Simple changes to Amazon’s Ring could protect users from hacks

In the wake of news last week that a hacker was able to watch and communicate with an 8-year-old girl in Mississippi by using an Amazon Ring camera her parents had installed in her bedroom, the smart security device company downplayed the incident and deflected the blame from itself. “Rest assured, we’ve investigated these incidents and did not find any indication of an unauthorized intrusion or compromise of Ring’s systems or network,” Ring wrote in an email sent to users a few days after the highly publicized incident. Yet some Ring customers across the country have reported similar hacks of their smart cameras and video doorbells. Ring’s defense misses the point and is a disservice to its customers. Yes, it’s important to know that the hack wasn’t a breach of Ring’s internal systems, but that is unlikely to prevent such hacks from continuing to happen. Rather than dismissing the incident and putting the blame on users, the company could roll out a simple change that privacy experts have long advocated for on just about any service or product that requires a login: mandatory two-factor authentication. The hacker was able to access the camera with a username and password found in an online database of previously compromised login information (you can check to see if your logins have been compromised by going to haveibeenpwned.com). The ability to connect to a Ring camera from anywhere is a feature the company touts, though it’s supposed to be available only to the device owners and the people they choose. Ring suggested in its email that consumers practice better password security by not reusing passwords, updating their passwords regularly, and by enabling two-factor authentication, a process that requires users to supplement their username and password with an extra piece of information, usually a personal code generated by their phone, in order to log in.

Ring’s advice is sound. People should absolutely set up two-factor authentication on their devices, and should also check to see whether any of their logins have been compromised by going to haveibeenpwned.com. But expecting consumers to take these precautions on their own rarely works. One study found that less than one-third of Americans use two-factor authentication, and more than half have never even heard of it. Most people simply go with the easiest thing possible: the username and password they actually remember — the one they’ve used before. It’s ironic that a product that unrealistically inflates users’ fear of crime is itself less than secure. These issues, of course, are not unique to Ring. “Ring isn’t a camera; it’s an internet-connected computer that happens to have a camera on it,” Brian Vecci, field CTO at data protection and analytics company Varonis, told Recode. “Any internet-connected computer is vulnerable to attack.” Ring is a mass-market, highly popular device that’s likely showing up under trees and in shiny gift wrap across the country this holiday season, despite warnings from consumer groups of the product’s various privacy issues, including the inadvertent sharing of the location of Ring devices without permission and police handing over Ring footage to ICE and other law enforcement agencies, as well as the ongoing potential for hacking. Ring could make consumers do the right thing and mandate two-factor authentication, or perhaps assign its own unique passwords. It could require confirmation from device owners before allowing new sign-ons. It could also better detect suspicious behavior like multiple login attempts or logins from strange locations. This is, of course, a trade-off. “Security is often in contrast to convenience,” Vecci said. “Ring could hypothetically require using a fingerprint reader every time, but no one would use it. They’re trying to balance convenience with security.” Small inconveniences, however, are preferable to big violations of personal privacy.

Over 267 Million Facebook User Data Leaked on Dark Web

According to reports, more than 267 million Facebook users IDs, phone numbers, and names have been exposed to the Dark Web. Reported by Comparitech and security researcher Bob Diachenko, info was found in a database that was accessible without the use of a password, with researchers believing the data was gathered as part of an illegal scraping operation or Facebook API abuse. Although this database was exposed for nearly two weeks, Diachenko reported it to the service providing managing its IP address. According to Engadget, a spokesperson has stated: “We are looking into this issue, but believe this is likely information obtained before changes we made in the past few years to better protect people’s information.”

Earlier in September, a security researcher found a similar database with 419 million records connected to Facebook accounts. 50 million accounts were hacked last September due to hackers exploiting a “vulnerability” in Facebook’s “View As” feature. Of course, prior to that, Facebook exposed 87 million users’ data to Cambridge Analytica, sparking a scandal that saw CEO Mark Zuckerberg summoned to Washington to testify before both the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees. In other tech news, Apple has entered the satellite business in order to beam data directly to your devices.

Netflix’s The Witcher is a dark, funny, and faithful adaptation of the fantasy series

You learn nearly everything you need to know about The Witcher hero Geralt (Henry Cavill) a few minutes into the first episode. The titular witcher — a work-for-hire monster hunter with some helpful superpowers — is first seen in a swamp, nearly killed by a giant spider monster, beaten and almost drowned. In the next scene, Geralt heads to a local pub for information on his next quest, only to be subjected to ridicule and scorn from villagers who are scared of his supernatural nature. Ultimately, he’s saved from a barroom brawl thanks to a helpful young woman, who very quickly becomes a romantic partner. The Netflix adaptation captures the enigmatic hero perfectly. He’s struggling to survive in a world that hates him, stubbornly sticking to a moral code that forces him into dangerous situations. He’s gruff and sarcastic, always down for a fight, impossibly charming, and frequently irresistible. It’s a premise that worked well in book and video game form — and now it’s one of the best series on Netflix. As a TV show, The Witcher is particularly refreshing in an era full of nihilistic fantasy stories inspired by Game of Thrones. Yes, the show gets brutal at times. The wonderfully choreographed fight scenes are extremely violent, as is one very particular and hard-to-watch magical transformation.

It’s a show where — shock! — the bad guys are usually humans, not monsters. What makes The Witcher feel different, though, is in the details. These stories aren’t full of people being awful for the sake of it; they’re making choices based on love or survival, and then things go wrong. What makes The Witcher so compelling is how it delves into these gray areas, exploring why people do what they do. By the end, you’ll have some measure of sympathy for almost everyone, no matter how irredeemable they might seem at first. Crucially, The Witcher has a sense of humor. It’s not all dark and dire. Jaskier (Joey Batey) frequently plays the comedy relief, following Geralt around despite not being welcome, in order to turn Geralt’s exploits into song, sometimes breaking the fourth wall in the process. “There I go again,” he says at one point, “just delivering exposition.” When he meets the witcher for the first time, the bard tells him “I love the way you just sit in a corner and brood.” Meanwhile, Geralt’s quietly sarcastic nature is on full display. He can cut through any situation, no matter how awkward or horrible, with a frustrated “fuck.” And one of the show’s most dramatic sex scenes is accompanied by a playful jig and gawking onlookers making jokes. The Witcher could’ve very easily turned out wrong. It’s not hard to misinterpret what it is that actually makes the series interesting, but the TV adaptation gets it. The Witcher is funny, intense, and uncomfortable, and it balances out those disparate emotions almost perfectly. Yes, it stars Henry Cavill in a bad white wig, but you’ll forget about all of that as soon as he starts talking.

One of Amazon’s first employees says the company should be broken up

Paul Davis literally helped build Amazon.com from scratch. Now he says it’s time to tear it apart. Davis, a computer programmer who was Jeff Bezos’ second hire in 1994 before the shopping site even launched, told Recode on Friday that the company should be forced to separate the Amazon Marketplace, which allows outside merchants to sell goods to Amazon customers, from the company’s core retail business that stocks and sells products itself. His reasoning? He’s troubled by reports of Amazon squeezing and exploiting the merchants who stock its digital shelves in ways that benefit Amazon, the company, above all else. Davis’ concerns come as Bezos’ company has come under increased scrutiny from politicians, regulators, and its own sellers, in part over the power it wields over small merchants who depend on the tech giant for their livelihoods. “There’s clearly a public good to have something that functions like the Amazon Marketplace. … If this didn’t exist, you’d want it to be built,” Davis said. “What’s not valuable, and what’s not good, is that the company that operates the marketplace is also a retailer. They have complete access to every single piece of data and can use that to shape their own retail marketplace.” Davis is referring to how Amazon uses data from its third-party sellers to benefit its core retail business, whether it be by scouring these merchants’ best-sellers and then choosing to sell those brands itself, or to create its own branded products through similar means. “They’re not breaking any agreements,” he added. “They’re just violating what most people would assume was how this is going to work: ‘I sell stuff though your system [and] you’re not going to steal our sales.’” Davis’ comments appear to be one of the first times that an early Amazon employee has called for the company to be broken up. Earlier this year, US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren argued for the same.

And both the US House of Representatives and the Federal Trade Commission are scrutinizing Amazon’s business practices to determine if they are anticompetitive, including its dealings with the hundreds of thousands of merchants who are the backbone of Amazon’s unmatched product catalogue. An Amazon spokesperson sent Recode a statement, which read in part: “Sellers are responsible for nearly 60% of sales in our stores. They are incredibly important to us and our customers, and we’ve invested over $15 billion dollars this year alone—from infrastructure to tools, services, and features—to help them succeed. Amazon only succeeds when sellers succeed and claims to the contrary are wrong. Sellers have full control of their business and make the decisions that are best for them, including the products they choose to sell, pricing, and how they choose to fulfill orders.” Davis’ comments to Recode came after he posted an online comment alongside a New York Times article earlier this week about the challenges sellers face while doing business on Amazon. “For nearly 2 decades Amazon has used its control of its marketplace to strengthen its own hand as a retailer,” Davis wrote. “This should not be allowed to continue.” The Times article highlighted various ways that Amazon allegedly puts pressure on the merchants who are responsible for nearly 60 percent of all Amazon physical product sales, including burying their listings if they are selling the same product for less elsewhere and making it hard for brands that don’t advertise on the site from showing up at the top of search results. (Recode spotlighted similar complaints from sellers in an episode of the Land of the Giants podcast series this summer.)

Apple Will Reward $1.5 Million USD Bounty to Anyone Able to Hack an iPhone

Apple has opened its bug bounty program to all security researchers, offering folks up to $1.5 million USD if they are able to find security vulnerabilities. The previously invite-only bug program offers a bigger cash bounty the more specific the vulnerability, up to $1 million USD (approximately £767,000 EUR) for a “zero-click kernel code execution with persistence and kernel PAC bypass.” An additional $500,000 USD (approximately £383,000 EUR) will be offered if the issue in question is a vulnerability Apple didn’t know about or a unique occurrence to a specific developer or public beta. Apple’s Security Bounty page also clarifies “the issue must occur on the latest publicly available versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, or watchOS with a standard configuration and, where relevant, on the latest publicly available hardware.”

Hackers must also disclose the issue to Apple first before the official Apple security advisory is made public. “Reports lacking necessary information to enable Apple to efficiently reproduce the issue will result in a significantly reduced bounty payment,” the Apple requirements notes, “if accepted at all.” To get a chance of the big bucks, hackers will have to provide not only enough information for Apple to be able to reproduce the issue at hand but also a “reasonably reliable exploit.” Although Apple agrees to still pay under these circumstances, the payout will be no more than half of the maximum bounty rate. If you’ve hacked an iPhone, send an Apple Product Security PGP Key encrypted message will all videos, cash, logs, diagnoses, etc. to product-security@apple.com.

Charlotte Linlin

Charlotte Linlin, more widely known as Big Mom, is the captain of the Big Mom Pirates and the only female member of the Yonko. She is the matriarch of the Charlotte Family, which makes up the infrastructure of her crew, including herself and her dozens of children. She also rules over Totto Land as its queen, seeking to form it into a utopia where all the world's races can live together in peace without experiencing discrimination or segregation. She was the last Yonko to be named; her epithet was first mentioned just after the Battle of Marineford by Eustass Kid, and her real name by Pappug on Fishman Island. Due to her actions and intentions, she is the main antagonist of the Whole Cake Island Arc and one of the central antagonists of the Yonko Saga. Big Mom is a round, obese woman with a chin often hidden by her torso. She has an enormous physique, towering over the 9'1" Brook and able to hold his body in one hand as well as Jinbe, a three-meter tall fishman. Even as a five-year old child, Linlin was already massive to the point she was mistaken for a giant, and was as tall as giant children. She has moderately round, orange eyes, prominent eyelashes, and wears thick purple eyeshadow. She has a very wide mouth with full lips sporting red lipstick, large, round teeth, and a long, thick tongue that often sticks out. She also has long, curly, and wild pink hair that falls halfway down her back, as well as a beak-like nose, and plump, round cheeks. She also sports a tattoo on her left shoulder and arm, consisting of a large, standard-shaped red heart framed by thin lines curled at their bottom ends, which all tops a far smaller heart.

During her first appearance, Big Mom was shown to often drool large quantities of saliva when talking. When in her regular fits of rage from not having a certain food at her direct disposal or simply when extremely furious her pupils take on a spiral appearance. Big Mom wears a large pink bicorne hat bearing a Jolly Roger on the front. She has worn two versions: the first design consisted of a standard skull with crossbones behind it, as well as large flame-like patterns to the sides, whereas the current version, named Napoleon, has two crossed sabers instead of crossbones, possesses smaller lateral flame patterns, and is imbued with a fragment of her soul, causing its skull to change expressions and talk to Big Mom; on its top, the hat is edged with a thick yellow streak, it has a strip snap-fastened to it, and beneath it is a light, polka-dotted bandana fastened around Big Mom's head. Big Mom also dons a pink dress with red polka dots and white ruffles on its neckline and hemline, with a wide, rippling white cape attached to its back that falls to the ground. The outfit is completed with dark blue high heels, one turquoise pearl wristband on either wrist, and golden, jeweled rings on all her fingers. When she was five years old, Linlin towered over normal humans and was about the same size as a giant child. She had a much rounder face and had freckles on her cheeks, her hair was kept into two buns on both sides of her head. She wore a polka-dotted dress very similar to the one she currently wears, but with this one reaching her neck and having a bow at the top. At the start of her pirating career, Linlin's hair grew longer and she donned a dark sunhat. At 28 years old, Linlin looked drastically different compared to both her early childhood days and her later years. She was remarkably slimmer and had a visible neck, chin, and jawline, and her features were significantly smaller and more proportionate to her face. Her hair was long, yet considerably less wild than in the present day, and she had a large strand of hair falling to the left side of her face. In Oda's depiction of her at this time, she wore a dark fedora with a polka dot pattern, a bandana, and a dark, polka dotted top with a captain's coat draped over her shoulders.  At 48 years old, her neck was considerably larger and more muscular than it was at 28 and she had a much larger, more pronounced jaw. By this time, she had already begun wearing Napoleon and her polka-dotted bandana.

As one of the Yonko, Big Mom is one of the four most powerful pirates in the world. The Gorosei has stated that she is one of the few people capable of stopping Blackbeard. Even the Straw Hat Pirates recognize that she could crush them quickly and easily if they fought her recklessly. Through her strength as one of the most powerful pirates, Big Mom has managed to amass a very powerful crew, as well as several strong subordinates such as Jinbe, a fishman and former Shichibukai, and Capone Bege, one of the members of the Worst Generation. She possesses considerable influence within the Underworld as well, having connections to the Vinsmoke Family, which leads the legendary Germa 66. Those who marry her children automatically become part of her crew. While under Big Mom's protection, Fishman Island is protected from pirate attacks, indicating a powerful influence similar to that of the late Whitebeard. She is known to destroy entire countries over sweets and is intimidating enough that even her underlings Pekoms and Tamago, who are powerful in their own right, are afraid of talking to her when she is angered. In fact, almost everyone, including her own children, has been shown to fear her. Ironically, this fear makes Big Mom stronger due to the nature of her Devil Fruit powers. Big Mom's overall influence allows her to gather information about the backgrounds of people she is interested in, with said information being used to issue threats and demands. It is said that even demons would attend her tea parties if they were invited. At the early age of six, Linlin's first known bounty was Beli50,000,000, implying that even at this time she was considered a real threat. This bounty later increased to at least Beli500,000,000. Big Mom has immense superhuman physical strength, demonstrated by her ability to climb tall buildings despite her massive size, throw punches with tremendous destructive power, and hurl Prometheus with extreme force using only a single arm. When she was just five years old, she was strong enough to kill a large bear instantly with a single smack, merely intending to scold the animal, as well as break several of a giant's bones by trying to slap a mosquito on their back. When suffering from her cravings, she could destroy a village in Elbaf and take down several armed giants without a single scratch, being described by Jorl as an "evil spirit in the form of a child". She was strong enough to not only break Jorl's sword with her fist when he tried to attack her, but also grab the giant's beard, flip him over her shoulder, and smash him into the ground with enough force to mortally wound him. Carmel believed she had the potential to become an Admiral or Fleet Admiral of the Marines. According to Bege, she can single-handedly wreak havoc on towns and sink battleships without any effort. During a craving-caused rampage of hers in Sweet City, it was estimated that, shortly, she might even bring down her mountain-sized castle itself if no one were to stop her. Katakuri also noted that his mother can destroy Totto Land itself and cause even worse unimaginable destruction. She was also able to break through the metal doors of her castle's treasure room, which even her daughter and Sweet Commander Smoothie could not break through, just by walking into them. Even while sleeping, she could smash the stone floor around her bed by simply tossing and turning, as well as do the same with a slap while half-asleep to merely kill a fly. Big Mom can also easily damage Bege's Big Father fortress form, which has immense defensive power. Later on, Big Mom easily defeated Germa 66 commanders Vinsmoke Judge, Vinsmoke Niji, and Vinsmoke Yonji by herself, the latter two being genetically enhanced superhumans, without incurring so much as a scratch on her person.

Jinbe

"Knight of the Sea" Jinbe is a whale shark fishman, the second captain of the Sun Pirates after Fisher Tiger, and a former Shichibukai, who attained the position eleven years ago. His name was first mentioned by Yosaku, when he was explaining about the Shichibukai. However, he is formally introduced much later, during the Impel Down Arc. He renounced his Shichibukai title at the Battle of Marineford, allying himself with the Whitebeard Pirates. During the war, he befriended Monkey D. Luffy, and later allied with him and his crew to prevent the New Fishman Pirates' coup d'état against the Neptune Royal Family and the Ryugu Kingdom. He was even invited to join the Straw Hat Pirates, but declined due to having unfinished business of still being affiliated with Big Mom; however, he promised that once he was ready, he would return to Luffy again and request to join his crew. During the Whole Cake Island Arc, Jinbe would later leave Big Mom's services by rebelling against her and helping the Straw Hats escape her clutches. He is currently in an alliance with the Sanji Retrieval Team and Fire Tank Pirates seeking to bring down Big Mom. Jinbe's first bounty was Beli76,000,000. Eventually, his bounty raised to Beli250,000,000. After he resigned from the Shichibukai, his bounty has been raised to over Beli400,000,000.

Jinbe is a large blue whale shark fishman with a stocky build similar to a sumo wrestler and a face that is commonly associated with various Japanese demons such as the oni. His yellow eyebrows and sideburns are distinctly shaped like those found on such demons, in addition to a bulb-like nose and an angular lower lip pointing upwards. He has a lightning-shaped scar that can be seen from his left side burn and reaching over his left eye which he obtained sometime between Otohime's assassination and meeting Ace. He also possesses two tusk-like conical lower fangs associated with Oni as well; the rest of his teeth from the upper and lower rows are pretty much the same, albeit much smaller. He also has a severe underbite, which makes room for his huge fangs. He has long, two-toned black hair, with two long stripes, colored gold in the manga and white in the anime, coming from the roots over his forehead and trailing down the back, a topknot, and tuft of hair on his chin with a slight green hue. This topknot did not exist during his time as a member of the Sun Pirates, instead his shorter and flowing black hair trails off half way to a light color concentrated at the back of his head. He kept his chin clean-shaven before joining the Sun Pirates, after which it gradually grew out over time. His hands and feet are also webbed, typical for a fishman, and his limbs that are somewhat thin in comparison with his enormous girth. His gills (which are pale and pinkish in color) are in between his shoulders and neck. Under his pale red coat (which he swaps for a black one two years later), he appears to be wearing a Coral colored traditional Japanese clothing covered all over with black and white square-shaped patterns with the black and white layers alternating each other (beginning with the black outline from the edge) and ending with a dark square at the middle of each and every one of them. He also ties this attire up with a purple obi like a ribbon around his waist. Jinbe is often seen wearing different traditional kimono of varying patterns: he wore a karakusa and later a floral design during his time as a member of the Sun Pirates; he wore square designs during his debut and a plain one after the Battle of Marineford. Four years ago, when fighting against Ace, he wore a black gi instead with fish designs on either side of the chest, and a red sash with a tanto tied to it. Two years after the war, while waiting for Luffy at the Sea Forest, his kimono has leaf-patterns. During Caribou's cover story, he is seen in another one patterned with flowers. For footwear, he appears to wear simple geta on his webbed feet. His Sun Pirates tattoo is on the middle of his chest. During the Whole Cake Island Arc, his kimono is yellow and has a Jolly Roger design arranged like stripes. Additionally, he is also wearing an orange colored coat. He wore a Neptune Army uniform while he was serving as a soldier, and was often seen smoking a pipe back then. During Otohime's funeral, Jinbe wore a suit. In Volume 63 SBS, Oda draws the Shichibukai as children. Jinbe as a child is seen with light hair wearing a tattered gi practicing his Fishman Karate. He already had a black belt at this age.

It is stated that Jinbe was able to battle Portgas D. Ace on equal terms, despite Ace possessing Logia powers. They both nearly killed each other in a five-day long fight just before Ace was taken in by Whitebeard, and in Impel Down, he and Ace shared a cell on Level 6. He was able to easily punch Gekko Moriah (a fellow Shichibukai) a few meters away, almost knocking him out. As a fishman who is so familiar with the sea, he is a capable helmsman, shown when he steered a stolen Marine battleship. The anime depicts his skill at this even greater, where despite steering a massive and unfamiliar ship, he was easily able to dodge cannon fire from over a dozen battleships, with the ship receiving hardly any damage. Though strong, he admitted that he is of no use in land battles, implying he is much stronger at sea. Jinbe stands up to this claim when he lifted one of Impel Down's massive entrance doors with little effort and used it as a raft to provide passage over the sea for Crocodile, Mr. 1, and Buggy (all Devil Fruit users), with himself acting as the raft's propeller underneath. He is an excellent swimmer as not only did he managed to pursue the fleeing battleships, but even outmaneuvered the incoming cannonballs fired at them by the Marines with relative ease, all the while bypassing the Sea Kings that infested the surrounding waters of the Calm Belt. From his demonstration of underwater activity, it is obvious that he does not have the powers of a Devil Fruit, even at one point cursing the weakness of Devil Fruit users as he saved them from drowning. His power over sea water may very well make Jinbe a natural enemy of all Devil Fruit users, as seen in his fight against Gekko Moriah in Marineford, where the fishman rendered Moriah's ability to summon his zombies useless by splashing them with sea water, thus purifying them with the salt from the seawater. Jinbe also has strong sense of danger, as he refused to spin Big Mom's roulette after sensing murderous malice from the roulette which is later confirmed by Pedro and Brûlée that the roulette had been rigged to ensure death to anyone who spin it. In conjunction with his skills, Jinbe has immense willpower being able to completely suppress any emotions of fear, which renders him immune to Big Mom's ability to take away a person's lifespan. This was shown again as he stayed conscious from Big Mom's burst of Haoshoku Haki. His power and influence are so great that departing from even a Yonko's organization would severely diminish their crew's strength. Even for a fishman, Jinbe possesses tremendous strength. He is the most powerful fishman seen thus far, shown when he threw away a giant fishman with just one kick. He also appears to be extremely swift, even on dry land, despite his large size. He could intercept an enraged Luffy (in Gear Second mode) and prevent him from further assaulting Blackbeard, and later Akainu, when the latter was about to deal a second life-crippling blow upon the already-injured Ace (who was being held by Luffy) in the latter's last moments. In the anime, when struck by Arlong in the face, he wasn't fazed and easily defeated Arlong not long after fighting. While rescuing Brook from Big Mom, Jinbe was able to swiftly grab Nami and Brook and escape from Prometheus's explosion in an instant. Jinbe has a massive tolerance for pain: not only was he one of the few people to be able to take a "baptizing" in boiling water in Impel Down without flinching (which is considered an impressive feat), he could also block a direct magma punch from Akainu with his bare hand, unperturbed despite being badly burned, and took a direct hit from Akainu's magma enhanced punch, which brutally pierced his body completely, and his only reaction was to apologize to Luffy for allowing him further pain and was able to survive long enough for Law to operate on him. Oddly enough, he exclaimed in pain when bitten by Luffy, though this is most likely due to the fact that he was prepared for Akainu's attack, but was caught off guard from Luffy's bite, and that it was more out of irritation than actual damage.