Ah that Christmas hacking spirit.
Major Toy
Maker VTech Hacked: 4.8 Million Parents And 200,000 Children Exposed
Electronic toy maker VTech's Learning Lodge, the
company's app store database, has been compromised. The security
breach, which occurred earlier this month, has been deemed among the
biggest hacks ever documented.
The incident exposed the private information of
nearly 5 million parents and more than 200,000 children.
According to Motherboard, the hacked personal
information of the Chinese company's customers include names,
passwords, email addresses and home addresses of 4,833,678 parents as
well as the first names, birthdays and genders of their children.
… The hacker told Motherboard of the security
breach, and even handed over files containing the confidential data.
Motherboard then reached out to VTech.
The toy maker confirmed the breach over an email
it sent out to Motherboard on Thursday, Nov. 26, indicating that an
illegal party accessed VTech customer data on its Learning Lodge app
store customer database last Nov. 14.
"We were not aware of this unauthorized
access until you alerted us," said
Grace Pang, VTech's spokesperson.
When asked about the real purpose in obtaining the
data, the hacker said "nothing." The hacker even said that
the data has only been shared with Motherboard, albeit a possibility
exists that the data could have been sold to someone else.
Covers Computer Security and Statistics. My
students will hate it
… There are many interesting examples that
illustrate the concept. I’ll reproduce one of those here:
“In a city of 1 million inhabitants let there be 100 terrorists and 999,900 non-terrorists. To simplify the example, it is assumed that all people present in the city are inhabitants. Thus, the base rate probability of a randomly selected inhabitant of the city being a terrorist is 0.0001, and the base rate probability of that same inhabitant being a non-terrorist is 0.9999. In an attempt to catch the terrorists, the city installs an alarm system with a surveillance camera and automatic facial recognition software.
The software has two failure rates of 1%:
-
The false negative rate: If the camera scans a terrorist, a bell will ring 99% of the time, and it will fail to ring 1% of the time.
-
The false positive rate: If the camera scans a non-terrorist, a bell will not ring 99% of the time, but it will ring 1% of the time.
Very amusing. Would make a good lecture!
It’s not just images – there’s text and
quotes from historians that accompany this interesting piece on
Medium.
(Related) Do you suppose my students care? Will
they bother with preventive measures?
Porn
Viewing Habits Could Be the Next Big Leak: Here’s What To Do
We'll have to lock down our printer…
Want a Ford
GT? Print it yourself
You’re unlikely to find a new Ford GT in your
garage this holiday, but the automaker is giving you a chance to
build one yourself. All you’ll need is a 3D printer and some plans
provided by Ford.
With 3D printers predicted to become household
appliances in the near future, Ford is celebrating its own use of the
technology (at least, a very refined version thereof) with detailed
printable versions of its cars. Tech-savvy makers can simply
download and manufacture more than 1,000
models in miniature, and the rest of us can have a
6-inch-long pre-printed version delivered. The GT (rather, the “Ford
GT E3 2015 Forza Motorsport 6”) is offered as a $230,
limited-edition full-color rendition shipped in a wooden gift box,
while the others — $39 printed or $4.99 for the 3D-printer-ready
.STL file — are a solid colour.
(Related) Perhaps self-driving slot-cars?
Formula E
is planning the first racing series for driverless cars
Interesting. Perhaps a “revolving door” App
to connect businesses with professors?
Business
Professors Need to Spend Time in Companies
Not as bizarre as you might think.
Tech Tats,
A New Biowearable Technology In the Form of Temporary Circuit Board
Tattoos
Tech
Tats are a new category of biowearable technology in the form of
temporary circuit board tattoos that are applied directly to the
skin. Designer Eric
Schneider explains the Tech Tat wearables being developed at
Chaotic Moon Studios in a
video produced by the company.
A turkey of a week.
Hack
Education Weekly News
… Via Politico, a look at the worst school
system in the US, those on Native American reservations: “How
Washington created some of the worst schools in America.” [A
useful bad example? Bob]
… An “update
on British Columbia’s open textbook project” by Tony Bates.
… Via
The Columbus Dispatch: “The state has ordered the entire
administrative and teaching staff at a Columbus middle school to
undergo training in identifying warning signs for behavioral
disabilities among students after they suspended an unruly
sixth-grader for 70 days last school year.” [“Why?
We don't care why!” Bob]
… The BBC looks at “merger
madness” – that is, the consolidation of European
universities.
… The world’s largest OER collection has
been released by
the Smithsonian.
… “Children are becoming more trusting of
what they see online, but sometimes lack the understanding to decide
whether it is true or impartial,” according
to a study by Ofcom, which uses the phrase “digital natives”
in its headline. Ugh. Don’t do that. Here’s a better headline,
from Motherboard:
“Only 31% of Preteens Can Distinguish Paid Ads from Real Search
Results.”
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