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AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are teaming up to create what they are calling the next generation of messaging service. Veuer's Maria Mercedes Galuppo has more. Buzz60

Some of your text messages may have been left exposed on the internet for the world to see.

A database housing millions of private SMS text messages wasleft open online for an extended period of time,ateam of researchers at the online privacy company vpnMentor said Sunday. The Texas-based text messaging firm TrueDialogis thought to be responsible for the leak,the cybersecurity expertssaid.

The database contained access information to online medical services along with passwords and usernames to websites such asGoogle and Facebook.

The researcherswarn that "millions of Americans are at risk." The team was able to access thetext messages because the logs were "completely unsecured and unencrypted," the team said in a blog post.

TrueDialog, which creates text messaging solutions for small and large businesses, has since taken the logs offline, the researchers said. TrueDialoguses texts to sendmarketing materials and urgent alerts to customers.

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The company reaches 5 billion subscribers worldwide, the research team said.

"Wecontacted the company. We disclosed our findings and offered our expertise in helping them close the data leak and ensure nobody was exposed to risk," the researchers said. "The database has since been closed, but TrueDialog never replied to us."

USA TODAY reached out to TrueDialog for comment and details about the alleged leak.

Thetext message data in questionwas also examined by TechCrunch, which said the databasecontained detailed logs of messages sent by customers who used TrueDialogs system. The leaked dataincluded phone numbers, university finance applications, job alerts and other private information.

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"The impact of this data leak can have a lasting impression for hundreds of millions of users. The available information can be sold to both marketers and spammers," the researchers said.

The personal information contained in the text messages could be an asset to scammers;it could also be used in blackmail schemes and lead to identity theft and fraud.

Follow Dalvin Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown.

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/12/01/text-message-leak-millions-americans-might-be-at-risk/4346711002/

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'Hundreds of millions of people' may have had their text messages exposed online, researchers say - USA TODAY

In a global survey, it has come to notice that a high number of youngsters are learning SEO tactics from online sources and other reputed educational institutions. This is because of the fact that the demand for SEO experts has been rising at an exponential rate across the globe. Due to the rising digitization, businessmen have been left with no other way than to shift their business online.

And the rising competition on the internet has been making it necessary for entrepreneurs and businessmen to hire SEO experts in order to increase the ranking of their business websites. A lot of students are pursuing digital marketing as their career and enrolling themselves in various courses related to social media marketing and other types of internet marketing.

In order to beat the competitors in the online world and to track the opportunities for growth, it has become imperative for online businesses to seek white hat SEO services. In developing countries, the demand for well-trained SEO professionals has been rising on a strong note because of the increasing digitization in these countries. The improvement in internet infrastructure and the establishment of business parks have been increasing the competition in the business world significantly.

With the use of SEO services, various online businesses have been getting benefitted in improving their presence in the online world. The use of internet marketing for spreading the word about a given business has been rising and it is making youngsters pursue a career of SEO analyst.

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More Youngsters are Learning SEO Tactics Due to its High Demand in Business World - eNews 2.0

Its the invisible infrastructure that powers our everyday lives, said Ms. Webb, who examines Amazon in her book on the tech giants, The Big Nine. Most of us dont know 95 percent of what Amazon is doing.

She called the contest for Amazons second headquarters a ridiculous parade, a beauty contest in which communities nationwide offered up inducements while failing to make a cleareyed assessment of costs and benefits. With its capabilities, market sway and long-term strategy, she said, Amazon now conducts itself like a nation-state.

None of this was imaginable in 1994, when Jeff Bezos paged through a dictionary in search of a name for an online bookseller and stopped at Amazon. Not only was it the largest river in the world by volume it was four times bigger than the runner-up, which appealed to Mr. Bezos outsize ambitions. Books were just the start.

Some 25 years later, fueled by customers addiction to click-and-done convenience and speedy delivery, Amazon has quietly flowed into many areas of life, bringing to more and more arenas its tireless innovation, relentless focus on data, unforgiving employment practices and omnivorous competition. In many homes here, as across the country, it is the ultimate labor-saving device: supplier of electronics, clothes, groceries, books, movies, music, information and security. More than half of American households now have an Amazon Prime membership, and most shopping searches begin on Amazon, not Google. Globally, Amazon, whose critics call it the apex predator of digital business, delivered 10 billion packages last year more than the number of people on the planet.

Greater Baltimore accounts for one percent of Amazons sales nationwide just about its share of the population, according to data prepared for The New York Times by Rakuten Intelligence, which tracks e-commerce.

But as a transportation hub, with Interstate 95 and major rail lines converging near a busy port and airport, Baltimore punches above its weight originating 2.38 percent of Amazons shipments in the United States, Rakuten said.

Even with all that shipping and logistics, Amazon ranks just 14th among local employers, according to The Baltimore Business Journal. Yet like an online shopper who realizes one day that half his possessions came from Amazon, a Baltimorean who looks for the companys footprints can find them everywhere.

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Prime Mover: How Amazon Wove Itself Into the Life of an American City - The New York Times

The 2019 defense authorization act directed the Secretary of Defense to produce a definition of artificial intelligence (AI) by August 13, 2019 to help guide law and policy. But that was not done.

Thereforeno official U.S. government definition of AI yet exists, the Congressional Research Service observed ina newly updated reporton the subject.

But plenty of other unofficial and sometimes inconsistent definitions do exist. And in any case, CRS noted, AI research is underway in the fields of intelligence collection and analysis, logistics, cyber operations, information operations, command and control, and in a variety of semiautonomous and autonomous vehicles. Already, AI has been incorporated into military operations in Iraq and Syria.

The Central Intelligence Agency alone has around 140 projects in development that leverage AI in some capacity to accomplish tasks such as image recognition and predictive analytics. CRS surveys the field inArtificial Intelligence and National Security, updated November 21, 2019.

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The 2018 financial audit of the Department of Defense, which was the first such audit ever, cost a stunning $413 million to perform. Its findings were assessed by CRS in another new report. SeeDepartment of Defense First Agency-wide Financial Audit (FY2018): Background and Issues for Congress, November 27, 2019.

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The Arctic region is increasingly important as a focus of security, environmental and economic concern. So it is counterintuitive and likely counterproductive that the position of U.S. Special Representative for the Arctichas been left vacant since January 2017. In practice it has beeneffectively eliminatedby the Trump Administration. SeeChanges in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress, updated November 27, 2019.

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Other noteworthy new and updated CRS reports include the following (which are also available through the CRS public website atcrsreports.congress.gov).

Resolutions to Censure the President: Procedure and History, updated November 20, 2019

Immigration: Recent Apprehension Trends at the U.S. Southwest Border, November 19, 2019

Air Force B-21 Raider Long Range Strike Bomber, updated November 13, 2019

Precision-Guided Munitions: Background and Issues for Congress, November 6, 2019

Space Weather: An Overview of Policy and Select U.S. Government Roles and Responsibilities, November 20, 2019

Intelligence Community Spending: Trends and Issues, updated November 6, 2019

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Artificial Intelligence and National Security, and More from CRS - Secrecy News

Companies planning on using artificial intelligence (AI) in their work should ensure it is transparent and accountable, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has said.

The UKs data watchdog has published its first draft regulatory guidance into the use of AI in collaboration with the Alan Turing Institute.

It warned that the public are still uneasy over the use of computer software to make decisions previously made by humans, so any systems must be transparent and provide clear explanations of decisions made.

The guidance identified four key principles for AI: transparency, accountability, consideration of context and reflection on impacts.

The ICO said it had found that more than half of people remain concerned about machines making complex, automated decisions about them.

The potential for AI is huge, but its implementation is often complex, which makes it difficult for people to understand how it works, said Simon McDougall, the ICOs executive director of technology and innovation.

And when people dont understand a technology, it can lead to doubt, uncertainty and mistrust.

Last year, ministers published the AI Sector Deal, a joint venture between the Government and industry to try to push the UK to the forefront of emerging technology such as AI.

The ICO and the Alan Turing Institutes draft guidance comes after an independent review by Professor Dame Wendy Hall and also the Government urged both parties to provide input on the subject.

The guidance said the four main principles are rooted in the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), EU-wide laws introduced last year to hand greater control over personal data to individuals.

The principles say organisations should ensure decisions made by AI are obvious and appropriately explained to people in a meaningful way.

On accountability, it says firms should ensure appropriate oversight of AI decision systems, and be answerable to others.

It also called for companies to reflect on the impact their AI use would have by ensuring they ask and answer questions about the ethical purposes and objectives of your AI project at the initial stages of formulating the problem and defining the outcome.

The ICO said it will consult on its guidance until January 24, and Mr McDougall encouraged industry experts to respond to its draft before then.

The decisions made using AI need to be properly understood by the people they impact, he said.

This is no easy feat and involves navigating the ethical and legal pitfalls around the decision-making process built in to AI systems.

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Artificial intelligence use 'must be transparent and accountable' - The Irish News