This bot hunts software bugs for the Pentagon

Late last year, David Haynes, a security engineer at the Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare, found himself gazing at a strange image. “It was pure gibberish,” he says. “A whole bunch of gray and black pixels, made by a machine.” He declined to share the image, saying it would be a security risk.

Haynes’ caution was understandable. The image was created by a tool called Mayhem that probes software to find unknown security flaws, made by a startup spun out of Carnegie Mellon University called ForAllSecure. Haynes had been testing it on Cloudflare software that resizes images to speed up websites and fed it several sample photos. Mayhem mutated them into glitchy, cursed images that crashed the photo-processing software by triggering an unnoticed bug, a weakness that could have caused headaches for customers paying Cloudflare to keep their websites running smoothly.

Cloudflare has since made Mayhem a standard part of its security tools. The US Air Force, Navy, and Army have used it, too. Last month, the Pentagon awarded ForAllSecure a $45 million contract to widen use of Mayhem across the US military. The department has plenty of bugs to find. A 2018 government report found that nearly all weapons systems the Department of Defense tested between 2012 and 2017 had serious software vulnerabilities.

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https://arstechnica.com

WhatsApp gets a raw deal from India in payments

Rivals such as Alphabet's Google Pay, Walmart-owned PhonePe and Softbank Group-backed Paytm are dominating India's mobile transfers landscape https://ift.tt/2ME1EGe https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Amazfit T-Rex now available for pre-order at Rs 9,999

Huami has announced that it’s new wearable, the Amazfit T-Rex is now available for pre-order. The device will be available on Amazon and Amazfit’s Indian website for Rs 9,999. It will officially be available from June 12. This comes just a few days after the company launched the Bip S in India.

Mark Mao, Vice President of Overseas Business, Huami, stated, “After receiving a great response from the Global Launch of T-Rex at CES 2020, we are happy to launch our most awaited smartwatch T-Rex in the Indian market. T-Rex is one of our latest innovations in the sports category; the watch is designed for outdoor and adventure lovers; built to endure challenging environments; a smartwatch that completes your urban street style look. Amazfit T-Rex comes with some interesting advanced functionalities making it a must-have for sports enthusiasts at an affordable price bracket. The Indian market has always accepted us with great trust, and we are looking forward to receiving a positive response from the customers.” 

The Amazfit T-Rex was unveiled at CES 2020. The device is a rugged smartwatch that is said to have passed 12 regulations of military standard (MIL-STD-810) to resist harsh environments and temperatures. It is also water-resistant up to 5ATM. The device packs a 1.3-inch AMOLED display and packs an optical heart rate sensor. It can track 14 activities that range from running to skiing. It also comes with support for GPS and GLONASS, which should allow for more accurate route tracking. The device is also tipped to offer a 20-day battery life, which is pretty impressive. Other features include notifications for Incoming calls, text messages, apps, calendars, custom events. Easily find your Smartphone with the Find my phone function. Weather forecast (5 to 7 Days) + temperature warnings.

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Jio offers free 1-year Disney+Hotstar VIP subscription to prepaid subscribers

Jio has announced that it will be offering its prepaid subscribers a Disney+Hotstar VIP subscription at no extra charge. This subscription is worth Rs 399 and is valid for a year. It should be noted that this is only the VIP subscription and not the Premium subscription, so there will be some content that won’t be accessible to users. 

Here are Jio’s prepaid plans that come with Disney+Hotstar’s VIP subscription:

Rs 401 monthly plan: This plan offers 90GB data along with unlimited calling and access to Jio’s suite of apps. It is valid for 28 days.

Rs 2,599 annual plan: This plan offers 740GB of data along with unlimited calling and access to Jio applications. This is valid for 365 days.

Add-on data pack: Those subscribers who don’t have the above plans can still avail the service via data add-on vouchers starting at Rs 612. This allows users to enjoy data benefits as well as the year-long subscription to Disney+Hotstar VIP.

To recall, Disney+ launched in India on April 3 through Hotstar, which is owned as part of its purchase of 21st Century Fox. The new service is available in two tiers. The VIP plan costs Rs 399 per annum, while the Premium plan is priced at Rs 1,499 a year. Content on the platform is marked with a ‘V’ or a ‘P’ and Premium subscribers get access to all. 

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Facebook's Zuckerberg promises a review of content policies after backlash

Zuckerberg said Facebook would be more transparent about its decision-making on taking down posts https://ift.tt/2XEUkR1 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Black tech execs hope the current attention on racial disparities will help diversify tech workers, as black people account for only 7.8% of core US IT workers (Jared Council/Wall Street Journal)

Jared Council / Wall Street Journal:
Black tech execs hope the current attention on racial disparities will help diversify tech workers, as black people account for only 7.8% of core US IT workers  —  Despite yearslong efforts by companies to diversify their tech workforces, black people account for less than 8% of core IT workers in the U.S.

Domestic help are being celebrated on social media by appreciative bosses, will it help solve their isssues?

The pandemic and the lockdown have seen a wave of appreciative social media posts about domestic help from urban India's celebrities and the not so famous alike. https://ift.tt/30f9MoC https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Some companies that have been forced to lay off staffers are helping them find jobs elsewhere

Layoffs are the big story now, and it's never a good day to lose your job. But there's a now a side story to it. https://ift.tt/30sYA8j https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Three Amazon workers file lawsuit alleging that Amazon has failed to adequately protect workers from COVID-19 by not following CDC's contact tracing guidelines (Annie Palmer/CNBC)

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Three Amazon workers file lawsuit alleging that Amazon has failed to adequately protect workers from COVID-19 by not following CDC's contact tracing guidelines  —  - A lawsuit filed by three Amazon workers calls into question the company's contact tracing efforts.

Overall, remote learning this spring didn't work: schools disagree on fair student assessment, students lack equal access to technology, teaching got harder (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Overall, remote learning this spring didn't work: schools disagree on fair student assessment, students lack equal access to technology, teaching got harder  —  The pandemic forced schools into a crash course in online education.  Problems piled up quickly.  ‘I find it hectic and stressful’

Samsung launches three new phones, Google explains decision to remove certain apps and other top tech news of the week

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Google Docs is a key tool for organizing protests, as activists anonymously edit public lists of funds, charities, books on racism, and letter-writing templates (Tanya Basu/MIT Technology Review)

Tanya Basu / MIT Technology Review:
Google Docs is a key tool for organizing protests, as activists anonymously edit public lists of funds, charities, books on racism, and letter-writing templates  —  Facebook and Twitter might have the bells and whistles, but the word processing doc's simplicity and accessibility have made it a winning tool.

Zoom consultant Alex Stamos and experts say only offering end-to-end encryption, which needs user authentication, to paying customers is a reasonable compromise (Dan Goodin/Ars Technica)

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Zoom consultant Alex Stamos and experts say only offering end-to-end encryption, which needs user authentication, to paying customers is a reasonable compromise  —  Critics say everyone deserves it.  Others say safety should be factored in, too.  —  If you've waded into Twitter timelines …

Some Amazon workers say they're struggling to get paid sick leave as the deluge of requests swamps the company's heavily automated HR system during the pandemic (Matt Day/Bloomberg)

Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Some Amazon workers say they're struggling to get paid sick leave as the deluge of requests swamps the company's heavily automated HR system during the pandemic  —  Tony Banks told Amazon.com Inc. right away when he tested positive for Covid-19.  More than a month later, he's on the mend …

Connected learning platform Chegg has acquired Mathway, an automated learning app that helps students understand and solve math problems, for $100M in cash (Stephanie Condon/ZDNet)

Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
Connected learning platform Chegg has acquired Mathway, an automated learning app that helps students understand and solve math problems, for $100M in cash  —  The $100 million deal gives Chegg access to Mathway subscribers in about 100 countries.  —  Chegg, a leading direct-to-student learning platform …