An article published on 26 December by the South China Morning Post headlined Chinese scientists to develop AI ‘prosecutor’ that can press charges on its own. According to the article, the project, which began in 2015, has now reached the executive stage, and software can support prosecutors in deciding whether to send eight types of crime to trial, including dangerous driving, fraud and gambling. Therefore, the field of application is restricted because the crimes that can be analysed are few, and the magistrate still maintains the last word. However, there has been no lack of the usual “alarms” about the “robotic judge” and the umpteenth demonstration of how dangerous this “artificial intelligence” can be – by Andrea Monti – Initially published in Italian on Strategikon – An Italian Tech Blog Continue reading “The artificial intelligence of the virtual prosecutor”
Stay away from blockchain and cryptocurrencies, says nerd
Blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs and smart contracts are all the rage. They promise (yet another) revolution. They attract public and private investment. They allow those who have embraced them to make fortunes and lose everything. They are also, however, the umpteenth step towards electronic slavery masquerading as a dream of freedom. Thanks to these technologies – but more generally to how the IT market works – we transfer control over the economic and intellectual value we create with our work and thought efforts to private operators. In exchange for what? by Andrea Monti – Initially published in Italian by Strategikon – an Italian Tech Blog. Continue reading “Stay away from blockchain and cryptocurrencies, says nerd”
The Zyxel’s Firewall Bug. Twenty Years Passed Invain
by Andrea Monti – originally published in Italian by Infosec.News
Routers … are affected by a severe vulnerability that makes it possible, without any artifice or hack, to obtain the router’s access password.
Therefore, it is possible to block the operation of the device, making services inaccessible and, in some cases, accessing the user’s internal network. It would make it possible to intercept e-mails and, more generally, the information contained therein— all without the user’s knowledge. We wonder … how is it possible that equipment with such vulnerabilities to the privacy of citizens and the activities of companies can be placed on the market without any control, without any information or caution, without any assumption of responsibility on the part of manufacturers and distributors and without any protection for defenceless (and unsuspecting) users? Continue reading “The Zyxel’s Firewall Bug. Twenty Years Passed Invain”
Who owns your computer, and more importantly, can you trust it?
Operating systems and software manage the usability of machines by Andrea Monti – Originally published in Italian by Infosec.News
Adobe announces the end of Flash Player and that it will block content based on this standard, which is considered inherently unsafe and the subject of constant security updates.
It is a subject for another article to investigate why it was possible to allow such software (and those of other manufacturers) to burden and weaken computers around the world . For the time being, we are interested in the relationship between obsolescence management, licensing, the ‘ownership’ of a computer (or a smartphone or a tablet, or – when the IoT will, unfortunately, become a reality – any household appliance).
In short: buying a computer does not mean becoming its owner, because its usability depends on the strategies of operating systems and software’s producers to keep it running. The subject is certainly not new (Richard Stallman wrote about it at the dawn of free software), but today it has reached worrying dimensions.
Continue reading “Who owns your computer, and more importantly, can you trust it?”Networks and national security. What software houses can do according to Prof. Monti
What do the anti-American, allegedly-Chinese espionage actions have in common with the death in Germany of a woman who would not receive prompt treatment because a ransomware attack paralysed the German hospital where her ambulance was heading? The analysis of Andrea Monti, adjunct professor of law and order and public security law, University of Chieti-Pescara – published initially in Italian by Formiche.net
Continue reading “Networks and national security. What software houses can do according to Prof. Monti”