How to best employ and defend against weapons cheap enough for your average terrorist to create?
Rules of war need rewriting for the age of AI weapons
‘Killer robots’ combine mass destructive power with cheap production
Whoever becomes the leader in artificial intelligence “will become the ruler of the world”, Vladimir Putin said in 2017, predicting future wars would be fought using drones. Even then, for all the Russian leader’s own ambitions, China and the US were the frontrunners in developing the technology. Yet four years later, the vision of autonomous fighting units is becoming a reality, with potentially devastating consequences. The computer scientist Stuart Russell — who will devote a forthcoming Reith Lecture on BBC radio to the subject — met UK defence officials recently to warn that incorporating AI into weapons could wipe out humanity.
AI promises enormous benefits. Yet, like nuclear power, it can be used for good and ill. Its introduction into the military sphere represents the biggest technological leap since the advent of nuclear weapons. While atomic bombs were used on real cities in 1945, however, it took more than two decades before the first arms control treaties were signed.
No guarantees in the ransomware wars.
https://www.databreaches.net/double-extortion-ransomware-victims-soar-935/
Double Extortion Ransomware Victims Soar 935%
Phil Muncaster reports:
Researchers have recorded a 935% year-on-year increase in double extortion attacks, with data from over 2300 companies posted onto ransomware extortion sites.
Group-IB’s Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2021/2022 report covers the period from the second half of 2020 to the first half of 2021.
During that time, an “unholy alliance” of initial access brokers and ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) affiliate programs has led to a surge in breaches, it claimed.
Read more at InfoSecurity.
Of special note if you are trying to convince people not to pay ransom:
Group-IB warned that, even if victim organizations pay the ransom, their data often end up on these sites.
Another instance of change. Still no universal definition?
China's Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) presents challenges for CISOs
The manner in which companies do business in China saw a monumental change take effect on November 1 when China’s new Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) took effect. First announced in August 2021, it was clear entities with a China footprint were faced with the dilemma: Comply or face the consequences.
… While the PIPL is similar in makeup to the GDPR, notes Armaan Mahbod, director of security and business intelligence at DTEX Systems, compliance isn’t any easier and substantive differences exist. He wryly notes, “The PIPL may in fact spur business in China, as companies create their own versions of their offering in a ‘China-light’ format. The companies will have to hire a development and support team for their offering. There might be a bit of vulnerability for each company as complying may in fact reveal a bit of their infrastructure which had previously been protected information to the Chinese government.”
Some very interesting interactive graphics at the top of the article.
Crime Prediction Software Promised to Be Free of Biases. New Data Shows It Perpetuates Them
Between 2018 and 2021, more than one in 33 U.S. residents were potentially subject to police patrol decisions directed by crime prediction software called PredPol.
The company that makes it sent more than 5.9 million of these crime predictions to law enforcement agencies across the country—from California to Florida, Texas to New Jersey—and we found those reports on an unsecured server.
… Residents of neighborhoods where PredPol suggested few patrols tended to be Whiter and more middle- to upper-income. Many of these areas went years without a single crime prediction.
… “No one has done the work you guys are doing, which is looking at the data,” said Andrew Ferguson, a law professor at American University who is a national expert on predictive policing. “This isn’t a continuation of research. This is actually the first time anyone has done this, which is striking because people have been paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for this technology for a decade.”
“Social” media becomes even more anti-social.
Debt collectors can now text, email and DM you on social media
New rules approved by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that took effect on Tuesday dictate how collection agencies can email and text people as well as message them on social media to seek repayment for unpaid debts.
Kathleen L. Kraninger, the former CFPB director who oversaw the rule changes, said last year that they were a necessary update to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which is more than four decades old.
"We are finally leaving 1977 behind and developing a debt collection system that works for consumers and industry in the modern world," Kraninger said in a blog post.
Perspective.
37 Percent of the World's Population Has Never Been Online, U.N. Report Finds
Nearly two-thirds of the world’s population now have the opportunity to waste away their life online just like you. Specifically, around 2.9 billion (or 37%) of the world’s population have still never used the internet, with the vast majority of those people residing in developing countries. Those figures are part of a new report conducted by the UN’s International Telecommunication Union which simultaneously found a rapid increase in new global internet connections, seemingly fast-tracked by the pandemic.
According to the report, the number of people using the internet worldwide surged from 4.1 billion in 2019 to 4.9 billion in 2021. This “Covid Connectivity boost” was likely the result of lockdowns, pivots towards remote work and school, and huge increases in e-commerce and online banking. Overall, global internet users grew by more than 10% in 2020, the largest annual increase in a decade, the report notes.
I’m shocked. Shocked I tell you!
Shopify has a ‘textbook pirate’ problem, publishers allege
Five major publishers have sued Shopify over pirated learning materials like PDFs of ebooks and test materials, saying the e-commerce platform fails to remove listings and stores that violate the publishers’ trademarks and copyrights. The lawsuit, filed today in the US District Court for Eastern Virginia, claims statutory damages higher than $500 million.
(Related)
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-5-sites-for-college-textbooks/
The 11 Best Sites to Get College Textbooks Online
Don't let college textbooks empty your pockets every semester. Use these websites to buy or rent cheap college books.
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