Understanding the scale of modern slavery

Modern slavery is hidden in plain sight and is deeply intertwined with life in every corner of the world.

Each day, people are tricked, coerced, or forced into exploitative situations that they cannot refuse or leave. Each day, we buy the products or use the services they have been forced to make or offer without realising the hidden human cost.

An estimated 50 million people were living in modern slavery on any given day in 2021, an increase of 10 million people since 2016.

Walk Free’s flagship report, the Global Slavery Index (GSI) provides national estimates of modern slavery for 160 countries. Our estimates draw on thousands of interviews with survivors collected through nationally representative household surveys across 75 countries and our assessment of national-level vulnerability.

With the exception of contributions from external authors, the Global Slavery Index is produced by Walk Free. We are solely responsible for the contents of this report. 

Between the years 1500-1900 more than 15 million men, women and children were the victims of the evil transatlantic slave trade. Right now there are an estimated 50 million people were living in modern slavery. Be aware of this evil, pray for it's end & where possible buy Fairtrade.

www.walkfree.org

Lawyer in trouble after using ChatGPT & not checking the details!

A lawyer is in trouble after admitting he used ChatGPT to help write court filings that cited six non-existent cases invented by the artificial intelligence tool.

Lawyer Steven Schwartz of the firm Levidow, Levidow, & Oberman "greatly regrets having utilized generative artificial intelligence to supplement the legal research performed herein and will never do so in the future without absolute verification of its authenticity," Schwartz wrote in an affidavit on May 24 regarding the bogus citations previously submitted in US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Schwartz wrote that "the use of generative artificial intelligence has evolved within law firms" and that he "consulted the artificial intelligence website ChatGPT in order to supplement the legal research performed."

The "citations and opinions in question were provided by ChatGPT which also provided its legal source and assured the reliability of its content," he wrote. Schwartz admitted that he "relied on the legal opinions provided to him by a source that has revealed itself to be unreliable," and stated that it is his fault for not confirming the sources provided by ChatGPT.

Schwartz didn't previously consider the possibility that an artificial intelligence tool like ChatGPT could provide false information, even though AI chatbot mistakes have been extensively reported by non-artificial intelligence such as the human journalists employed by reputable news organizations. The lawyer's affidavit said he had "never utilized ChatGPT as a source for conducting legal research prior to this occurrence and therefore was unaware of the possibility that its content could be false."

Generative AI is a curiosity. Folks come unstuck when they take it's word as Gospel!

www.arstechnica.com

Artificial intelligence - what could possibly go wrong?...

Artificial intelligence could lead to the extinction of humanity, experts - including the heads of OpenAI and Google Deepmind - have warned.

Dozens have supported a statement published on the webpage of the Centre for AI Safety.

"Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war" it reads. But others say the fears are overblown.

Sam Altman, chief executive of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Demis Hassabis, chief executive of Google DeepMind and Dario Amodei of Anthropic have all supported the statement.

The Centre for AI Safety website suggests a number of possible disaster scenarios:

* AIs could be weaponised - for example, drug-discovery tools could be used to build chemical weapons

* AI-generated misinformation could destabilise society and "undermine collective decision-making"

* The power of AI could become increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, enabling "regimes to enforce narrow values through pervasive surveillance and oppressive censorship"

* Enfeeblement, where humans become dependent on AI "similar to the scenario portrayed in the film Wall-E"

www.bbc.co.uk

Suzuki motorcycle plant shut down by cyber attack

 

The Indian manufacturing plant responsible for manufacturing Suzuki motorcycles has been forced to shut down following a cyber attack.

Since May 10, production of bikes and scooters at Suzuki Motorcycle's Indian plant has reportedly been temporarily suspended with the loss of an estimated 20,000 vehicles.

In addition, Suzuki Motorcycle has postponed its annual supplier conference, which was due to start this week.

Although Suzuki has acknowledged that it is suffering a cybersecurity "incident," it has not shared details of the nature of what has occurred while it continues to investigate.

www.bitdefender.com

IT - buy cheap & live to regret it...

 

Potentially millions of Android TVs and phones come with malware preinstalled. The bane of low-cost Android devices is showing no signs of going away.

Overall, Android devices have earned a decidedly mixed reputation for security. While the OS itself and Google's Pixels have stood up over the years against software exploits, the never-ending flow of malicious apps in Google Play and vulnerable devices from some third-party manufacturers have tarnished its image.

On Thursday, that image was further tarnished after two reports said that multiple lines of Android devices came with preinstalled malware that couldn’t be removed without users taking heroic measures.

The first report came from security firm Trend Micro. Researchers following up on a presentation delivered at the Black Hat security conference in Singapore reported that as many as 8.9 million phones comprising as many as 50 different brands were infected with malware. First documented by researchers from security firm Sophos, Guerrilla, as they named the malware, was found in 15 malicious apps that Google allowed into its Play market.

Guerrilla opens a backdoor that causes infected devices to regularly communicate with a remote command-and-control server to check if there are any new malicious updates for them to install. These malicious updates collect data about the users that the threat actor, which Trend Micro calls the Lemon Group, can sell to advertisers. Guerrilla then surreptitiously installs aggressive ad platforms that can deplete battery reserves and degrade the user experience.

The moral of this story is: do not buy cheap tech devices from brands you've never heard off before! Household brands are fine, such as: Sony, LG, Samsung (other brands are available 😉). If you buy cheap & unbranded tech - you're inviting the thieves to move in with you! Remember - these devices sit on your home and/or work network with access to any data flowing through that network. If these devices are used to log in to your email, bank, etc - they will have access to your credentials... It just isn't worth the risk to save a few quid!

www.arstechnica.com

There are 2 types of people in the world: those who have lost data & those who will loose data!

 

WHAT IS BACKUP? A backup is a second copy of all your important files - for example, your family photos, home videos, documents and emails. Instead of storing it all in one place (like your computer), you keep another copy of everything somewhere safe.

Why should I bother to back up my data?

Hardware can break, get coffee spilt in it, lost, stolen, hacker attack, malware, ransomware, etc…

Hardware can easily be replaced. Recreating your data is NOT easy, and is likely to be impossible!

It is estimated that 70-80% of businesses that suffer a serious data loss, fail within 18 months.

SO HOW DO I BACKUP?

Most people backup their files in one of two ways: to a quality external drive, and/or somewhere on the Internet (Backblaze).

Do you need a hand with getting backup sorted for your important data? Contact Donline. 

Do not wait until it's too late to backup!

Meanwhile in other news: SanDisk Extreme SSDs keep abruptly failing.

www.taobackup.com

ITV drama about the Post Office scandal started filming this week

Nick Wallis reports: The long-awaited ITV drama about the Post Office scandal started filming this week. The cast is being announced tomorrow. I won't break the embargo, but I will tell you the actor playing Alan Bates, founder of the Justice For Subpostmasters' Alliance is a household name. It should guarantee the series is watched by a large number of people. It is currently slated to be screened early next year.

ITV commissions Post Office scandal drama, People vs. Post Office, written by Gwyneth Hughes and produced by ITV Studios, Patrick Spence, and Little Gem

One of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, affecting dozens of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses, wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system, will be brought to the screen by Patrick Spence, ITV Studios and co-produced by Little Gem. 

The 4 x 60’ drama, entitled People vs. Post Office, will be written by acclaimed screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes (Honour, Vanity Fair, Dark Angel) and executive produced by Patrick Spence (Adult Material, Marvellous), ITV Studios, Gwyneth Hughes, and Natasha Bondy and Ben Gale (Surviving the Virus, This is our Family) on behalf of Little Gem.

Many of the wronged workers who were prosecuted, some of whom were imprisoned for crimes they never committed, are already working with the producers to document how their lives were irreparably ruined by the scandal.

www.itv.com