WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
Things seemed to be very quiet at the moment; however, I did find that the Galaxy Note 7 is not the only exploding device Samsung produces. No sir, it seems they also have a line of exploding washing machines. Apart from that, I got more on the Yahoo hack, giant Tetris in Tel Aviv, a fantastic astronomy picture, and mud-larking on the Thames. URLs point you in the direction of lawyers and the internet, e-cig research, high altitude ballooning, a good aircraft safety story, Google tracking, very efficient malware checks, and a dossier on the OPM hack...
Shorts:
A week or two ago I covered Samsung's exploding phones and got roundly groaned at for suggesting that Samsung products gave you more bang for your buck. But it's true! This week the news has been that some Samsung top loading washing machines are prone to what Samsung calls "abnormal vibrations".
So what are these "abnormal vibrations"?
Well, judging from the pictures on the ABC news site, I'd say explosion was a reasonable term. The machine basically appears to have come apart while running at high speed. As one unfortunate owner put it, “It was the loudest sound. It sounded like a bomb went off in my ear. There were wires, nuts, the cover actually was laying on the floor.”
So, do you have a Samsung washing machine? If you think you might be affected there is a web page you can go to and find out if your machine is affected.
See - Samsung really does give you more bang for your buck!
https://pages.samsung.com/us/top_load_washer/index.jsp [URL to check on Samsung machines]
http://abcnews.go.com/US/cpsc-issues-warning-reports-samsung-washing-machines-exploded/story?id=42405123
Homework:
I see that I wasn't the only one who had doubts about Yahoo's claim that they were victims of a 'nation-state' attack in 2014 [see last week's winding down]. The Arizona based firm, InfoArmor, issued a report on Wednesday debunking the 'nation-state' claims and attributing the attack to hackers known as 'Group E'. This particular bunch of hackers are reputedly linked to earlier hacks of LinkedIn, Tumblr and MySpace.
In the meantime, a report on 'The New York Times' has revealed the way in which Yahoo repeatedly prioritised profits over security since its current CEO took over in 2012. When big hacks, like this one, hit the news everyone asks why the victim's IT security wasn't good enough to resist it.
The answer to that, unfortunately is very simple. It's cheaper to be hacked than to spend the money needed to resist the hacks! Public companies are responsible to their shareholders, and the shareholders want to see profits or increased capitalization (or preferably both). Thus, the decision of Yahoo's CEO to spend money on new products rather than security was absolutely logical from Yahoo's point of view.
So what's the solution?
It's not that difficult - if you want to change company behaviour you need to change the cost of being hacked. There are of course a number of ways this can be done. Government law changes is one, alternatively regulating bodies could step up their fines, even courts could start making awards to those affected cost the company.
For instance, in the case of the Yahoo hack 500,000 accounts were affected. If a court were to order Yahoo to pay, say, US$500 to the holder of each account hacked, then you would be talking about a payout of 250 million dollars - and you would be getting to the sort of money it would have cost to harden the system against this sort of hacking. Even then, it may not be enough, if the company is sophisticated enough to bring in actuaries, the chances of getting hacked may well be considered to be worth risking when put against the cost. They definitely are at the moment.
Maybe jailing CEOs and the like for criminal negligence is the only real solution...
http://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/researchers-shoot-down-yahoo-claim-of-nation-state-hack/d/d-id/1327065?
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/technology/yahoo-data-breach-hacking.html?_r=0
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2016/09/23/if_your_company_has_terrible_it_
security_that_could_be_a_rational_business_decision/
Geek Stuff:
I want one! I think a trip to Tel Aviv is waiting for me. Every Thursday after dark, in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, players can step up to a five feet high joystick and play Tetris on 32,000 square feet of screen!
http://www.timeout.com/london/blog/city-envy-we-want-giant-tetris-like-tel-aviv-092316
Pictures:
This week a picture especially for USA readers - a stunning picture of the 'Statue of Liberty' Nebula (NGC 3576) taken by the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Very cool - I've added it to my screen wallpaper collection.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160928.html
London:
Visitors to London rarely realize that you can walk along parts of the River Thames foreshore when the tide is out. The river carries along the detritus of ages, much of which you can find for yourself if you go and explore. To get you started the URL points to an article about some of the sort of things you can expect to find while mud-larking along the edge of the Thames.
http://londonist.com/2016/09/7-unexpected-things-you-might-find-in-the-thames?rel=handpicked
Scanner:
Government lawyers don’t understand the Internet. That’s a problem.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/23/government-lawyers-dont-understand-the-internet-thats-a-problem/
Sorry nanny, e-cigs have 'no serious side-effects' – researchers
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/14/more_studies_arrive_to_tell_nanny_ecigs_
are_good_for_the_public/
A 21st century renaissance in high altitude ballooning
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3043/1
Thanks to this man, airplanes don’t crash into mountains anymore
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-bateman-airplane-safety-device/
Delete Google Maps? Go ahead, says Google, we'll still track you
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/12/turn_off_location_services_go_ahead_says_
google_well_still_track_you/
A free, almost foolproof way to check for malware
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3014323/security/a-free-almost-foolproof-way-to-check-for-malware.html
Read the damning dossier on the security stupidity that let China ransack OPM's systems
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/08/opm_hacking_report/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb and Fi for drawing my attention to material for Winding Down.
Please send suggestions for stories to alan@ibgames.com and include the words Winding Down in the subject line, unless you want your deathless prose gobbled up by my voracious Thunderbird spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
2 October 2016
Alan Lenton is an on-line games designer, programmer and sociologist, the order of which depends on what he is currently working on! His web site is at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/index.html.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
