Furiku

Summary

 
To combat themselves from capitalists worst nightmare: decreased profits due to stolen merchandise, Home Depot is now adding microchips to popular power tools together with manufacturers which render the devices completely useless unless activated at checkout via bluetooth when purchased.
The main reason apparently for this move has been organized theft rings which target high value power tools due to their resale value being high.
 
Quotes
 
My thoughts
 
I actually support this idea completely as long as the activation is permanent, which it seems to be as it's one-time thing done at checkout with bluetooth.. 
But as techie I also understand:  Countdown to this being hacked in 3... 2... 
In worst case it's simply a matter of using  a Bluetooth sniffer, buying one power tool and recording deactivation and pray they implemented it poorly. 
Either way, this'll give hackers something.. interesting to get into all of sudden.
 
Sources
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/home-depot-is-selling-power-tools-that-require-activation-in-store
https://mycbs4.com/news/local/home-depot-to-use-bluetooth-technology-to-stop-theft

This is interesting for many reasons. Why didn't they simply shift to payment methods banks didn't control (crypto and such) if that was the issue.
Speculation: chargebacks were too heavy with credit cards. Banks really really really don't like that and adult content combined.
 
What makes this even more interesting is how Floatplane could capitalize on this. You have a whole platform full of creators looking for new one as of right now. Floatplane could do little bit of client acquisition here and get a lot of new clients in form of de-platformed creators of OnlyFans. Remains to be seen if this will happen. 

Summary

 
To combat themselves from capitalists worst nightmare: decreased profits due to stolen merchandise, Home Depot is now adding microchips to popular power tools together with manufacturers which render the devices completely useless unless activated at checkout via bluetooth when purchased.
The main reason apparently for this move has been organized theft rings which target high value power tools due to their resale value being high.
 
Quotes
 
My thoughts
 
I actually support this idea completely as long as the activation is permanent, which it seems to be as it's one-time thing done at checkout with bluetooth.. 
But as techie I also understand:  Countdown to this being hacked in 3... 2... 
In worst case it's simply a matter of using  a Bluetooth sniffer, buying one power tool and recording deactivation and pray they implemented it poorly. 
Either way, this'll give hackers something.. interesting to get into all of sudden.
 
Sources
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/home-depot-is-selling-power-tools-that-require-activation-in-store
https://mycbs4.com/news/local/home-depot-to-use-bluetooth-technology-to-stop-theft

Summary

 
To combat themselves from capitalists worst nightmare: decreased profits due to stolen merchandise, Home Depot is now adding microchips to popular power tools together with manufacturers which render the devices completely useless unless activated at checkout via bluetooth when purchased.
The main reason apparently for this move has been organized theft rings which target high value power tools due to their resale value being high.
 
Quotes
 
My thoughts
 
I actually support this idea completely as long as the activation is permanent, which it seems to be as it's one-time thing done at checkout with bluetooth.. 
But as techie I also understand:  Countdown to this being hacked in 3... 2... 
In worst case it's simply a matter of using  a Bluetooth sniffer, buying one power tool and recording deactivation and pray they implemented it poorly. 
Either way, this'll give hackers something.. interesting to get into all of sudden.
 
Sources
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/home-depot-is-selling-power-tools-that-require-activation-in-store
https://mycbs4.com/news/local/home-depot-to-use-bluetooth-technology-to-stop-theft

Summary

 
To combat themselves from capitalists worst nightmare: decreased profits due to stolen merchandise, Home Depot is now adding microchips to popular power tools together with manufacturers which render the devices completely useless unless activated at checkout via bluetooth when purchased.
The main reason apparently for this move has been organized theft rings which target high value power tools due to their resale value being high.
 
Quotes
 
My thoughts
 
I actually support this idea completely as long as the activation is permanent, which it seems to be as it's one-time thing done at checkout with bluetooth.. 
But as techie I also understand:  Countdown to this being hacked in 3... 2... 
In worst case it's simply a matter of using  a Bluetooth sniffer, buying one power tool and recording deactivation and pray they implemented it poorly. 
Either way, this'll give hackers something.. interesting to get into all of sudden.
 
Sources
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/home-depot-is-selling-power-tools-that-require-activation-in-store
https://mycbs4.com/news/local/home-depot-to-use-bluetooth-technology-to-stop-theft

Summary

 
To combat themselves from capitalists worst nightmare: decreased profits due to stolen merchandise, Home Depot is now adding microchips to popular power tools together with manufacturers which render the devices completely useless unless activated at checkout via bluetooth when purchased.
The main reason apparently for this move has been organized theft rings which target high value power tools due to their resale value being high.
 
Quotes
 
My thoughts
 
I actually support this idea completely as long as the activation is permanent, which it seems to be as it's one-time thing done at checkout with bluetooth.. 
But as techie I also understand:  Countdown to this being hacked in 3... 2... 
In worst case it's simply a matter of using  a Bluetooth sniffer, buying one power tool and recording deactivation and pray they implemented it poorly. 
Either way, this'll give hackers something.. interesting to get into all of sudden.
 
Sources
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/home-depot-is-selling-power-tools-that-require-activation-in-store
https://mycbs4.com/news/local/home-depot-to-use-bluetooth-technology-to-stop-theft

Summary

 
To combat themselves from capitalists worst nightmare: decreased profits due to stolen merchandise, Home Depot is now adding microchips to popular power tools together with manufacturers which render the devices completely useless unless activated at checkout via bluetooth when purchased.
The main reason apparently for this move has been organized theft rings which target high value power tools due to their resale value being high.
 
Quotes
 
My thoughts
 
I actually support this idea completely as long as the activation is permanent, which it seems to be as it's one-time thing done at checkout with bluetooth.. 
But as techie I also understand:  Countdown to this being hacked in 3... 2... 
In worst case it's simply a matter of using  a Bluetooth sniffer, buying one power tool and recording deactivation and pray they implemented it poorly. 
Either way, this'll give hackers something.. interesting to get into all of sudden.
 
Sources
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/home-depot-is-selling-power-tools-that-require-activation-in-store
https://mycbs4.com/news/local/home-depot-to-use-bluetooth-technology-to-stop-theft

If only we didn't see this coming up after Facebook bought Oculus.
If only we didn't see this coming when the founder of the Oculus started to fund a project to make every Oculus exclusive game playable with other headsets with Facebook money he got from selling Oculus.
If only someone was a wise enough to notice that Oculus is only a sticker anymore (for real, there is no VR company named "Oculus" anymore, there isn't even a team within Facebook named "Oculus" anymore, there is only Oculus sticker to hide Facebook Reality Labs).
 
And even that sticker doesn't say "Oculus". It says "Oculus from Facebook".
 
Like literally, how fu...nking big letters must it be written that it isn't "Oculus Quest" it is "FACEBOOK Oculus Quest"? And by this far into anno Domini 2021 everyone already knows the company called "Facebook". That same Facebook which gets its bread and butter from data hoarding, personal data hoarding, and personalized advertising. Not selling some fancy headsets that definedly doesn't spy their users or turn out to be just another pipeline to feed ads to people. That one little company called "Facebook" that never even had a unwritten part in anything saying "Don't be evil" and they didn't even try to follow anything like that, ever.
 

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Some more background to the story:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/justice-department-announces-court-authorized-effort-disrupt-exploitation-microsoft
 
Pretty interesting reaction by FBI after they've been getting roasted to hell by the security community recently about their incompetence in cybersecurity side. Would be interesting to see government agency running whitehat operations using Proof of concept exploits to patch them in the future too.
 
 
However:
what they're obviously not telling us is that they are indeed fixing and patching these vulnerabilities as the court order allows them to do.
But one doesn't have to be conspiracy theorist to understand that there probably are other secret court orders which are authorizing them to do other things too - while they're already there in the system. Obviously.
 
Who'd have thought this old meme finally became relevant in 2021 all of sudden?

Summary

 
Github, owned by Microsoft has decided to do something everyone was afraid they might do: remove content that is somehow against the interests of their owner Microsoft.
Vietnamese security researcher released a Proof Of Concept code of the recent massive Hafnium / ProxyLogon Microsoft Exchange server exploit - day after Microsoft had already released their patch to it. Within hours of releasing the POC however, Github (Microsoft) removed it.
This immediately resulted in outcry, as it is industry standard practice for security researchers to publish proof of concept code such as this to better understand the exploit and to help developers write protections against it. Naturally, the same thing can be used by the attackers and the consensus opinion among the security professionals is that the benefits outweigh the negative sides of releasing such code.
 
Censorship of Github is what critics were highlighting as possibility of happening as result of the acquisition back - and it seems the worst fears have come true.
 
Quotes
 
Github naturally had answer of their own take on all of this and their spokeperson confirmed to the outlet Motherboard the following:
 
Surely it's hard to argue that censorship in this that removal is justified as "it's actively exploited" after patch has been released and is being distributed publicly.
There are several instances of them removing POCs in general, but the enforcement of the rule is inconsistent at best and raises some legitimate concerns about possible bias towards protecting its owners interests.
 
My thoughts
This was what everyone was afraid would happen when Microsoft bought Github, that content against Microsofts interests would get censored. It's interesting to see if this case will have any further.. developments as far as Githubs popularity goes. Alternatives do after all exist.
It's hard to judge the positives and negatives of publishing such code, but given that it was published after Microsoft had published their patch to the issue I see no justification of any kind for removal. Just because it's widespread problem that (still) is affecting plenty of exchange servers because their admins are incompetent with patching doesn't mean this should have been removed like it did.
 
Sources
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/critics-fume-after-github-removes-exploit-code-for-exchange-vulnerabilities/
 
https://therecord.media/poc-released-for-microsoft-exchange-proxylogon-vulnerabilities/
 
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7vpaz/researcher-publishes-code-to-exploit-microsoft-exchange-vulnerabilities-on-github
 
 

Summary

 
Github, owned by Microsoft has decided to do something everyone was afraid they might do: remove content that is somehow against the interests of their owner Microsoft.
Vietnamese security researcher released a Proof Of Concept code of the recent massive Hafnium / ProxyLogon Microsoft Exchange server exploit - day after Microsoft had already released their patch to it. Within hours of releasing the POC however, Github (Microsoft) removed it.
This immediately resulted in outcry, as it is industry standard practice for security researchers to publish proof of concept code such as this to better understand the exploit and to help developers write protections against it. Naturally, the same thing can be used by the attackers and the consensus opinion among the security professionals is that the benefits outweigh the negative sides of releasing such code.
 
Censorship of Github is what critics were highlighting as possibility of happening as result of the acquisition back - and it seems the worst fears have come true.
 
Quotes
 
Github naturally had answer of their own take on all of this and their spokeperson confirmed to the outlet Motherboard the following:
 
Surely it's hard to argue that censorship in this that removal is justified as "it's actively exploited" after patch has been released and is being distributed publicly.
There are several instances of them removing POCs in general, but the enforcement of the rule is inconsistent at best and raises some legitimate concerns about possible bias towards protecting its owners interests.
 
My thoughts
This was what everyone was afraid would happen when Microsoft bought Github, that content against Microsofts interests would get censored. It's interesting to see if this case will have any further.. developments as far as Githubs popularity goes. Alternatives do after all exist.
It's hard to judge the positives and negatives of publishing such code, but given that it was published after Microsoft had published their patch to the issue I see no justification of any kind for removal. Just because it's widespread problem that (still) is affecting plenty of exchange servers because their admins are incompetent with patching doesn't mean this should have been removed like it did.
 
Sources
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/critics-fume-after-github-removes-exploit-code-for-exchange-vulnerabilities/
 
https://therecord.media/poc-released-for-microsoft-exchange-proxylogon-vulnerabilities/
 
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7vpaz/researcher-publishes-code-to-exploit-microsoft-exchange-vulnerabilities-on-github
 
 

Summary

 
Github, owned by Microsoft has decided to do something everyone was afraid they might do: remove content that is somehow against the interests of their owner Microsoft.
Vietnamese security researcher released a Proof Of Concept code of the recent massive Hafnium / ProxyLogon Microsoft Exchange server exploit - day after Microsoft had already released their patch to it. Within hours of releasing the POC however, Github (Microsoft) removed it.
This immediately resulted in outcry, as it is industry standard practice for security researchers to publish proof of concept code such as this to better understand the exploit and to help developers write protections against it. Naturally, the same thing can be used by the attackers and the consensus opinion among the security professionals is that the benefits outweigh the negative sides of releasing such code.
 
Censorship of Github is what critics were highlighting as possibility of happening as result of the acquisition back - and it seems the worst fears have come true.
 
Quotes
 
Github naturally had answer of their own take on all of this and their spokeperson confirmed to the outlet Motherboard the following:
 
Surely it's hard to argue that censorship in this that removal is justified as "it's actively exploited" after patch has been released and is being distributed publicly.
There are several instances of them removing POCs in general, but the enforcement of the rule is inconsistent at best and raises some legitimate concerns about possible bias towards protecting its owners interests.
 
My thoughts
This was what everyone was afraid would happen when Microsoft bought Github, that content against Microsofts interests would get censored. It's interesting to see if this case will have any further.. developments as far as Githubs popularity goes. Alternatives do after all exist.
It's hard to judge the positives and negatives of publishing such code, but given that it was published after Microsoft had published their patch to the issue I see no justification of any kind for removal. Just because it's widespread problem that (still) is affecting plenty of exchange servers because their admins are incompetent with patching doesn't mean this should have been removed like it did.
 
Sources
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/critics-fume-after-github-removes-exploit-code-for-exchange-vulnerabilities/
 
https://therecord.media/poc-released-for-microsoft-exchange-proxylogon-vulnerabilities/
 
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7vpaz/researcher-publishes-code-to-exploit-microsoft-exchange-vulnerabilities-on-github
 
 

Summary
 Israeli chipmaker Habana Labs (currently owned by Intel which acquired it year ago for 2 billion)  has received order from Amazon AWS which plans on offering their Gaudi AI processors as alternative for Nvdias AI chips for their customers. Could this challenge Nvidias position as the AI compute king?

 
 
Quotes
 
My thoughts
Given that AWS controls 50% of the data center market, this is interesting move and possible sign that maybe.. just maybe. Team green might not be the only option when it comes to the world of AI computing. If AWS does something well, it's cost efficiency.
 
Sources
 https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-aws-to-offer-israeli-made-habana-ai-processors-1001351972