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Wednesday, March 09, 2022

Whistleblowers and Disinformation — Roundtable #2: The Public Sector

I have lost loads of followers over my comments on Ukraine.
GOOD. If you think Russia “has a point” in its barbarous
war on Ukraine, then kindly fuck off and never return.

Victory to Ukraine!

Brendan O’Neill


 You would think that while this is big news, the story is one that has been told many times. So many times that ransomware fatigue is starting to become the new security fatigue. But there are some interesting aspects to this particular attack that make it stand out.


The information on HaveIBeenPwnd says about the Nvidia breach:

“Impacted data included over 70k employee email addresses and NTLM password hashes, many of which were subsequently cracked and circulated within the hacking community.”

In a tweet Troy Hunt, the owner of HaveIBeenPwnd, stated that 17% of addresses were already in the database.

Although that is a worrying number, it does not come as a surprise. According to research, 80% of consumers have had their emails leaked on the dark web and 60% of people reuse passwords across multiple accounts. The same researchers published a list of the 20 passwords most commonly found on the dark web, due to data breaches

Nvidia, the ransomware breach with some plot twists



The Inventor of the Screw-In Coffin


Whistleblowers and Disinformation — Roundtable #2: The Public Sector

By Diane Ring We are back again this week looking at the role of misinformation and disinformation in democracy, good governance, and well-grounded decisionmaking! On Friday, we are hosting the second Roundtable in the Whistling at the Fake research project (with Dr. Costantino Grasso as PI, … Continue reading 


“We Are at the Forefront of the Fight Against Fakes, Misinformation, and Cyber Threats! - School Library JournalSchool Library Journal: The president of the Ukrainian Library Association reached out to the world’s library community after the Russian invasion began in February.  In the letter, Oksana Brui calls libraries a “strategic weapon” of this war. Below is an English translation of the message…”


"A pile of dung teeming with worms" - James Joyce's reception in the Soviet Union was not a kind one  reception 

 


"War makes philosophers out of soldiers, who often strive to understand why things are thus and not otherwise  



COLLUSION:  Alleged Russian Spy Worked For U.S. Government News Agency.

Gonzalez’s previously unreported work could raise concerns that he used his VOA position to collect intelligence for Russia. If Gonzalez is indeed a Russian spy, it would lend credence to concerns raised by Michael Pack, who oversaw VOA during the Trump administration. Pack came under fire from Democrats when he said VOA was “a great place to put a foreign spy” given the agency’s lax security standards. VOA staffers and others in the media accused Pack of undermining the agency and putting its journalists at risk.

Poland’s internal security agency said Friday that Gonzalez was “conducting his business for Russia while taking advantage of his journalist status.” The counterintelligence agency said Gonzalez collected information for Russia’s spy service during his recent stay in Poland and that he planned to continue his activities in war torn Ukraine.


Thousands Without Internet After Massive "Cyberattack" In Europe: Report



       Wladimir Kaminer Q & A 

       At Deutsche Welle Rayna Breuer has a Q & A with the German-writing Russian born author, Wladimir Kaminer: 'Putin lives in the past'
       He notes:

When you shed a little light on this dark head, you see how incredibly backward, uncivilized and unqualified Putin and his colleagues, former KGB officers, are. It is a catastrophe that such unqualified personnel run the government of a country.



 Wired: “What if your computer decided not to blare out a notification jingle because it noticed you weren’t sitting at your desk? What if your TV saw you leave the couch to answer the front door and paused Netflix automatically, then resumed playback when you sat back down? What if our computers took more social cues from our movements and learned to be more considerate companions? It sounds futuristic and perhaps more than a little invasive—a computer watching your every move? 

But it feels less creepy once you learn that these technologies don’t have to rely on a camera to see where you are and what you’re doing. Instead, they use radar. Google’s Advanced Technology and Products division—better known as ATAP, the department behind oddball projects such as a touch-sensitive denim jacket—has spent the past year exploring how computers can use radar to understand our needs or intentions and then react to us appropriately…”