Author: Robin Edgar

Organisational Structures | Technology and Science | Military, IT and Lifestyle consultancy | Social, Broadcast & Cross Media | Flying aircraft

Robinhood Must Pay User $29,460 Over Meme Stock Trading Halt

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In January 2021, stock trading app Robinhood infuriated users when it responded to surging trades of so-called meme stocks, by halting trades—effectively preventing users from selling shares until the prices had collapsed. Congressional hearings, regulatory probes, and a deluge of regulatory complaints and lawsuits ensued, which was at least one cause of its initial public Read more about Robinhood Must Pay User $29,460 Over Meme Stock Trading Halt[…]

Raspberry Pi Can Detect Malware By Scanning for EM Waves

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A team of researchers at France’s Research Institute of Computer Science and Random Systems created an anti-malware system centered around a Raspberry Pi that scans devices for electromagnetic waves. As reported by Tom’s Hardware, the security device uses an oscilloscope (Picoscope 6407) and H-Field probe connected to a Raspberry Pi 2B to pick up abnormalities Read more about Raspberry Pi Can Detect Malware By Scanning for EM Waves[…]

Facebook Pixel Hunt – Mozilla Rally want to track the trackers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In a collaboration between journalists at The Markup and Mozilla researchers, this study seeks to map Facebook’s pixel tracking network and understand the kinds of information it collects on sites across the web. The Markup will use the data collected in this study to create investigative journalism around the kinds of information Facebook collects about Read more about Facebook Pixel Hunt – Mozilla Rally want to track the trackers[…]

Earth Is in a 1,000-Light-Year-Wide Bubble That Cooks Up Stars

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In a study published today in Nature, they describe an amorphous, 1,000-light-year-wide bubble ensconcing Earth that is responsible for those stars. Called the Local Bubble, the researchers believe it formed from a series of large explosions that blasted energy into space over the last 14 million years. Those explosions were supernovae—spectacular collapses of stars that Read more about Earth Is in a 1,000-Light-Year-Wide Bubble That Cooks Up Stars[…]

Dutch Athletes Warned To Keep Phones and Laptops Out of China

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Dutch athletes competing in next month’s Beijing Winter Olympics will need to leave their phones and laptops at home in an unprecedented move to avoid Chinese espionage, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant reported on Tuesday. The urgent advice to athletes and supporting staff to not bring any personal devices to China was part of a set Read more about Dutch Athletes Warned To Keep Phones and Laptops Out of China[…]

Russia Arrests Members of Notorious Ransomware Gang REvil

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] The Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, said in a press release Friday that it had recently conducted raids at 25 residences across Moscow, Leningrad, Lipetsk, and St. Petersburg, where 14 members of the cybercriminal gang were arrested. During the raids, authorities seized more than 426 million rubles, $600,000, and €500,000, along Read more about Russia Arrests Members of Notorious Ransomware Gang REvil[…]

DOJ Say Evidence Against Oath Keepers Came From Signal Chats

Posted on by Robin Edgar

While many of the groups that took part in last year’s siege on the U.S. Capitol turned to Facebook and Telegram groups to plan their part in the attack, the Oath Keepers—a far-right org that’s best described as somewhere between a militia and a rag-tag group of wannabe vigilantes—are alleged to be bigger fans of Read more about DOJ Say Evidence Against Oath Keepers Came From Signal Chats[…]

John Deere Hit With Class Action Lawsuit for Alleged Tractor Repair Monopoly

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A class action lawsuit filed in Chicago has accused John Deere of running an illegal repair monopoly. The lawsuit alleged that John Deere has used software locks and restricted access to repair documentation and tools, making it very difficult for farmers to fix their own agricultural equipment, a problem that Motherboard has documented for years Read more about John Deere Hit With Class Action Lawsuit for Alleged Tractor Repair Monopoly[…]

German IT security watchdog: No evidence of censorship function in Xiaomi phones

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Germany’s federal cybersecurity watchdog, the BSI, did not find any evidence of censorship functions in mobile phones manufactured by China’s Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK), a spokesperson said on Thursday. Lithuania’s state cybersecurity body had said in September that Xiaomi phones had a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as “Free Tibet”, “Long live Taiwan Read more about German IT security watchdog: No evidence of censorship function in Xiaomi phones[…]

Google’s and Facebook’s top execs accused of fixing ads

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The alleged 2017 deal between Google and Facebook to kill header bidding, a way for multiple ad exchanges to compete fairly in automated ad auctions, was negotiated by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and endorsed by both Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (now with Meta) and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, according to an updated complaint filed in Read more about Google’s and Facebook’s top execs accused of fixing ads[…]

Apple Lets Developers in the Netherlands Offer Payment Options, escape from the 30% squeeze

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Apple will grudgingly allow dating app developers in the Netherlands to use alternative payment methods in the App Store, but it doesn’t like it, and the score hasn’t been settled yet. In an update on its developers’ blog on Friday, Apple said dating app developers will have two new optional “entitlements” in the App Store, Read more about Apple Lets Developers in the Netherlands Offer Payment Options, escape from the 30% squeeze[…]

North Korea made ‘$400m’ in cryptocurrency heists last year

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Thieves operating for the North Korean government made off with almost $400m in digicash last year in a concerted attack to steal and launder as much currency as they could. A report from blockchain biz Chainalysis found that attackers were going after investment houses and currency exchanges in a bid to purloin funds and send Read more about North Korea made ‘$400m’ in cryptocurrency heists last year[…]

Teen hacker finds bug that lets him control 25+ Teslas remotely. Also 1000s of auth tokens expired silmutaneously

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A young hacker and IT security researcher found a way to remotely interact with more than 25 Tesla electric vehicles in 13 countries, according to a Twitter thread he posted yesterday. David Colombo explained in the thread that the flaw was “not a vulnerability in Tesla’s infrastructure. It’s the owner’s faults.” He claimed to be Read more about Teen hacker finds bug that lets him control 25+ Teslas remotely. Also 1000s of auth tokens expired silmutaneously[…]

Ransomware puts New Mexico prison in lockdown, closes doors, security cameras to personnel

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] Commissioners told the court that all of Bernalillo County, which covers the US state of New Mexico’s largest city Albuquerque, had been affected by a January 5, 2022, ransomware attack, including the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) that houses some of the state’s incarcerated. […] Over the phone, a spokesperson for the facility told The Read more about Ransomware puts New Mexico prison in lockdown, closes doors, security cameras to personnel[…]

Open source maintainer PLC4X hits out at corporate freeloaders, stops offering free support

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Yet another developer of open source software has tired of companies utilizing the code he helps maintain without giving anything back to support the project. On Tuesday, Christofer Dutz, creator of Apache PLC4X, said he will stop providing community support for the software if corporate users fail to step up and open their wallets. “The Read more about Open source maintainer PLC4X hits out at corporate freeloaders, stops offering free support[…]

FTC’s latest monopoly lawsuit against Meta Facebook gets go-ahead

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust complaint that Facebook, er, Meta operates as a monopoly will be heard by the courts after the US watchdog’s initial lawsuit was dismissed. In December 2020, the FTC accused Meta of “illegally maintaining its personal social networking (PSN) monopoly through a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct.” It threatened to break Read more about FTC’s latest monopoly lawsuit against Meta Facebook gets go-ahead[…]

UltraRAM Breakthrough Brings Combined Memory and Storage to a single wafer

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Scientists from the Physics and Engineering Department of the UK’s Lancaster University have published a paper detailing a breakthrough in the mass production of UltraRAM. Researchers have pondered over this novel memory type for several years due to its highly attractive qualities, and the latest breakthrough means that mass production on silicon wafers could be Read more about UltraRAM Breakthrough Brings Combined Memory and Storage to a single wafer[…]

Undersea Cable Connecting Norway With Arctic Satellite Station Has Been Mysteriously Severed

Posted on by Robin Edgar

n undersea fiberoptic cable located between mainland Norway and the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean has been put out of action in a still-mysterious incident. The outage on the subsea communications cable — the furthest north of its kind anywhere in the world — follows an incident last year in which different cables linking Read more about Undersea Cable Connecting Norway With Arctic Satellite Station Has Been Mysteriously Severed[…]

FAA’s Statement On Mysterious US wide Air Traffic Halt after Korean missile launch Leaves More Questions Than Answers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Federal Aviation Administration has finally put out an official statement regarding a still very mysterious ground stop order that it issued to all aircraft in the western U.S. and Hawaii yesterday around 2:30 PM PST. While the incident is now confirmed, there are still a significant number of unanswered questions, including the most important Read more about FAA’s Statement On Mysterious US wide Air Traffic Halt after Korean missile launch Leaves More Questions Than Answers[…]

White House invites tech firms to discuss open-source software security in January

Posted on by Robin Edgar

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has invited major tech firms to discuss ways that the cybersecurity of open-source software can be improved, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. According to Bloomberg, the tech firms include “major software companies and developers.” Cloud providers are also reportedly among the invited companies. Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for Read more about White House invites tech firms to discuss open-source software security in January[…]

Google and Facebook Fined Big in Russia for Failing to Remove Banned Content – imprisonment threats follow forcing local data storage

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A Russian court fined Alphabet Inc.’s Google 7.2 billion rubles ($98 million) and Meta Platforms Inc. 2 billion rubles Friday for failing to remove banned content, the largest such penalties yet, as the authorities escalate a crackdown on foreign technology companies. The fines were due to the companies’ repeated failure to comply with orders to Read more about Google and Facebook Fined Big in Russia for Failing to Remove Banned Content – imprisonment threats follow forcing local data storage[…]

EXCLUSIVE Dutch watchdog finds Apple app store payment rules anti-competitive – sources

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The Dutch antitrust authority has found that Apple’s rules requiring software developers to use its in-app payment system are anti-competitive and ordered it to make changes, four people familiar with the matter said, in the latest regulatory setback for the iPhone maker. Apple’s app-store payment policies, in particular its requirement that app developers exclusively use Read more about EXCLUSIVE Dutch watchdog finds Apple app store payment rules anti-competitive – sources[…]

LG’s Next-Gen OLED EX Tech Promises Major Improvements

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] OLED EX (the EX stands for Evolution and eXperience, unfortunately) promises to boost maximum brightness, enhance picture quality, and allow for smaller display bezels. The underlying technology—millions of individual self-lit pixels—hasn’t changed, but the use of an isotope called deuterium combined with algorithmic image processing can increase brightness by up to 30% over conventional Read more about LG’s Next-Gen OLED EX Tech Promises Major Improvements[…]

T-Mobile Has Suffered Yet Another Data Breach

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The news comes via internal documents shared with The T-Mo Report, embedded below. They state that there was “unauthorized activity” on some customer accounts. That activity was either the viewing of customer proprietary network information (CPNI), an active SIM swap by a malicious actor, or both. This comes just on the heels of a previous Read more about T-Mobile Has Suffered Yet Another Data Breach[…]

Airbnb Hides Guest First Names in Oregon to Stop Discrimination

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] Beginning on Jan. 31, hosts will only see the initials of guests’ first names until they confirm a booking request, Airbnb announced in a December news announcement spotted by the Verge. After a host confirms the booking, the guest’s full name will appear. The change to how names are displaced will be in place Read more about Airbnb Hides Guest First Names in Oregon to Stop Discrimination[…]