May 2019 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

SHIPPING WARS: Walmart blows Amazon out of the water with its own free, next-day delivery

by Luigi Scorca

https://amp.businessinsider.com/walmart-launches-next-day-delivery-undercut…

May 14, 2019

Thrangrycat: Cisco Vulnerability Disclosure

by Giacomo Tesio

Gente strana... :-D https://xn--538haa.fm/ # How do you describe the meaning of this vulnerability name? We chose to communicate 😾😾😾 through a visual representation of symbols, rather than “words.” Naming vulnerabilities using emoji sequences instead of other pronounceable natural languages have several advantages. First, emoji sequences are universally understood across nearly all natural languages. Choosing 😾😾😾 instead of a name rooted in any one language ensures that the technical contents of our research can be discussed democratically and without latent cultural or linguistic bias. Second, emojis are indexical to the digital age. Third, clear communication is the foundation of friendship, and such a foundation must begin with proper ontological agreement. Just as the universal language of mathematics is largely expressed through interlinguistic symbology, so too is 😾😾😾. Fourth, cats are seen as almost paradoxical beings. While they exist in our lives as the ultimate creatures of leisure, cats are also fierce predators. “Cats are the most highly specialized of the terrestrial flesh-eating mammals. They are powerfully built, with a large brain and strong teeth. The teeth are adapted to three functions: stabbing (canines), anchoring (canines), and cutting (carnassial molars).” ( Lariviere, Serge; Stains, Howard James. “Feline.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Feline). For an incomplete list of felines in various mythologies, see this webpage. # How do you pronounce this vulnerability name? There is no phonetic transcription for this specific sequence of repeated emojis, and the pronunciation is open to interpretation. We suggest “Thrangrycat” as a suitable enunciation.

May 14, 2019

WhatsApp voice calls used to inject Israeli spyware on phones, Messaging app discovers vulnerability that has been open for weeks

by Alberto Cammozzo

<https://www.ft.com/content/4da1117e-756c-11e9-be7d-6d846537acab?segmentid=a…> A vulnerability in the messaging app WhatsApp has allowed attackers to inject commercial Israeli spyware on to phones, the company and a spyware technology dealer said. WhatsApp <https://www.ft.com/stream/7b5b19ff-e034-4c9a-96f7-c3aab7c47f05>, which is used by 1.5bn people worldwide, discovered in early May that attackers were able to install surveillance software on to both iPhones and Android phones by ringing up targets using the app’s phone call function. The malicious code, developed by the secretive Israeli company NSO Group, could be transmitted even if users did not answer their phones, and the calls often disappeared from call logs, said the spyware dealer, who was recently briefed on the WhatsApp hack. WhatsApp is too early into its own investigations of the vulnerability to estimate how many phones were targeted using this method, a person familiar with the issue said. As late as Sunday, as WhatsApp engineers raced to close the loophole, a UK-based human rights lawyer’s phone was targeted using the same method. Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab said they believed that the spyware attack on Sunday was linked to the same vulnerability that WhatsApp was trying to patch. NSO’s flagship product is Pegasus, a program that can turn on a phone’s microphone and camera, trawl through emails and messages and collect location data. NSO advertises its products to Middle Eastern and Western intelligence agencies, and says Pegasus is intended for governments to fight terrorism and crime. NSO was recently valued at $1bn in a leveraged buyout that involved the UK private equity fund Novalpina Capital In the past, human rights campaigners in the Middle East have received text messages over WhatsApp that contained links that would download Pegasus to their phones. [...] Le applicazioni per lo spionaggio su smartphone (non solo whatsapp, anche teleram, tinder, kik, ..) si moltiplicano, spesso sotto il nome "parental monitoring": Ad es: <https://www.theonespy.com>

May 14, 2019

WhatsApp urges users to update app after discovering spyware vulnerability

by Giacomo Tesio

Perché non facciamo una legge Europea che vieta agli stati di diffondere spyware? E magari anche le zanzare di mordere! :-D https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/13/whatsapp-urges-users-to-… The spyware, developed by Israeli cyber intelligence company, used infected phone calls to take over the functions of operating systems [..] Attackers could transmit the malicious code to a target’s device by calling the user and infecting the call whether or not the recipient answered the call. Logs of the incoming calls were often erased, according to the report. WhatsApp said that the vulnerability was discovered this month, and that the company quickly addressed the problem within its own infrastructure. An update to the app was published Monday, and the company is encouraging users to upgrade out of an abundance of caution. [...] The company has also alerted US law enforcement to the exploit, and published a “CVE notice”, an advisory to other cybersecurity experts alerting them to “common vulnerabilities and exposures”. The vulnerability was used in an attempted attack on the phone of a UK-based attorney on 12 May, the FT reported. The lawyer, who was not identified by name, is involved in a lawsuit against NSO brought by a group of Mexican journalists, government critics and a Saudi Arabian dissident. “The attack has all the hallmarks of a private company reportedly that works with governments to deliver spyware that takes over the functions of mobile phone operating systems,” WhatsApp said in a statement. “We have briefed a number of human rights organizations to share the information we can and to work with them to notify civil society.” NSO Group did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for a comment. The company told the FT that it was investigating the WhatsApp attacks. “Under no circumstances would NSO be involved in the operating or identifying of targets of its technology, which is solely operated by intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” NSO Group told the FT. “NSO would not, or could not, use its technology in its own right to target any person or organization, including this individual.” NSO limits sales of its spyware, Pegasus, to state intelligence agencies. The spyware’s capabilities are near absolute. Once installed on a phone, the software can extract all of the data that’s already on the device (text messages, contacts, GPS location, email, browser history, etc) in addition to creating new data by using the phone’s microphone and camera to record the user’s surroundings and ambient sounds, according to a 2016 report by the New York Times.

May 14, 2019

Accused of ‘Terrorism’ for Putting Legal Materials Online - The New York Times

by J.C. DE MARTIN

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/us/politics/georgia-official-code-copyri… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

May 13, 2019

San Francisco Could Become the First U.S. City to Ban the Use of Facial Recognition Technology

by gianluca quaglia

San Francisco Could Become the First U.S. City to Ban the Use of Facial Recognition Technology By MATT O'BRIEN AND JANIE HAR / AP 5:47 AM EDT (SAN FRANCISCO) — San Francisco is on track to become the first U.S. city to ban the use of facial recognition by police and other city agencies, reflecting a growing backlash against a technology that’s creeping into airports, motor vehicle departments, stores, stadiums and home security cameras. Government agencies around the U.S. have used the technology for more than a decade to scan databases for suspects and prevent identity fraud. But recent advances in artificial intelligence have created more sophisticated computer vision tools, making it easier for police to pinpoint a missing child or protester in a moving crowd or for retailers to analyze a shopper’s facial expressions as they peruse store shelves. [...] continua qui http://time.com/5588098/san-francisco-facial-recognition-technology-ban/?fb… --

May 13, 2019

Pubblicate le linee guida AgID sull’acquisizione e il riuso del software nella PA

by Marco Ciurcina

https://www.agid.gov.it/it/agenzia/stampa-e-comunicazione/notizie/2019/05/1… pubblicate-linee-guida-agid-sullacquisizione-il-riuso-del-software-nella-pa m.c.

May 13, 2019

"Incontro Macron-Zuckerberg: nasce l'Autorità Garante dei Social Network"

by J.C. DE MARTIN

*Incontro Macron-Zuckerberg: nasce l'Autorità Garante dei Social Network* Di Cristiano Tassinari • ultimo aggiornamento: 10/05/2019 PARIGI (FRANCIA) L'inventore di Facebook ha avuto un incontro questo venerdì con il presidente Emmanuel Macron, con il Segretario di Stato per il digitale Mounir Mahjoubi e con molti imprenditori francesi. La Francia si propone, infatti, come il paese che inventa il regolamento europeo dei social network, per un maggiore controllo dei contenuti pubblicati, proponendo la creazione di un'autorità amministrativa indipendente in ogni paese europeo. [...] continua qui: https://it.euronews.com/2019/05/10/incontro-macron-zuckerberg-nasce-l-autor…

May 13, 2019

69° Nexa Lunch Seminar | 22 maggio 2019

by Nexa Media

Nexa Center for Internet and Society Newsletter Se non visualizzi correttamente questo messaggio clicca qui <http://nexa.polito.it/lunch-69> NEXA 69° Nexa Lunch Seminar Mercoledi 22 maggio 2019, ore 13.00 - 14.00 Politecnico di Torino http://nexa.polito.it/lunch-69 Incarnazione digitale. Custodire l’umano nell’infosfera Speaker Don Luca Peyron (Arcidiocesi di Torino – Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Milano) This event will be webcast live: https://nexa.polito.it/nexa-hangout-on-air La rivoluzione digitale cambia la società, il mondo in cui abbiamo contezza dell’umano e dunque di noi stessi ed il rapporto tra le generazioni. A partire dalla categoria di infosfera, che ci permette di affrontare la complessità della realtà trattenendola in un unico concetto, *quali scenari e quali direzioni di pensiero possiamo condividere per mantenere antropico il mondo che viviamo?* La dimensione spirituale quale contributo può dare al governo di questa complessità e quali intersezioni possiamo immaginare tra discipline scientifiche diverse come la *teologia*, la *filosofia* e le abituali discipline che applichiamo nel *digitale*? Il contributo della Teologia fondamentale, biblica e morale alla discussione ed al governo della rivoluzione digitale in una chiave transculturale ed educativo formativa. /Ingresso libero - Sarà disponibile un leggero rinfresco per coloro che si saranno registrati su http://lunch69.eventbrite.com entro il 20 maggio./ BIOGRAFIE - e informazioni supplementari [Peyron] Don *Luca PEYRON* presbitero della Diocesi di Torino, laureato in Giurisprudenza e licenziato in Teologia Pastorale, è stato consulente in proprietà industriale. Attualmente è direttore diocesano della Pastorale Universitaria e delegato Piemonte e Valle d’Aosta. Insegna teologia dell’innovazione all’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, Teologia dell’Educazione presso Iusto e tiene il laboratorio di spiritualità dell’innovazione presso l’Università degli studi di Torino, dipartimento di Management. Letture consigliate e link utili: * L. Peyron, /Incarnazione digitale/, Elledici, 2019. * L. Peyron, I. Andreis, /Elogio della generosità/, Elledici, 2018. * L. Floridi, /La quarta rivoluzione. Come l'infosfera sta trasformando il mondo/, Raffaello Cortina, 2017. * G. Manzone, /La tecnologia dal volto umano/, Queriniana, 2004. Che cosa sono il Centro Nexa e i cicli di incontri “Mercoledì di Nexa” e “Nexa Lunch Seminar” <https://www.facebook.com/nexa.center/> <https://twitter.com/nexacenter> <https://www.youtube.com/user/NexaCenter> #nexalunchseminar <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23nexalunchseminar&src=typd> #rivoluzionedigitale <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23rivoluzionedigitale&src=typd> #infosfera <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23infosfera&src=typd> Il Centro Nexa su Internet & Società del Politecnico di Torino (Dipartimento di Automatica e Informatica) è un centro di ricerca indipendente e interdisciplinare che studia Internet e il suo effetto sulla società. Maggiori informazioni all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/about. Durante i “*Mercoledì di Nexa*”, che si tengono *ogni 2° mercoledì del mese* alle *ore 18 in punto*, il Centro Nexa su Internet e Società apre le sue porte non solo agli esperti e a tutti coloro i quali lavorano con Internet, ma anche a semplici appassionati e cittadini. Il ciclo di incontri intende approfondire, con un linguaggio preciso ma divulgativo, i temi legati alla Rete: motori di ricerca, Creative Commons, social networks, open source/software libero, neutralità della rete, libertà di espressione, privacy, file sharing, big e open data, smart cities e molto altro. Al centro di quasi tutti gli incontri un ospite pronto a dialogare con i direttori del Centro Nexa, il Prof. Juan Carlos De Martin del Politecnico di Torino e il Prof. Marco Ricolfi dell'Università di Torino, nonché lo staff e i Fellows del Centro Nexa. Maggiori informazioni sui Mercoledì di Nexa, incluso un elenco di tutti i “Mercoledì” passati, sono disponibili all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi. Si segnala inoltre che dal maggio 2012 *ogni 4° mercoledì* del mese *dalle ore 13 alle ore 14* il Centro Nexa organizza anche i "*Nexa Lunch Seminar*". Una lista di tutti i “Lunch Seminar” passati è disponibile all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/lunch-seminars. See our events calendar <http://nexa.polito.it/events> if you're curious about future luncheons, discussions, lectures, and conferences not listed in this email. Our events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. Responsabile Comunicazione Centro Nexa su Internet & Società: *Francesco Ruggiero*, tel: +39 011 090 7219, Mob: +39 349 1335082, francesco.ruggiero(a)polito.it <mailto:francesco.ruggiero@polito.it>. Maggiori informazioni sui Mercoledì di Nexa e i Nexa Lunch Seminar, sono disponibili all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/events. Weekly Events Newsletter. Sign up <http://nexa.polito.it/mailing-lists> to receive this newsletter if this email was forwarded to you. To manage your subscription preferences, please click here <https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa>. Connect & get involved: Jobs, internships, and more <http://nexa.polito.it/get-involved>.

May 13, 2019

'I'd Have These Extremely Graphic Dreams': What It's Like To Work On Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat 11

by Giacomo Tesio

Interessante prospettiva su un software di grande successo commerciale. Due punti sono particolarmente interessanti: - la dissociazione cognitiva che permetta agli sviluppatori di sostenere che ciò che danneggia la loro percezione della realtà e i loro sogni possa essere ininfluente sulla mente dei giocatori cui, by design, causa dipendenza - la tesi di Hutchinson (ex Ubisoft, Creative Director di Assassin’s Creed 3 e Far Cry 4) per la quale coloro che non giocano a questi giochi violenti ma li osservano dall'esterno hanno una percezione esagerata della violenza rappresentata che diventa "abstract in nature" In altri termini chi non è dipendente dal gioco non è assuefatto alla violenza che vi viene rappresentato. Ma che scoperta sensazionale! E la cosa divertente (tragica) è che questi argomenti fanno presa su chi (NON) vieta la commercializzazione di queste armi. Insieme ad altri incentivi... suppongo. https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/05/id-have-these-extremely-graphic-dreams-wh… Here’s one such story, about a developer who worked with the cinematics team for Mortal Kombat 11 and requested anonymity in order to protect their employment prospects. They told Kotaku that they had worked on the game throughout 2018, and spent their days reviewing violent animation work, discussing it with leads, sharing feedback with animators, and generally being surrounded by the kind of bloody real-life research material that creators reference in order to animate video game gore. Within a month, they started feeling the effects. “I’d have these extremely graphic dreams, very violent,” they told Kotaku in a call. “I kinds of just stopped wanting to go to sleep, so I’d just keep myself awake for days at a time, to avoid sleeping.” Eventually, the developer says they saw a therapist, who diagnosed them with PTSD. They attribute this to their work on MK11 - not just the content of the game and having to process and discuss its violent cinematics frame by frame, but also being surrounded by the reference materials artists used for research. “You’d walk around the office and one guy would be watching hangings on YouTube, another guy would be looking at pictures of murder victims, someone else would be watching a video of a cow being slaughtered,” they said. “The scary part was always the point at which new people on the project got used to it. And I definitely hit that point.” [...] On the one hand, it’s disconcertingly nonchalant. “We do a lot of testing of, like, how liquid will land on carpet, how it’ll react on dirt,” he said. “And we do tests and talk about them like ‘Does that look how you’d think it would look?’... If I get blood on my shirt, it’s gonna get dark, so it needs to react appropriately. Our tech artists dig into that and make it look very real.” On the other, there’s a level of remove: “I hate to keep saying this, but I think it’s more just the beats to me,” he said. “It’s not so much what’s happening. It’s more just the animations.” [...] “As a mechanic, it’s basically perfect,” said Alex Hutchinson when asked about violence in video games. Hutchinson is a game director whose work spans the entire spectrum of video game violence, from the potentially pacifistic Spore to the far bloodier Assassin’s Creed 3 and Far Cry 4. “You have a clear goal. It’s exciting because there’s a risk/reward — you win, they die. You lose, you die. So you’re afraid, and you can lose things. It’s usually spectacular because you’re shooting a gun or swinging swords, you get great feedback. You can even see this in pseudo-gun combat mechanics, like camera mechanics. Because that has everything that guns have—that’s why Pokémon Snap is so satisfying.” Hutchinson said he spends a lot of time thinking about how those who don’t game might perceive violence, arguing that the sensory feedback you get from interacting with the game — the thrill of winning, and fear of losing — does a lot of work to make graphic violence abstract in nature. Observers can’t quite understand that in the same way, and might therefore be more repelled by the bloody images they’re seeing on screen, Hutchinson said. But he’s not insensitive to the occupational hazards of having to depict violence. “I think as realism improves, it’s more of a danger,” Hutchinson said. “The fidelity of the assets you deal with, and the world you’re building—it’s more likely. We had some friends out here working on Outlast. I don’t think he was upset, but the character artist was joking that he’d spent a lot of time modelling dead babies, and it wasn’t his favourite moment, you know?” “Mortal Kombat is....it’s Mortal Kombat,” the anonymous cinematics developer who had graphic dreams told me. “You start to feel like an idiot for thinking about what the impact of working on that game has been on yourself. Other people I’ve talked to have been like, ‘I know what I’m working on, I know what I’ve gotten myself into here.’ And you start to blame yourself for being shitty or weak or spineless.” The developer felt that management’s top-level perspective made it seem like they were less immersed in the details of the violent content than the animators that reported to them. Bosses would joke about and compliment well-done scenes of violence, the developer said — a desirable outcome in most environments, but when working on violence is starting to affect you, the dynamic gets complicated. Meetings with this developer’s boss involved discussing “how this spine extraction scene is going, and making sure you can feel the pop when the spine is ripped out from the rest of the body,” they said. [...] One coworker, for example, told them that the toll of working on Mortal Kombat 11 was eliciting horrible images in real life. “When he looks at his dog, he just sees the guts inside of it, and he couldn’t look at his dog without imagining all of the viscera.”

May 13, 2019