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Security lapse exposed Clearview AI source code – TechCrunch:
Since it exploded onto the scene in January after a newspaper exposé, Clearview AI quickly became one of the most elusive, secretive and reviled companies in the tech startup scene.
The controversial facial recognition startup allows its law enforcement users to take a picture of a person, upload it and match it against its alleged database of 3 billion images, which the company scraped from public social media profiles.
But for a time, a misconfigured server exposed the company's internal files, apps and source code for anyone on the internet to find.
Mossab Hussein, chief security officer at Dubai-based cybersecurity firm SpiderSilk, found the repository storing Clearview's source code. Although the repository was protected with a password, a misconfigured setting allowed anyone to register as a new user to log in to the system storing the code.
The repository contained Clearview's source code, which could be used to compile and run the apps from scratch. The repository also stored some of the company's secret keys and credentials, which granted access to Clearview's cloud storage buckets. Inside those buckets, Clearview stored copies of its finished Windows, Mac and Android apps, as well as its iOS app, which Apple recently blocked for violating its rules. The storage buckets also contained early, pre-release developer app versions that are typically only for testing, Hussein said.
The repository also exposed Clearview's Slack tokens, according to Hussein, which, if used, could have allowed password-less access to the company's private messages and communications.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by aristarchus on Monday April 20 2020, @07:50PM (5 children)
original submission [soylentnews.org]
If SN were an academic journal, some serious kicking of editorial butts would be taking place. First, giving AC the lead credit, when AC submitted after I did, having checked for prior coverage? And then managing to bury the original aristarchus submission? What with the "holding" of aristarchus subs, these are all techniques to censor view points and NEWS that some at SoylentNews have ideological hostility towards. Almost makes me think that SN does not actually want user submissions. Maybe I should stop. Just Kidding!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fadrian on Monday April 20 2020, @08:31PM (4 children)
If certain people didn't NEED to have their submissions checked, then maybe their stories would get to the front page sooner. That being said, the notion that some random, offshoot blog would come anywhere close to a reviewed publication in terms of editorial quality is so laughable that one wonders if your comment would be better suited for the Onion than for here.
That is all.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by NickM on Monday April 20 2020, @09:18PM
I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Tuesday April 21 2020, @12:27AM
And within mere minutes, more aristarchus submissions meet their appointed fates, rejected from hidden "hold" queue, to wander aimlessly across the muted sands of time, like silent claws of censored clams! Oy, the Mussels! Oh, the carapacians! Not like anyone is trying to cover up anything, like perhaps, Illegal human experimentation [soylentnews.org], or Magical Republican Syndrome [soylentnews.org]. Sorry, all off topic, except for the fact that Trump's supporter, and "young blood" vampire Peter Thiel is behind Clearview AI.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2020, @01:58AM
LOL, you say it like S/N is the pinnacle of serious foruming.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 21 2020, @02:26PM
What is this Onion you speak of? Hmmm. Interesting.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday April 20 2020, @09:15PM (2 children)
Seems like anyone can look at the source now (and maybe examine it for bugs), but they don't have the data against which to run it. Considering their explicitly stated mission already makes people hate them anyway, how bad is this, really, for Clearview? Are people gonna complain about inconsistent indentation or undesirable algorithm complexity?
(Score: 1) by DECbot on Monday April 20 2020, @09:45PM
Obviously they train the AI compiled from the source code with a dataset that will guarantee false positives and show the method is unreliable. Then it will be on Clearview to demonstrate the quality of their training dataset and how their running AI is superior than the AI trained by the inferior dataset. In a dick measuring contest, 300 millimeters beats 12 inches.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 21 2020, @02:29PM
Data wants to be free!
(no, it's his brother that wants to be free)
What if the source could be written by an AI having the properties:
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by khallow on Monday April 20 2020, @11:04PM (1 child)
It's the secretive, but highly public train wreck. I wonder who their competitors are, because those guys are going to get a lot of business.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2020, @07:45AM
khallow says: #freearistarchus!!!!1!!!