Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 3, 2025

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 3, 2025 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on …

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Records, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media

People are poorly equipped to detect AI-powered voice clones

Nature Scientific Reports [full text] – People are poorly equipped to detect AI-powered voice clones. Sarah Barrington, Emily A. Cooper & Hany Farid. “As generative artificial intelligence (AI) continues its ballistic trajectory, everything from text to audio, image, and video generation continues to improve at mimicking human-generated content. Through a series of perceptual studies, we report on …

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Records, Financial System, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines

US government website’s ‘radical left’ popup may violate the law

Follow up to Government Workers Say Their Out-of-Office Replies Were Forcibly Changed to Blame Democrats for Shutdown – See Also: Mashable: “The U.S. federal government shut down at midnight on Wednesday, bringing a halt to numerous government services after Congress could not agree on a crucial funding bill. Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration was quick to …

Subjects: Censorship, E-Government, E-Records, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

MAGA wages campaign to redefine “hate” after Kirk killing

Axios: “Hate crimes have hit record levels in the past few years. Analysts say antisemitic crimes rose again in 2024. MAGA activists are going after two of the nation’s most storied civil rights watchdogs, accusing them of smearing conservatives as extremists. MAGA leaders, backed by the Trump administration and Elon Musk, are trying to undermine the …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Legal Research

Trump Administration Plans Cuts to Social Security Disability Benefits

Urban Institute – Regulatory Changes Could Significantly Reduce Eligibility for Benefits, Particularly among Older Workers. September 18, 2025. The Social Security Administration (SSA) is preparing a proposed rule that could significantly reshape how disability eligibility is determined for two major programs: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). This brief examines the …

Subjects: E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

Everything is terrorism in Trump’s America

The Verge: “The Trump administration declared war on the “terrorist organization” of “antifa” and the supposed “networks” associated with it last week. Antifa is not so much a vast national conspiracy as it is simply an abbreviation for anti-fascism — but don’t point out that anti-anti-fascism looks a lot like fascism. That would make you …

Subjects: Legal Research

Fast.com

What is FAST.com measuring? FAST.com speed test gives you an estimate of your current Internet speed. You will generally be able to get this speed from leading Internet services, which use globally distributed servers. Why does FAST.com focus primarily on download speed? Download speed is most relevant for people who are consuming content on the …

Subjects: Internet

AI coding hype overblown, Bain shrugs

The Register: “Tried by two-thirds of firms, ignored by most devs, and productivity barely moved. Software development was one of the first areas to adopt generative AI, but the promised revolution has so far delivered only modest productivity gains, and Bain says only a full rethink of the software lifecycle will shift the dial. As …

Subjects: AI, Economy, Education, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Search Engines

Data Demands Put State FEMA Funds at Risk

DataIndex.us: “Demography has historically been a quiet field with little time in the national spotlight. Between the three of us, we have spent nearly 5 decades working at the nexus of applied demographic modeling and public policy. We have built population estimates for the United States Census Bureau (Chris and Mark), built population estimates and …

Subjects: Climate Change, E-Government, Environmental Law, Freedom of Information, Government Documents

Trump administration knocks out at least 15 oversight websites, saying IGs ‘lied to the public’

NextGov/FCW – “At least 15 government oversight websites were down — and with them, access to watchdog reports and required hotline and whistleblower links — as of Wednesday evening. That’s not due to the federal shutdown that began at midnight; it’s a deliberate move by the White House, whose Office of Management and Budget is …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, E-Government, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Government Workers Say Their Out-of-Office Replies Were Forcibly Changed to Blame Democrats for Shutdown

Wired – no paywall: “On Wednesday, the first day of the US government shutdown, employees at the Department of Education (DOE) set their automatic out-of-office email responses to inform recipients that they would be unable to respond until after the shutdown. Hours later, many DOE employees realized their response message had been altered to contain …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Government, E-Mail, E-Records, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents

TrumpRx Could Let Government Steal All Your Data, Legal Expert Warns

TNR: “President Donald Trump’s new scheme to transform the federal government into a pharmacy is already raising red flags for legal and health experts. Earlier this week, Trump announced the launch of TrumpRx, a strangely socialist-sounding service where consumers can procure cheap prescription drugs from the U.S. government—just days before Trump’s 100 percent tariff on …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Commerce, Health Care, Internet, Medicine