#telecom act

[n0thingiscool]

Holy shit, THIS. Glad to find someone else who gets it. Bill Clinton signed the Telecon Act of 1993 that ALLOWED for media monopolies. WE NEED TO REVISIT THAT LEGISLATION RIGHT NOW. Disallow media monopolies. Turn social media into a public utility like the telephone. It's mass communication. It needs to be regulated.

So like, the Reddit strike going on right now, yeah? I've been seeing a lot of people comment on how they appreciate the protest and then go on to say that this has the notable downside of them constantly looking up questions and not being able to easily find the answers because all of the easily-findable answers are exclusively on Reddit. I am not sure if most of the people making this observation are within the line of thought of "man, maybe this protest isn't such a good idea after all" or "man, it really sucks that we've let the internet get so consolidated," and I'm really hoping its the latter.

Like, all of this? This right here? Reddit making a shitty, anti-consumer grab for money and control over how people are allowed to access the information on their servers, and the website going dark in protest causing tons of people to not be able to access important information? This is exactly what people mean when they say that it's bad that the internet has shrunk down so much and is mostly comprised of, like, 10 websites. It's a fucking problem that one company making one bad decision and causing their website to crash and burn can jeopardize so much of humanity's cumulative information.

This two-day glimpse into the internet without Reddit is the warning shot. Imagine what will happen if Reddit actually goes down for good for one reason or another one day. Imagine what will happen if/when Discord or Fandom bites the dust, or gets rendered practically-unusable without paying an ever-increasing premium because they're owned by blood-sucking corporate leeches.

Another big thing is Twitter clamping down really hard on your ability to DM people if you don't have Twitter Blue. If this goes through, it'll put a ton of artists and sex workers who rely on Twitter DMs for their business operation into a shitty situation. Now, obviously, it's not gonna be the end of the world for them, but once again, it feels like a warning shot to me. Twitter is a sinking ship, and unless something changes and it starts to course-correct, I worry that it'll go under and all of the creators who rely on it will suddenly be in an extremely precarious situation.

These are the sorts of things that we, as the users of the internet, need to seriously think about as time goes on, and if we don't find an adequate answer sooner, we're going to pay for it later. I still hold that the best solution is to start making and using more individual, niche websites. Things like Twitter, Reddit, Discord, etc. have their place, of course, but I seriously think a lot was lost through the death of things like individual forums and the existence of many different wiki-hosting sites.

We need a concerted effort, not just on the side of larger creators, but on the users themselves, to stop exclusively using these larger websites and support the creation and growth of smaller, more niche websites, and prevent a catastrophe before it actually happens. I simply hope that people with larger platforms than my own pick up on all this and start talking about it and swaying people to act sooner rather than later. I know it's possible to correct the problem of the mysteriously tiny internet before a modern Library of Alexandria moment happens, I just don't know if that correction will actually happen in time.

[they-have-the-same-va]

Iono in Pokémon Masters EX shares a voice actress with Yoshi from Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro.

Voiced by LilyPichu

[trendingkhabar]

Social media, telcos, lobby for 18-24 months to comply with DPDP Act

Social media companies, telecom operators, and Indian startups are set to lobby for a transition period of 18-24 months to fully comply with the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, citing technological complexities in two clauses, Business Standard has learnt. Major industry bodies representing local and global companies such as social media companies, big tech platforms, and…

[n0thingiscool]

Looks like Snapchat is shutting gfycat.com down...

Fuck Snapchat btw. Not necessarily just because of this but because they permit animal abuse and rampant homophobia on their platform.

[n0thingiscool]

This isn't the only thing that crippled the media, though. Yes, the fairness doctrine was not great to lose but Bill Clinton passed the Telecom Act of 1996 that evicerated independent competitive media. The small monopolies that have absolutely collapsed media integrity are because of that act. Clinton actually fucked us more than Reagan in this instance.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

China hacked Verizon, AT&T and Lumen using the FBI’s backdoor

On OCTOBER 23 at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

State-affiliated Chinese hackers penetrated AT&T, Verizon, Lumen and others; they entered their networks and spent months intercepting US traffic – from individuals, firms, government officials, etc – and they did it all without having to exploit any code vulnerabilities. Instead, they used the back door that the FBI requires every carrier to furnish:

https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/u-s-wiretap-systems-targeted-in-china-linked-hack-327fc63b?st=C5ywbp&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

In 1994, Bill Clinton signed CALEA into law. The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act requires every US telecommunications network to be designed around facilitating access to law-enforcement wiretaps. Prior to CALEA, telecoms operators were often at pains to design their networks to resist infiltration and interception. Even if a telco didn't go that far, they were at the very least indifferent to the needs of law enforcement, and attuned instead to building efficient, robust networks.

Predictably, CALEA met stiff opposition from powerful telecoms companies as it worked its way through Congress, but the Clinton administration bought them off with hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to acquire wiretap-facilitation technologies. Immediately, a new industry sprang into being; companies that promised to help the carriers hack themselves, punching back doors into their networks. The pioneers of this dirty business were overwhelmingly founded by ex-Israeli signals intelligence personnel, though they often poached senior American military and intelligence officials to serve as the face of their operations and liase with their former colleagues in law enforcement and intelligence.

Telcos weren't the only opponents of CALEA, of course. Security experts – those who weren't hoping to cash in on government pork, anyways – warned that there was no way to make a back door that was only useful to the "good guys" but would keep the "bad guys" out.

These experts were – then as now – dismissed as neurotic worriers who simultaneously failed to understand the need to facilitate mass surveillance in order to keep the nation safe, and who lacked appropriate faith in American ingenuity. If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can build a security system that selectively fails when a cop needs it to, but stands up to every crook, bully, corporate snoop and foreign government. In other words: "We have faith in you! NERD HARDER!"

NERD HARDER! has been the answer ever since CALEA – and related Clinton-era initiatives, like the failed Clipper Chip program, which would have put a spy chip in every computer, and, eventually, every phone and gadget:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip

America may have invented NERD HARDER! but plenty of other countries have taken up the cause. The all-time champion is former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who, when informed that the laws of mathematics dictate that it is impossible to make an encryption scheme that only protects good secrets and not bad ones, replied, "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia":

https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-laws-of-australia-will-trump-the-laws-of-mathematics-turnbull/

CALEA forced a redesign of the foundational, physical layer of the internet. Thankfully, encryption at the protocol layer – in the programs we use – partially counters this deliberately introduced brittleness in the security of all our communications. CALEA can be used to intercept your communications, but mostly what an attacker gets is "metadata" ("so-and-so sent a message of X bytes to such and such") because the data is scrambled and they can't unscramble it, because cryptography actually works, unlike back doors. Of course, that's why governments in the EU, the US, the UK and all over the world are still trying to ban working encryption, insisting that the back doors they'll install will only let the good guys in:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/05/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography/

Any back door can be exploited by your adversaries. The Chinese sponsored hacking group know as Salt Typhoon intercepted the communications of hundreds of millions of American residents, businesses, and institutions. From that position, they could do NSA-style metadata-analysis, malware injection, and interception of unencrypted traffic. And they didn't have to hack anything, because the US government insists that all networking gear ship pre-hacked so that cops can get into it.

This isn't even the first time that CALEA back doors have been exploited by a hostile foreign power as a matter of geopolitical skullduggery. In 2004-2005, Greece's telecommunications were under mass surveillance by US spy agencies who wiretapped Greek officials, all the way up to the Prime Minister, in order to mess with the Greek Olympic bid:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_wiretapping_case_2004%E2%80%9305

This is a wild story in so many ways. For one thing, CALEA isn't law in Greece! You can totally sell working, secure networking gear in Greece, and in many other countries around the world where they have not passed a stupid CALEA-style law. However the US telecoms market is so fucking huge that all the manufacturers build CALEA back doors into their gear, no matter where it's destined for. So the US has effectively exported this deliberate insecurity to the whole planet – and used it to screw around with Olympic bids, the most penny-ante bullshit imaginable.

Now Chinese-sponsored hackers with cool names like "Salt Typhoon" are traipsing around inside US telecoms infrastructure, using the back doors the FBI insisted would be safe.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/07/foreseeable-outcomes/#calea

Image: Kris Duda, modified https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahorcado/5433669707/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[jeremy-king]

𝐉𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐘 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆

Birthdate: April 26, 1997 (27)

Family (siblings): Jamie, Julien, and Reina King

Hometown: London, England

Current location: London, England

Background: For generations, the King family has been one of the wealthiest, more astute British families. The family made their start with a printing press in the 1800s. It went from newspapers, then media, telecom, and finally, luxury hotels around the world. Many of the family members from generation to generation have chosen to remain heavily involved in each of their various businesses, either serving on the board, or acting as CEOs. Currently, Jeremy is serving on the board for their media company, and shadowing his sister, Reina King-Chambers, who is currently the CEO. Reina believes Jeremy should be the one to take over in the next year or so, as she wants to step down to spend more time with her young children. Jeremy has been anything but accepting of this chosen fate. He wants to travel the world — to surf, ski, and hike. To be free of responsibilities. But, to his core — to almost every King’s core — is a duty-bound heart tied to their family. 

[writefightandflightclub]

Sugar

Grad student!Nathan Bateman x older!fem!reader

Author’s note: I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS CONCEPT TBH BUT DON’T WANT TO GIVE SPOILERS SO WARNINGS ARE NON-EXHAUSTIVE. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK I GUESS? (As ever, minors DNI, thank you!) And I blame Oscar at MEFCC in the black polo and @nowritingonthewall’s hc of young!Nathan sneaking into tech conferences for this one. (I’m imagining him as getting towards his mid twenties here.)

Word count: just a short one!

Warnings: power / wealth imbalance, and slight warning for dub-con due to this. Sexual touching (slightly public). Infidelity. Alcohol consumption (reader). As mentioned above, warnings are non-exhaustive this time to avoid spoilers. If you do need further info, however, you are welcome to DM or send an ask.

“Not touching the oysters?” Nathan asks in as suave a tone as he can muster. The only oyster he’s personally sampled, so far, is the oyster sauce at his favourite downtown take-out.

Your plate of extravagant buffet food is discarded next to you, however, as you pore over a stack of documents at the hotel bar, a martini in a tall, flared glass languishing in your free hand.

You whip your head towards Nathan and look him up and down; as though deciding whether he’s worth the time of day, or whether you should immediately summon security to remove him from your field of vision. You seem to find him relatively inoffensive, at least, and grant him permission to remain in your orbit; for now. You hum contemplatively. “Decided I’ve had my fill of vile sensations for today,” you announce in a cool, assured tone. “I had to fuck my husband this morning. Twice.”

Nathan emits a low whistle. As much as he tries to take it in his stride - to act like he’s accustomed to affluent, worldly, cut-throat women like you - he isn’t. Honestly, he’s barely accustomed to anyone at all lately, since he’s immersed himself entirely in getting his start-up off the ground.

You’re older. Older than him, at least. Older than any woman he’s been with so far, he can’t help but think. That, along with your candidness, is refreshing. You’re not all giggly and earnest and chaotic like the young women he’s met around campus - which sounds far less exhausting to him, if he’s honest.

He looks you up and down in return. And, yeah. Shit. He definitely wants to fuck you.

“He doesn’t get you off?” Nathan asks, crude and casual, as though he has any business asking. However, he’s found that a complete disregard for social norms can -oddly- sometimes pan out in his favour. Sometimes. Besides, on this occasion he has to risk it, or social norms would dictate that he shouldn’t approach you at all. At least not before he’s in possession of an invitation-only credit card, or, has made a hard-to-come by appointment via your PA at the very least.

You take a sip of your drink and eye him over the brim. He likes that move. Your eyes are full of deliciously dark amusement as you appraise him. He thinks you may even like what you see. Might even find him refreshing too. “Well. It’s not love - or anything else so impractical. It’s strictly a business arrangement,” you explain, as though you have been waiting for an opportunity to vent and no-one has actually bothered to ask you. “He pays for my lifestyle and I put out. And occassionally have to, you know, run his fucking company, attend boring conferences to schmooze his investors, and generally mask his total ineptitude.” You gesture around you vaguely. From the tiredness in your tone, it makes sense that you’re hiding out in this deserted hotel bar, Nathan thinks.

He knows fine well who your husband is too. A guy many, many years your senior. Obscenely rich fucker too. CEO and founder of a huge ass telecoms company, recently diversified into various markets across the tech world. The company is running an agressive acquisition policy, buying out start-ups and hoping to find something that sticks. The “next big thing”. It hasn’t succeeded yet. Projections look mediocre at best.

Nathan, who very much considers his innovation the “next big thing” - the only game in town - had tried to corner your husband at the end of his rather lacklustre panel. After all, he’d done his research. Had identified the highest value targets he could network with in attempts to drum up some investment. He is trying to bolster his sorely under-funded start-up… which, if he is honest, has barely even “started” at all. He knows the tech. The code. He’s a certified genius, for God’s sake. He was just a fool for thinking that that alone would be enough. Frustratingly for him, it’s the schmoozing and understanding of the cold realities of the business world he struggles with. He seems to rub people up the wrong way, for some reason. Probably because they’re all assholes. Or, maybe, because they view him as too young or too rough around the edges to know what he’s talking about. Or, most likely, because they’re uninspired bastards incapable of comprehending his world-changing vision. Maybe all of the above.

So much then, for the supposed merits of the free market and the idea that the best ideas will prosper. His idea is the best, and he’s floundering simply because his daddy can’t buy him his way in. Instead of a reliance on the strength of the product, networks and power and money and nepotism appear to be king in this world. And, Nathan possesses none of these advantages. Even with the buzz around him at his faculty, and his full ride scholarship at 17 for being a fucking genius.

Anyway, after a failed attempt to schmooze your asshole husband, Nathan had quickly put together that the guy didn’t have a goddamn clue. That you were the brains (and beauty, by the way) behind the operation, and he was likely little more than the funds.

Also, the guy definitely didn’t seem like he’d be a pleasant fuck, by any stretch.

He grimaces somewhat at the thought.

“That’s what they say isn’t it?” You take a breezy sip of your drink. “Fake it until you make it? They’re talking about orgasms, sweetheart, and my last performance paid for these shoes.” You kick out your appealing leg, your shins bare and smooth beneath your pencil skirt, and you briefly show off your shiny, black, red-soled heels.

They’re nice. Sexy, on you.

Nathan briefly wonders why you’re being so forthcoming with him, a complete stranger; but you don’t strike him as someone who gives a shit in the slightest what other people think. You also strike him as someone who can make people think whatever you want them to think. One day, he hopes to have as much power over a room as you do - and that’s for starters.

He slips into the bar stool beside you then, uninvited, and you scoff. “Are you even old enough to drink, baby face?”

He bristles at that, thick brows pinching and nods slowly, peeking at you from over the brim of his glasses, his own eyes now dancing with a subtle, dark amusement.

You’ve already turned away though. It frustrates him that he can’t entirely hold your attention.

“Nathan Bateman. Student, MIT.” You gesture to his name tag with a perfectly manicured finger, and without looking back up from your stack of documents.

Now, Nathan glumly reassesses his earlier conclusion. You are being forthcoming because it really doesn’t matter what he, specifically, thinks. Because you’ve already estimated that he’s the guy in the room with least influence. For now, at least. You’ll see. “Better to check. Especially before you start hitting on me.”

He swallows. “Is that what you think’s happening?” Shit. Do you want that to happen?

“Isn’t it?”

He’d make some dig about you flattering yourself. But he knows fine well it’s the most likely reason any hot-blooded guy would be sidling up to you. You’re hot and unobtainable; which makes you even hotter.

Nathan watches as you idly spin your wedding band around and around. He’s surprised you can even lift your arm with that rock attached. When he notices it, he wants to fuck you even more than he did before, but he definitely can’t afford you.

“Actually. I wanted to pick your brains on something. You seem the kinda person who knows a good idea when she sees one.” Unlike the other idiots at this conference who’ve refused to give him the time of day. Maybe he should reconsider his pitch.

You scoff, still not looking up at him. “Honey,” you deliver in a silken, condescending tone, which he is surprised to learn makes him half-hard in his pants. “I charge for that too, and I get the feeling I’m a little beyond your budget.”

“Call it corporate social responsibility then. Supporting the students.”

“Sweetheart. I pay someone else to do that sort of thing for me.”

“Okay.” He takes it in his stride. Wants to show he isn’t fazed by you, even if he is. “Then I guess I am hitting on you. Unless that’s gonna cost me.”

You finally turn back towards him. Look him up and down again as if to remind yourself exactly what you’re dealing with. You study his cheap suit and his mop of curls and his freshly grown-out beard, and he is surprised how exhilarating he finds it to be under your scope.

Your lips curl with subtle amusement, your gaze growing downright wolfish as you survey him.

Fucking unreal.

You look like could eat him up and spit him out. Or… you could swallow, he fantasises briefly, gaze dipping down to your plush mouth.

You do like what you’re seeing, don’t you? Are intrigued by him. Finally. He encounters someone with some good sense.

“What’s it like?” he delivers with a smirk, feeling a resurgence of his familiar confidence as he successfully holds your attention.

You eyeball his fit again. “What? Tailoring?”

He bristles at your dig, but again, aims to present an unbothered exterior. “No. I mean.” His palm waves through the air. “Being a sugar baby.”

You tut at him. “Why, are you interested in a position?”

He arcs a single, thick brow. “I could be.”

“I don’t think my husband’s recruiting. Unless you want a 60-hour a week unpaid internship with zero healthcare and no dental.”

“No. I mean that…” His tie feels awfully constrictive around his neck all of a sudden. This is a bold move but… you have to speculate to accumulate, right? “…I could be yours.”

You clearly weren’t expecting that. And, as much as you try to pass-off that you’re used to jumped-up, cocky little shits like him offering to be your sugar baby, he can plainly see it throws you for a moment. Still, you compose yourself beautifully in no time at all. “I already have one man who saps my time and comes in two minutes flat. What would make you any different, honey?”

Nathan offers you a lopsided smile, opting not to contain the dark, lust-blown gaze smouldering behind his lenses. What does he have to offer, exactly, in this scenario? He purses his lips while he thinks, and then he lands on it: “I’m… hot.”

You look him up and down again, conceding - with a tilt of your head - that his argument is at least halfway compelling. “Hmm. Do you imagine, though, that I struggle for offers from hot, younger men?”

“Not in the slightest. You’re gorgeous.” And rich. “But I think you can do better.”

“Better like you? What makes you so special?” You’re having fun with this. He can tell from the glow in your eyes and the curve of your appealing mouth.

He offers you his best smoulder. It isn’t hard - there’s an easy chemistry between the two of you, he thinks. “There are things I don’t give away for free either.”

“Well,” you ask, leaning in close to him and cupping his chin firmly in your hand as you dip your painted lips towards the shell of his ear. “If I was to take you up on your very generous offer… What pretty things would you want me to buy you with the money, baby boy?”

Fuck. You smell good.

You smell edible, and his suit pants definitely fit far less well than they did when he donned them this morning. In fact, they’re getting increasingly tight around his crotch as his arousal swells for you.

With a tight swallow dipping down his neck and a rare nervous sweat dampening his shirt, he twists to gather some documents out of his backpack. You scrape your nails down his beard as he turns out of reach, and fuck, you’re doing it for him.

Then, gathering his cool, entering the domain he is expert in and is sure of, he flips to the page on costings in his business plan, sliding it across the bar to you.

He gives you a moment to study the text. The list of the equipment, personnel, marketing budgets and so on he needs to realise his rather extensive ambitions. Then, he leans in to you in return as you pore over his plan. He dips his mouth until his beard is tickling the shell of your ear.

“This would be a good start… Mommy.”

As you look back at him with a dark, lust-laden stare, looking as hungry as he feels, he wonders if he might leave this conference with some start-up funds after all.

If this comes off, then… fuck. He hopes you are as ferocious in the bedroom as it strikes him you are in other areas.

Your head is angled towards him, your lips parted in mild surprise. Your gaze briefly dips to the tenting arousal between his legs, and he doesn’t even attempt to hide it.

He has no idea where this will lead; but that’s the fun, isn’t it? Nathan is rather fond of experiments.

A hard swallow dips down your neck and you cross your legs, pressing your thighs together as you take in the substantial swell of him.

You gather a smile, and your composure. “Your business plan looks impressive, Nathan.” His name sounds good in your mouth. He wonders how his cock might feel in there too.

You hand the documents back to him, and you quickly gather up your things, slinging your stack of documents under one arm. With the other, you reach out your hand, offering it to him to shake. He obliges. “I’m certain we could come to some sort of… arrangement.” You free a business card from the holder in your tote and slip it gracefully into his top pocket.

He’s a little disappointed it isn’t your hotel room key, if he’s honest. He’d love to work on his current… problem… right away. “When would you like to… discuss things further?” he asks, as you dangle the promise in front of him.

“You’ll have to make an appointment with my PA,” you dismiss with a smirk. However, you seem keen to guarantee that he does. You’ll be fun to play with, Nathan thinks. “Will you do that for me, Nathan?”

He thinks about it. Decides it’s a no-brainer. “Yes.”

To his surprise, you then reach your hand down towards his crotch, pausing before you touch him and allowing him opportunity to protest. He doesn’t. And so, you settle your palm over the aching bulge between his legs. The warmth of you bleeds through the fabric, and Nathan struggles not to react to the pressure you apply, managing to limit himself to a ragged intake of breath. His eyes flutter shut, lashes fanning against his cheek. When he opens them again, he half expects his glasses to have steamed up.

“Yes, what?” you purr, giving him an abrupt squeeze.

“Y-yes, Mommy,” he stutters, almost choking on his words, and with that, you look very satisfied indeed.

He wagers, from the expression on your face, that you’ll definitely be motivated to seal the deal.

You sweep out and Nathan watches your ass sway in that tight pencil skirt as you go.

Fucking unreal.

[n0thingiscool]

Pretty much. Russians also do this with the Ukraine war but the world is less friendly with Russia so they don't perpetuate the fabrication. And same for the US when it does something shitty. We can't trust the press. Like, three right wing families own what's left of the "free" press in the US. They are no longer in the business to sell honest narratives.

israel could literally nuke gaza off the face of the earth and blame it on iran and every single western news outlet would act as stenographers for the lie, the IDF's singular go-to-move every single time they perpetrate an unforgivable crime is to blame it on their enemies, a famous american palestinian journalist is assassinated by IDF snipers? Blame it on stray gunfire from hamas. Bomb 5 palestinian children playing soccer on a beach? Blame it on Hamas. Bomb 20 ambulances? Blame them all on Hamas. Bomb a convoy of 70 Gazans fleeing south because you told them to? Blame it on Hamas. There is zero pushback in the western press because America does not find it convenient to view Palestinians as human, it is a cold calculated dehumanization of an entire ethnic group in service of maintaining a relationship with a military partner.

[mariacallous]

On Tuesday, New Hampshire attorney general John Formella said that a Texas-based telecom company was behind the reportedly AI-generated robocalls impersonating President Joe Biden that went out ahead of the state’s presidential primary last month.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Formella announced that he had identified Life Corporation and its owner, Walter Monk, as the source behind the thousands of calls and that his office issued a cease-and-desist letter to the company and had opened a criminal investigation into the matter. The Federal Communications Commission sent its own cease-and-desist letters to Life Corporation, as well as another Texas company, Lingo Telecom, the alleged voice service provider of the calls.

“Ensuring public confidence in the electoral process is vital,” Formella said at the Tuesday press conference. “We're providing this update and information today to assure the public that we take this seriously and that this is one of our most important priorities. We are also providing this update and information to send a strong message of deterrence to any person or entity who would attempt to undermine our elections through AI or other means.”

Formella said that anywhere from 5,000 to 25,000 of these robocalls were placed ahead of the New Hampshire primary that mimicked Biden and discouraged voters from voting. “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday,” the robocall said.

In January, WIRED reported that two teams of researchers had determined that the call was created with voice-cloning software from the AI startup Eleven Labs. The company declined to take responsibility for the Biden clone, telling WIRED that it was “dedicated to preventing the misuse of audio AI tools.”

Last week, the FCC put out a new proposal to ban robocalls that use AI-generated voices by updating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a 1991 law that regulates telemarketers. The FCC has used the TCPA in the past to go after junk callers, including conservative activists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman. In 2021, the FCC fined the pair more than $5 million for violating the law after they placed calls threatening to release the personal information of voters if they voted by mail in the 2020 election.

“Consumers deserve to know that the person on the other end of the line is exactly who they claim to be,” FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement on Tuesday.

[1randomweirdo]

Forgot to share this yesterday!

Hey my fellow Americans, remember Net Neutrality? (Remember the douche with the comically oversized 'reese's pieces' coffee mug, Ajit Pai?) Quick rehash: Pai repealed it, and lacking Net Neutrality means Big Tech/Phone companies can hinder, slow, or block access to any sites they want for any reason (perhaps some of you recall Verizon throttling service of firefighters out west *while they were battling wildfires* - or how ads now just say internet speeds may decrease during peak hours? Net Neutrality makes it so that can't happen)

Well now that the aforementioned douche is not there, the FCC is considering restoring it! This is *huge*, and there's an easy way to submit comments to both the FCC *and* your members of Congress, below.

It's a pre-made form letter; all you have to do is enter your info (though I recommend adding something to the letter, just to prove to the recipients that they're not getting bot comments. Even just adding your name and saying "I agree with the comments below" or something is fine)

An action we can all take, that just takes a few moments (just be sure to uncheck the boxes at the bottom if you don't want to be added to email lists)

Link to send comments to FCC:

[tomorrowusa]

Undersea telecom cables in the Baltic Sea connecting NATO members have been intentionally damaged. Russia is suspected of involvement.

Poland has suggested a regional effort to patrol the Baltic to reduce acts of sabotage.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday he wanted to launch a “navy policing” program to secure the Baltic Sea against Russian threats. Speaking to reporters in Warsaw ahead of a summit of Nordic and Baltic leaders in Sweden, Tusk said the initiative would be “a joint venture of countries located at the Baltic Sea, which have the same sense of threat posed by Russia.” "If Europe is united, then Russia is a technological, financial and economic dwarf in relation to Europe,” he added. “But if Europe is divided, Russia poses a threat to each and every European country individually.”

A fragmented Europe is easy prey for Putin. Countries in the region need to act together to ward off acts of terrorism.

The suggestion comes after a 1,000-kilometer-long undersea telecoms cable linking Finland and Germany, and another connecting Sweden to Lithuania were severed last week. A Chinese-flagged ship that departed Russia and sailed through the Baltic Sea is suspected of being involved.

The Baltic Sea is accessible only through Danish waters or through Germany's Kiel Canal.

Any country which isn't playing nice could theoretically see its access to the sea restricted.

[novankenn]

Winning hand au: We saw Ozpin side and Salems side but what about Ironwoods side. I feel like he’d like to get Penny back since she’s Atlas property.

A Winning Hand AU -- Atlas Altercation

/== Master Post List ==/

General James Ironwood was livid, as he was briefed on the current status of the "Penny Project", from the young woman that had been assigned to keep tabs on her.

Ironwood: Do you UNDERSTAND what is at stake here if she is found out to be artificial????

Ciel: I do sir, but... but there was nothing I could do!

Ironwood: You could have...

Ciel: Against Pyrrha FUCKING Nikos? You stupid sir? She's been grabbing people left right and center!

Ironwood: Grabbing?

Ciel: I mean I SAW her cart off a Vacuo student, a Haven student AND Professor Goodwitch!

Ironwood: Say what now?

Ciel: Court marshall me for something! Just don't SEND ME BACK there!!!

Ironwood: Get a hold of yourself cadet! You're a proud member of Atlas Academy! You are going to...

Ciel: I quit! I know you're going to send me back down there to "get Penny" back... and there is no WAY!

Ironwood: You can't quit!

Ciel: I just did! You don't get it! It's eerie and creepy how in tune to each other they all are! Nikos, Rose, Schnee, Thyme, Goodwitch, Ember, Gayle, Arslan, Katt...

Ironwood: Goodwitch? She's part of this. I find that...

Ciel: They all call each other's "Sister" and Nikos is their "Red_Queen" and don't get me started on the creepy asshole that's at the center of it! The Golden King? What makes Jaune Arc a king?

Ironwood: (Starts sweating) Did... did... did you say Arc?

Suddenly all the monitors and screens blank out for a second before suddenly coming back to life, revealing a very motherly looking woman probably in her late forties, he slightly starting to gray blond hair up in an intricate bun.

It was face James Ironwood knew very well... from his nightmares during his tenure as a recruit in Atlas Academy... Jasmine LeFaye... now Jasmine Arc...

Ironwood: Jasmine! What a... a pleasant surprise!

Jasmine: James! It's been too long!

Ciel: These are secured Atlas telecom systems! How the hell did you...

Ironwood: Ciel stand down!

Ciel: No! This is an act of terror...

Jasmine: Girl shut it.

Ciel was slammed by the ominous and commanding tone. She not only shut her mouth with a loud snap, but bolted to hide behind General Ironwood.

Jasmine: Now, James as much... as I'd like to catch up and reminisce about old times... something has come to my attention...

Ironwood: Really? And what could that be?

Jasmine: My so precious daughter Penny intercepted your subordinate's little rant... she's such a talented girl, you know.

Ironwood: Intercepted? We... we weren't broadcasting?

Jasmine: Do not insinuated that my darling daughter Penny would do something so illegal as hacking all of Atlas' virtual infrastructure, including breaching secure servers... she would NEVER do something like that!

Ironwood: I... I didn't mean to...

Jasmine: Anyway. I have a message for you James. From one friend to another.

Ironwood: Okay?

Jasmine: Penny is where she deserves to be and where she wishes to be. We know, she told us everything... so...

Ironwood: (Swallows nervously) So?

Jasmine: DO. NOT. INTERFERE.

At that single phrase all the screens blanked out and the lights went off. James Ironwood and Ciel Soleil just stood there in complete silence surrounded by darkness.

Ciel: She's terrifying, sir.

Ironwood: Yes she is...

Digging out his scroll, he tapped the icon for the bridge com.

Officer: Sir?

Ironwood: Recall all Atlas students and personnel. Retrieve all Knight and Paladin units. We are returning to Atlas.

Officer: Sir!

[justforbooks]

House of Huawei by Eva Dou

A fascinating insight into a Chinese telecoms giant and its detractors

Huawei is not exactly a household name. If you’ve heard of it, you either follow the smartphone market closely – it is the main China-based manufacturer of high-end phones – or else consume a lot of news, because the company is at the centre of an ongoing US-China trade war.

But this enormous business is one of the world’s biggest producers of behind-the-scenes equipment that enables fibre broadband, 4G and 5G phone networks. Its hardware is inside communications systems across the world.

That has prompted alarm from US lawmakers of both parties, who accuse Huawei of acting as an agent for China’s government and using its technology for espionage. The company insists it merely complies with the local laws wherever it operates, just like its US rivals. Nevertheless, its equipment has been ripped out of infrastructure in the UK at the behest of the government, its execs and staffers have been arrested across the world, and it has been pilloried for its involvement in China’s oppression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Into this murky world of allegation and counter-allegation comes the veteran telecoms reporter Eva Dou. Her book chronicles the history of Huawei since its inception, as well as the lives of founder Ren Zhengfei and his family, starting with the dramatic 2019 arrest of his daughter Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, at the behest of US authorities.

Dou’s command of her subject is indisputable and her book is meticulous and determinedly even-handed. House of Huawei reveals much, but never speculates or grandstands – leaving that to the politicians of all stripes for whom hyperbole about Huawei comes more easily.

At its core, this book is the history of a large, successful business. That doesn’t mean it’s boring, though: there’s the story of efforts to haul 5G equipment above Everest base camp in order to broadcast the Beijing Olympics torch relay. We hear about the early efforts of Ren and his team, working around the clock in stiflingly hot offices, to make analogue telephone network switches capable of routing up to 10,000 calls; and gain insights into the near-impossible political dance a company must perform in order to operate worldwide without falling foul of the changing desires of China’s ruling Communist party.

Dou makes us better equipped to consider questions including: is this a regular company, or an extension of the Chinese state? How safe should other countries feel about using Huawei equipment? Is China’s exploitation of its technology sector really that different to the way the US authorities exploited Google, Facebook and others, as revealed by Edward Snowden?

Early in Huawei’s history, Ren appeared to give the game away in remarks to the then general secretary of the Communist party. “A country without its own program-controlled switches is like one without an army,” he argued, making the case for why the authorities should support his company’s growth. “Its software must be held in the hands of the Chinese government.”

But for each damning event, there is another that introduces doubt. The book reveals an arrangement from when Huawei operated in the UK that gave GCHQ unprecedented access to its source code and operations centre. US intelligence agencies seemed as able to exploit Huawei equipment for surveillance purposes as China’s. While Huawei’s equipment was certainly used to monitor Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, it was hardware from the US company Cisco that made China’s so-called Great Firewall possible.

Anyone hoping for definitive answers will not find them here, but the journey is far from wasted. The intricate reporting of Huawei, in all its ambiguity and complexity, sheds much light on the murky nature of modern geopolitics. The people who shout loudest about Huawei don’t know more than anyone else about it. Eva Dou does.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[beardedmrbean]

Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Chinese hackers called Salt Typhoon have infiltrated a ninth telecommunications firm, gaining access to information about millions of people, U.S. cybersecurity officials say.

The FBI is investigating the Salt Typhoon attacks, which are spurring new defensive measures, deputy U.S. national security adviser Anne Neuberger told reporters on Friday.

"As we look at China's compromise of now nine telecom companies, the first step is creating a defensible infrastructure," she said.

The hackers primarily are targeting individuals and organizations involved in political or governmental activities and a significant number of hacking victims are located in the Washington D.C.-Virginia area.

The hackers can geolocate millions of people in the United States, listen to their phone conversations and record them whenever they like, Politico reported.

Among recent victims are President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and several Biden administration officials.

Neuberger did not name the nine telecommunications firms that have been hacked, but said telecommunications firms and others must do more to improve cybersecurity and protect individual customers.

"We wouldn't leave our homes, our offices unlocked," she said. "Yet, the private companies owning and operating our critical infrastructure often do not have the basic cybersecurity practices in place that would make our infrastructure riskier, costlier and harder for countries and criminals to attack."

She said companies need better management of configuration, better vulnerability management of networks and better work across the telecom sector to share information when incidents occur.

"However, we know that voluntary cybersecurity practices are inadequate to protect against China, Russia and Iran hacking our critical infrastructure," Neuberger said.

Australian and British officials already have enacted telecom regulations "because they recognize that the nation's secrets, the nation's economy relies on their telecommunications sector."

Neuberger said her British counterparts told her they would have detected and contained Salt Typhoon attacks faster and minimized their spread and impact.

"One of the most concerning and really troubling things we deal with is hacking of hospitals [and] hacking of healthcare data," Neuberger said. "We see Americans' sensitive healthcare data, sensitive mental health procedures [and] sensitive procedures being leaked on the dark web with the opportunity to blackmail individuals with that."

She said federal regulators are updating existing rules and implementing new ones to counteract the cyberattacks and threats from Salt Typhoon and others.

The Department of Justice on Friday issued a rule prohibiting or restricting certain types of data transactions with certain nations or individuals who might have an interest in that data.

The protected information includes those involving government-related data and bulk sensitive personal data of individuals that could pose an unacceptable risk to the nation's national security.

The Department of Health and Human Services likewise issued a proposed rule to improve cybersecurity and protect the nation's healthcare system against an increasing number of cyberattacks.

The proposed HHS rule would require health insurers, most healthcare providers and their business partners to improve cybersecurity protections for individuals' information that is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

"The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks in the healthcare sector pose a direct and significant threat to patient safety," HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm said Friday.

"These attacks endanger patients by exposing vulnerabilities in our healthcare system, degrading patient trust, disrupting patient care, diverting patients and delaying medical procedures."

The proposed rule "is a vital step to ensuring that healthcare providers, patients and communities are not only better prepared to face a cyberattack but are also more secure and resilient," Palm added.

Neuberger estimated the cost to implement improved cybersecurity to thwart attacks by Salt Typhoon and others at $9 billion during the first year and $6 billion for years 2 through 5.

"The cost of not acting is not only high, it also endangers critical infrastructure and patient safety," she said, "and it carries other harmful consequences."

The average cost of a breach in healthcare was $10.1 million in 2023, but the cost is nearing $800 million from a breach of Change Healthcare last year.

Those costs include the costs of recovery and operations and, "frankly, in the cost to Americans' healthcare data and the operations of hospitals affected by it," Neuberger said.

The Federal Communications Commission also has scheduled a Jan. 15 vote on additional proposed rules to combat Salt Typhoon and other hackers.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar’s “The Big Fix”

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/05/ted-rogers-is-a-dope/#galen-weston-is-even-worse

The Canadian national identity involves a lot of sneering at the US, but when it comes to oligarchy, Canada makes America look positively amateurish.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/05/ted-rogers-is-a-dope/#galen-weston-is-even-worse

Canada's monopolists may be big fish in a small pond, but holy moly are they big, compared to the size of that pond. In their new book, The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians, Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar lay bare the price-gouging, policy-corrupting ripoff machines that run the Great White North:

https://sutherlandhousebooks.com/product/the-big-fix/

From telecoms to groceries to pharmacies to the resource sector, Canada is a playground for a handful of supremely powerful men from dynastic families, who have bought their way to dominance, consuming small businesses by the hundreds and periodically merging with one another.

Hearn and Bednar tell this story and explain all the ways that Canadian firms use their market power to reduce quality, raise prices, abuse workers and starve suppliers, even as they capture the government and the regulators who are supposed to be overseeing them.

The odd thing is that Canada has been in the antitrust game for a long time: Canada passed its first antitrust law in 1889, a year before the USA got around to inaugurating its trustbusting era with the passage of the Sherman Act. But despite this early start, Canada's ultra-rich have successfully used the threat of American corporate juggernauts to defend the idea of Made-in-Canada monopolies, as homegrown King Kongs that will keep the nation safe from Yankee Godzillas.

Canada's Competition Bureau is underfunded and underpowered. In its entire history, the agency has never prevented a merger – not even once. This set the stage for Canada's dominant businesses to become many-tentacled conglomerates, like Canadian Tire, which owns Mark's Work Warehouse, Helly Hansen, SportChek, Nevada Bob's Golf, The Fitness Source, Party City, and, of course, a bank.

A surprising number of Canadian conglomerates end up turning into banks: Loblaw has a bank. So does Rogers. Why do these corrupt, price-gouging companies all go into "financial services?" As Hearn and Bednar explain, owning a bank is the key to financialization, with the company's finances disappearing into a black box that absorbs taxation attempts and liabilities like a black hole eating a solar system.

Of course, the neat packaging up of vast swathes of Canada's economy into these financialized and inscrutable mega-firms makes them awfully convenient acquisition targets for US and offshore private equity firms. When the Competition Bureau (inevitably) fails to block those acquisitions, whole chunks of the Canadian economy disappear into foreign hands.

This is a short book, but it's packed with a lot of easily digested detail about how these scams work: how monopolies use cross-subsidies (when one profitable business is used to prop up an unprofitable business in order to kill potential competitors) and market power to rip Canadians off and screw workers.

But the title of the book is The Big Fix, so it's not all doom and gloom. Hearn and Bednar note that Canadians and their elected reps are getting sick of this shit, and a bill to substantially beefed up Canadian competition law passed Parliament unanimously last year.

This is part of a wave of antitrust fever that's sweeping the world's governments, notably the US under Biden, where antitrust enforcers did more in the past four years than their predecessors accomplished over the previous 40 years.

Hearn and Bednar propose a follow-on agenda for Canadian lawmakers and bureaucrats: they call for a "whole of government" approach to dismantling Canada's monopolies, whereby each ministry would be charged with combing through its enabling legislation to find latent powers that could be mobilized against monopolies, and then using those powers.

The authors freely admit that this is an American import, modeled on Biden's July 2021 Executive Order on monopolies, which set out 72 action items for different parts of the administration, virtually all of which were accomplished:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

What the authors don't mention is that this plan was actually cooked up by a Canadian: Columbia law professor Tim Wu, who served in the White House as Biden's tech antitrust czar, and who grew up in Toronto (we've known each other since elementary school!).

Wu's plan has been field tested. It worked. It was exciting and effective. There's something weirdly fitting about finding the answer to Canada's monopoly problems coming from America, but only because a Canadian had to go there to find a receptive audience for it.

The Big Fix is a fantastic primer on the uniquely Canadian monopoly problem, a fast read that transcends being a mere economics primer or history lesson. It's a book that will fire you up, make you angry, make you determined, and explain what comes next.