Our picksIran Hacks WHO | The Mathematics of COVID-19 Prediction | Antibiotic Resistance & Coronavirus, and more

Published 2 April 2020

·  We Must Continue Fighting Terrorism as Relentlessly as the Coronavirus

·  Zoom Vulnerabilities Could Give Attackers Webcam, Microphone Access

·  A Guide to Healthy Skepticism of Artificial Intelligence and Coronavirus

·  Antibiotic Resistance Could Lead to More COVID-19 Deaths

·  Hackers Linked to Iran Target WHO Staff Emails During Coronavirus - Sources

·  Overflowing Oil Tanks Have Traders Eyeing Rail Cars for Storage

·  The Quieter Side of Preparing for Disaster

·  The Interminable Body Count

·  What Does COVID-19 Mean for U.S. National Security

·  The Mathematics of Predicting the Course of the Coronavirus 

We Must Continue Fighting Terrorism as Relentlessly as the Coronavirus (Christopher P. Costa, Defense One)
There’s no miracle drug for stopping terrorism. It is controllable, but never curable.

Zoom Vulnerabilities Could Give Attackers Webcam, Microphone Access (Shannon Vavra, Cyberscoop)
Vulnerabilities discovered in popular video teleconferencing app Zoom could allow attackers to escalate privileges on a computer or allow access to users’ webcams and microphones, according to new research from Jamf Principal Security Researcher Patrick Wardle.
It’s just the latest security and privacy issue for Zoom, which has been served with a class-action lawsuit over its data sharing practices, and come under scrutiny from the New York Attorney General’s Office and the FBI.

A Guide to Healthy Skepticism of Artificial Intelligence and Coronavirus (Alex Engler, Brookings Institution)
The COVID-19 outbreak has spurred considerable news coverage about the ways artificial intelligence (AI) can combat the pandemic’s spread. Unfortunately, much of it has failed to be appropriately skeptical about the claims of AI’s value. Like many tools, AI has a role to play, but its effect on the outbreak is probably small. While this may change in the future, technologies like data reporting, telemedicine, and conventional diagnostic tools are currently far more impactful than AI.

Antibiotic Resistance Could Lead to More COVID-19 Deaths (Claas Kirchhelle, Adam Roberts, Andrew C. Singer, Scientific American)
Secondary bacterial infections are part of the problem, and we need to ramp up research on new drugs to fight them

Hackers Linked to Iran Target WHO Staff Emails During Coronavirus – Sources (Joseph Menn, Christopher Bing, Raphael Satter, Jack Stubbs, Reuters)
Hackers working in the interests of the Iranian government have attempted to break into the personal email accounts of staff at the World Health Organization during the coronavirus outbreak, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Overflowing Oil Tanks Have Traders Eyeing Rail Cars for Storage (Financial Post)
Oil companies are turning to rail cars to stash the crude they can’t sell, as the world runs out of places to store a growing glut of cheap barrels.
North American producers, refiners and traders are now looking to store excess oil in rail yards in Texas, Saskatchewan and Manitoba amid the crude market’s historic plunge and collapsing demand, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Quieter Side of Preparing for Disaster (Laura Mallone, Wired)
For some longtime preppers, it’s not all about bunkers and power generators.

The Interminable Body Count (Elaine Godfrey, The Atlantic)
We may never know how many people the coronavirus kills: “It sounds like it could be totally obvious—just count body bags. It’s not obvious at all.”

What Does COVID-19 Mean for U.S. National Security (Adam Garfinkle, Eurasia Review)
From minor to major issues, mindsets and behaviours are bound to change. But in what direction, no one yet knows with confidence.

The Mathematics of Predicting the Course of the Coronavirus (Adam Rogers and Megan Molteni, Wired)
Epidemiologists are using complex models to help policymakers get ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the leap from equations to decisions is a long one.