💡 Byteside Weekly: Optus says 'yes, we were hacked'

Byteside Weekly Edition: September 23, 2022

This week on Premium

We've kicked off Byteside Premium this week. You can add the Premium newsletter to your subscription whether you pay or not, with previews and occasional free full posts sent out through each week.

Slack, Canva, and a reset on where we spend our workday

In a year where every business is looking for an excuse to reduce costs, adding a few more ‘essential’ features to a subscription service can keep you off the cut list.

BytesideSeamus Byrne

‘In the style of’: why AI art needs to address named artists as prompts

If you ask an AI art tool to be inspired by a specific artist, should the artist be compensated?

BytesideSeamus Byrne

More on AI art

I expect I'll dig into this some more next week after some conversations with art experts in response to my piece above. This really is a fascinating area and it's heating up very quickly.

This artist is dominating AI-generated art. And he’s not happy about it.

Greg Rutkowski is a more popular prompt than Picasso.

MIT Technology ReviewMelissa Heikkilä

Fearing copyright issues, Getty Images bans AI-generated artwork

Getty sidesteps potential legal problems from unresolved rights and ethics issues.

Ars TechnicaBenj Edwards

Brain Food

Chess Is Just Poker Now

A cheating controversy involving two grandmasters shows how computers have transformed the game.

The AtlanticMatteo Wong

Social Media and News Fact Sheet

Digital news has become an important part of Americans’ news media diets, with social media playing a crucial role in news consumption. Today, half of U.S. adults get news at least sometimes from social media. When it comes to where Americans regularly get news on social media, Facebook outpaces all…

Pew Research Center's Journalism Project

The comparison of total usage and users who get their news from a source is very interesting. Every platform changes the shape and meaning of a lot of what we consume. So it really matters how and where people get their news.

Big news

Optus says customer information compromised in cyber attack

Optus is hit by a cyber attack that compromises customer information. Customers’ names, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses have been exposed.

ABC News

The media has a habit of hyperbole. But this Optus hack is big. A lot of customers, current and past, will need to be very careful with identity fraud and phishing attacks. Watch for unexpected emails and messages.

And if Optus gets in touch with a weird request, it might not be Optus...

Transparency matters to rebuild trust, so I hope we hear a lot more about what went wrong, when it happened, and how their security failed.

Australians Made 80,000 Complaints About Telcos Last Year, Which Is a Huge Improvement

In 2021-2022, Australians made 79,534 complaints about telcos to the TIO. That’s quite a lot, yes, but it’s a 33.4 per cent decrease over the year prior.

Gizmodo AustraliaEmail

DHS to Spend Almost $700,000 Investigating ‘Radicalization in Gaming’

Several groups are coming together to study the little understood phenomenon.

VICEMatthew Gault

Fantastic and important research investment. An awful lot of kids can easily end up on a conveyer belt toward white supremacy through online game communities.

Google app starts rolling out ‘Results about you’ to help remove personal information

Announced at I/O 2022 in May, Google announced a new tool to streamline the process of removing Search results that contain your...

9to5GoogleAbner Li

Really useful tool is starting to go live.

Google wants to take on Dolby with new open media formats

The company wants to establish an open, royalty-free alternative to Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. The project is known internally as Project Caviar.

ProtocolJanko Roettgers

Even if it all starts from a place where Google just wants to save money, it's still great that a company with the resources to develop new royalty-free media formats is trying to make it happen.

Twitch’s Biggest Streamers Are Asking the Platform to Get Rid of Gambling

The #TwitchStopGambling hashtag has caught on after streamers like Pokimane and Hasan Piker discovered that a fellow streamer suffers from a gambling addiction.

VICEGita Jackson

Any time I've seen a 'slots' or other crappy gambling stream in the top streams, I've definitely been left wondering WTF is going on over there. Thankfully getting called out / threatened with action by other top streamers got them to do something about it and ban gambling streams.

Microsoft confirms its recent Series X update lets Xbox One discs be played offline | Engadget

Many Xbox One disc games can be played offline thanks to a new update..

Engadget

Good tweets

Going to PAX Aus?

For the nerds out there heading to PAX Aus, I'll be heading to Melbourne too!

I'm moderating a panel on "How to pitch for paid work in games journalism" at 4pm Friday 7th, and on the "PAX Geek Parenting Gathering" panel at 11am Sunday 9th. The full schedule is in the PAX app – you can find it here.

I'll also be wandering the floor and attending other panels all weekend in search of stories, so if you see me – say hi!