Last time, I told you about a simple script I made to collect data about my laptop activity, talked about why collecting data about yourself is a moral imperative, and shared the upgraded script with you alongside my plans for it. Today, I will show you a problem I’ve been tackling, with help of this script and the data it gives, and I also would love to hear your advice on a particular high-level problem I’m facing.

Today’s problem is as old as time – I often can’t focus on tasks I badly need done, even ones I want done for myself. This has been a consistent problem in my life, closing off opportunities, getting me to inadvertently betray my friends and family, hurting my health and well-being, reinforcing a certain sort of learned helplessness, and likely reinforcing itself as it goes, too.

It’s deeply disturbing to sit down fully intending to work on a project, then notice no progress on it hours later, and come to a gut-wrenching realization you’ve had hundreds of such days before – I think this screws with you, on a fundamental level. Over the years, I’ve been squeezing out lessons from this failure mode, making observations, trying out all sorts of advice, in search of a solution.

Join me today in non-invasive brain augmentation and reprogramming, as I continue trying to turn my life around – this time, with help of my laptop, a computer that I already spend a ton of time interfacing with. Ever notice that starting work on a task is often the hardest part of it? It’s the same for me, and I decided to hack away at it.

Staying On Track

As you might recall from the last article, I wrote a program that produces a stream of “currently open window” data – which is a good proxy for “what I’m doing right now”. That looks like a good start for figuring out when I’m planning to do a specific task and end up doing something else entirely!

Starting small, what kind of specific problem could I solve here? Let’s see. There’s a difficulty jump when I’m starting certain kinds of tasks (like writing articles!), but the difficulty lowers a fair bit once I’ve been typing for a few minutes. In that crucial time, it’s way too easy for me to Alt-Tab and get distracted, and not just then – I also become more distractable when I stumble upon a hard-to-write block of text. As you might imagine, Alt-Tabbing when things are hard is the undesirable kind of habit to develop, and I’m concerned that this habit is priming me to give up early when I’m struggling. It’s definitely not the kind of brain wiring I ever wanted to have!

I don’t even notice when I Alt-Tab away from a task I’m not yet focused on. It’s not a conscious reaction – instead, it’s more like a split-second reflex. This concerns me – Alt-Tabbing from a hard task is not something I genuinely think I should do, it’s more of a coping mechanism, and an effective one at that.
how to quickly build helpful tools that are easy to use? consider this.
The idea to fix this problem was simple – making noises into my headphones when I Alt-Tab into something I’m not supposed to Alt-Tab into, and stopping the noises once I’m back on track, very rudimentary negative feedback. I already rely on headphones to listen to music and videos as I write, so that’s the actuator sorted out.

As for classification, I could classify the windows as I went about it, using hotkeys – unknown windows resulting in a noise by default, requiring me to whitelist windows manually. Whitelisting makes the most sense – there’s an infinite amount of possible distractions, and a limited amount of windows I want to be focused into. An important project was upcoming, and I couldn’t afford to fail it, so I switched into “I must have this ready today” mode and finished it in an evening’s time.

A lot of required building blocks, were things I already had developed by then – for instance, it’s best for me to monitor hotkeys using direct evdev input, instead of DE-provided mechanisms, which are limited, and I had enough code for it written already. As for audio, the usual import pygame trick everyone uses to play short audio clips from Python, was nowhere near quick enough, and didn’t even really let me control audio playback. Instead, I wrote a small proof-of-concept library using gstreamer to play audio files on a whim. I pilfered an online sound effect library a little, arming myself with files like Siren.wav, Martian Scanner.wav and Alarm Alert Effect.wav, then glued the building blocks together, added a simple task tracking system on top, and got a working prototype.

The algorithm currently is simple and effective. Press a hotkey to start a new task or resume a previous one – a task contains a list of “good” windows, and optionally a list of “bad” windows. There’s a global whitelist of known-good windows, containing mostly window titles like New Window - Firefox and Save As. When I open a new window, the system starts beeping at me within half a second – giving me immediate feedback that my Alt-Tab was perhaps uncalled for. As it’s beeping, I have the option to either whitelist a window for this specific task, or blacklist it – the whitelisting stops the beeping immediately, and the latter raises the beeping noise intensity next time I switch to the window again. As I’m working Alt-Tabbing between windows I need, the workplace is, and whenever I switch to a blacklisted window, I instantly get a notification that this particular window switch is not something I want myself to be doing.
Hotkeys are focused on the right side of the keyboard, using right Ctrl and AltGr – an underutilized hotkey space.
Hotkey input, audio output – the system ties into the “flow” state pretty damn well, as long as I am wearing headphones – they are required for this specific augment program. And thankfully, I wear my headphones 24/7 already. Of course, I had to make the algorithm less obtrusive – make the relationship between “current window” and “what I’m doing right now” into a more direct one.

There’s a few heuristics I’ve added, that “normalize” the window name – for instance, Notepad++ adds an * in front of the title if you haven’t yet saved the document, which makes the window title change every time you save your text file, Discord, Gmail and YouTube append unread notification numbers in front of the tab (each in their own way), and GIMP puts the currently open image resolution in the title, which results in plenty of beeps as I’m resizing article images for Hackaday articles. Also, I ended up adding a few of my closest friends’ nicknames into the global whitelist – people I want to make sure I always pay attention to.

Does it Work?

Exceptionally well – I just used this system to write the very words you’re reading, this entire article, and many articles you might’ve read before. The audio files seem to lose their effectiveness over time, but I’ll soon be trying out swapping the files to a different sound – it’s not like there’s a shortage of siren sounds online. As you might noticed, in the end, I’ve built something like Windows Recall, except my program is a thousand times simpler, to its benefit. It is also consensual, open-source, and it actually does something directly useful for me, not to mention that it does not capture any passwords or private messages by accident.

I’ve been using this script for the past few months’ time, and my life is notably better nowadays because of it. Sometimes it’s finishing an article where the conclusion can’t quite seem to come into words, sometimes it’s pushing myself through writing a tricky email I must send out, and sometimes it’s staying in a chatroom with a friend helping them as they’re dealing with some emotional turmoil. Alt-Tabbing away from these situations never helps me or anyone else, somehow, it’s a reflex I ended up with, and I’m hell bent on rooting it out. Slowly, over time, it helps me re-align my life in the way I always wished it to be.

One thing I’ve noticed over time – this project focuses mainly on negative reinforcement. I don’t want to lean into negative reinforcement – it has notable negative consequences. For me, I often don’t want to switch into “task” mode when I’m supposed to work on something. This means that I have to look for various ways to add positive reinforcement sources to my life, and, I’m coming up short. I’ve also noticed that I rarely ever blacklist windows – instead, leaving the even distracting ones in the “beeping” state; associating a distraction window with a more-intense beep is not something I can quite teach myself to do automatically, somehow, even though I adore everything else about the system. There absolutely are methods of positive reinforcement that can work, so not tapping into that feels like a major waste.

I want to ask you all about positive reinforcement – it’s something I am a little baffled about. I strongly suspect that a cultural layer is missing here, because it feels so much easier to think of methods for negative reinforcement than positive reinforcement. Is it that my culture doesn’t treat positive reinforcement with the respect it deserves, or did I get trapped in a self-reinforcing loop because I only knew to put points in a specific skill tree? Maybe a mix of these two, maybe something else, the outcome here is the same – I struggle to come up with positive reinforcement methods, and today’s augment reflects it.

Positive Reinforcement: Gamification?

We have quite a few shining examples of positive reinforcement done right, like videogames – they rely a ton on it, at their core, tapping into fundamental human drives I didn’t even know I had. Some do it a little too well, usually, when money gets involved.

youtube.com/embed/0hYx-N56HKo?…

There’s a wealth of material on just how much focus you can extract from someone – the video above is a good introduction. Modern-day mobile games are a well-known offender, to the point where smartphone gaming companies hire behavioural psychology researchers, who then get paid to figure out ways of capturing our attention and converting it into money, hijacking the brains of people most susceptible. The consequences of the mobile game microtransaction-backed reinforcement loops are pretty daunting, and have a close parallel with gambling – from people pushed to recklessly spend their money, to increased suicidality and depression, and most often, significantly reduced ability to achieve tasks in day-to-day life. Remember the perils of external data collection? Once again, large entities wield significant power over us, in ways we barely discuss, and we get none of the benefits – even though we could benefit tremendously if we started to use the same methods.
honestly, I just want this kind of menu, but for tasks that actually benefit me
Videogame-tailored methods sure work well on me, in particular – I’ve spent dozens upon dozens of hours in videogames, feeling pretty fulfilled in life as I go through a list of in-game tasks, or perfect a level time after time. It’s not an unpopular topic, either – you’ll find quite a few open-source solutions trying to tap into it. Where’s my own quest menu, and why can’t I have a quest progression system for my real-life tasks? Why is this system of positive reinforcement reserved to virtual stories that I will forget in a year’s time?

I’ve only started learning about all the yet-unexplored ways of positive reinforcement harnessing, and there’s a ton of them that could work pretty well, and I keep discovering new options – just that they’re harder to think of. Audio feedback works for me well when it comes to noticing unwanted Alt-Tab presses – what about figuring out when I’m doing well, and giving me audio feedback on it too? Tracking time spent in whitelisted windows, together with monitoring typing speed, the system could put pleasant sounds in my headphones as long as I’m focused, reminding me that I’m on the right track, or maybe provide a summary right after. Could this help, or would it be distracting? Can’t know until I finally try them out, one by one.

What about keeping a running-tally summary of what I hack on, and perhaps creating some sort of “streak” or “levelling” system? Maybe, each morning, giving me an overview on how my days went? I’ve written a “productivity calendar” program before, a generator of printable PDFs for each month. Every day, I’d try and write in my day-to-day tasks with a ballpoint pen.
“Productivity” is not a word I use anymore – I find it tainted, typically aimed at you from the outside world. Today, I’d call this a “hacking calendar”.
It largely failed to uphold itself – the A4 sheet of paper and a pen were easy to lose track of, given how I move from place to place all the time. It would be pretty simple to repurpose this script, however, putting task summaries into the empty boxes and regenerate it every hour. Say, I have this summary generate & open automatically each morning, right after I wake up – could it help? What about adding messages from the past into the mix? I’m probably jumping ahead a bit too much here – this one’s a whole self-hacking topic of its own.

Once again, sadly, I have committed the sin of not collecting enough data over time – this program, too, needs to grow an API. The bringup of my software stack has been pretty recursive, in a bad way, aimed at solving exactly the problems preventing me from working on it – an uphill climb with no peak in sight. Seems like I really ought to forgive myself for this journey taking years. Exploring new ground, with what feels like barely enough language to describe it, is not a pleasant process, but today’s Alt-Tab Annihilator program has helped me gain a strong foothold that felt long overdue, and it helped me spot a fundamental weakness in the way I learn, too.

Thankfully, I know that I can ask advice from your all. What’s your experiences, ideas, and opinions on positive reinforcement methods? What kind of positive reinforcement methods do you use for yourself, or wish that someone explored?

hackaday.com/2024/10/07/hack-o…

Much of a car’s interaction with the world around it is still a very stand-alone, analog experience, regardless of whether said car has a human driver or a self-driving computer system. Mark I eyeballs or equivalent computer-connected sensors perceive the world, including road markings, traffic signs and the locations of other road traffic. This information is processed and the car’s speed and trajectory are adjusted to ideally follow the traffic rules and avoid unpleasant conversations with police officers, insurance companies, and/or worse.

An idea that has been kicked around for a few years now has been to use wireless communication between cars and their environment to present this information more directly, including road and traffic conditions, independent from signs placed near or on the road. It would also enable vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V), which somewhat like the transponders in airplanes would give cars and other vehicles awareness of where other traffic is hanging out. Other than V2V, Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) would also include communication regarding infrastructure (V2I), pedestrians (V2P) and an expansive vehicle-to-network (V2N) that gives off strong Ghost in the Shell vibes.

Is this is the future of road traffic? The US Department of Transport (DOT) seems to think that its deployment will be a good thing, but V2X has been stuck in regulatory hurdles. This may now change, with the DOT releasing a roadmap for its deployment.

CB Radio On Steroids

Cobra 18 WX ST II mobile Citizens’ band radio, with a toggle to receive NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, scanning the CB band, and a toggle for Channels 9 and 19. (Credit: Zuzu, Wikimedia Commons)
No doubt many of us have used or are aware of the existence of Citizens Band radio (CB for short), which is a radio system operating around the 27 MHz band, first popularized in the US during the 1950s and gaining world-wide popularity during the 1970. It is an early example of an ubiquitous communication system that was, and is, used both by citizens at home and installed in just about any type of vehicle and boat. For truckers in particular it provides a means to obtain constant updates on road conditions, as well as for truck-to-truck communications should the need arise.

Over the years CB has become less relevant to the average citizen, who these days is equipped with a smartphone and drives a vehicle that has more computing power and communication options than the Space Shuttle. While connected to the internet, they can get route updates, warnings about road condition and construction, etc. delivered to various apps on the smartphone, to the infotainment system, a dedicated satnav device and so on. Yet the concept remains of being tied into some form of communication network that provides information that would otherwise be hard to come by.

Meanwhile features such as cruise control and collision avoidance systems (CAS) keep tabs on what is going on around the vehicle and any potential traffic rule violations to some extent. The number and types of CAS and other forms of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) in modern cars keep increasing, using everything from LIDAR and cameras to millimeter-wave radar systems to prevent collisions, keep the car in the current lane, detect braking cars ahead and integrate data obtained via a data link on upcoming traffic lights and other notable features long before they become visible.

With such a long list of safety features and data links a part of an increasing number of vehicles on the road, it raises the question of whether this V2X deployment would do more than to standardize and expand upon much of the technology that is already out and about on the roads today.

Defining V2X

As with many marketing-buzzword-bingo-laden terms, it is probably a good idea to take a look at the overview of the National V2X Deployment Plan (PDF) which the US DOT recently released. The title for the document makes it clear that the primary consideration is that of safety, specifically increasing road safety by preventing collisions and with it the deaths and injuries that occur on US roads every year. Motor vehicle fatalities on US roads hit 42,512 deaths in 2022, or 12.76 per 100,000 inhabitants. More worryingly is an increase in pedestrian and bicycle fatalities, with 81% more pedestrians dying in 2022 compared to 2013.

So how would V2X prevent these fatalities? If we scroll down to page 11 of the DOT document to the actual roadmap, we can see that for the period of 2024 – 2028 the short-term goals are to deploy V2X on 20% of national highways and have the top 75 US metro areas equip 25% of their intersections with the technology. For vehicles, two manufacturers would commit to producing vehicles capable of using the selected 5.895 – 5.925 GHz band by the 2028 model year. From that period the V2X system would be expanded to cover more of the highways and intersections.

If we consult the referenced ITS America National V2X Deployment Plan which was published in Aril of 2023, we can get a bit more background information. ITS America is a collaboration of infrastructure owners and operators (IOO) and the aforementioned OEMs. The V2X-enabled cars would have 5.9 GHz-enabled radios, which communicate with road-side units (RSU) to exchange relevant information, building upon the knowledge gained so far from Cellular-V2X (C-V2X) trials.

The RSUs would be placed at intersections, where it could eliminate many crashes while also providing the driver with information on when a traffic light will turn green and prevent the running of red lights. In addition, V2X-enabled cars would also be able to communicate with V2X-enabled bicyclists, pedestrians and similar, who would also have a V2X-enabled device on their person or bike. This would then communicate with the vehicles ADAS, ideally preventing collisions between the vehicle and these much squishier traffic participants. These personal V2X devices could be integrated into smartphones at some point, for example.

Casualties Versus Security

On one hand it sounds wonderful if cars and trucks can effectively no longer hit pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, etc. because of V2X-ADAS integration, but there are some concerns regarding privacy and security. There is the obvious worry about spoofed V2X messages that might mess with traffic, or even cause the very casualties that it sought to avoid. To this end the DOT hosts the ITS Cybersecurity Research Program, which among other things is working on ensuring trusted communications between vehicles, infrastructure and other parties in a V2X-enabled system.

This would seem to involve some secure way to signing messages, while guaranteeing some level of anonymity. The former would seem to be standard secure communication practice, while the latter makes sense when the goal of V2X vis-à-vis other traffic participants is to merely avoid becoming kinetically intimate. In order to avoid said collision, you only need need to know where the vehicle, bike or pedestrian in question is roughly located before any onboard sensors can detect it.

Presumably this might include common scenarios such as a person running out from behind a row of parked cars into traffic, or another car popping out from a narrow side street in one of those harrowingly picturesque ancient city centers. The scenarios referenced in the documents are left turns and intersection crossings, but presumably one could come up with many more scenarios.

Implementation-Dependent

Waymo’s self-driving Chrysler Pacifica, Mountain View.
To circle back to the question asked at the beginning, of whether V2X is the future of road traffic, it’s hard to give a definitive answer here. Although the benefits are stark, and the technologies required neither new nor bleeding edge, one only has to look at the sometimes outright hostility that for example battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) as well as self-driving cars receive. Even though BEVs are over a century old by now, and self-driving cars like those from Alphabet’s Waymo are demonstrating clearly superior incidents-per-kilometer statistics than human drivers, bias persists.

If V2X wants to succeed, it should be implemented and handled in a way that works with these biases, rather than against them. If lives are saved due V2X-enabled cars with a human driver pulling off a superhuman collision avoidance maneuver, or a child not run over after running into traffic because the V2X-enabled truck already stopped before the child came into view, then those are convincing arguments.

Perhaps V2X will have an easier time here than self-driving cars and BEVs, as it does not seek to change or replace anything, no more than that ADAS features in today’s cars do. It might even be quite realistic to retrofit V2X into existing vehicles, significantly promoting kinetic hesitancy in close traffic situations, but these are all things that we will have to wait and see what happens.

hackaday.com/2024/10/07/vehicl…

Un designer conosciuto con lo pseudonimo di The Bananaman 2018 ha presentato sulla piattaforma Lego Ideas un modello funzionante di una macchina di Turing assemblata con parti Lego. Questo progetto unico, composto da circa 2.900 elementi, dimostra l’incredibile ingegnosità e abilità tecnica dell’autore.

Una macchina di Turing, originariamente proposta dal matematico Alan Turing nel 1936, è un ipotetico dispositivo in grado di simulare qualsiasi algoritmo informatico. Il concetto include un nastro di simboli infinitamente lungo, una “testa” per leggere e scrivere simboli, un insieme finito di stati e una tabella di istruzioni per determinare l’azione successiva.

Creare incarnazioni fisiche di un modello è un compito interessante sia dal punto di vista ingegneristico che computazionale. Nonostante tali macchine abbiano prestazioni significativamente inferiori ai computer moderni, rimangono uno strumento utile per apprendere le basi dell’informatica.

The Bananaman ha detto di essersi imbattuto per la prima volta nel concetto di macchina di Turing diversi anni fa. Anche se il concetto era astratto, ne rimase colpito e decise di ricrearlo utilizzando i pezzi Lego Technic. I primi tentativi non hanno avuto successo: il progetto si è rivelato ingombrante e inefficace. Quindi l’uomo sviluppò un nuovo metodo e utilizzò un sistema di registri, che semplificò notevolmente l’intero meccanismo.

Il progetto di Bananaman è al limite, utilizza 2900 elementi dei 3000 previsti da Lego ideas. È interessante notare che i piccoli elementi di costruzione, nella loro struttura di grandi dimensioni, sono stati stampati su una stampante 3D.

Prima di creare la versione digitale, The Bananaman ha progettato e costruito un modello reale per assicurarsi che funzionasse. Ha quindi utilizzato il software Stud.io per creare rendering 3D.

Rispondendo a una domanda sull’affidabilità del meccanismo, il progettista ha ammesso che il dispositivo richiede una calibrazione molto precisa. Per far sì che tutto funzioni in modo più stabile. Ha utilizzato molte connessioni ridondanti e ha cercato di creare un supporto affidabile per ciascun meccanismo. Tuttavia, alcune parti rimangono ancora vulnerabili, quindi l’autore prevede di apportare ulteriori miglioramenti.

La Turing Machine di Lego era originariamente alimentata da un motore elettrico, ma The Bananaman l’ha sostituita con un meccanismo manuale. Questa decisione ha reso il progetto più economico e sicuro (nel caso in cui il meccanismo si inceppi).

Il progetto Bananaman conta attualmente quasi 4.000 voti di sostegno su Lego Ideas. Per passare alla fase successiva, deve ricevere 5.000 voti e per arrivare alla valutazione degli esperti Lego – 10.000 voti. Se il progetto raggiunge questo traguardo, l’azienda valuterà la possibilità di metterlo in produzione.

Questa è la quarta volta che The Bananaman mostra le sue creazioni su Lego Ideas. Sul suo canale YouTube puoi vedere come le sue competenze sono migliorate nel corso degli anni. C’è molto altro da scoprire sulla piattaforma: altri progetti per gli appassionati di Lego Technic includono una calcolatrice meccanica e un tamburo automatico.

L'articolo La Macchina di Turing realizzata con i mattoncini Lego! Il Progetto pubblicato su Lego ideas proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

ISRAEL ATTACKS ON GAZA HAVE KILLED MORE WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN ONE YEAR THAN ANY CONFLICT IN THE LAST 18 YEARS.

instagram.com/p/DAokin9SqvF/?i…

AJ+ on Instagram: "This 10-year-old girl in Gaza wrote a will leaving behind her toys and allowance before she was killed by Israel’s attacks. In the will, Rasha divided her belongings between her cousins and brother Ahmad, who was also killed. “Please

153K likes, 1,850 comments - ajplus on October 2, 2024: "This 10-year-old girl in Gaza wrote a will leaving behind her toys and allowance before she was killed by Israel’s attacks.

^Instagram

I ricercatori di Gen Threat Labs hanno identificato un nuovo sofisticato rootkit Snapekit che prende di mira la versione 6.10.2-arch1-1 di Arch Linux sull’architettura x86_64. Snapekit consente agli aggressori di ottenere l’accesso e il controllo non autorizzati di un sistema senza essere rilevati.

Il rootkit si infiltra nel sistema operativo, intercettando e modificando 21 chiamate di sistema, il meccanismo di comunicazione tra le applicazioni e il kernel del sistema operativo. Snapekit utilizza un dropper speciale per la distribuzione.

Il rootkit è in grado di riconoscere ed evitare strumenti di analisi e debug popolari come Cuckoo Sandbox, JoeSandbox, Hybrid-Analysis, Frida, Ghidra e IDA Pro. Quando viene rilevato uno degli strumenti, Snapekit modifica il suo comportamento per evitare il rilevamento.

L’obiettivo principale di Snapekit è nascondere il codice dannoso rimanendo nello spazio dell’utente anziché nello spazio più controllato del kernel. Questo approccio complica notevolmente il rilevamento e l’analisi delle minacce. Inoltre, il rootkit utilizza i meccanismi di protezione PTrace per rilevare i tentativi di debug, il che aggiunge complessità per analisti e specialisti della sicurezza informatica.

Snapekit dispone di strumenti di evasione multilivello che non solo evitano gli strumenti di analisi automatizzata (sandbox e macchine virtuali), ma rendono anche difficile l’analisi manuale. Il creatore del rootkit, noto come Humzak711, prevede di pubblicare presto il progetto Snapekit open source su GitHub.

I potenti meccanismi di sicurezza di Snapekit includono l’offuscamento del codice, tecniche anti-debug e rilevamento del runtime. Queste caratteristiche distinguono il rootkit dagli altri malware. I professionisti della sicurezza sono incoraggiati a preparare ambienti di analisi più sofisticati utilizzando sandbox avanzati, tecniche di bypass del debugger e piattaforme di analisi collaborativa per combattere le nuove minacce.

L'articolo Arriva Snapekit! Il Rootkit Invisibile che Minaccia tutti i Livelli di Sicurezza di Arch Linux proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

DIY 3D printing in metal is a lot more complicated than we thought. And this video from [Metal Matters] shows two approaches, many many false starts, and finally, a glorious 78.9% success! (And it’s embedded below for your enjoyment.)

The first half of the video is dedicated to the work on a laser welding system that doesn’t pan out in the end at all. But the missteps are worth watching as well, and they hammer home the difficulties of melting metal reliably with nothing more than coherent light. Things like reflection, the difficulty of getting good process control cameras, and finally the whole thing slumping as multiple layers stack up on each other make this approach to 3D construction look nearly impossible.

Indeed, around halfway through the video, the focus shifts toward a metal-powder sintering machine, and this one is a success! Metal dust is deposited layer by layer, and fused with a totally different laser. The tricky bits here range from esoteric problems like making the laser fuse the metal dust without blasting it to simple things like the geometry of the scraper that ensures even layer heights. Finally, getting a good pattern down for 2D infill is non-trivial.

A sweet half-scale metal Benchy emerges at the end, so why does [Metal Matters] call this a 78.9% success? Because that’s the density of the final print, and he is shooting for 100%. But we wouldn’t be so harsh. We’ve seen how far he’s come since the first machines, and this is a huge advance. We’re looking forward to the next video update in a year or two!

youtube.com/embed/_SwsatEJn9k?…

Thanks to [Jonas] for the tip!

hackaday.com/2024/10/07/first-…

Un uomo è stato arrestato in Massachusetts per aver perseguitato, doxato e minacciato un’insegnante per 7 anni. Uno degli aspetti più scioccanti del caso è stato l’uso dell’intelligenza artificiale per creare false immagini di nudo della vittima, nonché la creazione di un chatbot con i suoi dettagli su un sito specializzato in intelligenza artificiale per chat sessuali.

Secondo i documenti del tribunale, James Florence Jr. ha pubblicato online 128 immagini, comprese foto false di una donna nuda o seminuda. Florence Jr. ha pubblicato le informazioni personali della vittima, inclusi nome, indirizzo di casa, numero di telefono e informazioni sul lavoro, per più di 1 anno, per un totale di 687 post sui forum sugli abusi sulle donne. L’autore del reato ha anche perseguitato attivamente la donna su X e Reddit

Alcune pubblicazioni erano accompagnate da titoli che chiedevano di “rendere famosa questa donna”. Di conseguenza, gli utenti dei siti hanno iniziato a molestare direttamente la donna, inviandole minacce tramite e-mail e messaggi.

Inoltre, l’imputato ha caricato i dati personali dell’insegnante in 2 chatbot pubblici creati su piattaforme diverse. I robot potrebbero rivelare informazioni sulla vittima quando interagiscono con gli utenti, inclusa la sua data di nascita, indirizzo di casa, luogo di lavoro, hobby e persino circostanze familiari, come la data di morte di sua madre.

Una delle piattaforme che ha ospitato chatbot è crushon.ai, che si presenta come una piattaforma per chattare con personaggi IA senza filtri, consentendo agli utenti di impegnarsi liberamente in conversazioni sessualmente esplicite. Nonostante il sito vieti l’uso di immagini reali di personaggi famosi o persone comuni, ciò non ha impedito a Florence Jr. di utilizzare il nome e i dati della vittima nei suoi chatbot.

Secondo il fascicolo, la persecuzione della donna è continuata per molti anni. L’accusato avrebbe rubato i suoi oggetti personali, compresa la biancheria intima, e ne avrebbe pubblicato le immagini online.

Il caso dimostra come i criminali abbiano iniziato a utilizzare l’intelligenza artificiale non solo per creare immagini sessuali senza permesso, ma anche per impersonare le loro vittime come chatbot. Tali robot vengono utilizzati come parte di molestie e intimidazioni, rappresentando una nuova minaccia nel campo della criminalità informatica.

L'articolo Arrestato per Persecuzione e Abuso di una donna con immagini create con L’intelligenza Artificiale proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

The Zeros - Don't Push Me Around: definiti come i Ramones californiani se non addirittura messicani (il leader Javier Escovedo è figlio di emigranti, tutti musicisti). @Musica Agorà

iyezine.com/the-zeros-dont-pus…

The Zeros - Don't Push Me Around

The Zeros - Don't Push Me Around - The Zeros - Don't Push Me Around: definiti come i Ramones californiani se non addirittura messicani (il leader Javier Escovedo è figlio di emigranti, tutti musicisti). - The Zeros

^{Claudio Frandina (In Your Eyes ezine)}

Short, fast, loud and to the fucking point: questa è, da sempre, l’essenza degli ZEKE, leggendario combo speed rock statunitense che, dal 1992 a oggi, ha fatto del rock ‘n’ roll veloce, grezzo, tiratissimo e sparato a manetta la sua bandiera e natura musicale. @Musica Agorà

iyezine.com/zeke-snake-eyes-th…

ZEKE - SNAKE EYES / THE KNIFE 7"

ZEKE - SNAKE EYES / THE KNIFE 7" - Short, fast, loud and to the fucking point: questa è, da sempre, l'essenza degli ZEKE, leggendario combo speed rock statunitense che, dal 1992 a oggi, ha fatto del rock 'n' roll veloce, grezzo, tiratissimo e sparato…

^{Reverend Shit-Man (In Your Eyes ezine)}

Introduction

In July 2021, a campaign was launched primarily targeting Russian government agencies and industrial enterprises. Shortly after the campaign started, we began tracking it, and published three reports in August and September 2024 through our threat research subscription on the threat actor we named Awaken Likho (also named by other vendors as Core Werewolf).

While investigating the activity of this APT group, we discovered a new campaign that began in June 2024 and continued at least until August. Analysis of the campaign revealed that the attackers had significantly changed the software they used in their attacks. The attackers now prefer using the agent for the legitimate MeshCentral platform instead of the UltraVNC module, which they had previously used to gain remote access to systems. The group remains focused on targeting Russian government organizations and enterprises.

Technical details

During the investigation, using our Yara rules, we identified a new implant that we hadn’t seen previously in this group’s arsenal. Based on our telemetry, we concluded that the implant was delivered to victims’ devices via a malicious URL, likely obtained through phishing emails. Awaken Likho operators typically use search engines to gather as much information as possible about their victims and prepare convincing messages. We weren’t able to obtain the original phishing emails used to distribute this implant, but email attachments in previous campaigns included self-extracting archives (SFX) and links to malicious modules. In addition, previous attacks used Golang droppers to deliver malware – we didn’t find evidence of this in the current activity. However, the main difference in the implant we analyzed lies in a new method of gaining and maintaining control over the infected machine. For several years, we observed the use of the UltraVNC module to gain remote access to systems, but in this campaign, the attackers used MeshAgent, an agent for the MeshCentral system. As stated on the official MeshCentral website, this is an open-source remote device management solution with extensive functionality.

We discovered the new type of implant in September 2024, and our telemetry indicates that the attackers began using this software in August 2024. So now, let’s analyze this implant in detail.

Unpacking the archive

As in previous campaigns, the implant is packed using UPX and distributed in a self-extracting archive (SFX), created using 7-Zip, as indicated by its metadata. To continue the analysis, we must unpack it.

Implant metadata

The archive contains five files, four of which are disguised as legitimate system services and command files.

Implant archive contents

The remaining CMD file (the last one in the screenshot above) has a non-descriptive, randomly generated name. In previous implants we analyzed, most files were named in this way. What’s more, some files contained no payload and were added to the archive solely to mislead users. We will analyze all the files from the archive, but first, let’s open it in “#” mode. This is a special parser mode in 7-Zip, used for analyzing files to gather additional information about the archive, including the installation script.

Opening an archive in “#” mode from the archiver context menu

Contents of the archive opened in “#” mode

To determine how the implant persists in the system, we extract the installation script named “2” from the archive.

SFX archive installation script

As seen in the script code, the SFX module extracts all components of the archive into a temporary directory and runs
MicrosoftStores.exe without parameters.

AutoIt script

The next step in the attack is to execute
MicrosoftStores.exe. This sample is also packed using UPX.

Having unpacked the file, we see that it contains a compiled AutoIt script with an interpreter – this is indicated by a snippet in the file’s code starting with
AU3!. The presence of this script explains why the file was executed without parameters after extraction.
We managed to extract the decompiled AutoIt script, which was obfuscated.

Extracted AutoIt script

After manually deobfuscating it, we can determine the purpose of the script: it launches
NetworkDrivers.exe and nKka9a82kjn8KJHA9.cmd with the specified parameters to ensure persistence in the system.

Contents of AutoIt script after deobfuscation

Payload

NetworkDrivers.exe

Next, we examine the first executable launched by the script,
NetworkDrivers.exe.

Our products detect this sample with the verdict not-a-virus:HEUR:RemoteAdmin.Win32.MeshAgent.gen. Indeed, this is MeshAgent, the agent for the legitimate MeshCentral platform, which the attackers started using instead of UltraVNC.

nKka9a82kjn8KJHA9.cmd

The AutoIt script then launches the command file
nKka9a82kjn8KJHA9.cmd with specified parameters.

It’s important to note that this script has an unusually large size – over 1 MB. The reason is simple: it’s heavily obfuscated.

Part of the obfuscated contents of nKka9a82kjn8KJHA9.cmd

Despite the large amount of code, the obfuscation technique is quite simple: the attackers use large filler text blocks. During script execution, the interpreter skips the meaningless text using labels with the
GOTO command.
We were able to easily deobfuscate this file.

nKka9a82kjn8KJHA9.cmd after manual deobfuscation

The purpose of this command file is to create a scheduled task named
MicrosoftEdgeUpdateTaskMachineMS. This task runs EdgeBrowser.cmd from the unpacked archive and deletes certain files related to malicious activity, such as the first-stage executable MicrosoftStores.exe. This makes it harder to detect the attackers.

EdgeBrowser.cmd

The command file from the previous stage creates a task to run the
EdgeBrowser.cmd script.

EdgeBrowser.cmd

This script launches
NetworkDrivers.exe (the MeshAgent agent) using PowerShell to interact with the C2 server.
These actions allow the APT to persist in the system: the attackers create a scheduled task that runs a command file, which, in turn, launches MeshAgent to establish a connection with the MeshCentral server.

NetworkDrivers.msh

There is another file in the archive named
NetworkDrivers.msh. This is the configuration file for MeshAgent. We also found its contents in the code of the NetworkDrivers.exe.

MeshAgent configuration file contents

This file specifies the agent’s parameters for establishing a connection with the MeshCentral server: MeshName, MeshID, ServerID, and the C2 address, connecting via the WebSocket protocol. When opening this address via HTTPS, the following window appears – the login form for the MeshCentral platform.

MeshCentral platform login interface

This confirms that the attackers used the legitimate MeshCentral system to interact with the C2 server.

Victims

The primary victims of this attack were Russian government agencies, their contractors, and industrial enterprises.

Attribution

Based on the TTPs used and the information about the victims, we assume with high confidence that the threat actor is the APT group Awaken Likho.

Takeaways

Awaken Likho is one of the threat actors that ramped up its activity after the start of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. Recently, the group’s methods have changed significantly; for example, they have begun using MeshCentral instead of UltraVNC. The APT is still active – we’ve seen fresh implants dated August 2024. It’s worth noting that the implant analyzed in this article does not contain the payload-free files we observed in previous samples. Clearly, this is a new version of the malware, which is still in development. We believe we will see new attacks from the Awaken Likho operators. We are convinced that the group continues to successfully infiltrate their selected targets’ infrastructure.

Such attacks once again stress the importance of a comprehensive solution to ensure continuous protection of corporate resources, especially in the face of evolving threats.

Indicators of compromise

603eead3a4dd56a796ea26b1e507a1a3
deae4a955e1c38aae41bec5e5098f96f
892c55202ce3beb1c82183c1ad81c7a0
63302bc6c9aebe8f0cdafdd2ecc2198a
912ebcf7da25c56e0a2bd0dfb0c9adff
c495321edebe32ce6731f7382e474a0e

Domain
kwazindernuren[.]com

IP address
38.180.101[.]12

Malicious task name
MicrosoftEdgeUpdateTaskMachineMS

securelist.com/awaken-likho-ap…

What do you get when you cross WiFi and LoRa? Researchers in China have been doing this, and they call the result WiLo. They claim to get reliable connections over about half a kilometer. Typical WiFi runs 40 to 60 meters, barring any Pringle’s cans or other exotic tricks.

According to [Michelle Hampson] writing in IEEE Spectrum, the researchers manipulated Wi-Fi’s OFDM multiplexing to emulate LoRa’s chirp-spreading signal. The advantage is that existing WiFi hardware can use the protocol to increase range.

While LoRa is known for being economical with power, this might not be the case with repurposed WiFi devices. The researchers plan to explore ways to make WiLo more energy efficient. You can read the research paper if you want to dig into the details.

There are also some efficiency issues. The WiFi header, trailer, and preamble can’t contribute to the fake LoRa signal, so they are ignored by the LoRa receiver. We aren’t sure, but we wondered if some or most WiFi cards are now based on SDR technology anyway. If you had the internal details of the SDR, it seems like you could simply reprogram the entire unit to do whatever protocol you wanted. Still, those details are probably hard to obtain.

LoRa seems prime for hacking. Of course, 500 meters is just the tip of the iceberg.

hackaday.com/2024/10/07/wifi-m…

Un giro di affari nel mondo del narcotraffico è stato scoperto grazie alle attività di Carmelo Miano, hacker della Garbatella finito sotto inchiesta. Gestiva canali del dark web per il commercio illecito di sostanze stupefacenti e incassava i profitti in criptovalute, riporta una inchiesta del quotidiano Il Messaggero.

Le autorità giudiziarie hanno scoperchiato un complesso sistema che permetteva a Miano di accedere a database sensibili appartenenti a enti pubblici come il Ministero della Giustizia e delle Finanze, oltre a entrare nei sistemi informatici di diverse forze dell’ordine.

Le indagini hanno portato a ben 6,2 milioni di euro in criptovalute, frutto di attività illecite che includevano il traffico di droga e altre operazioni sul mercato nero.

L’inchiesta è partita dalla Guardia di Finanza che, monitorando il dark web, ha scoperto uno scambio di informazioni tra il giovane hacker e i trafficanti di droga, con il coinvolgimento di piattaforme di exchange di criptovalute come Kraken e Coinbase, dove venivano aperti conti con nomi fittizi. Gli inquirenti hanno bloccato transazioni e sequestrato fondi collegati a queste operazioni.

Miano non agiva da solo: aveva un complice, un ex poliziotto coinvolto che aveva accesso a informazioni riservate che gli permettevano di gestire conti su piattaforme di criptovalute. Insieme, i due trasferivano i guadagni illeciti su account fittizi, rendendo difficile tracciare i fondi.

Miano era noto per la sua capacità di penetrare i sistemi informatici più protetti, e il suo coinvolgimento nel traffico di stupefacenti ha permesso alle autorità di scoprire un vasto network di criminalità organizzata che operava principalmente sul dark web.

L’inchiesta, coordinata dalla Procura di Gela, ha visto la collaborazione di diverse autorità giudiziarie italiane, incluse quelle di Napoli e Brescia. Durante le operazioni, sono state individuate tracce di Maino all’interno del “Berlusconi market”, che era uno dei principali punti di scambio per la compravendita di droga e altre sostanze illecite. Gli investigatori hanno anche evidenziato che Miano era in contatto con numerosi criminali che utilizzavano il dark web per svolgere operazioni analoghe.

Si attendono ulteriori sviluppi nell’ambito di questa inchiesta che ha scoperchiato un complesso sistema di criminalità informatica legato al traffico di droga.

L'articolo L’Hacker Romano era Coinvolto in traffico di stupefacenti da 6 milioni di euro proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

Nel settembre 2022, la polizia di Londra ha deciso di proteggere il diciassettenne Arion Kurtaj collocandolo in un hotel dopo essere stato ripetutamente minacciato da una comunità di criminali informatici online e aver subito attacchi alla casa della sua famiglia.

Nonostante il fatto che l’adolescente sia stato arrestato due volte all’inizio del 2022 per hacking, gli era stato permesso di tornare a casa a condizione che smettesse completamente di usare Internet. Ciò nonostante è riuscito attraverso una firestick installata sul televisore dell’hotel ad accedere ad internet e ad hackerare GTAVI, il che alla fine ha portato al suo terzo arresto.

Dal nord di Oxford all’hacking di Electronic Arts

La storia di Arion Kurtaj è iniziata ancor prima di questi eventi. È nato nel 2005 ed è cresciuto nella classe media nel nord di Oxford. Fin dalla prima infanzia ha avuto difficoltà nell’apprendimento e nello sviluppo delle abilità sociali, che lo hanno portato a frequentare scuole per bambini con bisogni educativi speciali. Già all’età di 11 anni ha iniziato a mostrare interesse per la criminalità informatica, pubblicando una richiesta sul forum su come hackerare un server Minecraft.

Questo primo passo lo ha portato nel mondo dei criminali informatici sviluppando capacità di hacking.

Da adolescente, Kurtaj ha dovuto affrontare gravi difficoltà a casa ed è stato preso in carico dai servizi governativi, cosa che lo ha portato a finire in un collegio per bambini con problemi emotivi e comportamentali. Tuttavia, il mondo reale non ha soddisfatto il suo desiderio di riconoscimento e successo e ha iniziato a cercare l’auto realizzazione nel mondo del crimine informatico. Nel 2021, quando aveva solo 16 anni, ha partecipato all’hacking di Electronic Arts, rubando 780 gigabyte di dati. Questo incidente è stato uno dei tanti legati al gruppo di hacker Lapsus$, di cui Kurtaj è diventato membro.

Lapsus$ è un gruppo di hacker che negli ultimi anni è diventato uno dei più attivi e pericolosi al mondo. Ha violato i sistemi delle più grandi aziende del mondo, tra cui Microsoft, Samsung, Nvidia, Uber e altre. Gli hacker del gruppo sono specializzati nel furto di dati e nell’estorsione, chiedendo riscatti per la mancata divulgazione delle informazioni rubate.

Tuttavia, a differenza dei criminali informatici tradizionali, le motivazioni dei partecipanti a Lapsus$ spesso non erano solo finanziarie. A loro piaceva il caos e lo sconvolgimento dell’ordine, il che li rendeva particolarmente pericolosi. Kurtaj è diventato una figura chiave in questo gruppo, partecipando agli attacchi contro grandi aziende e agenzie governative.

L’hacking di GTA VI con una Firestik in albergo

Uno degli incidenti più famosi a cui ha partecipato Kurtaj è stato l’hacking di Uber e Rockstar Games nel settembre 2022. Mentre era nell’Hotel in custodia, ha utilizzato la Firestick per eseguire questi attacchi, nonostante gli fosse vietato l’uso della tecnologia.

In Uber ha pubblicato un’immagine oscena sulla piattaforma interna dell’azienda, provocando un’ondata di indignazione tra i dipendenti. Alla Rockstar Games, Kurtaj è entrato nei server e ha rubato il video e il codice sorgente del gioco “Grand Theft Auto VI“, che è diventato una delle fughe di informazioni più famose nel settore dei giochi negli ultimi anni. I video con frammenti di gioco si diffondono rapidamente su Internet, provocando un’enorme risonanza tra i fan del gioco e gli specialisti del settore.

La polizia ha cercato a lungo di fermare le attività di Kurtaj e degli altri membri dei Lapsus$, ma l’età adolescenziale di molti partecipanti e le loro motivazioni insolite hanno complicato le indagini. A gennaio 2022, Kurtaj e il suo partner, noto con lo pseudonimo di ASyntax, sono stati arrestati per aver hackerato la British Telecom, ma sono stati presto rilasciati dietro loro stesso riconoscimento.

Nel marzo dello stesso anno, Kurtaj fu nuovamente arrestato dopo aver hackerato Nvidia, ma a causa della mancanza di condizioni adeguate per la detenzione di adolescenti, fu nuovamente rilasciato, il che gli diede l’opportunità di continuare i suoi attacchi di hacking.

Gli psichiatri che hanno esaminato Kurtaj hanno affermato che il suo grave autismo e altre disabilità dello sviluppo lo hanno reso incapace di sostenere un processo e di comprendere l’intera portata delle sue responsabilità. Nell’agosto 2023, dopo un processo durato sette settimane, una giuria lo ha ritenuto colpevole di hacking, ma a causa del suo stato di salute è stato ricoverato in un ospedale psichiatrico sotto supervisione indefinita. Medici e autorità governative decideranno del suo destino futuro e quando potrà tornare alla vita normale. Tuttavia, secondo le conclusioni degli esperti, Kurtaj ha ancora il desiderio di tornare nel mondo del crimine informatico.

Tra Autismo ed detenzione

Nonostante ciò, gli avvocati di Kurtaj e gli esperti di autismo sostengono che una condanna all’ergastolo per un adolescente con tali disabilità dello sviluppo non è una soluzione giusta. Dicono che sia necessario cercare approcci alternativi che aiutino a utilizzare le competenze uniche di queste persone in modo più positivo, proteggendo al tempo stesso la società dalla loro potenziale minaccia.

La storia di Kurtaj solleva importanti domande su come la società moderna dovrebbe rispondere ai crimini informatici commessi dai giovani che affrontano sfide di adattamento sociale nel mondo reale.

Probabilmente occorre sviluppare programmi di riabilitazione speciali per queste persone che consentano loro di utilizzare le proprie capacità in modi più produttivi, invece di rinchiuderli in prigione a vita. Dovremmo anche cercare di comprendere le emozioni scatenanti queste derive che pur sempre sono, oltre la loro genialità, dei crimini informatici.

L'articolo Tra Genio ed Autismo. La Storia del Caso di Arion Kurtaj, la Mente Dietro al gruppo Lapsus$ proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

I dispositivi intelligenti in movimento, per migliorare le proprie prestazioni, si basano sempre più sulle immagini che acquisiscono. Tuttavia, esiste una linea sottile tra l’uso dei dati per l’innovazione e la tutela della privacy, che richiede un’attenta valutazione.

Recentemente è stato scoperto che i robot aspirapolvere della Ecovacs, soffrono di gravi vulnerabilità in termini di sicurezza informatica . I prodotti raccolgono foto, video e registrazioni vocali scattate nelle case degli utenti per addestrare i modelli di intelligenza artificiale dell’azienda. Ecovacs, il produttore cinese dei famosi modelli Deebot, si è impegnato a sistemare queste vulnerabilità nel più breve tempo possibile.

Ha affermato che gli utenti partecipano volontariamente a un programma di miglioramento del prodotto, anche se quando si collegano tramite un’app per smartphone non specifica quali dati verranno raccolti.

Secondo la politica sulla privacy di Ecovacs , l’azienda può raccogliere mappe delle case 2D e 3D, registrazioni vocali del microfono e immagini della fotocamera del dispositivo a fini di ricerca e del miglioramento del prodotto stesso.

Ma anche dopo che tali dati sono stati cancellati, potrebbero rimanere sui server Ecovacs ed essere utilizzati per ulteriori sviluppi anche da eventuali attacchi informatici da parte di terzi. I rappresentanti dell’azienda hanno confermato che i dati raccolti vengono utilizzati per addestrare l’intelligenza artificiale, mentre le informazioni sarebbero rese anonime a livello di dispositivo.

Tuttavia, gli esperti di sicurezza informatica hanno espresso preoccupazioni sulla capacità dei dispositivi intelligenti di proteggere tali dati. In precedenza, il ricercatore Dennis Giese aveva identificato delle vulnerabilità che consentono l’accesso remoto alle telecamere degli aspirapolvere, mettendo in discussione la sicurezza delle informazioni riservate degli utenti. Il ricercatore ha inoltre sottolineato che, anche se un’azienda non ha intenzioni dolose, potrebbe diventare vittima dello spionaggio industriale o delle azioni di altri Stati.

Ecovacs, valutata 4,6 miliardi di dollari, ha promesso di risolvere i problemi segnalati sui suoi modelli di punta già a novembre. La società ha inoltre affermato che i dati raccolti nell’ambito del programma di miglioramento del prodotto vengono resi anonimi prima di essere inviati ai server e l’accesso agli stessi è limitato da rigorosi protocolli di governance.

Si sono già verificati casi di immagini trapelate scattate da aspirapolvere robotici. Nel 2022, le foto intime scattate dai dispositivi iRobot sono state pubblicate su Facebook, suscitando una tempesta di critiche sulla sicurezza dei dati raccolti da tali dispositivi. Queste perdite erano dovute alle azioni degli appaltatori assunti per analizzare i dati raccolti. Una delle società responsabili della fuga di dati, Scale AI, è specializzata nella creazione di dati per algoritmi di addestramento e i suoi appaltatori hanno precedentemente diffuso immagini degli utenti sui social media.

Nel frattempo, i ricercatori dell’Australian Robotics Centre hanno sviluppato una tecnologia che potrebbe prevenire tali incidenti. Cambia il modo in cui funziona la fotocamera di un robot, rendendo le immagini irriconoscibili pur conservando informazioni sufficienti per la navigazione. Questa soluzione potrebbe essere la chiave per migliorare la privacy in futuro, ma non è ancora pronta per la produzione di massa.

L'articolo Hai una spia in casa? Mentre l’Aspirapolvere impara dalle immagini, la tua privacy è a rischio proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

Nel mondo digitale in cui viviamo, termini come “hacker” e “cybercrime” vengono spesso utilizzati in modo intercambiabile, creando confusione su chi siano davvero i protagonisti dietro le crescenti minacce informatiche. Tuttavia, è fondamentale distinguere tra hacker, che possono essere sia alleati che nemici, e veri e propri criminali informatici, responsabili di reati che generano miliardi di dollari di perdite ogni anno. In questo articolo esploreremo le differenze tra questi attori, analizzando chi sono, come operano e quali sono i loro obiettivi, per comprendere meglio il complesso panorama del cybercrime.

Definizione di Hacker e Cyber Crime

Nell’immaginario comune, il termine “hacker” evoca spesso l’immagine di un individuo malevolo che, con competenze tecniche avanzate, penetra sistemi informatici per rubare dati o causare danni. Tuttavia, questa rappresentazione è imprecisa e riduttiva. Hacker, infatti, è un termine che storicamente si riferisce a persone con una profonda conoscenza dei sistemi informatici, le quali spesso utilizzano le loro competenze per migliorare la sicurezza e l’efficienza di questi sistemi. Gli hacker etici, noti anche come white hat, lavorano per identificare e risolvere vulnerabilità, contribuendo a rendere il cyberspazio più sicuro.

Al contrario, il cybercrime è un’attività criminale che sfrutta le tecnologie informatiche per commettere reati. Questa categoria comprende una vasta gamma di atti illeciti, tra cui il furto di dati, le frodi online, il ransomware, lo spionaggio informatico, e molti altri. I veri protagonisti del cybercrime sono i criminali informatici, noti anche come black hat, che utilizzano le loro competenze per scopi dannosi.

Principali attori del Cybercrime

1. Script Kiddies

Gli Script Kiddies sono individui con competenze tecniche limitate che utilizzano strumenti già pronti, come exploit e script automatici, creati da altri per lanciare attacchi informatici. Sebbene non siano sofisticati come altri attori, possono comunque causare danni significativi, specialmente quando operano in gran numero o con l’aiuto di strumenti potenti.

2. Cybercriminali Organizzati

Questi gruppi sono spesso strutturati come vere e proprie organizzazioni criminali, con ruoli ben definiti e operazioni complesse. Utilizzano attacchi mirati come il phishing, il ransomware e il furto di dati per estorcere denaro o rubare informazioni preziose. Questi gruppi operano a livello globale e sono responsabili di una grande parte delle perdite economiche legate al cybercrime.

3. Hacktivisti

Gli hacktivisti utilizzano le loro competenze informatiche per promuovere cause politiche o sociali. Le loro azioni, spesso di tipo denial-of-service (DoS) o defacement, sono finalizzate a portare attenzione su determinate tematiche piuttosto che a ottenere un profitto economico. Tuttavia, le loro attività possono comunque causare gravi danni a livello di reputazione e operativo.

4. Insider Threats

Le minacce interne provengono da dipendenti o collaboratori che, avendo accesso legittimo ai sistemi aziendali, abusano della loro posizione per rubare dati o danneggiare l’organizzazione. Questi attori possono agire per vendetta, guadagno personale o persino essere reclutati da organizzazioni criminali esterne.

5. State-Sponsored Actors

Gli attori sponsorizzati dagli stati sono tra i più sofisticati e pericolosi. Operano spesso sotto la direzione di governi nazionali e utilizzano le loro competenze per condurre operazioni di spionaggio, sabotaggio e guerra cibernetica. Questi gruppi mirano a ottenere vantaggi geopolitici piuttosto che economici, e le loro operazioni possono avere conseguenze devastanti a livello globale.

Scopi e modalità operative

Scopi

Gli scopi del cybercrime variano a seconda dell’attore coinvolto:

• Profitto Economico: La maggior parte dei criminali informatici è motivata dal guadagno economico. Il ransomware, ad esempio, è uno dei metodi più utilizzati per estorcere denaro alle vittime.
• Spionaggio: Gli attori sponsorizzati dallo stato cercano informazioni strategiche per ottenere vantaggi economici, politici o militari.
• Attivismo: Gli hacktivisti mirano a promuovere una causa sociale o politica attraverso azioni di hacking.
• Vendetta o sabotaggio: Alcuni attori, come le minacce interne, possono essere motivati da risentimento personale o dalla volontà di danneggiare un’organizzazione.

Modalità Operative

Le modalità operative del cybercrime sono varie e sofisticate:

• Phishing: Utilizzo di e-mail fraudolente per ingannare le vittime e ottenere accesso a informazioni sensibili.
• Ransomware: Software malevolo che cripta i dati delle vittime, chiedendo un riscatto per il loro rilascio.
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS): Sovraccarico di un server o di una rete con traffico eccessivo per renderlo inaccessibile.
• Advanced Persistent Threats (APT): Attacchi prolungati e mirati, spesso sponsorizzati da stati, che mirano a rubare informazioni sensibili.
• Malware: Software creato per infiltrarsi, danneggiare o ottenere il controllo di sistemi informatici.

Statistiche e Impatti Economici

Il cybercrime è diventato uno dei settori più redditizi per i criminali. Secondo alcune stime, il costo globale del cybercrime raggiungerà i 10,5 trilioni di dollari entro il 2025, rispetto ai 3 trilioni del 2015. Questo tasso di crescita esponenziale è alimentato dalla digitalizzazione crescente e dall’aumento del numero di dispositivi connessi a Internet.

Guadagni e Perdite

• Ransomware: Solo nel 2023, i danni causati dal ransomware hanno superato i 20 miliardi di dollari a livello globale. Le aziende spesso preferiscono pagare i riscatti piuttosto che rischiare la perdita definitiva dei dati, alimentando ulteriormente questo mercato.
• Frodi Online: Le frodi con carte di credito e altre forme di truffa online hanno generato perdite per oltre 32 miliardi di dollari nel 2022.
• Furti di Dati: Gli attacchi mirati a rubare dati sensibili hanno colpito milioni di utenti, con il costo medio per ogni violazione di dati che ha raggiunto i 4,24 milioni di dollari.

Confronto con altri crimini

Se paragonato ai crimini tradizionali, il cybercrime si distingue per la sua portata globale e la sua capacità di generare profitti con relativamente pochi rischi per i criminali. A differenza dei crimini fisici, che richiedono la presenza sul luogo, il cybercrime può essere perpetrato a distanza, con conseguenze devastanti per le vittime.

Conclusione

Il mondo del cybercrime è vasto e in continua evoluzione. Con attori sempre più sofisticati e motivati da una varietà di scopi, è fondamentale distinguere tra hacker e criminali informatici per comprendere appieno le minacce che affrontiamo. Mentre gli hacker etici lavorano per proteggere il cyberspazio, i criminali informatici rappresentano una minaccia crescente, con impatti economici e sociali che si fanno sempre più pesanti. La consapevolezza, la formazione e l’adozione di misure di sicurezza adeguate sono essenziali per difendersi in questo scenario complesso e in costante mutamento.

L'articolo Non sono Hacker: si chiamano criminali informatici! Scopriamo le differenze degli attori malevoli del cybercrime proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

When we think of assembling a PCB, we’re almost always thinking about solder. Whether in paste form or on the spool, hand-iron or reflow, some molten metal is usually in the cards. [Stephen Hawes] is looking for a solderless alternative for prototyping, and he shows us the progress he’s made toward going solderless in this video.

His ulterior motive? He’s the designer of the LumenPNP open-source pick-and-place machine, and is toying with the idea of a full assembly based just on this one machine. If you strapped a conductive-glue extruder head on the machine in addition to the parts placer, you’d have a full assembly in one step. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

[Stephen] first tries Z-tape, which is really cool stuff. Small deformable metal balls are embedded in a gel-like tape, and conduct in only the Z direction when parts are pushed down hard into the tape. But Z-tape is very expensive, requires a bit of force to work reliably, and [Stephen] finds that the circuits are intermittent. In short, Z-tape is not a good fit for the PNP machine.

But what [Stephen] does find works well is a graphite-based conductive glue. In particular, he likes the Bare Conductive paint. He tries another carbon-based paint, but it’s so runny that application is difficult, while the Bare stuff is thick and sticky. (They won’t tell you their secret formula, but it’s no secret how the stuff is basically made.) That ends up looking very promising, but it’s still pretty spendy, and [Stephen] is looking to make his own conductive paste/paint pretty soon. That’s particularly appealing, because he can control the stickiness and viscosity, and he’ll surely let us in on the secret sauce.

(We’re armchair quarterbacking here, but the addition of a small amount of methyl cellulose and xanthan gum works to turn metal powder into a formable, printable metal clay, so it might make a carbon paste similarly adjustably sticky.)

We love the end-goal here: one machine that can apply a conductive paint and then put the parts into the right place, resulting in a rough-and-ready, but completely hands-off assembly. You probably wouldn’t want to use this technique if the joint resistance was critical, or if you needed the PCB to stand up to abuse. There’s a reason that everyone in industry uses molten metal, after all. But for verifying a quick one-off, or in a rapid-prototyping environment? This would be a dream.

We’ve seen other wacky ways to go solderless before. This one uses laser-cut parts to hold the components on the PCB, for instance. And for simply joining a couple wires together, we have many more solutions, many thanks to you all in the comments!

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Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune condition whereby the patient’s own immune system attacks the pancreatic islets, destroying them in the process. Since these islets are responsible for producing insulin in response to blood sugar (glucose) levels, the patient is thus required to externally inject insulin for the remainder of their life. That was the expected scenario, but it appears that this form of diabetes may soon be treatable, with one woman now being free of the condition for a year already, as reported in Nature, referencing an article by [Shusen Wang] et al. that describes the treatment and the one-year result.

Most notable with this study is that the researchers didn’t use the regular method to create pluripotent stem cells. These cells were extracted from the patient, to revert back to this earlier developmental stage. They were not modified using genes, but rather singular chemicals (PDF). The advantage of this is that it avoids having to modify the cell’s genomes, which could conceivably cause issues like cancer later on. This was one of the first time that this method was used in a human subject, with islet cells formed and about 1.5 million of them injected into the patient’s abdominal muscles, a novel site for this procedure.

This location made these islets easy to keep track of, and easier to remove in case of any issues compared to the usual injection site within the liver. Fortunately for this woman, no complications occurred and one year later she is still free of any diabetes symptoms. Two other patients in the trial are also seeing very positive results, leaving only the question of whether the auto-immune condition that originally caused the islet destruction still exists. Since this female patient is taking immunosuppressants for a previous liver transplant it’s a hard to thing to judge, especially since we understand the causes behind type 1 diabetes so poorly.

Regardless, this and other trials using pluripotent cells, transplanted islets and more offer the prospect of a permanent treatment for the many people who suffer from type 1 diabetes.

Featured image: “Human induced pluripotent stem cell colony” National Eye Institute/NIH

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Remember that time a giant cylindrical aquarium in a Berlin hotel bar catastrophically failed and left thousands of fish homeless? We sure do, and further recall that at the time, we were very curious about the engineering details of how this structure failed so spectacularly. At the time, we were sure there’d be plenty of follow-up on that score, but life happened and we forgot all about the story. Luckily, a faithful reader named Craig didn’t, and he helpfully ran down a few follow-up articles that came out last year that are worth looking at.

The first is from prosecutors in Berlin with a report offering three possibilities: that the adhesive holding together the acrylic panels of the aquarium failed; that the base of the tank was dented during recent refurbishment; or that the aquarium was refilled too soon after the repairs, leading to the acrylic panels drying out. We’re a little confused by that last one just from an intuitive standpoint, but each of these possibilities seems hand-wavy enough that the report’s executive summary could have been “Meh, Scheiße happens.”

The conclusions reached in the prosecutor’s report come from a forensic analysis conducted by Professor Christian Bonten, who the building owners commissioned to get to the bottom of things. The work began soon after the accident with an on-site analysis of the debris field, followed by laboratory studies of 90 tonnes of recovered shards. They put over 1,100 hours into the effort, examining evidence down to the molecular level via chemical analysis of the polymer chains in the acrylic. Still, the best they could come up with was that the collapse was “sudden and unexpected,” a sentiment the fish would no doubt agree with, and that there was no way anyone could have predicted it. That’s a bit frightening; while the world isn’t exactly littered with giant aquaria like this, they aren’t unknown either, and the idea that any of these structures could fail without warning is chilling. Especially if you’re a fish.

The Covid pandemic lockdowns were difficult for a lot of people, but they did provide a (hopefully) unique opportunity to observe just how much the activity of 8 billion people has on our planet. We recall a ton of non-intuitive results such as decreased background noise in seismic observations, pollution maps that suddenly cleared up, and even changes in the behavior of wildlife. But one impact we really didn’t see coming during “The Anthropause” was a decrease in the surface temperature on the Moon. Researchers looked at data from six sites on the near side of the Moon during lunar nights from 2017 to 2023, and found a subtle but unmistakable dip in temperatures during April and May of 2020, the peak of the lockdowns. They explain that the decrease was due to lower longwave IR emissions from the Earth’s surface thanks to decreased greenhouse gas emissions during the period, which we find pretty fascinating.

One of the benefits of writing for Hackaday is the crazy random rabbit holes that we get to go down, especially when we’re doing research for an article. Such a thing happened this week with a random thought that popped up while reading something about the International Space Station: What would they do if someone died up there? Thankfully, we’ve had precious few space fatalities in the last 70 years, and those have mostly been restricted to launch and reentry, and hence have been — ahem — extremely energetic deaths.

But with two space stations in orbit hosting long-duration crews in an inhospitable environment, eventually the law of averages is going to catch up to us and someone is just going to die up there. Then what? We found an article from 2021 that attempts to answer this with the help of the indispensable Commander Chris Hadfield, who offers insights that suggest his tours on the ISS have given him plenty of time to mull it over. But the real treat in the article is the idea of adapting an idea known as “promession,” which would involve freezing a corpse in liquid nitrogen and then rapidly vibrating it to break it into tiny bits, suitable for rapid composting. The on-orbit version would skip the liquid nitrogen and use the cold of space, with a robotic arm used to vibrate the astronautsicle and pulverize him or her. The article takes some weird turns — Martian cannibals? — which is understandable given that at the time it was written, NASA didn’t really have a plan for what to do with dead astronauts. But fear not, because they seem to be working on it now.

And finally, we stumbled across a video looking into the mysterious inner workings of vintage elevator controls that we found strangely compelling. The elevator in question is a Schindler lift with an odd design; rather than sliding doors on both the car and the landings, this one just has the doors on the landings, and those are swing-type doors. It’s fascinating to watch the doors glide by as the elevator goes up and down the cleanest elevator shaft we’ve ever seen. Even tidier is the hoist room, which is filled with the snappiest relays and coolest old controls you’ll ever see.

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[Leo Goldstien]’s entry into the world of robotics has been full of stops and starts. Like many beginners, he found traditional robotics instructions overwhelming and hard to follow, bogged down with dense math that often obscured the bigger picture. So he decided to approach things differently and create something with his own hands. The result? A 3D-printed robotic arm he affectionately calls “ManiPilator.”

This article is the first in a three-part series documenting [Leo]’s hands-on approach to learning robotics from the ground up. Building ManiPilator became an opportunity to learn by doing, and the project took him on a journey of experimenting, failing, and eventually succeeding in tasks that seemed deceptively simple at first glance. Each hurdle provided him with insights that more traditional learning methods hadn’t delivered. Below is one of the videos [Leo] captured, to show one step in the process: doing a check using multiple motors.

To make his project work, [Leo] relied on open-source software like Klipper, piecing together code and hardware in a way that made sense to him. In sharing his story, he offers fellow beginners an approachable perspective on robotics, with practical insights and candid reflections on the challenges and breakthroughs.

[Leo]’s project shows that there’s more than one way to start exploring robotics, and that sometimes the best way to learn is simply to dive in and start building. Follow along with his journey as he tackles the complexities of robotics, one step at a time.

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If you’re a fan of vintage electronics and DIY tinkering, you’ll find this teardown by [Thomas Scherrer] fascinating. In a recent video, he delves into a rare piece of equipment: the Data Lab Transient Recorder DL 901. This device looks like a classic one-channel oscilloscope, complete with all the knobs and settings you’d expect.

The DL 901, made by Data Laboratories Ltd., is a mystery even to [Thomas], who couldn’t find any documentation online. From the DC offset and trigger settings to the sweep time controls, the DL 901 is equipped to handle slow, high-resolution analog-to-digital conversion. The circuitry includes TTL chips and a PMI DAAC 100, a 10-bit digital-to-analog converter. [Thomas] speculates it uses a successive approximation technique for analog-to-digital conversion—a perfect blend of analog finesse and digital processing for its time.

Despite its intriguing features, the DL 901 suffers from a non-responsive analog input system, limiting the teardown to a partial exploration. For those who enjoyed past Hackaday articles on oscilloscope teardowns and analog tech, this one is a treat. Watch the video to see more details and the full process of uncovering this vintage device’s secrets.

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