In This Issue

News

Australian police have been using Clearview AI & QLD cops love it the most

Remember Clearview AI from a few weeks ago? That creepy piece of software that allowed cops to upload a still photo of someone (i.e: from CCTV footage) and find out who the person is based on the vast collection of images uploaded by unwitting people on social media? Today we have confirmation that Australian cops are all over Clearview AI and the AFP along with state forces in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia have run more than 1,000 searches. No surprises that the biggest users of Clearview AI are the Queensland cops, running over 900 searches. Love how police do this shit without consulting the community or having any sort of process to determine if it's accurate before they go around accusing people of murders or rapes based on something more than "well the computer said you did it so put your hands behind your head!".

ACMA will start fining telcos that don’t take extra steps to protect customers porting mobile numbers

It's common knowledge around most info sec circles that mobile phone numbers/SMS is a crap way to do two factor authentication. SMS 2FA is better than nothing, but because it's so easy to port someone else's number to a SIM out of their control (usually all you need is a name and date of birth) it really shouldn't be used if there's another 2FA option available. ACMA has been bugging teclos to make it more difficult to port a number to avoid these types of attacks and today has set a deadline of April 30th to comply with new rules for ID verification when porting a mobile number or face $250,000 fines for each time a number is ported without a customer's authorisation. This means telcos will have to check with the customer before their number is ported, rather than just doing it after a form is submitted.

Steven Seagal fined by the SEC for not disclosing he was paid US$1m to promote an ICO

Steven Seagal (yes the dodgy action movie actor) has come to an agreement with the SEC that he will pay a US$314,000 fine and won't promote any type of security (aka investment) for three years. The reason the SEC was looking into Seagal was over his invovlement with an initial coin offering called Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G) he was paid US$250,000 cash plus US$750,000 worth of B2G to promote. It's illegal for someone to go around saying how awesome an investment is without disclosing they've been paid to promote it - a good law, but honestly if you're placing your money in a very dodgy looking ICO and the authenticity of Steven Seagal's recommendation is what gets you across the line, maybe you don't deserve that money.

Not News

USB-C chargers have faster processors than what landed people on the moon

Computers used for mundane tasks being faster than the Apollo Guidance Computer is a tired trope, but Forrest Heller has tried his best to evenly compare the grunt used to take man to the moon and the modern microprocessors used in USB-C chargers like the Anker PowerPort Atom PD 2. Yep, computers are now so cheap and so powerful, that we can use what would have been considered state of the art roughly 50 years ago to simply tell a USB-C device how much juice it can suck from a charger (I think that's what the CYPD4225 does??). You would need at least four CYPD4225 microprocessors as the Apollo 11 spacecraft had 4 computers, but yeah, you could technically use the little chip inside a USB-C charger to control a spacecraft.

Bargains

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The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.​