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Infosec Decoded Season 4 #102: Competency-Based Education

With Doug Spindler and @sambowne@infosec.exchange

Recorded Tue, Dec 24, 2024

Sam Bowne

Elon Musk endorses far-right German political party, wading deeper into global politics
“Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk wrote. The AfD has touted populist and anti-immigrant “Germany first” positions, and been accused of resurrecting Nazi-era ideology and slogans. Its youth arm, the Young Alternative (JA), has been designated by German authorities as a “confirmed extremist” organization.

Kara Swisher Wants to Buy The Washington Post From Jeff Bezos
But Bezos has not given any indication he wants to sell it.

Democrats Block Tom Cotton Resolution To Condemn Biden’s Commutation for ‘Kids for Cash’ Judge
The White House said the commutations were given to "nonviolent" offenders, but Biden freed at least one murderer and multiple drug dealers linked to overdose deaths. Biden commuted the 40-year prison sentence of Josephine Gray, known as the "Black Widow" for murdering two husbands and a boyfriend to collect on their life insurance policies. Biden also reprieved Michael Conahan, who was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison in what’s known as the "Kids for Cash" scandal.

Palestinian Americans trapped in Gaza sue Biden administration
A group of Palestinian Americans trapped in Gaza have sued the Biden administration, alleging it has abandoned them and their families, leaving them trapped in a war zone despite rescuing “similarly situated Americans of different national origins”.

Louisiana bars health dept. from promoting flu, COVID, mpox vaccines: Report
Louisiana's health department has been barred from advertising or promoting vaccines for flu, COVID-19, and mpox. Employees were told of the startling policy change in meetings in October and November and that the policy would be implemented quietly and not put into writing.

Carla heard a knock and found a family waiting at her door... what they said next left her stunned
A homeowner was left shocked after realising her property had been rented without her knowledge for Christmas after strangers came knocking on her door. New Zealand woman Carla Beazley was further stunned to learn that the fake listing on Booking.com had cost an elderly woman almost $10,000.

Fake parcel delivery texts are the fastest-growing phishing scam this holiday season – here’s how to avoid them
Fake text message alerts claim to be from legitimate courier service URL requests personal or financial information to arrange redelivery If in doubt, go to the official website and enter your tracking number

A Google-Backed AI Startup Is Hosting Chatbots Modeled After Real-Life School Shooters — and Their Victims
The chatbots paint a disturbing picture of the kinds of communities and characters allowed to flourish on the largely unmoderated Character.AI, where some of the internet's darkest impulses have been bottled into easily accessed AI tools and given a Google-backed space to thrive.

US Ban on TP-Link Routers More About Politics Than Exploitation Risk
The Chinese firm, whose products are popular among consumers and small businesses, currently has two security issues gracing the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) list curated by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), compared with 74 for Cisco Systems, 23 for Ivanti, and 20 for D-Link. The US Gov't's concern is the degree to which the company is beholden to China's government.

Critics decry Vietnam’s ‘draconian’ new internet law
Social media users will need to verify their identities

Israel's spy agency, Mossad, spent years orchestrating Hezbollah walkie-talkie, pager plots
Work began on weaponizing the walkie-talkies more than a decade before Israel set them off in September.

Grubhub to pay $25M settlement for deceiving customers, restaurants
They added junk fees to customers and inflated hourly pay rates of workers.

Robot taxi riders in San Francisco targeted with a new form of harassment
A car holding several young men began following them. They drove close to the robotaxi honking and yelling, “Hey, ladies — you guys are hot.” During a recent test ride through Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, a handful of laughing cyclists held up a Waymo vehicle carrying a Washington Post reporter by weaving in and out of the lane in front of it.

California wants to give degrees based on skills — not grades. It’s dividing this college
In the new model, known as competency-based education, students don’t receive grades and they don’t have to attend class. They learn at their own pace and can finish the course whenever they can prove that they’ve mastered the requisite skill or “competency.”

This top security camera streaming app may have been putting thousands of users at risk
Virtavo was collecting data in real time and keeping it in an unsecure location