Asking for a friend

from here and here

In an apparent case of life imitating art, the satirical conspiracy theory "Birds Aren't Real" has started to become real as scientists are turning dead birds into surveillance drones. Not only is this sure to bake a few brains, it's probably going to put actual birds in danger of being shot, which in turn will make them fodder for the avian surveillance apparatus.

Nobody tells government employees what to do

from here and here

It's not every day the solution to a problem is staring you in the face. Maybe the 130 people who used the password ChangeItN0w! would have been better able to see the solution if the password box wasn't masked.

Does it involve worms?

from here and here

I'm not sure why phishing over different mediums requires different words, or why it is that all these different -ishings are so annoying, but they are so let's not make any more of them.

No cell phone number for you!

from here and here

Twitter isn't even the first company to get caught misusing security contact information for ad targeting, but at least they're paying the price for misusing our info. 

Watch out for skid marks on the Internet of Shit

from here and here

Thanks to Rob Rosenberger for using the term "cyber commando" and prompting me to wonder about alternate interpretations. If you're wondering whether smart underwear are real - they are, and it's the most sophisticated technology you've ever pressed against your taint. It does raise some interesting privacy questions, though, especially since it has privileged access to your privates.

Right-click all the things

from here and here

There's got to be a better way than NFTs to accomplish whatever NFTs for cars is supposed to accomplish. 

They don't stop you from doing the thing, only from getting away with it

from here

It would be more accurate to call the surveillance cameras, but I think society has less tolerance for the concept of surveillance, even though it's going on all around us. Calling them security cameras seems like it's part of our surveillance denialism.

Homework could get a lot more secure

from here

Banning backpacks really doesn't seem like an effective countermeasure to prevent gun violence. If you try to ban everything that a student might hide a gun inside then pretty soon kids will have to come to school naked.

Dragging us down to their level

from here

Leave it to one of the most invasive companies on the planet to find a way to normalize being invasive. Surveillance isn't bad if everyone is doing it, right?

A password stealer no one would suspect

from here

Normally it's a login form that gets stuffed (and that would actually accomplish something), but why not stuff a Roomba, or even a turkey for that matter.

No funds for you

from here

50 million is a lot, but maybe not enough to drain the police budget. It'd be a shame if crooks kept at it, though.

Yet another thing not to DIY

from here

Today I learned that there are open source ad servers that organizations can run themselves rather than going through a big name ad platform, and that those servers are (of course) vulnerable and being exploited to serve malware.

They should at least hunt for backdoors

from here

I suppose it's still an open question how the attacker penetrated their corporate security, but yet another dating site has been hacked.

Florida Admin

from here

This is an object lesson in why you don't give everyone the same username and password, and why you don't post that username and password on the Internet where everyone can find it. It's difficult to know who accessed the system and it's impossible to control who will access the system. Furthermore it's difficult to claim arbitrary people weren't supposed to access the system and that those arbitrary people should know that. Why give out the password if people aren't supposed to use it?

As for the title, I figure Florida Admin is a bit like Florida Man (or Florida Woman) but with technical responsibilities.

Bring Your Own Body-Cam

from here

Officer-worn video cameras aren't ideal for establishing officer accountability. They're better at capturing details to justify police action (and thereby cover the officer's arse) than at capturing the officer doing things they shouldn't be doing. Surveillance, after all, is a tool of the state and tools of the state can't be easily turned against the state.

Citizen-worn video cameras (aka souveillance) on the other hand are much better at capturing improper police action because they can be pointed at cops and because the police can't disable them or obstruct their view (so long as the police action isn't against the wearer, so some redundancy may be called for) .

Maybe some day they'll unlock password managers of their own

from here

I bet you thought that was going to go in a different direction.

But seriously, the master password is meant to be better than all the passwords stored in the password manager. If it's weaker than the stored passwords then realistically that weakness transfers to the stronger passwords stored inside, because the weak password can be broken and reveal the supposedly stronger passwords.

The stored passwords aren't going to get stronger over time, though. They will never surpass the master..

The computer says you're guilty so you're free to go

from here

Imagine being that bad at your job and still having a job. I cannot fathom why the Detroit Police Department still uses software that's that bad. I understand returning a weighted list of possible matches, but the closest match should be the right person most of the time, not merely 4% of the time.

Maybe they didn't notice

from here

Y'know, a good meme isn't just a funny picture or video on the Internet. Sometimes it's a different way of looking at things, of thinking about them, of framing them. I think the FBI's continued attempts to get backdoors in iPhones deserves something like that.

Now they just have to scare people into installing it like normal AV

from here

It's certainly good to hear that Google and Apple are working together on contact tracing, even if there are some problems with their approach.

Better living through power tools

from here

Unfortunately it appears that the KeyWe smart lock has software vulnerabilities that can be exploited by an attacker. Even more unfortunate is the fact that the software (firmware really) can't be updated, so the mistake that makes them vulnerable can't be fixed or patched. One may argue that the only way to deal with the problem is to remove them and replace them with a traditional lock, but if they already accept a traditional key it seems like a well placed hole through some computer chips could eliminate the avenues of attack the vulnerability opens up.