Our PicksYou Thought the Oil Spill Was Bad? | TikTok & Extremists | “Devastating” Ransomware Attacks, and more

Voice Copying Algorithms Found Able to Dupe Voice Recognition Devices  (Bob Yirka , Tech Xplore)
A team of researchers at the University of Chicago has found that voice-copying algorithms have advanced to the point that they are now capable of fooling voice recognition devices, and in many cases, people listening to them. The group has posted a paper on the arXiv preprint server that describes two well-known voice copying algorithms.

You Thought the Oil Spill Was Bad? In LA, Toxic Waste Is Everywhere  (Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times)
Between Los Angeles’ oil-pumping past and its half-century-plus as the factory of the world war and the Cold War, we have spilled and spread so much chemical poison into the earth beneath our freeways and our feet that by rights each of us should have two heads.
Imagine what the L.A. landscape would look like if places where the soil or water had been poisoned were flagged like the minefields of Angola, where Prince Harry recently walked along the pathways that his mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales, had before him.
In some parts of L.A., large areas would be marked with a skull-and-crossbones sign alerting you that toxic waste had been manufactured or dumped there over generations, befouling the soil, befouling the groundwater so critically that over the last few decades, the Environmental Protection Agency has clocked Superfund cleanup sites throughout California. Now, at least a dozen sites are still active in L.A. County, and many of the older ones are being cleaned up and repurposed, like the Maywood acres turned into a riverfront park.

Senate Democrat Presses TikTok on Its Handling of Extremist Content Tied to Jan. 6  (Cristiano Lima, Washington Post)
Senate Homeland Security Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) on Tuesday pressed video-sharing app TikTok for information about its efforts to curb violent extremist content before and after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, expanding the panel’s probe into how social media may have contributed to the violence. Peters expressed concern over reports that domestic extremists used the platform to “recruit, organize and communicate” in the days leading up to the riot, and that they “continue to spread their messages through content supporting white supremacists, extremists, and terrorist organizations.” He called on TikTok to provide the panel with information by Oct. 27 on how it enforced policies against extremist and violent content before and after Jan. 6, whether the company cooperated with federal authorities in those efforts and whether its algorithms amplified any of that content. In a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Peters accused the company of taking action against some extremist content only “after continued reports from outside parties,” and said that “TikTok extremist content has been allowed to return and continue operating on its platform.” Spokespeople for TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

DHS, DOJ Move Forward with Collaborative Strategy to Fight ‘Very Individualized’ Domestic Terror Threat  (Bridget Johnson, HSToday)
“Online content, disinformation, false narratives and conspiracy theories” fueling much of the violence today, DHS counterterrorism chief tells Congress.

UK Cyber Head Says Russia Responsible for “Devastating” Ransomware Attacks  (Gordon Corera, BBC)
Cyber-attacks which see hackers get inside computer networks and lock the owners out until they pay a ransom present “the most immediate danger” to UK businesses in cyber-space, the head of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned.

Will Americans Buy into Biden’s Ambitious Domestic Terrorism Plan?  (Karen J. Greenberg, Defense One)
The president’s national strategy pivots the United States away from the worst practices of the war on terrorism—if law enforcement, courts, and agencies will follow.