Following is a list of things BruinTechs should know and share with others:
1. Volunteers Needed for Usability Workshop
Interested in UX? Interested in assessing potential products?
If you know of a product team who would be interested in having their product assessed (it could be you), please sign up!
We are hoping to have a mix of skill sets for the UX-interested volunteer team - you do not need to have a specific title or design skills to be considered! Sign up here.
2. Book Talk: Spies, Lies, and Algorithms
Spying has never been more ubiquitous—or less understood. The world is drowning in spy movies, TV shows, and novels, but universities offer more courses on rock and roll than on the CIA and there are more congressional experts on powdered milk than espionage. This crisis in intelligence education is distorting public opinion, fueling conspiracy theories, and hurting intelligence policy. In Spies, Lies, and Algorithms, Amy Zegart separates fact from fiction as she offers an engaging and enlightening account of the past, present, and future of American espionage as it faces a revolution driven by digital technology. Register here.
3. Russia blocks access to Facebook and Twitter
Russia has completely blocked access to Facebook in retaliation for the platform placing restrictions on state-owned media.
The Russian state communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, later said it had also restricted access to Twitter.
Facebook and its sister platform Instagram have removed Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik from their output in the European Union this week and did the same with the UK on Friday, which drew an immediate response from the Russian communications regulator. Continue reading.
4. Book Recommendation: Design Justice
This book explores the theory and practice of design justice, demonstrates how universalist design principles and practices erase certain groups of people —specifically, those who are intersectionally disadvantaged or multiply-burdened under the matrix of domination (white supremacist heteropatriarchy, ableism, capitalism, and settler colonialism) — and invites readers to “build a better world, a world where many worlds fit; linked worlds of collective liberation and ecological sustainability.” Along the way, the book documents a multitude of real-world community-led design practices, each grounded in a particular social movement. Design Justice goes beyond recent calls for design for good, user-centered design, and employment diversity in the technology and design professions; it connects design to larger struggles for collective liberation and ecological survival. Read the Open Access Book here.
5. Thousands of Nvidia employee passwords leak online as hackers’ ransom deadline looms
The ransomware group that claims to have taken a terabyte of data from chipmaking giant Nvidia is threatening to release the company’s “most closely-guarded secrets” today unless it meets the gang’s increasingly bizarre demands.
The Lapsus$ ransomware group, which first claimed responsibility for the data breach last week, has already started leaking data. According to data breach monitoring website Have I Been Pwned, the hackers stole the credentials of more than 71,000 Nvidia employees. Several Nvidia email addresses known to TechCrunch all appeared compromised, according to our checks. The data includes email addresses and Windows password hashes, according to HIBP, “many of which were subsequently cracked and circulated within the hacking community.” Continue reading.
