Sunday, May 26, 2019


Doublecheck your MySQL database!
Catalin Cimpanu reports:
At least one Chinese hacking crew is currently scanning the internet for Windows servers that are running MySQL databases so they can infect these systems with the GandCrab ransomware.
These attacks are somewhat unique, as cyber-security firms have not seen any threat actor until now that has attacked MySQL servers running on Windows systems to infect them with ransomware.
Read more on ZDNet.
[From the article:
While most system administrators typically protect their MySQL servers with passwords, the purpose of these scans appeared to be the opportunistic exploitation of misconfigured or passwordless databases.




A cautionary tale. “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.
A Lesson From 1930s Germany: Beware State Control of Social Media




A little late to start planning...
AI Ethics in the Post-GDPR World
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) creates a seemingly large hurdle for artificial intelligence (AI) implementation. Yet it can also be an opportunity for ensuring your AI is maximising the privacy of individuals. High profile data breaches have diminished public trust around data privacy, but companies restore that trust by embracing GDPR and taking a transparent approach to AI with a focus on privacy.
A set of specific GDPR provisions are targeted towards AI-based decisions, specifically concerning automated decision making (“ADM”) and profiling. ADM is the process of deciding by automated means, without any human involvement, such as an algorithm deciding if an individual is eligible for a loan, whether a candidate is compatible with a job vacancy, or which call-centre agent is best suited to answer a customer’s concern.
Profiling refers to any form of automated processing of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to an individual. This may include analysing online behaviour for targeted marketing or advertising, analysing credit history to create a credit profile, or analysing qualifications and online presence to assess a candidate’s skill set.
Organisations should keep the following topics in mind when utilising ADM and profiling:




Worth a read?
Artificial Intelligence: Some ethical issues and regulatory challenges
This article offers a brief overview of some of the ethical challenges raised by artificial intelligence (AI), in particular machine learning and data science, and summarizes and discusses a number of challenges for near-future regulation in this area. This includes the difficulties of moving from principles to more concrete measures and problems with implementing ethics by design and responsible innovation.




Perspective. Interesting graphic.
Internet Ad Revenue Has Crossed $100 Billion Mark
It’s no secret that all of the big name tech companies out there, from Facebook to Google, earn a lion’s share of their revenue from ad revenue. However, the sheer scale of ad revenue that is earned throughout the various Internet platforms earning from such a source may surprise you, and there are two numbers in particular that you should take into consideration when you are thinking about ad revenue and how it affects your internet experience.
The first of these two numbers is that the total amount of ad revenue that is earned across all platforms on the internet has now officially exceed $100 billion per year (in the United States), as reported by IAB and PwC. The second of these two numbers is that over the past decade, the total revenue earned by platforms that exist online has increased by an incredible 386%.
The way that this revenue is earned has changed quite a bit as well over the past decade. For starters, about half of all advertising revenue that is currently being earned is coming through mobile ad sources. This is in stark contrast to how things were ten years ago, when mobile ads weren’t even on the map when you were calculating things like total revenue and the like.




I think talkers still outnumber listeners.
Investing in the Podcast Ecosystem in 2019
… Over the course of the last 10 years, podcasts have steadily grown from a niche community of audiobloggers distributing files over the internet, to one-third of Americans now listening monthly and a quarter listening weekly.
People are already spending a lot of time on podcasts, and it’s growing: listeners are consuming 6+ hours per week and consuming more content every year.
The demographic of podcast listeners is not your average American. Roughly half of podcast listeners make $75,000 or more in annual income; a majority have a post-secondary degree; and almost one-third have a graduate degree [source].




Nerdy, but useful?
Simply put, Git is a powerful, open source version control software, which allows multiple people to work on a project, and different versions of that project, without interfering with each other.
And, as Git is a distributed version control system, each developer working on the project has a complete copy of everything. This means that you’re not completely reliant on a central server. Therefore, if the central server goes down, the developers still have access to everything they need to continue working.
As you can imagine, there’s much more to Git than this. We’ve written our own guide to file versioning with Git. But if you want something even more in-depth, then go ahead and download this ebook.



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