News of the Cyber World

[kyonides]

Actors Union Threatens 3rd Hollywood Strike
Against Video Game Makers
AI ‘Putting Our Members in Jeopardy’

SAG-AFTRA leaders announced Friday that they will seek authorization for a strike against major video game companies, which would presumably include giants Activision and Electronic Arts.

The union said talks on a new video game contract have reached a “stalemate,” and that they would hold a strike authorization vote to gain leverage in their fight for wage increases and guarantees concerning artificial intelligence technology.
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Many rank-and-file Hollywood actors make lucrative pay performing voice work or motion-capture performances for video game companies. But A.I. is threatening their gravy train, with A.I. applications already in use in some popular games.

In a statement, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher called out video game companies for their “greed and disrespect.”

“Once again artificial intelligence is putting our members in jeopardy of reducing their opportunity to work,” Drescher said. “And once again, SAG-AFTRA is standing up to tyranny on behalf of its members.”

The last time SAG-AFTRA launched a strike against video game makers was in 2016. The strike lasted nearly a year.

‘White Hat’ Hackers Shut Down Spyware Snooping on 76,000 People

TechCrunch reports that WebDetetive, a spyware application that has infiltrated over 76,000 Android phones predominantly in Brazil and South America, recently fell victim to a cyberattack. Unnamed hackers claimed to have exploited multiple security vulnerabilities in WebDetetive’s servers, gaining access to its user databases. The hackers were able to access every dashboard record, including customer email addresses, by exploiting flaws in the spyware maker’s web dashboard used by abusers to steal phone data.

The hackers went on to state that they had the capability to delete victim devices from the spyware network, effectively severing the connection at the server level to prevent the device from uploading new data. “Which we definitely did. Because we could. Because #f-+
-stalkerware,” the hackers wrote in a note. This claim, however, has not been independently verified.

The hackers shared a cache containing more than 1.5 gigabytes of data scraped from WebDetetive’s web dashboard with DDoSecrets, a nonprofit transparency collective. The data included information about each customer, such as the IP address they logged in from and their purchase history. It also listed every device that each customer had compromised, the version of the spyware running on the phone, and the types of data being collected. The data revealed that at the time of the breach, WebDetective had compromised 76,794 devices.

WebDetetive is categorized as “stalkerware,” a type of phone monitoring app that is often installed without the victim’s consent. Once activated, the app uploads a wide range of personal data to its servers, including messages, call logs, phone call recordings, photos, and real-time location data. Despite the broad access these apps have to a victim’s personal and sensitive data, they are known for their shoddy coding and security vulnerabilities.

NHTSA Demands Tesla to Disclose Information
on Hidden ‘Autopilot’ Settings

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a special order to Tesla, asking Elon Musk’s car company to provide comprehensive data on a lesser-known feature called “Elon Mode” in its Autopilot systems.

CNBC reports that the NHTSA has formally requested Tesla to share details about its “Elon Mode”—a configuration that allows drivers to bypass the standard safety prompts in Tesla’s driver assistance systems. This order comes amid growing concerns about the safety implications of such features.
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Typically, Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems require drivers to periodically engage with the steering wheel to confirm they are attentive. Failure to do so triggers a series of warnings, commonly referred to as “nags,” that escalate in urgency. However, with “Elon Mode” activated, these warnings are effectively disabled, raising questions about the potential for misuse and the resulting safety risks.

Automotive safety researcher and Carnegie Mellon University associate professor Philip Koopman weighed in on the matter, stating, “It seems that NHTSA takes a dim view of cheat codes that permit disabling safety features such as driver monitoring. I agree. Hidden features that degrade safety have no place in production software.”

The NHTSA’s request for information is part of a broader investigation into Tesla’s driver assistance technologies, which have been involved in a series of accidents. The agency has yet to conclude its investigations into these incidents, including “fatal truck under-run crashes” and collisions involving stationary first responder vehicles.

Twitter/X Unveils Privacy Feature
Allowing Paid Users to Hide Their Likes

TechCrunch reports that in a step towards enhanced privacy, Elon Musk’s Twitter/X has rolled out a feature that enables paid users to conceal their likes from public view. This comes on the heels of similar features being introduced by rival platforms Threads and Bluesky.

Until now, the likes on Twitter/X have been public, allowing anyone to visit a user’s profile and see the posts they’ve liked. Now, paying users will be able to conceal the tweets they’ve liked. “Your Likes tab on your profile will only be visible to you. Your Likes timeline will also be hidden from the X APIs. Your individual Likes will still be visible on posts,” according to the feature description. This offers an added layer of privacy, allowing users to like posts without the concern of others snooping into their preferences.

One reason the feature is useful for users is that when a cancel culture mob targets an individual, their likes and retweets are typically scrutinized to find examples of opinions that can further enrage the mob.

Earlier this month, the platform started allowing subscribers to hide their verification checkmarks. But, by hiding their likes tab, users that may consider the once-coveted blue checkmark a “mark of shame” reveal that they have a paid subscription.

Data-Hungry Facebook’s Latest Trick
Is Turning Any Flat Surface into a Keyboard

UploadVR reports that Facebook is attempting to redefine how we interact with virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) environments. The company’s latest research aims to make text input in these digital realms as efficient and user-friendly as typing on a traditional keyboard. Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook CTO Andrew Bosworth, recently showcased this technology. Using a Quest 2 headset, Zuckerberg claimed he was able to achieve a typing speed of “100 words per minute,” while Bosworth boasted a speed of “119 words per minute.”

Text input in current VR and AR systems leaves much to be desired. Users often find themselves awkwardly holding their hands up to interact with floating virtual keyboards, which provide no haptic feedback and are significantly slower than typing on PCs and smartphones. While Quest headsets do offer the option to pair with a physical Bluetooth keyboard, this requires carrying around an additional device, which is often larger than the headset itself.

Facebook’s research is still in its early stages, and the company has not yet disclosed the specifics of how the technology works. However, the demonstration video featured fiducial markers on the desk, suggesting a robust dynamic calibration system. The upcoming Quest 3 headset is expected to include a depth sensor, which could potentially make this kind of virtual keyboard a reality. The depth sensor would generate a 3D mesh of the environment, allowing for more precise interactions.
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Employees spoke about the company’s numerous failed products, including its disastrous pivot to a focus on VR technology that the public has been slow to adopt.

As the Post notes, even when they do use VR, they don’t necessarily opt for Facebook products. The tech giant staked much on Horizon Worlds, the virtual world Zuckerberg hoped would be the premier destination in the “metaverse” — but users prefer alternatives, like the popular massively-multiplayer VR game Rec Room.

CenturyLink Left 86-Year-Old Piano Teacher
with No Phone or Internet for a Month

Ars Technica reports that Plourde, an active member of her community and a piano teacher, found herself in a predicament when her internet and home phone service went out for an extended period. Despite multiple attempts to contact both her Internet service provider, CenturyLink, and Velocity, a liaison company between the provider and the customer, she received little to no assistance. “Even the tone of voice was like, ‘Well, ma’am, it’s too bad, but you’ll just have to wait,'” Plourde recounted about her call to CenturyLink. The outage lasted more than a month, although miraculously the companies jumped into action to restore her service the day after Ars Technica contacted them for comment.

Velocity, the company responsible for acting as a go-between for CenturyLink and its customers, admitted shortcomings in their approach to resolving the issue. “I believe we could have done better here,” said a company representative. “I typically expect these types of tickets to be escalated to me to rattle the cage at CenturyLink. It doesn’t always help, but we will always try.”

The lack of internet access had a significant impact on Plourde’s daily activities. She is a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame and serves on a human trafficking committee. “All our communication is online, and there are so many things. I’m on a human trafficking committee,” she said.

Online Scam Centers Enslave
Hundreds of Thousands Across Southeast Asia

According to the U.N., there could be over a quarter of a million victims of these slavery and human trafficking rackets.

“Credible sources indicate that at least 120,000 people across Myanmar may be held in situations where they are forced to carry out online scams, with estimates in Cambodia similarly at around 100,000,” the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) said.

“Other States in the region, including Lao PDR, the Philippines and Thailand, have also been identified as main countries of destination or transit where at least tens of thousands of people have been involved,” OHCHR added.

The human trafficking rings spotlighted by the U.N. report specialize in luring job seekers into slavery at “scam centers” that participate in everything from “romance-investment scams and crypto fraud to illegal gambling.” These centers generate billions of dollars per year in illegal revenue.

The connection between human trafficking and online scam operations has been on the radar of international investigators for years.
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Victims come from across the ASEAN region (from Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), as well as mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, South Asia, and even further afield from Africa and Latin America.