RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Saturday 15 Nov 2024 Volume 34 : Issue No 49
ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)
Peter G. Neumann, founder and still moderator

***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. *****
This issue is archived at <http://www.risks.org> as
<http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/34.49>
The current issue can also be found at
<http://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt>

Contents: [Way backlogged, Running out of time.]
Was this election well conducted? (Peter G. Neumann)
After Trump Took the Lead, Election Deniers Went Suddenly Silent
(The NY Times)
Terrified friends burned to death in Tesla as electronic doors
(The Mirror)
Robotaxis open for business in Los Angele (LsTimes)
Zoox's pill-shaped robotaxis become latest self-driving cars to hit
California's streets (LA Times)
Anomalous Windows Server Update (MSPowerUser)
North Korea Jams GPS Signals (The Korea Times)
A new iOS 18 security feature makes it harder for police to unlock
iPhones (The Verge)
A kayaker was missing for months. Authorities say he faked his
death. (WashPost)
Robotaxis open for business in Los Angeles (LA Times)
Fake images of hurricane survivors have become a bizarre meme
(NBC News)
import what? (The Register)
42% of daily X users have a negative view of it -- losing the block feature
won't help (ZDNET)
AI fails a student's paper, with "98% accuracy" (The Star via Ed Ravin)
Top Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities in 2023 (CISA.GOV)
Inside the Massive Crime Industry That���s Hacking Billion-Dollar Companies
(WiReD)
How Tech Created a *Recipe for Loneliness* (The NY Times)
Hidden Data in Amgen Publicly-released Spreadsheet Possible Cause of Stock
Drop (CNBC)
I was moderating hundreds of horrific and traumatising videos (BBC)
Re: Families Battle Tech Giants as Australia Pushes for an Under-16
Social-Media Ban (WSJ via Monty Solomon)
Re: Australia plans social media ban for under-16s (Steve Bacher)
Re: Man who made 'depraved' child images with AI jailed (Steve Bacher)
Re: Nobody wants Copilot Pro AI for Office365, so Microsoft will
force-bundle it and raise the price? (Pivot to AI) (Steve Bacher)
Re: AI decodes oinks and grunts to keep pigs happy (Steve Bacher)
Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

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Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2024 13:02:12 PST
From: Peter G Neumann <neumann@csl.sri.com>
Subject: Was this election well conducted?

1. Did the computer technology work correctly? Perhaps the same answer as
in the Biden election in 2020 -- with all the preparation and oversight
-- despite the President-elect claiming that nothing could be trusted (in
case he lost). Nevertheless, most of the technology is not really
capable of enforcing string requirements for security integrity, and
trustworthiness.

2. Was the election riddled with wrong-doings? Yes,
but most of them had very little to do with the
technology used in the election.

A few of you may remember that my final report for the SRI portion of the
NSF ACCURATE team project wrote extensively about how the non-technical
issues were beginning to weigh heavily in the overall trustworthiness of the
overall election process, character assassination, malicious lies,
misinformation, intentional disinformation, death threats to election
officials and voters, support from the Supreme Court, dumbing down public
education, book burning, claiming slavery was a job-opportunities program,
and many other factors unrelated that were almost totally unrelated to the
computer technology were all pieces of the puzzle.

[Lillie Coney recently mentioned (RISKS-34.47) a joint paper: Lillie Coney,
Juan E. Gilbert, Peter G. Neumann, Erik Nilsson, Jon Pincus, and Bruce
Schneier, E-Deceptive Campaign Practices, Electronic Privacy Information
Center and The Century Foundation 20 Oct 2008:
http://votingintegrity.org/pdf/edeceptive_report.pdf
PGN]

*The NYTimes* had a serious of articles on Sunday and Monday trying to
assess blame. For example, President Biden failed to make the positive case
for his administration, and he deferred too long before exiting the
candidacy. The Democrats violated their own belief in an open convention.
Kamala Harris did not adequately defend herself and attack back until it was
too late. The voters' concerns were underestimated by pollsters and the
Democratic Party. The real issues were never debated or even addressed.
Many Democrats apparently stayed home. And that's just a few points
discussed post-election from some of the media.

Summary: The technology seemed to get an accurate sense of the voters;
the anomalies in the election generally lay elsewhere.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2024 12:22:35 -0500
From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: After Trump Took the Lead, Election Deniers Went Suddenly Silent

Trump supporters spent years fomenting concern about election integrity. On Tuesday, they set it all aside.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/technology/trump-election-denial.html

[Surprise? They were wrong along??? PGN]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 16:59:00 -0700
From: geoff goodfellow <geoff@iconia.com>
Subject: Terrified friends burned to death in Tesla as electronic doors
wouldn't open after crash ()

The only survivor of the October 24 fire was a woman in her 20s who was
able to get to safety after a quick thinking passer-by smashed a window of
the burning Model Y car to free her [...]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/terrified-friends-burned-death-tesla-34087725

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 06:35:45 -0800
From: Steve Bacher <sebmb1@verizon.net>
Subject: Robotaxis open for business in Los Angeles (LA Times)

Angelenos can hail a robotaxi with the Waymo One app starting Tuesday.
There are about 100 taxis in the Los Angeles fleet ���� but they don't drive
freeways.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-11-12/robotaxis-open-for-business-in-los-angeles

[Why? Perhaps because there would be only ONE person in the vehicle, and
it could not go in the Diamond lane? Insurance issue? Safety issue when
all the human-driven vehicles are routinely doing 80+ mph it can be
difficult for CHP law enforcement to stop and arrest the non-driver of the
driverless car??? PGN]

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 06:37:04 -0800
From: Steve Bacher <sebmb1@verizon.net>
Subject: Zoox's pill-shaped robotaxis become latest self-driving cars to hit
California's streets (LA Times)

Is it a toaster? Is it a pill on wheels? No, it���s Zoox���s funny-looking
robotaxi, the latest fully autonomous vehicle to hit the streets of
California.

Zoox���s self-driving vehicles began rolling out in San Francisco���s SoMa
neighborhood this week, and are expected to compete with robotaxis designed
by Waymo, which started offering rides to the public in San Francisco and
Los Angeles earlier this year.

But not quite yet. For now, Zoox���s driverless trips around SoMa will be for
testing and research purposes only.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-11-12/zoox-pill-shaped-robotaxis-latest-self-driving-cars-california-streets

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2024 10:36:30 -0500
From: Cliff Kilby <cliffjkilby@gmail.com>
Subject: Anomalous Windows Server Update (MSPowerUser)

https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-reportedly-upgrades-users-with-windows-server-2022-to-2025-without-notice/

It appears that an upgrade has been marked as a security update, and is
pushing some versions of Windows Server 2022 to Server 2025.

If you're running Server 2022 21h2, you may want to manually flag KB5044284
as skipped until Microsoft clarifies the issue.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2024 11:01:10 -0500 (EST)
From: ACM TechNews <technews-editor@acm.org>
Subject: North Korea Jams GPS Signals (The Korea Times)

The Korea Times, 9 Nov 2024

North Korea staged GPS jamming attacks for the second consecutive day
Saturday, affecting several ships in the Yellow Sea and dozens of
civilian aircraft, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff
(JCS). After being alerted, the International Civil Aviation
Organization adopted a decision raising serious concerns over the GPS
jamming, naming North Korea explicitly for the first time.

[Incidental PGN-added notes: Susan Landau has a post at Lawfare: CALEA
Was a National Security Disaster Waiting to Happen:
<https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/calea-was-a-national-security-disaster-waiting-to-happen>

Steve Bellovin noted an FBI item on China that was also of interest here:
https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/joint-statement-from-fbi-and-cisa-on-the-peoples-republic-of-china-targeting-of-commercial-telecommunications-infrastructure

Lauren Weinstein noted:
2022 Russian TV program singing the praises of "our girlfriend" Tulsi
Gabbard, who Trump wants to be director of national intelligence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2_eL8t8D9Y

PGN]