Weekly Axis Of Easy #224
Last Week’s Quote was “The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom.” was by Voltaire. No one got it.
This Week’s Quote: “A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.” …by???
THE RULES: No searching up the answer, must be posted to the blog – the place to post the answer is at the bottom of the post, in the comments section.
The Prize: First person to post the correct answer gets their next domain or hosting renewal on us.
In this issue:
Elsewhere online:
Amazon’s server outage affected Netflix, Disney Plus, and delivery services
Due to difficulties with different Amazon Web Services cloud servers, large portions of the internet suffer slow loading or crashes. Due to Amazon’s massive network of data centers underpinning many of the internet services you use, any disruption has a broad impact, as we have seen with previous AWS failures.
While certain services dependent on Amazon Web Services have been restored, the internet is still slower and less dependable than before. The apps used by Amazon employees may be the most crucial apps impacted by the outage.
Several Reddit threads from Amazon Flex, warehouse, and delivery employees indicate that the apps that track packages, direct them to their destinations, and keep track of their progress were also affected. PUBG, League of Legends, Valorant, Disney Plus, and Netflix streaming platforms have also been impacted by this disruption.
Read: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/aws-outage-impacts-ring-netflix-and-amazon-deliveries/
CIA Director’s statement about cryptocurrency sparks media frenzy
CIA Director William Burns mentioned cryptocurrency in a discussion at the Wall Street Journal CEO Summit and rumors about Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, being secretly the CIA or some other three-letter agency raised among crypto fans.
After debating everything from the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine to space issues, an audience member inquired about cryptocurrencies, which are currently at the center of the ransomware pandemic that US officials are working to contain and eradicate.
Cryptocurrencies “could have a significant influence on everything from ransomware assaults, as you stated, because one of the ways to get at ransomware attacks and dissuade them is to be able to get at the banking networks that so many of those criminal networks use” Burns added.
Of course, practically everyone is just laughing at the joke that the CIA conceived Bitcoin. However, the CIA appears to be very serious about its present crypto activities, which underscores how serious ransomware assaults and the like have become.
Read: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/21/12/07/210241/the-cia-is-deep-into-cryptocurrency-director-reveals
Twitter suspends account posting details on Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial
Twitter has suspended a popular account on its platform posting details on Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently on trial on a sex trafficking case.
The Free Press Report’s @TrackerTrial account attracted over 525,000 followers in just fourteen days by offering additional updates on the trial. The account was the most popular on Twitter for following the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
The Free Press Report posted a snapshot of the notice they received on Substack, accusing them of using Twitter to ” influence or disrupt people’s Twitter experience by deliberate amplification or suppression of information, or by engaging in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people’s Twitter experience.”
Other accounts made by the same person were also terminated, and Twitter cautioned that they would be removed if they created any more accounts.
The account’s creator challenged the suspension, claiming that all traffic and activity were “organic.” They did nothing to inflate their followers artificially.
“The account garnered a huge amount of engagement, all of which was natural. There had been no external augmentation. As indicated by the high level of interest, the public wanted to discover the truth about the Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein prosecutions. Hundreds of millions of impressions were gathered, and in just a few weeks, the account went from zero to over 525,000 followers. All we did was convey details from the trial that the news outlets had missed.”
The now suspended handle owner penned down in The Free Press Report.
The tracker is still active on Instagram, and daily reports are still available.
Read: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/twitter-nukes-most-popular-ghislaine-maxwell-trial-tracker-account-525k-followers
A famous safety app is selling the geolocation of its millions of users
Life360, a notable family safety software that helps parents monitor their children’s whereabouts using their smartphones, sells data on families’ locations to a few data merchants, who have resold the data to nearly anyone who wants it, according to The Markup.
With a global user base of 33 million, Life360 has found a crucial source of revenue on selling position information. According to The Markup, location data sales and collaborations brought in $22 million last year, contributing to around 20% of the company’s annual income.
Two former employees expressed concern about how the data is used and the absence of safeguards to prevent misuse of the information collected and sold.
According to the company’s privacy policy, Life360 “may also share your information with third parties in a form that does not properly identify you directly. These third parties are free to use the de-identified data for anything they want.”
Read: https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/12/06/the-popular-family-safety-app-life360-is-selling-precise-location-data-on-its-tens-of-millions-of-user
Here’s how Biden sees the internet in the future
The White House is expected to announce preparations for its much-anticipated Alliance for the Future of the Internet this week, to unite a coalition of democracies around a goal for a fair and democratic internet.
However, behind the scenes, digital rights activists, foreign countries, and even some US officials have been scurrying for the last month to persuade the White House to reconsider its initial ideas, putting the proposal’s more progressive elements in flux with just days before the big unveiling.
Civil society organizations and other US government agencies were alarmed by the initial idea despite the planners’ great intent. They claimed it was snubbing existing internet freedom platforms and hurried out without adequate vetting by government agencies and other organizations, leading to policy ideas that could jeopardize the alliance’s objectives.
Last month, Politico obtained secret documents that revealed the Biden administration’s ambitions. According to a draft plan, the alliance aims to work for “an open, trusted, and private internet that promotes essential democratic ideals and protection of human rights.” The paper cites two reasons for the alliance’s creation:
- Amazon’s server outage affected Netflix, Disney Plus, and delivery services
- CIA Director’s statement about cryptocurrency sparks media frenzy
- Twitter suspends account posting details on Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial
- A famous safety app is selling the geolocation of its millions of users
- Here’s how Biden sees the internet in the future
Elsewhere online:
- AI/DC: A machine writes an AC/DC song
- Head of US Cyber Command confirms direct military actions against ransomware gangs
- SolarWinds hackers have a whole arsenal of new tactics for mass attacks
- An astronomical mystery involves a galaxy without dark matter
- Once again, Verizon expands its snoopvertising efforts
Amazon’s server outage affected Netflix, Disney Plus, and delivery services
Due to difficulties with different Amazon Web Services cloud servers, large portions of the internet suffer slow loading or crashes. Due to Amazon’s massive network of data centers underpinning many of the internet services you use, any disruption has a broad impact, as we have seen with previous AWS failures.
While certain services dependent on Amazon Web Services have been restored, the internet is still slower and less dependable than before. The apps used by Amazon employees may be the most crucial apps impacted by the outage.
Several Reddit threads from Amazon Flex, warehouse, and delivery employees indicate that the apps that track packages, direct them to their destinations, and keep track of their progress were also affected. PUBG, League of Legends, Valorant, Disney Plus, and Netflix streaming platforms have also been impacted by this disruption.
Read: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/aws-outage-impacts-ring-netflix-and-amazon-deliveries/
CIA Director’s statement about cryptocurrency sparks media frenzy
CIA Director William Burns mentioned cryptocurrency in a discussion at the Wall Street Journal CEO Summit and rumors about Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, being secretly the CIA or some other three-letter agency raised among crypto fans.
After debating everything from the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine to space issues, an audience member inquired about cryptocurrencies, which are currently at the center of the ransomware pandemic that US officials are working to contain and eradicate.
Cryptocurrencies “could have a significant influence on everything from ransomware assaults, as you stated, because one of the ways to get at ransomware attacks and dissuade them is to be able to get at the banking networks that so many of those criminal networks use” Burns added.
Of course, practically everyone is just laughing at the joke that the CIA conceived Bitcoin. However, the CIA appears to be very serious about its present crypto activities, which underscores how serious ransomware assaults and the like have become.
Read: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/21/12/07/210241/the-cia-is-deep-into-cryptocurrency-director-reveals
Twitter suspends account posting details on Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial
Twitter has suspended a popular account on its platform posting details on Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently on trial on a sex trafficking case.
The Free Press Report’s @TrackerTrial account attracted over 525,000 followers in just fourteen days by offering additional updates on the trial. The account was the most popular on Twitter for following the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
The Free Press Report posted a snapshot of the notice they received on Substack, accusing them of using Twitter to ” influence or disrupt people’s Twitter experience by deliberate amplification or suppression of information, or by engaging in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people’s Twitter experience.”
Other accounts made by the same person were also terminated, and Twitter cautioned that they would be removed if they created any more accounts.
The account’s creator challenged the suspension, claiming that all traffic and activity were “organic.” They did nothing to inflate their followers artificially.
“The account garnered a huge amount of engagement, all of which was natural. There had been no external augmentation. As indicated by the high level of interest, the public wanted to discover the truth about the Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein prosecutions. Hundreds of millions of impressions were gathered, and in just a few weeks, the account went from zero to over 525,000 followers. All we did was convey details from the trial that the news outlets had missed.”
The now suspended handle owner penned down in The Free Press Report.
The tracker is still active on Instagram, and daily reports are still available.
Read: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/twitter-nukes-most-popular-ghislaine-maxwell-trial-tracker-account-525k-followers
A famous safety app is selling the geolocation of its millions of users
Life360, a notable family safety software that helps parents monitor their children’s whereabouts using their smartphones, sells data on families’ locations to a few data merchants, who have resold the data to nearly anyone who wants it, according to The Markup.
With a global user base of 33 million, Life360 has found a crucial source of revenue on selling position information. According to The Markup, location data sales and collaborations brought in $22 million last year, contributing to around 20% of the company’s annual income.
Two former employees expressed concern about how the data is used and the absence of safeguards to prevent misuse of the information collected and sold.
According to the company’s privacy policy, Life360 “may also share your information with third parties in a form that does not properly identify you directly. These third parties are free to use the de-identified data for anything they want.”
Read: https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/12/06/the-popular-family-safety-app-life360-is-selling-precise-location-data-on-its-tens-of-millions-of-user
Here’s how Biden sees the internet in the future
The White House is expected to announce preparations for its much-anticipated Alliance for the Future of the Internet this week, to unite a coalition of democracies around a goal for a fair and democratic internet.
However, behind the scenes, digital rights activists, foreign countries, and even some US officials have been scurrying for the last month to persuade the White House to reconsider its initial ideas, putting the proposal’s more progressive elements in flux with just days before the big unveiling.
Civil society organizations and other US government agencies were alarmed by the initial idea despite the planners’ great intent. They claimed it was snubbing existing internet freedom platforms and hurried out without adequate vetting by government agencies and other organizations, leading to policy ideas that could jeopardize the alliance’s objectives.
Last month, Politico obtained secret documents that revealed the Biden administration’s ambitions. According to a draft plan, the alliance aims to work for “an open, trusted, and private internet that promotes essential democratic ideals and protection of human rights.” The paper cites two reasons for the alliance’s creation:
- Authoritarian regimes use the internet to maintain governmental control.
- Concerns about false news, security, and big tech’s domination of the internet.
Read: https://thenextweb.com/news/what-is-alliance-for-the-future-of-internet-joe-biden-web-plans
Elsewhere online:
AI/DC: A machine writes an AC/DC song
Read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpEVsDN84Hc
Head of US Cyber Command confirms direct military actions against ransomware gangs
Read: https://www.zdnet.com/article/us-cyber-command-head-confirms-direct-actions-against-ransomware-gangs/?&web_view=true
SolarWinds hackers have a whole arsenal of new tactics for mass attacks
Read: https://it.slashdot.org/story/21/12/06/2345238/solarwinds-hackers-have-a-whole-bag-of-new-tricks-for-mass-compromise-attacks
An astronomical mystery involves a galaxy without dark matter
Read: https://science.slashdot.org/story/21/12/07/0219254/mysterious-galaxy-without-dark-matter-puzzles-astronomers
Once again, Verizon expands its snoopvertising efforts
Read: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/21/12/07/1911237/verizon-once-again-expands-its-snoopvertising-ambitions
Just guessing but it sounds like Ben Franklin to me.
My guess would be Dale Carnegie, but he may have been quoting someone else.