Existential risk preventions as the most important task for humanity http://www.existential-risk.org/concept.pdf

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Before the memristor, it would have been impossible to create something with the form factor of a brain, the low power requirements, and the instantaneous internal communications. Turns out that those three things are key to making anything that resembles the brain and thus can be trained and coaxed to behave like a brain. In this case, form is function, or more accurately, function is hopeless without form. [...]

A memristor is a two-terminal device whose resistance changes depending on the amount, direction, and duration of voltage that’s applied to it. But here’s the really interesting thing about a memristor: Whatever its past state, or resistance, it freezes that state until another voltage is applied to change it. Maintaining that state requires no power. That’s different from a dynamic RAM cell, which requires regular charge to maintain its state. The upshot is that thousands of memristors could substitute for massive banks of power-hogging memory. Just to be clear, the memristor is not magic—its memristive state does decay over time. That decay can take hours or centuries depending on the material, and stability must often be traded for energy requirements—which is one of the major research reasons memristors aren’t flooding the market yet. [...]

A biological brain is able to quickly execute this massive simultaneous information orgy—and do it in a small package—because it has evolved a number of stupendous shortcuts. Here’s what happens in a brain: Neuron 1 spits out an impulse, and the resultant information is sent down the axon to the synapse of its target, Neuron 2. The synapse of Neuron 2, having stored its own state locally, evaluates the importance of the information coming from Neuron 1 by integrating it with its own previous state and the strength of its connection to Neuron 1. Then, these two pieces of information—the information from Neuron 1 and the state of Neuron 2′s synapse—flow toward the body of Neuron 2 over the dendrites. And here is the important part: By the time that information reaches the body of Neuron 2, there is only a single value—all processing has already taken place during the information transfer. There is never any need for the brain to take information out of one neuron, spend time processing it, and then return it to a different set of neurons. Instead, in the mammalian brain, storage and processing happen at the same time and in the same place.

That difference is the main reason the human brain can run on the same power budget as a 20-watt lightbulb. [...]

To build a brain, you need to throw away the conceit of separate hardware and software because the brain doesn’t work that way. In the brain it’s all just wetware. If you really wanted to replicate a mammalian brain, software and hardware would need to be inextricable. We have no idea how to build such a system at the moment, but the memristor has allowed us to take a big step closer by approximating the biological form factor: hardware that can be both small and ultralow power. [...]

http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-intelligence/moneta-a-mind-made-from-memristors/0

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“Quantum physics enables perfectly secure cloud computing: Researchers have succeeded in combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography and have shown that perfectly secure cloud computing can be achieved using the principles of quantum mechanics. They have performed an experimental demonstration of quantum computation in which the input, the data processing, and the output remain unknown to the quantum computer.
[...] current trend of cloud computing: central remote servers are used to store and process data – everything is done in the “cloud.” The obvious challenge is to make globalized computing safe and ensure that users’ data stays private.
The latest research, to appear in Science, reveals that quantum computers can provide an answer to that challenge. “Quantum physics solves one of the key challenges in distributed computing. It can preserve data privacy when users interact with remote computing centers [...]
The scientists in the Vienna research group have demonstrated the concept of “blind quantum computing” in an experiment: they performed the first known quantum computation during which the user’s data stayed perfectly encrypted. The experimental demonstration uses photons, or “light particles” to encode the data. Photonic systems are well-suited to the task because quantum computation operations can be performed on them, and they can be transmitted over long distances.
The process works in the following manner. The user prepares qubits – the fundamental units of quantum computers – in a state known only to himself and sends these qubits to the quantum computer. The quantum computer entangles the qubits according to a standard scheme. The actual computation is measurement-based: the processing of quantum information is implemented by simple measurements on qubits. The user tailors measurement instructions to the particular state of each qubit and sends them to the quantum server. Finally, the results of the computation are sent back to the user who can interpret and utilize the results of the computation. Even if the quantum computer or an eavesdropper tries to read the qubits, they gain no useful information, without knowing the initial state; they are “blind.”" http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/uov-qpe011612.php

Publication: “Demonstration of Blind Quantum Computing” Stefanie Barz, Elham Kashefi, Anne Broadbent, Joseph Fitzsimons, Anton Zeilinger, Philip Walther. DOI: 10.1126/science.1214707

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1110.1381

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US today released environmental and health nanotech strategy http://www.nano.gov/sites/default/files/pub_resource/nni_ehs_research_strategy.pdf Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo

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Europe versus Facebook’s 22 complaints:

1. Pokes.
Pokes are kept even after the user “removes” them.

2. Shadow Profiles.
Facebook is collecting data about people without their knowledge. This information is used to substitute existing profiles and to create profiles of non-users.

3. Tagging.
Tags are used without the specific consent of the user. Users have to “untag” themselves (opt-out).
Info: Facebook announced changes.

4. Synchronizing.
Facebook is gathering personal data e.g. via its iPhone-App or the “friend finder”. This data is used by Facebook without the consent of the data subjects.

5. Deleted Postings.
Postings that have been deleted showed up in the set of data that was received from Facebook.

6. Postings on other Users’ Pages.
Users cannot see the settings under which content is distributed that they post on other’s pages.

7. Messages.
Messages (incl. Chat-Messages) are stored by Facebook even after the user “deleted” them. This means that all direct communication on Facebook can never be deleted.

8. Privacy Policy and Consent.
The privacy policy is vague, unclear and contradictory. If European and Irish standards are applied, the consent to the privacy policy is not valid.

9. Face Recognition.
The new face recognition feature is an inproportionate violation of the users right to privacy. Proper information and an unambiguous consent of the users is missing.

10. Access Request.
Access Requests have not been answered fully. Many categories of information are missing.

11. Deleted Tags.
Tags that were “removed” by the user, are only deactivated but saved by Facebook.
Filed with the Irish DPC

12. Data Security.
In its terms, Facebook says that it does not guarantee any level of data security.
Filed with the Irish DPC

13. Applications.
Applications of “friends” can access data of the user. There is no guarantee that these applications are following European privacy standards.

14. Deleted Friends.
All removed friends are stored by Facebook.

15. Excessive processing of Data.
Facebook is hosting enormous amounts of personal data and it is processing all data for its own purposes.
It seems Facebook is a prime example of illegal “excessive processing”.

16. Opt-Out.
Facebook is running an opt-out system instead of an opt-in system, which is required by European law.

17. Like Button.
The Like Button is creating extended user data that can be used to track users all over the internet. There is no legitimate purpose for the creation of the data. Users have not consented to the use.

18. Obligations as Processor.
Facebook has certain obligations as a provider of a “cloud service” (e.g. not using third party data for its own purposes or only processing data when instructed to do so by the user).

19. Picture Privacy Settings.
The privacy settings only regulate who can see the link to a picture. The picture itself is “public” on the internet. This makes it easy to circumvent the settings.

20. Deleted Pictures.
Facebook is only deleting the link to pictures. The pictures are still public on the internet for a certain period of time (more than 32 hours).

21. Groups.
Users can be added to groups without their consent. Users may end up in groups that lead other to false impressions about a person.

22. New Policies.
The policies are changed very frequently, users do not get properly informed, they are not asked to consent to new policies.

http://europe-v-facebook.org/EN/Complaints/complaints.html

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Government internet control increases online radicalisation – LulzSec is not an isolated phenomenon http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/28/radical-hackers-lulzsec-governments

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Lulz #AntiSec Manifesto http://pastebin.com/9KyA0E5v & http://lulzsecurity.com/releases/1000th_tweet_press_release.txt

“Government hacking is taking place right now behind the scenes.” https://twitter.com/#!/LulzSec/status/82841336683831296

Cf. http://lulzsecexposed.blogspot.com/2011/06/operation-security.html

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“The Leader of LulzSec is Doxed. Game Over for you Guys !!!” http://lulzsecexposed.blogspot.com/2011/06/sabu-doxed.html

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BBC: LulzSec opens hack request line so its fans can suggest potential targets http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13777129

Cf. https://twitter.com/#!/LulzSec/status/80675710246723584

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Eavesdropper that illustrates a loophole in quantum cryptography http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-06/cfqt-mqc061011.php

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Why we secretly love LulzSec: “So for the last ten years I’ve been working in media, trying to raise awareness of the idea that maybe, just maybe, using insecure computers to hold your secrets, conduct your commerce and run your infrastructure is a shitty idea.

No one who mattered listened. Executives think it’s FUD. They honestly think that if they keep paying their annual AV subscriptions they’ll be shielded by Mr. Norton’s magic cloak.

Security types like LulzSec because they’re proving what a mess we’re in. They’re pointing at the elephant in the room and saying “LOOK AT THE GIGANTIC FUCKING ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM ZOMG WHY CAN’T YOU SEE IT??? ITS TRUNK IS IN YR COFFEE FFS!!!” [...]” http://risky.biz/lulzsec

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Richard Stallman

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GPU Password Cracking – Bruteforceing a Windows Password Using a Graphic Card https://mytechencounters.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/gpu-password-cracking-crack-a-windows-password-using-a-graphic-card/

Cf.

A brief Sony password analysis http://www.troyhunt.com/2011/06/brief-sony-password-analysis.html

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“[...] Data Retention Directive does not meet the requirements set out by the rights to privacy and data protection, for the following reasons:

• the necessity of data retention as provided for in the Data Retention Directive has not been sufficiently demonstrated;
• data retention could have been regulated in a less privacy-intrusive way;
• the Data Retention Directive lacks foreseeability.

86. The EDPS calls upon the Commission to consider seriously all options in the impact assessment including the possibility of repealing the Directive, either per se or combined with a proposal for an alternative, more targeted EU measure.

87. A future Data Retention Directive could be considered only if there were agreement on the need for EU rules from the perspective of the internal market and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters and if, during the impact assessment, the necessity of data retention, supported and regulated by the EU, could be sufficiently demonstrated, which includes a careful consideration of alternative measures. Such an instrument should fulfil the following basic requirements:

• It should be comprehensive and genuinely harmonise rules on the obligation to retain data, as well as on the access and further use of the data by competent authorities.
• It should be exhaustive, which means that it has a clear and precise purpose and the legal loophole which exists with Article 15(1) of the ePrivacy Directive is closed.
• It should be proportionate and not go beyond what is necessary.” http://www.edps.europa.eu/EDPSWEB/webdav/site/mySite/shared/Documents/Consultation/Opinions/2011/11-05-30_Evaluation_Report_DRD_EN.pdf

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LulzSec versus FBI: “It has come to our unfortunate attention that NATO and [...] Obama have recently upped the stakes with regard to hacking. They now treat hacking as an act of war. So, we just hacked an FBI affiliated website (Infragard, specifically the Atlanta chapter) and leaked its user base. We also took complete control over the site and defaced it [...]” http://pastebin.com/MQG0a130 Cf. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2618562

Update: http://www.unveillance.com/latest-news/unveillance-official-statement/

Update2: “####[CRIMINALS OF LULZSEC]####
After being invited to the lulzsec private channel after social engineering parr0t
I was able to learn a few interesting things about their group! Alot them have
previous cyber crime and are involved in some heavy shit!” http://pastebin.com/RBjzDQbS
But cf. “Uh, yeah. Adrian Lamo is the guy who ratted out Bradley Manning to the feds.” http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2619898 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Lamo#WikiLeaks_and_Bradley_Manning

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