Suggested readings week 42/2023

Future quantum codebreakers goldmining from the past

it’s possible that some bad actors are already hoarding encrypted messages in anticipation of being able to break them when a suitable quantum machine arrives

Wouldn't you do that? The timeline for a widely available quantum computing capability is measured now in a few years or months, but still uncertain.

Still, it's time for post-quantum (or quantum-resistant) cybersecurity algorithms to be deploied everywhere, and particularly in places where past messages and stored information could potentially be breaked and be useful from here to a few years.

This is a kind of time-delayed threat that has nothing in common with well known vulnerabilities and weaknesses of the past and present.

Case studies of automation in services

This is a very very (repeated intentionally) interesting research and review of the intentions and effects of introducing automation in labour-intensive industrial processes.

Interviews have been conducted across many factories in Italy, and the results include the consideration that humans remains crucial in activities that require flexibility, adaptability and reconfiguration of physical tasks. Moreover, the role of trade unions is nowadays unclear or not considered by companies that decide to introduce a new technology.

Perhaps these topics have an important impact when considering automation by artificial intelligence.

You own your data, in spite of the cloud

by centralizing data storage on servers, cloud apps also take away ownership and agency from users

This is a call for action that calls for going back to local-first software applications. A way for enhancing privacy and continuity, for whom cares about them.

Your car, gone in 90 seconds

Modern and complex luxury cars can be stolen using a very simple tecnique that involves cabling a small device to the vehicle CAN Bus wiring, and injecting fake messages. Looks like cybersecurity has not penetrated the car manufacturers industry properly.

Antarctica ice will not recover

Around 40% of Antarctica's ice shelves shrunk in the past 25 years, without signs of recovery: this is huge.