Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 03/10 – Now The Hackers Are In The Security Cams

Starting point is 00:00:00 On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech Meme Right Home for Wednesday, March 10th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Hackers breached the security cameras used by everybody from prisons and hospitals to Tesla factories. Why you will no longer subscribe to this podcast but will instead follow it.

Starting point is 00:00:50 YT Mobile is signing everyone up to have their usage data tracked by advertisers and Facebook's 10-year roadmap for AR and VR. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. It was honestly a slow start to the week newswise. but today is certainly making up for it completely by throwing like 10 headlines at us that I think we need to cover. So let's get to this. First up, hackers say they breached Verkata, accessing the feeds of 150,000 surveillance cameras, inside clinics, police precincts, jails, schools, even Cloudflare's offices and Tesla facilities. The hackers say they also have access to the full video archive of all Verkata customers. Today I learned that Verkata,

Starting point is 00:01:36 is a startup that sells security cameras that customers can access from the web. In its last funding round, it raised $80 million at a $1.6 billion valuation, quoting Bloomberg. The data breach was carried out by an international hacker collective and intended to show the pervasiveness of video surveillance and the ease with which systems could be broken into, said Tilly Kotman, one of the hackers who claimed credit for breaching the San Mateo-California-based Verkata. Kotman, who uses they and them pronouns previously claimed credit for hacking chipmaker Intel and carmaker Nissan. Kotman said their reasons for hacking are lots of curiosity, fighting for freedom of information, and against intellectual property, a huge dose of anti-capitalism and a hint of anarchism,

Starting point is 00:02:21 and it's also just too much fun not to do it, end quote. Kotman said their group was able to obtain root access on the cameras, meaning they could use the cameras to execute their own code. That access could in some instances allow them to pivot and obtain access to the broader corporate network of Verkata's customers or hijack the cameras and use them as a platform to launch future attacks. Obtaining this degree of access to the cameras didn't require any additional hacking as it was a built-in feature, Kotman said. The hackers' methods were unsophisticated.

Starting point is 00:02:54 They gained access to Verkata through a super admin account, allowing them to peer into the cameras of all of its customers. Kotman said they found a username and password for an administrator account publicly exposed on the internet. After Bloomberg contacted Verkata, the hackers lost access to the video feeds and archives, Kotman said. The hack, quote, exposes just how broadly we're being surveilled and how little care is put into at least securing the platforms used to do so, pursuing nothing but profit,

Starting point is 00:03:20 Kotman said. It's just wild how I can just see the things we always knew are happening, but never got to see, end quote. Kotman said they gained access to Verkata's system on Monday morning, end quote. Once again, we screamed at Apple for years to please, please, please. build us a smaller phone, but when they went ahead and did it, face it, we let Apple down. Sources are telling Nika Asia that Apple is cutting orders for iPhone production by around 20% this quarter, largely due to a production cut to the iPhone 12 Mini of a whopping 70%.

Starting point is 00:03:59 Now, Apple still seems to be expecting a full year 2021 increase of iPhone production of 11%. it's just that they expected to sell a lot more minis in Q1, and they apparently haven't. Quote, some suppliers were even asked to temporarily stop building components specifically for the mini, a source told Niki. The mildest estimate was that Apple will cut planned production by more than 70% for the six months through June. This year is still not bad, but of course demand for the first half of 2021 is not as high as people were thinking at the end of last year, another person told Niki. The adjustment of production levels for the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and Pro Max was comparatively mild, and demand for those models remains relatively

Starting point is 00:04:43 healthy, several people said, end quote. Google has added features to ChromeOS that will let Android users control aspects of their phone, for example, replying to texts from their Chromebooks, quoting the verge. Google is marking 10 years of Chromebooks by unveiling new features for ChromeOS today. The biggest addition is a new phone hub feature that connects an Android phone to a Chromebook. It allows ChromeOS users to respond to text, check a phone's battery life, enable its Wi-Fi hotspot, and locate a device easily. Phone Hub is packed into a taskbar widget that even expands to show you recent Chrome tabs that you have been browsing on your phone. It looks like it will be a super useful feature for Android and Chromebook users. Google is also

Starting point is 00:05:31 enabling its Wi-Fi sync feature on more devices allowing you to connect to Wi-Fi networks you've already configured and used on your Android phone and other ChromeOS devices. Another significant addition to ChromeOS is nearby share between Chromebooks and other Android and ChromeOS devices. Much like AirDrop, Nearby Share will let people send and receive files between devices. Google says this will arrive in ChromeOS in the coming months, finally providing its laptop OS with a full AirDrop competitor, end quote. TikTok is giving users the ability to approve all new comments before they appear and is also adding in-app prompts to discourage nasty comments.

Starting point is 00:06:14 Wait. You mean you can proactively attempt to stop people from being mean online? How come nobody told Twitter this 10 years ago? Quoting and Gadgett. With the change, new comments will be hidden until the account owner approves them. The company notes that it already lets users filter comments based on keywords, but that the new setting provides an additional layer of control. TikTok is also adding a feature meant to proactively stop bullying before it happens. When it detects that a particular comment may break its rules, the app will prompt users to reconsider before posting. The feature is similar to one created by Instagram, which warns users when it detects a potentially rule-breaking remark. Like Instagram, TikTok won't prevent users from posting the comment in question,

Starting point is 00:06:58 but we'll give them the opportunity to change their words, end quote. Apple Podcasts is dropping the word subscribe, at least in the iOS 14.5 version. And instead, it's going to use, the word follow. They're doing this because research shows subscribe is a word that signals something you pay for to a lot of people. So I guess now I need to start asking people to follow this show, quoting Pod News. This seemingly small change could dramatically affect the industry. Tom Webster from Edison Research says 47% of people who don't currently listen to podcasts think that subscribing to a podcast will cost money, describing it as a stone in the shoe of podcasting's growth run. He tells pod news, quote, today Apple, Spotify, and YouTube are the three most widely

Starting point is 00:07:53 used services to play podcasts, and now the word subscribe means automatically download for free in exactly none of them. Podcasters will have no choice but to adapt their language accordingly or risk confusing listeners, end quote. Even more impactful from a bottom line perspective, at least if you're a professional podcaster like me, is the news this morning that going forward Apple Podcasts app will now not automatically download new episodes when you follow a podcast. In essence, even if you follow a show every time you press play on an episode, you'll basically be streaming that episode live unless you specifically select the option to download ahead of time. This could have a huge impact on podcast download numbers. This is cute. In a privacy policy

Starting point is 00:08:45 update T-Mobile says it will now automatically enroll everybody, all of their subscribers, into an ad program that is informed by those users' online activity. This begins April 26th, and apparently you can opt out, so opt out now, quoting the Wall Street Journal. The number two U.S. carrier by subscribers said in a recent privacy policy update that unless they opt out, it will share customers' web and mobile app data. with advertisers starting April 26. For example, the program could help advertisers identify people who enjoy cooking or are sports enthusiasts, the company said. T-Mobile's new policy will also

Starting point is 00:09:26 cover Sprint customers acquired through the carrier's 2020 merger. Sprint had previously shared similar data only from customers who opted into its third-party ad program. A T-Mobile spokeswoman said the changes give subscribers advertising that aligns with their interests. Quote, We've heard many say they prefer more relevant ads, so we're defaulting to the setting, she said, end quote. Really? Really. Name me one person. Find me one person who ever in the history of the world said, you know, I love ads. The only thing that I don't like about them is that they're not relevant enough to my interests. Every marketer says something similar to this every time they do dirty stuff like this, but it's just a bald-faced lie. Remember I once told you about the rumors that Amazon was working on developing a voice-enabled robot for our homes, a sort of butler-like robot, like that robot, I guess, from Rocky 3, if you remember that.

Starting point is 00:10:29 Well, sources are telling Business Insider that this thing is so real that more than 800 Amazon staffers are working on it. It's codenamed Vesta, and apparently it's the size of two small cats. That's literally the quote from the piece. And so, yeah, a lot of people were like, can we just going forward quantify everything in terms of number of cats? A thing is, quote, it's one of the biggest hardware initiatives in years for Lab 126, the Amazon personal device unit that created the likes of the Kindle E-reader, Echo Smart Speaker, and Alexa Voice Assistant said six people directly involved in the project, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about internal projects. It's a risky bet for Amazon which started developing Vesta about four years ago as a top priority. While Amazon envisions big things for Vesta in the smart home space, some insiders question whether it's the right call to be spending so much time and resources on what could end up being a niche gimmicky product, or worse,

Starting point is 00:11:29 a failed project like the fire phone that cost Amazon $170 million in write-offs in 2014. People are very skeptical. We're worried it could turn into another fire phone, one of the people told Insighton. cider. One prototype being considered is a device that's about the size of two small cats are about 10 to 13 inches wide. People familiar with the product said it will likely come with multiple cameras. A screen and a mic said to people who described it as a fire tablet mounted on wheels that has the ability to move around the house on voice commands. Amazon could add new features by allowing plugins and widgets that can measure home temperature, air quality, and humidity,

Starting point is 00:12:08 according to people familiar with the discussions. It is also planning to include a small compartment to the device so it can carry objects as well as fire detection and home security technology using its cameras and sensors. It could also add a waist-high retractable pole with a camera that moves up and down, these people said. The vertically moving camera could be used to find missing items like keys and wallets in the home using computer vision, one person added, end quote.

Starting point is 00:12:36 And Facebook has been on a bit of a PR campaign recently, telling the world about its ambitions in the AR VR space. I encourage folks to listen to the Mark Zuckerberg interview on the recent podcast episode from the information. And now there's a whole blog post from Facebook Reality Labs discussing its 10-year vision for AR glasses, which they're apparently developing. Basically, they eventually want this to work alongside a wristband to measure hand and figure gestures. So maybe this scrolls, wears the circle in terms of those rumors of Facebook getting into wearables that we heard recently, quoting CNET. Facebook looks like it's breaking up its neural input advances into two waves.

Starting point is 00:13:22 One, a nearer term development uses wrist-based input combined with usable but limited contextualized AI. Facebook is planning a deeper dive conversation next week with more details on that research. It's also promising details on soft robotic research, comfortable all-day wearable devices, and work on haptic gloves later in the year. Neural input tech measures electrical impulses in the body, through the head to the arms, most often, to convert signals into inputs. Facebook acquired neural input company Control Labs in 2019, but the technology hasn't shown up in any Facebook product yet. Facebook is specifically looking at wrist-based EMG, electro-miography, as the way the company could explore what could be a wristband type device first, and then haptic gloves or more expansive

Starting point is 00:14:10 wearables later. Maybe this wrist-worn neural input device could eventually dovetail with reported plans for a Facebook smartwatch. Facebook's AR VR product head, Andrew Bosworth, told CNET earlier this year that the arrival of neural input tech was, quote, sooner than many people think, but still several years away from appearing in a consumer product. A recent interview with Mark Zuckerberg published by the information also discussed the promises of neural input tech as a solution for future smart glasses, end quote. Yes, in that information podcast interview, you, Zuckerberg said they are, of course, already developing the Oculus Quest 3 and Quest 4, and that they hope to have face tracking and eye tracking included in at least one of those.

Starting point is 00:14:51 One of the things that I'm really excited about for future versions is getting eye tracking and face tracking in because if you're really excited about social presence, you want to make sure that the device has all the sensors to really kind of animate realistic avatars so you can communicate well like that, Zuck said. authentic eye contact, he called it. And finally today, mark your calendars. Samsung has announced its Galaxy Unpacked event for March 17th, a week from today. Expect them to show off their Galaxy A series of more affordable smartphones, quoting CNET again.

Starting point is 00:15:32 Samsung said that at the event, it'll explain how it's bringing awesome to everyone. Samsung has offered its Galaxy A phones internationally for a long time, but last year, marked the first time it introduced a full lineup in the U.S. A year ago, it unveiled four 4G LTE phones that ranged from $110 to $400 for the Galaxy A-51 and two 5G models, the $500 Galaxy A-51-5G, and the $600 galaxy A-71 5G. It's likely Samsung's new Galaxy A lineup will see lower prices than last year's 5G models. The move to introduce less expensive devices is a reversal from a few years ago when Apple

Starting point is 00:16:12 and Samsung made $1,000 the standard starting price for high-end phones, end quote. Yes, it's not surprising that the underlying technology for smartphones has gotten cheaper over time. That tends to happen to technology prices, especially with hardware. What is surprising and welcome is the fact that Samsung, at least for now, is willing to pass the savings on to us. So, FYI, I got my first COVID shot. on Sunday, the first shot of the Pfizer-COVID-19 vaccine. And at first, I wasn't going to share this with the podcast because I didn't want it to feel like I was bragging or have people accuse me of cutting the line or anything, which, by the way,

Starting point is 00:17:03 I have a pre-existing condition that qualified me, at least here in New York. But I mentioned my hesitancy to share to someone yesterday, and they encouraged me to share it for reasons of encouraging people to get vaccinated, of course, but also because, as he put it, Brian, I love hearing people say they get vaccinated. The more people I know who got the shot, the more encouraged I am that it will be me soon. And the more I feel like there's a light at the end of this tunnel for all of us. And it's only a matter of time. So in the interest of helping us all feel like that, like my friend does, hope that the finish line is in sight.

Starting point is 00:17:38 There you go. You all now know someone who has gotten vaccinated. It does kind of change the way you think about the next few months if you feel like things are getting. close to being done with all of this Michigas. Both of my parents have gotten both of their shots now, and that was a load off my mind for sure. So, God willing, this will be all of us very, very soon. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 03/10 – Now The Hackers Are In The Security Cams

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