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The U.S. aviation warning system that crashed for more than an hour Wednesday traces back its origins to ocean-faring ships and has been under continuous reforms for years, experts say. At least one aviation industry group has called for it to be replaced altogether. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights blaming an unspecified failure in the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system. The White House also said it saw no signs that the NOTAM system was taken down as a result of a cyberattack. “Once again, we get to see how antiquated and vulnerable the Notam system is!” he said.

Criminal hackers have posted an enormous trove of sensitive files to the internet from a San Francisco Bay Area transit system’s police department, including specific allegations of child abuse. BART’s chief communications officer, Alicia Trost, said in an email officials were investigating the posted files and that the hackers had not impacted BART services. The perpetrators are an established group of ransomware hackers, one of the many who attack specific organizations and either encrypt sensitive files or threaten to post them on the dark web. Ransomware hackers often demand a payment to not share files. More than 100 networks associated with local government agencies were successfully attacked by ransomware hackers last year, according to an Emsisoft survey.

The email went out to students at Knox College, a small liberal arts school in Illinois, on the evening of Dec. 12. But this group had a new wrinkle for Knox students. “We have compromised your collage networks,” the email said, written in the kind of broken English common among international ransomware hackers. For you, its a sad day where everyone will see your personal and private info.”The incident at Knox College marks the first known case in which hackers used their access to contact students directly in order to intimidate them. The hackers’ website lists an entry to download data for Knox College but doesn’t actually lead to any student data.

☆ Consumer Reports: Best Outdoor Security Cameras of 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Daniel Wroclawski | Consumer Reports | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +14 min

For those, you need outdoor security cameras. If you have floodlights in these areas, you could even take advantage of their steady stream of power and install specialized floodlight security cameras. For more on outdoor cameras, see our complete wireless security camera ratings and guide to the best floodlight security cameras. CR’s take: The Arlo Essential Wireless Security Camera is a fantastic security camera, receiving strong ratings in our tests for video quality and data security. CR’s take: The Eufy Solo Cam S40 is the first security camera CR has tested with a built-in solar panel to recharge its battery.

☆ North Korea says latest launches tested 1st spy satellite
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

The rocket carrying the test satellite was launched Sunday to assess the satellite’s photography and data transmission systems, KCNA said. He said South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities were analyzing further details of the launches but declined to elaborate. A rocket carrying an experimental satellite is launched from Tongchang-ri, North Korea, in images released Monday. In February and March, North Korea said it conducted tests to check a camera and data transmission systems to be used on a spy satellite. Lee said North Korea may be able to covertly get a more advanced camera that enable it to monitor tanks and the deployment of U.S. strategic assets to South Korea.

☆ North Korea says its new spy satellite hit a major milestone, but it may be 'too crude' to be useful
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Park Chan-Kyong | South China Morning Post | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

North Korea launched a rocket carrying a test satellite was launched on Sunday. The rocket carrying the test satellite was launched on Sunday to assess its photography and data transmission systems, state media said. North Korea launched Hwasong-17 ICBMs in February and March, claiming they were spy satellite test launches. South Korea, Japan and US authorities on Sunday said they detected a pair of ballistic-missile launches by North Korea from its northwestern Tongchang-ri area, where the North's satellite launch pad is located. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter with what North Korean media called a Hwasong-17 ICBM in Pyongyang on November 18.

"The worst governments are already going to suppress speech," said David Kaye, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine and the former free speech watchdog for the United Nations between 2014 and 2020. The free speech experts who spoke to NBC News on Friday said Twitter's actions could invite international attempts to manipulate Musk. Would some head of state say, 'Hey, can you do this for my country and prevent public reporting?' Kaye, the former U.N. free speech watchdog, said Musk's behavior reminded him in part of authoritarian leaders who enforce rules against challenging the government or criticizing powerful figures, such as royal family members or regime allies. Musk can talk about standing for free speech all he wants, but this should make it clear to everyone that what he’s doing is quite the opposite.

Twitter suspended several high-profile journalists Thursday evening who have been covering the company and Elon Musk. The suspensions come a day after Twitter changed its policies around accounts that track private jets, including one owned by Elon Musk. The Twitter account for Mastodon, a platform billed as an alternative, was also suspended early Thursday evening. As of Thursday evening, Twitter accounts operated by NBC News journalists were unable to tweet a link to the Mastodon account of @ElonJet. The suspensions add to what has been a tumultuous couple of days for Twitter after the company first suspended the account that tracked Musk’s jet.

A former Twitter employee found guilty of spying on users on behalf of the Saudi royal family has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison. He was sentenced Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The Justice Department has said it believes that another former Twitter employee accused of accessing user accounts and a man accused of helping the Saudi government with the scheme have fled to Saudi Arabia to evade American authorities. The Saudi government severely penalizes anti-government expression on social media sites like Twitter. In April, courts sentenced Salma al-Shehab, a Saudi citizen and 34-year-old mother of two children, to 34 years in prison for tweets protesting the government.

The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that it had blocked all U.S. phone companies from taking calls from a tiny communications company accused of sending robocalls that push fraudulent student loan relief services. “Today we’re cutting these scammers off so they can’t use efforts to provide student loan debt relief as cover for fraud,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in an emailed statement. It identified a single company, UrthAccess, as the central origin for a substantial amount of student loan spam. UrthAccess was by far the single biggest provider of student loan robocalls in recent months, Quilici said. It was responsible for more than 40% of all student loan robocalls in October, the FCC said.

The new CEO of FTX issued a searing indictment of the company’s operations Thursday in a court filing as part of the company’s ongoing bankruptcy process. New CEO and restructuring officer John Ray wrote that the company had a striking lack of financial records, internal communications or even a clear idea of who worked there. Bankman-Fried and FTX did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Throughout his filing, Ray insisted that the financial records of the organizations overseen by Bankman-Fried are frequently either nonexistent or untrustworthy. “One of the most pervasive failures of the FTX.com business in particular is the absence of lasting records of decision-making,” Ray said.

☆ Billionaires like Elon Musk want to save civilization by having tons of genetically superior kids. Inside the movement to take 'control of human evolution.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Julia Black | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +40 min

"We are the Underground Railroad of 'Gattaca' babies and people who want to do genetic stuff with their kids," Malcolm told me. Ellison, meanwhile, who has two children in their 30s, has reportedly resumed having kids — with his 31-year-old girlfriend. "The person of this subculture really sees the pathway to immortality as being through having children," Simone said. The person of this subculture really sees the pathway to immortality as being through having children. Before she met Malcolm, Simone was convinced she wanted to live her life single and child-free.

San Francisco-based Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the security situation at the company. He echoed a pessimistic view among some Twitter users this week: The service might go down entirely under Musk's ownership. Verification serviceOn Friday, Twitter paused the rollout of its Twitter Blue verification service, intended to let users pay $8 a month for a verification badge. “The debacle with the Twitter verification is a really strong indicator as to what can go wrong,” Roger said. “When the verified Twitter users got hacked a few months ago, it was only a bitcoin scam, right?” Rogers said.

☆ Pro Take: Election Will Influence Tech Policy on the Margins
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Steven | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Nonetheless, when all results are in, election results may shape technology policy and regulation in some important respects. There are some matters of tech policy that won’t be addressed in any single election, because they are long-term issues, according to Michael Burns, partner with private-equity and venture-capital investor Murray Hill Group. The Biden administration is taking aggressive action that includes cutting off supplies of advanced semiconductors and machines used to make them, according to Mr. Burns. “The next challenge is aligning on industrial policy with outcomes measured in 5 to 10 or even 15-year horizons. This is hard in a system where the next election cycle is considered long term.”Write to Steven Rosenbush at steven.rosenbush@wsj.com

Ransomware hackers hit MercyOne in early October, part of a larger breach that caused hospitalwide outages at multiple health systems, according to The Des Moines Register. CommonSpirit Health, a nonprofit health system based in Chicago, oversees 140 hospitals in 21 states; it was not clear how many of them hospitals were affected, and it declined to share the number. For Rachel Cupples of Western Washington, the CommonSpirit Health ransomware attack meant delaying important surgery for weeks. Like some other CommonSpirit Health hospitals that were affected, hers announced it was having trouble scheduling new patients. Parsi and Cupples said they blamed the hackers, not the hospitals, for their pain caused by delayed care.

States are working to shore up what might be the most public and vulnerable parts of their election systems: the websites that publish voting results. One of its victims last month was Hawaii.gov, which also hosts the state’s election night reporting. That means avoiding even the perception of hackers’ changing votes, which makes election results websites all the more crucial. Historically, election results websites have been ripe targets for malicious hackers who want to sow chaos. Some U.S. officials emphasized that even accurate results on websites should be taken for what they are — preliminary indications of election results.

☆ More than 100 election jurisdictions waiting on federal cyber help, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Julia-Ainsley-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Julia Ainsley | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, offers the services on a voluntary basis. But some election information does run through the internet, like voting registration, official information about how and where to vote, and election officials’ email systems. The sources declined to say which states and election jurisdictions have not received the help they asked for, or how many. State and local election officials sought to beef up their security software after the 2019 report from special counsel Robert Mueller revealed Russian interference in the 2016 election. “And we have made this the top priority at CISA over the past year to ensure that we are supporting those election officials.”

Voters in at least two states have received false information about how to vote through text messages in recent days, with little idea who’s behind them. It wasn’t immediately clear how many people received the text messages. Obtained by NBC NewsExperts have warned that text messages that mislead people about how to vote are a particularly tricky problem. It’s not difficult for a malicious actor to hide where a text message comes from, and the Federal Communications Commission loosened restrictions on political text messaging before the 2020 election. Kansans were targeted with misleading text messages this year in relation to an abortion referendum.

U.S. law enforcement has circulated bulletins warning that conspiracy theorists could become violent around the midterm elections on Nov. 8. The bulletins, obtained by NBC News, are unclassified but intended only for law enforcement. One of the bulletins, issued Friday by the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center, and marked “for official use only,” warned about domestic violent extremism, or DVE in law enforcement circles. “The most plausible DVE threat is posed by lone offenders who leverage election-related issues to justify violence,” it said. Those include an Oct. 10 post on the fringe social media platform Gab in which a user wrote, “Death penalty for election fraud!

☆ U.S. chip industry body urges R&D infrastructure upgrade with Chips Act funds
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Jane Lanhee Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct 27 (Reuters) - Funds from the recently passed $52 billion Chips and Science Act should be used to upgrade existing U.S. research and development infrastructure as well as building new facilities, a chips industry body said on Thursday. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) on Thursday called for a careful examination of existing R&D infrastructure, including facilities such as the Albany NanoTech Complex in New York and other government and research spaces. In addition to tens of billions of dollars for building back U.S. chip manufacturing capacity, the Chips and Science act carved out $2 billion for the Defense Department and $11 billion for the Commerce Department to allocate for chip R&D. "In the semiconductor industry, that kind of money, especially when we're talking about efforts towards scale up, will be spent very, very quickly. Breckenfeld said the Defense Department funding would mainly go to existing programs, while the Commerce Department funding will be allocated through two new government entities - the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) and the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP).

A sprawling online propaganda campaign that pushes pro-China messaging has been trying to influence American voters, researchers say. Two companies that study large-scale online influence operations published research this week showing that a pro-China campaign was active and targeting the U.S. midterm elections as recently as this month. But such efforts show that pro-China influence operations targeting the West are experimenting with new tactics and are increasingly aimed at shaping American elections. The other report, from social media analytics firm Alethea, found 165 Twitter accounts that misled users about who they were and posted pro-China messages in English. “Speculating or accusing China of using social media to interfere in the US midterm elections is completely groundless and malicious speculation.

☆ China chip imports drop 12.4% year-on-year in September - govt data
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Josh Horwitz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SHANGHAI, Oct 24 (Reuters) - China's chip imports fell 12.4 percent in September, according to official customs data published on Monday, continuing a decline amid tensions with the United States and an ongoing chip shortage. The country imported 47.6 billion chip units during the month, compared with 54.3 billion units in September 2021, according to the data, which had been due for release earlier this month but was delayed due to the Communist Party Congress. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterIn the first nine months of 2021, China imported 417.1 billion units of chips, down 12.8 percent year-on-year. Chip imports to China surged in 2021, as tensions between the U.S. and China over technology policy escalated and a global chip shortage caused many companies in China to stockpile supplies. Separate data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that domestic chip output in September fell 16.4% year-on-year to 26.1 billion units.

The FBI has warned that an Iranian government-tied hacker group that tried to interfere in the 2020 election is currently active and a threat to the U.S. The group, which federal agencies say operates from an Iranian cybersecurity company called Emennet Pasargad, is engaged in “ongoing” operations to hack and leak material, and may target American organizations, the FBI said Thursday in an industry warning. In October 2020, the FBI announced that Iran was behind the most significant foreign attempt to influence that year’s U.S. elections. Democrats registered to vote in Florida, which makes voter information publicly accessible, received intimidating emails in the weeks before the election, instructing them to become Republicans. It was not clear what organization the FBI was referring to, and the agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

☆ Xi wanted China to be at the tech frontier. 5 years on, tensions with the U.S. have dented that goal
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

Major Chinese technology firms have been put on export blacklists since then. Looking ahead, the latest package of U.S. controls will make a huge dent in China's technology ambitions. Paul Triolo technology policy lead, Albright StonebridgeThings did not look as "bleak" for China's semiconductors in 2017 as they do now, Triolo said. China's tech crackdownA major hallmark of Xi's last five years is how he has transformed China into one of the strictest regulatory regimes globally for technology. China's technology giants are also posting their slowest growth in history, partly due to tighter regulations.

Last week, Killnet targeted the websites of several U.S. states, successfully knocking Colorado.gov offline for more than a day and briefly interrupting Kentucky.gov. Killnet frequently posts lists of targeted websites on its Telegram channel, encouraging fellow Russia supporters with entry-level hacker skills to join it in trying to disrupt them. The U.S. Department of Transportation and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. It listed the city of Chicago’s general air travel website, flychicago.com, which was inaccessible Monday, but not that of its major airports, like O’Hare International or Midway International. Similarly, it targeted Hawaii’s state website for air travel, which was also inaccessible, but not Honolulu International.

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