ByteDance owns more than a dozen apps, including popular short video platform TikTok. Hong Kong (CNN Business) TikTok owner ByteDance wants more than just your viral short videos — it wants to help make the devices you watch them on. The Chinese tech firm said it is developing a smartphone after striking a deal with electronics company Smartisan. ByteDance isn’t trying to be the next big smartphone maker. A company spokeswoman said in a statement that the new device will be “a continuation of plans that were in place” before it began working with Smartisan. “The focus is on […] […]
Tag: data
Worried about the Capital One hack? Here’s what to do
Hong Kong (CNN Business)Millions of Capital One customers have been affected by a data breach that the bank says happened in March when a software engineer allegedly exploited a vulnerability to access its systems. Approximately 100 million people in the United States and 6 million more in Canada are affected, the company said, with about 140,000 Social Security numbers, 1 million Canadian Social Insurance numbers and 80,000 bank account numbers compromised. First off, “get ready to spend some time and energy,” to make sure everything’s in order, said Erica Sandberg, a consumer finance expert based in San Francisco. The […] […]
Capital One hack exposed thousands of Social Security numbers. Why are we still using them as ID?
Bad actors can use Social Security numbers to steal your identity, open bank accounts, apply for a loan or receive medical care under your name. Many of the biggest hacks in recent years, including those targeting Equifax , insurance company Anthem and the US Postal Service , have left Social Security numbers exposed. Because these numbers are so closely tied to our identities, it raises the question: Why are we still using Social Security numbers as ID? In 1936, the Social Security number was introduced to track a worker’s earnings history for benefits, according to the Social Security Administration. […] […]
Critical Flaws Found in VxWorks RTOS That Powers Over 2 Billion Devices
vxworks rtos vulnerability Security researchers have discovered almost a dozen zero-day vulnerabilities in VxWorks, one of the most widely used real-time operating systems (RTOS) for embedded devices that powers over 2 billion devices across aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, automotive, consumer electronics, networking, and other critical industries. According to a new report Armis researchers shared with The Hacker News prior to its release, the vulnerabilities are collectively dubbed as URGENT/11 as they are 11 in total, 6 of which are critical in severity leading to ‘devastating’ cyberattacks. Armis Labs is the same IoT security company that previously discovered the BlueBorne […] […]
Vijf indrukwekkende innovaties in de (online) casino wereld
Binnen twee jaar is het zover: de online kansspelmarkt wordt vrijgegeven en de Nederlandse markt maakt voor het eerst kennis met een groot aantal online casino’s. De continue ontwikkelingen in dit gebied hebben niet alleen een positief effect gehad op de regelgeving maar ook op de technologie achter de (online) casino’s. Gokken en specifiek op spellen als online roulette is populairder dan ooit en hier mag dan ook enige technologische vooruitgang van worden verwacht. Dat zien we online en offline. Grote casino’s met een wereldwijd bereik als Caesars Entertainment en Wynn investeren in een multi-platform technologie. Online spelers zoals […] […]
Geanonimiseerde gegevens blijken toch niet zo anoniem
Onderzoekers van Universiteit Leuven en het Imperial College Londen hebben ontdekt dat het de-anonimiseren van geanonimiseerde datasets makkelijker is dan tot voor kort werd aangenomen . Ze hebben dit aangetoond door middel van een model dat schat hoe makkelijk het is om een dataset te de-anonimiseren. Geanonimiseerde gegevens worden overal voor gebruikt: medisch onderzoek, gepersonaliseerde aanbevelingen en moderne AI-technieken. De veronderstelling is dat alle persoonlijke identificeerbare informatie verwijderd is terwijl een kern van de nuttige informatie voor onderzoekers behouden blijft. Zo heeft een ziekenhuis de mogelijkheid om de namen, adressen en geboortedata van patiënten te verwijderen uit een set […] […]
The US pushes to build unhackable quantum networks
Researchers working on quantum teleportation A few years ago, Edward Snowden, a contractor working for the US National Security Agency, leaked documents that showed the ways in which intelligence agencies were spying on our data. One of the most striking revelations was that spies had tapped into fiber-optic cables to monitor the vast amounts of information flowing through them. Snowden’s revelations have spurred efforts to tap the almost mystical properties of quantum science to make such hacking impossible. Now there are signs of progress. A startup called Quantum Xchange says it has struck a deal giving it access to […] […]
Why Tech Companies Lie
Customers, investors, regulators, and yes, journalists rely on what companies officially tell us about their businesses, their products, and their future prospects. Sure, we all have our own sources and experiences to help us decide if we believe what we’ve been told. But those aren’t always enough to prevent people from planning on or even buying products that never ship, investing in companies that never deliver, or writing glowingly about some new technology that eventually dead-ends or is massively delayed. It’s tempting to lump those misstatements into the broad category of “lies.” From the outside, it’s easy to assume […] […]
A digital revolution is reshaping Democratic campaigns
Two weeks before the 2016 election, Bloomberg’s Joshua Green and Sasha Issenberg published a story about Trump’s brash, self-aggrandizing digital team. Democrats treated the story as evidence of the Trump campaign’s utter cluelessness, until he won. For months after, coverage of the Trump’s tech and digital strategy dominated headlines. Those stories had consequences: Facebook locked down its user data; Cambridge Analytica folded; and a wave of startups, including my own, emerged to help progressives mobilize online. A change is coming to the Democratic Party, and for some campaigns, it’s already here. I’ve seen it firsthand. As part of my […] […]
Ransomware and the enterprise: A new white paper
Throughout 2018 criminals have continued to target large organizations with ransomware. Today we introduce a new white paper that explains why ransomware is still a serious threat to your organization – regardless of size – and what can be done to reduce exposure to, and damage from, ransomware attacks. The paper focuses on three particularly dangerous ransomware attack vectors: remote access, email, and supply chain. The paper is intended to help CEOs, CIOs, CISOs, and enterprise risk managers understand the current state of the ransomware threat as well several evolving areas of concern. The more technical aspects of ransomware […] […]
How to Get iOS 12.1 on Your iPhone
Apple Last month’s iOS 12 update gave us screen time tools , security updates , and a whole heap of new features that make your iPhone feel new again. Now, with iOS 12.1, you get even more ways to express yourself on your iPhone and iPad. With Group FaceTime, you can chat with up to 32 friends and family. You can also spice up your messaging life with 70 new emoji —including a freezing-cold smiley, a mooncake, and a long-awaited redhead . Most importantly, unlike the $1,199 MacBook Air announced today , this sweet software update is totally free. […] […]
IoT: A roomful of conundrums
As the drive to bring any and all imaginable physical objects online continues full steam ahead, internet-enabled devices are increasingly part of our day-to-day routines. In our quest for more productive and enjoyable – or simply easier – lives, we cannot avoid jumping on the Internet-of-Things (IoT) bandwagon. Up to 30 billion devices are predicted to be online by 2020 , according to the Mozilla Foundation. To be sure, IoT is not just about our personal efficiency or enjoyment, and the class of products such as smart watches or smart light bulbs. Spurred by innovations in hardware, networking, cloud […] […]
How Google’s Night Sight Works, and Why It’s So Good
Reading all the gushing praise for Google’s new Night Sight low-light photography feature for Pixel phones, you’d be forgiven for thinking Google had just invented color film. In fact, night shooting modes aren’t new, and many of the underlying technologies go back years. But Google has done an amazing job of combining its prowess in computational imaging with its unparalleled strength in machine learning to push the capability past anything previously seen in a mobile device. We’ll take a look at the history of multi-image capture low-light photography, how it is likely used by Google, and speculate about what […] […]
Google start met bustour in Nederland voor het geven van digitale training
Er zijn inmiddels al meer dan honderdduizend Nederlandse ondernemers en studenten getraind met de Digitale Werkplaats Internet van Google . Dit kan ze helpen bij het vinden van een baan, het kan de inzetbaarheid vergroten op de arbeidsmarkt maar ook een bedrijf laten groeien. Om optimaal deze kansen van het internet te kunnen benutten zijn digitale vaardigheden cruciaal. Daarom heeft Google besloten om vanaf 12 novembermet een bus door heel Nederland te gaan toeren om gratis trainingen en workshops te geven aan ondernemers en studenten. De bus zal in een periode van een jaar iedere provincie aandoen en meer […] […]
Slimme speakers verkopen inmiddels als een malle, vooral in China
De slimme speaker wordt niet alleen steeds populairder, er komen er ook steeds meer van. Dat verklaart waarom het aantal verkochte Google Assistants, Alexa’s en vooral Chinese smart speakers bijna verdubbeld is in het afgelopen jaar. Er zijn inmiddels bijna 17 miljoen slimme speakers verkocht, alleen al in het tweede kwartaal van 2018! Marktonderzoek van Canalys heeft uitgewezen dat er wel een verschuiving gaande is op de markt. Waar eerst de globale slimme speaker-markt werd gedomineerd door Amazon met de Echo’s met een marktaandeel van meer dan 80 procent is het nu Google die voorop loopt. De verkopen van […] […]
Met deze technologieën kun je zien of iemand liegt…
Liegen is een onderwerp waar wetenschappers zich al lange tijd mee bezighouden. We doen het allemaal. Een leugentje om bestwil kan je zelfs verder helpen. “Goh, wat heb je leuke schoenen”. Niet gemeend misschien, maar toch handig om een positieve indruk te wekken bij iemand. Bij kinderen is liegen zelfs gezond. Gezond? Ja, omdat dit aangeeft dat ze zich kunnen verplaatsen in wat een ander denkt. Dit heet Theory of Mind. Autistische kinderen vinden het bijvoorbeeld soms moeilijker om te liegen. Onderzoekers willen graag uitpluizen hoe en waarom mensen liegen. Deze kennis kan uiteindelijk nuttig zijn voor politie-onderzoek. In […] […]
Stanford Researchers Build AI Directly Into Camera Optics
Until recently, cameras were exclusively designed to create images for humans — for fun, for art, and for documenting history. With the rapid growth of robots as well as various other kinds of machines and vehicles that need to observe and learn from their environment, many cameras are dedicated to machine vision tasks. Some of the most visible of those, like autonomous vehicles , rely heavily on object recognition, which almost universally means neural networks trained on commonly found objects. One limitation on the deployment of machine vision in many embedded systems, including electric vehicles, is the necessary compute […] […]
Some of the Oldest Galaxies in the Universe Orbit the Milky Way
When the universe was young, there were no stars, galaxies , or even atoms. As space expanded, hydrogen atoms formed and coalesced into stars. Eventually, the first galaxies emerged, and some of those galaxies may still exist. New data from researchers at Durham University in the UK and Harvard in the US suggests several of those ancient galaxies could be in our own backyard . This discovery also lends credence to a leading model of the early universe. Our current understanding holds that the early universe was not even transparent to radiation. It took thousands of years for that […] […]
Before Using Birth Control Apps, Consider Your Privacy
Hotlittlepotato Score one for the quantified self-surveillance movement. Last week, the US Food and Drug Agency approved the first-ever, over-the-counter digital contraceptive—a polished and almost preternaturally upbeat mobile app called Natural Cycles . Basal body temperature readings and monthly menstruation data feed into an algorithm that tells users whether or not they should be having unprotected sex. Like most forms of birth control, it’s not foolproof ; the app has been dogged by reports of unwanted pregnancies that prompted two ongoing investigations by European authorities into its Swedish maker’s marketing claims. But that hasn’t hurt Natural Cycles’ popularity. The […] […]
This Browser Extension Is Like an Anti-Virus for Fake Photos
Casey Chin and HOTLITTLEPOTATO When Michael Bennett played for the Seattle Seahawks, he celebrated wins with a victory dance in the team locker room. He did not celebrate them by burning the American flag, contrary to a viral Photoshopped picture that began making the rounds online in September of 2017. If you’d read the fact-checks on sites like Snopes.com , Time , and yep, even WIRED , you would have known that the photo of Bennett burning a flag, his teammates and coach looking on joyfully, was fake. But if you happened to encounter the fake photo on Facebook, […] […]