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Submission + - How Trump is hacking away at U.S. cyber defenses (fastcompany.com)

Submitted by tedlistens
tedlistens writes: Eight years after creating the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Trump's second administration is ripping up parts of the country’s cyber playbook and taking many of its best players off the field, from threat hunters and election defenders at CISA to the leader of the NSA and Cyber Command. Amid a barrage of severe attacks like Volt Typhoon and rising trade tensions, lawmakers, former officials, and cyber professionals say that sweeping and confusing cuts are making the country more vulnerable and emboldening its adversaries. “There are intrusions happening now that we either will never know about or won’t see for years because our adversaries are undoubtedly stepping up their activity, and we have a shrinking, distracted workforce,” says Jeff Greene, a cybersecurity expert who has held top roles at CISA and the White House.

Comment Re:if u suck the carbon out of the sea (Score 3, Interesting) 70

by dpilot (#65315127) Attached to: Project To Suck Carbon Out of Sea Begins in UK

I wish I had mod points for this. My son-in-law works in this stuff and he's been frustrated about resistance to carbon-reduction efforts. The specific one he mentioned a while back I believe involved adding a (possibly calcium-containing) base to let a precipitate fall onto the sea bed sequestering the carbon. People were worried about sticking basic chemicals into the sea without realizing that reducing acidity itself was good in addition to carbon sequestration - that they're actually related.

Submission + - China Halts Rare Earth Exports to U.S. (thegatewaypundit.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: China has halted exports of seven critical rare earth elements to the United States, a move that threatens to disrupt supply chains across key American industries, including automotive, semiconductor, and aerospace sectors. China’s Ministry of Commerce recently added seven rare earth elements—including dysprosium, terbium, and lutetium—to its restricted export list. These elements are essential for manufacturing high-performance magnets used in electric vehicles, advanced weaponry, and consumer electronics.

Additionally: US chipmakers outsourcing manufacturing will escape China's tariffs

U.S. chipmakers that outsource manufacturing will be exempt from China's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports, according to a notice by the main Chinese semiconductor association on Friday.
Given the highly specialized and multi-country nature of chip supply chains, there was uncertainty within the industry about how tariffs would be applied to chip imports.
"For all integrated circuits, whether packaged or unpackaged, the declared country of origin for import customs purchases is the location of the wafer fabrication plant," the state-backed China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA), which represents the country's largest chip companies, said in an "urgent notice" on its WeChat account.
For U.S. chip designers such as Qualcomm and AMD that outsource manufacturing to Taiwanese chipmaking giant TSMC 2330.TW, Chinese customs authorities will classify these chips' place of origin as Taiwan, according to EETop, an information platform and forum for Chinese chipmakers.
This means China-based companies importing such chips will not be forced to pay China's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports, EETop said on its WeChat account.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2Ftechno...

Comment Re:Silly question. (Score 1) 179

by dpilot (#65171423) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Would It Take For You to Trust an AI?

Came looking for this. From what I can see, the people pushing AI the hardest have their own agenda, and that agenda does not appear to be good for me in the long run. I've also read of some good things being done with AI, like protein folding and other science-related stuff that you don't hear much about. I would also suspect that in the sciences they understand the pitfalls of AI better and are being careful to at least try to not delude themselves.

Submission + - IRS goes after gig workers instead of billionaire tax dodgers (boingboing.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: While billionaires stash fortunes in offshore havens, the IRS is targeting gig workers who make a few bucks answering questions on a platform where people earn side income by sharing expertise.

A federal court in California has authorized the IRS to demand records from JustAnswer. While ProPublica revealed that America's wealthiest often pay lower tax rates than schoolteachers, the IRS is focusing its investigative muscle on gig workers trying to earn extra income.

"The world is getting smaller for tax cheats," crowed IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, in a Department of Justice press release – though apparently not small enough to catch the billionaire class exploiting sophisticated tax avoidance schemes. While JustAnswer users face scrutiny, the wealthiest Americans continue employing armies of accountants to legally dodge billions in taxes through complex trusts and partnerships that the IRS fails to audit.

In the press release, Deputy Assistant Attorney General David Hubbert warned that "those who choose to be on the forefront of the gig economy must be aware of, and abide by, all their tax obligations." I have news for you, Mr. Hubbert — no one "chooses" to work in the gig economy; it's a last resort for millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet in an economy where stable, full-time jobs with benefits like yours have become increasingly scarce.

The IRS's priorities are clear: It's easier to squeeze blood from a stone than to challenge the complex tax shelters of the ultra-rich. So while billionaires enjoy their legal tax loopholes, the veterinarian answering late-night pet questions better keep perfect records — the tax man is watching.

Previously:
IRS admits it audits poor people because auditing rich people is too expensive
How the super-rich defeated the IRS's crack Global High Wealth unit

Comment Re: Oh no! ...Anyway. (Score 4, Insightful) 235

by dpilot (#65003475) Attached to: Chinese Scientists Have No Choice But To Leave US, Top Mathematician Says

Boy, I wish I had moderation points today. Sadly you've hit the nail right on the head. Back around 2016 we entered what I call "The Fiction / Reality Inversion," and I've had a tough time reading fiction ever since. If you had tried to sell the last decade as a plot to a story of movie more than ten years ago they would have scoffed at it as silly and impossible. Today it's where we live.

The rise of anti-intellectualism in the US is helping to throw away the nation's future. Wealth-hoarding is helping with that, too. (Pure science is practically never profitable in the short run, but almost always in the long term.)

Comment Re:CEO speak (Score 4, Interesting) 38

by dpilot (#65000065) Attached to: Small AI Chip Maker Marvell is Now More Valuable Than Intel

Well as a former (retired in 2023) Marvell employee, I have to say that they were a great employer - I liked working there as an ordinary engineer.

I started with IBM in the days of the "good IBM" and watched it turn into the "bad IBM". Then IBM sold me along with a few thousand of my closest friends and a bunch of real estate to Global Foundries. Then after a few years Global Foundries dropped off of the leading edge technologies and sold me along with a few hundred close friends to Marvell, where I worked until I retired. Though I spent my career in the East, Marvell the company seemed to have more of the West Coast culture, which was in some ways closer to the "good IBM".

Submission + - The Onion buys Alex Jones's Infowars (bbc.com)

Submitted by skam240
skam240 writes: "Satirical news publication The Onion has bought Infowars, the media organisation headed by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, for an undisclosed price at a court-ordered auction.

The Onion said that the bid was secured with the backing of families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who won a $1.5bn (£1.18bn) defamation lawsuit against Jones for spreading false rumours about the massacre."

Comment Re:Safety testing? (Score 1) 49

This is a very stupid comment. If you want to create deepfake pr0n, or create an AI to scam vulnerable people en masse, or flood social media with astroturfing, you're not doing it on MS's infrastructure. That does include, but is not limited to, racist or discriminatory content. If you can't see the reason for *any* restrictions then you are not thinking hard enough. Go build your own model if you like, you don't have to use MS compute, there are other options although I'd be amazed if most of the big players didn't have similar acceptable usage terms.

Comment no-one reads articles anymore, FFS (Score 1) 49

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblogs.microsoft.com%2Fon... Microsoft has a duty of care to customers (in terms of privacy of your data, e.g. your data isn't used to train models for others) and to the world (MS don't allow people to weaponise AI, or use it in ways that have negative impact (e.g. if you're using facial recognition and you've used a shitty model that unfairly disadvantages people with a darker skin colour with poorer recognition, for example) - all of which are spelt out in the contracts. You don't have to use MS to host your AI, but if you do, MS gets to put some guardrails in place. This seems entirely sensible, unlike many posts in this thread...

Comment Re:This is not news. (Score 1) 188

by RMH101 (#64383088) Attached to: 'Russia Might Have Caused Havana Syndrome'
This was a really interesting article. I'd suspect that the use of multiple listening device jammers in US embassies is probably not uncommon. You might, for example have one in each room interacting with each other in this way. The other thing to bear in mind is that "Russian secret weapon" makes a great headline that doesn't really need proof to go viral.

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