The Insider News

Bleeping Computer[^]:

Nvidia researchers have developed a new AI technology that can reconstruct holes or intentionally removed content from images.

Beta News[^]:

Microsoft developers working on Windows 8 created a puzzle and embedded it in the wallpapers used for internal builds of the operating system.

The Verge[^]:

Gmail is usually pretty good about filtering unwanted spam messages, but a number of users reported earlier today that their inboxes were suddenly flooded with ads that were apparently sent from their own accounts.

Loud Sound From Fire Alarm System Shuts Down Nasdaq's Scandinavian Data Center[^]:

A loud sound emitted by a fire alarm system has destroyed the hard drives of a Swedish data center, downing Nasdaq operations across Northern Europe.

The incident took place in the early hours of Wednesday, April 19, and was caused by a gas-based fire alarm system that are typically deployed in data centers because of their ability to put out fires without destroying non-burnt equipment.

These systems work by releasing inert gas at high speeds, a mechanism usually accompanied by a loud whistle-like sound. With non-calibrated systems, this sound can get very loud, a big no-no in data centers, where loud sounds are known to affect performance, shut down, or even destroy hard drives.

NY Times[^]:

One of the poorest-kept secrets in Silicon Valley has been the huge salaries and bonuses that experts in artificial intelligence can command.

Engadget[^]:

Germany's supreme court has dismissed a landmark case brought by a publisher looking to destroy ad-blocking services in the country.

Phys.org[^]:

Facebook has taken the lion's share of scrutiny from Congress and the media about data-handling practices that allow savvy marketers and political agents to target specific audiences, but it's far from alone.

Enterprise.nxt[^]:

Did the job offer give you a title of "data scientist" but the work is more like data scullerymaid? Oh, dear, you fell for a shiny bauble of a job description! Here’s how to identify when the job description doesn’t match the job duties.

.NET blog[^]:

We’re currently planning our next major .NET releases and would love to hear your feedback on how you interact with .NET Framework and .NET Core today.

Wired[^]:

You know the two-factor authentication tokens, the ephemeral, six-digit numbers you use as a second layer of security when logging into, say, your email?

The Next Web[^]:

A retired professor published a white paper earlier this month proposing a new class of math that could lead to the birth of machine consciousness.

Quote:

High above the Hudson River in downtown Jersey City, a former U.S. Secret Service agent named Peter Cavicchia III ran special ops for JPMorgan Chase & Co. His insider threat group—most large financial institutions have one—used computer algorithms to monitor the bank’s employees, ostensibly to protect against perfidious traders and other miscreants.

Aided by as many as 120 “forward-deployed engineers” from the data mining company Palantir Technologies Inc., which JPMorgan engaged in 2009, Cavicchia’s group vacuumed up emails and browser histories, GPS locations from company-issued smartphones, printer and download activity, and transcripts of digitally recorded phone conversations. Palantir’s software aggregated, searched, sorted, and analyzed these records, surfacing keywords and patterns of behavior that Cavicchia’s team had flagged for potential abuse of corporate assets. Palantir’s algorithm, for example, alerted the insider threat team when an employee started badging into work later than usual, a sign of potential disgruntlement. That would trigger further scrutiny and possibly physical surveillance after hours by bank security personnel.

Over time, however, Cavicchia himself went rogue. Former JPMorgan colleagues describe the environment as Wall Street meets Apocalypse Now, with Cavicchia as Colonel Kurtz, ensconced upriver in his office suite eight floors above the rest of the bank’s security team. People in the department were shocked that no one from the bank or Palantir set any real limits. They darkly joked that Cavicchia was listening to their calls, reading their emails, watching them come and go. Some planted fake information in their communications to see if Cavicchia would mention it at meetings, which he did.

It all ended when the bank’s senior executives learned that they, too, were being watched, and what began as a promising marriage of masters of big data and global finance descended into a spying scandal. The misadventure, which has never been reported, also marked an ominous turn for Palantir, one of the most richly valued startups in Silicon Valley. An intelligence platform designed for the global War on Terror was weaponized against ordinary Americans at home.