Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2021
From Schneier on Security
Web Credit Card Skimmer Steals Data from Another Credit Card Skimmer
MalwareBytes is reporting a weird software credit card skimmer. It harvests credit card data stolen by another, different skimmer:
Even though spotting multiple card skimmer scripts on the same online shop is not unheard of,…From Schneier on Security
NoxPlayer Android Emulator Supply-Chain Attack
It seems to be the season of sophisticated supply-chain attacks.
This one is in the NoxPlayer Android emulator:
ESET says that based on evidence its researchers gathered, a threat actor compromised one of the company’s official…From Schneier on Security
Presidential Cybersecurity and Pelotons
President Biden wants his Peloton in the White House. For those who have missed the hype, it’s an Internet-connected stationary bicycle. It has a screen, a camera, and a microphone. You can take live classes online, work outsecurity…
From Schneier on Security
Another SolarWinds Orion Hack
At the same time the Russians were using a backdoored SolarWinds update to attack networks worldwide, another threat actor — believed to be Chinese in origin — was using an already existing vulnerability in Orion to penetrate…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Microsoft Releases Speech Services
Useful capability for speech production from Azure/AI
Microsoft opens limited access to its neural text-to-speech AI in Engadget
AT&T and Warner Bros. used the tech to create an interactive version of Bugs Bunny.
Microsoft is opening…From insideHPC
Things to Know When Assessing, Piloting, and Deploying GPUs – Part 3
In this insideHPC Guide, our friends over at WEKA suggest that when organizations decide to move existing applications or new applications to a GPU-influenced system there are many items to consider, such as assessing the new…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Counting Google Searches for Boredom and Loneliness
Whew, most interesting ... or a more general privacy invasion that can be leveraged?
How Google Searches Reveal the Hidden Cost of Lockdown
University of Warwick (U.K.), January 27, 2021
Researchers at the U.K.'s University of Warwick…From The Eponymous Pickle
Work From Anywhere Here to Stay
Mentioned this previously, Irving Wladawsky provides more links and backgrounds.
Is Work-from-Anywhere Here to Stay? (many links in the below are shown by clicking through)
Remote work has been around for a few decades, but took…From The Eponymous Pickle
More on Solarwinds Malware
Schneier provides more 'Solarwinds' News this morning, lots of links to other analyses and opinions. Including some suggestions for addressing these kinds of threats, but as yet untested. Includes analyses by big targets/players…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Autonomous Vehicles as Criminal Drug Mules
I recall this coming up in innovation meetings a number of years ago. And of course the vehicles involved will be automatically tracked and usage charged to someone-thing that can be recorded. But expect that to be cleansed…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Listen to the AAAS Sci-Mic Podcasts including the CCC’s Catalyzing Computing
Every February, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) — the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society and the publisher of the Science family of journals — holds the AAAS Annual Meeting, which…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Rearchers Can Now Achieve 'Quantum Advantage'
Intriguing claim. Based on my knowledge of quantum physics this may lead to some very counter intuitive results. Especially for 'combinatorial', or many-many answered problems. Probably first in crypto. Get ready.
Researchers…From insideHPC
Object Management Group Adopts Open Architecture Radar Interface Standard (OARIS) 2.0 Spec
Boston – Feb. 3, 2021 – Today, international technology standards organization Object Management Group (OMG) announced the Open Architecture Radar Interface Standard (OARIS) 2.0 specification, which defines the interface between…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF DCL: Computer and Information Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowships (CSGrad4US)
The following is a letter to the community from Margaret Martonosi (Assistant Director) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE). See the Computing Research Association…
From insideHPC
Thierry Pellegrino, VP/GM of HPC at Dell Technologies, Stepping Down
Dell Technologies HPC senior executive Thierry Pellegrino has announced he is leaving the company. Pellegrino, whose complete title is Vice President Workloads and Solutions Dell EMC and Vice President / General Manager HPC
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
GameStop and Retail
Interesting points made with commentary. Agree its mostly about the ability to manipulate stocks in general. Does not seem to have a broader retail effect.
What does GameStop’s wild stock ride mean for retail? by Tom Ryan…From insideHPC
Vayyar 4D Imaging Radar Platform: In-cabin Safety Technology for Multifunctionality on a Chip
Tel Avid – February 2, 2021 – Vayyar, maker of 4D imaging radar, is advancing its mission with the auto industry’s first in-cabin safety ‘combo’ solution. Powered by a single sensor, it’s designed to prevent both the “hot car…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Historical Robots
Not really directly useful, but I like thinking about history as it predicts the future. Da Vinci is a good, and very early example.
By Herbert Bruderer in the CACM, January 19, 2021
Robots of allIn…From insideHPC
Elbencho – A New Storage Benchmark for AI
Germany, Feb 03, 2021 — Elbencho, a new open-source storage benchmark tool, is now available to help organizations that demand high performance and need to evaluate performance of modern storage systems, optionally including …
From The Eponymous Pickle
IBM Cuts its Blockchain Team
Quite a considerable twist, seems quite a move since their work with HyperLedger we followed
IBM Blockchain Is a Shell of Its Former Self After Revenue Misses, Job Cuts: Sources by Ian Allison, in CoinDesk
“There is not really…From insideHPC
Granulate Raises $30 Million Series B
Tel Aviv, February 3, 2021 – Granulate, a company providing an autonomous real-time computing workload optimization, today announced a $30 million Series B funding round, bringing the company’s total amount raised to $45 million…
From insideHPC
Rescale Raises $50 Million in Series C Funding
San Francisco, February 02, 2021 — Rescale, the leading hybrid HPC cloud platform enabling intelligent computing for digital R&D, today announced it has closed $50 million in Series C funding from Hitachi Ventures, Microsoft’s…
From Computational Complexity
A Blood Donation Puzzle
In the US you can donate whole blood every eight weeks. Suppose Elvira does exactly that. Will she hit every date of the year? For example, if Elvira gave blood today, will she in some future year give blood on the 4th of July…
From Schneier on Security
More SolarWinds News
Microsoft analyzed details of the SolarWinds attack:
Microsoft and FireEye only detected the Sunburst or Solorigate malware in December, but Crowdstrike reported this month that another related piece of malware, Sunspot, wasTeardrop…From The Eponymous Pickle
Dynamics Spot Gets Long Distance Control
400 sold and apparently a better way to control it from a distance. Continuing to follow the possibilities involved. No further autonomy claimed of what I understand is tele-operation.
Boston Dynamics' robot dog Spot gets long…From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
A National Research Agenda for Intelligent Infrastructure: 2021 Update
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) recently released A National Research Agenda for Intelligent Infrastructure: 2021 Update, which briefly surveys the 2017 intelligent infrastructure whitepapers and the more recent 2020…
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Review of the Semantic Web Field:
Been along follower of semantic Webs, that is webs that aim to capture and readily make usable human, corporate and systems knowledge. It forms the background of things like a knowledge graph. Been involved now in several…
From insideHPC
Next Pathway Research: 65% of Companies Say Cloud Migration a Top Priority
Toronto — January 26, 2021 — Next Pathway Inc., the automated cloud migration company, today announced the results of a third-party study assessing the state of data migration to the cloud in North America. Next Pathway polled…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Let's Not Dumb Down the History of Computer Science
Followed Donald Knuth for years, read much of his writing, always an inciteful commenter on the details of computer science. Reading this now.
Let's Not Dumb Down the History of Computer Science By Donald E. Knuth, Len Shustek…From The Eponymous Pickle
Anti-Patterns in Regulation
Thoughtful piece in ACM where the notion of 'anti-pattern' is discussed, where regulation (or norms or practice) run contrary in purpose to their original intent in design. An specifically how the GDPR, the European privacy…