• Risks Digest 31.44 (1/2)

    From RISKS List Owner@21:1/5 to All on Wed Oct 2 16:43:48 2019
    RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Wednesday 2 October 2019 Volume 31 : Issue 44

    ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks) Peter G. Neumann, moderator, chmn ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy

    ***** 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/31.44>
    The current issue can also be found at
    <http://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt>

    Contents:
    Secret FBI subpoenas scoop up personal data from scores of companies (NYT) Putin Begins Installing Equipment To Cut Russia's Access To World Wide Web
    (Zak Doffman)
    Lawmakers warn about threat of political deepfakes by creating one
    (WashPost)
    How will Self-Driving Cars Impact Cities? (CTA)
    A Nation Divided: U.S. Politics Taking Physical, Emotional Toll On Americans
    (StudyFinds)
    White House mistakenly sends Trump-Ukraine talking points to Democrats
    (WashPost)
    As Made-To-Order DNA Gets Cheaper, Keeping It Out Of The Wrong Hands Gets
    Harder (npr.org)
    Airbus hit by a series of cyber-attacks on its suppliers (PGN)
    Feds say Boeing 737 needs to be better designed for humans (WiReD)
    The Dangers of Delaying FAA Modernization (WiReD)
    The Loophole That Turns Your Apps Into Spies (NYTimes)
    Exim vulnerability "remote code execution seems to be possible" (J Coe)
    Inside the campaign that tried to compromise Tibetans' iOS and Android
    phones (Ars Technica)
    People are hacking their Peloton bikes so they can watch Netflix and cheat
    the leaderboard ranking system (Business Insider)
    Life imitates a bad sitcom? (Ars Technica)
    No big conspiracy. Just map tile boundaries right upon borders
    (Dan Jacobson)
    The Privacy Project (NYTimes)
    Twitter executive with editorial responsibility for the Middle East
    is also British psyops officer (Middle East Eye)
    Heyyo dating app leaked users' personal data, photos, location, more
    (Catalin Cimpanu)
    An 11-year-old drove 200 miles alone to live with a man he met on Snapchat,
    police say (WashPost)
    99% of Misconfigurations in the Public Cloud Go Unreported (Charlie Osborne) Hackers Say They Took Over Vote Scanners Like Those Coming to Georgia
    (Mark Neisse)
    Developer of Checkm8 explains why iDevice jailbreak exploit is a game
    changer (Ars Technica)
    A fitness influencer will serve nearly 5 years in jail ...
    (Business Insider)
    What Is a Blockchain Smartphone and Should You Buy One Now? (Blocks Decoded) The risk? "Security" questions (MadMeSmile)
    Re: Google Chrome update corrupting some macOS installs (Gabe Goldberg) Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------

    Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 01:07:03 -0400
    From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
    Subject: Secret FBI subpoenas scoop up personal data from scores of companies
    (NYTimes)

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/us/data-privacy-fbi.html

    The practice, which the bureau says is vital to counterterrorism
    efforts, casts a much wider net than previously disclosed, newly
    released documents show.

    ------------------------------

    Date: September 26, 2019 0:00:19 JST
    From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@warpspeed.com>
    Subject: Putin Begins Installing Equipment To Cut Russia's Access To
    World Wide Web (Zak Dorfman)

    [Note: This item comes from friend Steve Goldstein. DLH]
    [Via Dave Farber]

    Zak Dorfman, Forbes, 24 Sep 2019 <https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/09/24/russia-begins-installing-equipment-to-cut-its-access-to-world-wide-web/>

    Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Russian
    Internet (RuNet) into law to protect the country's communications infrastructure in case it was disconnected from the world wide web -- or so
    he said. Critics argued it was opening a door to a Chinese-style firewall disconnecting Russia from the outside world.

    Now, Alexander Zharov, the head of the federal communications regulator Roskomnadzor has confirmed to reporters that ``equipment is being installed
    on the networks of major telecom operators,'' and RuNet will begin testing
    by early October. Such testing, reporters were told, is known as `combat
    mode'.

    When the legislation was introduced there was some debate as to whether it would work in practice. The government claimed its objective was to deal
    with "threats to the stable, safe and integral operation of the Russian Internet on Russian territory," by centralizing "the general communications network." This would works by deploying an alternative domain name system
    (DNS) for Russia to steer its web traffic away from international
    servers. ISPs are mandated to comply.

    The Moscow Times reported at the time that "Russia carried out drills in mid-2014 to test the country's response to the possibility of its Internet being disconnected from the web -- the secret tests reportedly showed that isolating the Russian Internet is possible, but that 'everything' would go
    back online within 30 minutes."

    As for this `combat testing', Zharov has assured that everything will be
    done ``carefully'', according to local media reports, explaining that ``we
    will first conduct a technical check -- affects traffic, does not affect traffic, do all services work.'' The plan is for all of this testing to be completed by the end of October.

    Although the regulator has been keen to emphasise that RuNet is only for deployment when the system its perceived to be `in danger', there is a clear question as to where and how such a decision would be taken. Such threats
    have been classified as ``impacts to the integrity of networks, the
    stability of networks, natural or man-made impacts, or security threats,''
    all pretty wide-ranging classifiers.

    Russia's recent moves to shut down cellular data traffic to stymie
    anti-Putin protesters and government warnings that social media access may
    be curtailed have not brought much confidence to its tech savvy citizens.

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 14:23:00 -1000
    From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
    Subject: Lawmakers warn about threat of political deepfakes by creating one
    (WashPost)

    Rep. Michael Waltz wants Navy to beat Army in this year's football game, according to a newly released political deepfake - a video doctored with artificial intelligence. But it the content wasn't true, as Waltz is a
    former Army Green Beret.

    But Waltz teamed up with Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., to craft the mock deepfake
    for the House Science subcommittee to illustrate just how realistic this
    kind of disinformation can be. The SUNY-Albany and University of Chicago researchers took a recorded video statement from Beyer and transposed it
    onto Waltz's image - designed to be a jarring sight for subcommittee chair
    and former Navy pilot Mikie Sherill, D-N.J.

    The resulting video is a warning for lawmakers - and the public - that bad actors could abuse this technology for much more nefarious purposes than
    having a friendly joke about a sports rivalry. Watch it here:

    "You see how dangerous and misleading it could be; I'm sure we fooled a
    couple of people," Beyer said. "For instance, what if instead of 'Go Navy,
    Beat Army,' I said, 'It's time to impeach the president'? That would be
    viral everywhere."...

    https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Lawmakers-warn-about-threat-of-political-14472593.php

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-technology-202/2019/09/27/the-technology-202-lawmakers-warn-about-threat-of-political-deepfakes-by-creating-one/

    ------------------------------

    Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 13:43:20 -0400
    From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
    Subject: How will Self-Driving Cars Impact Cities? (CTA)

    Article: Plenty of options for customization exist on a city-wide level, including mandating that shared-ride service vehicles also be designed with cameras for neighborhood watch duties, he adds.

    Seriously? That's astonishing coming from someone in privacy-aware Europe. Given what Fairfax County has just gone through regarding privacy policies
    and implementation details on drones and body-worn cameras, the idea of *mandating* civilian implementation of massive surveillance is a hoot.

    Article: This could include a city-licensed remote vehicle monitoring center staffed with tele-operators or run by artificial intelligence capable of
    taking over a vehicle if the need arises.

    Seriously? AI or remote driver -- with no situational awareness -- suddenly seizes vehicle control? What could go wrong with that.

    https://www.cta.tech/News/i3/Articles/2019/July-August/How-will-Self-driving-Cars-Impact-Cities.aspx

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 14:24:00 -1000
    From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
    Subject: A Nation Divided: U.S. Politics Taking Physical, Emotional Toll
    On Americans (StudyFinds)

    - Survey reveals about two in five Americans are stressed out by the
    political climate, and one in five say they're even losing sleep.
    - Nearly a third of those surveyed feel views expressed on cable news
    channels are driving them crazy.
    - Study author believes problem is akin to a public health crisis in the
    country.

    The past few years in American politics have been tumultuous, to say the
    least. Personal political beliefs aside, there is no denying that the U.S.
    has grown especially divided in the wake of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential election victory. Between social media bots partisan news coverage <https://www.studyfinds.org/modern-politics-social-media-bots-will-be-harder-to-detect-during-2020-election-study-finds/>,
    <https://www.studyfinds.org/mainstream-media-news-politics/>, and the president's frequent Twitter posts, it has never been harder for the average American to avoid being bombarded with some type of political message on an almost hourly basis.

    It isn't a stretch to assume that at some point all of that polarization <https://www.studyfinds.org/political-divide-america-worst-ever/> would have
    a negative effect on the collective well being of the nation, and a new
    study conducted at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has effectively
    confirmed this assumption. According to researchers, the current U.S.
    political climate is literally making Americans physically sick, damaging friendships, and driving many people crazy.

    In March of 2017 researchers surveyed 800 Americans, selected from a pool of 1.8 million in order to create representative samples of the U.S.
    population. Almost 40% admitted that politics is stressing them out, and
    one in five even said they are losing sleep over U.S. politics. <https://www.studyfinds.org/expert-warns-lack-of-sleep-changes-dna-behavior-weight-gain-high-blood-pressure/>

    ``It became apparent, especially during the 2016 electoral season, that this was a polarized nation, and it was getting even more politically
    polarized,'' comments study leader and political scientist Kevin Smith in a release. ``The cost of that polarization to individuals had not fully been accounted for by social scientists or, indeed, health researchers.'' <https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/stressed-out-americans-making-themselves-sick-over-politics/>

    Smith even described the study's findings as akin to a public health crisis. This study is among the first to comprehensively examine the physical and emotional cost of participating in the current U.S. political system and subsequent discourse. Of course, there have been other studies conducted on U.S. politics, but those focused primarily on economic or monetary costs...

    https://www.studyfinds.org/a-nation-divided-u-s-politics-taking-physical-emotional-toll-on-americans/

    ------------------------------

    Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 23:27:07 -0400
    From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
    Subject: White House mistakenly sends Trump-Ukraine talking points to
    Democrats (WashPost)

    The email outlined the White House's messaging strategy following the
    release of the rough transcript of President Trump's call with his Ukraisnian counterpart. It was quickly recalled, amid ridicule from Democrats.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-mistakenly-sends-trump-ukraine-talking-points-to-democrats/2019/09/25/5170aa52-dfb2-11e9-b199-f638bf2c340f_story.html

    ------------------------------

    Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 09:57:29 +0800
    From: Richard Stein <rmstein@ieee.org>
    Subject: As Made-To-Order DNA Gets Cheaper, Keeping It Out Of The Wrong Hands
    Gets Harder (npr.org)

    https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/09/24/762834987/as-made-to-order-dna-gets-cheaper-keeping-it-out-of-the-wrong-hands-gets-harder

    'The technology needed to "write" DNA is now undergoing a similar transformation. Over the last decade, the cost of synthesizing a pair of
    DNA letters has dropped from about one dollar to less than 10 cents.

    '"We can actually finally afford to write this code, and we can write much
    more of it," says Boyle. "We're coming up with thousands of new designs on a computer, printing out the DNA for them, booting up that DNA, seeing what it does and then iterating on those designs."'

    Risk: Biotoxic, viral defect escape.

    ------------------------------

    Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 0:48:04 PDT
    From: "Peter G. Neumann" <neumann@csl.sri.com>
    Subject: Airbus hit by a series of cyber-attacks on its suppliers

    Hackers searching for technical secrets, security sources say.
    China link suspected. https://t.co/8LFEokucaV
    (Twitter via IFTTT <action@ifttt.com>)

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2019 11:37:35 -0400
    From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
    Subject: Feds say Boeing 737 needs to be better designed for humans
    (WiReD)

    https://www.wired.com/story/feds-boeing-737s-better-designed-humans/

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2019 23:16:43 -0400
    From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
    Subject: The Dangers of Delaying FAA Modernization (WiReD)

    Opinion: Grounded by mid-20th-century technology, air traffic controllers cannot handle the ongoing demands of commercial airlines and drones.

    https://www.wired.com/story/the-dangers-of-delaying-faa-modernization/

    ------------------------------

    Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 00:20:37 -0400
    From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
    Subject: The Loophole That Turns Your Apps Into Spies (NYTimes)

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/opinion/facebook-google-apps-data.html

    ------------------------------

    Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2019 07:02:00 +0100
    From: J Coe <spendday@gmail.com>
    Subject: Exim vulnerability "remote code execution seems to be possible"

    A new Exim patch has been released for a critical vulnerability in the
    world's most popular MX server. The second this month.

    https://exim.org/static/doc/security/CVE-2019-16928.txt

    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-exim-vulnerability-exposes-servers-to-dos-attacks-rce-risks/

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2019 12:36:40 -0400
    From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
    Subject: Inside the campaign that tried to compromise Tibetans' iOS and
    Android phones (Ars Technica)

    https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/attackers-used-one-click-exploits-to-target-tibetans-ios-and-android-phones/

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2019 09:31:28 -0400
    From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
    Subject: People are hacking their Peloton bikes so they can
    watch Netflix and cheat the leaderboard ranking system (Business Insider)

    https://www.businessinsider.com/peloton-bike-tablets-rooted-watch-netflix-spotify-hacked-cheat-leaderboards-2019-9

    ------------------------------

    Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 01:23:53 -0400
    From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
    Subject: Life imitates a bad sitcom? (Ars Technica)

    Inmates built computers hidden in ceiling, connected them to prison network

    https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/inmates-built-computers-hidden-in-ceiling-connected-them-to-prison-network/

    Randall Meyer, the Ohio inspector general, said the prison's lax supervision allowed a situation akin to "an episode from Hogan's Heroes."

    ------------------------------

    Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 12:54:20 +0800
    From: Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org>
    Subject: No big conspiracy. Just map tile boundaries right upon borders

    Here on OpenStreetMap,
    "They are blocking my edits to North Korea",
    "They are blocking my edits to South Korea",
    might all in fact be due to a portion of the border lying right along a
    map tile boundary, and different tiles getting refreshed in one's browser
    not at the same time. All quite innocent. Something similar fooled me in https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues/3906 .

    So OK, if there seems to be some unfairness going on, first check if it is happening along a edge of a country, city, building, etc. that runs due north/south/east/west...

    ------------------------------

    Date: Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 6:25 AM
    From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@warpspeed.com>
    Subject: The Privacy Project (NYTimes)

    Companies and governments are gaining new powers to follow people across the Internet and around the world, and even to peer into their genomes. The benefits of such advances have been apparent for years; the costs -- in anonymity, even autonomy --- are now becoming clearer. The boundaries of privacy are in dispute, and its future is in doubt. Citizens, politicians
    and business leaders are asking if societies are making the wisest
    tradeoffs. The Times is embarking on this months long project to explore the technology and where it's taking us, and to convene debate about how it can best help realize human potential.

    By now you probably know that your apps ask for permission to tap into loads
    of data. They request device information, like advertiser IDs, which
    companies use to build marketing profiles. There's data the companies explicitly ask for via a pop-up window, like access to contacts or your
    camera roll. And then there's tracking that is especially invasive, like
    access to your microphone or your phone's gyroscope or location tracking
    data.

    What you probably didn't know is that by downloading those apps and entering into those contracts, you're also exposing your sensitive information to
    dozens of other technology companies, ad networks, data brokers and aggregators. Sometimes the information is shared with global tech giants;
    other times it's with small companies you've never heard of.

    The data is transmitted -- or in some cases leaked -- via software
    development kits (SDKs). They are essentially developer shortcuts, a set of tools or a library of code that developers can import from a third party so that they don't have to build them from scratch.

    Because they're so useful to app developers, SDKs are embedded into
    thousands of apps, ranging from mundane weather services to mobile games and even in some health apps. Facebook, Google and Amazon, for example, have extremely popular SDKs that allow smaller apps to connect to bigger
    companies' ad platforms or help provide web traffic analytics or payment infrastructure. In exchange, the SDK makers receive user data from that
    app. Just how much data is often unclear. And once the companies have it,
    there are no restrictions on what they can do with it. Theoretically, they could turn around and sell that data for profit.

    Last December I reported on how Facebook's SDK was collecting information
    from apps like Tinder and Grindr as well as various pregnancy and religious apps. Among the information sent to Facebook: your device IP address and
    type, the time of use and your advertising ID. While the data is supposedly anonymized, the advertising ID makes it extremely easy for bigger companies like Facebook to identify and link third-party app information to existing Facebook users (if you've logged into Facebook on your phone or downloaded
    the app, Facebook can theoretically match that advertising ID with the ID transmitted through the SDK).

    SDKs become particularly concerning when embedded inside apps that contain sensitive information. This month BuzzFeed News reported that period tracker apps were sending highly personal data to Facebook via SDKs, including when women last had sex. And it's not just Facebook; small tech companies and ad networks with unknown business practices provide SDKs to apps, and hoover up and potentially expose information. In 2018, a researcher for Kaspersky Labs ``found 4 million Android apps were sending unencrypted user profile data,
    such as names, ages, incomes, phone numbers and email addresses -- and, in
    one example, dates of birth, user names and GPS coordinates'' from the app
    to the advertisers' servers.

    To get a sense of how prevalent SDKs are, I used Mighty Signal, a tool that tracks the SDKs embedded inside tens of thousands of apps to search around
    for sensitive categories. I quickly found Period Tracker, an Android app
    with more than 100 million downloads, according to the site. Mighty Signal listed 26 SDKs embedded in the app from Facebook and Google as well as
    smaller tech companies, each one transmitting potentially sensitive information. Feeld, an app that originally started as a way for couples and singles to participate in group hookups, currently has 42 installed SDKs and
    52 previously installed SDKs on its iOS app. While its unclear exactly what information is being shared, each third party that's receiving sensitive information is a potential vulnerability. In the case of some SDKs, which belong to ad networks or smaller analytics firms, the companies may be
    bought or sold, so the data could change hands without its owners knowing.

    Nearly every advertising industry source I've spoken with requested
    anonymity to speak about SDKs, in part because their companies were using
    them in some way to collect data. One described the industry, which isn't meaningfully regulated or monitored, as the Wild West. ``It's s the
    industry standard,'' an online ad industry veteran told me. ``And every app
    is potentially leaking data to five or 10 other apps. Every SDK is taking
    your data and doing something different -- combining it with other data to learn more about you. It's happening even if the company says we don't share data. Because they're not technically sharing it; the SDK is just pulling it out. Nobody has any privacy.''

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/opinion/internet-privacy-project.html

    ------------------------------

    Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2019 05:50:18 +0100
    From: J Coe <spendday@gmail.com>
    Subject: Twitter executive with editorial responsibility for the Middle East
    is also British psyops officer (Middle East Eye)

    The senior Twitter executive with editorial responsibility for the Middle
    East is also a part-time officer in the British Army's psychological
    warfare unit, Middle East Eye has established.

    Gordon MacMillan, who joined the social media company's UK office six years ago, has for several years also served with the 77th Brigade, a unit formed
    in 2015 in order to develop `non-lethal' ways of waging war.

    The 77th Brigade uses social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as podcasts, data analysis and audience research to wage
    what the head of the UK military, General Nick Carter, describes as `information warfare'.

    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/twitter-executive-also-part-time-officer-uk-army-psychological-warfare-unit

    ------------------------------

    Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 09:23:06 -0700
    From: Gene Wirchenko <gene@shaw.ca>
    Subject: Heyyo dating app leaked users' personal data, photos, location, more
    (Catalin Cimpanu)

    Catalin Cimpanu for Zero Day | 25 Sep 2019

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/heyyo-dating-app-leaked-users-personal-data-photos-location-data-more/

    Another dating app fails to secure production server and puts users at risk.

    selected text:

    Online dating app Heyyo has made the same mistake that thousands of
    companies have made before it -- namely, it left a server exposed on the Internet without a password.

    This leaky server, an Elasticsearch instance, exposed the personal details, images, location data, phone numbers, and dating preferences for nearly
    72,000 users, believed to be the app's entire userbase.

    During the time we looked at the database, it also became clear that the
    server was a live production system and not an older server used for tests
    or storing backups.

    The number of registered users grew from 71,769 to 71,921 in the time we
    looked at the data. We also registered a test account, and we saw it appear
    on the server within seconds.

    To show how intrusive the leak could be, we performed a simple test. We
    took the details of three random users, and in a few minutes, using Google search queries and simple OSINT (open-source intelligence) scripts
    downloaded from GitHub, we easily tracked down and linked the three users to their real-life identities, LinkedIn profiles, social media accounts, and
    even posts they made on niche Internet forums.

    Since we're talking about a dating website, this type of information could
    be used for stalking or extorting users with information about their dating life and habits. This is not a hypothetical scenario. These types of
    extortion campaigns have happened in the past, especially after the Ashley Madison data breach.

    ------------------------------

    Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 15:10:11 -0400
    From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
    Subject: An 11-year-old drove 200 miles alone to live with a man he met on
    Snapchat, police say (WashPost)

    Police found him lost in Charleston, and he was returned to his family.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/25/an-year-old-drove-miles-alone-live-with-man-he-met-snapchat-police-say/

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 10:04:48 PDT
    From: ACM Tech News
    Subject: 99% of Misconfigurations in the Public Cloud Go Unreported
    (Charlie Osborne)

    Charlie Osborne, ZDNet, 24 Sep 2019, via ACM TechNews, 27 Sep 2019

    The recent growth in the adoption of cloud-based technologies and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) has resulted in loss of information
    caused by misconfigurations and weak credentials in the public cloud
    space. Researchers at McAfee say that only 1% of IaaS misconfigurations are reported, suggesting there are numerous companies around the world
    unwittingly leaking data. The researchers surveyed 1,000 IT professionals
    from 11 countries and aggregated cloud usage data from over 30 million
    McAfee Mvision cloud users. The team found that while companies believe they average 37 IaaS misconfiguration issues per month, in reality the figure is closer to 3,500. The majority (90%) of respondents said they had encountered security issues with IaaS, but only 26% said they were equipped to handle misconfiguration audits. https://orange.hosting.lsoft.com/trk/click?ref=3Dznwrbbrs9_6-21b8cx21df34x070237&

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 10:04:48 PDT
    From: ACM Tech News
    Subject: Hackers Say They Took Over Vote Scanners Like Those Coming to Georgia

    Mark Neisse, *Atlanta Journal-Constitution*, 26 Sep 2019 via ACM Tech News

    A report from the DEF CON Voting Machine Hacking Village conference
    described the discovery of a hack for commandeering ballot-scanning machines similar to those soon to be deployed in Georgia. Hackers at the conference seeking weaknesses in voting technology broke into the scanner with a screwdriver and replaced a memory card, allowing them to run their own operating system. Jeremy Epstein, vice chair of ACM's U.S. Technology Policy Committee and an election and cybersecurity expert, said the conference
    report emphasizes the need for both strong paper-ballot audits, and physical security of voting equipment. Said Epstein, "The good thing about the paper ballots, unlike the touchscreen machines historically used in Georgia, is in the worst case the paper ballots are in a box" that can be used to verify
    votes are tabulated accurately. https://orange.hosting.lsoft.com/trk/click?ref=3Dznwrbbrs9_6-21b8cx21df38x070237&

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2019 08:38:10 -0400
    From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
    Subject: Developer of Checkm8 explains why iDevice jailbreak exploit is a
    game changer (Ars Technica)

    https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/developer-of-checkm8-explains-why-idevice-jailbreak-exploit-is-a-game-changer/

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2019 09:44:22 -0400
    From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
    Subject: A fitness influencer will serve nearly 5 years in jail ...

    for using 369 Instagram accounts to harass bodybuilding colleagues and
    allegedly faking her daughter's kidnapping.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/fitness-influencer-tammy-steffen-jailed-instagram-fake-kidnapping-florida-2019-9

    ------------------------------

    Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2019 00:40:01 -0400
    From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
    Subject: What Is a Blockchain Smartphone and Should You Buy One Now?
    (Blocks Decoded)

    What is a blockchain smartphone? Should you buy one now?

    You're in the market for a new smartphone. There are all the usual suspects; Huawei, Samsung, Apple, and so on. But a new trend caught your eye: the blockchain smartphone.

    What is a blockchain smartphone? Should you bother buying one? And how do
    they compare to a regular smartphone?

    Here's what you need to know about blockchain smartphones.

    https://blocksdecoded.com/what-is-blockchain-smartphone-should-you-buy-one/

    ------------------------------

    Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2019 16:41:10 -0400
    From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
    Subject: The risk? "Security" questions (MadMeSmile)

    My 14-year-old is finally taking an interest in me. [...] https://i.redd.it/drudi6wikgo31.jpg

    ------------------------------

    Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 20:08:23 -0400
    From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
    Subject: Re: Google Chrome update corrupting some macOS installs (R 31 43)

    Google has confirmed the existence of an issue in a Chrome update that has reportedly affected movie studios that use the Avid video editing suite on
    the cylindrical Mac Pro, with the company offering a solution to the issue
    it claims will recover affected machines.

    https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/09/25/google-chrome-update-corrupting-some-macos-installs----but-theres-a-fix

    ------------------------------

    Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2019 11:11:11 -0800
    From: RISKS-request@csl.sri.com
    Subject: Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

    The ACM RISKS Forum is a MODERATED digest. Its Usenet manifestation is
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