This Brain Implant Lets People Control Amazon Alexa With Their Minds
source: wired.com (contributed by Artemus founder, Bob Wallace) | image: pexels.com
Neuralink rival Synchron is connecting its brain–computer interface with consumer technologies to allow people with paralysis more functionality.Mark, a 64-year-old with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, uses Amazon Alexa all the time using his voice. But now, thanks to a brain implant, he can also control the virtual assistant with his mind. ALS affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing loss of muscle control over time. Mark, who asked that his last name not be used, has limited mobility as a result of his condition. He can walk and talk but has no use of his arms and hands. As part of a clinical trial, he received a brain-computer interface, or BCI, made by startup Synchron in August 2023. Synchron is developing a BCI that decodes brain signals to allow people with paralysis the ability to control digital devices with their thoughts alone. On Monday, the company announced that its BCI can now be used with Alexa without the need for voice or physical interaction with a touchscreen. Synchron says Mark is the first person to use Alexa with an implanted BCI. Continue reading “This Brain Implant Lets People Control Amazon Alexa With Their Minds” |
Category: News You Can Use
Apple Dives Deeper Into Med Tech With Focus on Hearing Health
source: cnet.com | image: pexels.com
An Apple a Day…
There’s nothing quite as thrilling as the chaos and hype of an Apple event day. Granted, as a longtime Apple user, I’m a bit biased. But the launch of the new iPhone 16; the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch; and the release of the next generation of Watches and AirPods warrants that kind of excitement. While our tech experts are knee-deep in all things iPhone and Watch, I want to highlight one important bit of news from yesterday’s Glowtime presentation: The AirPods Pro 2 earbuds will have over-the-counter hearing aid capability.
Anyone who’s experienced hearing loss, or who knows someone who has, understands the challenges associated with it. Traditional hearing aids are designed to help ease confusion, but they tend to raise the volume on all sounds, not just people’s voices. On top of that, they can cost thousands of dollars. With the new AirPods Pro 2, you’ll be able to give yourself a hearing test, and the earbuds will use “personalized dynamic adjustments” to boost sound in real time, Apple said. They’re expected to be available this fall.
It was hard to pick which of our Apple stories to include this week. Make sure you check out our other Apple event coverage, including a comparison of the iPhone 16 specs and commentary on why Apple’s hardware-focused event was so refreshing.
Check if Your Social Security Number Is Included in the National Public Data Hack
source: cnet.com (contributed by FAN, Steve Page) | image: pexels.com
Check if your Social Security number was stolen in the massive data theft and what to do to secure your personal information.
If your Social Security number or other personal information was stolen in the December 2023 National Public Data breach, you can take steps to protect yourself. Here’s how. A reported 2.7 millionto 2.9 billion records from 170 million people were stolen, including full names and phone numbers along with Social Security numbers.
According to an August statement from National Public Data — a data broker that sells personal information to private investigators, consumer public record sites, human resources and staffing agencies — “a third-party bad actor” hacked into the data and leaked the stolen information on the dark web. National Public Data obtained the information by scraping nonpublic sources without consent, according to a proposed class action lawsuit. A House of Representatives committee has opened an investigation in response.
Here are steps you can take to see if your information was stolen and then what to do if your Social Security number and other personal data were leaked in the massive data hack. For more information, here are the best identity theft protection services and how to freeze your credit. For more on Social Security, here’s when to expect your Social Security check to arrive this month and four ways you can lose your Social Security benefits.
How was my personal information stolen in the National Public Data hack?
National Public Data said it obtains personal information from public record databases, court records, state and national databases and other repositories nationwide.
According to a National Public Data statement in August, “The incident is believed to have involved a third-party bad actor that was trying to hack into data in late December 2023, with potential leaks of certain data in April 2024 and summer 2024.” Continue reading “Was YOUR SSN Included In This Hack?”
Fighting the Last War
source: axios.com (contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey) | image: pexels.com
The United States — its citizens, industry, decision-makers and military — is unprepared for a war that could kick off with Russia and China and later engulf the world, according to a new blue chip study.
Why it matters: The Commission on the National Defense Strategy, a congressionally mandated group with members handpicked by Democratic and Republican lawmakers, is not known for hyperbole. Its conclusions, that the U.S. “has not kept pace with a worsening situation,” should be a wakeup call.
Here are some of the top-line issues the commission laid out in 100-plus pages published this week:
- China has “largely negated the U.S. military advantage” in the Western Pacificafter 20 years of investment.
- The Pentagon’s portrayal of Russia as an “acute threat” undersells the “ongoing and persistent” nature of the hazards it poses, especially in space and cyber. Moscow-aligned hackers are expected to sow chaos across the U.S. should war break out.
- The means by which the Pentagon purchases weapons are outdated, as are the ultimate products. Successes like the DIU are system workarounds that don’t have enough resources.
- Stateside production capacity is “grossly inadequate,” meaning a “World War II–style industrial mobilization” is off the table. A protracted fight, as seen in Ukraine, is incredibly taxing.
- Recruiting failures have stunted the services. Techniques once used to bring people in the door are in desperate need of an overhaul (no more strip mall recruiting offices and discolored billboards).
- Congress “has become a major impediment to national security” and fails to fund the government in a timely manner, while billions of dollars are wasted and new projects are kneecapped.
- Public support for a strong military and robust alliances is evaporating amid political polarization and peacetime disengagement. Continue reading “Fighting the last war”
How Telegram Became a Destination for Criminals
source: axios.com (contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey) | image: pexels.com
Telegram has long been a hotbed for cybercriminal gangs boasting about their attacks and looking to recruit new members.
Why it matters: Billionaire Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest over the weekend has put a spotlight on what policies Telegram does — and doesn’t — have to deter cybercriminals and extremist groups who use its platform.
The big picture: Telegram’s relaxed content moderation policies and encrypted service offerings have made it an attractive destination for cybercriminals, terrorism organizations and drug dealers.
- Terrorist organizations, including ISIS, have used Telegram to publicly claim responsibility for attacks.
- Politically motivated hackers — including those tied to the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war — also post about their crimes in public Telegram forums.
Experts say Telegram has unique features that — taken in combination — hackers have been able to abuse in an effort to hide their activities.
- Secret Chats allows users to turn on end-to-end encryption.
- That means Telegram has no way of seeing what’s discussed in Secret Chat conversations. Users also can’t forward these messages, which can self-destruct — making it even harder for third parties to intercept their contents.
- Apple Messages and WhatsApp messages are also encrypted by default, but neither allows users to sign up with a virtual phone number.
- Telegram accounts don’t need to be linked to a SIM card, Taisiia Garkava, an intelligence analyst at Intel 471, told Axios.
Continue reading “How Telegram Became a Destination for Criminals”
Deploying Deepfake Detection
source: cnet.com | image: pexels.com
Deepfake video, photo and audio programs have benefited from the same AI boost as other software programs, which is … worrisome, to say the least. But security software company McAfee is hoping AI can play a role in solving the problem. The company unveiled the McAfee Deepfake Detector this week, and folks with Lenovo’s new Copilot-Plus PCs will be the first to get the chance to try out the tool. It scans audio in videos you come across online to alert you to potential deepfakes, but it won’t work if the sound is off. It also can’t determine if photos are deepfakes.
I don’t mind admitting that deepfakes are one of the consequences of AI that keep me up at night. We’ve seen a lot of AI-generated content used for jokes and memes — remember that one of the pope in a puffy white coat? — but it can also be used maliciously, such as to spread political disinformation. So, for my two cents, any effort to take a closer look at questionable material online is a good one.
Swimming microrobots deliver cancer-fighting drugs to metastatic lung tumors in mice
source: sciencedaily.com | image: pixabay.com
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed microscopic robots, known as microrobots, capable of swimming through the lungs to deliver cancer-fighting medication directly to metastatic tumors. This approach has shown promise in mice, where it inhibited the growth and spread of tumors that had metastasized to the lungs, thereby boosting survival rates compared to control treatments.
The findings are detailed in a paper published on June 12 in Science Advances.The microrobots are an ingenious combination of biology and nanotechnology. They are a joint effort between the labs of Joseph Wang and Liangfang Zhang, both professors in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
To create the microrobots, researchers chemically attached drug-filled nanoparticles to the surface of green algae cells. The algae, which provide the microrobots with their movement, enable the nanoparticles to efficiently swim around in the lungs and deliver their therapeutic payload to tumors. Continue reading “Swimming microrobots deliver cancer-fighting drugs…”
Is Your Computer Part of ‘The Largest Botnet Ever?’
source: krebsonsecurity.com | image: pixabay.com
he U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today said they arrested the alleged operator of 911 S5, a ten-year-old online anonymity service that was powered by what the director of the FBI called “likely the world’s largest botnet ever.” The arrest coincided with the seizure of the 911 S5 website and supporting infrastructure, which the government says turned computers running various “free VPN” products into Internet traffic relays that facilitated billions of dollars in online fraud and cybercrime.
On May 24, authorities in Singapore arrested the alleged creator and operator of 911 S5, a 35-year-old Chinese national named YunHe Wang. In a statement on his arrest today, the DOJ said 911 S5 enabled cybercriminals to bypass financial fraud detection systems and steal billions of dollars from financial institutions, credit card issuers, and federal lending programs. Continue reading “Is Your Computer Part of ‘The Largest Botnet Ever?’”
NSA Warns iPhone And Android Users To Turn It Off And On Again
source: Forbes.com (contributed by FAN, Steve Page) | image: pixabay.com
Updated Saturday, June 1: This article has been updated to include clarifcation around the safety of using public Wi-Fi networks and additional advice from the NCSC and FCC.
Although some people might worry about the National Security Agency itself spying on their phones, the NSA has some sage advice for iPhone and android users concerned about zero-click exploits and the like: turn it off and on again once per week.
How often do you turn off your iPhone or android device? Completely turn it off and then reboot it, rather than just going into standby mode, that is. I suspect that the answer for many people is only when a security or operating system update requires it. That, according to the NSA, could be a big mistake.
Users can mitigate the threat of spear-phishing, which can lead to the installation of yet more malware and spyware, by the same simple action. However, the NSA document does warn that the turn it off and on again advice will only sometimes prevent these attacks from being successful. Continue reading “NSA Warns iPhone And Android Users To Turn It Off And On Again”
How to Protect Yourself (and Your Loved Ones) From AI Scam Calls
source: wired.com | image: pexels.com
AI tools are getting better at cloning people’s voices, and scammers are using these new capabilities to commit fraud. Avoid getting swindled by following these expert tips.
YOU ANSWER A random call from a family member, and they breathlessly explain how there’s been a horrible car accident. They need you to send money right now, or they’ll go to jail. You can hear the desperation in their voice as they plead for an immediate cash transfer. While it sure sounds like them, and the call came from their number, you feel like something’s off. So, you decide to hang up and call them right back. When your family member picks up your call, they say there hasn’t been a car crash, and that they have no idea what you’re talking about.
Congratulations, you just successfully avoided an artificial intelligence scam call. Continue reading “How to Protect Yourself (and Your Loved Ones) From AI Scam Calls”