- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Google Fixes Major Gmail Bug Seven Hours After Exploit Details Go Public
by Peter Reutemann 21 Aug '20

21 Aug '20

'Google has patched on Wednesday a major security bug impacting the Gmail and G Suite email servers. From a report: The bug could have allowed a threat actor to send spoofed emails mimicking any Gmail or G Suite customer. According to security researcher Allison Husain, who found and reported this issue to Google in April, the bug also allowed attachers to pass the spoofed emails as compliant with SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance), two of the most advanced email security standards. However, despite having 137 days to fix the reported issue, Google initially delayed patches past the disclosure deadline, planning to fix the bug somewhere in September. Google engineers changed their mind yesterday after Husain published details about the bug on her blog, including proof-of-concept exploit code.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/08/20/1522226 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Some Email Clients Are Vulnerable To Attacks Via 'mailto' Links
by Peter Reutemann 21 Aug '20

21 Aug '20

'A lesser-known technology known as "mailto" links can be abused to launch attacks on the users of email desktop clients. From a report: The new attacks can be used to secretly steal local files and have them emailed as attachments to attackers, according to a research paper published last week by academics from two German universities. The "vulnerability" at the heart of these attacks is how email clients implemented RFC6068 -- the technical standard that describes the 'mailto' URI scheme. Mailto refer to special types of links, usually supported by web browsers or email clients. These are links that, when clicked, they open a new email compose/reply window rather than a new web page (website). RFC6068 says that mailto links can support various parameters. When used with mailto links, these parameters will pre-fill the new email window with predefined content.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/08/20/177204 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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The Legend Of The Melbourne Citadel
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Aug '20

21 Aug '20

It appears there is a 2300-foot tall building in Melbourne, at least according to the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/20/flight_simulator_bing_fawkner_tower/>. This would make it the second-tallest in the world. It originated from a mistaken entry into the OpenStreetMap database (since corrected), which Flight Simulator nevertheless managed to incorporate into its map data. There’s even a linked video of a player trying to land on it, before a future update deletes it from the game. Spoiler alert: yes, you can land, with the right sort of aircraft and a bit of effort. And you can even take off again. Another amusing item from the report comes from Microsoft’s use of AI to fill in road traffic flows. There is one case where the map data seems to omit the fact that there is a traffic tunnel through a building, with the result that the software has the cars going vertically up and down the sides of the building.

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Linux Is Taking Over
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Aug '20

21 Aug '20

Seems like The Register’s BorkBorkBork column, featuring public examples of embedded systems falling over, is including more and more Linux-based screwups, e.g. <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/20/bork/>: RailPoint has form for bork. Its Windows-based signage has already featured in these pages and back then the company told us it was "about to upgrade all of our production machines to a custom Linux build to improve their stability and generally operate with more efficiency". Behold the stability and efficiency. *Sigh*

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'Real' Programming Is an Elitist Myth
by Peter Reutemann 20 Aug '20

20 Aug '20

'When people build a database to manage reading lists or feed their neighbors, that's coding -- and culture. From an essay: We are past the New York City Covid-19 peak. Things have started to reopen, but our neighborhood is in trouble, and people are hungry. There's a church that's opened space for a food pantry, a restaurant owner who has given herself to feeding the neighborhood, and lots of volunteers. [...] It's a complex data model. It involves date fields, text fields, integers, notes. You need lots of people to log in, but you need to protect private data too. You'd think their planning conversations would be about making lots of rice. But that is just a data point. The tool the mutual aid group has settled on to track everything is Airtable, a database-as-a-service program. You log in and there's your database. There are a host of tools like this now, "low-code" or "no-code" software with names like Zapier or Coda or Appy Pie. At first glance these tools look like flowcharts married to spreadsheets, but they're powerful ways to build little data-management apps. Airtable in particular keeps showing up everywhere for managing office supplies or scheduling appointments or tracking who at WIRED has their fingers on this column. The more features you use, the more they charge for it, and it can add up quickly. I know because I see the invoices at my company; we use it to track projects. "Real" coders in my experience have often sneered at this kind of software, even back when it was just FileMaker and Microsoft Access managing the flower shop or tracking the cats at the animal shelter. It's not hard to see why. These tools are just databases with a form-making interface on top, and with no code in between. It reduces software development, in all its complexity and immense profitability, to a set of simple data types and form elements. You wouldn't build a banking system in it or a game. It lacks the features of big, grown-up databases like Oracle or IBM's Db2 or PostgreSQL. And since it is for amateurs, the end result ends up looking amateur. But it sure does work. I've noticed that when software lets nonprogrammers do programmer things, it makes the programmers nervous. Suddenly they stop smiling indulgently and start talking about what "real programming" is. This has been the history of the World Wide Web, for example. Go ahead and tweet "HTML is real programming," and watch programmers show up in your mentions to go, "As if." Except when you write a web page in HTML, you are creating a data model that will be interpreted by the browser. This is what programming is. Code culture can be solipsistic and exhausting. Programmers fight over semicolon placement and the right way to be object-oriented or functional or whatever else will let them feel in control and smarter and more economically safe, and always I want to shout back: Code isn't enough on its own. We throw code away when it runs out its clock; we migrate data to new databases, so as not to lose one precious bit. Code is a story we tell about data.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/08/19/146204 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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235 Million Instagram, TikTok and YouTube User Profiles Exposed In Massive Data Leak
by Peter Reutemann 20 Aug '20

20 Aug '20

'Forbes: The security research team at Comparitech today disclosed how an unsecured database left almost 235 million Instagram, TikTok and YouTube user profiles exposed online in what can only be described as a massive data leak. The data was spread across several datasets; the most significant being two coming in at just under 100 million each and containing profile records apparently scraped from Instagram. The third-largest was a dataset of some 42 million TikTok users, followed by just under 4 million YouTube user profiles. Comparitech says that, based on the samples it collected, one in five records contained either a telephone number or email address. Every record also included at least some, sometimes all, the following information: Profile name; Full real name; Profile photo; and Account description. Statistics about follower engagement, including: Number of followers; Engagement rate; Follower growth rate; Audience gender; Audience age; Audience location; Likes; Last post timestamp; Age; and Gender. "The information would probably be most valuable to spammers and cybercriminals running phishing campaigns," Paul Bischoff, Comparitech editor, says. "Even though the data is publicly accessible, the fact that it was leaked in aggregate as a well-structured database makes it much more valuable than each profile would be in isolation," Bischoff adds. Indeed, Bischoff told me that it would be easy for a bot to use the database to post targeted spam comments on any Instagram profile matching criteria such as gender, age or number of followers. The data appeared to have originated from a company called Deep Social, which was banned by both Facebook and Instagram in 2018 after scraping user profile data. The company was wound down sometime after this. The researchers reached out to Deep Social, which then forwarded the disclosure to a Hong Kong-registered social media influencer data-marketing company called Social Data. Social Data shut down the database about three hours after the researchers' initial email. "Social Data has denied any connection between itself and Deep Social," reports Forbes, citing Comparitech.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/08/19/212230 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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More PowerShell Users On Linux Than Windows?!?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

According to this <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/18/powershell_71_preview_6/>: While the Linux useragent continues to be responsible for the lion's share of daily usage (and Ubuntu the distro of choice), Windows has continued to rise in popularity, according to the figures. which surprises me just a little bit, considering this was a tool originally designed to bring more advanced command-line facilities to Windows, not Linux. Maybe they should fix those Linux-specific bugs <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/23/your_wget_is_broken_and_should_die_…> after all...

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Chrome 86 Will Warn Users About Insecure Forms On HTTPS Pages
by Peter Reutemann 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

'While there's wide HTTPS adoption today, HTTP content on secure pages still persists. Google has been working to stamp that out, and Chrome is now turning its attention to and warning about insecure forms. "These 'mixed forms' (forms on HTTPS sites that do not submit on HTTPS) are a risk to users' security and privacy," says Google in a blog post. "Information submitted on these forms can be visible to eavesdroppers, allowing malicious parties to read or change sensitive form data." 9to5Google reports: The Google browser today removes the address bar's lock icon from sites with mixed forms. However, this proved to deliver an "unclear" experience that "did not effectively communicate the risks associated with submitting data in insecure forms." Starting in version 86, due to hit stable in October, Chrome will provide a more aggressive warning about insecure forms. Autofill will be disabled, but the built-in password manager will continue to offer "unique passwords." The company argues it's safer than reusing credentials. Next, the form will show red warning text underneath the field: "This form is not secure. Autofill has been turned off. The last measure will throw up a full-page warning communicating the potential risks. It gives users an option to cancel the action, but there will be a "Send anyway" button. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/08/18/0033257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux Kernel NTFS Driver
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

This article <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/18/paragon_tries_to_contribute_ntfs/>, about the submission of a new Linux kernel driver for accessing Microsoft NTFS volumes (i.e. the kind of filesystems that are standard among Windows users), had me confused for a moment. It mentions limitations of the current kernel driver, like not being able to create or delete files or directories. I thought this kind of problem had been solved for Linux over a decade ago. And indeed it has, in the form of NTFS-3G, which is a userspace driver that connects via FUSE, and is available as a standard package for Debian and derivatives. I know this works, because just a few weeks ago, for example, I was at some friends’ place, and transferred several dozen gigabytes of files to an external hard drive of theirs from my Debian-Unstable-running laptop, without thinking twice about it, even though they are exclusively Windows users. I suppose a kernel driver offers higher performance, in principle, than one running in userspace. But I can’t imagine many Linux-based workloads that make heavy use of NTFS volumes.

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meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

Hi everyone We have a meeting coming up next Monday: "With VPNs being in the news frequently (and often for sad reasons like selling logs despite assurances that no such logs would exist), let's have a hands-on session with WireGuard (https://www.wireguard.com/) a VPN tunnel that is easier to use and configure than IPSec and faster than OpenVPN." Details: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/266792032 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft: Improving The “Outage Experience”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

Seems that, when something goes wrong with Microsoft’s cloud service, customers expect to find out what has happened by visiting the Azure Status page. How silly of them <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/18/dont_use_azure_status_page/>: The place to look, Kubba said, is in the Azure Portal under Service Health. The public Azure status page is "only used to communicate widespread outages" so likely to be ineffective in discovering what may be wrong. "Despite this, we constantly find that customers visit the Azure Status page to determine the health of services on Azure," complained Kubba – though we presume that if an outage blocks access to the portal, the Status page would then be the right place to look. In other cases, it is not much use since "more than 95 per cent of our incidents" do not appear there, according to Kubba. A further complication is that Azure DevOps (which is where Pipelines live) is not integrated into the Azure portal, and many Azure DevOps users only hang around the DevOps portal. Therefore, there is a separate Azure DevOps status page, making this a third site that needs to be bookmarked for tracking outages.

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An Alexa Bug Could Have Exposed Your Voice History To Hackers
by Peter Reutemann 18 Aug '20

18 Aug '20

'Findings published on Thursday by the security firm Check Point reveal that Alexa's Web services had bugs that a hacker could have exploited to grab a target's entire voice history, meaning their recorded audio interactions with Alexa. Amazon has patched the flaws, but the vulnerability could have also yielded profile information, including home address, as well as all of the "skills," or apps, the user had added for Alexa. An attacker could have even deleted an existing skill and installed a malicious one to grab more data after the initial attack. [...] For an attacker to exploit the vulnerabilities, they would need first to trick targets into clicking a malicious link, a common attack scenario. Underlying flaws in certain Amazon and Alexa subdomains, though, meant that an attacker could have crafted a genuine and normal-looking Amazon link to lure victims into exposed parts of Amazon's infrastructure. By strategically directing users to track.amazon.com -- a vulnerable page not related to Alexa, but used for tracking Amazon packages -- the attacker could have injected code that allowed them to pivot to Alexa infrastructure, sending a special request along with the target's cookies from the package-tracking page to skillsstore.amazon.com/app/secure/your-skills-page. At this point, the platform would mistake the attacker for the legitimate user, and the hacker could then access the victim's full audio history, list of installed skills, and other account details. The attacker could also uninstall a skill the user had set up and, if the hacker had planted a malicious skill in the Alexa Skills Store, could even install that interloping application on the victim's Alexa account. Both Check Point and Amazon note that all skills in Amazon's store are screened and monitored for potentially harmful behavior, so it's not a foregone conclusion that an attacker could have planted a malicious skill there in the first place. Check Point also suggests that a hacker might be able to access banking data history through the attack, but Amazon disputes this, saying that information is redacted in Alexa's responses. "The security of our devices is a top priority, and we appreciate the work of independent researchers like Check Point who bring potential issues to us," an Amazon spokesperson told WIRED in a statement. "We fixed this issue soon after it was brought to our attention, and we continue to further strengthen our systems. We are not aware of any cases of this vulnerability being used against our customers or of any customer information being exposed."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/08/17/2129202 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Text Editor Notepad++ Banned In China After 'Stand With Hong Kong' Update
by Peter Reutemann 18 Aug '20

18 Aug '20

'The website of Notepad++ is banned in China as of Monday, "obviously due to" its release of editions named "Free Uyghur" and "Stand with Hong Kong," the source code and text editor announced on Twitter. TechCrunch reports: First released in 2003 by France-based developer Don Ho, free-to-use Notepad++ operates on Windows and supports some 90 languages. In his release notices for the two editions, Ho openly voiced his concerns over "human rights" conditions, respectively in the Xinjiang autonomous region and Hong Kong. Tests by TechCrunch found that the Notepad++ ban only applies to its Download page -- which showcases the special editions and thus politically sensitive language -- when one tries to reach it from Chinese browsers developed by Tencent (QQ Browser and WeChat's built-in browser), Alibaba (UC Browser), 360 and Sogou. These services flag the page as containing content "prohibited" by local regulators. Notepad++'s home page, on the other hand, remains unblocked through these local browsers. One can still access the full site from Chrome and DuckDuckGo in China. The ban began as early as August 12 when a user notified Ho of the ban, the developer told TechCrunch. He has never been contacted by any Chinese government authority and does not plan to take measures to cope with the website restriction.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/08/17/2028235 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Reviewer Calls Linux-based PinePhone 'the Most Interesting Smartphone I've Tried in Years'
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '20

17 Aug '20

'A review at the Android Police site calls Pine64's new Linux-based PinePhone "the most interesting smartphone I've tried in years," with 17 different operating systems available (including Fedora, Ubuntu Touch, SailfishOS, openSUSE, and Arch Linux ARM): There's a replaceable battery, which is compatible with batteries designed for older Samsung Galaxy J7 phones. It's good to know that even if PinePhone vanished overnight, you could still purchase new batteries for around $10-15... There's a microSD card slot above the SIM tray, which supports cards up to 2TB in size. While it can be used as extra storage, just like the SD slots in Android phones and tablets, it can also function as a bootable drive. If you write an operating system image to the SD card and put it in the PinePhone, the phone will boot from the SD card. This means you can move between operating systems on the PinePhone by simply swapping microSD cards, which is amazing for trying out new Linux distributions without wiping data. How great would it be if Android phones could do that? Finally, the inside of the PinePhone has six hardware killswitches that can be manipulated with a screwdriver. You can use them to turn off the modem, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, microphone, rear camera, front camera, and headphone jack. No need to put a sticker over the selfie camera if you're worried about malicious software — just flip the switch and never worry about it again.... For a $150 phone produced in limited batches by a company with no previous experience in the smartphone industry, I'm impressed it's built as well as it is... I look forward to seeing what the community around the PinePhone can accomplish. A Pine64 blog post this weekend touts "a boat-load of cool and innovative things" being attempted by the PinePhone community, including users working on things like a fingerprint scanner or a thermal camera, plus a community that's 3D-printing their own custom PinePhone cases. And Pine64 has now identified three candidates for a future keyboard option (each of which can be configured as either a slide-out or clamshell keyboard): I feel like we have finally gotten into a good production rhythm; it was only last month we announced the postmarketOS Community Edition of the PinePhone, and this month I am here to tell you that the factory will deliver the phones to us at the end of this month... I don't know about you, but I think that this is a rather good production pace. At the time of writing, and based on current sale rates, the postmarketOS production-run will sell out in a matter of days... While I have no further announcements at this time, what I will say is that we have no intention of slowing down the pace now until February 2021 (when Chinese New Year begins)...' -- source: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/20/08/17/0115227 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Can Firefox Be Saved?
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '20

17 Aug '20

'"Even with another infusion of cash from Google, you have to wonder just how long Firefox will survive as a viable, mainstream web browser," argues ZDNet contributing editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: I've been using Mozilla's Firefox browser since it was still in beta. In 2004, for a while, it was my favorite web browser. Not because it was open-source, but because it was so much better and more secure than Internet Explorer. That was then. This is now. Firefox is in real danger of dying off... Mozilla and Firefox still produced important work. You need to look no further than the JavaScript, Rust, and WebAssembly languages. They were also champions of security and privacy. Projects such as embracing DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) and overall security improvements were great, but users didn't care. With the arrival of Google's Chrome browser, users turned from Firefox to Chrome as their favorite browser... Firefox is on its way to irrelevance. Making matters even worse, Mozilla's just had its second round of layoffs... As technology writer Matthew MacDonald put it, "Mozilla "." Firefox's security and development teams have also been hard hit. This is bad. In January. Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Corporation CEO and Mozilla Foundation chairperson, said it let people go because of declining interest in Firefox, and thus reduced earnings, and that Mozilla was looking for more revenue from "sources outside of search" but "this did not happen." It still isn't happening. According to Mozilla's latest annual report, the majority of its revenue is still generated from global browser search partnerships. This includes the deal negotiated with Google in 2017... Baker assured onlookers that Mozilla would "ship new products faster and develop new revenue streams." These include its bookmarking app Pocket; its virtual rooms Hubs; and its $4.99-a-month Firefox VPN. Excuse me if I don't buy any of these new revenue sources.... Firefox will live on in one way or the other. It's open source after all. But Firefox as an important browser, or Mozilla as a significant open-source developer hub? No. I can't see it. Those days are done. Firefox is officially on my endangered species list. Technology writer Matthew MacDonald ended his Medium essay on a more hopeful note. "If you have the skills and time, the best possible support is to join the Mozilla community and contribute to their code base."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/08/15/1955237 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Happy Birthday to Debian, CPAN, and Mutt
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '20

17 Aug '20

'27 years ago today, in 1993, Debian first appeared in the world. August 16th has since been recognized as "DebianDay," celebrated shortly before the annual Debian Conference — with lots of ways to get involved, according to Debian.org: Today is also an opportunity for you to start or resume your contributions to Debian. For example, you can scratch your creative itch and suggest a wallpaper to be part of the artwork for the next release, have a look at the DebConf20 schedule and register to participate online (August 23rd to 29th, 2020), or put a Debian live image in a DVD or USB and give it to some person near you, who still didn't discover Debian. Our favorite operating system is the result of all the work we do together. Thanks to everybody who has contributed in these 27 years, and happy birthday Debian! And the same day is also the 25th anniversary of CPAN, the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network: On the 16th August 1995, Andreas König uploaded Symdump 1.20 to CPAN. There were other things already on CPAN, but this was the first true upload, to be followed by more than 6,500 people who have released over 35,000 distributions in 230k releases. So it seems appropriate that 16th August be designated CPAN Day, to celebrate CPAN, and all the authors who've made it what it is. That blog post urges readers to celebrate the anniversary "by doing something related to CPAN: release something, blog about your favourite module, or email its author thanking her or him." Finally, Slashdot reader JobSnijders reminds us that Mutt is also enjoying a birthday: The email client that aims to suck a little bit less celebrates its 25th anniversary!' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/08/16/1652249 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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How Qualcomm Shook Down The Cell Phone Industry For Almost 20 Years
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Aug '20

15 Aug '20

A pretty sobering read <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/05/how-qualcomm-shook-down-the-cel…>: Qualcomm's first weapon against competitors: patent licensing terms requiring customers to pay a royalty on every phone sold—not just phones that contained Qualcomm's wireless chips. Sound familiar? Judge Koh draws a direct parallel to licensing behavior that got Microsoft in legal trouble in the 1990s. Microsoft would offer PC makers a discount if they agreed to pay Microsoft a licensing fee for every PC sold—whether or not the PC shipped with a copy of MS-DOS. This effectively meant that a PC maker had to pay twice if it shipped a PC running a non-Microsoft operating system. There’s a lot more--the article reads like a catalogue of gangster-like tactics. All of which is perfectly all right under the US interpretation of “Free Enterprise”, of course ... Also, reading the details of how Qualcomm managed to sabotage Intel’s efforts to develop 5G chips, it seems to me that Qualcomm is directly responsible for the situation today where US companies are lagging behind Chinese ones like Huawei in 5G capability.

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LibreOffice 7.0
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '20

14 Aug '20

Hi everyone I completely missed the release of LibreOffice 7.0 at the start of August: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.0 Notable changes: - ODF 1.3 support - EMF+ import improved - improved import/export of docx/xlsx/pptx files - Python 2.7 support removed, uses Python 3 by default - Macromedia flash export removed Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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GPT-3 Raises Complex Questions for Philosophy and Policy
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Aug '20

14 Aug '20

From <https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2020/08/13/gpt-3-raises-complex-questions-for…>: GPT-3, a powerful, 175 billion parameter language model developed recently by OpenAI, has been galvanizing public debate and controversy ... Why the hype? GPT-3 is unlike other natural language processing (NLP) systems, the latter of which often struggle with what comes comparatively easily to humans: performing entirely new language tasks based on a few simple instructions and examples. Instead, NLP systems usually have to be pre-trained on a large corpus of text, and then fine-tuned in order to successfully perform a specific task. GPT-3, by contrast, does not require fine tuning of this kind: it seems to be able to perform a whole range of tasks reasonably well, from producing fiction, poetry, and press releases to functioning code, and from music, jokes, and technical manuals, to “news articles which human evaluators have difficulty distinguishing from articles written by humans”. Also note this: ... GPT-3 has been trained on us—on a lot of things that we have said and written—and ends up reproducing just that, racial and gender bias included. OpenAI acknowledges this in their own paper on GPT-3,where they contrast the biased words GPT-3 used most frequently to describe men and women, following prompts like “He was very…” and “She would be described as…”. The results aren’t great. For men? Lazy. Large. Fantastic. Eccentric. Stable. Protect. Survive. For women? Bubbly, naughty, easy-going, petite, pregnant, gorgeous.

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FBI and NSA Expose New Linux Malware Drovorub, Used by Russian State Hackers
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '20

14 Aug '20

'The FBI and NSA have published today a joint security alert containing details about a new strain of Linux malware that the two agencies say was developed and deployed in real-world attacks by Russia's military hackers. From a report: The two agencies say Russian hackers used the malware, named Drovorub, was to plant backdoors inside hacked networks. Based on evidence the two agencies have collected, FBI and NSA officials claim the malware is the work of APT28 (Fancy Bear, Sednit), a codename given to the hackers operating out of military unity 26165 of the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 85th Main SpecialService Center (GTsSS). Through their joint alert, the two agencies hope to raise awareness in the US private and public sectors so IT administrators can quickly deploy detection rules and prevention measures.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/08/13/174237 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Mozilla Extends its Google Search Deal
by Peter Reutemann 13 Aug '20

13 Aug '20

'Mozilla and Google have extended their search deal for another three years, news outlet ZDNet reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with thee matter. Mozilla confirmed the news. From a report: The new search deal will ensure Google remains the default search engine provider inside the Firefox browser until 2023 at an estimated price tag of around $400 million to $450 million per year. Mozilla officials are expected to announce the search deal's extension later this fall, in November, when the organization is scheduled to disclose its 2019 financial figures. Terms of the new deal were leaked to this reporter after Mozilla announced plans to lay off more than 250 employees on Wednesday in a move that had many users fearing for the browser maker's future, as Mozilla's current Google search deal was scheduled to expire at the end of the year. However, several sources have confirmed that the organization is sound financially, and the layoffs were part of a restructuring of its core business, with Mozilla moving away from its current role of internet standards steward and experimental approach to its product catalog to more commercially-viable offerings that generate revenues on their own.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/08/13/0012243 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Google Makes Building Android Apps on Chrome OS Easier
by Peter Reutemann 13 Aug '20

13 Aug '20

'Google today launched ChromeOS.dev, a new site that aims to help developers get started with building Android apps for the company's Linux-based operating system. With today's update, Google is also making it easier to build and test Android applications on Chromebooks. From a report: The new ChromeOS.dev site, which is available in English and Spanish for now, is meant to "help developers maximize their capabilities on the platform through technical resources/tutorials, product announcements, code samples and more," a Google spokesperson told us. As Google notes in today's announcement, in the last quarter, Chromebook unit sales were up 127% year-over-year in the last quarter, compared to 40% for notebook sales in general. To help Android developers do all of their work on a Chromebook if they so desire, Google now offers the full Android Emulator on Chrome OS to test apps right on their Chromebooks. The team also made deploying apps on Chrome OS (M81 and newer) much easier. Developers can now deploy and test apps directly without having to use developer mode or connect devices via USB.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/08/12/193214 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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TikTok Tracked User Data Using Tactic Banned By Google
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '20

12 Aug '20

'TikTok skirted a privacy safeguard in Google's Android operating system to collect unique identifiers from millions of mobile devices, data that allows the app to track users online without allowing them to opt out, a Wall Street Journal analysis has found. The tactic, which experts in mobile-phone security said was concealed through an unusual added layer of encryption, appears to have violated Google policies limiting how apps track people and wasn't disclosed to TikTok users. TikTok ended the practice in November, the Journal's testing showed. The identifiers collected by TikTok, called MAC addresses, are most commonly used for advertising purposes. The White House has said it is worried that users' data could be obtained by the Chinese government and used to build detailed dossiers on individuals for blackmail or espionage. In a statement, a spokesperson said the company is "committed to protecting the privacy and safety of the TikTok community. Like our peers, we constantly update our app to keep up with evolving security challenges." The company said "the current version of TikTok does not collect MAC addresses."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/08/11/2120246 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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upcoming meeting
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '20

12 Aug '20

Hi everyone With the country moving up levels again today [1], I will reevaluate next week whether we are still allowed to meet on campus for our August WLUG meeting. At this stage, the university only seems to assess events of more than 100 people. However, they are requiring social distancing, which is a bit more difficult when you have a hands-on meeting (wireguard). For the time being, stay safe and be kind! Cheers, Peter [1] https://covid19.govt.nz/updates-and-resources/latest-updates/new-zealands-a… -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Android is Becoming a Worldwide Earthquake Detection Network
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '20

12 Aug '20

'Google is creating a worldwide, Android phone-powered earthquake alert system. The first part of that system is rolling out today. If you opt in, the accelerometer in your Android phone will become one data point for an algorithm designed to detect earthquakes. Eventually, that system will automatically send warnings to people who could be impacted. From a report: It's a feature made possible through Google's strengths: the staggering numbers of Android phones around the world and clever use of algorithms on big data. As with its collaboration with Apple on exposure tracing and other Android features like car crash detection and emergency location services, it shows that there are untapped ways that smartphones could be used for something more important than doomscrolling. Google is rolling out the system in small stages. First, Google is partnering with the United States Geological Survey and the California Office of Emergency Services to send the agencies' earthquake alerts to Android users in that state. Those alerts are generated by the already-existing ShakeAlert system, which uses data generated by traditional seismometer' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/08/11/1440235 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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