‘Copyright Violation’ Notices Lead to Facebook 2FA Bypass
Scammers have hatched a new way to attempt to bypass two-factor authentication (2FA) protections on Facebook. Cybercriminals are sending bogus copyright-violation notices with the threat of taking pages down unless the user attempts to appeal. The first step in the “appeal?” The victim is asked to submit a username, password and 2FA code from their mobile device, according to Sophos researcher Paul Ducklin, allowing fraudsters bypass 2FA. 2FA is an added layer of protection on top of a username and password that usually involves sending a unique code to a mobile device, which must be entered to access a platform. But crooks are increasingly finding ways around it.
AI Camera Ruins Soccer Game For Fans After Mistaking Referee’s Bald Head For Ball
Fans of Scottish football team Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC experienced a new hilarious technological glitch during a match last weekend, but in all honesty, you’d be hard-pressed to say it didn’t improve the viewing experience dramatically. The club announced a few weeks ago it was moving from using human camera operators to cameras controlled by AI. The club proudly announced at the time the new “Pixellot system uses cameras with in-built, AI, ball-tracking technology” and would be used to capture HD footage of all home matches at Caledonian Stadium, which would be broadcast directly to season-ticket holders’ homes. Cut to last Saturday, when the robot cameras were given a new challenge that hadn’t been foreseen: A linesman with a bald head. The AI camera appeared to mistake the man’s bald head for the ball for a lot of the match, repeatedly swinging back to follow the linesman instead of the actual game.
Ransomware Surge Imperils Hospitals as Pandemic Intensifies
Hackers are stepping up attacks on health care systems with ransomware in the United States and other countries, creating new risks for medical care as the global coronavirus pandemic accelerates. Alerts from US authorities and security researchers highlight a wave of cyberattacks on hospitals coping with rising virus infections. An unusual warning this week from the FBI with the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, underscored the threat. The three agencies “have credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to US hospitals and health care providers,” said the alert issued Wednesday, calling on health systems to “take timely and reasonable precautions to protect their networks from these threats.” Media reports have cited several US hospitals hit by ransomware.
On-premise IT spending showing cracks as cloud first, digital transformation rules
Traditional IT spending–on-premise data center gear and licensed software–is flagging amid the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerated cloud migrations for digital transformation. If we’ve learned anything from the latest earnings reports from enterprise technology vendors is that old-school IT purchases are fading fast. IBM, SAP, Intel and possibly Microsoft are dropping hints that demand is shifting to the cloud in a hurry. As a result, those smooth business model transitions are going to result in a few crash landings. SAP’s third quarter earnings put an exclamation point on the shifting IT buying patterns. SAP said it will shift its products to the cloud faster than expected because that’s how customers want to buy.
Judge tells the U.S. that it can’t ban TikTok for the moment
TikTok users in the U.S. breathed a sigh of relief last Friday after U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone issued a a temporary injunction against President Trump’s TikTok ban. The judge imposed the ruling in favor of the plaintiffs who make a living in the U.S. thanks to TikTok. The app, one of the most popular in the states, allows subscribers to create short-form videos to share. These clips, lasting 15 seconds or 60 seconds in length, show teens and other subscribers dancing, singing, playing pranks and more. Judge Beetlestone, who issued her temporary injunction in a federal courtroom in Pennsylvania, said in her ruling that the U.S. government’s “own descriptions of the national security threat posed by the TikTok app are phrased in the hypothetical.” As a result, the judge said that she could not find that “the risk presented by the government outweighs the public interest” in enjoining the ban.
