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30 Oct 00:42

The Internet Of Things Just Got Even More Unsafe To Use

Jeffrey J. Bloom

“The KRACK vulnerability allows malicious actors to access a WiFi network without the password or key, observe connected devices, modify the traffic & tamper with the responses the network’s users receive. Everyone & anything using WiFi is at risk. Computers, phones, tablets, gadgets, etc. This isn’t just a flaw in the way vendors have implemented WiFi. No. It’s a bug in the specification itself.” - John Romkey, Founder of FTP Software

“The KRACK vulnerability presents itself as a serious threat, especially to end users who use IoT devices in their homes. While enterprises can secure users with VPN, SD-WAN & IPS, most IoT devices lack the muscle to run mobile VPN & consumers don’t generally run SD-WAN or IPSes in their homes.” - Shlomo Kramer, CEO and Co-Founder of Cato Networks

https://www.forbes.com/sites/haroldstark/2017/10/29/the-internet-of-things-just-got-even-more-unsafe-to-use/#6ef65fcc5411

*What exactly is IoT, & what impact is it going to have on you, if any?:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2014/05/13/simple-explanation-internet-things-that-anyone-can-understand/

*Update Every Device -- This KRACK Hack Kills Your Wi-Fi Privacy:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2017/10/16/krack-attack-breaks-wifi-encryption/

*Cato connects your remote locations, mobile users, physical & cloud datacenters into a secure & optimized global SD-WAN
https://www.catonetworks.com/

*Check out this list of companies that have already issued patches to this vulnerability:
https://char.gd/blog/2017/wifi-has-been-broken-heres-the-companies-that-have-already-fixed-it

Thankfully, for most users, software developers around the world have already come up with their own patches that prevent hackers from exploiting ...
29 Oct 23:59

Intel's Artificial Intelligence Created A Music Video

Jeffrey J. Bloom

AI is becoming increasingly important in our daily lives, & while some are alarmed by advancements, others look forward to new developments that will help us in the long term. AI’s abilities are vast and they’ve been showcased in a variety of different way. In this latest example, we find that Intel’s AI helped create a music video.

The promo clip for Chinese music star Chris Lee’s “Rainy Day, But We Are Together” was released online recently. Intel has now revealed that its artificial intelligence technology was used to create this music video. It’s the first music video to utilize Intel’s AI.

The producers of this video clip were able to create amazing special effects on the artist’s face by teaching a machine learning system to instantly reconstruct a face in 3D and also track its movements in real-time. It even tracked facial expressions.

This meant that the producers didn’t require Lee to wear tracking markers and the camera crew didn’t have to shoot in a specific way to achieve similar results. They simply captured the scenes as they wanted and left the special effects to the Ai.

This is a mere glimpse of how artificial intelligence can be used to create exciting video content in the future and we’re bound to see more of it down the line.
https://youtu.be/c5-iIheUlyI

Article:
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2017/10/intels-artificial-intelligence-music-video/

*Flashback* Elon Musk Wants The UN To Curb Artificial Intelligence Weapons:
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2017/08/elon-musk-un-curb-artificial-intelligence-weapons/

Intel's Artificial Intelligence Created A Music Video ... to create exciting video content in the future and we're bound to see more of it down the line.
29 Oct 17:08

Purism Now Offers Laptops with Intel's 'Management Engine' Disabled

by EditorDavid
Jeffrey J. Bloom

Long believed to be impossible, Purism has properly & verifiably disable the Intel Management Engine (IME) & begun shipping Librem laptops with it disabled. They accomplish this by running coreboot & strictly maintaining their firmware updates. Describing IME as "a separate CPU that can run & control a computer even when powered off." HardOCP says IME is "widely despised by security professionals & privacy advocates because it relies on signed & secret Intel code, isn't easily alterable, isn't fully documented & [is exploitable]... In short, it's a hackable computer within your computer that you cannot totally control, nor opt-out of, but it can totally control your system." 

Article:
https://www.hardocp.com/news/2017/10/22/purism_offering_laptops_intelrsquos_management_engine_disabled

Purism's Announcement:
https://puri.sm/posts/purism-librem-laptops-completely-disable-intel-management-engine/

*Flashback* SlashDot: Intel's Remote Hijacking Flaw Was 'Worse Than Anyone Thought':
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/05/07/2034245/intels-remote-hijacking-flaw-was-worse-than-anyone-thought


Video won't play in post, this one will: https://youtu.be/bl29wKp5whA

"San Francisco company Purism announced that they are now offering their Librem laptops with the Intel Management Engine disabled," writes Slashdot reader boudie2. Purism describes Management Engine as "a separate CPU that can run and control a computer even when powered off." HardOCP reports that Management Engine "is widely despised by security professionals and privacy advocates because it relies on signed and secret Intel code, isn't easily alterable, isn't fully documented, and has been found to be vulnerable to exploitation... In short, it's a tiny potentially hackable computer in your computer that you cannot totally control, nor opt-out of, but it can totally control your system." Purism writes: Disabling the Management Engine is no easy task, and it has taken security researchers years to find a way to properly and verifiably disable it. Purism, because it runs coreboot and maintains its own BIOS firmware update process, has been able to release and ship coreboot that disables the Management Engine from running, directly halting the ME CPU without the ability of recovery... "Disabling the Management Engine, long believed to be impossible, is now possible and available in all current Librem laptops. It is also available as a software update for previously shipped recent Librem laptops," says Todd Weaver, Founder & CEO of Purism.

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27 Oct 10:51

China's Elon Musk Is Ready for His Star Turn

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Elon Musk & Wang Chuanfu both rose to prominence by betting big on the possibilities of lithium ion batteries to power vehicles & break the century-old stranglehold of the internal combustion engine. But Wang was usually ahead of the U.S. innovator, starting his business as a maker of cell phone batteries & building his first large-scale vehicle-battery plant in 2003. Wang sold his first mass-market EV in 2008, constructed his first solar panel factory in the same year, & began production of electric commercial buses in 2009. Tesla Inc., which delivered its first EV in 2008, got into solar panels in 2016.

While Musk has ventured into space rockets & futuristic mode of tube-based transportation, Wang’s ever-growing portfolio of businesses is anchored on rechargeable batteries & solar power—for phones, autos, electricity supply, &, most recently, monorail trains. Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 in Nevada began production of battery cells this year & is expected to reach capacity of 35 gigawatt-hours per year by 2018. BYD already has 16GWh of vehicle battery-making capacity and is talking to other automakers about supplying them with batteries, according to Wang.
http://www.cetusnews.com/business/China%E2%80%99s-Elon-Musk-Is-Ready-for-His-Star-Turn.r17PqXkvfy0Z.html

While Wang has often been called China's Elon Musk, it might be more accurate to say that Musk is America's Wang Chuanfu. Both rose to ...
27 Oct 10:43

Services Ponder How to Train Like They Fight for Cyber

Jeffrey J. Bloom

"In order for our cyber Airmen to be cyber warriors, they need to be fully integrated into all Air Force mission areas, right from the beginning,” Basla said. “From the generation of requirements, to the development stage, to acquisition, to fielding, testing, and operation and maintenance, cyber has to be a part of it. Truly, every one of our airmen needs to be cyber warriors for the specialties they are assigned.”

The military is still considering how best to conduct defensive cyberspace operations education. For each branch of the service, “training like you fight” ...
24 Oct 02:08

Why Xbox One Backward Compatibility Took So Long

by BeauHD
Jeffrey J. Bloom

IGN explains why it took so long for backwards compatibility support on the Xbox One. Microsoft veteran Kevin La Chapelle says the answer to the question can be found in 2015 -- the year Phil Spencer announced backwards compatibility at Microsoft's Xbox E3 media briefing.

The fan-first feature has evolved from an experiment conducted by two separate Microsoft Research teams into a service planned for Xbox One's launch -- complete with hardware hooks baked into the Durango silicon -- until the well-publicized changes to the Xbox One policies (namely, stripping out the always-online requirement for the console) forced it to be pushed to the back burner. It's obviously back for good now & expanding into original Xbox compatibility of select titles on Xbox One (the first batch of which we announced today). Even the Xbox One X is getting involved, with a handful of Xbox 360 games getting Scorpio-powered enhancements like 10-bit color depth, anisotropic filtering & up to 9x additional pixel counts displayed on screen. [...] 
http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/10/23/the-untold-story-of-xbox-one-backwards-compatibility

A new report from IGN this morning explains why it took so long for backwards compatibility to be supported on the Xbox One. Microsoft veteran Kevin La Chapelle says the answer to the question can be found in 2015 -- the year that Phil Spencer announced backwards compatibility at Microsoft's Xbox E3 media briefing. From the report: The fan-first feature has evolved from an experiment conducted by two separate Microsoft Research teams into a service planned for Xbox One's launch -- complete with hardware hooks baked into the Durango silicon -- until the well-publicized changes to the Xbox One policies (namely, stripping out the always-online requirement for the console) forced it to be pushed to the back burner. It's obviously back for good now, and expanding into original Xbox compatibility of select titles on Xbox One (the first batch of which we announced today). Even the Xbox One X is getting involved, with a handful of Xbox 360 games getting Scorpio-powered enhancements like 10-bit color depth, anisotropic filtering, and up to 9x additional pixel counts displayed on screen. [...] It was 2007. One of [the research] teams was working on PowerPC CPU emulation -- getting 32-bit code, which the 360 uses, to run on the 64-bit architecture that the third-generation Xbox would be using. The other team, out of Beijing, started writing a virtual GPU emulator based on the Xbox 360 GPU architecture. "These were like peanut butter and chocolate," Microsoft VP of Xbox software engineering Kareem Choudhry recalled. "[So we thought,] 'Why don't we put them both together?'" Choudhry did just that, and so the first steps to Xbox One backwards compatibility were taken, long before the console had a name or anything remotely resembling final specifications. As Durango crystallized, so too did plans for Xbox 360 compatibility on the new machine. "This was primarily a software exercise, but we enabled that by thinking ahead with hardware," Gammill explained. "We had to bake some of the backwards compatibility support into the [Xbox One] silicon." This was done back in 2011. Preliminary tests showed that support for key Xbox middleware XMA audio and texture formats was extremely taxing to do in software alone, with the former, Gammill noted, taking up two to three of the Xbox One's six CPU cores. But a SOC (system on chip) -- basically an Xbox 360 chip inside every Xbox One, similar to how Sony put PS2 hardware inside the launch-era PS3s -- would've not only been expensive, but it would've put a ceiling on what the compatibility team could do. "If we'd have gone with the 360 SOC, we likely would've landed at just parity," he said. "The goal was never just parity." So they built the XMA and texture formats into the Xbox One chipset...

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24 Oct 02:01

AI in the Cloud Boosts Cloud Performance

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Even companies that don't directly use cloud-based AI will likely end up utilizing it as part of other cloud-based software they use. Gartner predicts that "By 2020, AI technologies will be virtually pervasive in almost every new software product & service."

Companies ready to get started have a number of options available. All of the major cloud vendors have AI services in production & a number have either announced or rolled out cloud AI services. This article offers an overview of some of the most noteworthy cloud AI solutions:

Clearly, the combination of artificial intelligence and cloud computing will .... measures in place, as the enterprise shares responsibility for security.
24 Oct 01:53

Samsung Galaxy S9 Reportedly Arriving with Neural Engine Processor for Al Capabilities

Jeffrey J. Bloom

The Kirin 970 powering the Mate 10 has a dedicated AI Neural Processing Unit (NPU), while Neural Engine Processing Cores power Apple's A11 Bionic chip in iPhone 8, 8 Plus & X, & Google is using their Pixel Visual Core chip for improving photography independently of the Snapdragon 835 SoC in the Pixel 2 & 2 XL chipsets. Rumors have it that Samsung is also working on a neural engine co-processor for its upcoming Exynos chipset.

Samsung's Deep Neural Network Development Kit (DNNDK) streamlines & accelerates DL apps, suggesting they're interested in neural AI chips for speech recognition, neural language processing, etc. Hence, there's a possibility Galaxy S9 may include a dedicated neural AI chip alongside the Exynos 9810.
http://m.theinvestor.co.kr/view.php?ud=20171022000186

It is because of its neural network compression technology and neural network hardware architecture that major companies have shown interest in ...
24 Oct 01:37

Google's AI watches YouTube videos to learn how humans behave

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Google’s AI machines are watching over 57k publicly available YouTube clips to highlight about 80 human actions. The Atomic Visual Actions (AVAs) are 3-second clips of people walking, kicking, hugging & shaking hands.

Google's trying to improve machines’ human-action recognition systems & provide opportunities to model complex activities. “We will continue to expand & improve AVA & are eager to hear feedback from the community to help us guide future directions."

Tech firms are also addressing ethics, inclusivity & privacy surrounding AI advances. Specific issues to be studied could include the economic impact of AI on jobs, ethical questions aboit self-driving cars & control of weapons systems.
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2017/10/23/google-ai-watches-youtube-videos-to-learn-humans.html

Issues the tech firms are likely to address encompass ethics, inclusivity and privacy surrounding AI advances. Specific issues to be studied could ...
24 Oct 01:21

Google Brain chief: Deep learning takes at least 100000 examples

Jeffrey J. Bloom

The biggest drawback of current Deep Learning (DL) techniques is the immense volume of data needed. “If you only have ten examples of something, it’s going to be hard to make DL work. If you have 100,000 things you care about, records or whatever, that’s the kind of scale where you should really start thinking about these kinds of techniques.” Says Jeff Dean, head of Google's Brain team, focused on wide-ranging problems in computer science & AI.

There remain many hurdles between raw data & machine intelligence, as data needs to be processed, which takes time & significant human intervention.

There’s a lot of work in Machine Learning (ML) systems that's not actually ML, gathering in combining data, label examples & creating a data processing pipeline to produce the dataset ready for ML.

Google is looking to make the process of creating ML systems easier by actually using ML to determine the right system for solving a particular problem. It’s a tough problem that isn’t anywhere near solved yet, but Dean said that early work is promising.
https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/23/google-brain-chief-says-100000-examples-is-enough-data-for-deep-learning/

Google Brain chief: Deep learning takes at least 100,000 examples ... He's been working with neural networks since the 1990s, when he wrote his ...
23 Oct 11:18

Over 1m organisations infiltrated by new IOT botnet

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Check Point says "new cyber storm clouds are gathering." They've discovered a new botnet evolving & recruiting IOT devices at a far greater pace & with more potential damage than the Mirai botnet of 2016.

"Technical aspects lead us to suspect a possible connection to Mirai, this is an entirely new & far more sophisticated campaign that is rapidly spreading worldwide," says Check Point.

Ominous signs were first picked up via their IPS in late September. With each passing day, the malware has evolved to exploit an increasing number of IoT devices.

Attacks are coming from multiple sources & a variety of IOT devices, meaning the attack was being spread by the IOT devices themselves.

"So far, we estimate over a million organisations have already been affected worldwide, including the US, Australia & everywhere in between, & the number is only increasing. Our research suggests we are now experiencing the calm before an even more powerful storm. The next cyber hurricane is about to come."
http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=165815

An increasing number of attempts were being made by hackers to exploit a combination of vulnerabilities found in various IOT devices, it notes.
23 Oct 01:08

Intel Leaps Into AI With The Nervana Neural Network Processor

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Intel may lead the way producing powerful & fast processors, but they lag behind in AI. Unlike Google who earned headlines & defied expectations with AlphaGo AI--defeating the world champion in a series of five matches.

Intel could prove us wrong with its first line of AI chips, expected to ship by the end of 2017. They're not starting entirely from scratch, purchasing several smaller machine learning (ML) & AI firms Like Mobileye, known for self-driving car chips, & Nervana Systems for Neural Network Processor chips--already 3 years in the works.

Another major player is Facebook, though the details of their involvement is unclear. Obviously, Intel is hoping its hardware will have a wide-range of social media applications, including healthcare, self-driving cars & weather forecasting.

Intel is competing directly with NVIDIA’s Volta-based products already used by Tesla. Clearly, Intel has a long road ahead, as NVIDIA's chips are seen as the best for self-learning algorithms.
http://techfrag.com/2017/10/22/intel-leaps-ai-nervana-neural-network-processor/

However, one area in which they lag behind on is artificial intelligence. ... though, Intel is hoping its hardware wil have applications for social media ...
21 Oct 11:48

Modern infrastructure management: accelerating productivity through machine learning

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Automating distillation & delivery of IT insights is increasingly difficult as the scale & complexity of infrastructure & data (from public, private & hybrid clouds) skyrockets.

IT managers struggle to harness infrastructure data in the face of growing Data friction, stemming from complexities in collecting, aggregating, analyzing & using data to monitor, maintain & improve service levels.

Wikibon hosted a CrowdChat discussing data friction & techniques (like ML) for addressing it proactively. 58 industry experts participated, generating 226 collaborative observations resulting in close to 1 million customer impressions on social-media channels.
https://siliconangle.com/blog/2017/10/20/modern-infrastructure-management-accelerating-productivity-machine-learning/

Machine learning is a promising tool for assisting IT infrastructure managers in ... close to 1 million customer impressions on social-media channels.
21 Oct 11:07

AI Know There's an Answer

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Wine-Searcher is introducing an artificial intelligence chatbot to better help users find the wines they’re looking for – even when they don’t know exactly what they're looking for.

Aiming to be an AI somm, it uses an interface like a messaging app, and opens in a dedicated browser window. You can ask it questions about the kind of wine you're looking for, and it can make a recommendation, including about what food to pair it with and a nearby store where it's available to buy.

Aiming to be an AI somm, it uses an interface like a messaging app, and opens in a dedicated browser window. You can ask it questions about the ...
21 Oct 02:39

Adobe Scribbler AI can create a realistic color image from a sketch

Jeffrey J. Bloom

The goal here is to create realistic images, ones where the user can mostly control what the final image will look like. To achieve this while having the AI do most of the work, Adobe’s project depends on an existing sketch of the eventual final image. Users are able to make the sketch detailed, then add small bits of color to different components.

This isn't the first time we've seen an AI able to generate realistic images, but ... and see the results of those edits in real time, the researchers explain.
20 Oct 03:44

Hardware for dynamic quantum computing

Jeffrey J. Bloom

In dynamic experiments, real-time qubit state information is fed back or forward within a fraction of the qubits’ coherence time to dynamically change the implemented sequence. Hardware covers both control & readout of superconducting qubits. A customized signal processing gateware & software stack was created on commercial hardware to convert pulses in a heterodyne receiver into qubit state assignments with minimal latency, alongside data taking capability. Custom hardware with gateware & software was also designed for pulse sequencing & steering data distribution capable of arbitrary control flow in a fraction of superconducting qubit coherence times. Both readout & control platforms make extensive use of field programmable gate arrays to enable tailored qubit control systems in a reconfigurable fabric suitable for iterative development.
http://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.5006525

We describe the hardware, gateware, and software developed at Raytheon BBN Technologies for dynamic quantum information processing ...
20 Oct 03:35

AI Is Changing Our Brains

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Smart systems aren’t just acting as personal assistants on our behalf, businesses, political groups & bad actors are trying to influence our decisions.

The manipulative potential of AI became clear after the 2016 U.S. election, when armies of bots were used to spread viral political ads. Computer algorithms analyzed social media behavior to develop predictions about people, & customize ads in real time based on the response. Samuel Woolley, an expert in computational propaganda, explained why AI-powered machines are such an effective tool for political communication: “One person controlling a thousand bot accounts is able to not just affect the people in their immediate circle but also potentially the algorithm of the site on which their [sic] operating.”
https://www.fastcodesign.com/90147162/ai-is-changing-our-brains

And the more we rely on computers, the more fully realized our Meta Me will ... brain waves, allowing people to “speak” to others through a computer ...
19 Oct 00:22

Huawei Adds AI Chips, Dual Leica Cameras to Mate 10 Smartphones

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Today’s topics: Huawei's release of 3 new AI smartphones; KRACK flaws in WPA2; Microsoft’s Ireland email privacy case going to the Supreme Court; & Chrome’s new tool for protecting users from unwanted software.

Huawei unveiled 3 new AI-integrated smartphones using Kirin 907 chipsets, delivering vastly improved AI capabilities when used with their HiAI mobile computing platform. "As we enter the age of intelligence, AI is no longer a virtual concept but something that intertwines with our daily life," said Richard Yu, of Huawei, the "Mate 10 Series introduces the first mobile AI-specific Neural Network Processing Unit, launching a new era of intelligent smartphones."

WPA2 is at risk from multiple vulnerabilities referred to as "KRACK Attacks," publicly disclosed on Oct. 16. "Attackers can use this novel attack technique to read data previously assumed to be safely encrypted." KRACK stands for for Key Reinstallation AttaCKs & include 10 exploitable session encryption key vulnerabilities.

Microsoft's high-profile Ireland email privacy case is going to the Supreme Court. Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed an earlier decision requiring Microsoft to turn over to the U.S. Department of Justice emails that are stored in an Irish data center. However, on Oct. 16, "the Supreme Court granted the Department of Justice's petition to review Microsoft's victory," announced Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft.

He continued, "The Electronic Communications Privacy Act … was never intended to reach within other countries' borders." The ECPA was enacted in "the era of the floppy disk," well before the World Wide Web transformed how businesses & individuals communicated & the advent of the cloud, argued the Microsoft executive.

Smith also argued that if the U.S. government acts unilaterally to seize emails located overseas with search warrants, there is little to stop foreign governments from exercising the same maneuver on data stored in the United States.

Google has added new features in Chrome for Windows that will better protect users from unwanted & potentially harmful software. They also complement the protections in the Chrome Safe Browsing service that identifies & alerts users when they navigate to potentially unsafe websites.

The new additions to Chrome address issues that manage to get past Safe Browsing protections, including warning users about browser settings that may have been reset without their knowledge or permission.

Another feature makes it easier for users to get details on any software that Chrome might have identified as risky or unwanted : to take action on it, serving up an alert to users offering to remove the software & restore their system to the original settings.
https://youtu.be/H7Do9brtY4g

http://www.eweek.com/mobile/huawei-adds-ai-chips-dual-leica-cameras-to-mate-10-smartphones

Today's topics include the release of three new artificial intelligence-integrated Huawei smartphones; the reveal of KRACK flaws in WPA WiFi security; ...
18 Oct 23:40

MasterChef inspires Highways England funded self-healing road project

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Dr Alvaro Garcia has developed a material named Capheal. Consisting of oil microcapsules, it can be mixed into asphalt to create self-repairing roads.

"Preliminary results showed that the capsules can resist the mixing & compaction processes without significantly reducing the physical & mechanical properties of asphalt & they also increased its durability. More importantly, we found that the cracked asphalt samples were restored to their full strength, two days after the sunflower oil was released.’
https://youtu.be/r1MoPxZsUoY

Article: https://www.theengineer.co.uk/masterchef-self-healing-road/

An episode of MasterChef inspired a researcher from the University Nottingham to develop a new technology for repairing cracks in road surfaces.
18 Oct 22:45

Digital brains are as error-prone as humans: Expert warns poor decision-making by AI could lead ...

Jeffrey J. Bloom

"These systems 'learn' from social data that reflects human history, with all its biases & prejudices intact." Professor Crawford says.

Studies show AI experiments, like predictive policing, develop & rely on exaggerated human biases--unintentionally inherited via datasets--when put into practice. If unchecked, this could lead to a very "toxic" future where machines make bad decisions on our behalf.

"Only by developing a deeper understanding of AI systems, as they act in the world, can we ensure that this new infrastructure never turns toxic."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4991920/Machine-learning-expert-warns-toxic-AI-future.html

Studies have already shown that AI experiments, including predictive ... Experts are worried that this could lead to a 'toxic' future where machines ...
18 Oct 11:47

KRACK in the code: Software flaw affects security of nearly every Wi-Fi enabled device

Jeffrey J. Bloom

This sort of complicated crypto is a fertile for exploits. The problem isn't all the bugs in WPA2, it's patching innumerable low-cost consumer devices. All it takes is one bad one to screw a lot of people up for years. Cryptographer Matthew Green told WIRED.

Fortunately, there's no evidence hackers are exploiting the bug at this time. "for the average person, it probably doesn't matter very much." It's far more likely this flaw will be exploited on a commercial/corporate scale, like the 2007 attack on T.J. Maxx, where over 94 million customers information was stolen.
https://hub.jhu.edu/2017/10/17/krack-software-flaw-affects-wi-fi-devices-matt-green-avi-rubin/

But the software vulnerability revealed Monday is worth paying attention ... there seems to be no evidence of malicious hackers exploiting the bug at ...
18 Oct 11:29

Inside secretive company whose robots are making EVERYTHING...

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Describing new “human-friendly robots” as helpful to workers & insisting "robots are merely tools to make our lives better & easier," reducing time spent on "routine tasks, giving us more time to focus on process control & other managerial duties. Robots will not replace us completely.”

Well before Silicon Valley adopted the mantra “fail fast, fail often,” Fanuc had observed its own version of the dictum, allowing Inaba to innovate through ambitious trial & error.

Automation has been rising over the past decade, as wages & living standards rise, workers are less willing to perform dangerous & monotonous tasks. Due also in part to Chinese manufacturers seeking the same efficiencies as their overseas counterparts. More & more, it’s Fanuc’s industrial robots that assemble & paint automobiles in China, construct complex motors & make injection-molded parts & electrical components. At pharmaceutical companies, Fanuc’s sorting robots categorize & package pills. At food-packaging facilities, they slice, squirt & wrap edibles.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-10-18/this-company-s-robots-are-making-everything-and-reshaping-the-world


Inside secretive company whose robots are making EVERYTHING...


(First column, 8th story, link)

Related stories:
Reshaping world...

18 Oct 11:09

Smarter people more likely to suffer mental illness...

Jeffrey J. Bloom

So, all my brain injuries may save me from this? ;-) Research suggests "hyper brain" intelligent people are more reactive to environmental stimulus that "may predispose them to certain psychological disorders as well as physiological conditions involving elevated sensory & altered immune & inflammatory responses". 

Due to increased awareness levels, they react more to their environment, creating a hyper brain/body scenario, exacerbating a hyperactive central nervous system. 

“Unique intensities & over-excitabilities... can be at once both remarkable & disabling on many levels," Contributing to "suffering on a daily basis as a result of their unique emotional & physical over-excitabilities."

Even small stimuli like a strange sound or the brush of a clothing tag "triggers a low level, chronic stress response which then activates a hyper body response,” Dr Nicole Tetreault of California’s Pitzer University.

"Intelligence research most often focuses on the flashes of lightning seen in this rare population, however in order to serve this group of individuals fully we must not neglect to acknowledge the rumbles of thunder that follow in the wake of their brilliance."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/intelligence-mental-illness-iq-study-findings-depression-a8005801.html


Smarter people more likely to suffer mental illness...


(Third column, 7th story, link)


18 Oct 03:18

Scientists create most powerful micro-scale bio-solar cell yet

Jeffrey J. Bloom

A microfluidic lab-on-a-chip generates its own power for stand-alone, independent, self-sustainable point-of-care diagnostic devices to work with limited-resource in remote regions. Miniaturized biological solar cells (or micro-BSCs) can be suitable power sources as they resembles Earth's natural ecosystem.

"Micro-BSCs continuously generate electricity from microbial photosynthetic & respiratory activities over day-night cycles, offering a clean & renewable power source with self-sustaining potential," said Choi. "However, the promise of this tech has not been translated into practical applications because of its relatively low power & current short lifetimes."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171017110128.htm

Scientists create most powerful micro-scale bio-solar cell yet ... This is a miniaturized biological solar cell assembled micro-BSC device. ... Binghamton University Electrical and Computer Science Assistant Professor Seokheun Choi.
18 Oct 03:07

Intel's Nervana Neural Network Processor Aims To Beat The Teen Spirit Out Of NVIDIA

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Taking a a jab at NVIDIA's GPU-based hardware, Intel's Naveen Rao says Nervana eliminates the GPU heritage, enabling optimizing the chip specifically for AI workloads not possible on other hardware.

Nervana is a purpose-built architecture for deep learning (DL), providing flexibility needed for DL primitives & the most efficient core hardware possible. With high-speed bidirectional interconnects, Intel hopes to achieve true model parallelism allowing multiple chips to act as one, allowing the accommodation of larger models so users can get more insight from their data.

Rao told Fast Company, "In neural networks…you know ahead of time where the data’s coming from, what operation you’re going to apply to that data & where the output is going to."
https://hothardware.com/news/intels-nervana-neural-network-processor-aims-to-beat-the-teen-spirit-out-of-nvidia

Nervana is a purpose-built architecture for deep learning and the primary goal for the hardware team was to provide flexibility needed for deep ...
18 Oct 02:18

Cyber Command begins executing new limited acquisition authority for cybersecurity tools

Jeffrey J. Bloom

New authority gives CYBERCOM flexibility & a technical knowledge base to provide capabilities for its cyberspace forces in a rapidly-changing worldwide domain.

“Instead of trying to provide basic details to a separate organization to draft & award contracts, we now have the visibility & capability to make those contracts as tailored as possible,” Davis said. “This makes us more agile by developing very technical, very cyber-specific personnel & support contracts.”

“..outreach is planned ... to be able to have an unclassified space in the future where we can interact with industry & academia.”
https://homelandprepnews.com/stories/24759-cyber-command-begins-executing-new-limited-acquisition-authority-cybersecurity-tools/

Officials with U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) recently said they have begun executing a new limited acquisition authority to speed up its ...
18 Oct 02:10

NCDOC Kicks-off Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Jeffrey J. Bloom

“Cyber threats impact each of you in your daily lives & in your professions. I believe it's vital to understand the stages of how cyber criminals can compromise a computer system because a significant portion of what enables a cyber intrusion can be due to human error.”

Capt Slattery discussed the phases of cyber attacks & provided specific practices to defend against cyber threats.

“Firewalls & anti-virus software is critical but they cannot defend against flawed human behavior. Be vigilant. Practice good password security. Think before you click. Question the unusual & unsolicited messages in your inbox. Read the fine print on any system you install to protect your professional & personal systems. Take the time to sit with your vendor, ask how they keep current on their best cybersecurity practices, ask for the process you should take if/when you suspect a compromise has occurred.”

Slattery concluded with suggestions on how to think about personal online behavior.

“Treat your digital life as precious as you treat your physical life,” she said. “Be ever vigilant.” 
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/251246/ncdoc-kicks-off-cybersecurity-awareness-month

Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command executes defensive cyberspace operations and enables global power projection through proactive ...
17 Oct 02:14

Hackers Exploit Adobe Flash Flaw To Install Infamous Spyware

Jeffrey J. Bloom

Kaspersky blames BlackOasis for using exploit to target bloggers, activists & figures involved in Middle Eastern politics.

BlackOasis previously hacked victims via emails with attached Word documents laced with malicious FinSpy malware.

The group also has access to expert hacking knowledge, using five zero-days to target victims Since June 2015.
http://uk.pcmag.com/news/91599/hackers-exploit-adobe-flash-flaw-to-install-infamous-spyware

The vulnerability, which can trigger remote code execution, only came to light when security firm Kaspersky Lab noticed it as part of a hacking attempt ...
17 Oct 01:53

AWS and Microsoft Announce Gluon

Jeffrey J. Bloom

When it comes to working with neural networks & deep learning, Gluon can prove quite useful with several innovative features: Easy to Use API, Dynamic Networks, Algorithm Defined Networks & High-Performance Operators for Network Training.

Gluon is currently available in Apache MXNet on AWS, with additional support for the Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit coming in a future release. There are 50 examples available in the AWS Deep Learning Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for those who would like to learn more about Amazon & Microsoft’s Gluon service.
https://www.petri.com/aws-microsoft-announce-gluon

Apache MXNet on AWS:
https://aws.amazon.com/mxnet/

AWS Deep Learning Amazon Machine Image (AMI):
https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-ai/amis/

Official announcement: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/introducing-gluon-a-new-library-for-machine-learning-from-aws-and-microsoft/

When it comes to working with neural networks and deep learning, Gluon can prove quite useful. The interface includes several innovative features:.
16 Oct 22:09

Kaspersky Lab Finds Flash Vulnerability Through Microsoft Word

by BeauHD
Jeffrey J. Bloom

Kaspersky Lab found a previously unknown bug in Adobe Flash that was apparently exploited by a hacker group on October 10, "the exploit is delivered through a Microsoft Word document & deploys the FinSpy commercial malware." Working with Adobe they released a patch a few hours ago to updates all versions of Adobe Flash to version 27.0.0.170. Users & agencies running Flash will need to update immediately, as the vulnerability is critical.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171016005821/en/Kaspersky-Lab-Discovers-Adobe-Flash-Zero-Day

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Neowin: Kaspersky Lab, which has been under fire by the U.S. government as possibly being an agent of the Russian government and spying on U.S. computers, has found a previously unknown bug in Adobe Flash that was apparently exploited by a hacker group on October 10. Adobe issued a patch to fix the bug today. According to Kaspersky, "the exploit is delivered through a Microsoft Word document and deploys the FinSpy commercial malware." The company worked with Adobe to get a patch ready as quickly as possible, with Adobe releasing it a few hours ago. Users and agencies running the following versions of Adobe Flash will need to update immediately, as the vulnerability has been labeled as critical. The patch updates all versions of Adobe Flash to version 27.0.0.170.

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