Category: Digital Systems Technology

CCTV facial recognition and the Hong Kong protests

Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Digital Systems Technology, Internet of Things (IoT)

August 24 marked another long day of clashes in Hong Kong between police and protestors.

The nearly three-month long protests generally choose their location based on certain problematic aspects of Hong Kong’s relationship with China. 

That day, the focus opposed police digital surveillance tactics, specifically the city’s installation of ‘smart lampposts’; street lights that come equipped with cameras and sensors. Hong Kong authorities insist the lampposts are only used to monitor weather, traffic, and air quality. 

Police and protestors on Aug 24

After riot police forcibly dispersed an initial gathering of tens of thousands of Hong Kong citizens, groups of protestors broke off and regrouped in different neighborhoods. Several smart lamps were pulled down, dismantled, and occasionally kicked. Police fired projectiles, released tear gas, and wielded batons and riot gear while charging lines of protestors.

Facial recognition already common

Various facial recognition technologies and devices are already common across Hong Kong. They unlock mobile devices, confirm identities at ATMS, and identify individuals in photos based on their social media profile.

Suspicions of increased mainland monitoring

The renewed concern of protestors directly relates to the catalyst for the entire protest movement: the extradition bill that sought to allow Hong Kong citizens to be tried by the mainland Chinese judiciary system.

The general public simply does not trust the new cameras, many of them developed and sold by Chinese companies, to innocuously report weather and traffic data. 

China obviously wants the ability to extradite Hong Kong citizens for crimes committed outside of the mainland. A video surveillance network in which Chinese authorities can monitor individual Hong Kong citizens is a clear path towards building cases against political targets that could facilitate a case for extradition. 

5G network infrastructure on the rise, projected to rake in $4.2 billion in 2020

Digital Systems Technology, General, Networking

International research firm Gartner estimates that the global 5G network infrastructure market is expected to raise $4.2 billion in revenue in 2020. That would mark an 89 percent rise in revenue from 2019 ($2.2 billion). Moreover, the company anticipates that investments in 5G new radio (NR) infrastructure will make up 6 percent of communications service providers’ total wireless infrastructure revenue this year; in 2020, Gartner says, that figure will double to 12 percent.

According to Sylvain Fabre, senior research director at Gartner:

“5G wireless network infrastructure revenue will nearly double between 2019 and 2020. For 5G deployments in 2019, CSPs are using non-stand-alone technology. This enables them to introduce 5G services that run more quickly, as 5G New Radio (NR) equipment can be rolled out alongside existing 4G core network infrastructure.”

5G trials are currently being run in the United States, South Korea, the United Kingdom and other countries. These are expected to expand into larger projects as technology develops. For instance, companies in Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Spain, Sweden, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have stated that they intend to make 5G services more widely available in 2020. Gartner suggests that 7 percent of communications service providers are already employing 5G technology.

There remains a lot of work to be done, however. “National 5G coverage will not occur as quickly as with past generations of wireless infrastructure,” Fabre explained, according to InformationAge. “To maintain average performance standards as 5G is built out, CSPs will need to undertake targeted strategic improvements to their 4G legacy layer, by upgrading 4G infrastructure around 5G areas of coverage.

“A less robust 4G legacy layer adjoining 5G cells could lead to real or perceived performance issues as users move from 5G to 4G/LTE Advanced Pro. This issue will be most pronounced from 2019 through 2021, a period when 5G coverage will be focused on hot spots and areas of high population density.”

MoviePass left thousands of user card numbers exposed in unprotected database

Data Management & Networks, Digital Systems Technology, General, Mobile Security

MoviePass, a subscription-only move ticket service, exposed tens of thousands of its users’ credit card information due to insufficient security of a server, TechCrunch reports. The exposed database, discovered by cybersecurity company SpiderSilk, reportedly contained 161 million records, many of which included credit card numbers and other private information. TechCrunch explains:

“These MoviePass customer cards are like normal debit cards: they’re issued by Mastercard and store a cash balance, which users who sign up to the subscription service can use to pay to watch a catalog of movies. For a monthly subscription fee, MoviePass uses the debit card to load the full cost of the movie, which the customer then uses to pay for the movie at the cinema.”

The tech publication examined a sample of 1,000 of the aforementioned records and found that more than half showed MoviePass debit card numbers, expiration dates, account balances and the time of activation. Also contained in the records were personal credit card numbers, including expiration date and billing information (names and addresses).

MoviePass has since closed the database, which was accessible for months. TechCruch says it reached out to MoviePass with a number of specific questions but that the company’s only response was the following generic statement:

“MoviePass recently discovered a security vulnerability that may have exposed customer records. After discovering the vulnerability, we immediately secured our systems to prevent further exposure and to mitigate the potential impact of this incident. MoviePass takes this incident seriously and is dedicated to protecting our customers’ information. We are working diligently to investigate the scope of this incident and its potential impact on our customers. Once we gain a full understanding of the incident, we will promptly notify any affected subscribers and the appropriate regulators or law enforcement.”

SpiderSilk’s Mossab Hussein, the researcher who first discovered the vulnerable database, told TechCrunch that there is no excuse for MoviePass’ negligence in this scenario, which is one we keep seeing played out over and over again across the digital world.

“We keep on seeing companies of all sizes using dangerous methods to maintain and process private user data,” he said. “In the case of MoviePass, we are questioning the reason why would internal technical teams ever be allowed to see such critical data in plaintext—let alone the fact that the data set was exposed for public access by anyone.”

Eminem sues Spotify

Big Data, Digital Systems Technology, General

Rapper Eminem has filed a lawsuit against Spotify through his publishing company, Eight Mile Style. The suit, filed Wednesday, alleges that the popular audio streaming platform engaged in copyright infringement by streaming more than 200 of the rapper’s songs, including “Lose Yourself.”

The suit moreover accuses Spotify of violating the Music Modernization Act (MMA), a federal law put in place recently to address issues arising from streaming services and copryright infringement. Eight Mile Style also takes aim at the law itself.

The Hollywood Reporter obtained a copy of the document, which reportedly argues that Spotify does not have a license to reproduce Eminem’s music. Here’s a direct quote from the complaint: “Spotify has not accounted to Eight Mile or paid Eight Mile for these streams but instead remitted random payments of some sort, which only purport to account for a fraction of those streams.”

Further, Spotify has allegedly put “Lose Yourself” into its “Copyright Control” category (songs in this category have no known owner). “Eight Mile attacks the ‘absurd’ notion that it can’t be identified as the owner of such an iconic song, which was the centerpiece of the 2002 film 8 Mile, hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won an Oscar for best original song,” The Hollywood Reporter writes. “According to chart data, Eminem is among the most followed artists on Spotify with monthly listens on par with Bruno Mars, Coldplay and Taylor Swift.”

As for the MMA, which was signed into law by Donald Trump and which is supposed to simplify the task of identifying and remunerating owners of songs being streamed, Eight Mile Style alleges that Spotify is working around the new rules.

Here’s another quote from the lawsuit: “First, by its terms, the MMA liability limitation section only applies to compositions for which the copyright owner was not known, and to previously unmatched works (compositions not previously matched with sound recordings), and not to ‘matched’ works for which the DMP [Digital Music Provider] knew who the copyright owner was and just committed copyright infringement.”

The charge here is that Spotify pretended not to know who owned the rights to Eminem’s songs, thereby reducing its own liability and creating a situation in which it did not have to pay the artist as much as he legally should have been.

At any rate, the suit claims, Spotify “did not engage in the required commercially reasonable efforts to match sound recordings with the Eight Mile Compositions as required by the MMA.”

It will be interesting to see how the corporation responds.