The voter data of Illinois is vulnerable tohackers
More than a dozen unsecured databases containing sensitive information on voters in the US state of Illinois were found to have been exposed, security researcher Jeremiah Fowler revealed. The databases included driver’s licence numbers, full and partial Social Security Numbers and documents such as death certificates, he added. One of the databases appeared to contain information from DeKalb County.
The last time you heard about an Apple problem was years ago
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian in an interview with CNBC said that the July 19th outage caused by CrowdStrike update cost his company $5 million in five days. Among the costs Bastian said, Delta incurred were more than 40,000 servers that “we had to physically touch and reset” as well as compensation payments to travellers left in the lurch.
There should be more than 400,000 dangerous products recalled by Amazon
Amazon failed to adequately alert over 3,00,000 customers to serious risks that included death and electrocution, a US Consumer Product Safety Commission study said. It tested over 4,00,000 products sold by third parties on Amazon and found defects including faulty carbon monoxide detectors and defective hair dryers, which could cause electrocution. A spokesperson for Amazon said the company plans to appeal.
There are ways to tackle predatory conferences
A study has revealed there is low awareness of predatory conferences among consumer-protection authorities. It added that academic conferences are one of the main routes for career development in research. “Research communities should more regularly publicize information on good conference practices, such as…thorough peer review, and provide links to trusted organisations,” it further said.
Section 230 immunity could be loosened for intimate artificial intelligence deepfakes
Microsoft President Brad Smith has said that Congress should require AI system providers to use “state-of-the-art provenance tooling” to label synthetic content. “Congress should also require AI system providers to use state-of-the-art provenance tooling to label synthetic content,” he added. This comes after Taylor Swift’s nude photos were found to be made by a designer in Microsoft’s AI tool.
The Prop 22 gig worker battle has been won by the companies
California Supreme Court has allowed app-based companies to treat their drivers as independent contractors despite a ruling by the state’s lower court that said they should be treated as employees. This comes after Proposition 22, a ballot measure in 2020 which required app-based companies to establish a Wage Floor and pay health care stipends to workers who drive enough hours.
The Department of Transportation is investigating Delta’s flight delays and cancelations
US’ Delta Air Lines on Sunday said it cancelled around 1,000 flights for the third day in a row after it had to cancel or delay hundreds of flights due to a global software outage. The airline said it was focussed on restoring its operations after IT systems all over the world were rendered inoperable due to a faulty Windows update.
Widespread Microsoft downtime is disrupting flights and banking
Airlines, banks and government agencies in Europe were affected by a computer outage on Friday. Several airlines said they were experiencing disruption across their network, which is out of their control. US-based cybersecurity company CrowdStrike said that the outages were caused by a bug in its Falcon Sensor platform, adding it was “actively working with customers whose screens were impacted”.
Big tech supporting Trump is inevitable
Billionaires Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have said US Vice President Joe Biden’s proposed 25% tax on unrealized capital gains of household worth over $100 million was the “final straw” in their support of Donald Trump. They added that Biden’s budget proposal, which affects only citizens worth over $100 million, is “alarmist”. They said the tax would destroy America.
Huge Microsoft Outage is linked to CrowdStrike, it takes down computers around the world
Microsoft has apologised for the global outages caused by its Windows operating system, which are currently impacting many devices, including those in India. “We are aware of these issues and believe a resolution is forthcoming,” a Microsoft spokesperson said, adding that the company is working to resolve the issues. The outages started in the US on Friday and spread around the world.