tag > InfoSec
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Random Internet Conversation from January 1994
"This decentralized network welcomes hackers, phreaks, virii coders, crackers, cyberpunk wannabees, civil liberties groups, cypherpunks, futurists, artists, and anyone anti-commercial."
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Pro Tip: In 2023 make a conscious effort to reduce your exposure to mind control technologies. Especially keep your kids away from the phones and tubes. The situation is totally out of control.
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The automation of social engineering, influence- and psychological operations, information- and cognitive warfare at scale was one of the biggest early successes of Artificial Intelligence. It was so successful, that virtually nobody talks about it publicly in detail. On the flip-side, Artificial Intelligence is rapidly bringing down the cost of conducting such operations at scale. Access to tools & methods are being democratized which creates asymmetries in the ecosystem and changes the balance of power.
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"The Path to Best Effort" - Paper by @livcomp - which is half scientific white paper/literature review and half science fiction, but with the goal (I believe) of making a serious point.
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Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers - by Raymond Chen (Microsoft)
A colleague of mine shared a story from Windows XP product support. A major computer manufacturer discovered that playing the music video for Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” would crash certain models of laptops. I would not have wanted to be in the laboratory that they must have set up to investigate this problem. Not an artistic judgement.
One discovery during the investigation is that playing the music video also crashed some of their competitors’ laptops. And then they discovered something extremely weird: Playing the music video on one laptop caused a laptop sitting nearby to crash, even though that other laptop wasn’t playing the video! What’s going on?
It turns out that the song contained one of the natural resonant frequencies for the model of 5400 rpm laptop hard drives that they and other manufacturers used. The manufacturer worked around the problem by adding a custom filter in the audio pipeline that detected and removed the offending frequencies during audio playback.
And I’m sure they put a digital version of a “Do not remove” sticker on that audio filter. (Though I’m worried that in the many years since the workaround was added, nobody remembers why it’s there. Hopefully, their laptops are not still carrying this audio filter to protect against damage to a model of hard drive they are no longer using.)
And of course, no story about natural resonant frequencies can pass without a reference to the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940.
Related: If you are so inclined, research the history of Janet Jackson and the MK Ultra Mindcontrol networks using not your favorite search engine. Starter keywords: "One of Janet Jackson’s alters, she called Strawberry. - The other alter personality living inside her is Damita Jo".
Related: Electro-mechanical oscilator & Tesla's Earthquake Machine
Nikola Tesla revealed that an earthquake which drew police and ambulances to the region of his laboratory at 48 E. Houston St., New York, in 1898, was the result of a little machine he was experimenting with at the time which “you could put in your overcoat pocket”:
“I was experimenting with vibrations. I had one of my machines going and I wanted to see if I could get it in tune with the vibration of the building. I put it up notch after notch. There was a peculiar cracking sound. I asked my assistants where did the sound come from. They did not know. I put the machine up a few more notches. There was a louder cracking sound. I knew I was approaching the vibration of the steel building. I pushed the machine a little higher. “Suddenly all the heavy machinery in the place was flying around. I grabbed a hammer and broke the machine. The building would have been about our ears in another few minutes. Outside in the street there was pandemonium. The police and ambulances arrived. I told my assistants to say nothing. We told the police it must have been an earthquake. That’s all they ever knew about it.”
Some shrewd reporter asked Dr. Tesla at this point what he would need to destroy the Empire State Building and the doctor replied:
“Vibration will do anything. It would only be necessary to step up the vibrations of the machine to fit the natural vibration of the building and the building would come crashing down. That’s why soldiers break step crossing a bridge.
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The "quantified self" movement is a totalitarian reductionist techno-cult, pretending to be scientific
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NSA, NIST, and post-quantum cryptography: Announcing my 2nd lawsuit against the U.S. gov
A map of major telegraph lines in 1891. (Wikimedia Commons) -
Infohazard - "a risk that arises from the dissemination of (true) information that may cause harm or enable some agent to cause harm"
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Locus of control - "is the degree to which people believe that they, as opposed to external forces (beyond their influence), have control over the outcome of events in their lives."
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That which is technically feasible and cheap to do, will be done...
...thus it is logical to assume that a significant portion of all media delivered via screens today (video, image, audio, text) is fully generated by machines, using weaponized secretive "deep fakes" systems with capabilities that are 10+ years beyond the current public imagination. Further, given how ubiquitous and cheap total surveillance has become, it is logical to assume such systems are on a trajectory to becoming "closed loop" and semi-autonomous, to be able to generate and deliver custom versions of "reality" for targeted audiences at scale, that continuously evolve based on individuals measured reactions to "behavioral micro-nudging" delivered through generated media. "The Show Must Go On" or "Unplug & Visit Nature", which is it for you?
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“We Are Witnessing Right Now the Chinafication of Europe” – Romanian MEP Cristian Terheș (Video)
Image from: Using Biometrics to Achieve Identity Dominance in the Global War on Terrorism - by Rand "When the government knows everything about you, where you go, what you eat, where you enter, that's a tyrannical system, and we've seen the system being implemented right now."
EU digital wallet: the race is on for pilot funding, tech supremacy, hearts and minds
eIDAS 2.0 is fast approaching. By September 2023, European Union citizens will have the right to download and populate a digital identity wallet on a smart device. In less than 18 months, Europeans may no longer need physical credentials to travel, work and live anywhere else in the bloc.
'Resist!' Macron faces backlash as he launches digital ID days after French election win
Emmanuel Macron is already sparking fresh fury across France as two days after his re-election, his government launched a new law compliant to Brussels' demands.
Related from earlier on this blog: The Global Grid & Bio-Politics in the age of Identity Dominance
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Google Says AI Generated Content Is Against Guidelines (alt)
#Comment: Widespread use of AI generated content is a nightmare for search engines like Google. Large scale generative botnets could essentially poisons their entire index to the point of breaking. It is just a question of time until the Bot VS Bot adversarial game becomes unmanageable. And despite their silly rules, it is essentially unbannable. A great times for alternative service, which less heavily rely on pure algorithmic approaches.
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Russia mulls legalizing software piracy as it’s cut off from Western tech
Russian law already allows for the government to authorize -- "without consent of the patent holder" -- the use of any intellectual property "in case of emergency related to ensuring the defense and security of the state." The government hasn't taken that step yet, but it may soon, according to a report from Russian business newspaper Kommersant, spotted and translated by Kyle Mitchell, an attorney who specializes in technology law. It's yet another sign of a Cyber Curtain that's increasingly separating Russia from the West.
The plan would create "a compulsory licensing mechanism for software, databases, and technology for integrated microcircuits," the Kommersant said. It would only apply to companies from countries that have imposed sanctions. While the article doesn't name names, many large Western firms -- some of which would be likely targets -- have drastically scaled back business in Russia. So far, Microsoft has suspended sales of new products and services in Russia, Apple has stopped selling devices, and Samsung has stopped selling both devices and chips. Presumably, any move by the Kremlin to "seize" IP would exempt Chinese companies, which are reportedly considering how to press their advantage. Smartphone-makers Xiaomi and Honor stand to gain, as do Chinese automakers. Still, any gains aren't guaranteed since doing business in Russia has become riddled with problems, spanning everything from logistics to finance.
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Unlimited Information Warfare: Samsung Gets Hacked, 190GB Worth of Info Stolen
- source code for every Trusted Applet (TA) installed in Samsung’s TrustZone environment used for sensitive operations (e.g. hardware cryptography, binary encryption, access control)
- algorithms for all biometric unlock operations
- bootloader source code for all recent Samsung devices
- confidential source code from Qualcomm
- source code for Samsung’s activation servers
- full source code for technology used for authorizing and authenticating Samsung accounts, including APIs and services
1TB of data stolen from Nvidia by hacker group Lapsus$
