Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack that targeted high-profile accounts by:  Ryan Hughes ,  WFLA 8 On Your Side Staff Posted: Jul 31, 2020 / 01:59 PM EDT / Updated: Jul 31, 2020 / 03:45 PM EDT TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – A Tampa teenager is in jail, accused of being the “mastermind” behind a  hack on the social media website Twitter  that caused limited access to the site and high-profile accounts, according to jail records and the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office. 8 On Your Side’s Ryan Hughes received exclusive information about the arrest of 17-year-old Graham Clark. Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren filed 30 felony charges against the teen this week for “scamming people across America” in connection with the Twitter hack that  happened on July 15 . The charges he’s facing include one count of organized fraud, 17 counts of communications fraud, one count of fraudulent use of personal information with over $100,000 or 30 or more victims, 10 co

The First Gene-Altered Squid Has Thrilled Biologists NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE July 30, 202011:01 AM ET Heard on  All Things Considered On the left is an unmodified hatchling of a longfin inshore squid (Doryteuthis pealeii). The one on the right was injected with CRISPR-Cas9 targeting a pigmentation gene before the first cell division. It has very few pigmented cells and lighter eyes. Karen Crawford The first genetically-altered squid has scientists excited about a potential new way to study marine critters that are so weird, they've sometimes been compared to alien life forms. Scientists report this week that they have disabled a pigmentation gene in a squid called Doryteuthis pealeii. Their success shows that cephalopods—which include squid and octopuses--can finally be studied using the same kind of genetic tools that have let scientists explore the biology of more familiar lab animals like mice and fruit flies. Those are easy to keep in the laboratory, and scientists rout

Hong Kong Police Arrest 4 Teens For Mere Online Posts Under New Security Law by  Tyler Durden Thu, 07/30/2020 - 19:00 The ill effects of the Hong Kong national security law which took effect June 30 are continuing to be felt. Hong Kong pro-democracy, anti-Beijing activists have continued to be on edge and now largely 'underground' since last month's formal passage of the sweeping national security law in response to the mass protests and unrest which gripped the city for much of last year.  On Wednesday four activists were arrested for merely making online posts expressing pro-independence sentiment. The  AP reports  that all of the them are young, between 16- and 18-years, and were further said to have been 'organizing'. “Our investigation showed that a group has recently announced on social media that they have set up an organization for Hong Kong independence,” said Li Kwai-wah, head of the new HK police unit tasked with enforcing the law. “They said

Newly developed AI (ML) capable of identifying prostate cancer with ‘near-perfect accuracy’ by John Anderer July 28, 2020 PITTSBURGH — Human error can be charming in an endearing kind of way, but no one appreciates mistakes when it comes to a topic as serious as cancer. On that note, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh developed a new  artificial intelligence  program with the most accurate record to date when it comes to recognizing prostate cancer. “Humans are good at recognizing anomalies, but they have their own biases or past experience,” says senior author Dr. Rajiv Dhir, chief pathologist and vice chair of pathology at UPMC Shadyside and professor of biomedical informatics at UPitt, in a  release . “Machines are detached from the whole story. There’s definitely an element of standardizing care.” What separates this AI from the rest of the  robotic pack ? Dr. Dhir and his team “fed” their program images from over a million parts of tissue slides extracted fro

America's First Autonomous F-1 Race Will Take Place At Indy Motor Speedway Next Fall by  Tyler Durden Fri, 07/24/2020 - 18:25 Next fall more than 36 universities will be racing at the "Indy Autonomous Challenge" - an all autonomous race that will be held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race is a 20 lap head to head contest with a $1.5 million cash prize at stake. The purpose of the race is to help advance autonomous driving, according to  WSJ . We'll tune in for the same reason we watch most other motor sports - to see if anyone crashes.  Among the participants are some of the worlds most prestigious engineering schools, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and the Graz University of Technology in Austria. Teams are responsible for developing their own "neural nets, computer vision and other artificial intelligence systems" for the race. All teams will be using the same, e

Google to keep employees home until summer 2021 amid pandemic- WSJ by Reuters Monday, 27 July 2020 13:10 GMT July 27 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google will keep its employees home until at least next July, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai made the decision himself last week after debate among an internal group of top executives that he chairs, according to the report. Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Google had earlier said it would begin reopening more offices globally as early as June this year, but most Google employees would likely work from home until the end of this year. (Reporting by Ayanti Bera in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni) https://news.trust.org/item/20200727122406-bynhm

Global exam grading algorithm under fire for suspected bias Students and experts say the formula the International Baccalaureate program used to generate grades may be discriminatory. By Avi Asher-Schapiro Tuesday, 21 July 2020 15:38 GMT NEW YORK, July 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Colorado high school student Isabel Castaneda checked her final grades for the International Baccalaureate program in July, she was shocked. Despite being one of the top-ranking students in her public school, she failed a number of courses — including high-level Spanish, her native language. The International Baccalaureate (IB) program - a global standard of educational testing that also allows U.S. high-school students to obtain college credit - cancelled its exams in May, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of sitting final exams, which usually account for the majority of students' scores, students were assigned their marks based on a mathematical "awarding model"

US Closer To Developing Small Nuclear Reactors That Sustain Life On The Moon & Mars by  Tyler Durden Sat, 07/25/2020 - 20:20 The US Department of Energy issued an unusual statement on Friday calling for private sector help in its years-long project to develop technology that would sustain future civilizations on the moon as well as Mars. At least  back to 2018 , NASA and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have been working on a portable nuclear reactor to power deep-space exploration, such as human missions to Mars in the next decade and beyond. "Small nuclear reactors can provide the power capability necessary for space exploration missions of interest to the Federal government," the  Energy Department wrote Friday. The Dept. of Energy call for partners reads as follows:  Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), the managing and operating contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL), is

More Than 1,000 People Could Access Twitter's "God Mode" by  Tyler Durden Fri, 07/24/2020 - 12:25 Authored by Joshua Mapperson via CoinTelegraph.com, The admin panel used by hackers to access over one hundred accounts can be used by over 1,000 twitter employees — two former Twitter employees revealed. image courtesy of CoinTelegrpah More than 1,000 Twitter employees and contractors had access to the internal admin panel that enabled last week’s Twitter hack of 130 high profile accounts. According to  Reuters  on July 24, two former employees have shed light on just how vulnerable Twitter’s security was — and may still be. They said that, in addition to employees, contractors like Cognizant could also have access. Former chief security officer at AT&T Edward Amoroso, told Reuters that such powerful controls should not be available to so many people. “That sounds like there are too many people with access,” he said, adding that staff should have limited

COVID-19 And The Pandemic Of Surveillance by  Tyler Durden Thu, 07/23/2020 - 19:50 Authored by J.D.Tuccille via Reason.com, Americans are increasingly monitored, and COVID-19 health concerns aren’t improving the situation... Pandemic maps are all the rage, these days, but the latest one from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a little different; instead of viral hotspots, it displays a plague of official snoopiness, arranged by location and sortable by technology. While it documents intrusions that predate the current crisis, the  Atlas of Surveillance  is all too relevant to the age of coronavirus. Concerns about curtailing contagion help to normalize detailed scrutiny of people's lives and drive us toward a pervasive surveillance state. "The Atlas of Surveillance database, containing several thousand data points on over 3,000 city and local police departments and sheriffs' offices nationwide, allows citizens, journalists, and academics to review detai

Watch AI Robo-Barber Cut Hair In Post-COVID World   by  Tyler Durden Thu, 07/23/2020 - 22:10 There were several problems people encountered during the  virus pandemic . The first, if you couldn't afford a private barber to make an at-home visit - well, there were no barbershops opened because state governments deemed these businesses non-essential. The second issue, as economies reopened, allowing barbershop to resume operations, people who seriously needed a trim, were still fearful of stepping inside a commercial setting, nevertheless, having a stranger hover over them and touch their head for 15-30 minutes.  The pandemic has undoubtedly created a confidence crisis in barbershops. To solve this issue, one millennial during the epidemic built an impressive robot that cuts hair.  Shane Wighton of the YouTube channel  Stuff Made Here  built what appears to be a robo-barber using AI.  "There are no buzzers or trimmer involved, just a pair of scissors. And a whole lo

Nearly 75% Of Adults Say Social Media Companies Wield Too Much Power And Influence Over Politics: Pew by  Tyler Durden Thu, 07/23/2020 - 21:30 A new poll from Pew Research finds that 72% of American adults think social media companies wield too much power and influence over politics. According to a survey conducted last week, just 22% of Americans believe Silicon Valley technocrats hold the 'right amount' of political power, while just 6% believe it's 'not enough.' Nearly 9 out of 10 'conservative Republicans' (89%) feel social media platforms have too much power vs. 74% of 'moderate or liberal Republicans,' while liberal Democrats are slightly more likely than moderate or conservative Democrats to agree (68% vs. 60%). Majorities of both Republicans and Democrats believe social media companies wield too much power, but Republicans are particularly likely to express this view. Roughly eight-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning indepe