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Australian Cabinet Proposes Social Media Ban For Under-16s

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The Australia government has proposed 16 as the minimum age for minors to use social media and lays the onus on platforms to demonstrate reasonable actions to prevent any younger users. However, the government did not explain how it expects platforms to enforce the age limits.

In a statement to the press today (7 November), Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said that the government’s proposed minimum age legislation will be introduced when the country’s parliament returns in two weeks, and if passed, will come into force a year later.

[...] The proposed new legislation enforces a blanket ban on everyone under 16 from using social media, including those already on it and those with parental consent.

“The fact is that social media has a social responsibility, but the platforms are falling short,” said the Australian minister for communications, Michelle Rowland.

“What we are announcing here and what we will legislate will be truly world leading,”

Rowland said that the platforms that do not comply will face penalties under the proposed Act – which under current legislation are less than A$1m.

Australia To Ban Social Media Until Age Of 16

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The Australian government has confirmed it will create legislation that bans access to social media for people under the age of 16.

"The Bill builds upon the Australian Government's work to address online harms for young people, including the $6.5 million age assurance trial, establishing an online dating apps code, legislating new criminal penalties for non-consensual sexual deepfakes, and quadrupling base funding for the eSafety Commissioner," explained a notice from the prime minister's office on November 8.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government has worked toward the plan for months, but only late last week did it finally receive backing from the National Cabinet.

[...] Services that primarily provide education and health services will not be included in the ban. The nation's eSafety Commissioner will handle oversight and enforcement. Under the current legislation, maximum fines are less than a million dollars.

The new bill "puts the onus" on social media platforms instead of parents to make sure fundamental protections are in place, the notice stated.

[...] The Prime Minister specified there will be no penalties for users. There are also no exemptions from the policy with parental consent or "grandfathering in" for those who already have accounts.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The operator of the longest-running money laundering machine in dark web history, Bitcoin Fog, has been sentenced to 12 years and six months in US prison.

Roman Sterlingov, 36, a Russian-Swedish national, was also ordered to repay more than half a billion dollars accrued from the cryptocurrency mixing service that he ran for a decade between 2011 and 2021.

Bitcoin Fog was assessed to have processed 1.2 million Bitcoin during that time, worth roughly $400 million at the time it was shuttered. Of this, Sterlingov was ordered to repay $395,563,025.39 in restitution, forfeit roughly $1.76 million in seized assets, and relinquish control of Bitcoin Fog's wallet containing more than $100 million in Bitcoin.

He was found guilty back in March, at which point he faced a maximum 50-year sentence. Prosecutors said the vast majority of Sterlingov's wealth came from the proceeds of crime in which he and his online service helped criminals hide from law enforcement.

The court heard that the crimes associated with this activity included the sale of drugs, computer misuse offenses, identity theft, and child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

"Roman Sterlingov laundered over $400 million in criminal proceeds through Bitcoin Fog, his cryptocurrency 'mixing' service that was open for business to criminals looking to hide dirty money," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M Argentieri, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. 

[...] There are many cryptocurrency mixers available to criminals, so the downfall of Bitcoin Fog won't put a significant dent in their use. However, investigators will be pleased that a service as relied upon as Sterlingov's could be scuppered and distrust sown throughout the community of criminals who use them.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Massachusetts has passed a statewide ballot initiative that gives rideshare drivers the opportunity to unionize while remaining independent contractors. The initiative was brought forward by the Service Employees International Union and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. It passed with a narrow margin of about 54 percent of the vote.

The measure will allow the state's 70,000 rideshare drivers to form unions and leverage collective bargaining power, which is not permitted for independent contractors under the National Labor Relations Act. These workers can unionize if they receive signatures from at least 25 percent of active drivers in Massachusetts. The initiative also creates a hearing process so that drivers for companies such as Lyft and Uber can bring complaints about unfair work practices to a state board. However, the ballot initiative does not contain language about strike protections. It also does not extend to food delivery drivers.

Uber and Lyft did not actively campaign against the Massachusetts measure, but they have raised concerns about the specific language. Some labor advocates also opposed the initiative, cautioning that it could hamper efforts for rideshare drivers to win recognition as full-time employees. "We're not against unionization," Kelly Cobb-Lemire, an organizer with Massachusetts Drivers United, told The New York Times. "But we don't feel this goes far enough."

Independent contractors often are not protected by federal or state labor laws because they aren't full-time employees. The Massachusetts ballot measure could create a precedent for other states to offer unionization options for gig workers. California has been a battleground for labor protections for gig workers who drive for Uber and Lyft for several years. Most recently, a court allowed California drivers to retain independent contractor status.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Silicon transistors, which are used to amplify and switch signals, are a critical component in most electronic devices, from smartphones to automobiles. But silicon semiconductor technology is held back by a fundamental physical limit that prevents transistors from operating below a certain voltage.

This limit, known as “Boltzmann tyranny,” hinders the energy efficiency of computers and other electronics, especially with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies that demand faster computation.

In an effort to overcome this fundamental limit of silicon, MIT researchers fabricated a different type of three-dimensional transistor using a unique set of ultrathin semiconductor materials.

Their devices, featuring vertical nanowires only a few nanometers wide, can deliver performance comparable to state-of-the-art silicon transistors while operating efficiently at much lower voltages than conventional devices.

“This is a technology with the potential to replace silicon, so you could use it with all the functions that silicon currently has, but with much better energy efficiency,” says Yanjie Shao, an MIT postdoc and lead author of a paper on the new transistors.

[...] In electronic devices, silicon transistors often operate as switches. Applying a voltage to the transistor causes electrons to move over an energy barrier from one side to the other, switching the transistor from “off” to “on.” By switching, transistors represent binary digits to perform computation.

A transistor’s switching slope reflects the sharpness of the “off” to “on” transition. The steeper the slope, the less voltage is needed to turn on the transistor and the greater its energy efficiency.

But because of how electrons move across an energy barrier, Boltzmann tyranny requires a certain minimum voltage to switch the transistor at room temperature.

To overcome the physical limit of silicon, the MIT researchers used a different set of semiconductor materials — gallium antimonide and indium arsenide — and designed their devices to leverage a unique phenomenon in quantum mechanics called quantum tunneling.

Quantum tunneling is the ability of electrons to penetrate barriers. The researchers fabricated tunneling transistors, which leverage this property to encourage electrons to push through the energy barrier rather than going over it.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

NASA's Voyager mission beamed back unprecedented views. It also sent back some mysteries.

One of these came in 1986, when the Voyager 2 probe — one of a duo of Voyager craft sent into deep space — journeyed by the ice giant Uranus, a strange world rotating on its side. When the mission passed by, its instruments detected strong radiation around Uranus, yet, curiously, didn't find any source of energized particles to feed these zones of radiation.

For decades, the observation has been an enigma. But not anymore. Recent analysis of Voyager's old data found that extreme solar wind — a flow of particles shooting out from the sun — impacted the environs around Uranus and created the abnormal episode.

"The spacecraft saw Uranus in conditions that only occur about 4 percent of the time," Jamie Jasinski, a NASA physicist who led the new research published in Nature Astronomy, said in a statement.

[...] When the solar wind hit Uranus' magnetosphere, it compressed the distant planet's magnetosphere, and squeezed out the plasma (hot gas composed of electrically charged particles) that naturally surrounds Uranus. Instead, the solar wind injected its own particles into radiation belts around Uranus. This explains why the Uranus environment was so irradiated — but didn't seem to have an obvious source of radiation.

These results also suggest that some of Uranus' five moons aren't dead, after all. The lack of plasma around the planet hinted that the moons weren't geologically active, because unlike other active moons of our solar system (like Jupiter's ocean moon Europa), it appeared Uranus' satellites emitted no charged water molecules. But that might not be the case.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A judge based in Oakland, California has ruled that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg cannot be held personally liable in 25 separate lawsuits alleging harm caused by social media.

On 7 November, US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected accusations that Zuckerberg acted to conceal from child users the mental health risks of using Facebook and Instagram, which both come under the parent organisation Meta.

She submitted her decision via a 10-page filing, according to Business Insider.

The plaintiffs in the case claimed that Zuckerberg ignored a number of repeated internal warnings about the mental health risks posed by his platforms to young users and that he publicly downplayed them.

[...] The plaintiffs brought claims under the laws of 13 states: Wisconsin, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.

Explaining her decision, Gonzalez Rogers said that control of corporate activity alone is not enough to establish liability on the part of Zuckerberg.

[...] Meta has been accused of failing to protect its users for some time now. In 2021, whistleblower Frances Haugen shared internal research from the company, which became known as the Facebook Files. One article about these files claimed that Meta had internal research that showed Instagram to be damaging to the mental health and wellbeing of teenage girls.

And last year, another whistleblower – Arturo Béjar – spoke out against the company’s practices, with claims that the tech giant is aware of the harm teenagers face on its platforms but has failed to act.

At the time, Béjar said the platform opted to give users “placebo” tools that fail to address issues such as teenagers seeing harmful content, having their mental health impacted and receiving “unwanted sexual advances” on Instagram.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Waiting for each part of a 3D-printed project to finish, taking it out of the printer, and then installing it on location can be tedious for multi-part projects. What if there was a way for your printer to print its creation exactly where you needed it? That's the promise of MobiPrint, a new 3D printing robot that can move around a room, printing designs directly onto the floor.

MobiPrint, designed by Daniel Campos Zamora at the University of Washington, consists of a modified off-the-shelf 3D printer atop a home vacuum robot. First it autonomously maps its space---be it a room, a hallway, or an entire floor of a house. Users can then choose from a prebuilt library or upload their own design to be printed anywhere in the mapped area. The robot then traverses the room and prints the design.

[...] Campos Zamora and his team started with a Roborock S5 vacuum robot and installed firmware that allowed it to communicate with the open source program Valetudo. Valetudo disconnects personal robots from their manufacturer's cloud, connecting them to a local server instead. Data collected by the robot, such as environmental mapping, movement tracking, and path planning, can all be observed locally, enabling users to see the robot's LIDAR-created map.

Campos Zamora built a layer of software that connects the robot's perception of its environment to the 3D printer's print commands. The printer, a modified Prusa Mini+, can print on carpet, hardwood, and vinyl, with maximum printing dimensions of 180 by 180 by 65 millimeters. The robot has printed pet food bowls, signage, and accessibility markers as sample objects.

[...] We had to step back and build this entirely different thing, using the environment as a design element. We asked: how do you integrate the real world environment into the design process, and then what kind of things can you print out in the world? That's how this printer was born.

Original Submission

NotSanguine writes:

BleepingComputer is reporting that D-Link will not fix security issues associated with CVE 2024-10194 on up to 60,000 of its older NAS devices.

From the article:

More than 60,000 D-Link network-attached storage devices that have reached end-of-life are vulnerable to a command injection vulnerability with a publicly available exploit.

The flaw, tracked as CVE-2024-10914, has a critical 9.2 severity score and is present in the 'cgi_user_add' command where the name parameter is insufficiently sanitized.

An unauthenticated attacker could exploit it to inject arbitrary shell commands by sending specially crafted HTTP GET requests to the devices.

The flaw impacts multiple models of D-Link network-attached storage (NAS) devices that are commonly used by small businesses:

• DNS-320 Version 1.00

• DNS-320LW Version 1.01.0914.2012

• DNS-325 Version 1.01, Version 1.02

• DNS-340L Version 1.08

In a technical write-up that provides exploit details, security researcher Netsecfish says that leveraging the vulnerability requires sending "a crafted HTTP GET request to the NAS device with malicious input in the name parameter."

curl "http://[Target-IP]/cgi-bin/account_mgr.cgi cmd=cgi_user_add&name=%27;<INJECTED_SHELL_COMMAND>;%27"

"This curl request constructs a URL that triggers the cgi_user_add command with a name parameter that includes an injected shell command," the researcher explains.
[...]
In a security bulletin today, D-Link has confirmed that a fix for CVE-2024-10914 is not coming and the vendor recommends that users retire vulnerable products.

If that is not possible at the moment, users should at least isolate them from the public internet or place them under stricter access conditions.

Is this the appropriate way for D-Link to handle this? When told that a previously discovered (the existence of which has previously been disclosed to them) vulnerability will be made public, notify the world that the affected devices are "end-of-life" and "end-of-service"?

Do any Soylentils have one of the affected devices? (If so, please place your bank/credit/loan account details on those devices and provide us with IP addresses. Thanks!)

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

US-based glass manufacturer Corning is the company behind Gorilla Glass, a break-resistant glass used to protect screens that’s used on essentially all of the most popular smartphones. Today, the European Commission announced an investigation into Corning for anti-competitive practices, alleging that the glassmaker is preventing competition through exclusive supply agreements.

According to the press release, Corning requires mobile phone manufacturers to source all or nearly all of their alkali-AS glass from it, and it also grants rebates to these companies if they do so. Additionally, these phone makers must tell Corning if they receive competitive offers from other glass manufacturers. They aren’t allowed to accept these offers unless Corning cannot match or beat the price.

Similarly, Corning has agreements with companies that process raw glass, forcing them to get all or most of their alkali-AS glass from Corning. They also aren’t allowed to challenge Corning patents.

These charges reinforce how aggressive Corning is in defending its dominant position in the smartphone glass screen market. The latest Apple and Android devices, like the Google Pixel 9, usually have Gorilla Glass screens, as they’re scratch-resistant and prevent cracking or breaking. While not indestructible, the glass does hold up well against damage. However, Corning’s market dominance coupled with these practices are enough to get the EU’s attention.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Blood tests have shown that about 7 per cent of workers on dairy farms that had H5N1 outbreaks had antibodies against the disease

There may be more bird flu cases in humans in the US than we previously thought. Health departments in two states took blood tests of workers on dairy farms known to have hosted infected cattle and found that about 7 per cent of them have antibodies for the disease. This included people who never experienced any flu symptoms.

Since March, a bird flu virus known as H5N1 has been circulating in dairy cows across the US. So far, 446 cows in 15 US states have tested positive for the virus. Since April, 44 people in the US have tested positive for H5 – the influenza subtype that includes H5N1. All but one of these cases occurred in workers on H5N1-infected poultry or dairy farms.

To better understand how many farm workers may have contracted the virus, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collaborated with state health departments in Colorado and Michigan to collect blood samples from 115 people working on dairy farms with H5N1-infected cattle. All of the samples were obtained between 15 and 19 days after cows on the farms had tested positive for the virus.

“This is critical because, before this point, the recommendations for [H5N1] testing largely have focused on symptomatic workers,” says Meghan Davis at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. “When workers don’t know that they are infected, they inadvertently may expose other people in their communities to the infection.”

H5N1 is poorly adapted to infecting humans and isn’t known to transmit between people. Still, more than 900 people globally are reported to have had the virus since 2003, roughly half of whom died from it. Each of these infections offers the virus an opportunity to develop mutations that may make it more dangerous to people.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/11/43-research-monkeys-on-the-lam-still-playfully-exploring-police-say/

troop of monkeys that broke out of their South Carolina research facility Wednesday and, as of noon Friday, were still "playfully exploring" with their newfound freedom.

In an update Friday, the police department of Yemassee, SC said that the 43 young, female rhesus macaque monkeys are still staying around the perimeter of the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Facility. "The primates are exhibiting calm and playful behavior, which is a positive indication," the department noted.

The fun-loving furballs got free after a caretaker "failed to secure doors" at the facility.

[...] This isn't the first time—or even the second time—Alpha Genesis has had trouble keeping its monkeys under control. In 2018, the US Department of Agriculture fined the company $12,600 for violations between 2014 and 2016 that included four monkey breakouts. In those incidents, a total of 30 monkeys escaped. One was never found.

Original Submission

NotSanguine writes:

Bloomberg^* is reporting on a UN-backed treaty which could become the global framework for investigating cybercriminals.

From TFA:

The Biden administration plans to support a controversial cybercrime treaty at the United Nations this week despite concerns that it could be misused by authoritarian regimes, according to senior government officials.

The agreement would be the first legally binding UN agreement on cybersecurity and could become a global legal framework for countries to cooperate on preventing and investigating cybercriminals. However, critics fear it could be used by authoritarian states to try to pursue dissidents overseas or collect data from political opponents.

Still, the officials said there are persuasive reasons to support the treaty. For instance, it would advance the criminalization of child sexual-abuse material and nonconsensual spreading of intimate images, they said.
[...]
While the treaty is expected to pass the vote in the UN, it was highly unlikely it would be ratified by the US government unless there was implementation of human-rights controls, the official said.

What say you, Soylentils? "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear?", "We can't let those authoritarian scum further oppress their dissidents!" Something in between?

^*https://archive.ph/HSa0S

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

At the start of September, Transport for London was hit by a major cyber attack. TfL is the public body that moves many of London's human bodies to and from work and play in the capital, and as the attack didn't hit power, signaling, or communications systems, most of the effects went unnoticed by commuters. The organization downplayed the damage done to back office ticketing, billing, and other systems. Everything was in hand.

Not for long. TfL (Transport for London) quickly rowed back on claims that no customer data had been exposed as evidence appeared to the contrary. Customers complained that various ticketing discount schemes and group privileges for students and retirees weren't accessible, and TfL made vague promises to perhaps compensate for this some time in the future if receipts were kept. The official line was, however, that things were basically fine.

Recent reports say otherwise, claiming that the scope of the problem is much wider and the situation more serious than previously understood. A vintage friend of The Register confirmed that he couldn't get his old age travel permit, while TfL's Oyster contactless ticketing system was putting erroneous entries on passenger accounts that could not easily be fixed.

[...] This is not unique to TfL. If you've read The Register for more than a week, you'll know how it goes. Nobody likes to broadcast bad news, and from the British Library to public health services to government organizations, the initial instinct to manage the information about a breach seems stronger than the instinct to manage the systems in the first place. Commercial entities have the same instincts, but can be quite the poster children for regulatory disgorgement. Public sector outfits have the institutional instinct to clam up and ride things out, which their political overseers understand all too well.

This is exactly wrong. There is a case to be made to exact more disclosure from companies that get hit by cybercrime, but also the argument that their responsibilities are limited to themselves, and their customers can leave or lawyer up depending on levels of horror and hurt. Public sector outfits not only have much broader responsibilities to citizens, not customers, but consume state resources that directly affect all our lives. A million spent rebuilding an IT system blown apart by bit burglars is a million not spent keeping people safe, healthy, and free.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Canada has ordered TikTok to shut down its operations in the country, citing unspecified “national security risks” posed by the company and its parent ByteDance. With the move, TikTok will be forced to “wind up” all business in the country, though the Canadian government stopped short of banning the app.

“The government is taking action to address the specific national security risks related to ByteDance Ltd.’s operations in Canada through the establishment of TikTok Technology Canada, Inc,” Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne said in a statement. “The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners.”

Canada’s crackdown on TikTok follows a “multi-step national security review process” by its intelligence agencies, the government said in a statement. As the CBC points out, the country previously banned the app from official government devices. It also comes several months after the United States passed a law that could ban the app stateside. US lawmakers have also cited national security concerns and the app’s ties to China. TikTok has mounted an extensive legal challenge to the law.

In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson said the company would challenge Canada’s order as well. "Shutting down TikTok’s Canadian offices and destroying hundreds of well-paying local jobs is not in anyone's best interest, and today's shutdown order will do just that,” the spokesperson said. “We will challenge this order in court. The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The EU has joined US and South Korean officials in expressing concern over a Russian transfer of technology to North Korea in return for military assistance against Ukraine.

"We are closely monitoring what Russia provides to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in return for its provision of arms and military personnel, including Russia's possible provision of materials and technology to the DPRK in support of Pyongyang's military objectives," warned a joint statement from South Korea's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cho Tae-yul, and EU officials.

The statement further expressed deep concern over "the possibility for any transfer of nuclear or ballistic missile-related technology to the DPRK."

North Korea is not legally allowed to develop or possess nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles under international agreements. It withdrew as a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 2003, citing national security concerns. The United Nations Security Council has since imposed multiple sanctions on North Korea to prevent the development of its weapons programs.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that the US estimates there are some 10,000 North Korean soldiers in total in Russia.

Many are receiving training, ranging from UAVs to trench clearing, for the purpose of fighting on the front lines of the war on Ukraine, he added.

[...] "In terms of what the DPRK may be getting in return for its provision of 10,000 troops, that's unknown at this point, but as you look at things, you would guess that technology would be at the top of the list, and that's, again, one of those things that could be and will be destabilizing depending on what kind of technology we're talking about, financial assistance, and you can go down the list," commented US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

South Korea's Minister of Defense, Kim Yong-hyun, said there was no confirmation that North Korea had yet successfully gained technology from Russia, and if it does happen, South Korea "can overcome that through the advanced technology that the alliance has."

Original Submission