In-brief: Uber’s Endless Summer continued on Tuesday, when the ride sharing start-up settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over charges that the company failed to reasonably secure sensitive consumer data that it collected and stored.
Government
It’s the Corruption, Stupid: why Russians aren’t the biggest threat to Election Security
In-brief: Russian hackers aren’t the biggest threat to the security and integrity of elections says Bev Harris of Black Box Voting. Instead, it’s a more common enemy: run of the mill political corruption, mostly at the local level. Also: Eric Hodge of CyberScout talks about the challenges of helping states secure their election systems. Problem number one: recalcitrant voting machine makers.
Hero WannaCry Researcher Charged over Links to Kronos Trojan
In-brief: A British researcher who became a hero after he stopped the WannaCry ransomware from spreading globally has been apprehended in Nevada and charged with distributing the Kronos banking trojan in the U.S. between July 2014 and July 2015.
Sea Level Rise, Runaway AI and Grid Hacks: Why We Ignore Warnings about Preventable Catastrophes
In-brief: is it ever the case that things happen that “nobody saw coming”? Our guest on this week’s podcast would say “no.” He is Richard Clarke, a former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism for the United States and a veteran of four administrations, from President Ronald Reagan through to President George W. Bush. We talk about modern-day Cassandras: people who are warning about looming catastrophes, mostly in vain.
German Electronics Store Sued for Selling Un-Patchable Android Phones
In-brief: That’ll be $99, or $150 without the vulnerabilities! A lawsuit in Germany is trying to force stores to come clean about security holes in the products they sell to consumers.
