computers

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12 September, 2017
Equifax CEO Richard Smith Apologizes for the 'Most Humbling Moment in Our 118-Year History'
Equifax CEO Richard Smith has apologized for the massive cybersecurity breach at the company, which he described as "the most humbling moment in our 118-year history" and resolved to "make changes" to ensure nothing similar happens again.

28 September, 2017
Equifax Promises A New Lifetime Service, As New Leader Offers An Apology
Equifax is promising consumers new control over access to their personal credit data — for free, and for life — as interim CEO Paulino do Rego Barros Jr. apologized to people affected by the company's recent data breach. He said the company had failed to live up to expectations.

"On behalf of Equifax, I want to express my sincere and total apology," Barros wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.

In the piece published behind the Journal's online paywall, but that doesn't seem to have been reproduced on Equifax's own site, Barros also unveiled plans for a new credit-monitoring tool:

"By Jan. 31, Equifax will offer a new service allowing all consumers the option of controlling access to their personal credit data. The service we are developing will let consumers easily lock and unlock access to their Equifax credit files. You will be able to do this at will. It will be reliable, safe and simple. Most significantly, the service will be offered free, for life."  read more »

Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook in 2004. Now, just 17 years later, this 32-year-old billionaire is ready to give it all up (Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook in 2004, barely 20 years old.)? Why? According to those closest to the developer, Zuckerberg is disgusted with the way the public has used and abused the platform.

(ET, Tuesday, March 14, 2017) And when it comes to using the platform he created to bully or disparage others, Zuckerberg is completely disgusted. "He hates the way some users utilize the platform to bring others down or even to circulate false accounts of events or history."

Someone who DID quit Facebook: "Why I'm quitting Facebook, By Douglas Rushkoff, CNN"

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Photo courtesy Entertainment Today

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Jan. 27, 2017
Robot beats 'I am not a robot' Captcha test A mechanical robotic arm managed to circumvent a computer password system meant to deter "robots." YouTube user Matt Unsworth shared video of the robot, outfitted with a pair of googly eyes, as it used a stylus pen to check an "I am not a robot" Captcha security box.

The tounge-in-cheek video pokes fun at the language used by the security verification system intended to prevent spam or computer automated extraction of data from websites.

The robotic arm slides the stylus up the computer mouse pad before just barely managing to click inside the on-screen check box which proceeded to swirl into a green check mark.

Proud of its success, the robotic arm turns toward the camera and drops the stylus as an animated pair of glasses fall upon its "eyes" alongside the phrase "Deal with it."

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Photo courtesy Matt Unsworth / YouTube

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Jan. 01, 2014
PALM BEACH, Fla. President-elect Donald Trump says that "no computer is safe" when it comes to keeping information private, expressing new skepticism about the security of online communications his administration is likely to use for everything from day-to-day planning to international relations.

Trump rarely uses email or computers, despite his frequent tweeting.

"You know, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old-fashioned way. Because I'll tell you what: No computer is safe," Trump told reporters during his annual New Year's Eve bash. "I don't care what they say."

Today's self-driving cars rely on spinning sensors called lidar that can cost more than $10,000 each. But it took Jonathan Petit just $43 and a laser pointer to confuse and defeat them.

"Anybody can go online and get access to this, buy it really quickly, and just assemble it, and there you go, you have a device that can spoof lidar," Petit, a cybersecurity expert, told Business Insider.

One of the first researchers to show how easy it is to hack self-driving cars' sensors, he was able to trick a sensor into thinking objects were there when they weren't, and vice versa.  read more »

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Dec 28, 2016
open a bank account in just 8 minutes? you can lose it even faster - smartphone-only bank N26 German fintech company N26, which made its name mocking traditional banks, has found itself on the receiving end of criticism after a security researcher proved its smartphone apps exposed users to potential account hijacking.

N26, previously known as Number26, has expanded rapidly since it launched in early 2015 as a smartphone-only bank with no local branches, with the backing of major global investors including Silicon Valley's Peter Thiel.

Vincent Haupert, a research fellow and PhD student in the computer science department of the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg, told the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg how he and two colleagues found N26 security defenses riddled with holes that could have been used to defraud thousands of users.

"They say you can open a bank account in just eight minutes," Haupert said. "As it turns out, you can lose it even faster." In a statement, N26 thanked Haupert for alerting the company to "a theoretical security vulnerability" and advising it on fixes, which N26 said it completed this month.

N26 offers a range of online banking and other financial services to 200,000 customers in 17 European countries through a banking license granted earlier this year by German financial regulator Bafin. N26 executives have been the most outspoken among new fintech players in arguing traditional banks are failing to serve customers more directly by relying on antiquated local branch relationships instead of modern, phone-based services.

"I don't see banks at all as my competitors. They just can't move fast enough," N26 Chief Executive Valentin Stalf told Reuters last year.  read more »

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Dec 14, 2016
Yahoo announced Wednesday that hackers stole data from more than one billion customer accounts.

Nov 24, 2016
Personal data belonging to 134,386 current and former sailors in the U.S. Navy has been compromised, the Navy said on Wednesday.

It wasn't immediately clear when the hack took place, but the Navy is pointing the finger at a compromised laptop belonging to a contractor as the source of the data breach.

In a statement, the Navy said it was notified by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services that a laptop belonging to one of its employees was compromised. That employee, the Navy said, was working in support of a Navy contract.

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Photo courtesy REUTERS / Denis Balibouse/File photo

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...the computers that will tally the final vote, saying the outcome is so easy to manipulate that even a monkey could do it.

And they showed video of a monkey hacking the system to prove it.

In the minute-long video produced by Black Box Voting, Baxter the chimp is shown deleting the audit log that is supposed to keep track of changes in the Diebold central tabulator, the computer and program that keeps track of county vote totals.

On October 20, 2016, Otto and Budweiser completed the world’s first shipment by self-driving truck.
The truck drove itself on I-25 from Fort Collins, through Denver, to Colorado Springs.
The driver was out of the driver's seat during the entire 120 mile stretch of highway.

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Image courtesy Voting Machines and lybio.net