RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Sunday 7 August 2022 Volume 33 : Issue 37

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/33.37>
The current issue can also be found at
<http://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt>

Contents:
U.S. Air Force To Test Single-Pilot C-130 Flight Crews (FLYING Magazine)
How a Trash-Talking Crypto Bro Caused a $40 Billion Crash (NYTimes)
Nuclear Fusion Is Already Facing a Fuel Crisis (WiReD)
Fighting Around Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Is 'Out of Control'
(Matthew Gault via Henry Baker)
Nomad offers 10% bounty in $190M cryptocurrency hack (WashPost)
WashDC Metrorail Routinely Skipped Safety Protocols, Putting Workers At Risk
(DC Patch)
Former T-Mobile store owner netted $25 million from 5-year scheme, which
included tricking employees into resetting passwords (Fortune)
California Regulator Accuses Tesla of Falsely Advertising Autopilot (NYTimes)
North Korea-Backed Hackers Have Clever Way to Read Gmail (Dan Goodin)
AI Does Not Have Thoughts, No Matter What You Think (Cade Metz)
Algorithm Aces University Math Course Questions (Adam Zewe)
Big Tech breakup legislation on hold (Lauren Weinstein)
Class-action suit filed against Equifax after millions of scores were
affected by glitch (NBC news)
'Horrible', 'Chaos': Former Oracle Employees Describe Recent Layoffs
(Slashdot)
Robinhood Lays Off 23 Percent of Its Staff, Blaming Crypto Meltdown
(NYTimes)
Bitcoin mining in the crypto crash -- mining companies' creative accounting
(Amy Castor)
Pearson says NFT textbooks will let it profit off secondhand sales
(The Verge)
The Bad Times Are Coming for Startups (WiReD)
The Microsoft Team Racing to Catch Bugs Before They Happen (WiReD)
French Scientist, distant star, and chorizo (People via Steve Greenwald)
Rats deserve equal presence with Squirrels in RISKS (T.M. Brown via PGN)
Robotic Surgery (Dr. Bob Fenichel)
Re: Who is at fault when medical software gets it wrong?
(Richard Marlon Stein)
Re: Tech giants, including Meta, Google, and Amazon, want to put an end to
leap-seconds (John Levine)
Re: BMW's Heated as a Service Model Has Drivers Seeking Hacks
(San Steingold, Gabe Goldberg, Gabe Goldberg)
Re: Study finds Wikipedia influences judicial behavior (John Levine)
Kids Are Back in Classrooms and Laptops Are Still Spying on Them
(Gabe Goldberg)
Re: School Surveillance Will Never Protect Kids From Shootings
(Gabe Goldberg)
Re: Dr. Birx ADMITS She 'Knew' COVID-19 Vaccines 'Were Not Going to
Going to Protect Against Infection' (Lars-Henrik Eriksson, Steve Lamont)
Book Review: America's Biggest Lottery Scam by Bob Sand (Douglas W. Jones)
Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

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Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2022 15:02:38 -0400
To: Risks Digest <risks@csl.sri.com>
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: U.S. Air Force To Test Single-Pilot C-130 Flight Crews
(FLYING Magazine)o

USAF and Merlin Labs plan to flight test Lockheed Martinâs C-130J Hercules
with autonomous software as a co-pilot.

Can a Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) C-130J Hercules fly with just one pilot?
It' a scenario the U.S. Air Force is exploring through a new partnership
with Merlin Labs, a Boston-based autonomous flight company that's gearing up
to test autonomous operations in the Air Force' venerable cargo workhorse.

Under the collaboration, Merlin Labs will retrofit a C-130 with software and
technology that will slim down the number of onboard crew, from two pilots
to one. The C-130, built at Lockheed Martin's factory in Marietta, Georgia,
holds the record for the longest continuous production run of any military
aircraft, according to the manufacturer. The Hercules first flew in 1954.

https://www.flyingmag.com/u-s-air-force-to-test-single-pilot-c-130-flight-crews/

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

Date: Wed, 18 May 2022 10:48:50 -0400
From: "Gabe Goldberg" <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: How a Trash-Talking Crypto Bro Caused a $40 Billion Crash (NYTimes)

Do Kwon, a South Korean entrepreneur, hyped the Luna and TerraUSD
cryptocurrencies. Their failures have devastated some traders, though not
the investment firms that cashed out early.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/18/technology/terra-luna-cryptocurrency-do-kwon.html

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

Date: Sat, 21 May 2022 00:16:57 -0400
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Nuclear Fusion Is Already Facing a Fuel Crisis (WiReD)

It doesn't even work yet, but nuclear fusion has encountered a shortage of
tritium, the key fuel source for the most prominent experimental reactors.

In the south of France, ITER is inching towards completion. When it's
finally fully switched on in 2035, the International Thermonuclear
Experimental Reactor will be the largest device of its kind ever built, and
the flag-bearer for nuclear fusion.

Inside a donut-shaped reaction chamber called a tokamak, two types of
hydrogen, called deuterium and tritium, will be smashed together until they
fuse in a roiling plasma hotter than the surface of the sun, releasing
enough clean energy to power tens of thousands of homes -- a limitless
source of electricity lifted straight from science fiction.

Or at least, that's the plan. The problem -- the white elephant in the room
-- is that by the time ITER is ready, there might not be enough fuel left to
run it.

Like many of the most prominent experimental nuclear fusion reactors, ITER
relies on a steady supply of both deuterium and tritium for its experiments.
Deuterium can be extracted from seawater, but tritium—a radioactive isotope
of hydrogen—is incredibly rare.

https://www.wired.com/story/nuclear-fusion-is-already-facing-a-fuel-crisis

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

Date: Thu, 04 Aug 2022 16:05:40 +0000
From: Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com>
Subject: Fighting Around Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Is 'Out of Control'

Nuclear power plants were designed to defend against certain foreseeable
risks, but not wars!

I don't think we all want to be Zaporized...

https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k88mg/fighting-around-europes-largest-power-plant-is-out-of-control-uns-nuke-chief-warns

Fighting Around Europe's Largest Power Plant Is 'Out of Control,' UN's Nuke
Chief WarnsRussia is using a Ukrainian power plant as a fortress to launch
attacks.

by Matthew Gault August 3, 2022, 3:13pm

The head of the UN's nuclear regulatory watchdog is warning the world that
Europe's largest nuclear power plant "is completely out of control," Rafael
Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), told the Associated Press about the risk in an interview.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is in Southeast Ukraine along the
Dnipro river.

The plant has been a central part of the war since Russia invaded Ukraine at
the end of February.

Russian troops besieged it in early March, firing artillery shells at it
before taking it over.

The firefight between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers was watched by 95,000
people online through the plant's live streamed CCTV cameras.

An administrative building caught fire during the fight but the plant didn't
melt down.

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

Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2022 12:53:06 -0400
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Nomad offers 10% bounty in $190M cryptocurrency hack (WashPost)

More than $20 million has been recovered since the âfree-for-allâ.

Crypto Giant Froze Their Accounts. Now Customers Are Begging a Judge for
Their Money Back.

"My life savings were in Celsius," one depositor wrote last month. "I pray
and hope everyday you are doing everything in your power to rightfully
return deposits back to customers. I canât tell my wife and kids our
retirement and dreams have been stolen from us. Life is stale, we need
updates and silence is not the answer."

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/08/celsius-bankruptcy-crypto

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

Date: Wed, 18 May 2022 10:50:39 -0400
From: "Gabe Goldberg" <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: WashDC Metrorail Routinely Skipped Safety Protocols, Putting
Workers At Risk (DC Patch)

[Earlier items on this in RISKS-33.06 and 33.13. PGN]

Washington Metrorail Safety Commission says Metrorail routinely skipped
steps in restoring lethal electrical power to tracks in work zones.

WMSC determined the Power Desk assistant superintendent had skipped three
safety protocols when directing that power be restored to the College Park
Station work zone. In addition, the Power Desk controller restored power
even though they knew two safety confirmations had not been completed.

WMSC also investigated similar lapses in safety that occurred on April 3,
May 1, May 6 and May 14, across multiple departments.