Technology in the News

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Japan Sees a Spike in Smart TVs Held Hostage

infosecurity-magazine.com

by Tara Seals

February 15, 2017

Typically, the affected TVs will be locked, and a ransom message pops up asking for 10,000 yen (around $100) to be paid within 72 hours.

Japan alone has reported more than 300 ransomware attacks on smart TVs this year, marking a sharp increase in cyberattacks targeting internet of things (IoT) appliances, according to Trend Micro. Typically, the affected TVs will be locked, and a ransom message pops up asking for 10,000 yen (around $100) to be paid within 72 hours.

Researchers figure out how to silently hack Siri and Google voice search

extremetech.com

by Ryan Whitwam

February 15, 2017

Most smartphones can respond to your voice commands, but they might also respond to someone else's. Researchers from France's ANSSI information security agency has found a way to make Apple's Siri and Google voice search respond to commands.

With the voice commands listening, the radio waves can continue feeding signals into the mic that look to the phone like voice input. The researchers were able to use their system - based on an inexpensive open-source software GNU Radio, a USRP software-defined radio, an amplifier, and an antenna - to issue commands that sent the phone's browser to a specific website or placed a call.

Hacked Cameras, DVRs Powered Today's Massive Internet Outage — Krebs on Security

krebsonsecurity.com

October 24, 2016

A massive and sustained Internet attack that has caused outages and network congestion today for a large number of Web sites was launched with the help of hacked "Internet of Things" (IoT) devices, such as CCTV video cameras and digital video recorders.

Earlier today cyber criminals began training their attack cannons on Dyn , an Internet infrastructure company that provides critical technology services to some of the Internet's top destinations. The attack began creating problems for Internet users reaching an array of sites, including Twitter, Amazon, Tumblr, Reddit, Spotify and Netflix. A depiction of the outages caused by today's attacks on Dyn, an Internet infrastructure company.

Why we're afraid to leave our children alone

chicagotribune.com

by Virginia Postrel

September 18, 2016

Parents don't not leave their kids alone because they fear something might happen to them. They fear the moral disapproval. Only in the past decade or so has "no child left alone" become the social and legal norm in the U.S.

News reports and crime shows feed exaggerated fears. But Thomas and her co-authors note that legal norms needn't follow inaccurate beliefs about risks. "The fact that many people irrationally fear air travel does not result in air travel being criminalized," they write. "Parents are not arrested for bringing their children with them on airplanes. In contrast, parents are arrested and prosecuted for allowing their children to wait in cars, play in parks, or walk through their neighborhoods without an adult."

EU & US consumers want regulation and labeling on GMO products

newsghana.com.gh

September 9, 2016

The Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD)[1], a network of 77 EU and U.S. consumer organisations, today published a new resolution on consumer concerns about new genetic engineering techniques.

Consumers have right to know when new genetic engineering techniques are used, including in their food, but companies are lobbying to exempt such products from regulation. A number of new genetic engineering techniques have been developed which were not in use when current laws on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were drafted.

Attention, College Students: Chromebooks Are About to Get Awesome

Wired.com

by David Pierce

August 19, 2016

HERE'S SOME UNHELPFUL back-to-school advice: Don't buy a laptop. Borrow one, steal one from a family member, buy a piece of junk for 40 bucks on Craigslist. If you can find a way to wait a couple of months before dropping serious coin on a new clamshell.

Later this fall, Apple's almost certainly going to release a new MacBook Pro, which is desperately in need of a revamp. And there will be Windows PCs practically falling from the ceiling-maybe even a few made by Microsoft itself. But the real reason to hold off on your purchase is to wait for the new breed of Chromebooks that are on their way.

Why more black parents are home-schooling their kids

csmonitor.com

by Patrik Jonsson and Josh Kenworthy

August 16, 2016

While some parents cite religious and moral reasons, others say they are keeping their kids out of public schools to protect them from school-related racism.

Despite the promises of the civil rights movement, "people are starting to realize that public education in America was designed for the masses of poor, and its intent has been to trap poor people into being workers and servants. If you don't want that for your children, then you look for something else," she says. To her, the biggest flaw in public education is a lack of character education, an "absence of a moral binding," that contributes to low expectations - and lower outcomes for children of color.

The Open Source School Redefines Education in Italy

resilience.org

by Alessia Clusini -- Translation by Nicole Stojanovska.

August 12, 2016

Threading elements of the great educational experiments of Bauhaus and Roycroft Community models together with Pierre Levy's modern definition of "collective intelligence," La Scuola Open Source (The Open Source School) embodies the principles...

In the early part of the last century, as a result of the social and economic changes produced by the industrial revolution, an architect named Walter Gropius conceived a school in Germany aimed at creating new professionals to provide an answer to the demand of innovation generated by the changes in time. That school was Bauhaus - a place that would become a legend. It was born from the union of an art academy, a technical college and a faculty of architecture. Within a few years, combining skills and working on real projects with the help of many internationally renowned experts, a pedagogical experiment of historic proportions was born.

Russia's Yarovaya Law -- Imposes Harsh New Restrictions On Religious Groups

rferl.org

by Mike Eckel

July 15, 2016

The legislation is ostensibly aimed at tightening measures in the fight against terrorism. One largely overlooked aspect of the law is garnering new scrutiny and worry -- tight restrictions on the activities of religious groups.

Known as the "Yarovaya Law," the measure includes new police and counterterrorism measures that directly echo the sweeping powers wielded by the KGB to stifle dissent and repress opposition activists throughout the Soviet era. But one largely overlooked aspect of the law is garnering new scrutiny and worry: tight restrictions on the activities of religious groups, particularly smaller denominations.

The Supreme Court Just Created a Full-Blown Police State

armstrongeconomics.com

by Martin Armstrong

June 27, 2016

The Supreme Court ruling in Utah v Strieff awarded the police total freedom to stop any citizen, at any time, to do whatever they desire.

The Supreme Court determined that the "poisonous fruit" of a police officer's stop of a citizen can be used against them at trial. This has wiped out, in reality, any constitutional protection you thought you had. This is a sad day for the United States, for the Supreme Court has officially created a full-blown police state and clearly has no intention of honoring why this nation began the entire American Revolution - to prevent illegal searches that allowed the king to look for anything he could use to prosecute citizens.

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