Supermicro chips and software were tampered with by Chinese operatives in the past decade, Bloomberg reported Friday, doubling down on its 2018 report that was widely disputed by several tech giants and government agencies. Today’s report says that U.S. security and defense officials knew of the hack but kept it secret in an effort to learn more about China’s hacking capabilities….
Tag: secrecy
5G Auction Shatters Record as Bidding Tops $66 Billion
The Federal Communications Commission’s ongoing sale of wireless licenses has fetched more than $66.4 billion after three weeks of bidding, a record sum that could alter cellphone carriers’ prospects for the next decade. From a report: The auction proceeds have already topped the $44.9 billion raised in 2015 by an earlier sale of midrange cellular licenses, which U.S. cellphone carriers used…
John le Carre, Author of Spy Novels, Dies at Age 89
“This terrible year has claimed a literary giant and a humanitarian spirit,” tweeted novelist Stephen King, adding later that “The Little Drummer Girl was one of the best novels I’ve ever read.” Margaret Atwood tweeted “His Smiley novels are key to understanding the mid-20th century.” And the Associated Press tells the story of how spy-novel writer John le Carré was “drawn…
Tech’s New Gig Worker Underclass: Customer Service Reps Who Have to Pay to Talk to You
The Pulitzer prize-winning news nonprofit Propublica looks at Arise Virtual Solutions, part of the secretive world of work-at-home customer service companies that help large corporations shed costs at the expense of workers. And thanks to the pandemic, “business is booming.” Arise lines up customer service agents who work from home. It then sells this network of agents to blue-chip corporations. Arise…
China Launches Experimental Spaceplane
schwit1 shares a report from NASASpaceFlight: China launched a new experimental reusable space vehicle on Thursday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center using a Long March-2F/T — Chang Zheng-2F/T — launch vehicle. Launch from the LC43/91 launch complex, under a veil of secrecy with no official launch photos or even a launch time disclosed. Chinese media emitted a laconic report referring,…
Freemasons: Behind the veil of secrecy
Freemasonry is often misunderstood as a cult or a religion, but it’s actually the world’s largest fraternal organization with a long and complex history. Source: https://www.livescience.com/freemasons.html
‘Wakaresaseya’: Private Agents Hired To End Relationships
Christine Ro from the BBC writes about the private agents in Japan, called “wakaresaseya,” that you can hire to seduce your spouse or their partner. From the report: The industry is still serving a niche market. One survey showed around 270 wakaresaseya agencies advertising online. Many are attached to private-detective firms, similar to private investigators in other countries (who can also…