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Today — 18 May 2024Main stream

Shaun Dooley and his son, Jack, look back: ‘He put a lot of effort into being a good dad. He still feels bad about being away on my third birthday’

18 May 2024 at 07:00

The actor and his son on fun memories, toxic masculinity and Saltburn spoilers

Born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, in 1974, Shaun Dooley’s acting career began on soap operas such as Coronation Street and EastEnders. Now a leading actor on film and TV, Shaun has mastered the art of complex characters and had roles in Broadchurch, Doctor Who, It’s a Sin, Black Mirror and as Michael Rudkin in Mr Bates vs the Post Office. He is married with three daughters and a son, Jack, 19, who is a camera trainee and a student at Manchester University. Shaun performs in Jez Butterworth’s The Hills of California at the Harold Pinter theatre until 15 June.

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© Photograph: Pål Hansen/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Pål Hansen/The Guardian

The inside scoop: a giant serving of the UK’s best summer arts and entertainment

18 May 2024 at 06:55

From female art trailblazers to playful performance fests, a ridiculous funk wannabe to a clubby Argentinian dance spectacular, our critics pick the arts events that will light up your summer

National Treasures
Twelve museums across the UK, closing dates vary
Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire visits Tyneside, Artemisia Gentileschi shows at the Ikon in Birmingham and Caravaggio goes to Belfast in this epic tour of paintings from the National Gallery. The revered London museum has collected art for the nation since 1824 and this celebration sees its masterpieces more widely spread than ever. Jonathan Jones

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© Illustration: Thomas Burden/The Guardian

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© Illustration: Thomas Burden/The Guardian

The Surfer review – beach bum Nic Cage surfs a high tide of toxic masculinity

17 May 2024 at 20:00

An office drone must suffer the machismo of an Australian coastal town in this barmy, low-budget thriller about a would-be wave-chaser

Here is a gloriously demented B-movie thriller about a middle-aged man who wants to ride a big wave and the grinning local bullies who regard the beach as home soil. “Don’t live here, don’t surf here,” they shout at any luckless tourist who dares to visit picturesque Lunar Bay on Australia’s south-western coast, where the land is heavy with heat and colour. Tempers are fraying; it’s a hundred degrees in the shade. The picture crash-lands at the Cannes film festival like a wild-eyed, brawling drunk.

The middle-aged man is unnamed, so let’s call him Nic Cage. Lorcan Finnegan’s film, after all, is as much about Cage – his image, his career history, his acting pyrotechnics – as it is about surfing or the illusory concept of home. The Surfer sets the star up as a man on the edge – a sad-sack office drone who desperately wants to belong – and then shoves him unceremoniously clear over the cliff-edge. Before long, our hero is living out of his car in the parking lot near the dunes, drinking from puddles, foraging for food from bins, and scheming all the while to make his way down to the shore.

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© Photograph: Tea Shop Productions - Lovely Productions

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© Photograph: Tea Shop Productions - Lovely Productions

Yesterday — 17 May 2024Main stream

WD Rolls Out New 2.5-Inch HDDs For the First Time In 7 Years

By: BeauHD
17 May 2024 at 19:20
Western Digital has unveiled new 6TB external hard drives -- "the first new capacity point for this hard drive drive form factor in about seven years," reports Tom's Hardware. "There is a catch, though: the HDD is slow and will unlikely fit into any mobile PCs, so it looks like it will exclusively serve portable and specialized storage products." From the report: Western Digital's 6TB 2.5-inch HDD is currently used for the latest versions of the company's My Passport, Black P10, and G-Drive ArmorATD external storage devices and is not available separately. All of these drives (excluding the already very thick G-Drive ArmorATD) are thicker than their 5 TB predecessors, which may suggest that in a bid to increase the HDD's capacity, the manufacturer simply installed another platter and made the whole drive thicker instead of developing new platters with a higher areal density. While this is a legitimate way to expand the capacity of a hard drive, it is necessary to note that 5TB 2.5-inch HDDs already feature a 15-mm z-height, which is the highest standard z-height for 2.5-inch form-factor storage devices. As a result, these 6TB 2.5-inch drives will unlikely fit into any desktop PC. When it comes to specifications of the latest My Passport, Black P10, and G-Drive ArmorATD external HDDs, Western Digital only discloses that they offer up to 130 MB/s read speed (just like their predecessors), feature a USB 3.2 Gen 1 (up to 5 GT/s) interface using either a modern USB Type-C or Micro USB Type-B connector and do not require an external power adapter.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

From If to Billie Eilish: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment

17 May 2024 at 19:00

John Krasinski and Ryan Reynolds go family-friendly in their new imaginary-friends comedy, while the singer swaps introspection for lust on her long-awaited new album

If
Out now
In what has to be one of the more enviable showbiz lives, John Krasinski has played Jim in The Office, married Emily Blunt, and written and directed acclaimed horror franchise A Quiet Place. Now he turns his hand to family entertainment, writing and directing this part-animated fantasy about imaginary friends made visible with a little help from Ryan Reynolds and Steve Carell.

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© Photograph: Photo Credit: Jonny Cournoyer/Jonny Cournoyer

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© Photograph: Photo Credit: Jonny Cournoyer/Jonny Cournoyer

Restore Damaged Files & Save Your Business for Only $50 – Source: www.techrepublic.com

restore-damaged-files-&-save-your-business-for-only-$50-–-source:-wwwtechrepublic.com

Source: www.techrepublic.com – Author: TechRepublic Academy Published May 17, 2024 We may earn from vendors via affiliate links or sponsorships. This might affect product placement on our site, but not the content of our reviews. See our Terms of Use for details. Regardless of how badly your files, or their formats, are damaged, EaseUS Fixo […]

La entrada Restore Damaged Files & Save Your Business for Only $50 – Source: www.techrepublic.com se publicó primero en CISO2CISO.COM & CYBER SECURITY GROUP.

Bangers and ballet: London’s Ministry of Sound embraces contemporary dance

17 May 2024 at 10:27

Big-name ballet dancers and rising choreographers have found a new home in the superclub where the after-party goes on until 5am

“It’s the easiest rider we’ve ever done,” says the Ministry of Sound’s Mahit Anam. “Normally it’s five bottles of Patrón, four bottles of vodka … ” And this time? Water, bananas and protein bars. It’s not your usual green room at the south London superclub, because this is not your usual show: the dancefloor is about to be taken over by professionals. Ballet Nights – a monthly production usually held in a Canary Wharf theatre and featuring the country’s top ballet stars and rising choreographers – is moving into clubland. So now amid the speaker stacks and DJ decks you’ll see Royal Ballet dancer Joshua Junker and work from Olivier award-winning choreographer James Cousins. It’s a whole different kind of podium dancing.

“Everything’s got too formulaic, too samey, and that’s why we want to do this stuff,” says Anam. “Pushing boundaries is something we should always be doing.” Ballet Nights was hatched by former Scottish Ballet soloist and choreographer Jamiel Devernay-Laurence in 2023. The idea was to give audiences an up-close view of big-name ballet dancers like Steven McRae and Matthew Ball as well as nurturing a stable of young artists. But he was itching to expand, and eager to attract younger audiences, people who are the same age as the dancers who perform. Devernay-Laurence had met with all sorts of venues – theatres, concert halls – and it was always a “let’s talk again in the future” situation. But when he walked into Ministry of Sound: “They had open arms, they were so excited. We walked out the same day with an agreement and a date.”

Ballet Nights is at Ministry of Sound, London, on 31 May

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© Photograph: Viktor Erik Emanuel

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© Photograph: Viktor Erik Emanuel

I’m happily remarried, but am haunted by my ex’s long-ago betrayal | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

17 May 2024 at 09:30

Your first husband robbed you of a lot, and you have some mourning to do. But there seems to be a part of you that thinks you don’t deserve happiness

Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a family-related problem sent in by a reader

I met my ex in our last year of high school. After a year of university we married when we were only 18. The first 10 years were rocky, with many family crises that put stress on our relationship, and at one point I left my husband. We reunited within a few months and changed our attitudes and goals. From then on I vowed to accept and find the good. We were married for 25 years, through his many infidelities and my anxieties. We didn’t have any children because he didn’t want to be a father. Finally, there was a mistress he wouldn’t set aside, and after three years I gave him an ultimatum, as gently as I could. He chose her, and divorced me. Some of the most painful words I have ever heard were: “You are a wonderful wife, beautiful and brilliant, but I don’t want you. And you deserve better than this.”

I remarried 13 years later and for 23 years have been wife to a fine man. But he is emotionally distant, while I am emotionally overflowing. I relive my first husband’s betrayal in my dreams nearly every night. In my nightmares, I am frightened when he appears and feel under his control. I wake up full of fear.

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© Illustration: Alex Mellon/The Guardian

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© Illustration: Alex Mellon/The Guardian

Now, I See review – Black brotherly joy amid gut-wrenching grief

17 May 2024 at 08:43

Theatre Royal Stratford East, London
The second, strikingly physical part of Lanre Malaolu’s trilogy that began with Samskara explores bereavement with lightness as well as anguish

It is hard to define this arresting drama. It is a play that might also be a dance with words or a psychological musical. Whatever it is, movement is key to a show that is remarkable for its emotional punch, gut-wrenching performances and formal invention – even if it is sometimes opaque and leaves loose threads.

Written, choreographed and directed by Lanre Malaolu, it is in the same vein as Ryan Calais Cameron’s For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy, whose first productionwas staged at around the same time that Malaolu created Samskara, also fusing dance with dialogue to explore 21st-century Black masculinity.

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© Photograph: PR

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© Photograph: PR

Digested week: When is the summer of dumpy women who can’t wear skirts? | Lucy Mangan

17 May 2024 at 07:53

I thought this would finally be the year – but no. Oh well, I can’t find my way from my house anyway

Nice weather is here! The sun is out and the papers and the internet are filling with their annual offers of help. This is my year, at last – I can feel it! The Summer Style Dilemmas Solved are finally going to work for me! I peruse them eagerly, as I have done for the last 30 years and more, hope undimmed in my increasingly mottled and scraggy breast. But no – no, my hopes are quickly dashed. One again, this year, it seems that my Summer Style Dilemmas can only be solved by losing half my body weight and/or going back in time and making sure one of my parents mates with a gazelle instead.

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© Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

Experience: my fiance died on our wedding day – and then I discovered his secret life

17 May 2024 at 05:00

It was like I was trapped in a movie – with a hideous plot twist

I met Eric on a dating app in early 2018 when I was living in New York. He was handsome, talkative and interesting. I was falling for him – but there was something he needed to know. In 2015, I’d been in love with a guy called Mike. On my 30th birthday, my parents threw me a party at their house. Everyone was having a great time until I heard my brother scream Mike’s name. As I ran towards the noise, I saw Mike on the ground by my parents’ pool. He’d slipped into the water and wasn’t breathing. I frantically tried to do CPR on him, but he remained unconscious.

At the hospital, I was told that Mike wouldn’t ever wake up. No one knows how he got hurt. He broke some bones in his back, and had a brain injury, but we don’t know how that happened.

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© Photograph: Ben Zucker/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Ben Zucker/The Guardian

Grief, guilt and white working-class ‘fury’: Death of England heads to London’s West End

Trio of plays co-created by Roy Williams explores British identity in the era of Brexit, Covid and Black Lives Matter

The co-creator of the Death of England series of plays has said the decade-long project has endured because, alongside difficult conversations about race and immigration, the plays have a sense of pride in being English.

Three of the plays are to be performed together at Soho Place in London this summer, taking a project that started life as a “microplay”, commissioned by the Guardian in collaboration with the Royal Court, to the West End.

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© Photograph: David M Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images

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© Photograph: David M Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images

Insurer warns owners of ‘Saltburn effect’ from using stately homes for filming

17 May 2024 at 01:00

Owners of historic buildings used in likes of Bridgerton warned of potential damage to possessions and reputations

When the owner of Drayton House in Northamptonshire was approached to allow his 127-room mansion to be the location of a film called Saltburn, it was “100%” the generous fee on offer that swayed his decision, he said, adding: “These houses don’t run on water.”

But there were unintended consequences of Charles Stopford Sackville’s decision after the movie’s release last year. The popularity of Emerald Fennell’s class satire led to a rush of selfie-taking trespassers after TikTok videos giving directions to the estate went viral.

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© Photograph: TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy

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© Photograph: TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy

Before yesterdayMain stream

Nigerian activists condemn mass ‘forced marriages’ of 100 girls and young women

16 May 2024 at 14:44

Petition launched to halt mass ceremony that organisers say is for 100 orphans whose parents were killed by gangs

Human rights activists in Nigeria have launched a petition to stop a plan to push 100 girls and young women into marriage in a mass ceremony, which has caused outrage in the west African country.

The plan, sponsored by Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, the speaker of the national assembly in the largely Muslim north-western state of Niger, were criticised by Nigeria’s women’s affairs minister, Uju Kennedy Ohanenye. She said she would seek a court injunction to stop the ceremony next week and establish if any of the girls were minors.

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© Photograph: Kola Sulaimon/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Kola Sulaimon/AFP/Getty Images

Archie, the Internet’s first search engine, is rescued and running

16 May 2024 at 13:44
Screenshot from The Serial Port's Archie project showing an Archie prompt with orange text on a black screen.

Enlarge (credit: The Serial Port/YouTube)

It's amazing, and a little sad, to think that something created in 1989 that changed how people used and viewed the then-nascent Internet had nearly vanished by 2024.

Nearly, that is, because the dogged researchers and enthusiasts at The Serial Port channel on YouTube have found what is likely the last existing copy of Archie. Archie, first crafted by Alan Emtage while a student at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, allowed for the searching of various "anonymous" FTP servers around what was then a very small web of universities, researchers, and government and military nodes. It was groundbreaking; it was the first echo of the "anything, anywhere" Internet to come. And when The Serial Port went looking, it very much did not exist.

The Serial Port's journey from wondering where the last Archie server was to hosting its own.

While Archie would eventually be supplanted by Gopher, web portals, and search engines, it remains a useful way to index FTP sites and certainly should be preserved. The Serial Port did this, and the road to get there is remarkable and intriguing. You are best off watching the video of their rescue, along with its explanatory preamble. But I present here some notable bits of the tale, perhaps to tempt you into digging further.

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Russia expels British military attache in diplomatic tit for tat

16 May 2024 at 13:05

Adrian Coghill ordered to leave in response to UK expelling Kremlin’s attache to London for alleged spying

Russia is expelling Britain’s defence attache to Moscow in the latest diplomatic tit for tat, after the UK accused it of sponsoring espionage and hacking attacks against top British officials in a years-long campaign of “malign activity”.

The Russian foreign ministry said it had declared the British defence attache, Adrian Coghill, as “persona non grata. He must leave the territory of the Russian Federation within a week.”

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© Photograph: Pavel Golovkin/AP

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© Photograph: Pavel Golovkin/AP

Gudrun Ure obituary

16 May 2024 at 12:58

Actor who found fame late in her career after landing the role of the children’s TV character Super Gran

Gudrun Ure, who has died aged 98, was 59 – and playing older than her years – when she landed the television role that finally made her famous after 40 years as an actor. She starred in the 1980s ITV children’s series Super Gran, as the happy, gentle elderly woman who finds, after a magic-ray machine is fired at her during a stroll in the park, that she has new special powers to help her defend residents of the fictional town of Chiselton from villains.

It is the villain-in-chief, Scunner Campbell (played by Iain Cuthbertson), who accidentally fires the contraption after stealing it from Inventor Black (Bill Shine). This turns Granny Smith into “Super Gran” and, assisted by very basic special effects, Ure was seen jumping high or pole-vaulting through windows (using a trampoline and trick camera angles), flying (with the help of a crane) and riding through the air on a two-wheel, multiwinged Flycycle (in reality an adapted butcher’s boy’s bike). Ure did many of the stunts herself, while some – including Super Gran cartwheeling – were performed by a double.

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© Photograph: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock

Russian Hackers Used Two New Backdoors to Spy on European Foreign Ministry

new backdoors

Researchers recently uncovered two new backdoors implanted within the infrastructure of a European Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and its diplomatic missions. Slovakian cybersecurity firm ESET who found these two new backdoors dubbed “LunarWeb” and “LunarMail,” attributed them to the Turla cyberespionage group believed to be aligned with Russian interests. Turla has operated since at least 2004, possibly starting in the late 1990s. Linked to the Russian FSB, Turla primarily targets high-profile entities like governments and diplomatic organizations in Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. Notably, they have breached significant organizations such as the US Department of Defense in 2008 and the Swiss defense company RUAG in 2014. Researchers believe the Lunar toolset that has been used since at least 2020 is an addition to the arsenal of Russia-aligned cyberespionage group Turla based on the similarities between the tools’ tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and past activities.

LunarWeb Backd: Used to Navigate the Digital Terrain

LunarWeb backdoor stealthily infiltrates servers, establishing its foothold within the targeted infrastructure. Operating covertly, it communicates via HTTP(S) while mirroring legitimate traffic patterns to obfuscate its presence. Concealment is key in LunarWeb's playbook. For this the backdoor used steganography technique. This backdoor covertly embeds commands within innocuous images, effectively evading detection mechanisms. LunarWeb's loader, aptly named LunarLoader, showcases remarkable versatility, the researchers noted. Whether masquerading as trojanized open-source software or operating in standalone form, this entry point demonstrates the adaptability of the adversary's tactics.

LunarMail: Used to Infiltrate Individual Workstations

LunarMail takes a different approach as compared to LunarWeb. It embeds itself within Outlook workstations. Leveraging the familiar environment of email communications, this backdoor carries out its spying activities remaining hidden amidst the daily deluge of digital correspondence that its victims receive on their workstations. [caption id="attachment_68881" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]LunarMail LunarMail Operation (credit: ESET)[/caption] On first run, the LunarMail backdoor collects information on the environment variables, and email addresses of all outgoing email messages. It then communicates with the command and control server through the  Outlook Messaging API to receive further instructions. LunarMail is capable of writing files, setting email addresses for C&C communication, create arbitrary processes and execute them, take screenshots and more. Similar to its counterpart, LunarMail harnesses the power of steganography albeit within the confines of email attachments. By concealing commands within image files, it perpetuates its covert communication channels undetected. LunarMail's integration with Outlook extends beyond mere infiltration. It manipulates email attachments, seamlessly embedding encrypted payloads within image files or PDF documents which facilitates unsuspicious data exfiltration.

Initial Access and Discovery

The initial access vectors of the Turla hackers, though not definitively confirmed, point towards the exploitation of vulnerabilities or spearphishing campaigns. The abuse of Zabbix network monitoring software is also a potential avenue of compromise, the researchers said. The compromised entities were primarily affiliated with a European MFA, which meant the intrusion was of a strategic nature. The investigation first began with the detection of a loader decrypting and running a payload from an external file, on an unidentified server. This was a previously unknown backdoor, which the researchers named LunarWeb. A similar attack chain with LunarWeb was then found deployed at a diplomatic institution of a European MFA but with a second backdoor – named LunarMail. In another attack, researchers spotted simultaneous deployments of a chain with LunarWeb at three diplomatic institutions of this MFA in the Middle East, occurring within minutes of each other. “The attacker probably had prior access to the domain controller of the MFA and utilized it for lateral movement to machines of related institutions in the same network,” the researchers noted. The threat actors displayed varying degrees of sophistication in the compromises. The coding errors and different coding styles used to develop the backdoors suggested that “multiple individuals were likely involved in the development and operation of these tools.”

Russian State Hackers Biggest Cyber Threat

Recently, Google-owned Mandiant in a detailed report stated with “high confidence” that Russian state-sponsored cyber threat activity poses the greatest risk to elections in regions with Russian interest including the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. Russia’s approach to election interference is multifaceted, blending cyber intrusion activities with information operations aimed at influencing public perceptions and sowing discord. Russian state-aligned cyber threat actors target election-related infrastructure for various reasons including applying pressure on foreign governments, amplifying issues aligned with Russia’s national interests, and retaliating against perceived adversaries. Groups like APT28 and UNC4057 conduct cyber espionage and information operations to achieve these objectives, Mandiant said. Media Disclaimer: This report is based on internal and external research obtained through various means. The information provided is for reference purposes only, and users bear full responsibility for their reliance on it. The Cyber Express assumes no liability for the accuracy or consequences of using this information.

The greatest dancer of all time? Fred Astaire’s 20 best films – ranked!

16 May 2024 at 07:00

On the 125th anniversary of his birth – and with a Tom Holland biopic in the works – we run down the finest performances in the Hollywood legend’s eight-decade career

A semi-straight turn from Fred Astaire in this witty comedy drama. He is an American diplomat in London whose employee (Jack Lemmon) is renting a flat from a mysterious, organ-playing landlady (Kim Novak) who is widely suspected of having offed her husband. Astaire brings a touch of old-school sophistication, while he and Lemmon make for an appealing double act, trading gags rather than toe-taps.

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© Photograph: Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy

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© Photograph: Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy

WHO accuses Nigel Farage of spreading misinformation about pandemic treaty

By: Ben Quinn
16 May 2024 at 01:00

New campaign claims draft deal to improve global cooperation against outbreaks will cede UK sovereignty

The World Health Organization has accused Nigel Farage of spreading misinformation after he launched a campaign to block an international treaty designed to improve global pandemic preparedness.

WHO member states are negotiating a deal to shore up cooperation against new pathogens. If adopted, the legally binding treaty would commit countries to helping each other in the event of a pandemic, increase research and sharing of data, and promote fair access to vaccines.

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© Photograph: Omar Havana/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Omar Havana/Getty Images

Bobby Fingers Plays Fowl...Fabio-usly

By: maxwelton
15 May 2024 at 16:39
Greatest human alive today, Bobby Fingers, has released another video, researching and creating a diorama of the 1999 incident where heartthrob Fabio came back bloodied after participating in the inaugural ride of the "Apollo's Chariot" roller coaster at Busch Gardens.

Fingers also tries to get in good enough shape to become a "romance novel" cover model, and gets some help from Adam Savage and the Slow Mo Guys (Dan and Gav) test-firing ballistic gel "geese" at a recreation of Fabio's head at 75MPH. Fingers has also written a romance novel of his own, which he shares an excerpt from in the vid.

Fawlty Towers review – comedy history repeats itself as stage farce

15 May 2024 at 16:30

Apollo theatre, London
John Cleese’s transposition of his TV sitcom to the theatre has pitch perfect performances, but it never quite becomes a play

What should we hope for when TV hits of yesteryear are revived onstage? Director Caroline Jay Ranger insists in the programme notes that her Fawlty Towers cast “not only provide the essence of the roles required [but also] offer something fresh and unique”. But do they? And is anyone actually here for fresh and unique? I’m not so sure. If the performances in this revamp of the Torquay hotel sitcom aren’t impersonations per se, they’re near as dammit. But they’re very good ones, and audiences who already love the material (most of them, let’s face it) will not be disappointed.

That’s no mean achievement. The danger in trying to recreate the original, as Ranger’s production (of an adaptation by John Cleese) does, is that the performances of Cleese, Prunella Scales, Andrew Sachs and co cannot, at least as far as fans are concerned, be bettered. So why not just watch the DVD? This revival makes the answer self-evident. Cleese and Connie Booth’s series had its roots in theatrical farce, so its frantic comings and goings, its slapstick and mounting chaos feel at home onstage. And the DVD wouldn’t afford you the pleasure, a very keen one, of seeing Adam Jackson-Smith in the Basil role, as astonishing an act of mimicry-cum-resurrection as you’re ever likely to encounter.

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© Photograph: Hugo Glendinning

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© Photograph: Hugo Glendinning

‘Breasts are a serious political problem’: one woman’s quest to reclaim her chest

15 May 2024 at 00:00

Sarah Thornton had dismissed them as ‘dumb boobs’ until a double mastectomy changed everything. Her new book, Tits Up, explores what our beliefs about breasts mean – from feeding babies to bra design and Baywatch

Throughout her life, Sarah Thornton hadn’t given much thought to her breasts. They were there, of course, and they’d fed two children. But they had also attracted unwanted attention, and latterly they’d become a source of concern – with a history of breast cancer in her family, and after years of vigilance and tests, in 2018 Thornton was about to undergo a preventive double mastectomy. Preparing for the operation, she realised she still hadn’t given them much consideration, nor what it would be like to have “new” breasts in the form of implants. When they turned out to be bigger than expected, she was shocked, “but in the end,” she says, “it wasn’t the aesthetic form as much as the feeling. It was like losing sentience. And it put me on a quest to understand these things that I’d never thought too much about. These things I’d kind of dismissed as dumb boobs.”

Thornton’s new book, Tits Up: What Our Beliefs About Breasts Reveal About Life, Love, Sex and Society, is a deep dive into the bosom of our fixation with boobs. Writing the book, she says, has transformed how she views her own breasts. “I really did go from dismissing them as a kind of shallow accessory, to thinking of them as a really important body part – one we wouldn’t have a human species without,” she says. “Our top halves have been invaded by male supremacy and I did not realise how deeply patriarchal even my own view of breasts was. I was dismissing them as dumb boobs, partly because they’re positioned primarily in culture as erotic playthings and I didn’t want to just be an erotic plaything.”

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© Photograph: Marissa Leshnov/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Marissa Leshnov/The Guardian

How to Talk about War Truthfully

14 May 2024 at 17:47
Words About War. "From George Orwell's critique of the language of totalitarian regimes to today, discussions of war and foreign policy have been full of dehumanizing euphemisms, bloodless jargon, little-known government acronyms, and troubling metaphors that hide warfare's damage. This guide aims to help people write and talk about war and foreign policy more accurately, more honestly, and in ways people outside the elite Washington, DC foreign policy "blob" can understand." Link to the PDF.

Language Use about Gaza (PDF): "While exposing the genocide of Palestinians, it is critical to continually challenge and resist language that is used to justify the violence and render Palestinians killable. To this end, we offer ten urgent suggestions. Above all we advise using clear, accurate, honest language that describes the flesh and bone impacts of this mass violence. We urge the use of language that centers the humanity of those harmed while resisting simplistic, binary us vs. them, good vs. evil narratives that continue to be circulated by governments and media, humanizing some and dehumanizing others." Developed by David Vine, Professor of Political Anthropology at American University, and author of several books critical of US Militarism & Foreign Policy I was inspired to post this after hearing an interview with Prof. Vine on KOOP Radio, Austin's local community radio station.

The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage gets a bold new body and big power boost

12 May 2024 at 19:01
An orange Aston Martin Vantage in the Spanish countryside

Enlarge / First revealed in 2017, the current Aston Martin Vantage has just had a styling and engineering overhaul. (credit: Aston Martin)

It's high time Aston Martin had a winner on its hands. Last year it updated the DB12 with a smart new face, plenty of power, and the sort of infotainment you'd hope for from a luxury GT. The Vantage, the firm's 'entry-level' car, has been given similar treatment in the hopes that it can peel a few more people away from Porsche dealerships.

Aston is looking not only to make better cars, but also to shift its image—it's aiming to be seen as more luxurious than before, and is throwing as much power at the cars as possible. At first glance, it looks like Aston has cooked up something truly delightful.

The new car is more than 150 hp (112 kW) more powerful than the one it replaces, with 656 hp (490 kW) and 590 lb-ft (800 Nm) from a wonderfully appointed turbocharged 4.0 L V8. Its 0 to 60 time is quoted at 3.4 seconds, and Aston reckons that if you have enough space (and no speed limits) you'll see the far side of 200 mph (321 km/h). It is not slow.

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Father of SQL Says Yes to NoSQL

12 May 2024 at 11:34
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Register: The co-author of SQL, the standardized query language for relational databases, has come out in support of the NoSQL database movement that seeks to escape the tabular confines of the RDBMS. Speaking to The Register as SQL marks its 50th birthday, Donald Chamberlin, who first proposed the language with IBM colleague Raymond Boyce in a 1974 paper [PDF], explains that NoSQL databases and their query languages could help perform the tasks relational systems were never designed for. "The world doesn't stay the same thing, especially in computer science," he says. "It's a very fast, evolving, industry. New requirements are coming along and technology has to change to meet them, I think that's what's happening. The NoSQL movement is motivated by new kinds of applications, particularly web applications, that need massive scalability and high performance. Relational databases were developed in an earlier generation when scalability and performance weren't quite as important. To get the scalability and performance that you need for modern apps, many systems are relaxing some of the constraints of the relational data model." [...] A long-time IBMer, Chamberlin is now semi-retired, but finds time to fulfill a role as a technical advisor for NoSQL company Couchbase. In the role, he has become an advocate for a new query language designed to overcome the "impedance mismatch" between data structures in the application language and a database, he says. UC San Diego professor Yannis Papakonstantinou has proposed SQL++ to solve this problem, with a view to addressing impedance mismatch between heavily object-based JavaScript, the core language for web development and the assumed relational approach embedded in SQL. Like C++, SQL++ is designed as a compatible extension of an earlier language, SQL, but is touted as better able to handle the JSON file format inherent in JavaScript. Couchbase and AWS have adopted the language, although the cloud giant calls it PartiQL. At the end of the interview, Chamblin adds that "I don't think SQL is going to go away. A large part of the world's business data is encoded in SQL, and data is very sticky. Once you've got your database, you're going to leave it there. Also, relational systems do a very good job of what they were designed to do... "[I]f you're a startup company that wants to sell shoes on the web or something, you're going to need a database, and one of those SQL implementations will do the job for free. I think relational databases and the SQL language will be with us for a long time."

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Soundgarden's Reunion Tour 2012

By: hippybear
11 May 2024 at 22:29
I don't know why YouTube is serving me all these concerts right now, but I'm not complaining. Here's Soundgarden - Hyde Park - Hard Rock Calling 7-13-2012 - Pro Shot (HQ) Full Show [1h54m], arguably the band at the height of their career after taking a break and reforming. This concert is shortly before the release of their final album King Animal.

SETLIST: 01 Searching With My Good Eye Closed 02 Spoonman 03 Gun 04 Jesus Christ Pose 05 Black Hole Sun 06 Outshined 07 Hunted Down 08 Drawing Flies 09 Blow Up the Outside World 10 Fell on Black Days 11 Ugly Truth 12 My Wave 13 The Day I Tried to Live 14 Beyond the Wheel 15 Let Me Drown 16 Pretty Noose 17 Superunknown 18 4th of July Encore 19 Rusty Cage 20 Slaves & Bulldozers/(In My Time of Dying)

The People Who Won't Give Up Floppy Disks

11 May 2024 at 17:34
Slashdot reader quonset writes: The last floppy disk was manufactured in 2011. Despite no new supplies being available for over a decade, there are still people, and organizations, who rely on floppy disks. Each has their own story as to why they rely on what is essentially 1970s technology. From the BBC: Tom Persky, a US businessman, has been selling "new", as in, unopened, floppy disks for years and still finds the trade lucrative. He runs Floppydisk.com, which offers disks for about US$1 (£0.80) each, though some higher capacity versions cost up to US$10 (£8) per disk, he says. Persky has customers all over the world and you could split them roughly 50-50 into hobbyists and enthusiasts like Espen Kraft on one side, and industrial users on the other. This latter category encompasses people who use computers at work that require floppy disks to function. They are, essentially, locked in to a format that the rest of the world has largely forgotten. "I sell thousands of floppy disks to the airline industry, still," says Persky. He declines to elaborate. "Companies are not happy about when I talk about them." But it is well-known that some Boeing 747s, for example, use floppy disks to load critical software updates into their navigation and avionics computers. While these older aircraft might not be so common in Europe or the US these days, you might find one in the developing world, for instance, Persky hints. There are also pieces of factory equipment, government systems — or even animatronic figures — that still rely on floppy disks. And in San Francisco, the Muni Metro light railway, which launched in 1980, won't start up each morning unless the staff in charge pick up a floppy disk and slip it into the computer that controls the railway's Automatic Train Control System, or ATCS. "The computer has to be told what it's supposed to do every day," explains a spokesman for the San Francisco Municipal Transport Agency (SFMTA). "Without a hard drive, there is nowhere to install software on a permanent basis." This computer has to be restarted in such a way repeatedly, he adds — it can't simply be left on, for fear of its memory degrading. The article also includes this quote from a cybersecurity expert at Pen Test Partners. "If floppy was the only interface, the only way to get malware on to [the computer] would be via said floppy disk. That's quite a limiting factor for the attacker..."

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MoD contractor hacked by China failed to report breach for months – Source: www.theguardian.com

mod-contractor-hacked-by-china-failed-to-report-breach-for-months-–-source:-wwwtheguardian.com

Source: www.theguardian.com – Author: Anna Isaac and Dan Sabbagh The IT company targeted in a Chinese hack that accessed the data of hundreds of thousands of Ministry of Defence staff failed to report the breach for months, the Guardian can reveal. The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, told MPs on Tuesday that Shared Services Connected […]

La entrada MoD contractor hacked by China failed to report breach for months – Source: www.theguardian.com se publicó primero en CISO2CISO.COM & CYBER SECURITY GROUP.

Wet Work

By: chavenet
11 May 2024 at 04:15
In a state with prolonged bouts of drought and unquenching thirst, stolen water is an indelible part of California lore. But this was not Los Angeles' brazen gambit to take water from the Owens Valley. Or San Francisco's ploy to flood part of Yosemite National Park for a reservoir. The water grab described in a federal indictment allegedly happened cat burglar-style, siphoned through a secret pipe, often after hours, to avoid detection. from Feds say he masterminded an epic California water heist. Some farmers say he's their Robin Hood [LA Times; ungated]

British Columbia Discloses Multiple ‘Cybersecurity Incidents’ Impacting Government Networks

Multiple Cybersecurity Incidents, British Columbia, British Columbia Cybersecurity Incidents, British Columbia Cyberattack, British Columbia Government

British Columbia in Canada has faced multiple "sophisticated cybersecurity incidents" on government networks, province premier said this week. Premier David Eby emphasized that there is presently no evidence of compromised sensitive information and that investigations are ongoing, with further efforts required to ascertain potential data access, as per his Wednesday statement. While the attack's specific nature remains unclear, labeling it as "sophisticated" and its involvement with government networks suggests fans theories of espionage from a state-sponsored actor seeking political intelligence. “I know the public will have many questions about these incidents, and we will be as transparent as we can without compromising the investigation. As this complex work proceeds, government will provide British Columbians with updates and information as we are able.” Eby said. The provincial government's investigation involves the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and other agencies, with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner duly informed. Neither of the agencies immediately responded to The Cyber Express’ request for a comment.

Opposition’s Spar in the House

B.C.'s political adversaries engaged in heated debate during the question period on Thursday morning, a day after the province disclosed the multiple cybersecurity incidents within its networks. British Columbia United MLA Todd Stone criticized the government, alleging it "concealed a massive cyberattack on the provincial government for eight days." Stone’s accusations came on the backdrop of a memo from The Office of the Chief Information Officer that directed all provincial employees to immediately change passwords. British Columbians are rightly concerned about their sensitive information, questioning whether it has been compromised by a foreign, state-sponsored cyberattack. So, I ask the premier today: Will he reveal who was responsible for this attack?" Stone demanded. Stone pointed out the timing of Eby's Wednesday statement, suggesting it was issued discreetly "while everyone was preoccupied with last night’s Canucks game." [caption id="attachment_67963" align="aligncenter" width="256"]multiple cybersecurity incidents, British Columbia, British Columbia United MLA Todd Stone BC United MLA Todd Stone arguing in the House during the QP on Thursday morning. (Credit: Legislative Assembly of B.C.)[/caption]
“How much sensitive personal information was compromised, and why did the premier wait eight days to issue a discreet statement during a Canucks game to disclose this very serious breach to British Columbians?” the Opposition MLA asked.
In response to BC United's criticisms, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth accused Stone of "playing politics." “We take our advice from the Canadian Cyber Security Service, who deal with these kinds of things on an ongoing basis. That’s who we will take the advice from in terms of protecting public information, every single time. We will never take advise from the opposition — all they ever want to do is play politics,” Farnworth retorted amid uproar in the House. [caption id="attachment_67981" align="aligncenter" width="271"]Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth, multiple cybersecurity incidents Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth addressing opposition queries. (Credit: Legislative Assembly of B.C.)[/caption]
“When an incident like this happens, the first thing that happens is the protection of the system, honourable speaker. The protection of the information that’s done by technical experts, honourable speaker, who work on the advice of the Canadian Cyber Security System,” Farnworth explained.
“And, honourable speaker, the reason they do that is because if you go out and give information before that’s done, you actually end up compromising people’s information, potentially.”

Multiple Cybersecurity Incidents Rock B.C. in Last Few Weeks

The latest revelation of cyberattacks on government networks comes on the heels of a string of cyberattacks that the westernmost province in Canada is facing. B.C. headquartered retail and pharmacy chain London Drugs announced April 28, closure of its stores across Western Canada after falling victim to a cybersecurity incident. The impact was such that they were forced to even take their phones offline and pharmacies could only satisfy “urgent” needs of patients on-site. Addressing reporters later Thursday afternoon, Farnworth clarified that there was no evidence linking the multiple cybersecurity incidents targeting the province networks to the event that led to the closure of London Drugs locations in the west for several days. "At present, we lack any information suggesting a connection. Once an incident is detected, technical security teams work swiftly to secure the system and ensure its integrity, while closely coordinating with the Canadian Cyber Security Service to address the situation," he explained. "While a comprehensive investigation involving multiple agencies is ongoing, we currently have no indication of any link to the London Drugs incident." The same day as the London Drugs cyberattack came to light, another western province entity BC Libraries reported a cybersecurity incident where a hacker attempted to extort payment for data exfiltrated from its newly commissioned server and threatening to release that data publicly if no payment was received.

China’s Involved?

This development follows an official inquiry in Canada, revealing unsuccessful Chinese attempts to interfere in past elections. Beijing has refuted these allegations. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) recently published an annual report, warning of ongoing Chinese interference in Canadian political affairs, risking democratic integrity.
“Canada’s strong democratic institutions, advanced economy, innovative research sectors, and leading academic institutions make Canada an attractive target for cyber-enabled espionage, sabotage, and foreign influenced activities, all of which pose significant threats to Canada’s national security,” the report said.
The report identified China as a state-based threat conducting widespread cyber espionage across various sectors, including government, academia, private industry, and civil society organizations.

Stack Overflow users sabotage their posts after OpenAI deal

9 May 2024 at 17:20
Rubber duck falling out of bath overflowing with water

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

On Monday, Stack Overflow and OpenAI announced a new API partnership that will integrate Stack Overflow's technical content with OpenAI's ChatGPT AI assistant. However, the deal has sparked controversy among Stack Overflow's user community, with many expressing anger and protest over the use of their contributed content to support and train AI models.

"I hate this. I'm just going to delete/deface my answers one by one," wrote one user on sister site Stack Exchange. "I don't care if this is against your silly policies, because as this announcement shows, your policies can change at a whim without prior consultation of your stakeholders. You don't care about your users, I don't care about you."

Stack Overflow is a popular question-and-answer site for software developers that allows users to ask and answer technical questions related to coding. The site has a large community of developers who contribute knowledge and expertise to help others solve programming problems. Over the past decade, Stack Overflow has become a heavily utilized resource for many developers seeking solutions to common coding challenges.

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International Baccalaureate Exam Hack Speculation Sparks Student Outrage

By: Alan J
9 May 2024 at 09:45

International Baccalaureate Exam Hack

The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) confirmed a hacking incident, while clarifying that no ongoing exam papers were leaked despite claims online of a wider cheating scandal. The IB found students sharing exam details online before the completion of their ongoing tests globally, and simultaneously observed increased malicious activity targeting its computer networks. On investigating the online claims, IB found that the leaked data set appeared to be limited to earlier data from 2018, while the ongoing exam paper leaks could be a result of some students sharing exam papers online rather than a hack. Founded in 1968, the International Baccalaureate is a non-profit educational organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. It aims to provide high quality international education free of regional, political or educational agendas.

Exam Cheating Concerns Amidst International Baccalaureate Hack

Earlier last week, the International Baccalaureate had released an update stating that it was investigating online speculation about potential cheating by some students in the ongoing exams. The organization stated that while there was no evidence of widespread cheating, some students might have engaged in "time zone cheating". The organization defined time zone cheating as an action where students "who have completed their examinations share what they can recall from memory about the exam questions on social media before other students take the examination." Citing its own academic integrity policy which forbids such behaviour, the organization stated that students engaging in such activity would not receive their Diploma certificates or grades and may potentially be banned from future exam retests. [caption id="attachment_67556" align="alignnone" width="2800"]International Baccalaureate Exam Hack Update Source: Official Update[/caption] After its initial investigations, the organization stated that it had experienced an increase in attempted malicious activity aiming to interfere with its systems. It also confirmed that some data from 2018, including employee names, positions, and emails, had been breached through a third-party vendor, and screenshots of this leaked data were shared online. However, the organization again clarified that at the time of the investigation, no recent exam material was found to be compromised. The notice further stated that IB was continuing to assess the incident and had taken steps to contain the incident. The organization mentioned that it would provide further information on the incident as the situation evolved. The Cyber Express team has reached out to the International Baccalaureate for further details, and a spokesman responded with a link to the second update notification.

Students Petition For Exam Cancellation

The exam is taken by nearly 180,000 students internationally. However, recent speculations over the hacking incident and cheating allegations have raised concerns among students and their parents, leading to an online petition demanding exam cancellation or re-test. Amidst the speculation, the International Baccalaureate took action to remove leaked content and stated that cheaters would face severe consequences. Some condemned the leaks as failures in governance and urged for improved exam security, prompting the IB to affirm its intention to stay ahead of technological threats while promoting academic integrity in the exam process. The IB further cautioned its authorized network of schools about data breaches and phishing attempts. The leaked materials from the International Baccalaureate data breach were observed to have been downloaded over 45,000 times. The leaked content, allegedly included mathematics and physics papers which were widely circulated online, further raising doubts about exam integrity. It remains to be seen, if the student petition demand's for justice or the organization's observation of increased hacking attempts will lead to a further escalation of the situation. Media Disclaimer: This report is based on internal and external research obtained through various means. The information provided is for reference purposes only, and users bear full responsibility for their reliance on it. The Cyber Express assumes no liability for the accuracy or consequences of using this information.

The Sun Is Down, The Battery's Up

7 May 2024 at 22:06
NYT: Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity California draws more electricity from the sun than any other state. It also has a timing problem: Solar power is plentiful during the day but disappears by evening, just as people get home from work and electricity demand spikes. To fill the gap, power companies typically burn more fossil fuels like natural gas. That's now changing. Since 2020, California has installed more giant batteries than anywhere in the world apart from China. They can soak up excess solar power during the day and store it for use when it gets dark.

Those batteries play a pivotal role in California's electric grid, partially replacing fossil fuels in the evening. Between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on April 30, for example, batteries supplied more than one-fifth of California's electricity and, for a few minutes, pumped out 7,046 megawatts of electricity, akin to the output from seven large nuclear reactors. Across the country, power companies are increasingly using giant batteries the size of shipping containers to address renewable energy's biggest weakness: the fact that the wind and sun aren't always available. ... Over the past three years, battery storage capacity on the nation's grids has grown tenfold, to 16,000 megawatts. This year, it is expected to nearly double again, with the biggest growth in Texas, California and Arizona. Most grid batteries use lithium-ion technology, similar to batteries in smartphones or electric cars. As the electric vehicle industry has expanded over the past decade, battery costs have fallen by 80 percent, making them competitive for large-scale power storage. Government mandates and subsidies have also spurred growth. ... Texas is quickly catching up to California in solar power, and batteries increasingly help with evening peaks. On April 28, the sun was setting just as wind power was unexpectedly low and many coal and gas plants were offline for repairs. Batteries jumped in, supplying 4 percent of Texas's electricity at one point, enough to power a million homes. Last summer, batteries helped avert evening blackouts by providing additional power during record heat.

RSA Conference 2024: What to Expect from the World’s Largest Cybersecurity Event

RSA 2024

The RSA conference 2024 , the world's largest cybersecurity gathering, commenced in San Francisco from May 6 to 9, 2024. With over 45,000 attendees expected, the event promises to be a hub for industry discussion, product launches, and critical talks on emerging threats. This article explores some of the key themes likely to dominate RSA 2024.

Quantifying Cyber Risk: A Business Imperative

One of the most pressing issues for businesses today is understanding cyber risk in financial terms. While data breaches often headline the news, accurately calculating the potential cost of such an attack remains elusive. This lack of clarity hinders informed decision-making around cybersecurity investments.

However, a potential solution may be emerging. Companies like CDW are developing tools that leverage cybersecurity insurance data and best-practice protocols to quantify cyber risk. By translating risk into dollar figures, businesses can prioritize security investments and make data-driven decisions about mitigation strategies.

The Double-Edged Sword of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the cybersecurity landscape. While AI-powered tools hold immense potential for automating repetitive tasks and improving efficiency, security professionals are concerned about the technology's potential misuse by attackers.

The fear lies in the possibility of AI exposing sensitive data through large language models, especially in the absence of robust data governance and access control measures. Companies considering AI implementation will need to prioritize these aspects to ensure their data remains secure.

Securing Operational Technology (OT): A Growing Challenge

Critical infrastructure facilities, like power plants and water treatment centers, are increasingly targeted by cybercriminals. These facilities often rely on aging OT systems, not designed for today's internet-connected world, making them vulnerable.

The potential consequences of a successful attack on such facilities are far-reaching, potentially disrupting entire regions. To address this growing threat, a holistic approach is needed. One such approach, the 5D security model, focuses on identifying vulnerabilities, deploying solutions, and fostering a culture of shared accountability between IT and OT teams.

RSA 2024 Beyond Technology: Collaboration and Community

The RSA Conference is more than just a showcase of new technology. This year's RSA Conference theme, "The Art of Possible," reflects a focus on innovation and community collaboration. Keynote speakers such as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will discuss the government's efforts to integrate cybersecurity into emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing.

The conference will also feature a diverse roster of speakers from the cybersecurity industry, including technologist Bruce Schneier and former CISA Director Chris Krebs.

Hugh Thompson, RSAC's executive chairman, emphasizes the conference's role in fostering collaboration within the cybersecurity community. This "community problem-solving" approach is crucial in combating evolving threats.

The event will feature a diverse range of speakers, including government officials, technologists, security experts, and even representatives from the arts and entertainment world. This cross-disciplinary approach underscores the importance of collaboration in building a more secure future.

Innovation and Learning Opportunities

With over 500 sessions, RSA 2024 promises to be a hub of knowledge sharing and networking opportunities. Attendees can participate in hands-on cybersecurity labs, networking sessions, and keynote presentations. The Innovation Sandbox will showcase startups competing for the title of "Most Innovative Startup," highlighting the latest advancements in cybersecurity technology.

Cyble's Participation

Cyble, a leading provider of AI-driven cybersecurity solutions, is showcasing its Cyble Vision Platform at RSA 2024. Attendees can visit Cyble's booth to learn how the platform enhances network resilience and proactively tackles cybersecurity threats. Cyble's leadership team will be available to discuss the latest trends and challenges in cybersecurity.

The RSA 2024 remains a cornerstone event for the cybersecurity industry. By addressing critical issues like quantifying cyber risk, securing OT systems, and fostering collaboration, the event aims to equip attendees with the knowledge and tools needed to navigate the ever-evolving threat landscape.

Media Disclaimer: This report is based on internal and external research obtained through various means. The information provided is for reference purposes only, and users bear full responsibility for their reliance on it. The Cyber Express assumes no liability for the accuracy or consequences of using this information.

Six Australian MPs Confirm They were Targeted by China’s APT31 Hackers

APT31, Australian Parliament

Six Australian Members of the Parliament confirmed today that they were targeted by Chinese-state hackers APT31 in a brazen cyberattack whose aim was to gather intelligence on these individuals. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China whose members were victims of this hacking attempt said, “The politicians confirmed details with both the IPAC Secretariat and the Australian Government.”
“The apparent intention [of the cyberattack] was to garner sufficient information to mount more sophisticated follow-on attacks, escalating in severity.”
Those targeted included Senator James Paterson, Senator Claire Chandler, Senator Alex Antic, David Smith MP, Daniel Mulino MP and Tim Wilson MP.

Security Agencies Chose to Remain Tight-Lipped

Australia’s security agencies reportedly received two warnings about Chinese hackers targeting Australian MPs, but they chose not to inform the lawmakers about the cyberattacks. “It is staggering that both the targeted members of parliament and the broader Australian public have been kept in the dark about a direct attempt at cyber interference against Australian parliamentarians,” Senator Claire Chandler said.
“Incredibly, despite Australian authorities being notified of this hacking attempt in 2022, agencies did not alert my colleagues and I that we had been targeted.It’s unacceptable that this information was withheld from us for two years,” Chandler added.
The Five Eyes intelligence agency reportedly alerted Australia’s security agencies in mid-2021 about attacks that occurred earlier in January. Then, in June 2022, the FBI officially notified Australian authorities about attempts by the Chinese hacking group APT31 to target six Australian MPs. However, the agencies opted against informing the Government or the affected MPs. The IPAC, consisting of 20 Australian MPs, only became aware of the attempted attack when the US Department of Justice indicted seven Chinese hackers in April this year -three years after the initial warning. The National Cyber Security Centre of the United Kingdom also called out the Chinese APT31 actors for their malicious cyber targeting of UK’s democratic institutions and parliamentarians earlier in March. Following this revelation, MPs demanded an explanation from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation regarding the lack of notification. After receiving a briefing, they released a joint statement today expressing outrage and demanding a robust response to protect Australian sovereignty. “We were not informed by Australian agencies at any time since 2021 about this targeting,” the statement from IPAC members targeted by APT31 said.
“This was not an attack on any single party or House of Parliament. This was an attack on Australian parliamentarians from both Houses and both parties who have dared to exercise their legitimate democratic right to criticize Beijing. As such, it was an attack on Parliament as a whole and demands a robust and proportionate response,” the IPAC members’ statement said.
“It is very worrying for our democracy that elected members of parliament have been targeted by PRC-state sponsored hacking attempts specifically because we have expressed concern about the behavior of the PRC, including human rights violations in Xinjiang and coercive behavior against Australia,” Senator Claire Chandler said. “It is in Australia’s national interest for Australians to be properly informed about the behavior of the PRC government. The withholding of information about the targeting of Australian elected representatives by state-affiliated cyber criminals means that Australians have been given a misleading impression of the PRCs behavior towards our country,” Chandler added. The targeted IPAC members insisted on being informed about future attempts to target them by state-sponsored groups, for which they have received an assurance from the government.
“I welcome the assurance that in future agencies will inform MPs about any attempts by state-sponsored cyber actors to target parliamentarians,” Senator Claire Chandler said.
The Australian agencies likely refrained from informing MPs because they considered the attacks crude and unsuccessful, according to Austrlian news agency The Nightly. Moreover, they occurred during a period when MPs and the public were already being cautioned to enhance their cybersecurity. Paterson, who is also the co-chair of IPAC Australia, denounced the attempted hack.
“Targeting parliamentarians, as the CCP has done, is not the act of a friend. It is yet another obstacle to a normal bilateral relationship. We should never hesitate to call out this behavior or be afraid to impose real costs to deter it,” he tweeted.

APT31 Used Pixel Tracking Emails

APT31 hackers targeted MPs with pixel tracking emails from a domain pretending to be a news outlet. If opened, these emails tracked the recipients' online behavior. According to the FBI's indictment released last month, the hackers spammed various government individuals worldwide associated with IPAC, with more than 10,000 malicious emails that also exploited zero-days and resulted in potential compromise of economic plans, intellectual property and trade secrets. Last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray highlighted the magnitude of Chinese hacking, stating that it surpassed that of every other major nation combined. He underscored the overwhelming scale of Chinese cyber operations, indicating the challenges faced by law enforcement in countering these threats. Media Disclaimer: This report is based on internal and external research obtained through various means. The information provided is for reference purposes only, and users bear full responsibility for their reliance on it. The Cyber Express assumes no liability for the accuracy or consequences of using this information.

The survival of this ancient language is as mysterious as its origins

By: chavenet
4 May 2024 at 04:08
Shakespeare toys with numerous European languages throughout his work, including Italian, French, Spanish, and Dutch. Often, these are spoken in thick accents, with comedic pronunciation. The same holds true for his use of the various British dialects—Scots, Welsh, Cornish, and Irish—heard in scruffy taverns or high courts. In Henry V, soldiers fracture the King's English while the king himself and a French princess descend into a comical Franglais courtship. Yet, no matter how garbled the speech, playgoers can usually identify distinct languages and dialects—that is, until they bump up against what scholars have called the "invented language," "unintelligible gabble," and "'Boskos thromuldo boskos' mumbo-jumbo" in his comedy "All's Well That Ends Well." from I Understand Thee, and Can Speak Thy Tongue: California Unlocks Shakespeare's Gibberish [LARB]

Ransomware Defense Startup Mimic Raises Hefty $27M Seed Round 

2 May 2024 at 12:11

A new Silicon Valley startup called Mimic is coming out of the shadows with a hefty $27 million seed-stage funding round led by Ballistic Ventures.

The post Ransomware Defense Startup Mimic Raises Hefty $27M Seed Round  appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Storing energy with compressed air is about to have its moment of truth

2 May 2024 at 09:57
rendering of energy plant

Enlarge / A rendering of Silver City Energy Centre, a compressed air energy storage plant to be built by Hydrostor in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. (credit: Hydrostor)

The need for long-duration energy storage, which helps to fill the longest gaps when wind and solar are not producing enough electricity to meet demand, is as clear as ever. Several technologies could help to meet this need.

But which approaches could be viable on a commercial scale?

Toronto-based Hydrostor Inc. is one of the businesses developing long-duration energy storage that has moved beyond lab scale and is now focusing on building big things. The company makes systems that store energy underground in the form of compressed air, which can be released to produce electricity for eight hours or longer.

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Dropbox Reports Breach of Sensitive Authentication Data for its Sign Product

Dropbox data breach

Cloud storage and file sharing company Dropbox disclosed a security breach that resulted in an unauthorized access to sensitive information, including passwords and other authentication information. Dropbox revealed that the breach targeted its production environment, specifically impacting Dropbox Sign, formerly known as HelloSign, a platform for digitally signing documents, in an 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
"The actor compromised a service account that was part of Sign’s back-end, which is a type of non-human account used to execute applications and run automated services. As such, this account had privileges to take a variety of actions within Sign’s production environment. The threat actor then used this access to the production environment to access our customer database.
The accessed information pertains to all Dropbox Sign users, encompassing account settings, names and emails. For some users, additional data such as phone numbers, hashed passwords and authentication information like API keys, OAuth tokens and multi-factor authentication were also compromised.
"From a technical perspective, Dropbox Sign’s infrastructure is largely separate from other Dropbox services. That said, we thoroughly investigated this risk and believe that this incident was isolated to Dropbox Sign infrastructure, and did not impact any other Dropbox products."
While forensic investigators are engaged and law enforcement notified, regulatory agencies are being informed based on the presumption of personal information access. Dropbox has initiated steps to mitigate the impact of the breach, including rotation of OAuth tokens and generating new API keys for customers with API access to Dropbox Sign. Certain functionalities will remain restricted until API keys are rotated, Dropbox said. User notifications are underway, with Dropbox reaching out to affected users and providing guidance on necessary actions. The company expects all notifications to be completed within the next week. Although Dropbox does not anticipate a significant impact on its operations or financial condition, it acknowledges potential risks, including litigation, changes in customer behavior and heightened regulatory scrutiny. This Dropbox data breach incident marks another security challenge for the file sharing giant, following a phishing campaign in 2022 that targeted its developers, resulting in unauthorized access to company GitHub accounts and sensitive information. Media Disclaimer: This report is based on internal and external research obtained through various means. The information provided is for reference purposes only, and users bear full responsibility for their reliance on it. The Cyber Express assumes no liability for the accuracy or consequences of using this information.
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