Keep your smart devices in the dark? If these microphones are sensitive enough to pick up the vibrations caused by a beam of light, what else can they detect?
https://threatpost.com/light-based-attacks-digital-home/161583/
Light-Based Attacks Expand in the Digital Home
Imagine someone hacking into an Amazon Alexa device using a laser beam and then doing some online shopping using that person account. This is a scenario presented by a group of researchers who are exploring why digital home assistants and other sensing systems that use sound commands to perform functions can be hacked by light.
The same team that last year mounted a signal-injection attack against a range of smart speakers merely by using a laser pointer are still unraveling the mystery of why the microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) microphones in the products turn the light signals into sound.
Researchers at the time said that they were able to launch inaudible commands by shining lasers – from as far as 110 meters, or 360 feet – at the microphones on various popular voice assistants, including Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Facebook Portal, and Google Assistant.
A summary for my Computer Security students.
How Privacy Professionals Can Comply with Cookie Consent?
According to Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive, organizations must obtain prior informed consent from the consumer before storage or access to information stored via a user’s terminal equipment. Take for example, cookies dropped on websites. Organizations must ask users if they agree to accept these cookies or web beacons before they are placed. The ePrivacy Directive exempts “strictly necessary” which are used solely for carrying out communication transmission.
Privacy professionals need to make sure that their cookie notice includes the following in order to stay compliant with privacy regulations:
Explain the purpose of the installation of cookies that the site uses, briefly
State action which will signify consent
Be sufficiently conspicuous
Notify consumers on cookie purpose, usage, and related third-party activity.
Gosh, you think?
https://www.databreaches.net/amazons-pharmacy-venture-opens-new-privacy-security-law-risks/
Amazon’s Pharmacy Venture Opens New Privacy, Security Law Risks
Jacquie Lee and Jake Holland report:
Amazon’s push into delivering prescription drugs puts it in the crosshairs of everyone from state attorneys general to data thieves—who will all be scrutinizing how the e-commerce giant protects sensitive patient information.
Amazon’s new online pharmacy business will sell brand and generic prescription medications that consumers can buy through their insurance or through their Amazon Prime accounts for a discount.
Read more on Bloomberg Law.
A quiet but continuous trend.
https://www.ft.com/content/2cfe3d07-7e69-4f57-b634-8b6002f967cb
France demands digital tax payments from US tech groups
French tax authorities have begun demanding millions of euros from US technology groups as they push ahead with a new digital services tax that has enraged Washington.
Facebook and Amazon are among the companies to have received communication from French authorities in recent days demanding payment of the tax for 2020, according to French officials, company executives and advisers.
The collection of the tax, which Washington has said is an example of an unfair trade practice because it largely affects US companies, threatens to reignite the transatlantic trade tensions and trigger new tariffs on Europe weeks ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden.
The US trade representative’s office is now expected to put tariffs of 25 per cent on $1.3bn worth of French handbags and make-up, having at first threatened to hit champagne and cheeses with import tariffs of 100 per cent.
Several governments have either already introduced or plan to introduce their own digital services tax. They argue that tech companies pay too little tax on the profits they make in many countries, partly because they record them in low-tax jurisdictions such as Ireland.
My New Year resolution: make more videos.
An Easy Way to Make Videos on Windows 10 Computers
Microsoft Photos includes a video creation tool for making short audio slideshow-style videos. You'll find this by just opening the native photos app in Windows 10. Within the editor there are tools for adding animated effects to still images, insert your existing video clips into a video project, and tools for adding audio to your video. There's also a great option to search for Creative Commons licensed images and insert them directly into your video project. The best part of that feature is that attribution information is automatically added onto the images you choose through the built-in search tool.
In the following video I provide a demonstration of how to create a video in Microsoft Photos in Windows 10.
I know some people in these categories…
The New York Times is available to high school students and teachers across the United States — free
Free digital access continues through September 1, 2021.”
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