RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Sunday 13 November 2022 Volume 33 : Issue 52

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/33.52>
The current issue can also be found at
<http://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt>

Contents:
Internal Documents Show How Close the FBI Came to Deploying Spyware
(NYTimes)
Taking down a ransomware hacker (CBC)
A Porcelain Sink, Then Chaos: Inside the Takeover of Twitter (NTYTimes-x2)
Latest Laughs on on Twitter? (Lauren Weinstein collected by PGN)
FTX Bankruptcy (NYTimes)
He was hailed as crypto's saviour. Now he needs billions for a bailout (CBC)
TrustCor Systems (David Lesher)
Asteroids, climate change, killer robots: A handy guide to doomsday
scenarios (*The Washington Post*)
AI computations want 250kW densities per rack (Henry Baker)
How to get better and more reliable telecommunications services
(Fibrecoookery)
Re: The Rise of Rust (Henry Baker)
Re: Scientists Increasingly Can't Explain How AI Works (Henry Baker)
Re: Same New York lottery numbers drawn twice in one day (Martin Ward)
*Dark Ships* Emerge From the Shadows of the Nord Streaam Mystery
(Gabe Goldberg)
Re: There's a good chance Meta has your contact info. Here's how to delete
it (Anthony Thorn, Dick Mills)
Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

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

Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2022 06:47:28 -0500
From: "Jan Wolitzky" <jan.wolitzky@gmail.com>
Subject: Internal Documents Show How Close the FBI Came to Deploying Spyware
(NYTimes)

Mark Mazzetti and Ronen Bergman, *The New York Times* front page,
National Edition, 13 Nov 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/12/us/politics/fbi-pegasus-spyware-phones-nso.html

During a closed-door session with lawmakers last December, Christopher A.
Wray, the director of the FBI, was asked whether the bureau had ever
purchased and used Pegasus, the hacking tool that penetrates mobile phones
and extracts their contents.

Mr. Wray acknowledged that the FBI had bought a license for Pegasus, but
only for research and development. ``To be able to figure out how bad guys
could use it, for example,'' he told Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon,
according to a transcript of the hearing that was recently declassified.

But dozens of internal FBI documents and court records tell a different
story. The documents, produced in response to a Freedom of Information Act
lawsuit brought by *The New York Times* against the bureau, show the FBI
officials made a push in late 2020 and the first half of 2021 to deploy the
hacking tools -- made by the Israeli spyware firm NSO -- in its own criminal
investigations. The officials developed advanced plans to brief the bureau's
leadership, and drew up guidelines for federal prosecutors about how the
FBI's use of hacking tools would need to be disclosed during criminal
proceedings. [...]

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

Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2022 06:51:02 -0700S
From: Matthew Kruk <mkrukg@gmail.com>
Subject: Taking down a ransomware hacker (CBC)

https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/takedown-homegrown-ransomware-hacker

An FBI investigation into a criminal ransomware gang believed to be tied to
Russia led to a Canadian government employee in Gatineau, the largest
cryptocurrency seizure in Canadian history and hundreds of victims around
the world.

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

Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2022 16:18:09 PST
From: Peter G Neumann <neumann@csl.sri.com>
Subject: A Porcelain Sink, Then Chaos: Inside the Takeover of Twitter
(TWO ARTICLES)

Kate Conger, Mike Isaac, Ryan Mac and Diffany Hsu
For Staff, Two Weeks of Layoffs and Panic

Ryan Mac, Benjamin Mullin, Kate Conger and Mike Isaac
Users Make a Mockery of Musk's New Service

*The New York Times*, Business, 12 Nov 2022

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

Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2022 11:53:21 PST
From: Peter Neumann <neumann@csl.sri.com>
Subject: Lauren's Latest Laughs on on Twitter?

Fake LeBron, Schefter tweets expose flaw in new paid verification system
https://www.audacy.com/wqam/sports/fake-lebron-schefter-tweets-expose-flaw-in-verification

Fake Twitter accounts flock to blue check chaos
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/09/fake-twitter-blue-check-lebron-musk/

Twitter chief information security officer Lea Kissner departs:

The resignation of Lea, one of the industry's most respected and experienced
persons in our field, is yet another clear signal that Twitter is rapidly
rotting from within, putting users and itself at risk. There are also not
yet confirmed reports that Twitter's chief compliance officer resigned. -L
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/10/twitter-lea-kissner-departs/

After fake Twitter claim that Northern Ireland secretary resigned,
Musk makes a joke
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/10/twitter-elon-musk-tosh-northern-ireland-secretary

Twitter Lawyer Claims Elon Musk Has Put Company At Risk Of Billions In Fines
https://www.thegamer.com/twitter-lawyer-claims-elon-musk-has-put-company-at-risk-of-billions-in-fines/

Twitter's Security And Privacy Leaders Quit Amidst Musk's Chaotic Takeover
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2022/11/10/twitter-security-privacy-compliance-leads-quit-elon-musk-takeover/?sh=2b3e4b1c586f

Twitter's disaster for users:
We're all (including me) getting some laughs out of Musk's Twitter
situation, but I cannot possibly emphasize enough how incredibly
dangerous the situation has become for Twitter's users.
Infrastructure, privacy, security, are all affected by layoffs and
resignations. Disastrous. -L

More on Musk's Twitter disaster:
Additionally, the verification nightmare that Musk has callously
imposed is putting users in intolerable positions and supercharging
disinformation. Intolerable. -L

Elon Musk's Twitter Is a Scammer's Paradise
https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-blue-check-verification-buy-scams/

Twitter puts a "may be unsafe link" interstitial on a one word article
called "What Elon Musk Is Doing Right at Twitter" -- the one word is
"Nothing."
https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein/status/1591264511247327233

Musk blames "media elite" for Twitter's troubles
https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein/status/1591121628804440064

A Twitter manager says laid-off engineers he's rehired are 'weak, lazy,
unmotivated'
https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-manager-says-engineers-he-rehired-are-weak-lazy-unmotivated-2022-11

After Sen. Markey raises concerns about Twitter, Musk replies that
Markey's account sounds like a parody. Markey is not amused, and Musk
is behaving like an idiot. Musk could bring everything down. -L

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

Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2022 16:18:09 PST
From: Peter Neumann <neumann@csl.sri.com>
Subject: FTX Bankruptcy (NYTimes)

David Yaffe Bellany, *The New York Times*, front page, 12 Nov 2022
FTX, a Crypto Linchpin, Files for Bankruptcy:
Chief Executive Exists, Ending Chaotic Weel

Added bonus noted on the front page:
Free Money -- Why did investors hand over so much to FTX?
with so little oversight, p. B1 in the National Edition:

Erin Griffith and David Yaffe-Bellany
Questions About Crash of FTX Rise for Investors

PREVIOUSLY:
Kevin Roose, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/12/us/politics/fbi-pegasus-spyware-phones-nso.html
*The New York Times*, 10 Nov 2022, Business
Crypto[currency] faces a reckoning in FTX collapse

.... it is already being referred to as a "Lehman moment" -- a reference
to the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers.

[Earlier item from LaurenW:

Crypto giant Binance drops bid to save rival, stoking chaos in digital
assets
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/09/business/bitcoin-crypto-prices-fall-ftx-binance-ctrp/index.html
PGN]

SUBSEQUENTLY:
David Yaffe-Bellany, *The New York Times*, p.27, National Ed., 13 Nov 2022
Crypto Giant FTX Investigating $515 Million in Transfers After Collapses
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/12/business/ftx-cryptocurrency-hack.html

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

Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2022 21:15:15 -0700
From: Matthew Kruk <mkrukg@gmail.com>
Subject: He was hailed as crypto's saviour. Now he needs billions for a
bailout (CBC)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ftx-cryptocurrency-bailout-bankman-fried-1.6647478

Last week, California billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried was touted as a key
figure in cryptocurrency -- even a saviour. Today, amid a series of
apologetic tweets, he said "I f--ked up" after his cryptocurrency exchange
bled billions of dollars. His FTX exchange is now scrambling to raise $9.4
billion US from both investors and rivals, as customers rush to withdraw
their funds.

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

Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2022 23:42:33 -0500
From: David Lesher <wb8foz@panix.com>
Subject: TrustCor Systems