[31846] in RISKS Forum
Risks Digest 31.59
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (RISKS List Owner)
Fri Feb 21 19:17:13 2020
From: RISKS List Owner <risko@csl.sri.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 16:16:36 PST
To: risks@mit.edu
RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Friday 21 February 2020 Volume 31 : Issue 59
ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)
Peter G. Neumann, founder and still moderator
***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. *****
This issue is archived at <http://www.risks.org> as
<http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/31.59>
The current issue can also be found at
<http://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt>
Contents:
Bluetooth-Related Flaws Threaten Dozens of Medical Devices (WIRED)
Electronic voting systems (Ross Anderson)
Orbital Debris Summary (Aerospace.org)
Fraud Case in Charleston SC Shines Light on Web's Dark Corners (WSJ)
Israel Says Hamas Targeted Its Soldiers in Honey Trap's Cyberattack (WSJ)
Your Doorbell Camera Spied on You. Now What? (NYTimes)
Sex robots may cause psychological damage (BBC)
Electrical Tape on Sign Tricked a Tesla Into Speeding in a Test
(Yahoo Finance)
Spooky Video shows self-driving cars being tricked by holograms (Inverse)
Microsoft Surface Battery Fail (Larry Werring)
Hundreds of Millions of PC Components Still Have Hackable Firmware (WIRED)
EU Commission white paper On Artificial Intelligence - A European approach
to excellence and trust (Europa via Diego Latella)
How smartphone addiction changes your brain: Scans reveal how grey
matter of tech addicts physically changes shape and size in a similar way
to drug users (Daily Mail)
US Govt Warns Critical Industries After Ransomware Hits Gas Pipeline
Facility (CISA)
Hackers Are Using the Coronavirus Panic to Spread Malware (Malware Bytes)
Flywheel owners found out that their bikes were bricked through Peloton
(The Verge)
Scientists Warn `Insect Apocalypse' Could Doom Humanity (The Guardian)
Mysterious GPS outages are wracking the shipping industry (Fortune)
UN/CCW/GGE documents on Autonomous Weapon Systems (Diego Latella)
IBM, Marriott, and Mickey Mouse Take on Tech's Favorite Law (David McCabe,
NYTimes, 4 Feb 2020)
Re: A lazy fix 20 years ago means the Y2K bug is taking down computers
(John Levine, Martin Ward)
Re: Debunking the lone woodpecker theory (Gabe Goldberg)
My smart car rental was a breeze - until I got trapped in the woods
(The Guardian)
Today in sharing economy struggles: our app-powered rental car
lost cell service on the side of a mountain in rural California and now I
live here I guess (Kari Paul)
Re: Car renter paired car to FordPass, could still control car long ...
(Jeremy Epstein, R. G. Newbury)
Re: The Intelligence Coup of the Century (David Lesher)
How the Iowa Caucuses Came Crashing Down (WashPost)
'The only uncertainty is how long we'll last': a worst-case scenario for
the climate in 2050 (The Guardian)
Like Something Out of The Book Of Exodus Locust Armies Are Devouring Entire
Farms In Kenya In As Little As 30 Seconds (CGTN)
Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 14:44:48 -0500
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Bluetooth-Related Flaws Threaten Dozens of Medical Devices (WIRED)
Hundreds of smart devices -- including pacemakers -- are exposed thanks to a
series of vulnerabilities in the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, which oversees development of the
Bluetooth and BLE standards, did not a return a request from WIRED for
comment about the findings. Bluetooth and BLE implementation issues
<https://www.wired.com/story/bluetooth-complex-security-risk/> are common,
though, partly because the Bluetooth and BLE standards are massive and
complex.
"Some of the vendors we contacted originally, the engineers said, 'Well, the
reason you're getting these issues is that you're putting in values that are
not expected, not within the specification,'" Chattopadhyay says. "But you
can't only be testing for a benign environment. We're talking about an
attacker here. He doesn't care about what's expected."
https://www.wired.com/story/bluetooth-flaws-ble-internet-of-things-pacemakers/
Unfair! Testing unexpected values not in specifications...
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2020 15:42:04 +0000
From: Ross Anderson <Ross.Anderson@cl.cam.ac.uk>
Subject: Electronic voting systems
(Note MIT's Voatz item, RISKS-31.58)
So now both America and Russia have deployed thoroughly unimpressive
electronic voting systems that claimed to have a blockchain feature.
Last week at Financial Crypto, Sasha Golovnev talked on Breaking the
encryption scheme of the Moscow Internet voting system. A new system for
electronic voting in three wards of the city of Moscow in 2018 had a public
testing period, in which Sasha and Pierrick Gaudry broke it twice. There was
no spec, but the source code was put online a day before the first public
test. It turned out that it used ElGamal encryption with keys under 256
bits; the encryption was done three times with different keys, and the
designers were unaware that triple encryption doesn't strengthen ElGamal the
way it does DES! Their first attack was simple key recovery as CADO-NFS
could do the discrete logs on a laptop in ten minutes. The election
authorities changed to 1024-bit ElGamal, whereupon a second attack was
found: a one-bit leak from a subgroup attack – enough to distinguish between
the two candidates in the election. The developers denied that this attack
worked but silently changed the code anyway. There was also an ethereum
blockchain for vote tallying, which vanished after the election result was
declared, and the link between the decryption and he blockchain was broken
when they keysize was increased. Other things were wrong too.
See http://fc20.ifca.ai/preproceedings/178.pdf
The link to the liveblog from which this is taken is here:
https://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2020/02/10/fc-2020/
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2020 10:43:05 -0800
From: Richard Stein <rmstein@ieee.org>
Subject: Orbital Debris Summary (Aerospace.org)
https://aerospace.org/article/space-debris-and-space-traffic-management
The URL gives a table summarizing the current statistics on orbital space
debris by size, quantity estimates, collision effect equivalence (hit by a
bus or a bomb), and whether or not the detritus is track-able.
Any object less than 5 cm cross-section cannot be tracked. Objects at or
above 10 cm cross-section are subject to tracking. The catalog for 10 or 10+
cm debris objects numbers is in the 100s of thousands. I have not found a
public inventory on the Internet, though space-track.org lists satellite
records using a standard 2 line summary format that identifies the name and
their orbital ephemerides.
An estimated tens of millions of debris objects between 1 mm and 5 cm
currently orbit Earth at various altitudes.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2020 11:45:08 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Fraud Case in Charleston SC Shines Light on Web's Dark Corners
(WSJ)
Micfo and its founder pleaded not guilty in case revolving around IP
addresses and the American Registry for Internet Numbers
https://www.wsj.com/articles/fraud-case-in-charleston-s-c-shines-light-on-webs-dark-corners-11581944400
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2020 11:51:39 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Israel Says Hamas Targeted Its Soldiers in Honey Trap's Cyberattack
(WSJ)
The Israeli military said operatives of the Palestinian militant group Hamas
targeted its soldiers in a months-long operation that duped them into
downloading spyware with the false promise of exchanging illicit photos with
young women.
Dozens of Israeli soldiers downloaded the spyware, but the scheme was
detected early enough to prevent important secrets from getting out and the
Hamas servers hosting the operation were destroyed, the military said on
Sunday.
The phishing operation, known as a honey trap, is the third such scheme
since 2017 and shows how Hamas exploits social media to elicit information
from enemy soldiers -- and how difficult it is for Israel and others to
prevent such attacks.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-says-hamas-targeted-its-soldiers-in-honey-trap-cyberattack-11581874491
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2020 10:22:13 -0500
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Your Doorbell Camera Spied on You. Now What? (NYTimes)
Amazon's popular Ring security cameras have gaping security holes. Here's
how to protect yourself.
tech fix: Your Doorbell Camera Spied on You. Now What?
Amazon's popular Ring security cameras have gaping security holes. Here's
how to protect yourself.
Has there ever been a tech product more polarizing than Ring?
The Internet-connected doorbell gadget, which lets you watch live video of
your front porch through a phone app or website, has gained a reputation as
the webcam that spies on you and that has failed to protect your data. Yet
people keep buying it in droves.
Ring, which is owned by Amazon and based in Santa Monica, Calif., has
generated its share of headlines, including how the company fired four
employees over the last four years for watching customers' videos. Last
month, security researchers also found that Ring's apps contained hidden
code, which had shared customer data with third-party marketers. And in
December, hackers hijacked the Ring cameras of multiple families, using the
devices' speakers to verbally assault some of them.
This week, Ring announced new protocols to strengthen the security of its
products, such as mandating two-factor verification, which requires you to
punch in a temporary code before logging into your account to see your
footage. A Ring spokeswoman said the company was focused on constantly
enhancing its security.
Yet security experts said that Ring had been slow to react and that its
solutions were weak.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/technology/personaltech/ring-doorbell-camera-spying.html
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2020 08:44:16 -0700
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Sex robots may cause psychological damage (BBC)
*US researchers have warned that the availability of sex robots with
artificial intelligence (AI) poses a growing psychological and moral threat
to individuals and society*
They say the technology is escaping oversight because agencies are too
embarrassed to investigate it.
The scientists want action to prevent the unregulated use of such robots.
Dr Christine Hendren of Duke University told BBC News that "the stakes were
high". "Some robots are programmed to protest, to create a rape scenario,
Some are designed to look like children. One developer of these in Japan is
a self-confessed paedophile, who says that this device is a prophylactic
against him ever hurting a real child. But does that normalise and give
people a chance to practise these behaviours that should be treated by just
stamping them out?"
Dr Hendren was speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.
- New law of robotics: Humans must flourish
<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40423595>
- Call to ban killer robots in wars
<https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47259889>
- Robots adapt to damage in seconds
<https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32884768>
A number of sex robots are advertised online. A US-based firm, Realrobitix,
has posted a video marketing its Harmony robot for between $8,000 and
$10,000.
It is a life-sized doll which can blink and move its eyes and neck, and
also its lips as it talks. [...]
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51330261
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 08:48:20 -0800
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Electrical Tape on Sign Tricked a Tesla Into Speeding in a Test
(Yahoo Finance)
Researchers were able to trick a Tesla vehicle into speeding by putting a
strip of electrical tape over a speed limit sign, spotlighting the kinds of
potential vulnerabilities facing automated driving systems.
Technicians at McAfee Inc. placed the piece of tape horizontally across the
middle of the `3' on a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit sign. The change caused
the vehicle to read the limit as 85 miles per hour, and its cruise control
system automatically accelerated, according to research released by McAfee
on Wednesday.
McAfee says the issue isn't a serious risk to motorists. No one was hurt and
the researcher behind the wheel was able to safely slow the car.
But the findings, from 18 months of research that ended last year,
illustrate a weakness of machine learning systems used in automated driving,
according to Steve Povolny, head of advanced threat research at
McAfee. Other research has shown how changes in the physical world can
confuse such systems. [...]
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/electrical-tape-sign-tricked-tesla-090000044.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-19/electrical-tape-on-sign-tricked-a-tesla-into-speeding-in-a-test
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 13:44:02 +0100
From: Diego Latella <Diego.Latella@isti.cnr.it>
Subject: Spooky Video shows self-driving cars being tricked by holograms
(Inverse)
https://www.inverse.com/innovation/us-regulators-greenlight-nuros-r2-autonomous-delivery-vehicle
Hackers can trick a Tesla into accelerating by 50 miles per hour (MIT Tech Rev)
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615244/hackers-can-trick-a-tesla-into-accelerating-by-50-miles-per-hour/
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2020 16:00:41 -0500
From: Larry Werring <lwerring@nrtco.net>
Subject: Microsoft Surface Battery Fail
Given the hype about how dangerous lithium batteries can be and the emphasis
placed by the International Air Travel Association (IATA) and International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on the safety of lithium batteries on
aircraft (https://www.iata.org/en/programs/cargo/dgr/lithium-batteries), I
am surprised that the recent lithium battery troubles being experienced by
Microsoft Surface users has not gained more attention.
I'm being a bit selfish here because I'm one of the users experiencing the
problem and my interactions with Microsoft technical support have been less
than satisfactory. A bit of background - I own both a Microsoft Surface Book
(1st Gen) and a Microsoft Surface Pro 3. Until recently, I considered these
to be great products. A few weeks ago I noticed that there were signs
of burn-through occurring near the edge of the screen on my Surface Book. On
closer examination this past weekend, I noticed that the frame of my Surface
Book is warped and the screen itself has begun to bulge outwards. Research
(Google is your friend) led me to discover that there are numerous
complaints about Microsoft Surface products failing because the lithium
battery built into them have swollen. These swollen batteries have led
to cracked/warped screens and the screen almost popping off the
computer. Unfortunately, these batteries cannot be removed or replaced.
Armed with this information I contacted Microsoft Customer Support.
They immediately confirmed that the lithium battery in my Surface Book is
likely swelling. I was told to immediately stop using and unplug the
computer because the failed battery could lead to a loss of all my data -
not because the swollen battery is dangerous but because I might lose my
data. He also confirmed that the battery cannot be removed or replaced, I
must dispose of the computer. I asked the technician whether the swelling
battery was dangerous and could cause a fire or explosion. He denied this
insisting that only my data was at risk. However, he did say that they would
send me special packaging so I could SAFELY ship my computer back to
Microsoft for disposal, this because our Post Office won't ship swollen
lithium batteries (I wonder why?). He told me my computer is out of
warranty but did offer to sell me a replacement for $810 CDN. I told him
that I wasn't paying that much for a 6-year old computer but that I was more
concerned about the safety issues associated with defective lithium
batteries. I noted that there are owners of these computers living and
traveling around the world who could also be unknowingly experiencing
swelling batteries and, thus, could be at risk, particularly if the device
is taken on an aircraft. He dismissed my concerns outright saying that
only my data was at risk.
I have discovered that there are a lot of folks experiencing the same
problem (swelling Surface batteries) and that Microsoft has known about the
problem for a while. The company appears to have chosen to essentially do
and say nothing about the risks, and there are risks. At least one user
has reported that the swollen battery in their Surface computer has caught
fire.
(https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/all/surface-pro-3-swollen-battery-safety-hazard/cbf0e621-508f-4e71-a45b-ab8c6e7c888b?page=2)
So, here we have a battery safety issue that, in the past, has resulted in
at least one major device recall and an outright ban of those devices on
aircraft. Yet this popular product by Microsoft is experiencing the same
problems and they choose to say and do nothing. People's property and lives
could be at risk. Microsoft should man up and recall all affected Surface
products.
(https://www.cnet.com/news/galaxy-note-4-refurbished-batteries-recall/)
As an aside, my Surface Pro 3 doesn't look like the battery is swelling
(yet) but I've had to disable the touch screen because the mouse cursor
repeatedly keeps wanting to jump to the same spot. I suspect that there
may be pressure on the back of the touch screen causing that problem...
suggesting that its battery may also be beginning to swell. Sooo, two
Microsoft products are going to be disposed of - before one of them burns my
house down.
Heads up people. If you own a Microsoft Surface Book (1st Gen) or a
Surface Pro 3 or 4, you may have safety problems with the lithium battery.
Please be diligent. If you own a later Microsoft Surface product, ask
Microsoft if your device is safe. I believe the risk could be reduced
in newer products if Microsoft would redesign the internal battery so it can
easily be removed and replaced at the first sign of problems.
Considering their price tag, it seems stupid to dispose of a perfectly good
computer simply because the battery is swelling.
On that note - I'm off to buy myself a new non-Microsoft laptop...
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2020 18:11:42 -0500
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Hundreds of Millions of PC Components Still Have Hackable Firmware
(WIRED)
The lax security of supply chain firmware has been a known concern for years
-- with precious little progress being made.
https://www.wired.com/story/firmware-hacks-vulnerable-pc-components-peripherals/
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 16:46:49 +0100
From: Diego Latella <Diego.Latella@isti.cnr.it>
Subject: EU Commission white paper On Artificial Intelligence - A European
approach to excellence and trust (Europa)
You might be interested in the EU Commission WHITE PAPER On Artificial
Intelligence: A European approach to excellence and trust, which has been
just published.
https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/commission-white-paper-artificial-intelligence-feb2020_en.pdf
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 08:45:21 -0800
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: How smartphone addiction changes your brain: Scans reveal how grey
matter of tech addicts physically changes shape and size in a similar way
to drug users (Daily Mail)
- German researchers examined the brains of 48 participants using MRI
images
- Total of 22 people smartphone addicts and 26 non-addicts made up the
cohort
- Researchers found diminished grey matter volume in key regions of the
brain
- Similar phenomenon observed in people who suffer with substance
addiction [...]
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8016779/Brains-people-addicted-smartphone-physically-change.html
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 08:46:14 -0800
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: US Govt Warns Critical Industries After Ransomware Hits Gas
Pipeline Facility (CISA)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure
Security Agency (CISA) earlier today issued a warning to all industries
operating critical infrastructures about a new ransomware threat that if
left unaddressed could have severe consequences.
The advisory <https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/aa20-049a> comes in
response to a cyberattack targeting an unnamed natural gas compression
facility that employed spear-phishing to deliver ransomware to the
company's internal network, encrypting critical data and knocking servers
out of operation for almost two days.
"A cyber threat actor used a spear-phishing link to obtain initial access to
the organization's information technology network before pivoting to its
operational technology network. The threat actor then deployed commodity
ransomware to encrypt data for impact on both networks," CISA noted in its
alert.
As ransomware attacks continue to escalate in frequency and scale, the new
development is yet another indication that phishing attacks continue to be
an effective means to bypass security barriers and that hackers don't always
need to exploit security vulnerabilities to breach organizations. [...]
<https://thehackernews.com/2019/12/zeppelin-ransomware-attacks.html>
<https://thehackernews.com/2019/11/everis-spain-ransomware-attack.html>
https://thehackernews.com/2020/02/critical-infrastructure-ransomware-attack.html
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 11:50:54 -0700
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Hackers Are Using the Coronavirus Panic to Spread Malware
(Malware Bytes)
*Hackers are posing as the CDC and public health organizations to get
people to open virus-laden files*
EXCERPT:
Hackers are using the public's fear of the coronavirus to steal passwords
and spread malware, according to multiple cybersecurity firms and computer
security. The setup is usually simple -- a malicious actor sends a mark on
an email or message that appears to come from an official government source,
such as the Centers for Disease Control, and gets the mark to click a link
that asks for personal info. It's an old scam updated to prey on people's
coronavirus fears.
<https://blog.malwarebytes.com/social-engineering/2020/02/battling-online-coronavirus-scams-with-facts/>
<https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/blogs/spiderlabs-blog/multiple-phishing-attacks-discovered-using-the-coronavirus-theme/>
<https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2020/02/05/coronavirus-safety-measures-email-is-a-phishing-scam/>
``The most prominent coronavirus-themed campaign targeted Japan,
distributing emotet...in malicious email attachments feigning to be sent by
a Japanese disability welfare service provider,'' California-based cyber
security company Check Point said in a report, ``The emails appear to be
reporting where the infection is spreading in several Japanese cities,
encouraging the victim to open the document which, if opened, attempts to
download emotet on their computer.''
<https://blog.checkpoint.com/2020/02/13/january-2020s-most-wanted-malware-coronavirus-themed-spam-spreads-malicious-emotet-malware/>
Emotet is a trojan malware program that, once installed, sits on the
victim's computer and gathers personal information. Not every
coronavirus-themed malware requires the user to install software. Many of
them are simple phishing attempts with a coronavirus theme.
In a typical example, described at in Trustwave's SpiderLabs Blog
<https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/blogs/spiderlabs-blog/multiple-phishing-attacks-discovered-using-the-coronavirus-theme/>,
a strange email address pretending to come from the CDC will reach out to a
victim telling them a city near them has reported a coronavirus outbreak.
The email asks the victim to click a link for more info. The link appears to
be legitimate but redirects to a phishing website that replicates a Windows
login and asks the users for their email and password. [...]
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7jdxw/hackers-are-using-the-coronavirus-panic-to-spread-malware
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 11:51:38 -0700
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Flywheel owners found out that their bikes were bricked through
Peloton (The Verge)
After a patent settlement with Peloton, Flywheel users are left reeling
with how the company handled news of its bikes suddenly shutting down.
Every morning at 4:30AM, Shani Maxwell would throw on her Flywheel T-shirt
and hop on her Fly Anywhere bike. An avid fan who's been riding with
Flywheel since 2013, she'd leapt at the chance to own the company's branded
bike when the company released its Peloton competitor in 2017. [...]
https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/20/21145349/flywheel-bike-shut-down-email-user-reactions-peloton-trade-in
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 11:52:44 -0700
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Scientists Warn `Insect Apocalypse' Could Doom Humanity
(The Guardian)
For several years, a crescendo of scientists have sounded alarms over an
insect apocalypse -- a global dying-off of what may already amount to as
much as 80 percent of the global bug population.
<https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/02/car-splatometer-tests-reveal-huge-decline-in-the-number-of-insects/>
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/magazine/insect-apocalypse.html>
Now, in a grim update, 25 scientists around the world have published a stark
warning: If humankind doesn't manage to save the global bug population, it
could spell doom for human life.
Extinction Event
In a pair of strongly-worded open letters published in the journal *Nature
Conversation, *the researchers decried the pollution, habitat destruction,
and climate change they believe is causing the mass death of the world's
insects.
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719317823?via%3Dihub#bb0910>
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719317793?via%3Dihub#bb0135>
``Each species represents an unrepeatable part of the history of life,'' the
scientists wrote. ``In turn, each species also interacts with others and
their environment in distinctive ways, weaving a complex network that
sustains other species, including us.'' Bug Hunt
The scientists wrote, poetically, that the ``fates of humans and insects are
intertwined.'' In other words, our collective ecological footprint doesn't
just threaten our fellow Earthlings -- it could also effectively kick the
ladder out from under our own position in the ecosystem.
Insects, per the study provide humans with ``[everything] from pollination
and decomposition, to being resources for new medicines, habitat quality
indication'' and more. Turns out, it's a bug's world, and humans are just
living off of it. The question is: Without their help, for how much longer?
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719317823?via%3Dihub#bb0910>,
READ MORE: *Fates of humans and insects intertwined, warn scientists*
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/20/fates-humans-insects-intertwined-scientists-population-collapse>
[*The Guardian*]
More on insects:
*University Deletes Press Release Claiming Evidence of Bugs on Mars*
<https://futurism.com/university-deletes-press-release-claiming-mars-bugs>
https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-warn-insect-apocalypse-could-doom-humanity
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2020 10:26:24 -0500
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Mysterious GPS outages are wracking the shipping industry (Fortune)
[See RISKS-31.48,54, etc.]
For the global maritime shipping industry, spotty satellite navigation is a
disaster waiting to happen.
The call came in by radio one evening last September, at around 9 p.m. On
the line was the master of a tanker, approaching the end of a month-long
journey from the Port of South Louisiana and carrying more than 5,000 metric
tons of ethanol. The message was urgent: The ship's GPS signal had suddenly
disappeared -- leaving the crew to navigate Cyprus's shoreline in the dark.
On the other end of the line was the pilots' office at the Vasiliko oil
terminal, whose staff oversees shipping traffic at Vasiliko's harbor on
Cyprus's arid, palm-fringed southern coast. Stelios Christoforou, the pilot
on duty, recognized the gravity of the situation right away. In daylight, an
experienced ship captain can maneuver using paper maps, markers, and the
coastline as guides. But at night, GPS becomes a critical tool in unfamiliar
waters -- especially near Cyprus, where NATO and Russian warships
roam. And any accident could spill the tanker's cargo across miles of
coastline.
https://fortune.com/longform/gps-outages-maritime-shipping-industry/
Seems to need free account to read full article, which is
interesting/alarming.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 15:33:33 +0100
From: Diego Latella <Diego.Latella@isti.cnr.it>
Subject: UN/CCW/GGE documents on Autonomous Weapon Systems
The links to the following UN/CCW/GGE documents
Report of the 2019 session of the Group of Governmental Experts on Emerging
Technologies in the Area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems
<https://undocs.org/en/CCW/GGE.1/2019/3> CCW/GGE.1/2019/3 - Sept. 25, 2019
Chair's Summary - Report of the 2019 session of the Group of Governmental
Experts on Emerging Technologies in the Area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons
Systems CCW/GGE.1/2019/3/Add.1 - November 8, 2019
<https://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B8954/%28httpAssets%29/931FC63728F1B052C12584AD004A6628/$file/1919338E.pdf>
are now available at the page on Computers: National Security, War, and
Civil Rights (http://www.uspid.org/compwa.html
<http://www.uspid.org/compwa.html>) of the USPID (www.uspid.org
<http://www.uspid.org/>) web site.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2020 09:36:54 -0700
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: IBM, Marriott, and Mickey Mouse Take on Tech's Favorite Law
(David McCabe, NYTimes, 4 Feb 2020)
A motley group of powerful companies have their knives out for Section 230,
which shields platforms from lawsuits over content posted by users.
An unusual constellation of powerful companies and industries are fighting
to weaken Big Tech by limiting the reach of one of its most sacred laws. The
law, known as Section 230, makes it nearly impossible to sue platforms like
Facebook or Google for the words, images and videos posted by their users.
- - - -
Corporations are working with the Trump administration to control online
speech (Ron Wyden, Dem-OR, *The Washington Post*, 14 Feb 2020)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/corporations-are-working-with-the-trump-administration-to-control-online-speech/2020/02/14/4d3078c8-4e9d-11ea-bf44-f5043eb3918a_story.html
Some of the biggest corporations in the United States are brawling over the
future of the law that allows free speech and innovation to thrive
online. Under the guise of getting rid of lies and protecting children,
they're working with the Trump administration and top Republicans to
undermine Americans' rights and give the government unprecedented control
over online speech.
------------------------------
Date: 17 Feb 2020 16:22:09 -0800
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
Subject: Re: A lazy fix 20 years ago means the Y2K bug is taking down
computers, now (Ward, RISKS-31.58)
> [And there won't be any COBOL programmers around when we hit Year 2100,
> PGN]
Wanna bet? COBOL is now 60 years old. The ISO standard was last updated in
2014 and now contains OOP constructs borrowed from C++, which is only fair
since C++ borrowed its structures from COBOL via PL/I and C.
For all that people complain about COBOL, it is still a pretty good language
for the things it was designed for -- business calculations with arithmetic
that follow business rules, e.g., decimal rounding to the nearest cent.
I realize 2100 is 80 years from now, but we're almost halfway there already.
[What I meant (somewhat facetiously) was Original COBOL programmers. When
Y2K approached before 2000, many who were long retired were pulled back
into duty. Most of them are now long gone. PGN]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2020 18:50:00 +0000
From: Martin Ward <martin@gkc.org.uk>
Subject: Re: A lazy fix 20 years ago means the Y2K bug is taking down
computers, now (Levine, RISKS-31.59)
Many large companies are still using IBM assembler on mainframes. The
really forward-looking companies are thinking about migrating to the wave of
the future: COBOL! But the temptation to make do with the current system
for another year or two is often too strong.
New technology is not being developed and put into practice in the way it
used to be (other than exploiting Moore's Law: which itself has slowed
considerably in the last decade). Consider the technological inventions and
advances that occurred in the 30 years from 1950 to 1980: microwaves,
lasers, halogen lamps, LEDs, LCDs, the transistor, integrated circuits,
minicomputers, microcomputers, games consoles, mobile phones, colour
television, FM radio, LP records, CDs, video recorders, solar panels, moon
landings etc. etc.
Now think about the new technology that has been introduced to everyday life
between 1990 and 2020. PCs have got faster, with larger memories, mobile
phones have got smaller and sprouted apps, and what else?
Given that COBOL has already survived decades of technological innovation,
in the current period of relative stagnation and caution, there seems to be
no reason why it should not survive indefinitely.
Scientific and technological progress are not inevitable features of the
modern world: they have to be desired and laboured for.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2020 13:48:48 -0500
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Re: Debunking the lone woodpecker theory (RISKS-31.58)
Understood, that goes with a curated digest!
The rambly bit was from friend-of-a-friend; someone else in our little cabal
commented on it:
It's impressive that a company like that would even hire someone with actual
experience. Somebody in HR slipped up somewhere. So is (as Dan was
discussing in another note) "get code into production as fast as possible"
just another way of saying "move fast and break things"?
The risk -- disdain for any sort of technology discipline -- is terrifying.
NWANC is real and growing.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 21:48:39 -0000
From: "Cuckoo Fair Treasurer" <cuckoofairtreasurer@gmail.com>
Subject: My smart car rental was a breeze - until I got trapped in the woods
The dangers of renting an Internet-enabled (or is it dependent) car and then
taking it to an area with no mobile coverage
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/18/smart-car-gig-rental-app-trapped?CMP=share_btn_link
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2020 09:38:25 -0700
From: the keyboard of geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Today in sharing economy struggles: our app-powered rental car
lost cell service on the side of a mountain in rural California and now I
live here I guess
It appears that although I do not have enough cell service to start up my
only means of transportation I do have enough to live tweet my struggle so
thanks for tuning in I will be here indefinitely... apparently in 45
minutes to an hour a tow truck will come to move us three miles down the
road where there is cell service so we can start our car the future is
dumb... six hours, two tow trucks, and 20 calls to customer service later
apparently it was a software issue and the car needed to be rebooted before
we could use it...
https://twitter.com/kari_paul/status/1229214223227478016
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2020 08:54:40 -0500
From: Jeremy Epstein <jeremy.j.epstein@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Car renter paired car to FordPass, could still control car long
after return (ZDNet via Shaw, RISKS-31.58)
The Ford and Enterprise situation is just the tip of the iceberg.
Enterprise presumably has the technical and financial capability to reset
every rental car before re-renting it (and perhaps now has the motivation as
well).
But what about people renting out their personal vehicles with Getaround or
Turo or similar services? Those individuals undoubtedly do NOT have the
knowledge or ability to reset the car, and since the systems are unattended,
they may never even be accessed by the owner in between rentals. And
without centralized controls (since such services don't physically manage
the vehicles), the service can't do the reset for them - unless they enable
remote automated reset, which brings its own set of risks...
So, I agree with ZDnet: "Too often, tech companies place the onus on
customers to work things out for themselves and even to save themselves.
Or, worse, to only discover a breach when it's too late. Wouldn't it be
bracing if tech companies, I don't know, showed a little responsibility in
advance?"
[However,] that responsibility needs to be considered in light of the
different usage models, not just the traditional rental car companies (e.g.,
Enterprise), but also other uses.
(And FWIW, even something as simple as having the oil changed in your car
gives the opportunity for someone to link their phone to your car, and
enable the remote control. So I'd argue this isn't a failure by Enterprise
- it's a failure by Ford and anyone else who makes remote controls.)
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2020 22:36:14 -0500
From: "R. G. Newbury" <newbury@mandamus.org>
Subject: Re: Car renter paired car to FordPass, could still control car long
after return (ZDNet via Shaw, RISKS-31.58)
It's worse than you think. A new OWNER may find himself unable to change the
car's settings, because the car is still 'locked' to a prior owner. And the
prior owner still has the power to start or unlock the car. It's not a
matter of 'clearing' the settings: only the 'owner' can do that! Apparently
it's not just Land Rover; it could include Jaguar, Audi and BMW cars.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/27/jaguar_land_rover_connected_car_privacy/
John Leyden, The Register, 27 Jul 2018
Shock Land Rover Discovery: Sellers could meddle with connected cars if not
unbound; Secondhand owners who didn't sell at JLR dealer can call us, says
firm
Both data and the online controls on "connected cars" from Jaguar Land Rover
remain available to previous owners, according to security experts and
owners of the upmarket vehicles. The car maker has defended its privacy
safeguards and security of its InControl tech.
El Reg began investigating the issue after talking to Matt Watts, a techie
who blogged about the issue of connected cars and the data they collect,
without initially naming Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).
Watts' secondhand Range Rover came with the ability to remotely control the
climate systems, call breakdown services, upload GPS/destination details and
much more. The vehicle also keeps a record of much of this information and
stores it in an online account.
Most drivers won't use this functionality, but Watts is a self-admitted
geek. After he downloaded the JLR app to his smartphone and started to
experiment, Watts realised that he was able to use the eight digits of the
vehicle identification number (VIN) to link his vehicle to an online
account.
When doing so, the JLR website informed him that the vehicle was linked to
another user's account. After dealing with support centres and a JLR dealer,
Watts was eventually told that the previous owners should have disconnected
before selling on the car. He was initially advised to contact the previous
owner, which is annoying enough in itself.
"The process to get the manufacturer to update the online details for the
vehicle is for me to try and find the previous owner and get them to do it
for me," Watts wrote.
The issue goes far beyond Watts being unable to use the funky functionality
of his secondhand motor, as he explained:
The previous owner of my car has control over it, they can unlock it, they
can remotely set the climate control without me knowing about it, even when
the car isn't running, they potentially can even look at the sat-nav system,
they can also call break down services to the vehicle and all of this
without me knowing anything about it.
*Someone else has access to a significant amount of data about myself and my
vehicle and there appears to be nothing that the manufacturer is prepared to
do about it.*
Watts told El Reg: "Data is being collected about me and the vehicle's
location and simply provided to whomever previously connected the app to the
car. JLR needs a bullet-proof method for this to be automatically
disconnected when the vehicle changes hands. I don't know how you do this
but the current process is clearly not sufficient." [...]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2020 10:14:40 -0500
From: David <wb8foz@panix.com>
Subject: Re: The Intelligence Coup of the Century (RISKS-31.58)
One interesting aspect of this reporting is only CIA is mentioned.
When this saga started, they *were* effectively the Intelligence
Community. (Their only-child status did not last long.) Yet it's hardly
their forte to design crypto systems & hardware. That *is* the purview of
their stepbrothers at Fort Meade.
While they now seemingly on good terms, before the end of the Cold War there
were many tales of their ...discordant... relationship. [I recall being told
by a SIS just assigned a joint tasking at the other place "I knew there was
a sea change when I arrived and found they suddenly honored not only my
badge but my executive parking pass..."]
So for now one can just wonder what part NSA played in this saga over its
tenure. It can't be trivial.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2020 11:24:09 PST
From: "Peter G. Neumann" <neumann@csl.sri.com>
Subject: How the Iowa Caucuses Came Crashing Down (WashPost)
This adds some more details to what happened.
The Washington Post, 15 Feb 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-the-iowa-caucuses-came-crashing-down-under-the-watchful-eye-of-the-dnc/2020/02/15/25b17e7e-4f5f-11ea-b721-9f4cdc90bc1c_story.html
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2020 08:46:15 -0700
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: 'The only uncertainty is how long we'll last': a worst-case
scenario for the climate in 2050 (The Guardian)
*The Future We Choose*, a new book by the architects of the Paris climate
accords, offers two contrasting visions for how the world might look in
thirty years (read the best case scenario here).
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/15/best-case-scenario-2050-climate-crisis-future-we-choose-christiana-figueres-tom-rivett-carnac>
EXCERPT:
It is 2050. Beyond the emissions reductions registered in 2015, no further
efforts were made to control emissions. We are heading for a world that
will be more than 3C warmer by 2100
The first thing that hits you is the air. In many places around the world,
the air is hot, heavy and, depending on the day, clogged with particulate
pollution. Your eyes often water. Your cough never seems to disappear. You
think about some countries in Asia, where, out of consideration, sick
people used to wear white masks to protect others from airborne infection.
Now you often wear a mask to protect yourself from air pollution. You can
no longer simply walk out your front door and breathe fresh air: there
might not be any. Instead, before opening doors or windows in the morning,
you check your phone to see what the air quality will be.
Fewer people work outdoors and even indoors the air can taste slightly
acidic, sometimes making you feel nauseated. The last coal furnaces closed
10 years ago, but that hasn't made much difference in air quality around
the world because you are still breathing dangerous exhaust fumes from
millions of cars and buses everywhere. Our world is getting hotter. Over the
next two decades, projections tell us that temperatures in some areas of the
globe will rise even higher, an irreversible development now utterly beyond
our control. Oceans, forests, plants, trees and soil had for many years
absorbed half the carbon dioxide we spewed out. Now there are few forests
left, most of them either logged or consumed by wildfire, and the permafrost
is belching greenhouse gases into an already overburdened atmosphere. The
increasing heat of the Earth is suffocating us and in five to 10 years, vast
swaths of the planet will be increasingly inhospitable to humans. We don't
know how hospitable the arid regions of Australia, South Africa and the
western United States will be by 2100. No one knows what the future holds
for their children and grandchildren: tipping point after tipping point is
being reached, casting doubt on the form of future civilisation. Some say
that humans will be cast to the winds again, gathering in small tribes,
hunkered down and living on whatever patch of land might sustain them.
More moisture in the air and higher sea surface temperatures have caused a
surge in extreme hurricanes and tropical storms. Recently, coastal cities in
Bangladesh, Mexico, the United States and elsewhere have suffered brutal
infrastructure destruction and extreme flooding, killing many thousands and
displacing millions. This happens with increasing frequency now. Every day,
because of rising water levels, some part of the world must evacuate to
higher ground. Every day, the news shows images of mothers with babies
strapped to their backs, wading through floodwaters and homes ripped apart
by vicious currents that resemble mountain rivers. News stories tell of
people living in houses with water up to their ankles because they have
nowhere else to go, their children coughing and wheezing because of the
mold growing in their beds, insurance companies declaring bankruptcy,
leaving survivors without resources to rebuild their lives. Contaminated
water supplies, sea salt intrusions and agricultural runoff are the order of
the day. Because multiple disasters are often happening simultaneously, it
can take weeks or even months for basic food and water relief to reach areas
pummeled by extreme floods. Diseases such as malaria, dengue, cholera,
respiratory illnesses and malnutrition are rampant.
You try not to think about the 2 billion people who live in the hottest
parts of the world, where, for upwards of 45 days per year, temperatures
skyrocket to 60C (140F), a point at which the human body cannot be outside
for longer than about six hours because it loses the ability to cool itself
down. Places such as central India are becoming increasingly challenging to
inhabit. Mass migrations to less hot rural areas are beset by a host of
refugee problems, civil unrest and bloodshed over diminished water
availability.
Food production swings wildly from month to month, season to season,
depending on where you live. More people are starving than ever before.
Climate zones have shifted, so some new areas have become available for
agriculture (Alaska, the Arctic), while others have dried up (Mexico,
California). Still others are unstable because of the extreme heat, never
mind flooding, wildfire and tornadoes. This makes the food supply in general
highly unpredictable. Global trade has slowed as countries seek to hold on
to their own resources.
Countries with enough food are resolute about holding on to it. As a result,
food riots, coups and civil wars are throwing the world's most vulnerable
from the frying pan into the fire. As developed countries seek to seal their
borders from mass migration, they too feel the consequences. Most
countries' armies are now just highly militarised border patrols. Some
countries are letting people in, but only under conditions approaching
indentured servitude. [...]
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/15/worst-case-scenario-2050-climate-crisis-future-we-choose-christiana-figueres-tom-rivett-carnac
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2020 08:47:41 -0700
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Like Something Out of The Book Of Exodus Locust Armies Are
Devouring Entire Farms In Kenya In As Little As 30 Seconds (CGTN)
<https://africa.cgtn.com/2020/02/09/swarms-big-as-cities-un-chief-says-locust-fight-must-intensify/>
... we have never seen anything like this before. the UN continues to warn
that the number of locusts could get 500 times bigger by June. But even if
this plague ended right now, millions of people would still be facing a
devastating famine in the months ahead. These locusts travel in swarms up
to 40 miles wide, each one can eat the equivalent of its own body weight
every day, and the swarms can travel close to 100 miles in a 24 hour period.
This is a nightmare of epic proportions, and it is just getting started.
National Geographic has never been known to sensationalize news stories, but
even they are saying that this plague is like something out of the Book of
Exodus. [...]
<https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/02/locust-plague-climate-science-east-africa/>
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2019 11:11:11 -0800
From: RISKS-request@csl.sri.com
Subject: Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)
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End of RISKS-FORUM Digest 31.59
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