RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Saturday 23 Nov 2024 Volume 34 : Issue 50

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/34.50>
The current issue can also be found at
<http://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt>

Contents: Mostly caught up
Two Baltic Sea cables suffer breaks; Sabotage Suspected
(Bob Gezelter)
A deadly crash in Toronto raises questions about the dangers when things go
wrong for EVs (CBC)
Russian Spies Jumped From One Network to Another Via Wi-Fi in an
Unprecedented Hack (WiReD)
Evidence-based high-school grading method (PGN)
Human vs. Machine: The Promise and Peril of Artificial Intelligence in the
Law Enforcement Context (Cato Institute)
AI is supposed to make applying to jobs easier -- but it might be
creating another problem (NBC News)
AI Chatbot Tells Student to Die (Indiana Express)
AI Is Already Taking Jobs (Mark Sullivan)
Authors miffed by publisher's offer to use their books for AI training (CBC)
There's No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI
(The Atlantic)
U.S. Finalizes $6.6-Billion CHIPS Act Grant to TSMC (Nikkei Asia)
Zero-Day Exploits Increasingly Sought Out by Attackers (Alex Scroxton)
Hardware Hacking? Study Raises Alarm on 98 Risks (Lars Daniel)
Dogs allowed? (BBC)
Elon Musk Asked People to Upload Their Health Data. X Users Obliged
(The New York Times)
The leaks begin! - "Unknown and unauthorized third party" has gained access
to Matt Gaetz depositions, source says (CBS News)
More on: DOJ "remedies" against Google would be a disaster
(Lauren Weinstein)
'You are under digital arrest': Inside a scam looting millions from Indians
(BBC)
Navy Federal customer forced to pay back loan she didn't take out after
being scammed (WTKR)
"... you are the product" (Rob Slade)
Re: Terrified friends burned to death in Tesla as electronic doors
wouldn't open after crash (Steve Bacher)
Re: Australia plans social media ban for under-16s
(Lars-Henrik Eriksson, Dmitri Maziuk)
Re: Robotaxis open for business in Los Angeles (Nicholas Weaver)
Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

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Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2024 23:44:57 -0500
From: Bob Gezelter <gezelter@rlgsc.com>
Subject: Two Baltic Sea cables suffer breaks; Sabotage Suspected

Today, there were two breaks in cables traversing the Baltic Sea: a cable
connecting Germany and Finland; and a cable connecting Lithuania and
Sweden. Sabotage is suspected.

A little over three years ago, I wrote "WorldWide Broadband Vulnerabilities
are a Significant Hazard",
http://www.rlgsc.com/blog/ruminations/worldwide-bandwidth-vulnerability.html
In that entry, I noted the dangers of broadband disruptions to business
operations.

Today's cable incident is reported by Reuters, full article at:

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/telecoms-cable-linking-finland-germany-likely-severed-owner-says-2024-11-18/

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Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2024 12:34:21 -0500
From: Matthew Kruk <mkrukg@gmail.com>
Subject: A deadly crash in Toronto raises questions about
the dangers when things go wrong for EVs (CBC)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/electric-vehicles-safety-toronto-crash-1.7389937

A deadly crash involving an electric car that killed four people in downtown
Toronto has raised concerns about the dangers when things go wrong for EVs.
That includes whether people can easily extract themselves in the event of a
fire, or how significant the fire risk is among the current generation of
EVs.

Observers say these types of fires may draw media attention, but they aren't
that common -- and that analysis of EV safety should focus on products and
their components, and any resulting concerns.

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Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2024 15:38:30 -0500
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Russian Spies Jumped From One Network to Another
Via Wi-Fi in an Unprecedented Hack (WiReD)

In a first, Russia's APT28 hacking group appears to have remotely breached
the Wi-Fi of an espionage target by hijacking a laptop in another building
across the street.

For determined hackers, sitting in a car outside a target's building and
using radio equipment to breach its Wi-Fi network has long been an effective
but risky technique. These risks became all too clear when spies working for
Russia's GRU military intelligence agency were caught red-handed on a city
street in the Netherlands in 2018 using an antenna hidden in their car's
trunk to try to hack into the Wi-Fi of the Organization for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons.

Since that incident, however, that same unit of Russian military hackers
appears to have developed a new and far safer Wi-Fi hacking technique:
Instead of venturing into radio range of their target, they found another
vulnerable network in a building across the street, hacked into a laptop in
that neighboring building, and used that computer's antenna to break into
the Wi-Fi network of their intended victim—a radio-hacking trick that never
even required leaving Russian soil.

https://www.wired.com/story/russia-gru-apt28-wifi-daisy-chain-breach/

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

Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2024 10:58:05 PST
From: Peter Neumann <neumann@csl.sri.com>
Subject: Evidence-based high-school grading method

Gunn, the Palo Alto high school my sons attended has decided to have a pilot
alternative grading method that looks at progress as well as standing.

Perhaps they will also use evidence-based AI! (see my article with
Ulf Lindqvist on E-B AI in the November CACM:
https://www.csl.sri.com/users/Neumann/cacm255.pdf

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

Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2024 20:16:20 -0500
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Human vs. Machine: The Promise and Peril of Artificial
Intelligence in the Law Enforcement Context (Cato Institute)

The development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) software for
a range of applications has sparked intense debate over its implications for
privacy and surveillance in multiple contexts. At the same time, police
organizations argue that AI could help revolutionize and speed up police
investigations by allowing for faster identification of crime suspects or
missing or kidnapped persons.

What are the kinds of dangers posed by the use of AI by law enforcement
agencies? Are there types of crimes where the application of AI might be
beneficial? How well or poorly are legislative bodies dealing with this new
technology? What is the state of the law at the federal, state, and local
levels regarding AI use by law enforcement organizations? Our panel will
tackle all these topics.

https://www.cato.org/events/human-vs-machine-promise-peril-artificial-intelligence-law-enforcement-context

What could go wrong?

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Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2024 07:01:13 -0800
From: Steve Bacher <sebmb1@verizon.net>
Subject: AI is supposed to make applying to jobs easier -- but it might be
creating another problem (NBC News)

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the job application process,
simplifying some aspects -— and creating new potential frictions in others.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/ai-making-job-applications-easier-creating-another-problem-rcna179683

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

Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2024 18:07:53 -0500
From: Charles Dunlop <cdunlop@umich.edu>
Subject: AI Chatbot Tells Student to Die (Indiana Express)e
A Michigan student was interacting with a chatbot about a homework
assignment, when he suddenly started being threatened.

https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/artificial-intelligence/you-are-a-burden-please-die-ai-chatbot-threatens-student-who-sought-help-with-homework-9671494/

[Great topic for a homework assignment: risks of AI and poorly trained
chatbots. PGN

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

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2024 11:29:18 -0500 (EST)
From: ACM TechNews <technews-editor@acm.org>
Subject: AI Is Already Taking Jobs (Mark Sullivan)

Mark Sullivan, Fast Company, 15 Nov 2024

Generative AI is impacting job markets, according to researchers at
Harvard Business School, the German Institute for Economic Research,
and the U.K.'s Imperial College London Business School. The
researchers studied more than a million job posts on a major global
freelance work marketplace from July 2021 to July 2023 and found
demand for automation-prone jobs had fallen 21% eight months after the
release of ChatGPT in late 2022.

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2024 06:38:08 -0700
From: Matthew Kruk <mkrukg@gmail.com>
Subject: Authors miffed by publisher's offer to use their books for AI
training (CBC)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/harpercollins-using-books-ai-1.7387580

Authors are voicing concerns after a major book publisher offered payments
in exchange for permission to use their books to train artificial
intelligence.