Thursday, May 27, 2021

We’re Not Prepared for AI Hackers, Security Expert Warns

Why Jozef Imrich initials JI are part of common variety password


Why ‘ji32k7au4a83’ Is A Remarkably Common Password


New school software alerts teachers when kids may need mental health help


EVERYTHING GETS HACKED: We’re Not Prepared for AI Hackers, Security Expert Warns.

Schneier’s eye-opening talk at the all-virtual RSAC 2021 conference examined the consequences, positive and negative, of artificial intelligence learning to hack all kinds of systems. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced him and other RSAC participants to present via video this year, but that comfortable setting didn’t blunt Schneier’s concerns.

“Any good AI system will naturally find hacks,” said Schneier. They find novel solutions because they lack human context, and the consequence is that some of those solutions will break the expectations humans have—hence, a hack.

This is especially true for computers. “We never close off all the avenues for hacking,” he said, positing that once AI systems start looking for hacks, vulnerabilities will be found at a scale humans are simply unprepared to handle.

We’re very close to being a very long way from comparatively simple ransom hacks like Colonial Pipeline.



The 63-year-old allegedly walked into a meeting with Plutus and rattled off a series of accusations to the alleged fraudsters, including Adam Cranston, the socalled Plutus principal and the son of a former ATO deputy commissioner. Barrett then left the room as another alleged blackmailer told Cranston and Plutus members they would need to pay $5 million to keep the journalist from exposing them. The NSW Supreme Court jury in Barrett's trial was unable to reach a verdict on the single charge of blackmail and Justice Peter Johnson, SC, discharged it on Wednesday. Outside court when asked if he was ready to do it again, an emotional Barrett said: “Of course I am, I'm not guilty.” His barrister, Clive Steirn, SC, said: “Mr Barrett maintains his plea of not guilty.”

Trial of 60 Minutes producer accused of blackmailing alleged ATO tax scammers for $5million ends in a hung jury

  • Veteran Sydney journalist Stephen Barrett is discharged after a hung trial
  • The ex 60 Minutes producer was accused of trying to blackmail tax scammers
  • During the high-profile trial Australian TV icon Ray Martin took the stand

Cessnock Jail: Corrective Service officers foil alleged attempts to smuggle contraband by drone and tennis ball


A new way of looking at trust in media: Do Americans share journalism’s core values?

The Media Insight Project April 14, 2021: “The deep divides over trust in the news media are usually portrayed as largely ideological. Democrats are seven times more likely than Republicans to say they trust the mainstream media, and independents are four times as likely.But the argument over media trust often has the feel of people talking past each other—many journalists denying they slant the news to help one party over another, while many of their critics, especially on the right, scoff at that denial. Still others, particularly on the left, question whether some basic notions of journalistic independence and open-minded inquiry are a delusion and the press should become more strictly partisan. A major study released today by the Media Insight Project, a collaboration of the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, opens up a new way of looking at the issue of media trust and may offer new avenues to address it. The study finds that not all Americans universally embrace many of the core values that guide journalistic inquiry…”


 Forced entrepreneurs


It feels like we are living in a science fiction novel

That is the theme of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt:

Now, for the first time in my life, I feel like I am living in a science fiction serial.

The break point was China’s landing of an exploratory vehicle on Mars. It’s not just the mere fact of it, as China was one of the world’s poorest countries until relatively recently. It’s that the vehicle contains a remarkable assemblage of software and artificial intelligence devices, not to mention lasers and ground-penetrating radar.

There is a series of science fiction novels about China in which it colonizes Mars. Published between 1988 and 1999, David Wingrove’s Chung Kuo series is set 200 years in the future. It describes a corrupt and repressive China that rules the world and enforces rigid racial hierarchies.

It is striking to read the review of the book published in the New York Times in 1990. It notes that in the book “the Chinese somehow regained their sense of purpose in the latter half of the 21st century” — which hardly sounds like science fiction, the only question at this point being why it might have taken them so long. The book is judged unrealistic and objectionable because its “vision of a Chinese-dominated future seems arbitrary, ungrounded in historical process.” The Chung Kuo books don’t reflect my predictions either, but it does seem that reality has exceeded the vision of at least one book critic.

I also consider Asimov, Dogecoin, and Stephenson at the link


10 Timeless Peak Performance Reminders


 

And here are another 10 foundational tips for leaders everywhere.

  • Build your life around The Four Agreements.
  • Fail Fast, Learn Fast, Fix Fast.
  • Build your team on the Four Pillars (Responsibility, Learning, Recognition and Joy).
  • When given command, take charge and do what’s right.
  • Make things happen.
  • Start every day with your ABC’s (Ambition, Belief, Courage).
  • Inspire everyone you touch to be the best they can be, in pursuit of our Purpose.
  • Focus.  Commitment.  Discipline.
  • Create leaders, not followers.
  • Adapt.  Improvise.  Overcome.