August 2016 Archive • The Register

Top facial recognition algo joins the dots and sees pretend people
▻http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/25/voila_jones_we_can_make_your_facial_recognition_see_a_man_who_isnt_th

He wasn’t there again today, I do wish he would go away How much like a face does an image have to be, to trick the standard Voila-Jones facial recognition algorithm ? Not very much, it turns out. Two researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, have spoofed the algorithm into recognising a handful of dots, barely recognisable as an image, as a human face. Another image, more dense but still random, fooled the algorithm 97 per cent of the time even after it had been printed, (...)

#algorithme #CCTV #facial #surveillance

How many zero-day vulns is Uncle Sam sitting on ? Not as many as you think, apparently
▻http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/05/how_many_zeroday_vulns_is_us_govt_sitting_on

While some fear the US government is hoarding a vast pool of zero-day security vulnerabilities, the reality is that it probably holds just a few dozen, according to a study by Columbia University. In a presentation at the DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas today, Jason Healey, senior research scholar in the university’s faculty of international and public affairs, detailed his students’ attempts to ascertain the number of critical bugs stockpiled in secret by the US. By keeping details (...)

#NSA #hacking #surveillance

Your ’intimate personal massager’ - cough - is spying on you
▻http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/07/your_sec_toy_is_spying_on_you_hackers_crack_our_plastic_pals

Bluetooth hack lets Australian researchers reveal your deepest desires DEF CON has a lot of odd talks, but the successful hacking of a vibrator by two Australian researchers drew a big crowd. The two-person team of Goldfisk and Follower got hold of the schematics for the We Vibe 4 Plus, a U-shaped vibrator that can be controlled via Bluetooth using a remote control or a smartphone app. The wireless functions mean the device’s makers had to report its details with the United States the (...)

#hacking

Simply not credible: The extraordinary verdict against the body that hopes to run the internet
▻http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/03/extraordinary_verdict_against_icann/?mt=1470300257409

In an extraordinary judgment, the organization that hopes to take over running the top level of the internet later this year has been slammed by an independent review as at best incompetent and at worst deliberately mendacious.

The decision by ICANN’s Independent Review Panel (IRP) over the organization’s decision to refuse “community” status for three applications covering business suffixes has exposed a level of double-dealing that many suspected occurred in the non-profit organization but has been difficult to prove.

The ICANN Board Governance Committee (BGC) in particular comes under fire for having repeatedly failed to carry out its duties.

Despite serious allegations being made against ICANN’s staff and the “independent” evaluator it had selected – the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) – the panel found that the BGC did not carry out any investigation. Instead it had relied solely on material supplied by ICANN’s legal team – the very people at the center of the complaints.

“The BGC failed to address any of these assertions,” the judgment reads. Later: “The BGC admittedly did not examine whether the EIU or ICANN staff engaged in unjustified discrimination or failed to fulfill transparency obligations.”

ICANN hopes to take over functioning of the top level of the internet from the US government in October this year, after which it will be solely responsible for deciding how the internet’s numbering and naming systems are carried out.

A key concern with that move is that ICANN is not sufficiently transparent or accountable. Despite two years of efforts to restructure the organization to make it more accountable, come October the ICANN board will retain complete control over the organization’s decisions and its staff will remain accountable only to the board.

As such, the failure of the board to even look at allegations of staff misbehavior is alarming, given the enormous powers the organization will soon assume.