Here are a few of the stories I’ve found interesting over the last couple of days in the tech world, including the “Massive Hack of the Week”
This Week’s Massive Hack is of 150,000 Security Cameras
Another week, another massive hack that makes last week’s look small. You likely haven’t heard of Verkada until now. I know I hadn’t. This silicon valley company provides security cameras for thousands of customers, at least across the US, and a group was able to gain access to its internal network and posted live feeds of cameras placed in several locations.
How did this group pull off such a hack? Well…. They found an administrator account and password posted publicly on the internet. Yikes.
So while this is technical a “hack,” it was not because of hackers exploiting a vulnerability in systems. The only vulnerability here was poor security practices. It has since come to light that over 100 employees at Verkada had access to view any security camera from any customer at any time. And that is bad. Very, very bad. One principle of information security is the idea of users having the least amount of access necessary, and there is no way that over 100 people needed the ability to look at any camera of any customer at any time.
Verkada has a lot of work, and explaining to do.
Art Piece Created as an NFT Sells for $69 Million USD
I wrote about NFT’s literally yesterday, and today’s NFT news is an art piece sold as an NFT sold for $69 Million USD. That’s…. a bit bet on NFT’s being the future of something. I’m not sure it is a bet I would make even if I had $69 million to spend on art. But here we are.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/11/22325054/beeple-christies-nft-sale-cost-everydays-69-million
Bell Increasing Some Mobile Plans by $3 to $5
Bell has apparently increased some mobile customers on both the Bell and Virgin Mobile brands. The company says that it informed affected users of this change in January, but it still caught some people off guard. My guess is that it was a single line on a previous bill, which no one looks at.
It isn’t clear how many customers are affected, and Bell declined to comment, but it is likely users on what the company would call ”legacy” plans. Those are usually defined as plans that are several years old that the company no longer offers. However, since the company will not provide details, speculation is all that we can offer.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/03/11/bell-increasing-customers-plans-5/
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/03/10/virgin-mobile-increased-plan-prices/
Koodo Mobile Backtracks on Nationwide Calling Change
A couple weeks ago Koodo mobile announced wholesale rate plan changes, and among those changes was the removal of nationwide calling from most plans. Users could enjoy unlimited calling in province, but nationwide calls were made pay per use. This naturally did not go over well, and the company announced this week that it is reversing that change.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/03/09/koodo-reverts-canada-wide-calling-provincial-calling-change/
Microsoft Closes Zenimax Purchase, Brings Bethesda Games to Game Pass
After officially closing the deal to purchase Zenimax this week, Microsoft has unveiled at least part of what it plans to do with the library of Bethesda games and studios. Xbox chief Phil Spencer was clear that the $7.5 Billion USD purchase was all about Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s subscription game service. The company plans to bring Bethesda’s entire catalog to Game Pass, and all new games from Bethesda will hit Game Pass on day of release. The only exceptions to this are a couple already in development games, in which Microsoft will honor the terms of the existing contracts.
As part of this, Microsoft announced that 20 Bethesda games will be on Game Pass as of March 12th. This is only a net increase of 12, as 8 of the announced games were already on the service. As licensing deals expire, we can expect more Bethesda games to hit Game Pass in the future.
As someone who primarily games on an Xbox, this is exciting news, and works towards cementing Game Pass as the single greated value for gaming.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/11/22325044/microsoft-xbox-game-pass-bethesda-games-list
Apple Sues Former Employee for Leaking Company Secrets to Journalists
Not a ton to say here, except that the accusations here are fairly serious and the employee in question could be in a lot of trouble if Apple can successfully prove the allegations in court. The company alleges that the employee in question actively worked to download Apple intellectual property after tendering his resignation with the purpose of giving it to journalists.
Yikes.
Adobe Photoshop Now Runs Natively on Apple Silicon Macs
This is notable for two reasons. First is that Adobe has traditionally been slow to adopt new platforms, and second is that the company claims that Photoshop on an M1 Macbook Pro is about 1.5x as fast as Photoshop on an Intel Mac. That’s big.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/adobe-photoshop-now-runs-natively-on-m1-macs/