Wednesday Newsbytes: Two Billion Passwords Stolen in 2021, Amazon Sues Facebook Admins, UK Heat Wave Causes Outages, Meta Sues Meta, and more…
Every day we scan the tech world for interesting news in the world of technology. Every Wednesday, we feature some news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s “Wednesday Newsbytes” informative and interesting!
Hackers leaked two billion usernames and passwords in 2021
When it comes to commodities, data is now one of the most valuable commodities there is. Back in 2006, British Mathematician Clive Humby even went as far as to argue that “data is the new oil.” Yet in the hands of cybercriminals, there’s one piece of data that’s digital gold: your password.
Passwords, alongside other user data like names and email addresses, are an extremely valuable commodity for hackers, who regularly buy and sell this information on the dark web as part of an underground economy. Malicious entities then purchase this data knowing that it gives them the key to stealing an individual’s digital identity…
Other records compromised included the victim’s name, address, Social Security number (SSN), date of birth, protected health information (PHI), and payment or banking details.
Recognising the weaknesses of password-based security
One of the most shocking trends that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic was the level of credential-theft taking place. For instance, a 2020 audit of the dark web found that there were over 15 billion passwords exposed online.
As this figure continues to grow day by day, it’s becoming increasingly clear that passwords are as much a security liability as they are an authentication measure.
Amazon sues more than 10,000 Facebook group administrators over fake reviews
Amazon said it filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against more than 10,000 Facebook group administrators for allegedly orchestrating fake reviews on Amazon in exchange for money or free products.
Amazon said in a statement that it has reported more than 10,000 fake review groups to Meta, Facebook’s parent company, and Meta has already taken down more than half of those groups for policy violations as it investigates others.
“Our teams stop millions of suspicious reviews before they’re ever seen by customers, and this lawsuit goes a step further to uncover perpetrators operating on social media,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of selling partner services. “Proactive legal action targeting bad actors is one of many ways we protect customers by holding bad actors accountable.”
Amazon introduced product reviews in 1995 as it expanded its digital store footprint, but many have taken advantage of the feature.
The groups solicit fake reviews for hundreds of products available on Amazon, including items like car stereos and camera tripods, Amazon said.
The tech giant said it has 12,000 employees dedicated to cracking down on fraud, including fake reviews, and the company proactively stopped more than 200 million suspected fake reviews in 2020 using its monitoring and technological tools.
But the alleged groups targeted in the lawsuit were set up to recruit individuals willing to post misleading reviews on the company’s stores in the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan, according to Amazon.
UK heat wave causes Google and Oracle cloud outages
An ongoing heatwave in the United Kingdom has led to Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud outages after cooling systems failed at the companies’ data centers.
For the past week, the United Kingdom has suffered an ongoing record-breaking heat wave causing stifling temperatures throughout the region.
However, today, with temperatures reaching a record-breaking 40.2 degrees Celsius (104.4 Fahrenheit), cooling systems at data centers used by Google and Oracle to host their cloud infrastructure have begun to fail.
To prevent permanent damage to hardware components and thus create a prolonged outage, both Google and Oracle have shut down equipment, leading to outages in their cloud services.
Oracle was the first to be affected, with the company reporting a cooling failure at approximately 11:30 AM EST today, causing “non-critical hardware” to be powered down.
‘As a result of unseasonal temperatures in the region, a subset of cooling infrastructure within the UK South (London) Data Centre experienced an issue. This led to a subset of our service infrastructure needed to be powered down to prevent uncontrolled hardware failures,’ reads an Oracle Cloud status message that appears to have been first spotted by TheRegister.
Read more at Bleeping Computer
A company called Meta is suing Meta for naming itself Meta
It’s Metas all the way down
When Facebook changed its name to Meta in October, there were a few concerns that the company was planning to dominate the nascent metaverse — but there’s one aggrieved party that’s only now going public.
An installation-art company called META (or Meta.is) announced Tuesday that it will be suing Meta (or Facebook) for trademark violation, alleging that Zuckerberg’s name change violated the smaller company’s established brand.
‘On October 28, 2021, Facebook seized our META mark and name, which we put our blood, sweat, and tears into building for over twelve years,’ reads a post on the smaller company’s site. ‘Today, after eight months of trying to negotiate with Facebook in good faith to no avail, we were left with no choice but to file a lawsuit against them…’
Much of the case hinges on Facebook’s many privacy scandals, which Meta.is argues has made it impossible to share the name. ‘Meta can no longer provide goods and services under the META mark,’ the complaint argues, ‘because consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Meta’s goods and services emanate from Facebook and that Meta is associated with the toxicity that is inextricably linked with Facebook…’
Why Nikon and Canon have given up on DSLRs
New tech makes mirrorless cameras unstoppable.
The biggest news in the camera industry this month is that Nikon is reportedly halting development of new SLR cameras, marking the end of a 63-year run. From now on, it will focus exclusively on mirrorless Z mount models like the Z6, Z50 and recently-launched Z9 flagship.
This is a seismic industry change, as Nikon has a storied history with SLRs going back to the iconic Nikon F launched in 1959. But it’s not the only company going in this direction: Canon already confirmed that the EOS-1DX Mark III will be its final flagship DSLR, and Sony moved to selling only mirrorless cameras last year.
Until recently, reflex cameras were regarded as a better option than mirrorless for action photography, so what happened? Simply put, mirrorless models improved so dramatically over the past couple of years that they rendered DSLRs moot.
A lot of pro photographers are holding onto their DSLRs, and the main reason is speed. As we explained several years ago in our Upscaled series, reflex cameras have dedicated autofocus sensors under the mirror. They’re extremely fast, so they allow for high burst shooting speeds with accurate focus on each shot. Canon’s 1DX III, for example, can shoot at up to 16 fps with AF and auto exposure enabled.
Many serious shooters still prefer an optical viewfinder, too. They want a subject view they can trust and believe that a physical view via a prism and mirror is superior to an artificial electronic display. The drawback, of course, is that you can’t see the image when you shoot it because the mirror lifts up to block the display.
The last big thing is battery life and handling: Flagship DSLRs have heavy bodies and big grips that make for stable shooting platforms, particularly with the massive telephoto lenses used by sports and wildlife photographers. They’re also covered with dials and buttons for easier handling. And the optical viewfinder obviously doesn’t drain the battery, so DSLRs can shoot many more photos on a charge.
5 Ways To Combat Screen Fatigue & Rejuvenate Your Eyes
I’m looking at screens for a large portion (read: most) of my day, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you are too.
Screens are a part of our daily lives—we work in front of a computer screen, use our phone screen to catch up on news and connect with friends, and then end our day watching TV on our television screens.
As crazy as it seems, it’s not at all abnormal for individuals to spend almost every waking moment of their day looking at a screen. The thing is, our eyes aren’t equipped to deal with 24/7 use of digital devices, and too much screen time can lead to an increasingly common health concern called screen fatigue.
What is screen fatigue?
Screen fatigue is when the muscles around our eyes get strained after long bouts of screen use without any rest. Essentially, it’s related to ‘eye strain’—a generic term used to describe eye discomfort, optometrist Jeffrey Anshel, O.D., FAAO, says.
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope you found these articles useful, informative, interesting, fun, and/or helpful. Darcy & TC