Episode 37 - Merry New Year!

Welcome back to the New year and the new look Host Unknown, with a slightly less ethnically diverse lineup than usual, but, but still the same average quality and distinctly suspect ethics you have come to expect from Host Unknown. This week Thom displays his love of the Animaniacs, Andy has audio issues and Graham has the voice of a midnight hour radio show host. Smutty or Security?Graham wins by a nose and a euphemism. This Week in InfoSecLiberated from the “today in infosec” twitter accoun):6th January 1982: The final draft of the script for the movie WarGames was printed. Due to the Cold War and relative ignorance about remotely accessible computers, the film released in 1983 scared the hell out of politicians, the military, and adults. And inspired a generation of hackers!https://twitter.com/todayininfosec/status/1214381338028953600  8th January 1986: "The Hacker Manifesto" was written by Loyd Blankenship (aka The Mentor) and originally titled "The Conscience of a Hacker".  8 months later it was published in issue 7 of the hacker zine Phrack.http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html#articlehttps://twitter.com/todayininfosec/status/12150268696003133449th January 2001: Macromedia, the maker of the Flash media player, claimed that Flash was secure because it was "a constrained environment by design". https://web.archive.org/web/20010123231000/http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2672473,00.htmlhttps://twitter.com/todayininfosec/status/1215067971963375616End of the road for Flashhttps://twitter.com/gcluley/status/1344822920946872320https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55497353 Rant of the Weekhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55573149https://threatpost.com/facebooks-mandatory-data-sharing-whatsapp-ire/162828/WhatsApp is forcing users to agree to sharing information with Facebook if they want to keep using the service.The update is designed to “offer integrations across the Facebook Company Products”, which also includes Instagram and Messenger.Some of the data that WhatsApp collects includes:User phone numbersOther people’s phone numbers stored in address booksProfile namesProfile pictures andStatus message including when a user was last onlineDiagnostic data collected from app logsThe company warns users in a pop-up notice that they "need to accept these updates to continue using WhatsApp" - or delete their accounts."Opt in, or fuck off by 8th Feb."But…. some good news!And the UK is still considered part of the “European region”, even if we’re not in the EU.  Yes, we are still Europeans in 2021!However, the new version of the privacy policy for European users explicitly says that data can be shared with other Facebook companies to show personalised advertising and offers, make suggestions for content, and "help" to complete purchases, among other reasons.What’s telling to me...In 2018, the founders of WhatsApp quit FB over disagreements about privacy and encryption.  Walking away from $850 million...https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/30/jan-koum-whatsapp-co-founder-quits-facebookhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2018/09/26/exclusive-whatsapp-cofounder-brian-acton-gives-the-inside-story-on-deletefacebook-and-why-he-left-850-million-behind/If they can walk away from $850 million, surely WhatsApp users can switch to Signal.Alternatives:SignalWickr Billy Big BallsElon Musk has become the wealthiest person on the planet, surpassing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, thanks to the continued rise in Tesla’s stock price. Musk is now worth around $188 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.“How strange,” Musk tweeted Thursday. “Well, back to work ...”Musk eclipsing Bezos’ own extravagant personal wealth of around $187 billion marks the latest development in a years-long rivalry between the two tech magnates.https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/7/22163361/elon-musk-billionaire-richest-world-jeff-bezos-tesla-stock-spacexEncrypted messaging app Signal says it’s seeing a swell of new users signing up for the platform, so much so that the company is seeing delays in phone number verifications of new accounts across multiple cell providers.As for what or who is responsible for so many new users interested in trying the platform, which is operated by the nonprofit Signal Foundation, there are two likely culprits: Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Signal competitor WhatsApp.https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/7/22218989/signal-new-signups-whatsapp-facebook-privacy-controversy-elon-musk Industry NewsNYSE to Delist Chinese Telcos on National Security GroundsOne Million Compromised Accounts Found at Top Gaming FirmsMicrosoft: SolarWinds Attackers Viewed Our Source CodeNYSE U-Turn Means Chinese Telcos Escape DelistingChinese APT Group Linked to Ransomware AttacksRansomware Surge Drives 45% Increase in Healthcare Cyber-AttacksUS: Fewer Than 10 Govt Agencies Hit by SolarWinds AttackMost Public Sector Victims Refuse to Pay Ransomware GangsDark Web User Numbers Spiked During #COVID19 LockdownOver a Third of TMT Firms Hit by Security Breach in 2020Social Media Neuters Trump’s Accounts After Fans Storm CapitolDoJ: SolarWinds Attackers Hit Thousands of O365 Inboxes Tweet)s) of the WeekGraham from the Smashing Security podcast: @modesty_blaise0: Due to travel restrictions, the USA had to organize a coup at home this year.https://twitter.com/modesty_blaise0/status/1346965502703198208Andy: @ChatGotNextYou can’t even do this shit on GTAhttps://twitter.com/ChatGotNext/status/1346911137439223822Thom:@YousefMunayyerWe spend $750 billion annually on "defense" and the center of American government fell in two hours to the duck dynasty and the guy in the chewbacca bikinihttps://twitter.com/YousefMunayyer/status/1347026407294201863Graham from the Smashing Security podcast:@bocxtopit’s literally harder to sign into gmail from a new device than it is to breach the capitol wallshttps://twitter.com/bocxtop/status/1347003538468204545Andy:@notvikingstarting to think it’d actually be incredibly easy to steal the declaration of independencehttps://twitter.com/notviking/status/1346923223489736704Thom: (serious)@Olivia_BeaversIf there is still any question about how rhetoric can manifest into action, that question has been answered today.https://twitter.com/Olivia_Beavers/status/1346901714767642630 They Pushed Me Out And Maced Me Sticky Pickle of the WeekSticky Pickle of the WeekSticky Pickle of the WeekGraham applies his razor sharp mind to this weeks triple sticky pickle. US nuclear launch codes were 00000000  Come on! 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