Indistinguishable from the FBI's backdoor, except
they claim to have a fix for this one.
According to the researchers at security firm Check Point, “Hundreds of millions of Android smartphones may be at risk from a security flaw that allows hackers to hijack a handset without a victim’s knowledge. Devices made by Samsung, HTC, LG and ZTE, including those running the latest version of Android, are potentially vulnerable. Check point has dubbed the flaw “Certifi-gate.”
The company said that software installed on smartphones by the manufacturers, which cannot be disabled by users, could be exploited by malicious apps, giving them privileged access to the device.
This means hackers could steal contact information and other personal data, track a user’s location, and remotely activate the smartphone’s microphone without the user’s knowledge. Gabi Reish, Check Point’s vice president of product management stated that “it would make it a remote spying device.”
Read more on Patently
Apple.
An update to one my IT Governance students
analyzed.
Investopedia reports:
Warehouse membership club Costco says it needs more time to secure its photo processing website.
Third-party photo service provider PNI Digital Media was hacked last month, causing retailers Costco, CVS Health, and Wal-Mart to take down their respective photo processing websites and post cautionary notes in their place.
Costco had notified its customers at the time that it was “diligently working to determine when we can reenable the site, but in all likelihood, that will not occur until early August.” It updated that notice the other day to essentially say, on second thought, give us another week or so.
Read more on Investopedia.
Might be a memorable (or horrible) way to
introduce privacy issues and the reference to the Streisand Effect.
Lenny Kravitz, meet Barbra Streisand.
Uproxx reports:
Hope everyone got a good look, because Lenny Kravitz has had just about enough of your gawking.
When the rocker’s “axe” first surfaced on the internet after its surprise cameo at a festival in Stockholm, Sweden, it was all laughs. Even Lenny himself took a lighthearted approach to the potentially embarrassing situation, taking to Twitter and posting a screenshot of a conversation between himself and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. He even coined the event #PenisGate. But those mirthful laughs and giggles at a potentially humiliating moment are over. The “Where Are We Running” singer is considering legal action about having the dick pics taken down off the internet.
According to Metro (via NME), Lenny’s legal representatives are now threatening publishers with lawsuits, saying the photos breach their “clients’ copyright, human rights, right-of-publicity and performer’s rights.”
Read more on Uproxx.
When you unpack new things you often need to
remove the cosmoline.
By default, Microsoft
gets to see your location, keystrokes and browser history -- and
listen to your microphone, and some of that stuff is shared with
"trusted [by Microsoft, not by you] partners."
You can turn this all off, of course, by digging
through screen after screen of "privacy" dashboards
“I Don’t Want to Belong to Any Club That Will
Accept Me as a Member” Groucho Marx Even if it helps you get a
loan?
Facebook
patents technology to help lenders discriminate against borrowers
based on social connections
Facebook has been granted an
updated patent from the U.S. Patent office on a technology that
can help lenders discriminate against certain borrowers based on the
borrower’s social network connections.
… Here’s the last use case Facebook
describes in the patent:
In a fourth embodiment of the invention, the service provider is a lender. When an individual applies for a loan, the lender examines the credit ratings of members of the individual’s social network who are connected to the individual through authorized nodes. If the average credit rating of these members is at least a minimum credit score, the lender continues to process the loan application. Otherwise, the loan application is rejected.
Soon, everyone will have these embedded at birth.
Another benefit of Windows 10?
All NFL
Players Are Getting RFID Chips This Season
… Last year, the NFL tested out Zebra
Technologies MotionWorks RFID system in 18 stadiums to track
vector data: A player’s speed, distance, and direction traveled
during each game in real-time. This season, that wireless tracking
technology will be embedded in every NFL player’s shoulder pads,
and viewers at home can see all that data come to life in the
redesigned NFL 2015 app
for Xbox One and Windows
10.
Within the app, there’s a feature called Next
Gen Stats that turns each player into an digital avatar for a “Next
Gen Replay.” In coordination with a highlight clip posted shortly
after it occurs live on the field, Next Gen Replay displays every
player’s speed at each moment of a play, lets you toggle between
players, and keeps track of the actual yardage a running
back has run in a play or in a game.
… The new app will be available in late
August, just in time for week three of the preseason. The NFL app
and the Next Gen Stats features are free to everyone.
Curious. (Digest Item #2)
iTunes Is
Illegal In the UK
Using iTunes is now illegal in the UK, with the
current copyright laws turning almost everyone into a criminal.
Copying copyrighted content for personal use was actually illegal in
the UK until 2014, when the government legalized
an activity already undertaken by most people.
Unfortunately, several organizations looking after
the welfare of musicians — including the Musicians’ Union and UK
Music — weren’t happy with the change in the law, and applied for
a judicial review. They got it, and the changes to the law have now
been overturned.
This means that copying the music from a CD you
have bought onto an MP3 player is now illegal. Which is a feature
built into iTunes, Windows Media Player, and countless other pieces
of software. All of which are now, by the letter of the law,
assisting people in criminal behavior.
A government spokesperson told TorrentFreak,
“It is now unlawful to make private copies of copyright works you
own, without permission from the copyright holder – this includes
format shifting from one medium to another.” So
perhaps we should bombard music labels with such requests until they
join us in the 21st century.
Really confusing. Isn't any link to your site a
desirable thing? How does any of this stuff work?
Jet.com
Runs Into Turbulence With Retailers
Dozens of the nation’s largest retailers
including Macy’s Inc.,
Amazon.com Inc.,
and Home Depot Inc.
have quickly moved to disassociate themselves from new discount
retail website Jet.com.
The retailers complained to Jet after discovering
it had placed links to their sites without permission, promising
its own members cash back for making purchases after clicking the
links. [I have
no idea how that would work. Bob]
… Companies with multiple brands whose links
have been withdrawn from Jet include heavyweights Wal-Mart
Stores Inc., Gap
Inc., Walgreens,
Williams-Sonoma Inc.
and L’Oréal SA. “If
someone is using our brand without our permission, there are a
multitude of concerns, and we’re not going to allow it,” said a
Home Depot spokesman, who added that Jet was cooperative in removing
his company’s logo after being asked to do so.
Liza Landsman, Jet’s chief customer officer,
said some of the merchants requesting their brands be removed were
unhappy because they view Jet as a competitor, while others insisted
Jet negotiate a deal with them first. Another group of merchants was
unaware but was happy for Jet to direct traffic to them, she said.
… For example, Jet promises 30% cash back to
its members when they buy products on Nike Inc.’s site after
clicking its affiliate link, an offer that would cover the cost of
Jet’s $50 a year membership if consumers bought one high-price pair
of shoes.
I'm addicted.
Hack
Education Weekly News
… The ACLU has filed
a lawsuit in Kentucky, highlighting the use of restraints in
school and releasing a video of an 8 year old boy crying as a school
police office handcuffs his arms behind his back. The ACLU claims
that the schools’ practice of shackling students (this boy and a
girl, age 9) violated the ADA. More via
The Guardian and the
AP. [And we wonder why
students hate school? Bob]
… Via
CBS Detroit: “A teenager who was locked up for nearly 40 days
in a dispute over a snowball has filed a lawsuit against the Detroit
school district after a judge dismissed the criminal case.”
… “One day before a district court ruling
was to go into effect that would force the NCAA to allow colleges to
pay student-athletes $5,000 per year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals has placed a stay on that order,” says
NPR.
… Two school
districts are adopting bodycams, THE Journal reports.
… A study of 10,000 by
TNTP “found that professional development – the teacher
workshops and training that cost taxpayers billions of dollars each
year – is largely a waste.”
… The
Gartner Hype Cycle for Education, 2015 edition.
For my students who don't read?
Add a Text
to Speech Function to Your Browser
Announcify
is a free text to speech application that is available as a Chrome
browser extension. With Announcify installed in your browser any
time you're viewing a webpage you can simply click on the Announcify
icon in your browser and have the text of the page read to you. A
bonus aspect of using Announcify is that in order to make a webpage
easier to read it enlarges the text of the webpage and removes all
sidebar content. In the video embedded below I provide a short
demonstration of Announcify in action.
Not something I'll share at student orientation.
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