Archive for June 2023
Security Stop-Press : Office Open XML Signatures Have Security Flaws
Researchers from Ruhr University Bochum in Germany have reported that the Office Open XML (OOXML) Signatures, an Ecma/ISO standard used in Microsoft Office applications and open source OnlyOffice, have security flaws that could allow attackers to modify the content in signed documents, while the signatures are still displayed as valid. The researchers have informed Microsoft…
Read MoreFeatured Article: Redditâs âBlackoutâ User Protest
Following thousands of moderators making their subreddit communities private for 48 hours as a protest, we look at the reasons why, together with the implications for Reddit, its users, and other stakeholders. What Is Reddit? Reddit is a social media platform where users can join communities called âsubredditsâ to share content, participate in discussions, and…
Read MoreTech Insight : The Impact of Generative AI On Datacentres
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT plus the rapid and revolutionary growth of AI are changing the face of most industries and generating dire warnings about the future, but what about the effects on datacentres? Data Centres And Their Importance Data centres are the specialised facilities that house a large number of computer servers and networking…
Read MoreTech News : EU Wants AI-Generated Content Labelled
In a recent press conference, the European Union said that to help tackle disinformation, it wants the major online platforms to label AI generated content. The Challenge â AI Can Be Used To Generate And Spread Disinformation In the press conference, VÄra JourovĂĄ (the vice-president in charge of values and transparency with the European Commission)…
Read MoreTech News : UK Will Host Worldâs First AI Summit
During his recent visit to Washington in the US, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the UK will hosts the worldâs first global summit on artificial intelligence (AI) later this year. Focus On AI Safety The UK government says this first major global summit on AI safety will bring together key countries, leading tech…
Read MoreTech Trivia : Did You Know? This Week in History …
Consider all the atoms in 10 million galaxies … At midnight on June 18th, 1997, the DESCHALL Project bore fruit. The challenge had been to use âBrute Forceâ to discover the meaning of a message which had been encrypted. Going through up to seven billion possibilities per second, the key was cracked after 96 days…
Read MoreSecurity Stop-Press : Deepfake âSextortionâ Scams
The (US) FBI has issued a warning that scammers are altering benign photographs and videos to create explicit deepfake photos videos. The deepfake videos and photos are publicly circulated on social media or pornographic websites and/or sent to victims for the purposes of targeting them with harassment or sextortion schemes. The advice is to exercise…
Read MoreTech News : 20 NHS Trusts Shared Personal Data With Facebook
An Observer investigation has reported uncovering evidence that 20 NHS Trusts have been collecting data about patientsâ medical conditions and sharing it with Facebook. Using A Covert Tracking Tool The newspaperâs investigation found that over several years, the trusts have been using the Meta Pixel analytics tool to collect patient browsing data on their websites.…
Read MoreTech News : Self-Healing Skin Developed For Robots
Hmm, where have we seen this before? Stanford University scientists have created a multi-layered, self-healing electronic skin for robots and prosthetics that has a sense of touch and can realign itself autonomously when cut. Layered Polymers The research team created the synthetic skin using thin layers of rubber, latex (natural polymers), and other polymers including…
Read MoreFeatured Article : Police Facial Recognition – The Latest
With the Metropolitan Police Servicesâ (MPS) director of intelligence recently defending and pushing for a wider rollout of facial recognition technology, we look the current situation, the likely way forward, and its implications. What Is Facial Recognition Technology? The kind of facial recognition technology called Live Facial Recognition (LFR) that police have used at special…
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