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Submission + - Musk to "fix" Community Notes for contradicting Trump (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by smooth wombat
smooth wombat writes: The man who espouses "free speech" has announced he will be "fixing" Community Notes on Twitter because they repeatedly contradict what Trump says. He claims a cabal of governments and media are using Notes to game the system.

Musk's attack on Community Notes is somewhat surprising. Although he has always maintained that Community Notes aren't "perfect," he has defended Community Notes through multiple European Union probes challenging their effectiveness and declared that the goal of the crowdsourcing effort was to make X "by far the best source of truth on Earth." At CES 2025, X CEO Linda Yaccarino bragged that Community Notes are "good for the world."

Yaccarino invited audience members to "think about it as this global collective consciousness keeping each other accountable at global scale in real time," but just one month later, Musk is suddenly casting doubts on that characterization while the European Union continues to probe X.

Perhaps most significantly, Musk previously insisted as recently as last year that Community Notes could not be manipulated, even by Musk. He strongly disputed a 2024 report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate that claimed that toxic X users were downranking accurate notes that they personally disagreed with, claiming any attempt at gaming Community Notes would stick out like a "neon sore thumb."

Submission + - Microsoft claims quantum-computing breakthrough (nature.com)

Submitted by sinij
sinij writes:

Microsoft has announced that it has created the first ‘topological qubits’ — a way of storing quantum information that the firm hopes will underpin a new generation of quantum computers.

Personally, I am skeptical that MS is capable of innovation that doesn't involve adding subscriptions to every product they already have.

Submission + - Spectral menace infects critical infrastructure (theregister.com)

Submitted by Mirnotoriety
Mirnotoriety writes: “The operators of Ghost ransomware continue to claim victims and score payments, but keeping the crooks at bay is possible by patching known vulnerabilities and some basic infosec actions, according to a joint advisory issued Wednesday by the FBI and US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.”

“The Feds warned orgs to beware of this spectral menace, which is known to have infected critical infrastructure and entities in every sector of a typical economy, and which has been observed scoring ransoms as recently as January. It is said to have racked up victims in more than 70 countries, including some in its China homeland.”

Submission + - Multiple credential coercion vulnerabilities in Ivanti Endpoint Manager

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ivanti Endpoint Manager – Multiple Credential Coercion Vulnerabilities

Back in October of 2024, we were investigating one of the many Ivanti vulnerabilities and found ourselves without a patch to “patch diff” with – leading us to audit the code base at mach speed. This led to the discovery of four critical vulnerabilities in Ivanti Endpoint Manager (EPM). These vulnerabilities were patched last month in Ivanti’s January patch rollup.

The vulnerabilities discovered allow an unauthenticated attacker to coerce the Ivanti EPM machine account credential to be used in relay attacks, potentially allowing for server compromise.

Submission + - Vulnerabilities in every single LTE/5G implementation tested (cellularsecurity.org)

Submitted by Mirnotoriety
Mirnotoriety writes: We discover 119 vulnerabilities in LTE/5G core infrastructure, each of which can result in persistent denial of cell service to an entire metropolitan area or city and some of which can be used to remotely compromise and access the cellular core.

Our research covers seven LTE implementations (Open5GS, Magma, OpenAirInterface, Athonet, SD-Core, NextEPC, srsRAN) and three 5G implementations (Open5GS, Magma, OpenAirInterface); we find vulnerabilities in every single LTE/5G implementation tested.

Submission + - Russia targets Signal Messenger (computerweekly.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Russia-backed hacking groups have developed techniques to compromise encrypted messaging services, including Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram, placing journalists, politicians and activists of interest to the Russian intelligence service at potential risk ..

.. Google threat analysts report that Russia-linked threat actors have developed malicious QR codes that, when scanned, will give the threat actor real-time access to the victim’s messages without having to compromise the victim’s phone or computer ...

Submission + - Scented Products Cause Indoor Air Pollution On Par With Car Exhaust (newatlas.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: New research by Purdue University, the latest in a series of Purdue-led studies, examined how scented products – in this case, flame-free candles – are a significant source of nanosized particles small enough to get deep into your lungs, posing a potential risk to respiratory health [...] Scented wax melts are marketed as a flameless, smoke-free, non-toxic alternative to traditional candles, a safer way of making your home or office smell nice. To assess the truth of these claims, the researchers comprehensively measured the nanoparticles formed when they warmed wax melts in their mechanically ventilated test house. The tiny house is actually an architectural engineering laboratory called the Purdue Zero Energy Design Guidance for Engineers (zEDGE) lab. Designed and engineered to test the energy efficiency of a larger building, it’s full of sensors that monitor the impact of everyday activities on indoor air quality.

The researchers knew from their previous research that new nanoparticle formation was initiated by terpenes – aromatic compounds that determine the smell of things like plants and herbs – released from the melts and reacting with indoor atmospheric ozone (O3). They’d found that activities such as mopping the floor with a terpene-rich cleaning agent, using a citrus-scented air freshener, or applying scented personal care products like deodorant inside the zEDGE house resulted in pulsed terpene emissions to the indoor air within five minutes. Conversely, using essential oil diffusers or peeling citrus fruits caused a more gradual increase in terpenes.

In the present study, heating the scented wax contributed significantly to the number of new particles formed in the indoor air, particularly those smaller than 100 nanometers (nm). The resulting atmospheric concentrations were over one million nanoparticles per cubic centimeter (106 cm-3), which is comparable to concentrations emitted by traditional lighted candles (106 cm-3), gas stoves (105 – 107 cm-3), diesel engines (103 – 106 cm-3), and natural gas engines (106 – 107 cm-3). By comparison, there were no significant terpene emissions when unscented wax melts were heated. The researchers also examined respiratory tract deposited dose rates (RD), a useful way of studying air pollution that measures the number of particles deposited in the respiratory tract over time. They found that the new particle formation triggered by using scented wax melts indoors produced a median RD for 1.18 to 100 nm particles of 29 billion per minute (2.9 x 1010 min-1). That’s about 483 million particles per second. The majority of scented-wax-melt-formed particles were deposited in the upper airways. Their small size means they can migrate between cells and enter the bloodstream, potentially reaching organs such as the brain.

Submission + - Musk's Reports of Social Security Payments to the Dead Are Greatly Exaggerated 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: While Doge.gov still vows to get to the bottom of an Elon Musk tweet claiming that "there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security," the AP and others are reporting that Musk's reports of social security payments being made to dead people are greatly exaggerated.

"The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments," reports the AP. "It is true that improper payments have been made, including some to dead people. But the numbers thrown out by Musk and the White House are overstated and misrepresent Social Security data. [...] A series of reports from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general in March 2023 and July 2024 state that the agency has not established a new system to properly annotate death information in its database, which included roughly 18.9 million Social Security numbers of people born in 1920 or earlier but were not marked as deceased. This does not mean, however, that these individuals were receiving benefits. The agency decided not to update the database because of the cost to do so, which would run upward of $9 million."

"Know Thy Data," AnnMaria De Mars wrote in a 2016 blog post, "[is] the most important commandment in statistics. [...] It is crucial to understand how your data are coded before you go making stupid statements like the average mother is 3 months old." While it was offered for the likes of her epidemiology students, De Mars' advice would also be well-heeded by the richest person in the world as plays data scientist with the nation's data.

Submission + - Free Software Foundation Speaks up Against Red Hat Source Code Announcement

Submitted by PAjamian
PAjamian writes: Two years ago Red Hat announced an end to its public source code availability. This caused a great deal of outcry from the Enterprise Linux community at large. Since then many have waited for a statement from the Free Software Foundation concerning their stance on the matter. Now, nearly two years later the FSF has finally responded to questions regarding their stance on the issue with the following statement:

Generally, we don't agree with what Red Hat is doing. Whether it constitutes a violation of the GPL would require legal analysis and the FSF does not give legal advice. However, as the stewards of the GNU GPL we can speak how it is intended to be applied and Red Hat's approach is certainly contrary to the spirit of the GPL. This is unfortunate, because we would expect such flagship organizations to drive the movement forward.

When asked if the FSF would be willing to intervene on behalf of the community they had this to say:

As of today, we are not aware of any issue with Red Hat's new policy that we could pursue on legal grounds. However, if you do find a violation, please follow these instructions and send a report to license-violation@gnu.org.

Following is the full text of my original email to them and their response:

Subject: Statement about recent changes in source code distribution for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Date: 2023-07-16 00:39:51

> Hi,
>
> I'm a user of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rocky Linux and other Linux
> distributions in the RHEL ecosystem. I am also involved in the EL
> (Enterprise Linux) community which is being affected by the statements
> and changes in policy made by Red Hat at
> https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/furthering-evolution-centos-stream and
> https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/red-hats-commitment-open-source-
> response-gitcentosorg-changes
> (note there are many many more links and posts about this issue which
> I
> believe you are likely already aware of). While a few of these
> questions are answered more directly by the license FAQ some of them
> are
> not and there are a not insignificant number of people who would very
> much appreciate a public statement from the FSF that answers these
> questions directly.
>
> Can you please comment or release a statement about the Free Software
> Foundation's position on this issue? Specifically:
>

Thank you for writing in with your questions. My apologies for the delay, but we are a small team with limited resources and can be challenging keeping up with all the emails we receive.

Generally, we don't agree with what Red Hat is doing. Whether it constitutes a violation of the GPL would require legal analysis and the FSF does not give legal advice. However, as the stewards of the GNU GPL we can speak how it is intended to be applied and Red Hat's approach is certainly contrary to the spirit of the GPL. This is unfortunate, because we would expect such flagship organizations to drive the movement forward.

> Is Red Hat's removal of sources from git.centos.org a violation of the
> GPL and various other Free Software licenses for the various programs
> distributed under RHEL?
>
> Is Red Hat's distribution of source RPMs to their customers under
> their
> subscriber agreement sufficient to satisfy the above mentioned
> licenses?
>
> Is it a violation if Red Hat terminates a subscription early because
> their customer exercised their rights under the GPL and other Free
> Software licenses to redistribute the RHEL sources or create
> derivative
> works from them?
>
> Is it a violation if Red Hat refuses to renew a subscription that has
> expired because a customer exercised their rights to redistribute or
> create derivative works?
>
> A number of the programs distributed with RHEL are copyrighted by the
> FSF, some examples being bash, emacs, GNU core utilities, gcc, gnupg
> and
> glibc. Given that the FSF has standing to act in this matter would
> the
> FSF be willing to intervene on behalf of the community in order to get
> Red Hat to correct any of the above issues?
>

As of today, we are not aware of any issue with Red Hat's new policy that we could pursue on legal grounds. However, if you do find a violation, please [follow these instructions][0] and send a report to <license-violation@gnu.org>.

[0]: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-violation.html

If you are interested in something more specific on this, the Software Freedom Conservancy [published an article about the RHEL][1] situation and hosted a [panel at their conference in 2023][2]. These cover the situation fairly thoroughly.

[1]: https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2023/jun/23/rhel-gpl-analysis/
[2]: https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2023/jul/19/rhel-panel-fossy-2023/

Submission + - Google will use AI to estimate a user's age (acs.org.au) 1

Submitted by haxmor
haxmor writes: Google says it will begin using artificial intelligence systems to estimate the age of its users, as it responds to potential changes to online safety legislation in countries such as Australia and the United States.

Submission + - Is Confirmation Bias Driving Elon Musk to Jump to Sensationalistic Conclusions? 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "According to the Social Security database," said Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Chief Elon Musk in a tweet that's been viewed 54.2+ million times (and counting), "these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE! Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security." In lieu of presenting a thoughtful, evidenced-based audit report, Musk made his case with a couple of ROTFL icons and a single screenshot of a simple table that seems designed to suggest nearly 400 million people — more than the population of the United States — are receiving Social Security benefits. That "there are FAR more 'eligible' social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA," Musk added, "might be the biggest fraud in history." Never mind that Social Security Beneficiary Statistics published by the SSA are much lower than those floated without explanation by Musk. Or that non-citizens including students and workers are also issued Social Security Cards (including Tesla's non-citizen workers) and can be entitled to benefits.

There are undoubtedly big fraud problems to solve at Social Security, just as there are at Musk-founded PayPal and other organizations. But Musk may want to take steps to help ensure that DOGE's work is driven more by informed consideration of evidence and less by jumping to conclusions based on confirmation bias. "Narrowly pursuing an investigation into what you initially suspect doesn’t just trip up scientists," warns 5 Ways Auditors Can Overcome Confirmation Bias. "Confirmation bias—one of five common judgment biases—has the potential to lead auditors up the wrong path just as easily. [...] The deeper one gets into investigating a particular hypothesis, the more difficult it becomes to consider contradictory ones. Rather, it’s common to seek evidence that supports suspicions and overlook data that don’t. Result: You’ve confirmed your bias—bypassing both the scientific method and best practices in auditing."

Writing about the resignation of acting SSA Commissioner Michelle King after members of Musk's DOGE team sought access to the agency's data, the New York Times reports that Martin O’Malley, who served as commissioner of the SSA in the Biden administration, said the claims of Musk and his team about the agency were not true. “They’re just making” things up, he said, referring to Musk’s suggestion that more than a million people in the Social Security database are in the 150 to 159 age range.

Submission + - Trump officials struggled to reinstate nuclear weapons staff after firing hundre (cnn.com)

Submitted by directvox
directvox writes: Some of the initially fired employees included NNSA staff who work at facilities where nuclear weapons are built, oversee contractors who build nuclear weapons and who are responsible for inspecting those weapons.

Many of the employees affected hold a âoeQâ security clearance within the Energy Department, meaning they have access to nuclear weapons design and systems.

Submission + - SpaceX employees brought in to look at FAA (theverge.com)

Submitted by david.emery
david.emery writes: TheVerge reports "A team from Elon Musk’s SpaceX is visiting the Air Traffic Control Command Center in Virginia Monday to help overhaul the system in the wake of last month’s deadly air disaster in Washington, DC, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced. The news comes after CNN reported that the Federal Aviation Administration fired hundreds of probationary employees who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure." https://www.theverge.com/news/... TheVerge also noted "And the agency itself lacked a permanent head at the time of the crash — mostly because Musk had a hand in ousting the last administrator after the FAA fined SpaceX for failing to submit safety data."

(Makes me wonder how SpaceX would approach the Air Traffic Control mission: " 'Rapid unscheduled collisions' until we figure it out?")

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