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Submission + - Gopher's rise and fall shows how much we lost when monopolists stole the net (eff.org)

Submitted by mouthbeef
mouthbeef writes: EFF just published the latest instalment in my case histories of "adversarial interoperability" once the main force that kept tech competitive. Today, I tell the story of Gopher, the web’s immediate predecessor, which burrowed under the mainframe systems’ guardians and created a menu-driven interface to campus resources, then the whole internet.

Gopher ruled until browser vendors swallowed gopherspace whole, incorporating it by turning gopher:// into a way to access anything on any Gopher server. Gopher served as the booster rocket that helped the web attain a stable orbit. But the tools that Gopher used to crack open the silos, and the moves that the web pulled to crack open Gopher, are radioactively illegal today.

If you wanted do to Facebook what Gopher did to the mainframes, you would be pulverized by the relentless grinding of software patents, terms of service, anticircumvention law, bullshit theories about APIs being copyrightable. Big Tech blames “network effects” for its monopolies — but that's a counsel of despair. If impersonal forces (and not anticompetitive bullying) are what keeps tech big then there’s no point in trying to make it small. Big Tech’s critics swallow this line, demanding that Big Tech be given state-like duties to police user conduct — duties that require billions and total control to perform, guaranteeing tech monopolists perpetual dominance. But the lesson of Gopher is that adversarial interop is judo for network effects.

Submission + - US Natural Gas Plant and Pipelines Shut After Ransomware Attack (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Submitted by Garabito
Garabito writes: The Department of Homeland Security has revealed that an unnamed US natural gas compression facility was forced to shut down operations for two days after becoming infected with ransomware.

The plant was targeted with a phishing e-mail, that allowed the attacker to access its IT network and then pivot to its OT (control) network, where it compromised Windows PCs used as human machine interface (HMI), data historians and polling servers, which led the plant operator to shut it down along with other assets that depended on it, including pipelines.

According to the DHS CISA report, the victim failed to implement robust segmentation between the IT and OT networks, which allowed the adversary to traverse the IT-OT boundary and disable assets on both networks.

Submission + - A New Use For McDonald's Used Cooking Oil: 3D Printing (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Professor Andre Simpson had a problem. The University of Toronto's Scarborough campus was paying through the nose for a crucial material for its 3D printer. Few would have guessed McDonald's would come to the rescue. Simpson is director of the school's Environmental NMR Center dedicated to environmental research. Central to this research is an analytical tool called the NMR spectrometer. NMR stands for nuclear magnetic resonance and is technically similar to how an MRI works for medical diagnostics. Simpson had bought a 3D printer for the lab in 2017. He hoped to use it to build custom parts that kept organisms alive inside of the NMR spectrometer for his research. But the commercial resin he needed for high-quality light projection 3D printing (where light is used to form a solid) of those parts was expensive.

The dominant material for light projection printing is liquid plastic, which can cost upward of $500 a liter, according to Simpson. Simpson closely analyzed the resin and spotted a connection. The molecules making up the commercial plastic resin were similar to fats found in ordinary cooking oil. What came next was the hardest part of the two-year experiment for Simpson and his team of 10 students — getting a large sample batch of used cooking oil. "We reached out to all of the fast-food restaurants around us. They all said no," said Simpson. Except for McDonald's.

Submission + - Leaked Document Shows How Big Companies Buy Credit Card Data On Millions (vice.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yodlee, the largest financial data broker in the U.S., sells data pulled from the bank and credit card transactions of tens of millions of Americans to investment and research firms, detailing where and when people shopped and how much they spent. The company claims that the data is anonymous, but a confidential Yodlee document obtained by Motherboard indicates individual users could be unmasked. The findings come as multiple Senators have urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Envestnet, which owns Yodlee, for selling Americans' transaction information without their knowledge or consent, potentially violating the law.

The Yodlee document describes in detail what type of data its clients gain access to, how the company manages that data across its infrastructure, and the specific measures Yodlee takes to try and anonymize its dataset. The transaction data itself comes from banks, credit card companies, and apps that Yodlee works with, including Bank of America, Citigroup, and HSBC, according to previous reporting from The Wall Street Journal. According to the 2019 document Motherboard obtained, the data includes a unique identifier given to the bank or credit card holder who made the purchase; the amount spent for the transaction; the date of the sale; the city, state, and zip code of the business the person bought from, and other pieces of metadata. Once logged into Yodlee's server, clients download the data as a large text file, rather than interacting with the data in a dashboard or interface that stays solely within Yodlee's control, according to the document.

Submission + - IRS Sues Facebook For $9 Billion, Says Company Offshored Profits To Ireland (foxbusiness.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Facebook is slated to begin a tax trial in a San Francisco court on Tuesday, as the Internal Revenue Service tries to convince a judge the world’s largest social media company owes more than $9 billion linked to its decision to shift profits to Ireland. The trial, which Facebook expects will take three to four weeks, could see top executives including hardware chief Andrew Bosworth and Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer called to testify, according to a document the company filed in January. The witness list also includes Naomi Gleit and Javier Olivan, veterans of Facebook’s aggressive growth team, and Chief Revenue Officer David Fischer.

The IRS argues that Facebook understated the value of the intellectual property it sold to an Irish subsidiary in 2010 while building out global operations, a move common among U.S. multinationals. Ireland has lower corporate tax rates than the United States, so the move reduced the company’s tax bill. Under the arrangement, Facebook’s subsidiaries pay royalties to the U.S.-based parent for access to its trademark, users and platform technologies. From 2010 to 2016, Facebook Ireland paid Facebook U.S. more than $14 billion in royalties and cost-sharing payments, according to the court filing. The company said the low valuation reflected the risks associated with Facebook’s international expansion, which took place in 2010 before its IPO and the development of its most lucrative digital advertising products.

Submission + - Chemotherapy for Cancer Could Soon Be Unviable Because of Superbugs (msn.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Cancer doctors fear superbugs which can't be treated with antibiotics will soon remove chemotherapy as a treatment option for their patients, a survey has revealed. Cancer patients are more vulnerable to infections because the disease and its treatments can stop the immune system from working correctly.

The research comes as experts try to stem the rise of bugs which can't be treated with antibiotics. According to the U.N., at least 700,000 people die each year from drug-resistant infections. Research cited in the report states that figure could spike to ten million by 2050.

Berman highlighted in the report: "No new class of antibiotics has been discovered since the 1980s and the lack of market incentives for research and development has led the pharma industry to largely abandon projects developing new treatments.

Submission + - APIs a Target for Credential Stuffing Attacks (csoonline.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: According to a new report from Akamai, nearly 20% of attempted credential stuffing attacks, a type of brute-force attack where criminals use lists of username and password combinations to gain access to accounts, are now done through APIs rather than user-facing login pages. And the number is higher in the financial services industry 'where the use of APIs is widespread and in part fueled by regulatory requirements,' and competition from fintech startups writes Lucian Constantin for CSO. Credential stuffing has become more of an issue in recent years because of the billions of stolen credentials that have been dumped on the internet and 'API usage and widespread adoption have enabled criminals to automate their attacks,' Akamai said in its report, adding that several problems with API development, such as the lack of rate limiting for authentication attempts, make it easier for attackers to abuse them.

Submission + - Windows 10 update disaster: it's reportedly DELETING files (tomsguide.com)

Submitted by Futurepower(R)
Futurepower(R) writes: "Microsoft just reached a new low.

"You can now add one more fail to the Windows 10 update Hall of Shame.

"The Windows 10 KB4532693 update was already problematic, as it was causing the operating system to boot with the default Start menu and desktop. All shortcuts and customization options disappeared.

"But now there’s an even bigger problem. The Windows 10 KB4532693 update is also said to be deleting files saved on the desktop."

Submission + - SEC about to make it harder on middle-class investors (washingtontimes.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: If it goes into effect, the regulation would cripple investors’ ability to buy dozens of funds they can now purchase on American stock exchanges for zero-dollar commissions from discount brokerages and investing apps such as Robinhood. Under the regulation, investors could not purchase these funds unless they can answer an extensive questionnaire of highly personal questions about their investing knowledge and household assets to the SEC’s satisfaction. SEC Republican Commissioners Hester Peirce and Elad Roisman have blasted the regulation as a “blunt overly paternalistic approach to investor protection.”

Submission + - California Police Have Been Illegally Sharing License Plate Reader Data (vice.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes:

Some of California’s largest police departments have been collecting millions of images of drivers’ license plates and sharing them with entities around the country—without having necessary security policies in place, in violation of state law, according to a newly released state audit.

The audit, published Thursday, found that 230 police and sheriff’s departments in the state currently use automated license plate readers (ALPRs), which can be fixed cameras or devices mounted on patrol cars. Police have touted the technology as necessary for enforcing parking and basic municipal laws, and as a vital tool in child abduction cases and other high-profile investigations.

Laws are for the little people.

Submission + - SPAM: The Miseducation Of Lisa Simpson

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: On Sunday, The Simpsons aired The Miseducation Of Lisa Simpson, an episode in which Marge — with the help of a song from John Legend ("STEM, it's not just for dorks, dweebs and nerds / It'll turn all your dumb kids to Zuckerbergs") — convinces Springfield to use a windfall the town reaped by seizing shipwreck treasure to build the Springfield STEM Academy to 'prepare kids for the jobs of tomorrow.' All goes well initially — both Lisa and Bart love their new school — until Lisa realizes there's a two-tiered curriculum. While children classified as "divergent pathway assimilators" (i.e., gifted) like Lisa study neural networks and C+++ upstairs, kids like Bart are relegated to the basement where they're prepared via VR and gamified learning for a life of menial, gig economy side-hustles — charging e-scooters, shopping for rich people's produce, driving ride-share. Hey, it's not so different from the two-tier caste systems at Google and Facebook, Lisa!

Submission + - Signing up with Amazon, Wal-Mart, or Uber forfeits your right to sue them (cnn.com)

Submitted by DogDude
DogDude writes: "Tucked into the sign-up process for many popular e-commerce sites and apps are dense terms-of-service agreements that legal experts say are changing the nature of consumer transactions, creating a veil of secrecy around how these companies function.
"The small print in these documents requires all signatories to agree to binding arbitration and to clauses that ban class actions. Just by signing up for these services, consumers give up their rights to sue companies like Amazon (AMZN), Uber (UBER) and Walmart (WMT) before a jury of their peers, agreeing instead to undertake a private process overseen by a paid arbitrator."

Submission + - The 40th Root KSK Ceremony Rescheduled (icann.org)

Submitted by rastos1
rastos1 writes: The 40th Root Key Signing Key Ceremony, originally scheduled for 12 February 2020 at 2100 UTC in El Segundo, California, is being postponed.

During routine administrative maintenance of our Key Management Facility on 11 February, we identified an equipment malfunction that will prevent us from successfully conducting the ceremony as originally scheduled. The issue disables access to one of the secure safes that contains material for the ceremony.

Submission + - YouTube censors Senate floor speech with whistleblower's name (thehill.com)

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: YouTube has removed a video from its platform that shows Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) stating on the Senate floor the name of a person who conservative media have suggested is the whistleblower whose complaint triggered the impeachment inquiry of President Trump.

The company, home to millions of hours of video content, said in a statement on Thursday that “videos, comments, and other forms of content that mention the leaked whistleblower’s name" violate its community guidelines and will be removed from the site.

"We’ve removed hundreds of videos and over ten thousand comments that contained the name. Video uploaders have the option to edit their videos to exclude the name and reupload," Ivy Choi, a spokesperson, said in the statement, which was first reported by Politico.

The video clip removed by YouTube comes from the Senate impeachment trial, when Paul mentioned a name that has circulated in conservative media as the whistleblower. Paul did so after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts declined to read a question he submitted including that person's name.

Paul says he does not know if the name he said on the Senate floor is the whistleblower's or not, but he said it was wrong for his speech to be censored.

“It is a chilling and disturbing day in America when giant web companies such as YouTube decide to censure speech," he said in a statement. "Now, even protected speech, such as that of a senator on the Senate floor, can be blocked from getting to the American people. This is dangerous and politically biased. Nowhere in my speech did I accuse anyone of being a whistleblower, nor do I know the whistleblower’s identity."

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