July 2020 - Webteam

FW: Emoji u imenima fajlova
by Dejan Ristanovic 31 Jul '20

31 Jul '20

Kako smo do sada živeli bez ovoga... ;)) https://www.howtogeek.com/682868/%e2%9c%a8-you-can-use-emoji-in-file-names-o n-windows-10/

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Garmin
by Dejan Ristanovic 27 Jul '20

27 Jul '20

Evo (ukoliko je verovati Dalu Mail-u) priče o hakeru koji je "zarobio" Garmin. Vidite da krade milione dolara i ne živi loše sa svim tim Lamburdžinima i Gospođom Haker na priloženoj slici (a ta je ujedno ćerka nekog ruskog KGB-ovca ili šta je već) Koliko vidim, Garmin polako pušta neke servise, počelo da se sinhronizuje. Ali radi jako, jako sporo radi. Portal ne radi, ali očigledno su krenuli da vraćaju a Rus da bira novu Lambu :) Izgleda da im je glavni problem da hendluju requests. Em što gomila uređaja oće da se sinhronizuje, em što oni moraju da rade sync sa stravom, training peaks-om i gomilom drugih servisa. Vidim obaveštenje na stravi da su počeli sync sinoć i da će verovatno da traje 7 dana (!?). Zamišljam, milioni uređaja pokušavaju da se zakače. Oni koji se zakače, rade sync. Sync traje. Pita server imaš ovo, imam, imaš ovo, imam, imaš ovo, nemam, evo ti ovo, jel dobro, jeste, crc mrc pa u krug. Server load 100% flat line. Dok to traje, milioni gađaju svako malo i pokušavaju da se konektuju. Pozdrav, Dejan https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8562805/Will-Garmin-pay-10-Million… Will Garmin pay $10 Million ransom in order to bring to an end ransomware attack after three days? * The navigation company was hit by a ransomware attack on Thursday with customers unable to log in to their apps and record their fitness sessions for five straight days - pilots who use their apps have also been affected Tens of millions of people around the world have found their Garmin devices, including those used by runners, cyclists and pilots, down for a fifth day after being hacked by Russian group Evil Corps which is demanding a $10m ransom to restore their operation. Garmin has been ordered to pay the ransom by the cybercriminal group headed by a 33-year-old Russian playboy hacker, Maksim Yakubets, who drives a customized $250,000 Lamborghini. In December 2019, the FBI placed a $5 million bounty on Yakubets head for information leading to his capture. It is the largest reward being offered for an alleged criminal connected to cybercrime. Yakubets' latest target is Garmin, which has still offered no explanation for their outage, but security analysts said the reason is likely ransomware, a technique used by hackers to encrypt data and extort funds. The company said on <https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/twitter/index.html> Twitter that its website and Garmin Connect fitness app had been offline since Thursday. It said the 'flyGarmin' site used for aviation databases was also down. <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231570-8562805-Maksim_Yakubets…> &lt;img id="i-55a4b72c09002459" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231570-8562805-Maksim_Yakubets…" height="542" width="962" alt="Maksim Yakubets speaks with a police officer. Yakubets drives a customized Lamborghini Huracan supercar with a personalized number plate that translates to the word 'Thief'" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Maksim Yakubets speaks with a police officer. Yakubets drives a customized Lamborghini Huracan supercar with a personalized number plate that translates to the word 'Thief' <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231062-8562805-Maksim_Viktorov…> &lt;img id="i-b41c59f481ce0e65" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231062-8562805-Maksim_Viktorov…" height="570" width="470" alt="Maksim Viktorovich Yakubets, 33, is believed to be the head of Russian hacking group Evil Corp and responsible for the attack on Garmin's systems. The FBI has a $5 million reward for information that leads to his capture" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Maksim Viktorovich Yakubets, 33, is believed to be the head of Russian hacking group Evil Corp and responsible for the attack on Garmin's systems. The FBI has a $5 million reward for information that leads to his capture The malware has been linked to a Russian cybercriminal group known as Evil Corp. In December 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Evil Corp after causing more than $100 million in financial damages in the American banking system. As a result, if Garmin wanted to pay the ransom, it could potentially be found to be breaking United States sanctions. Evil Corp is a Russia-based cybercriminal organization, headed by Maksim Yakubets, which is believed to be responsible for the ransomware attack against Garmin. Yakubets is alleged to have run the operation since May 2009 from the basements of Moscow cafes. He is said to have employed dozens of people to steal money from victims in 43 countries using computer viruses that are designed to target only victims outside Russia. The ‘malware’ is downloaded when a victim clicks on an email attachment and remains hidden on their computer to harvest their personal and financial data such as online banking details – which is subsequently used to drain their accounts. Operating online under the name Aqua, the hacker and his associates are accused of stealing at least $100million. US treasury officials also say Yakubets has provided ‘direct assistance to the Russian government’ by acquiring confidential documents for the FSB security agency. He was also said to be part of a scheme in which Russian intelligence agencies recruit criminals to hack national security targets. Yakubets, a Russian national originally from Ukraine, is still at large, as is his administrator Igor Turashev, 38. In December, 15 people associated with the hacking group were sanctioned by the US treasury. Many are believed to be living in Moscow. If Yakubets leaves Russia, he will be arrested and extradited to America to face charges. Financial sanctions have been imposed on him by the US, but privately, insiders say the chances of him setting foot outside Russia remain small. Yakubets is known to be a flamboyant character and along with his flash cars, one of which is a customized Lamborghini with a number plate that reads THIEF in Russian, he is known to have splashed out on a pet tiger and lion cubs. WHAT IS EVIL CORP? Evil Corp is a Russia-based cybercriminal organization, headed by Maksim Yakubets, which is believed to be responsible for the ransomware attack against Garmin. It has been described by officials as one of the most damaging criminal organizations on the internet. Yakubets is alleged to have run the operation since May 2009 from the basements of Moscow cafes. He is said to have employed dozens of people to steal money from victims in 43 countries using computer viruses that are designed to target only victims outside Russia. The 'malware' is downloaded when a victim clicks on an email attachment and remains hidden on their computer to harvest their personal and financial data such as online banking details – which is subsequently used to drain their accounts. In December, 15 people associated with the hacking group were sanctioned by the US treasury. Many are believed to be living in Moscow. 'Yakubets is a true 21st century criminal,' U.S. Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said in December last year 'He's earned his place on the FBI's list of the world's most wanted cyber criminals.' He is described as untouchable in the Russian capital, Moscow, where he regularly films himself driving 'doughnuts' around police, with tires screeching, in one of his fleet of supercars - 'cash rich with fast cars' bought from the proceeds of fraud. For a decade the multi-millionaire is said to have run the world's most harmful cyber- <https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/crime/index.html> crime group. Yakubets, who has also worked for Russia's FSB intelligence agency, is said to live like a king, splurging more than $250,000 on his wedding. He married at a golf club north of Moscow in summer 2017 to glamorous businesswoman Alyona Benderskaya. She is believed to be the owner of a chain of Moscow stores selling Italian luxury clothing called Plein Sport and graduated from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow in 2014. Benderskaya is believed to be Yakubets' second wife. Her father, Yakubets' father-in-law, is a former officer with an elite special-forces unit of the FSB, Eduard Bendersky but it is also believed that some of his spy work for the organization rubbed off on his daughter. Benderskaya is known to be a founder of several companies called Vympel-Aktiv and Vympel-Protekt which are linked to the FSB's Special Purpose Center, known mainly for counterterrorism operations and 'foreign sabotage operations' according to <https://www.rferl.org/a/in-lavish-wedding-photos-clues-to-an-alleged-russia…> RadioFreeEurope. In April 2018, Yakubets was in the process of obtaining a license to work with classified Russian information from the Russian spy agency, the FSB - the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. The FSB was the main successor agency to the KGB. Yakubets was also responsible for recruiting and managing a network of individuals to Evil Corps who would then be responsible for facilitating the movement of money illicitly. <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31233104-8562805-Yakubets_was_ma…> &lt;img id="i-bf1b60296185e10b" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31233104-8562805-Yakubets_was_ma…" height="1039" width="962" alt="Yakubets was married at a golf club north of Moscow in summer 2017 to glamorous businesswoman Alyona Benderskaya who runs a chain of Italian luxury clothing stores" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Yakubets was married at a golf club north of Moscow in summer 2017 to glamorous businesswoman Alyona Benderskaya who runs a chain of Italian luxury clothing stores <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231732-8562805-Maksim_Yakubets…> &lt;img id="i-e099f6b20376d950" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231732-8562805-Maksim_Yakubets…" height="642" width="962" alt="Maksim Yakubets' wedding in 2017 to&nbsp;Alyona Benderskaya whose father-in-law works for FSB" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Maksim Yakubets' wedding in 2017 to Alyona Benderskaya whose father-in-law works for FSB <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31235218-8562805-President_Eduar…> &lt;img id="i-cacc3a15d9cea59e" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31235218-8562805-President_Eduar…" height="492" width="470" alt="President Eduard Bendersky is seen in pages from the Vympel Charitable Fund For Former FSB Officers" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31235216-8562805-Eduard_Bendersk…> &lt;img id="i-b452c2003f656c28" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31235216-8562805-Eduard_Bendersk…" height="492" width="470" alt="Eduard Bendersky" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Yakubets' father-in-law, is a former officer with an elite special-forces unit of the FSB, Eduard Bendersky but it is also believed that some of his spy work for the organization rubbed off on his daughter and she is now also involved in some of the FSB-related 'charities' that he sits on Over the past five days, Garmin, a company valued at $18 billion, has become Yakubets' latest target. On Sunday night, even the company's website was unable to load properly. The security news website <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/garmin-outage-caused-by-conf…> Bleeping Computer described Garmin as being attacked by the WastedLocker ransomware. The ransomware attack works by encrypting the company's data, rendering it inaccessible to employees. Evil Corp have demanded a $10 million ransom for the data to be freed up. Screenshots show lists of the company's files encrypted by the malware, with a ransom note individually attached to each file. The note tells the recipient to contact one of two email addresses to 'get a price for your data'. It is not clear whether any customer data has been compromised, as the tech firm continues to investigate and works to resolve the matter. <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229694-8562805-Files_shared_fr…> &lt;img id="i-93c541e63463713a" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229694-8562805-Files_shared_fr…" height="1604" width="962" alt="Files shared from a Garmin employee show how a ransomeware file had been attached to each one giving the user details of what to do next in order to retrieve their data" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Files shared from a Garmin employee show how a ransomeware file had been attached to each one giving the user details of what to do next in order to retrieve their data <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229708-8562805-A_tweet_shows_t…> &lt;img id="i-d2beaebfdb6c2f58" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229708-8562805-A_tweet_shows_t…" height="876" width="962" alt="A tweet shows the email address that Garmin workers were told to email in order to restore access to their data" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; A tweet shows the email address that Garmin workers were told to email in order to restore access to their data <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229706-8562805-A_note_from_the…> &lt;img id="i-684add2e0a5d46b6" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229706-8562805-A_note_from_the…" height="718" width="962" alt="A note from the hackers has been attached to every single data file within Garmin's systems along with details as to how the company will be able to restore access after paying a ransom" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; A note from the hackers has been attached to every single data file within Garmin's systems along with details as to how the company will be able to restore access after paying a ransom <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228798-8562805-The_company_s_c…> &lt;img id="i-194dcb1b0d95b1c" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228798-8562805-The_company_s_c…" height="390" width="962" alt="The company's communication systems have also been disabled and it now appears to be unable to respond to frustrated and disgruntled customers" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; The company's communication systems have also been disabled and it now appears to be unable to respond to frustrated and disgruntled customers <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228204-8562805-The_navigation_…> &lt;img id="i-329efb8b52297e5b" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228204-8562805-The_navigation_…" height="335" width="962" alt="The navigation company was hit by a ransomware attack on Thursday with customers unable to log their fitness sessions in Garmin apps ever since" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; The navigation company was hit by a ransomware attack on Thursday with customers unable to log their fitness sessions in Garmin apps ever since <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228140-8562805-An_outage_map_s…> &lt;img id="i-f489cb877aca44fa" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228140-8562805-An_outage_map_s…" height="1136" width="962" alt="An outage map shows just how big of a problem the company's apps are experiencing" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; An outage map shows just how big of a problem the company's apps are experiencing In the past, Evil Corp targeted banks primarily located in the United States and the United Kingdom. They developed Dridex software, which was spread using phishing emails that would entice victims to click on malicious links or attachments embedded within the emails. Evil Corp would then use compromised credentials to fraudulently transfer funds from victims' bank accounts to those of bank accounts controlled by the group. Yakubets and his co-conspirators are alleged to have victimized 21 specific municipalities, banks, companies and nonprofit organizations in California, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Washington. Evil Corp is known to be one of the world's most prolific cybercriminal organizations and operates as a business run by a group of individuals based in Moscow, Russia. In June, it was revealed how Evil Corp had breached 31 major American corporations with a new ransomware attack targeting employees working from home. The cybersecurity firm Symantec first announced the breach and attributed it to WastedLocker. <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231060-8562805-The_FBI_is_offe…> &lt;img id="i-699e53a9d2dde49b" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231060-8562805-The_FBI_is_offe…" height="1241" width="962" alt="The FBI is offering a $5 million reward for info that leads to the capture of Maksim Yakubets who is known to work directly with the Russian government in carrying out malicious cyber attacks" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; The FBI is offering a $5 million reward for info that leads to the capture of Maksim Yakubets who is known to work directly with the Russian government in carrying out malicious cyber attacks Russian hacking group Evil Corp show off their luxury lifestyle <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231568-8562805-Maksim_Yakubets…> &lt;img id="i-aabcca0bd7a2460e" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231568-8562805-Maksim_Yakubets…" height="542" width="962" alt="Maksim Yakubets is pictured second from left along with other Evil Corp members who allegedly 'provide material assistance' including, from left, Kirill Slobodskoy, Dimitriy Slobodskoy, in red shirt and Artem Yakubets, far right" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Maksim Yakubets is pictured second from left along with other Evil Corp members who allegedly 'provide material assistance' including, from left, Kirill Slobodskoy, Dimitriy Slobodskoy, in red shirt and Artem Yakubets, far right <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31233664-8562805-Evil_Corp_membe…> &lt;img id="i-c70387221fd71210" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31233664-8562805-Evil_Corp_membe…" height="698" width="962" alt="Evil Corp members Kirill Slobodskoy, Dmitry Smirnov and Denis Gusev pictured in Dubai" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Evil Corp members Kirill Slobodskoy, Dmitry Smirnov and Denis Gusev pictured in Dubai Evil Corp declined to disclose the identities of the other targeted companies, but they include eight Fortune 500 companies and one major news publication. 'These hackers have a decade of experience and they aren't wasting time with small, two-bit outfits,' Symantec's Eric Chien told the <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/us/politics/russia-ransomware-coronaviru…> New York Times. 'They are going after the biggest American firms, and only American firms.' According to Chien, WastedLocker is part of a major expansion in hacking attempts focused specifically at major American business and government services in recent months. 'Security firms have been accused of crying wolf, but what we have seen in the past few weeks is remarkable,' Chien said. 'Right now this is all about making money, but the infrastructure they are deploying could be used to wipe out a lot of data — and not just at corporations.' According to Symantec, the ransomware is first downloaded on a worker's computer after clicking a malicious software update window. Once installed on the person's computer, the ransomware begins unlocking permissions on the remote corporate network the person is connected to, with the goal of eventually locking the entire company out of its own systems to extract a ransom payment. According to Symantec, the software update window that initiates the entire process could have come from from any one of 150 legitimate websites whose security Evil Corp has breached. WastedLocker is part of a major expansion in hacking attempts focused specifically at major American business and government services in recent months. <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/21880112-8562805-Russian_native_…> &lt;img id="i-32938170ac001890" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/21880112-8562805-Russian_native_…" height="534" width="962" alt="Russian native Yakubets owns a customized Lamborghini with a number plate that reads THIEF in Russian (pictured). He provided a 'malware' software which was downloaded by people who clicked on an email attachment which arrived in their inbox and stole their bank details" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Russian native Yakubets owns a customized Lamborghini with a number plate that reads THIEF in Russian (pictured). He provided a 'malware' software which was downloaded by people who clicked on an email attachment which arrived in their inbox and stole their bank details <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/21879598-8562805-A_Lamborghini_H…> &lt;img id="i-d892fb2592b3f1d8" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/21879598-8562805-A_Lamborghini_H…" height="652" width="962" alt="A Lamborghini Huracan and Audi R8 which were apparently used by Evil Corp members" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; A Lamborghini Huracan and Audi R8 which were apparently used by Evil Corp members <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231710-8562805-One_of_Maksim_s…> &lt;img id="i-2d53eda9e869f030" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231710-8562805-One_of_Maksim_s…" height="1011" width="962" alt="One of Maksim's supercars which has been intricately designed and customized" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; One of Maksim's supercars which has been intricately designed and customized Hacker's lavish lifestyle funded by the life savings of his victims Worldwide, cybercrime results in losses that total in the billions of dollars, while in the United States, financial institutions and other businesses remain prime targets for cybercriminals but Evil Corp relies upon a number of core individuals to carry out critical logistical, technical, and financial functions. Essentially the group is run like a legitimate business with someone in charge of managing the malware software with others supervising the operators seeking to target new victims, and laundering the proceeds derived from the group's activities. Some of the other members cited for allegedly 'providing material assistance' in this way, according to the U.S. Treasury, are Dmitriy Smirnov, Artem Yakubets, Ivan Tuchkov, Andrey Plotnitskiy, Dmitriy Slobodskoy and Kirill Slobodskoy. <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31232054-8562805-Andrey_Plotnits…> &lt;img id="i-eb08490f29b628d8" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31232054-8562805-Andrey_Plotnits…" height="1044" width="962" alt="Andrey Plotnitskiy, who authorities identified as another member of Evil Corp" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Andrey Plotnitskiy, who authorities identified as another member of Evil Corp <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31232302-8562805-image-a-230_159…> &lt;img id="i-40cbdc356d994053" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31232302-8562805-image-a-230_159…" height="1071" width="962" alt="" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/21880944-8562805-Maksim_Yakubets…> &lt;img id="i-d3f408be6e1c13d6" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/21880944-8562805-Maksim_Yakubets…" height="734" width="470" alt="Maksim Yakubets, 33, has been named the world's biggest cyber criminal after he allegedly ran the world's most harmful cyber-crime group Evil Corp" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31232304-8562805-Igor_Turashev_w…> &lt;img id="i-17331fed7c512476" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31232304-8562805-Igor_Turashev_w…" height="734" width="470" alt="Igor Turashev was involved in helping Evil Corp exploit victims’ networks. As of 2015, Turashev served as an administrator for Yakubets and had control over the Dridex malware software" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Maksim Yakubets, 32, left, has been named the world's biggest cyber criminal running Evil Corp. Igor Turashev, right, is also allegedly involved in helping Evil Corp exploit victims' networks. As of 2015, Turashev served as an administrator for Yakubets and had control over the Dridex malware software <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231704-8562805-Evil_Corp_have_…> &lt;img id="i-fc6d12e7707add0e" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31231704-8562805-Evil_Corp_have_…" height="932" width="962" alt="Evil Corp have long been behind international computer hacking and bank fraud schemes, which allow members of the group to purchase supercars such as this Audi" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Evil Corp have long been behind international computer hacking and bank fraud schemes, which allow members of the group to purchase supercars such as this Audi <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228142-8562805-The_Garmin_Conn…> &lt;img id="i-36dbf521238a4aeb" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228142-8562805-The_Garmin_Conn…" height="619" width="962" alt="The Garmin Connect software can be seen unsuccessfully attempting to contact the company's servers to upload fitness data. The experience has frustrated customers" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; The Garmin Connect software can be seen unsuccessfully attempting to contact the company's servers to upload fitness data. The experience has frustrated customers <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228716-8562805-One_Twitter_use…> &lt;img id="i-ff9ee8ac7695a11e" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228716-8562805-One_Twitter_use…" height="622" width="470" alt="One Twitter user posted a image that showed how their Garmin smartwatch was not able to be updated" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; One Twitter user posted a image that showed how their Garmin smartwatch was not able to be updated The ransomware attack has led to a shutdown of many of Garmin's systems. Employees working from home connecting by VPN were also cut off from Garmin's systems in an effort to halt the spread of the ransomware across its network. Garmin been largely silent on the outage. On Saturday the company tweeted 'We are currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin Connect. This outage also affects our call centers, and we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails or online chats. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and apologize for this inconvenience.' Brent Callow, a threat analyst at the security firm Emsisoft, said he had no firsthand knowledge but that it 'certainly has all the hallmarks of a ransomware incident. 'There is really no other event that would be likely to cause such widespread disruption and cause a company to immediately shut down everything from its online services to its production line,' Callow said. Garmin's online fitness tracking service is offline leaving runners and cyclists unable to upload data from their latest workouts. Garmin Connect, an app and website that works with the company's popular line of fitness watches, remained out of service on Sunday. The company apologized for the disruption at the end of last week when it indicated the problem was more widespread and also affected its communications systems. <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228718-8562805-image-a-235_159…> &lt;img id="i-2641f22413107bfc" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228718-8562805-image-a-235_159…" height="376" width="962" alt="" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228924-8562805-image-a-236_159…> &lt;img id="i-441f799f86b1c00a" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228924-8562805-image-a-236_159…" height="470" width="962" alt="" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228762-8562805-image-a-237_159…> &lt;img id="i-d2189a92f1c315f6" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228762-8562805-image-a-237_159…" height="475" width="962" alt="" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31230782-8562805-image-a-240_159…> &lt;img id="i-3fa4c2ee4c8945fe" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31230782-8562805-image-a-240_159…" height="376" width="962" alt="" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228758-8562805-image-a-238_159…> &lt;img id="i-c355ae4922a5dbfa" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228758-8562805-image-a-238_159…" height="376" width="962" alt="" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229128-8562805-image-a-239_159…> &lt;img id="i-b2680ba942046bfe" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229128-8562805-image-a-239_159…" height="522" width="962" alt="" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228724-8562805-image-a-241_159…> &lt;img id="i-4972ca4cd021c1ba" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228724-8562805-image-a-241_159…" height="332" width="962" alt="" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228722-8562805-Some_Garmin_use…> &lt;img id="i-4cab6cb5bc233c31" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228722-8562805-Some_Garmin_use…" height="479" width="962" alt="Some Garmin users were furious that the company had not explained the reason for its outage in five days while other mocked those who claimed it was disrupting their exercise routines" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Some Garmin users were furious that the company had not explained the reason for its outage in five days while other mocked those who claimed it was disrupting their exercise routines Garmin Aviation, which provides cockpit navigation and communication services, said on its Facebook page its 'flyGarmin' website and mobile app were down. Fitness enthusiasts took to social media to vent their frustrations about not being able to use the service. Runners said that while the outage doesn't stop them from training, not being able to use Garmin Connect means they can't track their workout data or share their routes on Strava, a social network for runners and cyclists. Atlanta tech executive Caroline Dunn, who runs five days a week and finished the New York Marathon in 2018, said the outage means she and her running friends can't send each other kudos - Strava's version of Facebook's likes - to encourage each other. 'We're not doing this for our health, we're doing this so that we can brag to our friends,' Dunn said lightheartedly. 'Now that we're all social distancing, I don't run in a group with my friends and they don't watch me run. I have to brag online to my friends about all of my runs.' The outage is also preventing athletes from proving that they've completed virtual runs that are replacing the many races cancelled because of the pandemic, Dunn said. Runners who use the Garmin system can't be ranked because they can't submit GPS data to organizers. <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228212-8562805-A_selection_of_…> &lt;img id="i-e1845c63078c0c81" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228212-8562805-A_selection_of_…" height="476" width="962" alt="A selection of Garmin's most popular products is shown above in a file photo" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; A selection of Garmin's most popular products is shown above in a file photo <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228200-8562805-Smartwatch_make…> &lt;img id="i-3e6d4992a921b889" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31228200-8562805-Smartwatch_make…" height="546" width="962" alt="Smartwatch maker Garmin is suffering widespread outages after it was reportedly targeted in a ransomware attack. A notification about the update is seen on the company's website" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Smartwatch maker Garmin is suffering widespread outages after it was reportedly targeted in a ransomware attack. A notification about the update is seen on the company's website Connecticut runner Megan Flood saw the prolonged outage as both a curse and a blessing. 'It's frustrating in part because my Garmin is connected to my Strava (fitness app), and I like the community aspect on Strava,' Flood, 27, said Friday. 'But sometimes not being so connected to my device is nice. I've run some of my best races when I forgot my watch or covered my watch face, so I find there are pros and cons to be so connected to a watch.' Tech-savvy users shared a workaround: plug the watch into a computer with a USB cable and manually transfer the files. Some users also complained that Garmin's lack of communication was a bigger problem. <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229962-8562805-image-a-244_159…> &lt;img id="i-df747f697fdc4446" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229962-8562805-image-a-244_159…" height="654" width="962" alt="" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229956-8562805-image-a-246_159…> &lt;img id="i-18ef43df9fd07038" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229956-8562805-image-a-246_159…" height="824" width="962" alt="" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; <https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229958-8562805-Some_Twitter_us…> &lt;img id="i-bd49cb4ee7675682" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/27/06/31229958-8562805-Some_Twitter_us…" height="754" width="962" alt="Some Twitter users were quick to mock the situation Garmin and its wearers find themselves" class="blkBorder img-share" /&gt; Some Twitter users were quick to mock the situation Garmin and its wearers find themselves Sent from my iPad 2018

1 0

Garmin
by Dejan Ristanovic 25 Jul '20

25 Jul '20

https://www.forbes.com/sites/barrycollins/2020/07/25/will-garmin-pay-10m-ra… Will Garmin Pay $10m Ransom To End Two-Day Outage? <https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykarcz/> Anthony Karcz05:33pm EDT Garmin's computer systems are being held to ransom SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Garmin is reportedly being asked to pay a $10 million ransom to free its systems from a cyberattack that has taken down many of its services for two days. The navigation company was hit by a ransomware attack on Thursday, leaving customers unable to log fitness sessions in Garmin apps and pilots unable to download flight plans for aircraft navigation systems, among other problems. The company’s communication systems have also been taken offline, leaving it unable to respond to disgruntled customers. Garmin employees have told <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/garmin-outage-caused-by-conf…> BleepingComputer that the company was struck down by the WastedLocker ransomware. Screenshots sent to BleepingComputer show long lists of the company’s files encrypted by the malware, with a ransom note attached to each file. The ransom note tells the recipient to email one of two email addresses to “get a price for your data”. That price, Garmin’s sources have told BleepingComputer, is $10 million. Crippled Garmin The ransomware attack has crippled many of the company’s systems. Reports claim that Garmin’s IT department shut down all of the company’s computers, including those of employees working from home who were connected by VPN, to halt the spread of the ransomware across its network. Garmin’s Taiwan factories have reportedly closed production lines yesterday and today while the company attempts to unpick the ransomware. The shutdown is having a big effect on Garmin’s customers. <https://downdetector.co.uk/status/connect-garmin/> DownDetector reveals a huge spike today in people having trouble accessing Garmin Connect, the app that logs fitness routines for the company’s devices. More people are likely to be using such devices at the weekend. <https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5f1c03e1e0278b36b49447c2/9…> DownDetector shows how Garmin customers continue to be affected DownDetector The problem is even more serious for Garmin’s aviation device customers. Pilots have told <https://www.zdnet.com/article/garmin-services-and-production-go-down-after-…> ZDNet that they are unable to download a version of Garmin’s aviation database onto their airplane navigation systems, which is an FAA requirement. Garmin has issued very little public comment about the problem. On Thursday, the company issued a tweet saying “we are currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin Connect,” adding that the outage “also affects our call centers and we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails or online chats”. Garmin has been approached for comment, but as you can appreciate from the statement above, that’s somewhat complicated... The Best Home Printers In 2020, For Every Printing Need <https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes-personal-shopper/> <https://www.forbes.com/shopping/> Shopping I write about how to do more with your consumer gadgets. Forbes and/or the author may earn a commission on sales made from links on this page. Now more than ever, with work and school shifting to home for the foreseeable future, what's the best home printer to keep you and your family productive? Is it one that’s versatile — able to copy, scan, fax and just generally do more than your average paper-pusher? Or would you prefer a fast home printer, able to complete the job before you’ve pulled your finger off the print button? Maybe the best printer for your needs is one that connect to whatever devices you own. Or maybe it’s all of that. If you're going to spend hundreds on a new printer, it should do be able to perform multiple tasks, do them well, and do them reliably. Below, I’ve outlined the best home printers for every conceivable need, from an overall workhorse to a photo-only printer. One thing to note, the availability of these printers and their associated refills can be a little inconsistent. With everyone trying to outfit their home office, demand has been high these past few months. You may have to keep checking back to get the device you’re looking for at the price you want to pay. * Best Overall Home Printer: <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FMX1RXT/ref=dp_cerb_2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?tag=5f18…> Brother MFC-L3710CW * Best All-In-One Printer for Home Use: <https://www.amazon.com/Epson-Wireless-Cartridge-Free-Supertank-Ethernet/dp/…> Epson Ecotank ET-3760 * Best Inkjet Printer for Less Than $200: <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07214SQW3/ref=dp_cerb_3/ref=as_li_ss_tl?tag=5f18…> Canon Pixma G3200 * Best Hassle-Free Inkjet Printer: <https://www.amazon.com/HP-Wireless-Printer-Mobile-5SE16A/dp/B083ZZ96PT/ref=…> HP Envy 6055 All-in-One Printer * Best Monochrome Laser Printer: <https://www.amazon.com/HP-Neverstop-Printer-Cartridge-Free-Monochrome-Toner…> HP Neverstop Laser Printer 1001NW * Fastest Color Laser Printer: <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QK2KDYC/ref=psdc_172648_t4_B07N22V2L5/ref=as_l…> Canon Color imageCLASS MF644Cdw * Best Photo Printer: <https://www.amazon.com/Canon-Wireless-AirPrint-Printing-2234C001/dp/B073YHR…> Canon Selphy CP1300 _____ Best Overall Home Printer Brother MFC-L3710CW <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FMX1RXT/ref=dp_cerb_2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?tag=5f18…> Amazon Brother MFC-L3710CW Compact Digital Color All-in-One Printer $445 - $749 The Brother MFC-L3710CW digital color laser printer all-in-one lets you print, copy, scan, and fax. With a top print speed of 19 page-per minute (ppm), you’ll be able to power through long assignments or large workbooks in no time. It’s a reliable performer, able to connect to all your devices wirelessly. Even when set to sleep mode, the Brother consistently activates (which, surprisingly, is something not all printer manufacturers get right) and starts churning out documents, fed by the 250-page paper drawer. Scanning is a simple task as well—the 50-page automatic document feeder will let you make quick work of whatever you need to digitize. The 3.7-inch touchscreen on the device is responsive and easy to use. There are quite a few handy features, including connecting the printer to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneNote and more for direct printing from the web. The Brother MFC-L3710CW comes with four starter toner cartridges which should last for at least 1,000 pages. You can also set up automatic refills through Amazon Dash but make sure your bank account can handle it. A high-yield, 3,000-page black toner cartridge costs $75 while 2,300-page color cartridges cost $96. Ouch. Despite the toner refill cost, a good laser printer like the MFC-L3710CW is worth it. The output is crystal clear and the speed is unparalleled, plus you don’t have to worry about smudging. If you need the highest quality documents you can possibly get at home, and the toner price doesn’t scare you away, this is the best home printer to get. _____ Best All-in-One Printer for Home Use Epson Ecotank ET-3760 <https://www.amazon.com/Epson-Wireless-Cartridge-Free-Supertank-Ethernet/dp/…> Amazon Epson EcoTank ET-3760 Wireless Color All-in-One Cartridge-Free Supertank Printer $449 - $684 Refillable tanks are the most interesting development in printer technology in the past few years. Epson pioneered the cartridgeless system and now, in its latest generation of Supertank printers, the EcoTank ET-3760 seems to have perfected the technology. No longer bolted on to the side like some weird growth, the EcoTank is built directly into the front of the device, making it easier to refill and see how much ink you have left. Not that you'll have to worry about that too much, since the ink that comes in the box should last you for about 2 years (or 7,500 pages, whichever comes first). That's assuming you print about 200 pages a month. Features include wireless printing, voice-activated printing, direct printing from your smartphone, copying, scanning, automatic two-sided printing, and direct SD card printing. I like this model in particular because of the automatic document feeder (ADF) on top. You might think you don’t need it, but the first time you have to scan a multi-page document, you’ll be wishing you had it. The Epson EcoTank ET-3760 is ready to take on just about any home print job you can throw at it. _____ Best Inkjet Printer for Less Than $200 Canon Pixma G3200 <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07214SQW3/ref=dp_cerb_3/ref=as_li_ss_tl?tag=5f18…> Amazon Canon G3200 All-In-One Wireless Supertank (MegaTank) Printer $446 - $483 Also ditching the expensive and waste-generating cartridge system, Canon's MegaTank lets you refill permanent ink reservoirs in the Pixma G3200 from bottles that cost considerably less than your average cartridge. The tanks have the added bonus of letting you see at a glance if you need to top things off before you start a big print job. This makes the G3200 cost a little more upfront (since the cost isn't defrayed by expensive print cartridges), but it's considerably cheaper to operate over several years. In addition to making worrying about cartridges a thing of the past, the Canon Pixma G3200 solves a lot of the common headaches of printer ownership. It's a multi-function device, able to scan, copy, and print. It also supports wireless printing from Google Cloud Print and Apple AirPrint, enabling you to print directly from your phone or tablet. The MegaTank will last for 6,000 pages—if you don’t have a ton of documents to print or scan each month, the Canon G3200 will last for years right out of the box. _____ Best Hassle-Free Inkjet Printer HP Envy 6055 All-in-One Printer <https://www.amazon.com/HP-Wireless-Printer-Mobile-5SE16A/dp/B083ZZ96PT/ref=…> Amazon HP Envy 6055 All-in-One Printer $169 There’s nothing worse than either sending a bunch of print jobs to your printer and having it fail to connect or get halfway through printing and have your ink cartridges run out. The HP Envy 6055 All-in-One Printer circumvents both common printer issues. It’s “self-healing” dual-band Wi-Fi is able to recover from common connectivity issues and can connect on either a 2.4 or 5 GHz band network (many printers are limited to one or the other). HP’s Instant Ink program sends you cartridges automatically whenever you run low for as little as $2.99 per month, based on the number of pages you print. The Envy 6055 is also a capable photo printer, able to print borderless images. It can also copy and scan, sending documents directly to Google Drive or Dropbox. In all, it’s a hassle-free printer for those who don’t want to think about their printer. _____ Best Monochrome Laser Printer HP Neverstop Laser Printer 1001NW <https://www.amazon.com/HP-Neverstop-Printer-Cartridge-Free-Monochrome-Toner…> Amazon HP Neverstop Laser Printer 1001NW $279 - $295 What if you don't need an all-in-one device? What if you don't even need color? The HP Neverstop Laser Printer 1001NW is a versatile champ of a monochrome laser printer. It has onboard Wi-Fi, letting you connect to it directly. Its 21ppm print speed is considerably better than a comparable inkjet printer. With a footprint that's not much larger than a sheet of 8.5x11 paper, you'll be hard pressed to find a printer that does more in such a small space. The best part? Instead of toner cartridge refills that cost hundreds of dollars, the 1001NW uses a refillable toner tank that gives you 2,500 pages per refill (the device ships with 5,000 pages worth of toner in the tank) and costs under $30 for a 2-pack. _____ Fastest Color Laser Canon Color imageCLASS MF644Cdw <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QK2KDYC/ref=psdc_172648_t4_B07N22V2L5/ref=as_l…> Amazon Canon Color imageCLASS MF644Cdw $399 - $599 If you want the fastest printing possible for your home, you need to upgrade to this color laser printer. The large 5-inch touchscreen of the Canon Color imageCLASS MF644Cdw sets this device apart. It prints at a blistering fast 22ppm in full color and yet is somehow cheaper than some inkjet printers. The MF644Cdw also has one pass scanning, duplex printing, and fax capability. You don't even have to hook it up to a network to be able to print. The MF644Cdw can create its own Wi-Fi hotspot and print from mobile devices via AirPrint. Yes, toner cartridges are definitely more expensive than ink, but each one yields around 1,500 pages. That, plus the speed, quiet operation, and long-term reliability of a laser printer, can make the increased premium more than worth it. _____ Best Photo-Only Printer Canon Selphy CP1300 <https://www.amazon.com/Canon-Wireless-AirPrint-Printing-2234C001/dp/B073YHR…> Amazon Canon SELPHY CP1300 Photo Printer $79$100SAVE $21 (21%) The Canon SELPHY (get it?) CP1300 is custom built for one thing and one thing only — to deliver image printouts that are crisp and consistent. With the optional battery pack, it's portable, so you can take it with you to photo shoots. You can print directly from your phone or tablet or plug in a USB stick or your camera's memory card. While the SELPHY can give you instantly dry, archival quality prints via its dye sublimation printing on Canon paper (rated for up to 100 years), you can also switch out the standard 4x6 prints with square photo label paper that lets you print instant stickers. It's a great way to get your prints off your phone or camera and into the real world. Follow me on <https://www.twitter.com/@sunstreaker84> Twitter or <https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonykarczwriter> LinkedIn. Check out my <http://www.anthonykarcz.com> website. <https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykarcz/> I’ve been writing about technology, gadgets, and pop culture back before Apple had even thought of the iPhone. I’ve seen the rise and fall (and rise again) of Apple. I've … Sent from my iPad 2018

2 2

AI
by Dejan Ristanovic 24 Jul '20

24 Jul '20

Možda zanimljivo... https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/ai-machine-l… <https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/ai-machine-l…> &utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1595344327 Machines can learn unsupervised 'at speed of light' after AI breakthrough, scientists say <https://www.independent.co.uk/author/anthony-cuthbertson> Anthony Cuthbertson2 days ago Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in the development of <https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/artificial-intelligence> artificial intelligence by using light instead of electricity to perform computations. The new approach significantly improves both the speed and efficiency of machine learning neural networks – a form of AI that aims to replicate the functions performed by a human brain in order to teach itself a task without supervision. Current processors used for machine learning are limited in performing complex operations by the power required to process the data. The more intelligent the task, the more complex the data, and therefore the greater the power demands. Such networks are also limited by the slow transmission of electronic data between the processor and the memory. Researchers from George Washington University in the US discovered that using photons within neural network (tensor) processing units (TPUs) could overcome these limitations and create more powerful and power-efficient AI. A paper describing the research, published today in the scientific journal Applied Physics Reviews, reveals that their photon-based TPU was able to perform between 2-3 orders of magnitude higher than an electric TPU. “We found that integrated photonic platforms that integrate efficient optical memory can obtain the same operations as a tensor processing unit, but they consume a fraction of the power and have higher throughput,” said Mario Miscuglio, one of the paper’s authors. “When opportunely trained, [the platforms] can be used for performing interference at the speed of light.” Created with Sketch. In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Show all 7 Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch. Potential commercial applications for the innovative processor include 5G and 6G networks, as well as data centres tasked with performing vast amounts of data processing. Dr Miscuglio said: "Photonic specialised processors can save a tremendous amount of energy, improve response time and reduce data centre traffic." Sent from my iPad 2018

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FW: OpenAI's GPT-3 may be the biggest thing since bitcoin
by Dejan Ristanovic 24 Jul '20

24 Jul '20

Možda zanimljivo... https://maraoz.com/2020/07/18/openai-gpt3/ OpenAI's GPT-3 may be the biggest thing since bitcoin Jul 18, 2020 Summary: I share my early experiments with OpenAI's new language prediction model (GPT-3) beta. I explain why I think GPT-3 has disruptive potential comparable to that of blockchain technology. OpenAI, a non-profit artificial intelligence research company backed by Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Marc Benioff, Sam Altman and others, released its third generation of language prediction model (GPT-3) into the open-source wild. Language models allow computers to produce random-ish sentences of approximately the same length and grammatical structure as those in a given body of text. In my early experiments with GPT-3 I found that GPT-3’s predicted sentences, when published on the bitcointalk.org forum, attracted lots of positive attention from posters there, including suggestions that the system must have been intelligent (and/or sarcastic) and that it had found subtle patterns in their posts. I imagine that similar results can be obtained by republishing GPT-3’s outputs to other message boards, blogs, and social media. I predict that, unlike its two predecessors (PTB and OpenAI GPT-2), OpenAI GPT-3 will eventually be widely used to pretend the author of a text is a person of interest, with unpredictable and amusing effects on various communities. I further predict that this will spark a creative gold rush among talented amateurs to train similar models and adapt them to a variety of purposes, including: mock news, “researched journalism”, advertising, politics, and propaganda. Are you being served? I chose bitcointalk.org as the target environment for my experiments for a variety of reasons: It is a popular forum with many types of posts and posters. So there are lots of posts for GPT-3 to study and learn from. The forum also has many people I don’t like. I expect them to be disproportionately excited by the possibility of having a new poster that appears to be intelligent and relevant. I’ve been following the forum for years. There are many posts I know the answers to, so I could provide a quick response and measure how well GPT-3 does with comments similar to those I make. I posted about one interesting tech topic every day in May, alternating between using my own words and paraphrasing my previous post with GPT-3’s help. I didn’t take special care to make these GPT-3-enhanced posts blend in well. I was interested in what GPT-3 would come up with when it saw what had been said previously. The table below shows some results: My expectation was that, like PTB, GPT-3 would be mostly about the forum’s already existing memes and have trouble producing fresh ideas. This prediction seems to have been true. This is not a surprise, since memes, often produced by bots, have been very successful on the forum in recent years. Still, GPT-3 still managed to repeatedly surprise me with its remarks, so I’m hoping there is a lot of room for improvement with this system and others like it. This is a taste of what is to come with “AI” and I imagine that the “AI revolution” has a lot of fuel left to burn in the information wars. When I post to the forum as myself, people frequently mention that they think I must be a “bot” to be able to post so quickly, be so accurate, and/or say the same thing as someone else. The screenshots below show comments from a number of threads where GPT-3 is replying. All of these were posted to bitcointalk.org within the last few days. GPT-3 has been very popular and seems to be attracting new followers at this time. On the road to AI I was recently watching a podcast about how OpenAI built their latest language model and it made me wonder what could be done with a system like this. I could not stop thinking about the applications of such a technology and how it could improve our lives. I was thinking of how cool it would be to build a Twitter-like service where the only posts are GPT-3 outputs. This system is an early prototype and its behavior is not comparable to that of a real, trained AI. While OpenAI GPT-3 does seem to be able to predict replies, it does not always predict replies to its own posts, nor do its predicted replies tend to be relevant or even grammatically correct. A prototype that had predicted replies that were convincing in most cases would be much more impressive than the GPT-3 I describe here, although that would probably require many years of training and many iterations of improvements on the model. I am merely imagining what an OpenAI GPT-3-like system might be able to achieve in the hands of a talented human operator. _____ Now for the fun part I have a confession: I did not write the above article. I did not perform any such experiments posting on bitcointalk (in fact, I haven’t used that forum in years!). But I did it on my own blog! This article was fully written by GPT-3. Were you able to recognize it? I received access to OpenAI API yesterday and have been posting some unbelievable results on <https://twitter.com/maraoz> twitter. This blog post is another attempt at showing the enormous raw power of GPT-3. This is what I gave the model as a prompt (copied from this website’s homepage) Manuel Araoz's Personal Website Bio I studied Computer Science and Engineering at Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires. I'm located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. My previous work is mostly about cryptocurrencies, distributed systems, machine learning, interactivity, and robotics. One of my goals is to bring new experiences to people through technology. I cofounded and was formerly CTO at OpenZeppelin. Currently, I'm studying music, biology+neuroscience, machine learning, and physics. Blog JUL 18, 2020 Title: OpenAI's GPT-3 may be the biggest thing since bitcoin tags: tech, machine-learning, hacking Summary: I share my early experiments with OpenAI's new language prediction model (GPT-3) beta. I explain why I think GPT-3 has disruptive potential comparable to that of blockchain technology. Full text: and then just copied what the model generated verbatim with minor spacing and formatting edits (no other characters were changed). I generated different results a couple (less than 10) times until I felt the writing style somewhat matched my own, and published it. I also added the cover image. Hope you were as surprised as I was with the quality of the result. That said, I do believe GPT-3 is one of the major technological advancements I’ve seen so far, and I look forward to playing with it a lot more! Very strange times lie ahead… Cover photo by <https://unsplash.com/@lenin33?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_c…> Lenin Estrada on <https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=c…> Unsplash. Sent from my iPad 2018

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Security budžeti
by Dejan Ristanovic 23 Jul '20

23 Jul '20

I od ovog izveštaja bi mogao da se napravi lep prilog https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/covid-19-crisi s-shifts-cybersecurity-priorities-and-budgets?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck <https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/covid-19-cris is-shifts-cybersecurity-priorities-and-budgets?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck&hlk id=7886123efcdf4486812c3dfa49531ce5&hctky=11708662&hdpid=26909de0-4489-4f7f- 9567-dbd54ae3a06b> &hlkid=7886123efcdf4486812c3dfa49531ce5&hctky=11708662&hdpid=26909de0-4489-4 f7f-9567-dbd54ae3a06b#

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Garmin
by Dejan Ristanovic 23 Jul '20

23 Jul '20

Istražite malo pa pišite o Garminu koji je već dva dana off-line, ne rade ni servisi, ni uređaji (tamo gde zavise od podataka sa Interneta), ni call centri, čak ni e-mail-ove ne mogu da primaju. I to traaaaaje... We are currently experiencing an outage that affects <https://www.garmin.com/> Garmin.com and Garmin Connect. This outage also affects our call centers, and we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails or online chats. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and apologize for this inconvenience. Moja teorija (a vidim da tako pričaju i na reddit-u) je da su fasovali neki ransomware, ne mogu da zamislim ništa drugo što bi toliko trajalo... Pozdrav, Dejan

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Vatra
by Dejan Ristanovic 21 Jul '20

21 Jul '20

Kako hakeri mogu da vam zapale punjač... stan... https://www.zdnet.com/article/badpower-attack-corrupts-fast-chargers-to-melt -or-set-your-device-on-fire/

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Corona lek?
by Dejan Ristanovic 21 Jul '20

21 Jul '20

Svakako nije vakcina, nije baš ni lek, ali ako se ovo pokaže validnim, mnogo će pomoći... Možda da napišemo nešto https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53467022?at_custom3=BBC+News <https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53467022?at_custom3=BBC+News&at_custom1=%5B…> &at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D&at_custom2=facebook_page&at_medium=custom7&at_custom4=FD96E832-CA53-11EA-836B-BEF5FCA12A29&at_campaign=64 Coronavirus: Protein treatment trial 'a breakthrough' By Justin Rowlatt BBC News <https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/B4C7/production/_112097264_kaye…> BBC Panorama Kaye Flitney is one of those enrolled on the clinical trial The preliminary results of a clinical trial suggest a new treatment for Covid-19 reduces the number of patients needing intensive care, according to the UK company that developed it. The treatment from Southampton-based biotech Synairgen uses a protein called interferon beta which the body produces when it gets a viral infection. The protein is inhaled directly into the lungs of patients with coronavirus, using a nebuliser, in the hope that it will stimulate an immune response. The initial findings suggest the treatment cut the odds of a Covid-19 patient in hospital developing severe disease - such as requiring ventilation - by 79%. Patients were two to three times more likely to recover to the point where everyday activities were not compromised by their illness, Synairgen claims. It said the trial also indicated "very significant" reductions in breathlessness among patients who received the treatment. In addition, the average time patients spent in hospital is said to have been reduced by a third, for those receiving the new drug - down from an average of nine days to six days. The double-blind trial involved 101 volunteers who had been admitted for treatment at nine UK hospitals for Covid-19 infections. Half of the participants were given the drug, the other half got what is known as a placebo - an inactive substance. Unconfirmed results Stock market rules mean Synairgen is obliged to report the preliminary results of the trial. The results have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, nor has the full data been made available; so the BBC cannot confirm the claims made for the treatment. But if the results are as the company says, it will be a very important step forward in the treatment of coronavirus infections. The scientist in charge of the trial, Tom Wilkinson, says if the results are confirmed in larger studies the new treatment will be "a game changer". The trial was relatively small but the signal that the treatment benefits patients was unusually strong, he says. "We couldn't have expected much better results than these," Synairgen chief executive Richard Marsden told the BBC. He described the results as "a major breakthrough in the treatment of hospitalised Covid-19 patients". What happens next? Mr Marsden said the company will be presenting its findings to medical regulators around the world in the next couple of days to see what further information they require in order to approve the treatment. That process could take months, although the British government, like many others, has said it will work as fast as possible to get promising coronavirus treatments approved. It is possible it could be given emergency approval, <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52805828> as the anti-viral drug remdesivir was in May. Another possibility is that permission will be given for more patients to receive the treatment with the effects being carefully monitored to confirm it is safe and effective. If it does get approval, the drug and the nebulisers used to deliver it would then need to be manufactured in large quantities. Mr Marsden says he instructed companies to start producing supplies back in April to ensure they would be available should the results be positive. He says he expects Synairgen to be able to deliver "a few 100,000" doses a month by the winter. How does the treatment work? Interferon beta is part of the body's first line of defence against viruses, warning it to expect a viral attack. The coronavirus seems to suppress its production as part of its strategy to evade our immune systems. The new drug is a special formulation of interferon beta delivered directly to the airways via a nebuliser which makes the protein into an aerosol. The idea is that a direct dose of the protein in the lungs will trigger a stronger anti-viral response, even in patients whose immune systems are already weak. Interferon beta is commonly used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Previous clinical trials conducted by Synairgen have shown that it can stimulate an immune response and that patients with asthma and other chronic lung conditions can comfortably tolerate the treatment. How was the treatment tested? No-one involved in the trial knew which patients have been given which treatment until it was over. "If you know it's a drug, your mind might have a bias," explained Sandy Aitken, one of the nurses who administered the new drug to patients at Southampton Hospital. Synairgen's drug trial was the template for the Accord programme, a fast-track clinical trial scheme set up by the UK government in April to accelerate the development of new drugs for patients with Covid-19. The Synairgen team believes the drug could be even more effective at the early stages of infection. A trial exploring the effects of giving patients who are in high-risk groups the new drug as soon as they are confirmed as having Covid-19 has struggled to find volunteers because there are so few new infections at the moment. What do other experts say? Expert in emergency medicine Prof Steve Goodacre, from the University of Sheffield, said: "These results are not interpretable. We need the full details and, perhaps more importantly, the trial protocol. The trial should have been registered and a protocol made available before any analysis was undertaken." Prof Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, said: "The results seem very impressive, and although accepted that the trial is small with just over 100 participants, a 79% reduction in disease severity could be a game changer. "It would be good to see the full results once presented and peer-reviewed to make sure they are robust and the trial conduct was rigorous. Also, with small numbers comes less certainty on the true level of benefit, or whether benefits vary between people with differing risk characteristics. Such work would require a larger trial but, even so, these results are very exciting."

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Amazon nekad i sad
by Dejan Ristanovic 20 Jul '20

20 Jul '20

Vredelo bi od ovoga napraviti tekst. Naročito mi se sviđa onaj štos sa kupovinom knjiga kojih nema na lageru :))) Pozdrav, Dejan https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-amazon-history-facts-2017-4?utm_… <https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-amazon-history-facts-2017-4?utm_…> &utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com 'Amazon' wasn't the original name of Jeff Bezos' company, and 14 other little-known facts about the early days of Amazon <https://www.businessinsider.com/author/avery-hartmans> Avery Hartmans Jul 16, 2020, 8:50 PM "Amazon" wasn't the company's original name. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/536e223f6bb3f731027c70bc?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/536e223f6bb3f731027c70bc?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> <http://www.villageswebdesign.co.uk/retro-website-design-amazon-1995/> Amazon / Villages Web Design Jeff Bezos originally wanted to give the company the magical sounding name "Cadabra." Amazon's first lawyer, Todd Tarbert, convinced him that the name sounded too similar to "Cadaver," especially over the phone. (Bezos also favored the name "Relentless." If you visit Relentless.com today, it navigates to Amazon.) He finally chose "Amazon" because he liked that the company would be named after the largest river in the world, hence the company's original logo. In the early days of Amazon, a bell would ring in the office every time someone made a purchase, and everyone would gather around to see if they knew the customer. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/5e6fa0bcc4854040361772f4?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/5e6fa0bcc4854040361772f4?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> Matt Weinberger/Business Insider It only took a few weeks before the bell was ringing so frequently that they had to turn it off. In the first month of its launch, Amazon had already sold books to people in all 50 states and in 45 different countries. An obscure book about lichens saved Amazon from going bankrupt. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/5e6fa195c4854040da436ba2?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/5e6fa195c4854040da436ba2?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> Lichen in the US state of Connecticut. AP Photo/Jessica Hill Book distributors required retailers to order 10 books at a time, and Amazon didn't need that much inventory yet (or have that much money). So, the team discovered a loophole: Although the distributors required that Amazon ordered 10 books, the company didn't need to receive that many. So, they would order one book they needed, and nine copies of an obscure lichen book, which was always out of stock. Amazon got started out of Bezos' garage. In the early days, Bezos held meetings at Barnes & Noble. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/58e7e9f977bb70b61a8b4896?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/58e7e9f977bb70b61a8b4896?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> A woman looks in from a window panel of a Barnes & Noble store in New York Thomson Reuters In the early days of Amazon, the servers that the company used required so much power that Bezos and his wife couldn't run a hair dryer or a vacuum in the house without blowing a fuse. Jeff Bezos expected employees to work 60-hour weeks, at least. The idea of work-life balance didn't exist. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/5e6fa209c4854041025bd4d3?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/5e6fa209c4854041025bd4d3?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> Eliza Relman/Insider One early employee worked so tirelessly over eight months — biking back and forth from work in the very early morning and very late night — that he completely forgot about the blue station wagon that he'd parked near his apartment. He never had time to read his mail, and when he finally did, he found a handful of parking tickets, a notice that his car had been towed, a few warnings from the towing company, and a final message that his car had been sold at an auction. Amazon's first intense Christmas season came in 1998. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/5804d013c524021c008b4af7?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/5804d013c524021c008b4af7?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> Here's what Amazon's warehouses look like these days. Shutterstock The company was dramatically under-staffed. Every employee had to take a graveyard shift in the fulfillment centers to meet orders. They would bring their friends and family and would often sleep in their cars before going to work the next day. After that, Amazon vowed that it would never have a shortage of labor to meet demand for the holidays again, which is why Amazon hires so many seasonal workers today. When eBay launched onto the scene, Amazon tried to build its own auction site to compete. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/536e2f0fecad044d077c70bc?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/536e2f0fecad044d077c70bc?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> The cave bear skeleton in the lobby at Amazon HQ. Business Insider The idea flopped, but Bezos himself loved it. He purchased a $40,000 skeleton of an Ice Age cave bear and displayed it in the lobby of the company's headquarters. Next to it was a sign that read "Please Don't Feed The Bear." It's still there today. Bezos liked to move incredibly fast, which often created chaos, especially in Amazon's distribution centers. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/53457e2aeab8eab933657952?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/53457e2aeab8eab933657952?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> <http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Washi…> Ted S. Warren/AP Amazon suffered extreme growing pains in the late '90s and early 2000s. Facilities would get shut down for hours because of system outages, piles of products would sit around ignored by workers, and there was no preparation for new product categories. When the kitchen category was introduced, knives without protective packaging would come hurtling down conveyor shoots. It was extremely dangerous. In early 2002, Bezos introduced the concept of "two-pizza teams" to Amazon. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/5e6fa30bc4854041c51a4515?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/5e6fa30bc4854041c51a4515?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> REUTERS/Mark Makela Employees would be organized into groups of fewer than 10 people — the perfect number to be satisfied by two pizzas for dinner — and were expected to work autonomously. Teams had to set strict goals, with equations to measure their success. Those equations were called "fitness functions," and tracking those goals was how Bezos managed his teams. "Communication is a sign of dysfunction," Bezos said. "It means people aren't working together in a close, organic way. We should be trying to figure out a way for teams to communicate less with each other, not more." Many employees hated "two-pizza teams," and especially the stress of the fitness functions. Dissatisfied customers can email Jeff Bezos directly and he'll forward the message along to the right person, with one dreaded addition: "?" <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/58e7eb8977bb70b51a8b4893?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/58e7eb8977bb70b51a8b4893?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> Drew Angerer/Getty Images Stone writes: "When Amazon employees get a Bezos question mark e-mail, they react as though they've discovered a ticking bomb. They've typically got a few hours to solve whatever issue the CEO has flagged and prepare a thorough explanation for how it occurred, a response that will be reviewed by a succession of managers before the answer is presented to Bezos himself. Such escalations, as these e-mails are known, are Bezos's way of ensuring that the customer's voice is constantly heard inside the company." Before Google had "Street View," Amazon had "Block View." <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/5e6fa392c4854042fe4eaa12?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/5e6fa392c4854042fe4eaa12?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> An early Google Street View mapping car. Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters In 2004, Amazon launched a search engine, A9.com. The A9 team started a project called Block View, a visual Yellow Pages, which would pair street-level photographs of stores and restaurants with their listings in A9's search results. On a budget of less than $100,000, Amazon flew photographers to 20 major cities where they rented vehicles to start taking pictures of restaurants. Amazon eventually dropped Block View in 2006, and Google didn't start Street View until 2007. Amazon employees were encouraged to use "primal screams" as therapeutic release during the high-tension holiday season. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/5e6fa3efc48540435e69e005?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/5e6fa3efc48540435e69e005?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> Dimension Films Amazon hires seasonal workers, but the holiday season is still extremely stressful for the logistics teams. In the early 2000s, Jeff Wilke, Amazon's operations manager, would let any person or team who accomplished a significant goal close their eyes, lean back, and yell into the phone at him at the top of their lungs. Wilke told Brad Stone that some of the primal screams nearly blew out his speakers. Amazon's fulfillment centers have had issues with their working conditions since the beginning, and many unhappy workers have found ways to rebel. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/5298c743eab8ea9635d21770?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/5298c743eab8ea9635d21770?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> Reuters Once, an employee who was preparing to quit hopped onto the fulfillment center's conveyor belt and rode it merrily through the entire facility. One of the wildest stories, however, may be from 2006 and it involves a temporary employee at a Kansas fulfillment center: "He would show up at the start of his shift and leave at the end of it, but he never logged any hours in between. It took at least a week for anyone to discover what was going on: He had tunneled out a den inside a huge pile of empty wooden pallets. Completely out of view, he had used Amazon products to make a bed, ripped pictures from Amazon books to line his make-shift walls, and stolen Amazon food to snack on. When he was discovered, he was (unsurprisingly) fired." "Fiona" was the original code-name for Amazon's Kindle. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/56267422bd86ef1d5d8b8215?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/56267422bd86ef1d5d8b8215?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> Bezos holds Kindle 2 at its unveiling (2009). <https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/amazon-com-founder-and-ceo-je…> Mario Tama/Getty Images The Kindle got its original name from a book called "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson. It was a novel set in the future about an engineer who steals a rare interactive textbook to give to his knowledge-hungry daughter, Fiona. The team that worked on Kindle prototypes thought of that fictitious textbook as the template for the device that they were working on. The team eventually begged Bezos to keep the name Fiona, but he decided on another suggestion, Kindle, because it evoked the idea of starting a fire. Jeff Bezos was a demanding boss and could explode at employees. Rumor has it, he hired a leadership coach to help him tone it down. <data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E> <img src="https://i.insider.com/58e7ec058af57843238b4e93?width=600 <https://i.insider.com/58e7ec058af57843238b4e93?width=600&format=jpeg&am…> &format=jpeg&auto=webp" /> Mike Segar/Reuters Bezos was known for his <http://www.businessinsider.com/things-amazons-jeff-bezos-tells-employees-wh…> explosive or sarcastic responses to employees if he wasn't happy with what they reported to him. It was said that he had hired a leadership coach to try to keep his harsh evaluations in check. Here's an excerpt from Brad Stone's book: "During one memorable meeting, Bezos reprimanded [Diane] Lye and her colleagues in his customarily devastating way, telling them they were stupid and saying they should 'come back in a week when you figure out what you're doing.' Then he walked a few steps, froze in mid-stride as if something had suddenly occurred to him, wheeled around, and added, 'But great work everyone.'" Sent from my iPad 2018

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