ACM TechNews, Friday, August 23, 2024

Welcome to the August 23, 2024 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

The Top Programming Languages of 2024

Python dominates IEEE Spectrum's 11th annual rankings of the most popular programming languages, despite ranking second after database query language SQL, in terms of programming languages popular with employers. Java, Javascript, and C++ continue to rank toward the top, but Typescript is climbing up the ranks. Also making gains is Rust, which can be attributed, in part, to a February White House cybersecurity report that called for C and C++ to be replaced by memory-safe programming languages.
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Halliburton Hit by Apparent Cyberattack

A source said a cyberattack at Halliburton is affecting business operations at the oilfield services firm's Houston campus and some global networks. In a statement, Halliburton said, "We are aware of an issue affecting certain company systems and are working diligently to assess the cause and potential impact." A U.S. Department of Energy spokesperson said the agency is "aware of reports of a cyber incident impacting an energy services company," adding, "there are no indications that the incident is impacting energy services at this time."
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China Maneuvers for Pole Position in Robotaxi Race

Analysts predict Chinese firms will have a competitive advantage in the more-than-$100-billion robotaxi market as autonomous vehicles begin operating in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. However, although the Chinese government has accelerated policies and efforts to bolster commercial adoption of autonomous driving technology, Goldman Sachs analysts believe wide-scale adoption is still "at least a few years away."
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Cash for Catching Scientific Errors

The Estimating the Reliability and Robustness of Research (ERROR) project, rolled out by researchers at Switzerland's University of Bern and Germany's Leipzig University, offers payments to reviewers who spot errors in code, statistical analyses, and reference citations in psychology and psychology-related papers. Modeled after software bug-bounty programs, reviewers receive up to 1,000 Swiss francs (around U.S.$1,172) for each paper they analyze, with bonuses for identified errors, including up to 2,500 francs (U.S.$2,930) for errors requiring a major correction notice or a retraction. Meanwhile, authors are paid 250 francs (U.S.$293) for making data available and answering questions, and another 250 francs if no or only minor errors are detected.
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GM to Cut More Than 1,000 Software Engineers, Mostly in U.S.

General Motors Inc. (GM) reportedly will lay off more than 1,000 software engineers just two months after former Apple executives were hired as senior vice presidents in the automaker's software and services organization. The cuts follow GM’s increased hiring in software development in recent years as it expanded into electric vehicles, self-driving cars, and software-related services.
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FBI Resumes Flagging Foreign Disinformation to Social Media Giants

Since the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge accusing the Biden administration of censorship, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and other agencies have resumed coordination with major social media platforms to curtail foreign disinformation campaigns. DOJ posted its procedures for communicating with social media companies, clarifying that the FBI cannot pressure them to take action in response to information about foreign influence operations.
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Oklahoma State to Wear QR Codes on Helmets

Football helmets worn this season by Oklahoma State University players will display QR codes linked to the general team fund, allowing fans to contribute to its name, image, and likeness money pool. The 1.5-inch decals, showing each player's name and number, will be visible on close-up shots during broadcasts and postgame photos featured on social media.
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U.S. Government Wants You — Yes, You — to Hunt Down Generative AI Flaws

Ethical AI and algorithmic assessment nonprofit Humane Intelligence and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are calling for public participation in the qualifying round of NIST's Assessing Risks and Impacts of AI challenge. Those who make it through the online qualifier will participate in an in-person red-teaming event to assess AI office productivity software at the Conference on Applied Machine Learning in Information Security in October. Said Humane Intelligence's Theo Skeadas, "We want to democratize the ability to conduct evaluations and make sure everyone using these models can assess for themselves whether or not the model is meeting their needs."
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Swiss to Join Two EU Security Cooperation Projects

Switzerland's Federal Council announced it will participate in the Military Mobility and Cyber Ranges Federation initiatives as part of the EU's Permanent Structured Cooperation policy. The Military Mobility initiative is intended to facilitate cross-border transport and movement applications processing, while the Cyber Ranges Federation's goal is to improve cyber defense cooperation. This follows Switzerland's decision to enhance its defenses against cyberattacks by joining the European Cyber Security Organization.
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Tesla Paying Up to $48/hour for People to Wear Motion-Capture Suits

LinkedIn data revealed that Tesla has been hiring dozens of workers over the past year to wear motion-capture suits to help train its humanoid robot, dubbed Optimus. These "data collection operators" wear motion-capture suits and virtual reality headsets for more than seven hours per day while walking test routes and completing designated tasks. The operators must write daily reports analyzing the data they collect, and perform minor tasks related to the equipment and software.
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A Loophole in Digital Wallet Security

University of Massachusetts Amherst computer engineers found that Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and similar digital wallets are not secure, as they rely on outdated authentication methods and put a higher priority on convenience than security. The researchers noted that digital wallets lack an adequate mechanism to authenticate whether the user of a payment card is the registered cardholder, adding that when cards are reported stolen, banks block transactions from the physical card, but not digital wallet transactions.
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AI Detection Tools Often Fail to Catch Election Deepfakes

An April study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism revealed how basic software tricks and editing techniques can fool many deepfake detectors. A 2023 study by U.S., Australian, and Indian researchers found accuracy rates for deepfake detectors ranged from just 25% to 82%. University of California at Berkeley computer science professor Hany Farid said the datasets used to train detectors mainly contain lab-created, not real-world, deepfakes and perform poorly in identifying abnormal patterns in body movement or lighting.
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What Time Is It on the Moon?

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers have developed a system to ensure precise timekeeping on the Moon, which is crucial for spacecraft landings and communications with Earth. The system creates a new master "Moon time," similar to Coordinated Universal Time on Earth, based on the Moon's gravitational environment. Said NIST's Bijunath Patla, "It's like having the entire Moon synchronized to one 'time zone' adjusted for the Moon's gravity, rather than having clocks gradually drift out of sync with Earth's time."
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