Prices sure have changed

from here

It's amazing to see how much Plaid is willing to pay for people's logins. You can buy a lot of candy bars for $500. If this is anything like cryptocurrency, though, we should continue to hold on to our logins because the value is bound to go up even higher.

Someone found a cheat code anyway

from here

Imagine my confusion when it seemed like a beloved old game enjoyed a surge of attention all of a sudden, and then my disappointment when I found out it was just another compromised company. A company with a lot of important customers, but still, not the game.

No signal, no go

from here

Thanks to Kari Paul for sharing her experience with an Internet-Of-Shit-mobile. Apparently this isn't the only time this has happened. Thankfully these weren't cases where a person was in imminent danger, but those circumstances do exist and it would be horrifying if this vulnerability were exploited to make matters worse.

Don't forget the pop-up pornadoes

from here

It's kind of weird how the contents of spam emails have changed over the years. I'm sure there's still some adult-themed spam, but it doesn't seem to be nearly as popular anymore.

Oh, it's not a secret, it's just "undisclosed"

from here

As surveillance capitalism becomes more and more obvious, the application of old malware tricks in supposedly legit products becomes more and more apparent. No one would buy those eavesdropping IoT devices if they knew about the eavesdropping - which is the same basic approach trojan horse programs take (you wouldn't run it if you knew what it actually did instead or in addition to it's advertised behaviour).

And because no one would buy those eavesdropping IoT devices if they knew about it, technology vendors have to protect their ability to keep that sort of things secret. They're fighting for the right to turn their products into trojan horses.

Being fitted with Internet of Shit overshoes

from here

Will the ridiculous penetration of computers into everyday things never cease? And will the inevitable fails never cease to amuse me? I don't think the world will be beating a path to Nike's doors anytime soon (at least not wearing these sneakers they won't)

Another reason to take a dim view of smart bulbs

from here

Smart light bulbs that store your WiFi password are kind of problematic. When you throw it out it still remembers that password and other people may be able to retrieve it. Obviously that isn't ideal, but that's a symptom of a bigger problem. Many (maybe all) smart devices are going to remember your WiFi password and we are introducing them into an established culture of disposable consumerism, where old things are regularly thrown out and replaced with new ones. I freely admit that I never really appreciated the problem of security waste (forget e-waste, now we'll have s-waste) before, but as more and more things become smart, our garbage will contain more and more of our passwords. That's a disturbing attack surface. I don't know if we're really ready for the consequences of the Internet of Disposable Things.

Thankfully times have changed

found on imgflip

I don't think I've ever had spam from a can; but from what I hear I'm not sure which kind of spam is worse, the electronic or supposedly edible variety.

Gentle Reminder: Don't be evil

from here

Do you think the folks at Google are at all unaware that in order to be competitive as an advertising company they've actually become a corporate surveillance company? Of course not. They knew exactly what they were doing when they bought credit transaction records from Mastercard.

Get off my WLAN!

from here

I can't imagine the size of the balls needed to wake up your burglary victims and ask for the WiFi password. Of course this miscreant was caught by police minutes later. He totally gave himself away because he couldn't bear to be offline for the length of time it took to burgle the place.

That sounds too much like hard work

from here

Does anyone else get the feeling the authorities have gotten lazy?

Shave and a haircut, 2 BTC

from here

Long ago there was a time when the cost of a shave and haircut really did amount to 2 bitcoins, but those days are long gone now.

The More You Know

found on Imgflip

Did you ever think that "firewall" was kind of a weird term and wondered where it came from? Well, this seems like a pretty good explanation.

Legalize Crypto

from here

Yes, there really was a virus that told you your PC was stoned.

And They Had A Rotary Dial

from here

You might be thinking "who needs encryption on a phone?", but the truth is that everyone one does because phones aren't just phones anymore. They're computers that also happen to make phone calls, and there's plenty of things you can do with those 'phones' that really do call for encryption.

And Get Off My LAN!

from here

There were whitelists, and behaviour blockers, and integrity checkers - oh my.

And now I feel old because I'm recalling AV suites from 20+ years ago.

Now You Stalk With Binoculars On Facebook

found on thechive

One of the wonders of modern technology is that being creepy has never been more convenient.