The Linkielist

Linking ideas with the world

Apple temporarily disables group FaceTime to fix a bug that lets you eavesdrop on your contacts

Posted on by Robin Edgar

There was chaos on the internet late last night after 9to5Mac discovered a bug in Apple’s FaceTime video calling app that let you hear other person’s voice even before they answered your call. According to the report, a user running iOS 12.1 could potentially exploit the vulnerability to eavesdrop on others through a group FaceTime call. Read more about Apple temporarily disables group FaceTime to fix a bug that lets you eavesdrop on your contacts[…]

Google’s Sidewalk Labs Plans to Package and Sell Location Data on Millions of Cellphones

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Most of the data collected by urban planners is messy, complex, and difficult to represent. It looks nothing like the smooth graphs and clean charts of city life in urban simulator games like “SimCity.” A new initiative from Sidewalk Labs, the city-building subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has set out to change that. The Read more about Google’s Sidewalk Labs Plans to Package and Sell Location Data on Millions of Cellphones[…]

Firefox cracks down on creepy web trackers, holds supercookies over fire whilst Chrome kills ad blockers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Mozilla Foundation has announced its intent to reduce the ability of websites and other online services to track users of its Firefox browser around the internet. At this stage, Moz’s actions are baby steps. In support of its decision in late 2018 to reduce the amount of tracking it permits, the organisation has now Read more about Firefox cracks down on creepy web trackers, holds supercookies over fire whilst Chrome kills ad blockers[…]

South Korea rules pre-installed phone bloatware must be deletable

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Smartphone users in South Korea will soon be able to have the option of deleting unnecessary pre-installed bloatware, thanks to new industry guidelines commencing in April. “The move aims to rectify an abnormal practice that causes inconvenience to smartphone users and causes unfair competition among industry players,” said the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Read more about South Korea rules pre-installed phone bloatware must be deletable[…]

This 3D Printing Technique Is 100 Times Faster Than Standard 3D Printers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A new 3D-printing technique could render a three-dimensional object in minutes instead of hours—at up to 100 times current speeds. The experimental approach uses a vat of resin and some clever tricks with UV and blue LED lights (no lasers needed) to accelerate the printing process. The technique looks almost like a time-reverse film loop of an object Read more about This 3D Printing Technique Is 100 Times Faster Than Standard 3D Printers[…]

Deepmind AI beats top Starcraft pros

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Now, we introduce our StarCraft II program AlphaStar, the first Artificial Intelligence to defeat a top professional player. In a series of test matches held on 19 December, AlphaStar decisively beat Team Liquid’s Grzegorz “MaNa” Komincz, one of the world’s strongest professional StarCraft players, 5-0, following a successful benchmark match against his team-mate Dario “TLO” Wünsch. The matches took place Read more about Deepmind AI beats top Starcraft pros[…]

Just keep slurping: HMRC adds two million taxpayers’ voices to biometric database – but people are starting to opt-out, now that they can

Posted on by Robin Edgar

HMRC’s database of Brits’ voiceprints has grown by 2 million since June – but campaign group Big Brother Watch has claimed success as 160,000 people turned the taxman’s requests down. The Voice ID scheme, which requires taxpayers to say a key phrase that is recorded to create a digital signature, was introduced in January 2017. Read more about Just keep slurping: HMRC adds two million taxpayers’ voices to biometric database – but people are starting to opt-out, now that they can[…]

Program allows ordinary digital camera to see round corners

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In a demonstration of “computational periscopy” a US team at Boston University showed they could see details of objects hidden from view by analysing shadows they cast on a nearby wall. Vivek Goyal, an electrical engineer at the university, said that while the work had clear implications for surveillance he hoped it would lead to Read more about Program allows ordinary digital camera to see round corners[…]

We may finally know what causes Alzheimer’s – and how to stop it

Posted on by Robin Edgar

If you bled when you brushed your teeth this morning, you might want to get that seen to. We may finally have found the long-elusive cause of Alzheimer’s disease: Porphyromonas gingivalis, the key bacteria in chronic gum disease. That’s bad, as gum disease affects around a third of all people. But the good news is Read more about We may finally know what causes Alzheimer’s – and how to stop it[…]

How to replicate an $86 million license plate recognition and stolen check project in 57 lines of code

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Victoria Police are the primary law enforcement agency of Victoria, Australia. With over 16,000 vehicles stolen in Victoria this past year — at a cost of about $170 million — the police department is experimenting with a variety of technology-driven solutions to crackdown on car theft. They call this system BlueNet. To help prevent fraudulent sales of stolen Read more about How to replicate an $86 million license plate recognition and stolen check project in 57 lines of code[…]

Tikkie: IBAN-numbers users exposed (Dutch)

Posted on by Robin Edgar

De populaire betaal-app Tikkie biedt de mogelijkheid om geld over te boeken naar andere Tikkie-gebruikers op basis van hun 06-nummer. Daardoor was het mogelijk om de IBAN-nummers van vele nietsvermoedende Tikkie-gebruikers te achterhalen, met het gevaar voor identiteitsfraude en phishing. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van RTL Nieuws. ABN Amro bevestigt de kwetsbaarheid en heeft de Read more about Tikkie: IBAN-numbers users exposed (Dutch)[…]

Smartians – turn old tech things into smart things by pushing, pulling, prodding and turning: looking for funding

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Why replace your things just because they’re not state-of-the-art? Smartians are cloud-connected motors that breathe new life into the things around you. <iframe src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/294150597″ width=”640″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe> Very clever, I hope they get funded!   Source: Smartians | FROLIC studio |

Heads up: Debian’s package manager is APT for root-level malware injection… Fix out now to thwart MITM hijacks

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Debian Project has patched a security flaw in its software manager Apt that can be exploited by network snoops to execute commands as root on victims’ boxes as they update or install packages. The Linux distro’s curators have pushed out an fix to address CVE-2019-3462, a vulnerability uncovered and reported by researcher Max Justicz. Read more about Heads up: Debian’s package manager is APT for root-level malware injection… Fix out now to thwart MITM hijacks[…]

Wow, fancy that. Web ad giant Google to block ad-blockers in Chrome. For safety, apparently

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Google engineers have proposed changes to the open-source Chromium browser that will break content-blocking extensions, including various ad blockers. Adblock Plus will most likely not be affected, though similar third-party plugins will, for reasons we will explain. The drafted changes will also limit the capabilities available to extension developers, ostensibly for the sake of speed Read more about Wow, fancy that. Web ad giant Google to block ad-blockers in Chrome. For safety, apparently[…]

Too Good To Go app – anti supermarket food wastage, in 9 EU countries, including NL

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Supermarkets create cheap “magic boxes” with end of life food in them. You can see where to pick them up on the app. Jumbo NL has started a pilot in 13 shops.   Het van oorsprong Deense initiatief Too Good To Go heeft na één jaar in Nederland meer dan 200.000 maaltijden gered van de Read more about Too Good To Go app – anti supermarket food wastage, in 9 EU countries, including NL[…]

Massive Oklahoma Government Data Leak Exposes 7 Years of FBI Investigations – unsecured rsync

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Last December, a whopping 3 terabytes of unprotected data from the Oklahoma Securities Commission was uncovered by Greg Pollock, a researcher with cybersecurity firm UpGuard. It amounted to millions of files, many on sensitive FBI investigations, all of which were left wide open on a server with no password, accessible to anyone with an internet Read more about Massive Oklahoma Government Data Leak Exposes 7 Years of FBI Investigations – unsecured rsync[…]

Let’s Encrypt ends TLS-SNI-01 validation support

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Let’s Encrypt allows subscribers to validate domain control using any one of a few different validation methods. For much of the time Let’s Encrypt has been operating, the options were “DNS-01”, “HTTP-01”, and “TLS-SNI-01”. We recently introduced the “TLS-ALPN-01” method. Today we are announcing that we will end all support for the TLS-SNI-01 validation method Read more about Let’s Encrypt ends TLS-SNI-01 validation support[…]

Famous freak wave recreated in laboratory mirrors Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A team of researchers based at the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh have recreated for the first time the famous Draupner freak wave measured in the North Sea in 1995. The Draupner wave was one of the first confirmed observations of a freak wave in the ocean; it was observed on the 1st of January Read more about Famous freak wave recreated in laboratory mirrors Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’[…]

TAUS – machine matching for better AI translations

Posted on by Robin Edgar

TAUS, the language data network, is an independent and neutral industry organization. We develop communities through a program of events and online user groups and by sharing knowledge, metrics and data that help all stakeholders in the translation industry develop a better service. We provide data services to buyers and providers of language and translation services. Read more about TAUS – machine matching for better AI translations[…]

Online casino group leaks information on 108 million bets, including winner personal details

Posted on by Robin Edgar

An online casino group has leaked information on over 108 million bets, including details about customers’ personal information, deposits, and withdrawals, ZDNet has learned. The data leaked from an ElasticSearch server that was left exposed online without a password, Justin Paine, the security researcher who discovered the server, told ZDNet. ElasticSearch is a portable, high-grade Read more about Online casino group leaks information on 108 million bets, including winner personal details[…]

Google fined $57 million by French data privacy body for hiding terms and forcing users to accept intrusion or lose access

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Google has been hit by a €50 million ($57 million) fine by French data privacy body CNIL (National Data Protection Commission) for failure to comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations. The CNIL said that it was fining Google for “lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent regarding the ads Read more about Google fined $57 million by French data privacy body for hiding terms and forcing users to accept intrusion or lose access[…]

Torrent Paradise Creates Decentralized ‘Pirate Bay’ With IPFS

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The BitTorrent protocol has a decentralized nature but the ecosystem surrounding it has some weak spots. Torrent sites, for example, use centralized search engines which are prone to outages and takedowns. Torrent-Paradise tackles this problem with IPFS, a searchable torrent indexer that’s shared by the people. IPFS, short for InterPlanetary File System, has been around Read more about Torrent Paradise Creates Decentralized ‘Pirate Bay’ With IPFS[…]

Researchers develop smart micro-robots that can adapt to their surroundings

Posted on by Robin Edgar

One day, hospital patients might be able to ingest tiny robots that deliver drugs directly to diseased tissue, thanks to research being carried out at EPFL and ETH Zurich. A group of scientists led by Selman Sakar at EPFL and Bradley Nelson at ETH Zurich drew inspiration from bacteria to design smart, highly flexible biocompatible Read more about Researchers develop smart micro-robots that can adapt to their surroundings[…]