The TSA has a secret enemies list of people who've complained about screeners

Found on Boing Boing on Friday, 01 June 2018
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The list, called the "95 list" is nominally a list of people whose contact with screeners may be "offensive and without legal justification," including anyone whose behavior presented "challenges to the safe and effective completion of screening."

The TSA officially claims that fewer than 50 people are on the list. Government security officials speaking anonymously to the New York Times says the number is much higher, with new names added daily.

Less than 50? They meant probably less than 50 per flight, not in total.

Softbank's 'Pepper' robot is a security joke

Found on The Register on Wednesday, 30 May 2018
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The 'bot allows unauthenticated root-level access, runs a Meltdown/Spectre-vulnerable processor, can be administered over unencrypted HTTP and has a default root password.

Their research found that “it is a breeze to remotely turn it into a 'cyber and physical weapon', exposing malicious behaviours”.

Softbank's engineers haven't provided any protections against an attacker hammering Pepper with unlimited password attempts: “no countermeasures to brute-force attacks have been deployed with Pepper, which is once again an intolerable and disappointing finding”.

Such obvious and massive failures call for hefty fines; otherwise manufacturers won't improve product quality.

Busking goes cashless with 'a world first' for London

Found on BBC News on Sunday, 27 May 2018
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London has introduced a contactless payment scheme for buskers in what the organisers claim is a world first.

In addition to tossing loose change into a box, passers-by can use card readers to make contactless payments.

"Now, more Londoners will be able to show their support to the capital's brilliant, talented street performers," said London mayor Sadiq Khan.

No cash means no privacy. Plus, spending a cent cashless feels not different from spending thousands of cents cashless. People will lose the feeling for money and spend it more easily. On the other hand, that's just what an economy based on infinite growth wants.

Woman says her Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

Found on Kiro7 on Thursday, 24 May 2018
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Every room in her family home was wired with the Amazon devices to control her home's heat, lights and security system.

"They said 'our engineers went through your logs, and they saw exactly what you told us, they saw exactly what you said happened, and we're sorry.' He apologized like 15 times in a matter of 30 minutes and he said we really appreciate you bringing this to our attention, this is something we need to fix!"

It's your own fault if you set up such bugs in your home.

FBI reportedly overestimated inaccessible encrypted phones by thousands

Found on Techcrunch on Tuesday, 22 May 2018
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FBI director Christopher Wray estimated in December that it had almost 7,800 phones from 2017 alone that investigators were unable to access. The real number is likely less than a quarter of that, The Washington Post reports.

Supposedly having three databases tracking the phones led to devices being counted multiple times.

The idea that no one thought to check for duplicates before giving a number to the director for testimony in Congress suggests either conspiracy or gross incompetence.

Simple, bigger numbers mean higher pressure. That's why it's tempting to lie make mistakes.

FM Radio faces Government switch-off as Digital listening passes 50% milestone

Found on I News on Saturday, 19 May 2018
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Analogue radios could be consigned to the dustbin of history after figures showed that the majority of all UK radio listening was via digital devices for the first time.

The new digital figure includes listening through DAB sets, cars, voice-controlled speakers and online. For the first time that audience share is greater than analogue platforms – FM and AM.

Analog is superior though; it has a better coverage and works well in emergency situations.

Wah, encryption makes policing hard, cries UK's National Crime Agency

Found on The Register on Monday, 14 May 2018
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"Since 2010, communication service providers have migrated to encrypted services 'by default', a process that accelerated following the Snowden disclosures," said the National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime 2018.

Rudd had previously spoken out about encryption, often prompting criticism due to her apparent lack of understanding.

Well, that's the entire point of encryption. So it is just doing its job.

Hacker Shuts Down Copenhagen’s Public City Bikes System

Found on Bleeping Computer on Saturday, 12 May 2018
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An unidentified hacker has breached Bycyklen —Copenhagen's city bikes network— and deleted the organization's entire database, disabling the public's access to bicycles over the weekend.

Bycyklen described the hack as "rather primitive," alluding it may have been carried out "by a person with a great deal of knowledge of its IT infrastructure."

Bycyklen said on Facebook that fixing the problem required a manual update of all bikes. Employees restored 200 bikes on Saturday after tracking down bicycles and rebooting the attached Android tablet.

You would assume that restoring the database from backup would bring everything back up. It's somewhat odd that all bikes would require physical intervention.

Avengers: Infinity War becomes fastest movie to make $1 billion

Found on CNet News on Sunday, 06 May 2018
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Avengers: Infinity War has crossed the $1 billion mark in the global box office this weekend, becoming the fastest move ever to do so. Disney confirmed Sunday that the film is posting an estimated $275 million in global movie ticket sales for its second weekend, with an estimated global total of $1.16 billion earned so far. That total puts Avengers ahead of 2016's Captain America: Civil War ($1.15 billion) and 2012's The Dark Knight Rises ($1.08 billion).

Remember that when the next "piracy is bad, mmkay" propaganda rocket gets launched.

Drug made famous by Shkreli’s 5,000% price hike is still $750 a pill

Found on Ars Technica on Saturday, 05 May 2018
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The outlet points out that the retail price for Daraprim (pyrimethamine) is still $750 a pill, up more than 5,000 percent from its previous price of $13.50 per pill. Worse yet, it’s not the only such case. In 2015 alone, more than 300 generic drugs saw prices increase by more than 100 percent.

Free market does not solve every problem. Especially not in combination with a patent system. Not when investors who do not want to cure patients have influence.