two food markets the victims owned in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The scope of the warrant was so expansive in time and geography that it had the potential to gather data on tens of thousands of Minnesotans.

The technique has caught the attention of civil liberties lawyers who worry such warrants — deployed increasingly by police in the Twin Cities and around the country — are a digital dragnet ripe for abuse, and that judges may not realize the technical details or broad scope of the searches they’re authorizing.

Read more on MPRnews or listen to the story on that site.

Making it hard to study terrorism?

You could face 15 years in jail for clicking a link under new UK anti-terror law

Connor Jones reports:

A new UK law, which has just received royal assent, will see anyone found to have clicked on terrorist propaganda handed a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

The new Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 which gives UK law enforcement greater powers to investigate suspected hostile activity, also updates existing counter-terrorism law to reflect a more digital age.

A controversial subsection of the act states that anyone who obtains ‘information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’ will be punished under the act.

Read more on ITPro. Researchers beware…..?

It is impossible to adequately obfuscate in clear, concise English.

https://www.bespacific.com/most-online-terms-of-service-are-incomprehensible-to-adults-study-finds/

Most Online ‘Terms of Service’ Are Incomprehensible to Adults, Study Finds

Motherboard – Reading the terms and conditions of online consumer contracts requires, on average, more than 14 years of education. Two law professors analyzed the sign-in terms and conditions of 500 popular US websites, including Google and Facebook, and found that more than 99 percent of them were “unreadable,” far exceeding the level most American adults read at, but are still enforced. According to a new paper published on SSRN (Social Science Research Network), the average readability level of the agreements reviewed by the researchers was comparable to articles in academic journals. “While consumers are legally expected or presumed to read their contracts, businesses are not required to write readable ones. This asymmetry—and its potential consequences—puzzled us,” wrote co-author Samuel Becher, a law professor at Victoria University of Wellington, in an email to Motherboard. We’ve all been there, signing up for a new digital service such as Amazon or Uber and being asked to tick the box saying that we agree to the terms of service, or ToS. These agreements typically include clauses on intellectual property, prohibited use, and termination, among many others. Most of us accept the terms without bothering to read the fine print. But with these relatively new types of contracts, known as sign-in-wrap agreements, there is a danger in clicking “agree” without reading or understanding them—they’re regularly enforced…”

Why a proprietary system?

https://www.wcpo.com/money/local-business-news/kroger-co-debuts-pay-by-phone-option-in-columbus

Kroger Co. debuts pay-by-phone option in Columbus

The Kroger Co. debuted a new mobile payment option Wednesday that is launching in Columbus and Colorado but expanding to all stores nationwide by year end.

Kroger Pay is an app that generates a single-use QR code that can be scanned at the checkout counter to pay for a Kroger purchase. The app can be linked to any major credit or debit card. Kroger is also launching the Kroger Rewards debit card so payments, fuel points and other rewards can be tied to each purchase.

Microsoft looking praying for ethics consultants?

Pope discusses ethics of artificial intelligence with Microsoft chief

Microsoft President Brad Smith met Pope Francis on Wednesday to discuss the ethical use of artificial intelligence and ways to bridge the digital divide between rich and poor nations, the Vatican said.

… The pair discussed “artificial intelligence at the service of the common good and activities aimed at bridging the digital divide that still persists at the global level”, according to a statement.

… The Vatican said its Academy for Life would jointly sponsor a prize with Microsoft for the best doctoral dissertation in 2019 on the theme of “artificial intelligence at the service of human life”.

(Related)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zIX2LPA7ps

Microsoft Unboxed: AI for Good (Ep. 1)

In the first episode of our new YouTube series, Microsoft Unboxed, Sonia Dara and Colleen O’Brien go “behind the tech” to explore Microsoft’s AI for Good initiatives, unpacking AI for Accessibility and AI for Humanitarian Action. Hear the stories of the unique organizations and partners making an impact within these initiatives on this episode of Microsoft Unboxed.

Another Dilbert “keeper”

https://dilbert.com/strip/2019-02-14