Monday, November 26, 2018

Medtech giant pushes boundaries: How to Tell if Your Account Has Been Hacked

Study: Over 20 years, Silicon Valley workers’ median wage has fallen by 14%

 Sri Lanka's Hambantota Port was signed over to China on a 99-year lease because Sri Lanka could not repay Chinese loans it took out to build the port. Palpable fears heightened across Australia ...
 How China Got Sri Lanka to Cough Up a Port - The New York Times


China's "debt trap" in Sri Lanka is even worse than we thought

  What Do Lawyers and Hackers Have in Common – This commentary byMichael Ravnitzky is based on a thought provoking premise – “The activities of attorneys and the activities of hackers are not as different as you might expect, if you define hackers as creative, unconventional problem solvers. Each explores vast spaces of complicated systems, looking to see how they work, both in ways intended and unintended, and to see what they can be made to do…”

 Outgunned: Federal corruption agencies not up to the task
The Sydney Morning Herald 


Oxfam is right. Big Pharma are shockers on tax

Medical devices harm patients worldwide as governments fail on safety

Medtech giant pushes boundaries as casualties mount and sales soar




The Implant Files: Australian Taxation Office targets $12b medical .... The current ATO action is targeted at the most sensitive ...

The Implant Files: Medtronic's global money trail ... Australian operations (the ATO says this is often a disguise for .... new laws targeting US companies doing such ...

Sydney accountant Philip Scahill's double life ends in jail


In sentencing Scahill, District Court Judge Michael King found that the accountant was more “morally culpable” than his drug-importing client because he was the “architect” of the scheme.


Insurer ClearView under criminal investigation for cold-calling tactics


ASIC has revisited its decision not to take action against ClearView for more than 300,000 possible breaches of laws that prohibit insurers from cold calling potential customers


NSW government chases the Obeids for $5 million


The NSW government has launched action to recoup millions of dollars in legal costs from the now jailed former minister Eddie Obeid and his family.
WHEN UNDERCOVER POLICE OPERATIONS GO WRONG:
Sources say it started when two special ops officers from the 12th Precinct were operating a “push off” on Andover near Seven Mile. That is when two undercover officers pretend to be dope dealers, waiting for eager customers to approach, and then arrest potential buyers and seize their vehicles.
But this time, instead of customers, special ops officers from the 11th Precinct showed up. Not realizing they were fellow officers, they ordered the other undercover officers to the ground.
FOX 2 is told the rest of the special ops team from the 12th Precinct showed up, and officers began raiding a house in the 19300 block of Andover. But instead of fighting crime, officers from both precincts began fighting with each other.
Sources say guns were drawn and punches were thrown while the homeowner stood and watched.
The department’s top cops were notified along with Internal Affairs. Each officer involved is now under investigation as the department tried to determine what went wrong.






Business Council excoriates Coalition's 'ad hoc and extreme' energy policies - The Guardian
Motherboard – How to check if your Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other accounts have been hacked. “Hackers routinely target high profile victims like politicians or wealthy cryptocurrency investors. But you could become a target too. Maybe an abusive former partner wants to stalk you, or a run-of-the-mill cybercriminal wants to get into your bank account. If you think you have been targeted, or worse, hacked, how can you even tell if someone got hold of your account? That’s actually a really hard question to answer, as different online services offer different types of data, and it’s usually not that easy to find. In this small guide, we’ll teach you the basic steps you can take to see if there’s any trace of an intrusion in your online accounts, such as Gmail, Microsoft’s email, Facebook, and Twitter. A word of caution: sometimes, you won’t be able to get a definitive answer on whether there’s been a breach. If you think there was, we suggest talking to a professional, such as your local IT store employee, or Access Now’s digital security helpline. Also, this guide only covers breaches of online services, if a hacker has broken into your computer, all these services could be compromised and the techniques described here wouldn’t necessarily help you detect that kind of breach…”

'Conflict of interest': what's behind Marrickville stoush over The Bower


The growing presence of algorithms in many aspects of daily life, a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults finds that the public is frequently skeptical of these tools when used in various real-life situations.

 MIT Technology Review – Is this AI? We drew you a flowchart to work it out. “The definition of artificial intelligence is constantly evolving, and the term often gets mangled, so we are here to help.”

MIT Technology Review – What is machine learning? “We drew you another flowchart – It pretty much runs the world.”

 Who knew – not me – Faang companies??  OK, so here is the article via The Guardian: US stock markets continue to fall, erasing 2018 gains – “Technology stocks slid again and fears of a trade war with China worried investors. Much of the fall has been driven by troubles at the so-called Faang companies (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google) whose phenomenal growth had driven stock markets to record highs…”
 

Australia holds line on Russia, China at chemical weapons body

Australia is helping face down Russia, Iran and China to give a watchdog the power to attribute blame for chemical weapons attacks anywhere in the world.

Operation Infektion: Russian Disinformation: From The Cold War To Kanye - Opinion Video Series | Operation Infektion By Adam B. Ellick and Adam Westbrook The New York Times, November 12, 2018

WATCH: This is a three-part film series. Scroll down at this link and click to play any episode…

“Russia’s meddling in the United States’ elections is not a hoax. It’s the culmination of Moscow’s decades-long campaign to tear the West apart. “Operation InfeKtion” reveals the ways in which one of the Soviets’ central tactics — the promulgation of lies about America — continues today, from Pizzagate to George Soros conspiracies. Meet the KGB spies who conceived this virus and the American truth squads who tried — and are still trying — to fight it. Countries from Pakistan to Brazil are now debating reality, and in Vladimir Putin’s greatest triumph, Americans are using Russia’s playbook against one another without the faintest clue…”

 Blockchain Challenges – V. Mary Abraham shares her notes from the new Blockchain in Government conference, part of the KMWorld 2018 Conference, that was held November 7-8, 2018 in Washington, D.C. The program speaker was Marcus Ralphs, CEO, ByzGen Ltd. who shared his real-world challenges, both technical and organizational, as well as tips for others starting to use distributed ledger technology.
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