Sunday, September 22, 2019


Would Clausewitz recognize a war this subtle? I’m fairly sure Sun Tzu would.
The Saudi oil attacks could be a precursor to widespread cyberwarfare — with collateral damage for companies in the region
A recent attack against Saudi Aramco damaged the world’s largest oil producer and delayed oil production, roiling oil and gas markets. The Saudi government and U.S. intelligence officials have claimed the incident is the work of Iran, while Iran blamed Yemeni rebels.
Iran’s nuclear facilities were attacked by a virus called Stuxnet in the mid-2000s. This malicious software was sophisticated, built in a “modular” format. Attackers could use it not only to extract intelligence but also to control and destroy sensitive machinery.
Iran reacted to Stuxnet in a surprising way: they didn’t talk about it much at all. But they did take action, said Lieutenant Colonel Scott Applegate, an expert in the history of cybersecurity and a cyber professor at Georgetown University.
One theory is that Iran took some of what they learned from Stuxnet and created a new weapon, which they then deployed against Saudi Aramco in 2012.
That virus, known as “Shamoon,” was modular and multi-faceted like Stuxnet, but had only one purpose: To find and destroy data
You saw that at Saudi Aramco, 30,000 boxes got bricked,” said Hussey, describing how 30,000 of the oil agency’s computers were erased over the course of the day, destroying swaths of data.




We know who you are. We’ll be coming for you soon.” (What else could they mean?)
DW reports:
A website registered on a Russian domain has shared detailed personal information of dozens of Hong Kong protesters and journalists. Observers view it as another serious blow to the city’s dwindling civil liberties.
Amid continuing tensions between pro-democracy protesters and the government in Hong Kong, a website named “HK Leaks” has been collecting and leaking confidential personal information of pro-democracy protesters, activists, journalists and politicians in recent days.
The site designates profiles to one of the three main categories, and shows their headshots, date of birth, telephone numbers, social media accounts residential address and “nasty behaviors.”
Read more on DW.
[From the article:
According to the site, refusing to pay MTR ticket fares, participating in protests and peaceful strikes, sharing information about the anti-extradition bill movement and even covering protests as a journalist are all considered nasty behaviors. The website calls on the public to share information about the people who are "messing up Hong Kong," as part of its tagline reads.




Boy, ‘dem GDPR folks is serious!
Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild writes:
Asking to read an electronic ID card as a condition for the provision of a service (issuing a rewards/loyalty card) is disproportionate and in violation of GDPR, says the Belgian data protection authority. The company was fined €10,000.




When your computer talks to my computer do they violate the GDPR?
Enterprise API Security and GDPR Compliance: Design and Implementation Perspective
With the advancements in the enterprise-level business development, the demand for new applications and services is overwhelming. For the development and delivery of such applications and services, enterprise businesses rely on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). In essence, API is a double-edged sword. On one hand, API provides ease of expanding the business through sharing value and utility, but on another hand it raises security and privacy issues. Since the applications usually use APIs to retrieve important data, therefore it is extremely important to make sure that an effective access control and security mechanism are in place, and the data does not fall into wrong hands. In this article, we discuss the current state of the enterprise API security and the role of Machine Learning (ML) in API security. We also discuss the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance and its effect on the API security.




I hope they’re right!
Asymptotically Unambitious Artificial General Intelligence
General intelligence, the ability to solve arbitrary solvable problems, is supposed by many to be artificially constructible. Narrow intelligence, the ability to solve a given particularly difficult problem, has seen impressive recent development. Notable examples include self-driving cars, Go engines, image classifiers, and translators. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) presents dangers that narrow intelligence does not: if something smarter than us across every domain were indifferent to our concerns, it would be an existential threat to humanity, just as we threaten many species despite no ill will. Even the theory of how to maintain the alignment of an AGI's goals with our own has proven highly elusive. We present the first algorithm we are aware of for asymptotically unambitious AGI, where "unambitiousness" includes not seeking arbitrary power. Thus, we identify an exception to the Instrumental Convergence Thesis, which is roughly that by default, an AGI would seek power, including over us.




Are robots AI that moves?
First Steps Towards an Ethics of Robots and Artificial Intelligence




Our computer says your little Johnny is a drug abusing anorexic suicide risk. Just thought you’d like to know.”
Rowland Manthorpe reports:
One of England’s biggest academy chains is testing pupils’ mental health using an AI (artificial intelligence) tool which can predict self-harm, drug abuse and eating disorders, Sky News can reveal.
A leading technology think tank has called the move “concerning”, saying “mission creep” could mean the test is used to stream pupils and limit their educational potential.
Read it all on Sky News.
(Related) Just like a real person, only more consistent?
Illinois law regulates artificial intelligence use in video job interviews
The Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act, House Bill 2557, requires companies to notify the applicant when the system is being used, explain how the AI works, get permission from the applicant, limit distribution of the video to people involved with the process and to destroy the video after 30 days.
Jedreski said AI video interviews apply psychometrics, which is the science of measuring attitude and personality traits.
It's reading data and then analyzing it to determine whether it can draw conclusions about the person being interviewed,” Jedreski said.
Jedreski said that AI is used to analyze an applicant’s body language, voice and tone.
It's watching what the person is doing, what they look like when they're talking,” Jedreski said. “It's listening to what they say and how they say it and it's offering an analysis on what that person might be thinking, whether they're being honest, what their personality traits might be like, including what their attitude is.”




Yes, a very basic overview. Strange a Seattle paper couldn’t do more.
A.I. 101: What is artificial intelligence and where is it going?




Technology that will help those Amazon drones land you package on the back porch? Self-flying, like self-driving but in three dimensions.
Daedalean & The AI That Knows Where Not To Land
Starting today, Daedalean and UAVenture are announcing Magpie, a light entry version of their AI that uses one simple downward-facing camera and neural-network-processed computer vision than will be released before the end of the year. This enables GPS-independent navigation and allows drones to find safe landing spots
… Magpie is intended for professional drones and will enable them to perform autonomous tasks, avoid obstacles, return home, and find a safe landing spot.



No comments: