RISKS Forummailing list archives
Risks Digest 34.60
From: RISKS List Owner <risko () csl sri com>
Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2025 11:38:45 PDT
RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Tuesday 1 April 2025 Volume 34 : Issue 60ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)Peter G. Neumann, founder and still moderator***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. *****This issue is archived at <http://www.risks.org> as <http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/34.60>The current issue can also be found at <http://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt> Contents: [No April Foolishness here, but lots of Foolishness.]*Security for ordinary folks*: Lessons from Signalgate 1 - Rules (Rob Slade)Even More Venmo Accounts Tied to Trump Officials in Signal Group Chat Left Data Public (WiReD)NSA warned of vulnerabilities in Signal app month before Houthi strike chat (CBS News)Bitcoin in the bush -- the crypto mine in remote Zambia (BBC News)The Town That Went Crazy for CryptoTrump and Xi Need a Shared Trust on AI Now (Thomas Friedman)The Future of AI??? (2 reports via PGN)How AI Is Changing the Way the World Builds Computers (The NY Times)AI voice clones pose an 'existential crisis' for actors (LA Times)AI could take your next drive-through order (LA Times)How Google threw out safeguards in desperate push for AI at any cost (WiRed)'Brainrot' AI on Instagram Is Monetizing the Most F*cked Up Things' You Can Imagine -- and Lots You Can't (404Media)The most evil AI on film (YouTube)"Please sir, may I have some more?'' Florida wants to change laws (CNN via Lauren Weinstein))Utah Passes Child Safety Law Requiring Apple to Verify User AgeiThe Signal Chat -- Annotated (Lauren Weinstein)Forks or No: How "AI" messed up survey questionsCloakd Ransomware Hits Virginia Attorney General's Office, Disrupts IT Systems (Hackread)United Airlines flight to China diverted to San Francisco after pilot forgets passport (NBC News)Donald Trump's Government cuts funding for NZ scientists' trip to U.S. (NZ Herald via Jim Geissman)They Were Deactivated From Delivering. Their Finances Were Devastated. (NYTimes)New uses for old data (Jim Geissman)Attorney General Bonta Urgently Issues Consumer Alert for 23andMe Customers Customers (State of California - Department of Justice - Office of the Attorney General, via Dave Farber)23andMe Customers Scramble to Delete Data, Seek Assurances After Bankruptcy (WSJ)Re: Airport Theory Will Make You Miss Your Flight (John Levine)Re: Not Unprecedented -- Heathrow Comes to a Standstill (David E, Ross)After Heathrow Debacle: Who Pays for a Ruined Vacation? (Monty Solomon)How AI Is Changing the Way the World Builds Computers (Monty Solomon)Re: When Your Last Name Is Null, Nothing Works (Amos Shapir)Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)----------------------------------------------------------------------Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2025 08:50:45 -0700From: "Rob Slade, greatgrandpa and widower" <rslade () gmail com>Subject: *Security for ordinary folks*: Lessons from Signalgate 1 - RulesA couple of days after this all broke I was due to do another "security forseniors" session. We were *going* to start frauds and scams. But with thisall over the news, and everybody talking about it (mostly incomplete, andoften misinformed), and with some many basic security lessons to be learnedfrom it, I figured I should take advantage of the opportunity. So I coveredthe scandal, pointing out, along the way, that even though this news storywas about national and even international security, it still had lots oflessons that *everybody* could benefit from.So, day by day, herewith some security lessons, applicable to seniors,homemakers, owners of your own business, students of security, securityprofessionals, and all the way down to vice presidents of superpowers."Security for ordinary folks": Lessons from Signalgate 1 - Ruleshttps://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2025/03/security-for-ordinary-folks-lessons.htmlLesson one: this is why we have information classification rules.Okay, maybe I have to back up a bit here. A lot of ordinary folks willthink information classification, itself, only applies to governments, themilitary, and big corporations.First of all, this whole story, and scandal, couldn't have happened to anicer guy. I mean that, quite literally. Nicer people are people who tendto follow the rules. The MAGA camp is led by someone who not only doesn'tthink that the rules apply to him, he doesn't think that there *are* anyrules at all. He thinks that rules, and policies, and laws, are forsuckers. People who follow the rules are weak, and are at a disadvantagewhen dealing with him. He doesn't like rules, and laws, and doesn't thinkthat there are any norms or standards of behavior. He likes chaos. Helikes chaos because it means that he can do pretty much anything;Next: *Security for ordinary folks": Lessons from Signalgate 2 -Cellphones and SCIFs*------------------------------Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2025 09:33:12 -0700From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>Subject: Even More Venmo Accounts Tied to Trump Officials in Signal Group Chat Left Data Public (WiReD)https://www.wired.com/story/even-more-venmo-accounts-tied-to-trump-officials-in-signal-group-chat-left-data-public/------------------------------Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2025 19:42:17 -0700From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>Subject: NSA warned of vulnerabilities in Signal app month before Houthi (CBS News)https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nsa-signal-app-vulnerabilities-before-houthi-strike-chat/------------------------------Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2025 11:18:43 -0700From: "Jim" <jgeissman () socal rr com>Subject: Bitcoin in the bush -- the crypto mine in remote Zambia (BBC News)We're in the far north-western tip of Zambia near the border with the DRC,and of all the bitcoin mines I've visited - this one is the strangest.They Were Deactivated From Delivering. Their Finances Were Devastated.Water and electronic equipment don't usually mix well but it's preciselythe proximity to the river that's drawn bitcoiners here.Philip's mine is plugged directly into a hydro-electric power plant thatchannels some of the Zambezi's torrent through enormous turbines to generatecontinuous, clean electricity.More importantly for bitcoin mining -- it's cheap.So cheap it made business sense for Philip's Kenya-based company Gridless todrag its shipping container full of delicate bitcoin mining computers acrossbumpy narrow roads 14 hours from the nearest major city to set up here.Each machine makes about $5 (=A33.90) a day. More if the price of coins ishigh, less if to drops.https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly4xe373p4https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly4xe373p4o------------------------------Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2025 21:55:31 -0600From: Matthew Kruk <mkrukg () gmail com>Subject: The Town That Went Crazy for Crypto (NY Times)https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/business/rainbowex-crypto-ponzi-scheme.htmlEvery weeknight at about 9 p.m., they said, La China turned up on theTelegram channel of a crypto-currency exchange called RainbowEx. There, shetexted instructions to buy some type of crypto -- invariably an obscure andthinly traded one, known in the industry as a memecoin -- at a particularprice. The same message said to sell the coin when it reached a certain,higher price, which it always did soon after.It was as steady as a clock. Everyone on RainbowEx bought the coin, thevalue of the coin rose, everyone sold. Up ticked the balance in theirRainbowEx accounts.Nobody knew who La China was, where she was or whether she even existed.She was just a photograph of a young Asian woman on RainbowEx's Telegramchannel. The guy with the new blazer took out his phone and showed Mr.Flaiman photos of La China-enabled purchases by locals. A car, a motorbike,a television. Some people were renovating their homes.------------------------------Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2025 9:38:56 PDTFrom: Peter Neumann <neumann () csl sri com>Subject: Trump and Xi Need a Shared Trust on AI Now (Thomas Friedman)Thomas Friedman, *The New York Times*, Opinion, 26 Mar 2025Two Superpowers risk a devatating competition. Cue the humanoid robots.------------------------------Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2025 15:25:46 PDTFrom: Peter Neumann <neumann () csl sri com>Subject: The Future of AI???Two reports should be of particular interest here.Adversarial Machine Learning: A Taxonomy and Terminology of Attacks and MitigationsApostol Vassilev, Alina Oprea, Alie Fordyce, Hyrum Anderson, Xander Davies, Maia HaminA NIST Report, March 2025https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ai/NIST.AI.100-2e2025.pdfThis NIST Trustworthy and Responsible AI report provides a taxonomy ofconcepts and defines terminology in the field of adversarial machinelearning (AML). The taxonomy is arranged in a conceptual hierarchy thatincludes key types of ML methods, life cycle stages of attack, and attackergoals, objectives, capabilities, and knowledge. This report also identifiescurrent challenges in the life cycle of AI systems and describescorresponding methods for mitigating and managing the consequences of thoseattacks. The terminology used in this report is consistent with theliterature on AML and is complemented by a glossary of key terms associatedwith the security of AI systems. Taken together, the taxonomy andterminology are meant to inform other standards and future practice guidesfor assessing and managing the security of AI systems by establishing acommon language for the rapidly developing AML landscape. [While the key findings are in line with recent industry trends, some show clear room for improvement: a whopping 43% of responders also have no formal IT or security training in place. Download the report now to learn more from your peers on how they’re benchmarking and measuring cybersecurity operations. The Report Authors]See also;Frameworks, Tools, and Techniques: The Journey to Operational SecurityEffectiveness and Maturity, David Shackleford, SANS Survey, December 2023* Over 48% of responding orgs have a hybrid SOC approach, and only 10% fully outsource their SOC.* 69% of respondents use a cybersecurity framework to define, measure, and assess SOC performance.* 74% of orgs rely on the NIST CSF as their framework of choice.* Measuring security incidents, vulnerability assessments, and intrusion attempts were the most popular security performance metrics.* 61% of respondents regularly conduct cyber-readiness exercises.* 43% of orgs do not have a formal cybersecurity training program for IT and security professional [As we have noted here in RISKS, the greatest challenge to the long-term future of AI is likely to be the fundamental need for evindence-based assurance, and finding ways to achieve it pervasively -- especially relating to uses of AI embedded in life-critical systems with extensive requirements for trustworthiness (including human safety, securiity, privacy, reliability, fault-tolerance, real-time guaranteed performance, survivability and recovery, ease of use, and lots more, based on suitably trustworthy hardware, software, and networks). Thus, even the two reports combined are not enough to achieve this kind of dependability. PGN]------------------------------From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2025 09:25:47 -0400Subject: How AI Is Changing the Way the World Builds Computers (The NY Times)Tech companies are revamping computing -— from how tiny chips are built tothe way they are arranged, cooled and powered —- in the race to buildartificial intelligence that recreates the human brain.https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/16/technology/ai-data-centers.html------------------------------Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2025 09:19:02 -0700From: Steve Bacher <sebmb1 () verizon net>Subject: AI voice clones pose an 'existential crisis' for actors (LA Times)Nearly a dozen voice actors interviewed by The LA Times said voicereplication technology is reducing paid job opportunities and stripping themof their agency. Many found their voices cloned without their consent,knowledge or compensation.Nick Meyer said $100,000 would have changed his life.The 26-year-old actor said it would have “taken a lot of weight” off hisshoulders and provided relief for his family. Although he’s been actingprofessionally for a decade, Meyer said he makes less than $10,000 a yearfrom acting and supplements his income with food service and retail jobs. Sowhy would he turn down a voice-acting gig offering roughly 10 times hisannual acting salary for only 20 hours of work?Because the job entailed recording his voice to train artificialintelligence-powered voice replication models. “I am not going to sacrificemy morality for a paycheck, no matter how big,” Meyer said.The LA-based performer is one of many voice actors reckoning with AI’sindustry disruptions. Voice cloning has become much easier, requiring justseconds of audio. This poses a host of challenges for actors who have foundtheir voices replicated online without their consent, knowledge orcompensation, reducing paid job opportunities and stripping them of theiragency. [...]https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-03-24/ai-voice-clones-replication-voice-actors-job-loss-siri-tiktok------------------------------Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2025 06:52:07 -0700From: Steve Bacher <sebmb1 () verizon net>Subject: AI could take your next drive-through order (LA Times)Restaurants are experimenting with AI voices to help take orders atdrive-throughs and call centers.Fast food customers might find themselves talking to an artificialintelligence voice the next time they order tacos or pizza at adrive-through.Yum Brands Inc., the parent company of Taco Bell and other popular fast foodchains such as Pizza Hut, KFC and Habit Burger & Grill, has teamed up withtech juggernaut Nvidia to advance the development of AI in the restaurantindustry. [...]https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-03-21/ai-could-take-your-next-drive-thru-order-taco-bell-parent-yum-brands-and-nvidias-partnership-explained------------------------------Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2025 08:53:53 -0700From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>Subject: How Google threw out safeguards in desperate push for AIThe way this happens is a perfect example of what is called "groupthink" --and this is one of the most dangerous situations possible with technology,especially with AI. These are mainly good people -- I know several of thempersonally -- but they've been seduced by groupthink into a nightmarescenario for the world at large. -Lhttps://www.wired.com/story/google-openai-gemini-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence/------------------------------Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2025 10:15:09 -0700From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>Subject: 'Brainrot' AI on Instagram Is Monetizing the Most F*cked Up Things`You Can Imagine -- and Lots You Can't (404Media)https://www.404media.co/brainrot-ai-on-instagram-is-monetizing-the-most-fucked-up-things-you-can-imagine-and-lots-you-cant/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter------------------------------Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2025 11:19:48 -0700From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>Subject: The most evil AI on film (YouTube)This scene comes after it had already attempted to use Robby the Robot totorture a young boy, "beginning with his eyes."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OufJh-aTQu4------------------------------Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2025 10:58:58 -0700From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>Subject: "Please sir, may I have some more?'' Florida wants to change lawsWorkhouses next. -Lhttps://www.cnn.com/2025/03/25/business/florida-child-labor-laws----------------------------------------------------------------------Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2025 18:36:02 -0400From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>Subject: Utah Passes Child Safety Law Requiring Apple to Verify User Age (Mac Rumnors)https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/26/utah-app-store-age-verification-law/------------------------------Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2025 11:37:09 -0700From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>Subject: The Signal Chat -- Annotated [One of the most egregious security failures in history.]~<Let me be clear about this. The White House claimed these weren't war plansand nothing there was classified information. LIES!!! These are obviouslywar plans and obviously would have been highly classified. -Lhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/25/us/signal-group-chat-text-annotations.html------------------------------Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2025 17:52:51 -0700From: Geoff Kuenning <geoff () cs hmc edu>Subject: Forks or No: How "AI" messed up survey questionsA number of online surveys presented users with questions that offered twooptions for answers: Forks or No. For example: "Are you a U.S. citizen?Forks/No".The underlying cause was deep: a popup with survey instructions somehowcaused some browsers, including Google Chrome, to detect that the page'slanguage was Spanish even though it was written in English. Some browsersthen offered to translate, but others (including Chrome) decided to do thatfor you without asking. And here's a fun fact: if you go to GoogleTranslate and explicitly select Spanish as the source language, sure enoughit translates "yes" as "forks"."Artificial Intelligence" is certainly artificial but also most definitelynot intelligence.More information, although not complete details can be found here:https://www.pewresearch.org/decoded/2025/03/21/how-a-glitch-in-an-online-survey-replaced-the-word-yes-with-forks/ [Even in Spanish, an elephant never fork-gets. Yes! PGN]------------------------------Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2025 14:00:56 -0400From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe () gabegold com>Subject: Cloakd Ransomware Hits Virginia Attorney General's Office, Disrupts IT Systems (Hackread)Cloakd ransomware group claims attack on Virginia attorney general’s office,demands ransom for stolen data. Investigation underway. Find out the impactand what’s being done.https://hackread.com/cloak-ransomware-virginia-attorney-generals-office/Nice work, AG.------------------------------Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2025 09:39:40 -0400From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>Subject: United Airlines flight to China diverted to San Francisco after pilot forgets passport (NBC News)https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/united-airlines-flight-china-diverted-san-francisco-pilot-forgets-pass-rcna197942------------------------------Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2025 09:50:28 -0700From: Jim Geissman <jgeissman () socal rr com>Subject: Donald Trump's Government cuts funding for NZ scientists' trip to U.S. (NZ Herald)22 Mar 2025 07:42 PM* <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/donald-trump/#google_vignette> The Trump Administration's spending cuts cancelled a $51,000 grant for a scientific celebration.* The event would have marked 150 years of scientific co-operation between the United States and New Zealand.* Universities New Zealand's Chris Whelan said there are no plans for an alternative event.The Donald Trump Administration's spending cuts have put put] to acelebration of 150 years of scientific co-operation between New Zealand andthe United States. Universities New Zealand chief executive Chris Whelansaid the organisation received notification last month that a US$30,000($51,580) grant for a function in Washington had been cancelled."Unfortunately, we received a letter advising us that under PresidentTrump's executive order re-evaluating and re-aligning the United States'foreign aid, that funding was cancelled. No other reason was given," Whelansaid. He said the U.S. State Department funding included travel by a NewZealand delegation to the U.S. Whelan said the event would have marked 150years since the US sent scientists to this country to observe the planetVenus passing between the sun and the Earth. "The partnership dates back tothe 1874 transit of Venus. The U.S. dispatched two scientific expeditions toNew Zealand for the purpose. One to the Chatham Islands, another toQueenstown," he said. Whelan said Universities New Zealand had been workingon the project with the U.S. Embassy in Wellington. "It was seen as highlydesirable to mark a major milestone, 150 years of scientific collaborationbetween our countries and a feel-good event and a good chance to publiciseNew Zealand in the U.," he said. He said there were no plans at this stagefor an alternative event and people were disappointed but understood suchfunding could be changed with a change of Government.------------------------------Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2025 09:15:05 -0400From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>Subject: They Were Deactivated From Delivering. Their Finances Were Devastated. NYTimesz)Millions of Americans earn money finding gig work through platforms likeUber, Lyft or DoorDash. Many see their financial lives upended when theiraccount is suddenly blocked for unclear reasons.https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/business/uber-lyft-doordash-deactivation.html------------------------------Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2025 10:32:48 -0700From: "Jim" Geissman <jgeissman () socal rr com>Subject: New uses for old dataLast summer, mining startup KoBold made a splash<https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/02/kobold-used-ai-to-find-copper-now-investors-are-piling-in-to-the-tune-of-537m/> when it said it had discovered inZambia one of the world's largest copper deposits in more than a decade.Now, another startup, Earth AI <https://earth-ai.com> , exclusively toldTechCrunch about its own discovery: promising deposits of critical mineralsin parts of Australia that other mining outfits had ignored for decades.While it's still not known whether they are as large as KoBold's, the newssuggests that future supplies of critical minerals are likely to emerge froma combination of field data parsed by artificial intelligence."The actual, real frontier [in mining] is not so much geographical as it istechnological," Roman Teslyuk, founder and CEO of Earth AI, told TechCrunch.Earth AI emerged from Teslyuk's graduate studies. Teslyuk, a native ofUkraine, was working toward a doctorate at the University of Sydney, wherehe became familiar with the mining industry in Australia. There, thegovernment owns the rights to mineral deposits, and it leases them insix-year terms. Since the 1970s, he said, exploration companies are requiredto submit their data to a national archive."For some reason, nobody's using them," he said. "If I could build analgorithm that can absorb all that knowledge and learn from the failures andsuccesses of millions of geologists in the past, I can make much betterpredictions about where to find minerals in the future."------------------------------Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2025 11:19:23 +0900From: David Farber <farber () keio jp>Subject: Attorney General Bonta Urgently Issues Consumer Alert for 23andMe Customers (State of California - Department of Justice - Office of the Attorney General)https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-urgently-issues-consumer-alert-23andme-customers Bankruptcy. Uncertanty.------------------------------Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2025 00:02:55 -0400From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>Subject: 23andMe Customers Scramble to Delete Data, Seek Assurances After Bankruptcy (WSJ)23andMe Customers Scramble to Delete Data, Seek Assurances After BankruptcyThe DNA-testing company’s site was slow in responding to some deletionrequests, leading customers to be uncertain about the process.https://www.wsj.com/business/23andme-delete-data-bankruptcy-5778341f------------------------------Date: 24 Mar 2025 15:48:55 -0400From: "John Levine" <johnl () iecc com>Subject: Re: Airport Theory Will Make You Miss Your Flight (RISKS-34.59)
If airports weren’t already a hellscape, TikTok has found a way to makethem worse. Welcome to airport theory, a viral delusion that suggests youcan roll up to the airport 15 minutes before boarding, waltz throughsecurity, and still make your flight with time to spare. No stress, nowaiting, just pure main character energy.
Well, you know, TikTok is where they tell you to eat detergent pods, to pourbeer over yourself and go out to get a suntan, and to hold your breath untilyou black out which has caused at least one death of a 10 year old girl.I have gotten from the garage to the gate in 15 minutes a few times, notdeliberately (bad traffic due to an accident, or one time I missed theThruway exit), and not at large airports, and I do not recommend it. It is astupid idea. But at least the worst thing that will happen is that you missyour plane.------------------------------Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2025 16:00:00 -0700From: "David E. Ross" <david () rossde com>Subject: Re: Not Unprecedented -- Heathrow Comes to a Standstill (RISKS-34.59)In the summer of 2003, my wife and I traveled by AmTrak from southernCalifornia, up the Pacific coast to Seattle. We then went by Canada's ViaRail from Vancouver to Montreal.We were ticketed to fly home via Air Canada on a non-stop flight from DorvalAirport (now Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport) to LAX (Los AngelesInternational Airport). The morning of our departure coincided with the"Great North-East Blackout", which affected Ontario and the Maritimes inCanada and also New York and New England in the United States. Montreal andthe rest of Quebec was no affected,Dorval was chaos, but only relative to Air Canada. U.S. and other foreignairlines were still boarding passengers and taking off. Dorval hadelectricity. However, Air Canada's computer center, however, was in Toronto(Ontario) and was down.Instead of a non-stop Air Canada flight from Montreal to Los Angeles, weflew to Washington's Dulles and were the last passengers to board a UnitedAirlines flight to Los Angeles. Instead of arriving home at 2:00pm, wearrived the next morning at 2:00am.This adventure illustrated the risk of not having a backup computer systemfor critical services. Not only is a backup important, but also it must befar from the primary system so that a disaster will not affect both systems.------------------------------Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2025 09:35:02 -0400From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>Subject: After Heathrow Debacle: Who Pays for a Ruined Vacation?When the airport shut down, travelers were on the hook for reservationsthat could not be canceled, expensive new flights and missed events thatairlines don’t reimburse for. How can you protect yourself next time?https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/travel/heathrow-travel-insurance-hotel-cruise-refund.html------------------------------Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2025 09:25:47 -0400From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>Subject: How AI Is Changing the Way the World Builds ComputersTech companies are revamping computing — from how tiny chips are built tothe way they are arranged, cooled and powered — in the race to buildartificial intelligence that recreates the human brain.https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/16/technology/ai-data-centers.html------------------------------Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2025 13:09:48 +0200From: Amos Shapir <amos083 () gmail com>Subject: Re: When Your Last Name Is Null, Nothing Works (RISKS-34.59)I have seen databases which return "(null)" or something similar, toseparate it from something that may actually be a valid reply. There's noexcuse for a database application which doesn't do that, nor for anapplication which uses the database and doesn't make the extra effort todiscern a NULL value from a legitimate one. There's a price to pay forthat, but Mr. & Mrs. Null should not be those who pay it.------------------------------Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2023 11:11:11 -0800From: RISKS-request () csl sri comSubject: Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks) The ACM RISKS Forum is a MODERATED digest. Its Usenet manifestation is comp.risks, the feed for which is donated by panix.com as of June 2011.=> SUBSCRIPTIONS: The mailman Web interface can be used directly to subscribe and unsubscribe:http://mls.csl.sri.com/mailman/listinfo/risks=> SUBMISSIONS: to risks () CSL sri com with meaningful SUBJECT: line that includes the string `notsp'. Otherwise your message may not be read. *** This attention-string has never changed, but might if spammers use it.=> SPAM challenge-responses will not be honored. Instead, use an alternative address from which you never send mail where the address becomes public!=> The complete INFO file (submissions, default disclaimers, archive sites, copyright policy, etc.) has moved to the ftp.sri.com site: <risksinfo.html>. *** Contributors are assumed to have read the full info file for guidelines!=> OFFICIAL ARCHIVES:http://www.risks.org takes you to Lindsay Marshall's delightfully searchable html archive at newcastle:http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/VL.IS --> VoLume, ISsue. Also,ftp://ftp.sri.com/risks for the current volume/previous directories orftp://ftp.sri.com/VL/risks-VL.IS for previous VoLume If none of those work for you, the most recent issue is always athttp://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt, and index at /risks-34.00 ALTERNATIVE ARCHIVES:http://seclists.org/risks/ (only since mid-2001) *** NOTE: If a cited URL fails, we do not try to update them. Try browsing on the keywords in the subject line or cited article leads. Apologies for what Office365 and SafeLinks may have done to URLs.==> Special Offer to Join ACM for readers of the ACM RISKS Forum: <http://www.acm.org/joinacm1>------------------------------End of RISKS-FORUM Digest 34.60************************
Current thread:
- Risks Digest 34.60RISKS List Owner (Apr 01)