Posts by Rob D.

UK Home Sec Amber Rudd unveils extremism blocking tool

Re: Government does something to combat terrorism

s/No-ones/No-one's/

But expected. It's why the apostrophe may have to retire. The comma took a bit of a beating as well.

Re: Government does something to combat terrorism

> BTW the vicious and bigoted secularist hatred exhibited by many users on this site is also a form of extremism... just saying.

Sad to see but spot on.

Unconcious incompetence

Lack of knowledge does not confer the ability to provide a valid opinion.

This applies not just to Amber Rudd if she happens to make foolish pronouncements about encryption (which in this case, she hasn't), but as well to the many comments on this thread supported by neither the knowledge nor the inclination to acquire the knowledge about the topic under discussion. Instead such comments are particularly able to demonstrate a deep lack of understanding or a willingness to play the affront card well before actual thinking occurs.

Re: False positives?

> "94 per cent of Daesh propaganda with 99.995 per cent accuracy". I'd like to hear what proportion of everything else gets identified as Daesh propaganda

As per the quoted text, 0.005% (claimed) of everything else gets identified as Daesh propaganda. It's intended to be trained that low and miss so much Daesh content at 6% because large content providers need false positives to be a very low rate or they would be blocking too much acceptable content while actual Daesh content is a mere speck in the ocean of cat videos.

Elsewhere noted, but cats are inherently evil anyway.

There are indeed a crazy number of tin foil hat perspectives on here that should have been thoroughly derided. In the age of Brexit and Trump, stupid things said loudly and often seem to sway a surprising number of people.

Re: Hmm. ASI Data Science, eh?

So unknown that twenty seconds on Google turns content from the last couple of years. And even the ASI CEO states that the plan is not infallible - in several interviews words to the effect of the algorithm is trained for low false positives rather than high false negatives, IS videos are really easy to train ML algorithms to find because of their repeated style, and other organisations would be considerably harder to deal with.

As for magic - well, someone from the 17th century would probably consider antibiotics as witchcraft and electric lights as magic, but for a technology web site, a discussion about Machine Learning shouldn't really create too many surprises.

What is illegal?

Porn may not be to everyone's taste but (most of) it isn't illegal in many jurisdictions.

ML algorithms could be trained, to varying degrees of success, to try and spot any type of asset on the Internet. Any government could (and many probably will) use such available technology to apply the laws as best they can in their jurisdiction. If the ML algorithms are good enough then it may help a government apply them more assiduously so it is the laws defining something as illegal which need the scrutiny not so much the fact that better algorithms exist for identifying content.

In the UK there are types of material online that are deemed illegal both reasonably and popularly so. We have the opportunity to vote for politicians to update those laws (or not) as we democratically wish. In other countries, the law on what is acceptable content may be less to your personal taste while there is little or no mechanism for influencing them.

Re: The terrifying alternative ...

The terrifying alternative would be commenting on the wrong story about Amber Rudd though we wouldn't want to sneer.

Hint: this article is about machine learning algorithms being applied to identifying a specific class of problematic on-line content with a view to equipping content providers and hosting platforms with a means to take down illegal material. It is not about encryption and it isn't about something Amber Rudd has said which flies in the face of technical possibilities.

Engage brain

> My instant bullshit detector went off.

This isn't an excuse for disengaging the brain and engaging the Daily Mail outrage reflex. The information required is either in the article (actually in the sentence quoted) or it is repeated elsewhere on a range of online sites discussing exactly this topic.

The claimed failure rate is 6% (94% detection rate - hint, take 100 and subtract 6 to get 94). Just in case percentages are too hard to work with, that means of every 100 IS videos in a larger sample that the algorithm is used to assess, the claimed expectation is that 6 will not be flagged as problematic.

Yes, there is something special about IS videos which again, minimal reading to get marginally informed about the subject and what has been said publicly about the success of this against IS videos, highlights the fact that IS have really formulaic approaches to producing propaganda videos. This makes the IS videos a standout choice for being successfully detected using machine learning and this is explicitly acknowledged by ASI Data.

The 200K algorithm has a false positive rate slightly above 0.005% as well.

Re: False Positives

The answer is in the quote used - the false positive rate is claimed as 0.005% or 50 out of a million. You can find this number also discussed by Marc Warner on a range of recent interviews online.

There are also some fairly frank admissions that the training is focused on achieving a low false positive rate rather than letting it rise to get more than the 94% detection rate (6% failure rate), that it cannot detect all forms of Daesh propaganda, and that Daesh make it relatively easy to detect with relatively consistent 'branding' while other organisations are less formulaic and more varied.

So independent validation would be interesting to see, but ASI Data Sciences, while I presume making hay while the sun shines, do not appear to be carpet bombing media outlets with super-inflated claims.

> Wonder how much from Al Jazeera will get incorrectly flagged?

The ASI blurb video on YouTube appears to be using an Al Jazeera news item about Daesh to show the negative response to the scoring algorithm versus a positive response to a propaganda video.

Talk down to Siri like it's a mere servant – your safety demands it

Re: Reg does clickbait

> "That it wasn't quite good enough to pass a sniff test says less about the current state of the art than the capacity of the scammers"

> "Imagine if those scammers had gotten a voice sample of that grandson: When his grandmother spoke to his vocal simulacrum, it would have responded in the right tones to make her believe – and pay."

The scam technique is real. The targeting of elderly or otherwise vulnerable people is real. And the faking of audio in real time is theoretically possible. But without references or verifiable details, it is a purely hypothetical exaggeration of a story that has been running for at least a decade (someone else already posted the Snopes link).

The article is written as if it is factual though which makes it firmly 'urban legend' (at least as far as Wikipedia is concerned, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legend, which is as far as I could be bothered to go).

Beware the looming Google Chrome HTTPS certificate apocalypse!

Re: @coolcity Well done Google....

> Whatever the reason, they don't need a SSL cert and it is arrogant fuckwittedness, for Google and a bunch of Geek hangers on dictating to them that they need to rewrite their system for some bullshit fetish reason.

Similarly there is a lack of good wits from folk asserting in thoroughly histrionic language that Google, through this action, is forcing people who currently do not use SSL certificates to start using SSL certificates.

Google and Mozilla withdraw trust for a range of certificates in their browsers because they state, with some cause, the certificates are compromised. Anyone who is not currently using a certificate to provide HTTPS access to their web site can continue to not use a certificate for their web site without losing or gaining anything. Anyone who does and has one of the compromised range needs another one. This isn't rocket science and it isn't a good platform for the 'Everything Google Does Is The Work of Satan' speech.

Nunes FBI memo: Yep, it's every bit as terrible as you imagined

Re: This memo is great!

> Everyone serves at the pleasure of the President.

The separation of Legislature, Executive and Judiciary is subordinate to the whim and personal agenda of the person at the top of the Executive? I firmly hope that the US structures of democracy are a bit more resilient to being dismantled in practice.

Re: Another Brit out of his depth..

And the winner of today's award for "Longest and Most Rambling Ad Hominem Attack" is .... drum roll ....

Also a runner up in the World's Tiniest Violin awards for the "Saddest Tale of All the World's Media Say Nasty Things About Us".

Hannity? Really?

Hannity? A source? Of information? Real information? That's Sean Hannity, yes? From Fox News? Providing usable facts and evidence for over a year? And, gasp, it's all available for us to read?

Oh dear, things were going so well but I've just lost a kidney and half my spleen in a bout of uncontrolled laughter.

Wow. Hannity and his impressive track record of providing solid information, accurate insight and analysis. Who'd have thought of that one?

Bluetooth 'Panty Buster' 'smart' sex toy fails penetration test

I only read El Reg ...

... for the headlines.

As Facebook pushes yet more fake articles, one news editor tells Mark to get a grip – or Zuck off

Humans are just social animals seeking familiarity

"People are fickle, prejudiced, easily swayed, and just as easily conned. Plus, of course, they are not getting paid to focus in on the truth. Sharing a post takes one tap and two seconds. What does it matter if it's not real?"

The 'fickle, prejudiced, easily swayed and conned' part is just the way human brains are wired by the biology of the animal. The brain 'likes' stuff by establishing connections, and filters stuff by seeking familiarity with established connections while blotting out stuff which doesn't fit (implicit bias is fascinating).

When the news choice is which physical newspaper, each catering to a group with a million disparate but overlapping views, then the choice is consciously black or white (left or right, if you prefer). When there is no transparent choice being made by the individual, when an algorithm based on your harvested likes and preferences decides what you see, then the individual filter bubble is created.

While people prefer being spoon fed by someone else, then they will remain a baby in the arms of the news provider. Starting to make positive decisions about finding information, challenging the content and thinking beyond preference are some first steps to maturity.

The baby has a lot of money though. Maturity is less lucrative and harder to exploit.

FBI slams secret Nunes memo alleging Feds spied on Team Trump for political reasons

Yawn

Impressive and illuminating analysis of the content, complete with assertion lacking any reference or evidence, and an implied ad hominem with a light sprinkling of guilt by association (which might be credible if McCarthy had written any articles for the Guardian in the last decade - not difficult to check, https://www.theguardian.com/profile/kierenmccarthy).

And AC as well - it must be true.

Re: Fear

I admire your confidence - this concerted effort to undermine the establishment to discredit whatever comes out of the investigation could still be successful (to the extent that it is intended to prevent the situation where there is no plausible deniability that the Republican Party can continue to hide behind).

But yes, there is a spectacle forthcoming.

Re: Why I quit reading your article

Entertaining FUD but hopelessly flawed. If research provides facts that meet the tests/criteria to be called evidence, then it is evidence regardless of source - evidence is not conclusion nor is it single source. You are confusing verifiable evidence with 'alternative facts' which are far more malleable.

For reference, the 'holy cow, look at that terrible thing the Democrat is doing' defense doesn't carry a lot of weight with the thinking population.

Newsflash: Car cyber-security still sucks

Re: hohum

The study acknowledges that these are not immediate threats but just indicators that the attack vectors potentially exist.

For example, if access to the OBD-II port is obtained by smashing a window it's pretty obvious, but a bit of hacking kit able to compromise the system sufficiently to pivot and deal with the alarm and immobiliser plus start the engine, makes this look a lot like the old days of hot wiring cars physically. Smash, plug, drive - thank you for your car. Even bricking your car takes on a new meaning.

(BTW, not trivialising the work involved with developing and exploiting that vector, nor the intended system separation that should exist in the car systems already.)

Stop us if you've heard this one before: Tokyo crypto-cash exchange 'hacked' for half a billion bucks

Re: What unpleasant memories?

"I indeed missed my chance to buy some Bitcoin before it went up in value, then down, then up, then up, then down, then was stolen."

Yet there are some folks out there, who have bought their crypto-thing, are looking at the buy/sell values on the exchanges, and they STILL insist the right thing to do is hold on to them forever. These are people who bought in (big time) to the idea of crypto-currencies at least 18 months ago, maybe more, and got in for peanuts, so the whole up/down between 1,000x and 10,000x their purchase price is almost irrelevant.

When someone can look at the string of numbers on their disk drives and opt for that rather than life-changing quantities of money in the bank, it is an indication of the hypnotic quality of belief and bubbles. Some will (and have) made pleasant fortunes, others will have theoretical fortunes come and go on paper, others (those joining in the last year) are buying in to a risky speculation where the opportunity to make money still exists but the returns are much diminished while the risks remain high.

Portable gold

Imagine 12 metric tons of gold (today at $43,374 per kilo is worth about $500 million) and consider how much effort would be invested in stopping people walking off with bits of it or even all of it. And that's all while acknowledging that gold is a bit chunky and quite heavy.

The technology area remains very interesting. The human angle is just as fascinating.

Here we go again... UK Prime Minister urges nerds to come up with magic crypto backdoors

Congratulations

To the stream of commentards on here about what May was supposed to have discussed but that she never actually raised in the speech in Davos - namely anything to do with actual encryption or even secure communications. Everyone is cordially invited to the 'Trust Everything I Say, My Story Is About Something You Already Believe' club.

It's a shame that dog-whistle stories headlined like this can draw such a credulous following into the echo chamber.

For those who remain convinced it is implausible that a politician isn't guilty of the folly they are charged with, even if they or their colleagues have previously been guilty of it in the past, feel free to go and read the actual speech transcript referenced in this article. Who knows, maybe the situation is improving a bit here (a vain hope which no doubt will last until the next speech on the subject from a government minister).

Probably just as well May didn't demand any of that in the speech (according to the transcript referenced in the article). Past history of relative lack of knowledge notwithstanding and even if these things may yet appear in future speeches by this or other politicians, neither that argument nor the subject of encryption, nor cryptography, nor digital comms security actually appear in the speech.

Clickbait headline? Surely not.

Does it matter that according to the speech transcript, the words 'encrypt' or 'encryption' or 'cryptography' were not mentioned once? Or that the words 'security' or 'secure' were never used in the context of digital communications?

The standard exhortation to big tech to 'do more', the invocation of AI with a slight tone of awe, and the phrase, "just think of the children" (almost), all appeared in the speech and since the politicians really haven't got a good track record on this area a healthy skepticism is valuable.

But the headline and content demonstrated more about assumed content suitable for generating online hits rather than thoughtful reporting and analysis. Maybe I was expecting too much.

STOP! It's dangerous to upgrade to VMware 6.5 alone. Read this

Life learning

> The actual process isn’t that bad as long as you follow the documentation.

Just made me smile.

Baywatch hero drone saves silly struggling swimmers Down Under from going down under

Re: Need to teach the kids how to hang onto a float

Possibly although it looked more like that person was still comfortable and the partner was in considerably more difficulty.

The one in black was full body suit or similar not swim trunks, was head up looking at the drone when it arrived while still looking to partner, was treading water properly not fighting the current, struck out more strongly for the shore when the float was out, prepped a lot better for the big waves and came out from under with a strong swim to regain the float, pushed the float forward to surf the second wave, etc. Plus if their partner was panicking or near panic, then they probably are more comfortable with the space between them to begin with.

Either way, neat test for some neat kit.

America restarts dodgy spying program – just as classified surveillance abuse memo emerges

Re: Liar liar....

Pedantically that is somewhat cart before the horse - more or less there are no serious convictions, even though I think in the court of world opinion Trump is already proven a bit of a liability.

In exactly the same way that Trump would willingly concede Hillary Clinton is innocent despite much heated, repeated accusation, Trump et al are also in the same boat - a lot of noise, possibly convincing noise, but not proven in a court and hence innocent.

Still 2018/2019 should provide much entertainment in this area. And I completely get where you are with the general sentiment!

Doublethink

What is bizarre/ironic/entirely normal though, is that some of the American lawmakers (Reps only?) are simultaneously both vehemently for it (702 for 6 more glorious years) and vehemently against it (how could you spy on those all-American Trump folks).

It's gonna be a great year.

'Mummy, what's felching?' Tot gets smut served by Android app

Re: Google should be sued

I'm not an Android user but I interpreted this as meaning users who have downloaded are warned:

"We’ve removed the apps from Play, disabled the developers' accounts, and will continue to show strong warnings to anyone that has installed them," a Google spokesperson told The Register.

Amazon: Intel Meltdown patch will slow down your AWS EC2 server

If making something fast is a requirement up front (or more precisely if there is a performance target provided up front) then the sequence is a set of inclusive targets - make it work, make it correct AND make it fast [enough].

The 'make it work, then make it correct, then make it fast' sequence does occur but it generates the kind of solution I've seen produced in development teams with inadequate requirements and/or no vested interest in what happens after it is released. I.e. they get through inadequate acceptance tests and generate years of follow-on work to try and make it do what it should have done out of the gate.

FWIW being able to develop and deliver fast enough is also, in my book, a requirement that is just as important.

Meltdown, Spectre: The password theft bugs at the heart of Intel CPUs

CERT solutions updated

CERT are no longer recommending dropping the vulnerable hardware to completely remove the vulnerability - bit too sensitive a proposal?

https://web.archive.org/web/20180104032628/https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/584653

We go live to the Uber-Waymo court battle... You are not going to believe this. The judge certainly doesn't

Re: Uber...

Be interesting to see how much of an impact Khosrowshahi has on the general operation of Uber (their Wickr shutdown; even the business-friendly apology to London/TfL). Maybe not as interesting as this side show though!

Re: Alsup!!!

"I am going to wreck the holiday of all you lawyers, but you get paid too much money, I don't feel bad,"

True. Got to like this guy as a judge.

Accused hacker Lauri Love's extradition appeal begins

Re: Commit the crime, then do the time...

Of course you meant to say 'allegedly'. Twice. Or should that read, "The morale of this story is don't get accused of a crime by the US government if you're not ready to deal with the consequences regardless of innocence or guilt."

The fact of being accused by the US government generates a significant up front punishment which is life-changing anyway. He may yet be proven to be guilty as sin - until then, presumed innocent, please.

Apple whispers how its face-fingering AI works

Clever but why

Why was that strange, little man in trench coat and dark glasses waving an overly complicated Rorschach card in front of my phone?

$232m blockchain startup Tezos faces sueballs for alleged investor fraud

Bridge for sale

I'm going to run a computer for a while and produce some strings of numbers which I would like you to pay me for now so that we can run more computers for longer and take more money off other people. At some point in the future these strings of numbers and the systems producing them may or may not be something that other people are willing to pay you more [money] for than you originally handed over to me.

The general tech in this area is interesting - the financial side a bit more hit and miss. ICOs are and always have been a way of raising venture capital without all the silly due diligence.

How about that time Russian military used a video game pic as proof of US aiding ISIS?

Re: "The Russian ministry of defense is investigating"

> You would think that ... Russia would realise that any pics like this would be discovered pretty damn quickly

That's why this is so interesting - clearly they do know this.

Inherently ingenious

The Russian press release was so obviously faked that it could be immediately discounted from a factual basis and the opinion it supported discarded. But what was going through the minds of those who controlled that press release?

Difficult to credit that anyone would be so utterly stupid as to believe the subterfuge would succeed especially if they work in the release of official information relating to military activity and political agenda. The conclusion would be that its purpose was to be exposed easily and quickly.

Discussion forums like these plus mainstream media can then debate the effectiveness of any Russian misinformation campaigns, keeping the issue live and building up the shadow of the bogey man, or maybe the image that the 'enemy' is incompetent (not sure which is likely or more usable). This outcome seems much more constructive and useful (for a foreign policy agenda) than trying to support an implausible assertion with amateur fakery.

As a side note, the best audience for this type of activity would be the relatively small but significant percentage of people who are both actively receiving their information from the media (social, MSM, fake, etc) but are basically gullible i.e. incapable of segregating junk like this from anything with actual meaning. It wouldn't be aimed at anyone who thinks they have the capacity and willingness to assess content.

Even my observation here is utterly irrelevant and can be co-opted to support the original purpose. Ingenious.

Re: Behind every fake news or conspiracy theory is a little bit of truth

Would it be too conspiratorial to mention how nice it is to see the comments section provide several useful examples illustrating how the substance of the main article could be applied in the real world?

(Paris would see straight through all of this of course.)

Re: I'd like to meet

Anonymous postings of vivid personal recollections without any verifiable references don't really add any value in a discussion about misinformation campaigns, other than to confirm that whatever follows is as likely to be fabrication, misrepresentation or poor recollection as much as it could occasionally be partially or substantially accurate.

They do highlight the importance of adequate skepticism.

Microsoft touts real-time over-the-network pair programming in Visual Studio, GitHub ships it

Teletype

I really never thought I'd live long enough for that to be announced as an innovative new creation. Time to start drawing the pension.

US Homeland Security says hardly any Kaspersky software left on federal networks

Supply chain risk

Dr Jacobson's testimony is interesting at ~46min. That and other references to supply chain threats is really where the opposition to Kaspersky comes from. It almost doesn't matter whether there is any specific evidence of actual harm - the key driver is the assessment of risk (to the US) associated with the presence of Kaspersky products on the government systems.

If for example McAfee was in the pocket of the NSA and eagerly shipping everything it found to hidden servers buried deep below Fort Meade, then it doesn't matter in this assessment because McAfee does not get assessed as a risk.

It will be helpful to those who want to elevate the perceived risk of Kaspersky (for whatever reason, relevant or not, political or not) that the NSA malware exposure may have involved Kaspersky, whether incidental, deliberate or otherwise i.e. guilt by association allows an increased perception of risk.

Re: And the alternative is ?

The later comments by the DoD representation indicated that the DoD have McAfee and Symantec available for internal and home use by employees (and contractors possibly). Also specifically noted that Kaspersky is not on their list.

Computing in schools improved, but still needs major patching – report

Re: Same old same old

We'll see the same dynamic of mixed abilities in real world IT endeavours. True, there will be a diminishing return of educational qualification versus education value as specialisation kicks in and some students will excel in particular areas. But it would be a mistake to rule out teaching this or any other subject to a student in these age ranges simply because the preconceived assessment of that student's ability in that subject area is that they cannot excel in it.

For example, my wife taught many of the students who were on James May's model Spitfire building activity and had the opportunity to talk to them during and after the event (it wasn't a random class and they weren't pre-teens since the school intake is 13-18 years). Whatever you may have taken away from the program, the group was selected and all of them got some significant value out of it whether it was directly intellectual or not, directly from the build activity or not. Even a less able member of the group would be able to share the sense of working in a mixed team that produced superb results widely admired in their peer group; they'll carry that as inspiration throughout their adult working lives.

First iPhone X fondlers struggle to admit that Face ID sort of sucks

Kiss me quick

The solution is Lip ID which involves passionately snogging your new iPhone to unlock. Only if it recognises the sweet caress of a trusted lover's lips would you be permitted to partake of its hidden delights.

Kubernetes bug ate my banking app! How code flaw crashed Brit upstart

Re: Oh dear ...

I wouldn't confuse DevOps with running a weak release cycle. I've too many grey hairs to play at being a DevOps guru, but I don't think that DevOps is about being cavalier with a release cycle. In my book, DevOps should be (not necessarily is) about the exact opposite - efficiently linking development activities with operational activities in a manner that reliably supports the business with working IT systems. That includes all the contingency support to mitigate risks during releases the same as any other release approach.

Unfortunately, in addition to being a bit hip and trendy (and so subject to the whims of incapable muppets), DevOps practice suffers the same fate that other release management procedures eventually run in to - given procedures/experiences that work, someone decides to make things more efficient by stripping out necessary planning, contingency and testing.

Vietnam bans Bitcoin as payment for anything

Tulips again

Governments like Vietnam and China, and eventually the more liberal governments, apply controls on Bitcoin for two reasons. First, there is a liquid market out there which permits the exchange between Bitcoin (and other cryptos) and fiat currencies (dollar, euro, yen, etc). Second, it is possible to carry out that exchange independent of the existing financial regulatory frameworks, especially as it relates to transactions spanning multiple jurisdictions.

The more totalitarian regimes will apply heavy controls first (buyer cease) then regulate as they are more concerned about the systemic social risks to power; the more liberal regimes will provide warnings and protections first (buyer beware) then regulate as these are more geared to allowing people to make their own good or bad choices.

Right now the perceived value ascribed to Bitcoin or any crypto currency, is no better than the tulip bubble of the 17C - it is worth what you can persuade anyone else to give you for it. Some people will get very rich; others will lose a lot of money; but it is still the same mania right now. The main difference from tulips is that the technology under these cryptos is going to stay and will have a place in our financial systems going forward - just unlikely to be any of the current 'popular' ones.