williamyf writes: This puts Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Chrysler, Dodge, DS, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram, and Vauxhall under a single corporate parent and merges operations. PSA Group boss Carlos Tavares will be CEO of the 11-person board, with FCA’s John Elkann as chair. Fiat Chrysler and PSA said that the 50:50 merger should save more than $4 billion a year from “run-rate synergies without any plant closures.” Why is this news for nerds and stuff that matters? Because there are car nerds too, and cars use a lot of software nowadays.

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Source: Slashdot – Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group Are Merging To Become World’s Fourth-Largest Automaker

The Interior Department is grounding its entire fleet of aerial drones (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), one of the largest in the federal government, citing increasing concerns about the national security risk from Chinese manufacturers. The Wall Street Journal reports: The department has more than 800 drones, all of which are either made in China or have Chinese parts, according to a person familiar with the matter. The machines are used to fight forest fires, survey erosion, monitor endangered species and inspect dams. Under an order from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Wednesday, the drones will be grounded until the department completes a review of potential security risks of Chinese drones, said department spokesman Nick Goodwin. Exceptions will be made for emergency situations, including natural disasters or when lives are threatened, Mr. Goodwin said.

Officials worry that U.S. reliance on Chinese drones might be putting critical infrastructure at risk. They are concerned the drones may be sending information back to the Chinese government or hackers elsewhere to use for cyberattacks or other offenses. The Interior Department’s decision is one of the biggest responses yet and may be the only total fleet shutdown in the federal government. It is not coordinating with the White House or other federal agencies.

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Source: Slashdot – US Interior Department To Ground Its Drones Over Chinese Spying Risk

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Globe and Mail: A confidential Sidewalk Labs document from 2016 lays out the founding vision of the Google-affiliated development company, which included having the power to levy its own property taxes, track and predict people’s movements and control some public services. The document, which The Globe and Mail has seen, also describes how people living in a Sidewalk community would interact with and have access to the space around them — an experience based, in part, on how much data they’re willing to share, and which could ultimately be used to reward people for “good behavior.” Known internally as the “yellow book,” the document was designed as a pitch book for the company, and predates Sidewalk’s relationship and formal agreements with Toronto by more than a year. Peppered with references to Disney theme parks and noted futurist Buckminster Fuller, it says Sidewalk intended to “overcome cynicism about the future.”

But the 437-page book documents how much private control of city services and city life Google parent company Alphabet Inc.’s leadership envisioned when it created the company, which could soon be entitled to some of the most valuable underdeveloped real estate in North America, estimated by one firm to be worth more than half-a-billion dollars. Since 2017, Sidewalk has been in negotiations with the government agency Waterfront Toronto to redevelop a lucrative section of the city’s derelict eastern waterfront. Both parties have been working toward a development deal ahead of an Oct. 31 vote, which The Globe reported Tuesday is expected to be on terms that are favorable to Waterfront Toronto. That includes a reduction in the amount of land Sidewalk would have control over, better guarantees for privacy in the neighborhood and better opportunities for Canadian entities to profit from innovations there. “Sidewalk will require tax and financing authority to finance and provide services, including the ability to impose, capture and reinvest property taxes,” the book said. The company would also create and control its own public services, including charter schools, special transit systems and a private road infrastructure.

As for public safety and criminal justice, the book mentions “an alternative approach to jail,” using data from so-called “root-cause asseessment tools.” “This would guide officials in determining a response when someone is arrested, such as sending someone to a substance abuse center,” reports The Globe. “The overall criminal justice system and policing of serious crimes and emergencies would be ‘likely to remain within the purview of the host government’s police department,’ however.” Sidewalk Labs released its official plan in June, which includes building ten new buildings, integrating Toronto’s light-rail system to serve the new neighborhood, and installing public Wi-Fi.

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Source: Slashdot – Google’s Sidewalk Labs Leaked Document Reveals Company’s Early Vision For Data Collection, Tax Powers, Criminal Justice

A new report published this week by threat intelligence firm Armor puts the number of managed service providers (MSPs) that got hit with ransomware this year at 13, possibly more. From a report: For those unfamiliar with the term, a managed service provider is a company that manages a customer’s IT infrastructure using remote administration tools. MSPs have been around since the 90s, with the dawn of large computer fleets; however, they’ve been catching on with more and more companies in recent years. […] Starting this year, ransomware gangs have realized that they could compromise the network of an MSP, and then use their remote access tools to deploy ransomware on the MSP’s customer networks, infecting hundreds of companies and thousands of computers, all at once, with the push of a few buttons. In a report published this week, Armor took a deeper look at the entire MSP ecosystem and unearthed several other incidents. In total, the company found 13, but many more could be unreported.

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Source: Slashdot – At Least 13 Managed Service Providers Were Used To Push Ransomware This Year