90920239
submission
whoever57 writes:
The Guardian has an interesting article describing how Robert Mercer, Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage used techniques developed within the military to influence Britain's vote to exit the EU. Although it appears that the companies involved (AggregateIQ and Cambridge Analytics) are private companies, they have deep roots within the military.
The article describes Britain as a "managed democracy", with major decisions controlled by a US Billionaire.
88931973
submission
whoever57 writes:
The Intercept has got hold of documents relating to Peter Thiel's NZ citizenship. These documents reveal that Thiel would not normally qualify for citizenship, which requires the holder to actually reside in New Zealand. NZ law provides for citizenship under “exceptional circumstances and public interest” for people who don’t plan to live in NZ.
Thiel's extreme wealth was the exceptional circumstance that allowed for citizenship and which in turn allowed Thiel to avoid certain administrative protocols that a non-citizen would have had to follow relating to the purchase of his large estate in NZ.
As part of taking up citizenship, Thiel had to pledge an oath of loyalty to HM Queen Elizabeth II (in her role as Queen of New Zealand), which certainly raises questions about either his sincerity or his fitness to be an advisor to the President.
88376973
submission
whoever57 writes:
Patent trolls rely on the fact that they have no assets and, if they lose a case, they can fold the company that owned the patent and sued, thus avoiding paying any the defendant's legal bills. However, in a recent case, the judge has told the winning defendant that it can claim its legal bills from the law firm. The decision is based on the plaintiff's law firm using a contract under which it would take a portion of any judgment, making it more than just counsel, but instead a partner with the plaintiff. This will likely result in law firms wanting to be paid up front, instead of offering a contingency-based fee.
87964609
submission
whoever57 writes:
The commission that is responsible for ensuring the integrity of voting machines was itself hacked. The hacker gained access to non-public reports on weaknesses in voting machines. The hack occurred after the election, so it is unlikely that this hack resulted in changing the result. However, if one hacker can break in, how does anyone know that there was not a prior hack?
The hack used an SQL injection flaw to gain access to usernames and passwords which were then cracked.
87222165
submission
whoever57 writes:
Navinder Sarao, the British trader who was accused of causing the "flash crash" in 2010 and was extradited to the USA this week has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of spoofing. No details of the plea deal have been released, but it is believed that he has agreed to forfeit $13M. Several years of jail time are also expected for Mr. Sarao
87198257
submission
whoever57 writes:
Tesco has paid 2.5M pounds to rectify the losses its customers incurred due to fraudulent withdrawals over the weekend. The fraud affected about 9000 of Tesco Bank's 136,000 customers. In addition to the refunds, the temporary suspension of online transactions was ended. Perhaps Tesco Bank's IT spending will increase to counter such threats, but what about other banks? Will they learn from this? Do readers think that other banks may also be vulnerable?
86740777
submission
whoever57 writes:
Navinder Sarao has lost his appeal and is set to be extradited to the USA, where he faces charges with a possible maximum sentence of 380 years. He is accused of causing the "flash crash" in 2010, when the Dow Jones index dropped by 1000 points. He ran his trading from his bedroom in his parents' house and it is claimed that he made more than £30M (approximately $40M) in 5 years. His parents had no idea what he was doing, nor the scale of his income. He is accused of placing trades that he never intended to fill, so, to this naive person, it's hard to distinguish what he did from that of the large high-speed trading firms.
86615923
submission
whoever57 writes:
The CEO of Backpage was recently arrested for "pimping". It is likely that the charges will not stick because of section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), under which publishers are protected from liability for the postings of their users. However, this could just be the first shot in the battle to weaken section 230. . This could endanger other sites, such as Craigslist, and ultimately, any site with user-written content.
86595343
submission
whoever57 writes:
Gregory Anderson was fired by Yahoo in November 2014. Now he has filed a lawsuit alleging that Yahoo discriminated against men. He alleges that the discrimination originated from Mayer, and ran through review, hiring and firing processes. The complaint states that one executive, Kathy Savitt, hired women almost exclusively to management positions in the Media division.
Mr. Anderson also alleges that Yahoo violated employment laws regarding mass layoffs.
86307689
submission
whoever57 writes:
The 2016 Ig Nobel prizes were awarded yesterday, Thursday, September 22. Notable amongst the winners was VolksWagen, who won the Chemistry prize for "solving the problem of excessive automobile pollution emissions by automatically, electromechanically producing fewer emissions whenever the cars are being tested." No one from VW attended the ceremony to collect the prize. Other notable winners included a team who won the Peace Prize for their groundbreaking work analyzing the detection of "Pseudo-Profound Bullshit."
86182849
submission
whoever57 writes:
The Colonial Pipeline spill has caused 6 states to declare a state of emergency. Gas prices on the east coast are likely to spike. Yet, most puzzling is how this vast emergency and its likely effect on cost of living has gone unnoticed by mainstream media outlets. The pipeline is owned by Koch Industries: is this why the media is silent?
85670015
submission
whoever57 writes:
According to an article in InfoWorld, the latest Windows 10 update ( KB 3176934) breaks DSC functionality in PowerShell. Some things that were broken in prior updates (such as support of many webcams and a freeze issue) don't appear to have been fixed in this update.
85495495
submission
whoever57 writes:
Starting in October, Windows 7, 8.1 and Windows Server (up to 2012 R22) users will receive updates in the form of cumulative updates. It will no longer be possible to select from a list of security-related updates: instead, users will be presented with an all or nothing option.
The only option will be a choice between all updates (security and non-security updates) or security updates only.
84381253
submission
whoever57 writes:
TransCanada Corp (the company behind the rejected Keystone XL pipeline) has initiated arbitration proceedings under the NAFTA treaty against the USA, demanding $15B in damages. Negotiations have been taking place since January but have not resulted in an agreement. Now TransCanada has formally filed for arbitration under NAFTA.
TransCanada is also in court, seeking to reverse the decision to reject the pipeline.
83452107
submission
whoever57 writes:
A UK Premier League football match (Manchester United vs. Bournmouth) was called off, 76,000 people were evacuated from the stadium and a "controlled explosion" carried out because of a "suspicious device". What was the device? A fake bomb that had been left behind by a security exercise. The exercise involved an external company and sniffer dogs.
This incident also raises the question of how the pre-game security sweep did not find the device.
