Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for December 28, 2019
The rising trend of smart/listening devices in college dorms; Three open source projects from IBM that their CTO says can change the world; A Chinese hacker group found a way past Two-factor authentication; Trump considering expansion of open access requirements for federally funded research; and a Steem post with an embedded video of Andrew Yang discussing blockchain and cryptocurrency
Straight from my RSS feed | Whatever gets my attention |
Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.
- Should colleges really be putting smart speakers in dorms? - College enrollment has reversed its long-rising trend, and is now declining. At the same time, many students are now taking 5 or 6 years to complete undergraduate degrees, causing a credibility crisis. As a result of the pressure caused by these trends, college administrators are looking to attract enrollment and improve results through the use of smart-devices in dorm rooms that have custom configurations to meet many of the students' needs like on-campus directions, financial information, and academic grades. However, a number of professors object that the long-term effects of putting a listening device into such a sensitive area are unknown, and recorded conversations could impede a student's future job prospects, lead to deportation of foreign students, or cause imprisonment for political views. UCLA's Sarah Roberts is quoted as saying, "“A student’s time at a college or university is used to explore ideas and try on new identities, whether that’s political beliefs or gender and sexuality,” and, “The knowledge that they are being recorded as they do so will undoubtedly prevent students from feeling like they can speak their minds.” She also argues that many students come from countries where it can be unsafe to have one's political beliefs known, and that colleges who enter into agreements with device manufacturers for this purpose are potentially putting their students at risk.
- An IBM CTO tells us about three open source projects with the power to change the world - (i) Quantum computing; (ii) Blockchain/hyperledger; and (iii) Artificial intelligence/machine learning. For quantum computing, IBM is currently working on Qiskit, which is an open source framework for writing apps on IBM's quantum computing platforms. Hyperledger, IBM's blockchain product, was open sourced by the firm in 2016. For machine learning and artificial intelligence, the company has the open source Model Asset eXchange, which is a tool that's intended for programmers to train AI systems, offering a suite of templates and a collaboration capability.
- Chinese hacker group caught bypassing 2FA - According to Dutch cyber-security firm, Fox-IT, the Apt20 hacking group is linked to the Chinese government, and has been bypassing Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) in a recent wave of attacks against governments and private-sector managed service providers (MSPs) in sectors ranging from aviation and healtcare to finance and energy. In general terms, 2FA means that to authorize, a user must provide 2 factors of three: something they know, something they have, and something they are (biometrics). In this case, the term is referring specifically to the use of one-time passwords in addition to the user's own PIN for authentication. According to these security researchers, the hackers would use public web servers as a point of entry into an enterprise's infrastrucutre, often focusing on JBoss servers. Once the perimeter servers are compromised, the hacking team installs web shells, and then spreads throughout the enterprise. Once there, the hacker team would dump user credentials, especially focusing on admin and root credentials. Additionally, although Fox-IT is not sure how it was accomplished, they also found evidence that the hackers have been making use of 2FA access to the compromised networks. The security team also noted that despite vigorous activity for the past couple of years, the hacking activities have mostly stayed under the radar. h/t Bruce Schneier
- Trump could mandate free access to federally funded research papers - Rumors that the Trump administration is working on a more robust open access policy for federally funded research have caught the attention of the publishing industry. Publishers warn that if they're prevented from charging fees for readers, they'll need to pass the costs along to authors and/or taxpayers. A letter in opposition to expanding open access mandates was signed by over 100 organizations, including commercial publishers like Wiley and Elsevier, and also professional groups including (I am disappointed to see) The Associaton for Computing Machinery. Sounds to me like a possible opportunity for Steem's own SteemStem to expand its presence in the publication of primary research.
- STEEM Andrew Yang talking cryptocurrencies - According to this post by @acidyo, the embedded video includes discussion of "how cryptocurrency and blockchain tech could play an important role in his vision for the future of the American Economy". In the video, Yang says he is a "serial entrepreneur", that the main premise of his campaign is that we are going through the greatest economic and technological shift in human history, and that his platform is built on three pillars: (i) The freedom dividend; (ii) Health care should not be tied to employment; and (iii) Instead of GDP, new metrics are needed for goals, a concept that he calls "human-centered capitalism". He sees cryptocurrency fitting into the first and third pillars. He also promotes a concept that he calls "digital social credits", where people can be rewarded in cryptocurrency for contributions to the community. His campaign takes contributions in bitcoin, ether, or other major cryptocurrencies. He also says that he's ok with the current "wait and see approach" to cryptocurrency regulation, and he thinks the government should be looking at blockchain as a way to improve its own effectiveness, and he hopes to influence the Democratic party to take a more aggressive approach towards cryptocurrency and other technologies of the future. Yang says he is also an adviser for the Manna cryptocurrency, which aims to build a global Universal Basic Income without any government intervention.
Here is the video, but click through and give @acidyo an upvote.:
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