Please try the URL privacy information feature enabled by clicking the flashlight icon above. This will reveal two icons after each link the body of the digest. The shield takes you to a breakdown of Terms of Service for the site - however only a small number of sites are covered at the moment. The flashlight take you to an analysis of the various trackers etc. that the linked site delivers. Please let the website maintainer know if you find this useful or not. As a RISKS reader, you will probably not be surprised by what is revealed…
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pratt-engine-flaw-idle-hundreds-134426871.html [No joke: This is really a serious prat(t)fall. PGN]
David E. Sanger and Steven Lee Myers *The New York Times* national edition front page, 12 Sep 2023 Maui disinformation. Covert campaign shows rapid shift in tactics against the West. “The disaster was not natural, ... but was the result of a secret `weather weapon' being tested by the United States,'' according to the Chinese disinformation. To bolster the plausibility, the posts carried photographs that appeared to have been generated by artificial intelligence programs, making them among the first to use these new tools to bolster the aura of authenticity of a disinformation campaign. [This seems to reach into far-fetched territory that is indistinguishable from truth to those who believe their government. It gave me just one more truth-ache. (Somewhat ironically, I finally got around to reading the article at two-thirty!) PGN] Same basic story with online variant title: China Sows Disinformation About Hawaii Fires Using New Techniques David E. Sanger and Steven Lee Myers, *The New York Times*, 11 Sep 2023 Researchers at Microsoft, the University of Maryland, and other organizations found China's government is utilizing new methods to promulgate disinformation about last month's wildfires on Maui, claiming they resulted from tests of a secret "weather weapon." Such content includes photos apparently produced by artificial intelligence to add plausibility to Beijing's false narrative. The campaign seems to indicate China has shifted tactics from intensifying state propaganda to actively spreading discord in the U.S. The researchers suggested China was amassing a network of accounts that could be leveraged in future information (or disinformation) campaigns for “amplifying conspiracy theories that are not directly related to some of their interests, like Taiwan,'' said Brian Liston at cybersecurity company Recorded Future. [...] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/us/politics/china-disinformation-ai.html [Also noted by Jan Wolitzky. PGN]
https://www.theverge.com/23864878/ai-voice-clones-podcastle-elevenlabs-personal-voice
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/11/23869145/writers-sue-openai-chatgpt-copyright-claims
You need to talk to your kid about AI. Here are 6 things you should say. As children start back at school this week, it's not just ChatGPT you need to be thinking about. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/09/05/1079009/you-need-to-talk-to-your-kid-about-ai-here-are-6-things-you-should-say/
Littoral combat ships were supposed to launch the Navy into the future. Instead they broke down across the globe and many of their weapons never worked. Now the Navy is getting rid of them. One is less than five years old. https://www.propublica.org/article/how-navy-spent-billions-littoral-combat-ship
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/11/politics/voting-rights-new-tool-canceling-registrations/index.html
https://engage.ieee.org/index.php/email/emailWebview?mkt_tok=NzU2LUdQSC04OTkAAAGOKVAynFor4c536iBF8GvZS9Y51TiH99Lm_PftVwgNANl4PoYW_JcyTayCD1Zkr2s1fBfYBD6r7y44aQ7EbX_upyF6hk_qohx6g6OdzAao0WY&md_id=78636 [The Internet of Meds Things is presumably hackable? PGN]
The dream of carrying one power cable for all your devices is becoming a reality. But things aren't as simple as they sound. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/12/technology/personaltech/apple-iphone-lightning-usb-c.html [Side comment: The Thunderclap paper notes that Apple had only partially resolved the generic USB-C security problems. I wonder if it is better now. PGN]
https://www.engadget.com/ftc-says-elon-musk-may-have-jeopardized-data-privacy-and-security-at-twitter-232642914.html
[Re: RISKS-33.83] https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/09/12/candidate-livestreamed-sex-acts-00115395
My grandmother, born late 1880's, told me ~1960 that she liked horse-drawn dates when she was a teenager because "the horse knew the way home".
A few observations: > A pedestrian injured in a traffic collision in San Francisco died; EMTs > allege that they would have survived had two Cruise cars and an unoccupied > police car not prevented the ambulance from leaving promptly. First: It helps to read the entire story and not just the headline: [. . .] Cruise spokesperson Tiffany Testo countered that one of the cars cleared the scene and that traffic to the right of it remained unblocked. "The ambulance behind the AV had a clear path to pass the AV as other vehicles, including another ambulance, proceeded to do," she wrote in a statement to SFGATE. Second: You will note that the injury to the pedestrian was apparently driver `caused by a "driverful" automobile, but apparently nobody is raising a stink over "'death traps' and a menace to disabled people and children[1]" in vehicles driven by humans. We just seem to accept that as a part of day to day life. Third: You will also note that there was a human-driven police vehicle also blocking egress. Perhaps we're seeing a little convenient blame-shifting by the SFPD?
After reading about the Mozilla report on the automobile industry https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/categories/cars/ (thanks to The Guardian and Steve Bacher) I finally understand why vintage car prices have risen so sharply! NO data collection included.-)
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