Unsupervised Learning: No. 105

This is episode No. 105 of Unsupervised Learning—a weekly show where I curate 5-20 hours of reading in infosec, technology, and humans into a 30 minute summary. The goal is to catch you up on current events, tell you about the best content from the week, and hopefully give you something to think about as well…

This week’s topics: TRITON, 1.4 billion credentials, HP keyloggers, iTunes Bitcoin laundering, removing credit card signatures, technologgy news, human news, discovery, notes, recommendations, and the aphorism of the week…

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Security newsFireEye researchers have identified a nasty new ICS attack framework called TRITON. The system provides easy-to-use APIs for sending control commands to Triconex SIS controllers over the proprietary TriStation protocol. The researchers believe this to be a State Actor developed piece of malware, but didn't have enough information to guess which. Read the full analysis here.1.4 billion email addresses and clear-text credentials were discovered in a dark web forum. The content appears to be a fairly freshly updated collection of 252 other breaches.HP seems to have keylogger issues. This is the second time one has been discovered in their products this year.Criminals are laundering Bitcoins by uploading and buying their own music on iTunes, which gives them a legitimate check from Apple.American Express, Mastercard, and Discover are eliminating the signature requirement for purchases in April of 2018. We seem to be missing a company that rhymes with Visa, but I imagine they'll come along too.Patching: MicrosoftTechnology newsThe FCC has repealed Obama's 2015 Net Neutrality rules, which most people in the tech world seem to think is the same thing as repealing Net Neutrality. I see it a bit differently, which I captured in my piece titled, Disambiguation of Net Neutrality. Microsoft is putting an official SSH client into Windows 10.You can do SSO with AWS now.Apple bought Shazam.Human NewsA number of ex-Facebook people are coming out saying that Facebook is bad for society. Specifically, people over-using it. 22% of students with student loan debt are in default, and the rate is double what it was just four years ago.Google used AI to find two new exoplanets. This is en example of why I think AI doesn't need to be better than humans at finding things to be useful. Machine Learning's main advantage is the ability to look—unblinkingly—with a trillion eyes that never get tired.A Navy Airmen describes an encounter with an aircraft that, “had no plumes, wings, or rotors, and it outran our F-18s". His take? “I want to fly one.” These are the types of stories that led the Pentagon to start a secretive UFO investigation program.AI is coming for many types of lawyer jobs sooner rather than later. It's all about having too much data for humans to review, whereas AI never gets tired.MeerKAT is is an array of 64 dishes spread across one kilometer in Africa that will be orders orfmagnitude more sensitive than our most powerful radio telescopes. It goes live in 2018.Solo Karaoke is getting super popular in Japan.IdeasThe Biggest Advantage in Machine Learning Will Come From Superior Coverage, Not Superior Analysis — My essay on how it doesn't matter if humans are better than algorithms for doing analysis if they can't possibly look at the data that needs to be analyzed.Disambiguation of Net Neutrality — Why I believe most people are misguided on the Net Neutrality issue because it's a lot more complex than it appears. If your mind is 100% made up on this issue—or if it's not—I recommend you read this one.I wonder if the future of malls is to become physical instantiations of things that are primarily online. Education, healthcare, and trying out products that are ultimately bought and paid for online. So 95% of everything is done online, but the one component that can't be reproduced—physical interaction—is done at the mall. Health clinics. Watching free lectures from top universities. Group video gaming. Trying on clothes. Returning clothes. Etc.IoT Benefits and Personal Privacy Are Inversely Correlated — Pick one. The more information you withhold the worse your experience will be. And the more you give, and the better your experience, the less privacy you will have.Aristotle said there were three types of friendship: those based on utility, those based on pleasure, and those based on mutual appreciation. He said the third kind are the best.The Amazon Machine — Amazon is a company that makes other Amazon's, and that's the thing that makes it so formidable.DiscoveryTen Year Futures, by Benedict EvansA Visualization of The World's Most Common and Contagious MythConceptions, by Information is BeautifulLincoln's Lyceum AddressHow to Get Notified When Your Ubuntu Boxes Need Security Updates — I finally wrote this tutorial.A visually compelling presentation on how Millennials are both screwed and being blamed for their situation.The New York Times is the last major newspaper to still have a books section. The next time you're looking for your next read, consider browsing their best-seller list. And here's Amazon's Best Books of 2017 list as well.How to break a CAPTCHA in 15 minutes using Machine LearningA visualization of the movies with the biggest gap between critic reviews and fan reviews. The Last Jedi is way up there, with a 37% gap. REST is the new SOAPMath as Code — A cheat sheet for people good at code but bad at math.Basic Network Pivoting Techniques — Ncat, socat, ssh, socks, Metasploit, etc.PasteHunter — Analyzing paste data using ELK.NotesI wrote a review of The Last Jedi. It's full of spoilers and bad language, so be warned on both accounts. This is me being young and emotional, so if you don't like that look on me you might want to pass on this one.I've read around 10 books since my last book update, and I'm currently finishing What to Think About Machines That Think, and just started Principles, by Ray Dalio. I also finished Player Piano, by Kurt Vonnegut.Recommendations? I've posted a bunch of security guides in the last few episodes, but Security Planner by Citizen Lab is extraordinary. It's a guided plan that customizes your security plan to you based on your specific needs through a series of selections and questions.Aphorism“To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.” ~ James Carse 

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