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Moving To Life Online ... With A Vengeance
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Mar '20

26 Mar '20

ISPs are having a few hiccups adjusting to the massive increase in Internet usage, particularly in the daytime <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=123201…>. Even phone calls, it seems, are overloading the landline network: Meanwhile, Spark says the indu[s]try-wide congestion problems that stopped many voice calls getting through on Monday and Tuesday are slowly starting to ease - but the telco is still encouraging people to use internet apps like Apple Facetime, WhatsApp or Skype for calls to help ease the pressure. Yeah, push even more load onto the Internet ...

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Singapore Government To Make Its Contact-Tracing App Freely Available To Developers Worldwide
by Peter Reutemann 26 Mar '20

26 Mar '20

'In a move to help the international community combat the coronavirus pandemic, the Singapore government will be making the software for its contact-tracing application TraceTogether, which has already been installed by more than 620,000 people, freely available to developers around the world. From a report: In a post on Monday, Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative Vivian Balakrishnan said that the app, developed by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) and the Ministry of Health, will be open-sourced. This means that the software's source code will be made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. "We believe that making our code available to the world will enhance trust and collaboration in dealing with a global threat that does not respect boundaries, political systems or economies," said Dr Balakrishnan, who is also Foreign Minister. "Together, we can make our world safer for everyone."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/03/25/1651232 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 exFAT Filesystem Is Coming To Linux -- Paragon Software's Not Happy About It
by Peter Reutemann 26 Mar '20

26 Mar '20

'When software and operating system giant Microsoft announced its support for inclusion of the exFAT filesystem directly into the Linux kernel back in August, it didn't get a ton of press coverage. But filesystem vendor Paragon Software clearly noticed this month's merge of the Microsoft-approved, largely Samsung-authored version of exFAT into the VFS for-next repository, which will in turn merge into Linux 5.7 -- and Paragon doesn't seem happy about it. Yesterday, Paragon issued a press release about European gateway-modem vendor Sagemcom adopting its version of exFAT into an upcoming series of Linux-based routers. Unfortunately, it chose to preface the announcement with a stream of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) that wouldn't have looked out of place on Steve Ballmer's letterhead in the 1990s.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/03/25/2136223 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 Play’s malicious app problem infects 1.7 million more devices
by Peter Reutemann 25 Mar '20

25 Mar '20

'Google Play, the company’s official repository for Android apps, has once again been caught hosting fraudulent and potentially malicious apps, with the discovery of more than 56 apps—many of them for children—that were installed on almost 1.7 million devices. Tekya is a family of malware that generates fraudulent clicks on ads and banners delivered by agencies including Google’s AdMob, AppLovin’, Facebook, and Unity. To give the clicks the air of authenticity, the well-obfuscated code causes infected devices to use Android’s “MotionEvent” mechanism to imitate legitimate user actions. At the time researchers from security firm Check Point discovered them, the apps went undetected by VirusTotal and Google Play Protect. Twenty-four of the apps that contained Tekya were marketed to children. Google removed all 56 of the apps after Check Point reported them. The discovery “highlights once again that the Google Play Store can still host malicious apps,” Check Point researchers Israel Wernik, Danil Golubenko, and Aviran Hazum wrote in a post published on Tuesday. “There are nearly 3 million apps available from the store, with hundreds of new apps being uploaded daily–making it difficult to check that every single app is safe. Thus, users cannot rely on Google Play’s security measures alone to ensure their devices are protected.”' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/03/found-malicious-goog… 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 Launches New Initiative With Scroll To Fund Publishers
by Peter Reutemann 25 Mar '20

25 Mar '20

'Firefox, the global web browser from Mozilla, is launching a new subscription product Tuesday called the "Firefox Better Web initiative," and it will feature former Chartbeat CEO Tony Haile's new product Scroll as a launch partner. From a report: It's uncommon for a web browser to launch a product that's explicitly tied to paying out publishers. Scroll's business is all about paying publishers for their content while giving users a better ad experience. The test pilot for the product, which is a subscription to a privacy-first Firefox extension, will only be available in the U.S. The money from a membership ($4.99 monthly, $2,99 for first six months) goes directly to fund publishers and writers.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/03/24/145235 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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Meet the Chinese OS That's Trying To Shift the Country Off Windows
by Peter Reutemann 25 Mar '20

25 Mar '20

'China's homegrown operating systems haven't made much of a dent on the global stage. Now there's a Linux-based system that's aimed at weaning the country off Windows. From a report: UOS, or Unified Operating System, hit a new milestone after its first stable release in January: Union Tech's OS can now boot in 30 seconds on China-made chips. It's an important step as Chinese tech companies look to reduce their dependence on US-made software and hardware. The struggles of ZTE and Huawei illustrate this clearly: The former was reliant on chips made in the US to produce smartphones, while the latter has the difficult task of selling Android handsets outside China without Google apps or services. The "current international climate" has made it imperative for China to have its own foundational software to avoid being cut off by the US, said the general manager of Union Tech, Liu Wenhan. While Chinese operating systems currently account for less than 1% of the market, Liu said he expects them to grow to 20% to 30% in the future. Integrating homegrown Chinese chips could be the biggest accomplishment of UOS if it pans out. Although Chinese computer chips still don't approach the sophistication of those created by US-based companies, Union Tech said that it is actively working with Chinese chipmakers like Loongson and Sunway to facilitate the gradual replacement of American technology in the Chinese government and pillar industries. In December, Beijing ordered all government offices and public institutions to remove foreign computer equipment and software within three years.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/03/24/1918223 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 Says Hackers Are Attacking Windows Users With a New Unpatched Bug
by Peter Reutemann 24 Mar '20

24 Mar '20

'Microsoft says attackers are exploiting a previously undisclosed security vulnerability found in all supported versions of Windows, including Windows 10. From a report: But the software giant said there is currently no patch for the vulnerability. The security flaw, which Microsoft deems "critical" -- its highest severity rating -- is found in how Windows handles and renders fonts, according to the advisory posted Monday. The bug can be exploited by tricking a victim into opening a malicious document. Once the document is opened -- or viewed in Windows Preview -- an attacker can remotely run malware, such as ransomware, on a vulnerable device. The advisory said that Microsoft was aware of hackers launching "limited, targeted attacks," but did not say who was launching the attacks or at what scale.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/03/23/1846216 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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WLUG meeting (virtual)
by Peter Reutemann 23 Mar '20

23 Mar '20

Hi everyone Thanks to Aarons tireless efforts, we can have our WLUG meeting despite COVID-19, though in virtual form via Youtube and Google Hangouts (see links below). As a refresher for the topic: The voice interface represents another big shift in user interfaces, and could be as big a shift as the shift from switches to terminals, the switch from terminals to windowed GUIs, or the switch from full computers to small touchscreen devices. Unfortunately, right now most of these devices are little more than a telephone for talking to a server in the cloud. That is a big problem for privacy, and presents the user with a false choice between access and privacy. Today's computers are capable of handling a verbal interface without requiring a cloud service to handle all of your requests. Aaron Chantrill is one of the developers on the Naomi Project, a free and open source voice assistant (https://projectnaomi.com) It is a plugin based system based on Jasper (http://jasperproject.github.io/) and depending on how the user chooses to configure it, can run totally offline. In this presentation, Aaron would like to introduce people to the Naomi Project, talk about the benefits of a verbal interface, talk about the current architectures of virtual assistants, and ways in which that architecture can be altered to provide better privacy, and also do a comparison of offline speech to text and text to speech solutions, including Pocketsphinx, Mozilla Deepspeech, Kaldi, and Julius. Finally, He will invite people to participate in building and improving Naomi. There is a lot to do and much of it is both engaging and cutting-edge. Aaron recorded a video of his presentation that you can watch here before the virtual meeting: https://youtu.be/8383A_t7iKQ The slides are available as well: https://github.com/aaronchantrill/NaomiPresentation/raw/master/Presentation… The Google Hangouts link for the Question & Answer session: https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts/_/calendar/ZHJhc2t5QGdtYWlsLmNvbQ.3j6l… Meetup link: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/269578787/ 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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[OT] The Doctor Who Helped Defeat Smallpox Explains What’s Coming
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Mar '20

23 Mar '20

I realize this isn’t part of the topic of this group, but this article <https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/the-doctor-who-helped-defeat-smallp…> seems to me important enough that everyone should read it. It’s an interview with epidemiologist Larry Brilliant, who was part of the group that helped eradicate smallpox, and who gave a TED talk 14 years ago about what the next epidemic would look like, that is proving rather prescient right now. He gives an overview of where we are at in the knowledge of the SARS-Cov-2† virus that is causing the current COVID-19‡ pandemic. In short, as new as this virus is, it’s going to follow a lot of the same sort of behaviour as every past infectious viral disease. On facemasks: The N95 mask itself is extremely wonderful. The pores in the mask are three microns wide. The virus is one micron wide. So you get people who say, well, it's not going to work. But you try having three big, huge football players who are rushing for lunch through a door at lunchtime—they're not going to get through. In the latest data I saw, the mask provided 5x protection. That's really good. But we have to keep the hospitals going and we have to keep the health professionals able to come to work and be safe. So masks should go where they’re needed the most: in taking care of patients. †Official name of the virus ‡Official name of the disease caused by the virus

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Critical bugs in dozens of Zyxel and Lilin IoT models under active exploit
by Peter Reutemann 22 Mar '20

22 Mar '20

'Criminals are exploiting critical flaws to corral Internet-of-things devices from two different manufacturers into botnets that wage distributed denial-of-service attacks, researchers said this week. Both DVRs from Lilin and storage devices from Zyxel are affected, and users should install updates as soon as possible. Multiple attack groups are exploiting the Lilin DVR vulnerability to conscript them into DDoS botnets known as FBot, Chalubo, and Moobot, researchers from security firm Qihoo 360 said on Friday. The latter two botnets are spinoffs of Mirai, the botnet that used hundreds of thousand of IoT devices to bombard sites with record-setting amounts of junk traffic. The DVR vulnerability stems from three flaws that allow attackers to remotely inject malicious commands into the device. The bugs are: (1) hard-coded login credentials present in the device, (2) command-injection flaws, and (3) arbitrary file reading weaknesses. The injected parameters affect the device capabilities for file transfer protocol, network time protocol, and the update mechanism for network time protocol.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/03/lilin-dvrs-and-zyxel… 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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