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The Feds Can Now (Probably) Unlock Every iPhone Model In Existence

Oh boy. Here we go. What do you all think?

Sources say iPhone X and iPhone 8 can already be unlocked via Israeli company Cellebrite, one of America’s favorite contractors.

Source: The Feds Can Now (Probably) Unlock Every iPhone Model In Existence

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Mandatory data breach reporting starts for small business

Just read this article entitled Mandatory data breach reporting starts for small business and I want to make sure that users who come across this blog are aware of the new changes. One of the things that it says that is of importance deals with fines after a breach if notification is not made. One number that comes out is 360,000 and the other is 1.8 million dollars respectively.

Don’t get caught in this. I try to make sure people have their information protected the best I can. I’m based in the United States, and we don’t have a say so when our information gets taken. I think this should be something adopted no matter where you live, as it can be something we can all learn from what Australia is doing.

Here is a portion that might be of use from this article:

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“Severe consequences

Small businesses have been warned the consequences of a data breach can be severe; from financial to brand and reputational damage, Paul Gracey, director
of printing systems for HP South Pacific says.

“Security threats are evolving every day. Due to reduced effectiveness of firewall protection, every device on an organisation’s network is at risk, and
unfortunately printing and imaging devices are overlooked and left exposed.”

Security blind spots threaten to unhinge small business owners, such as visual hacking (where confidential data is read directly from a device’s screen
without permission), he says.

Over half of the respondents flagged ‘‘employee carelessness’’ as a significant security threat to their business, with concerns not just over the behaviour
of staff when outside the office, but external threats such as visual hacking, Gracey says.

“Think about the number of times you’ve opened your work laptop on the train or bus, only to catch someone looking over your shoulder.”

Visual hacking is a problem for small business. figure
Visual hacking is a problem for small business.
Visual hacking is a problem for small business. figure end

The not-so-humble printer is increasingly becoming the entry point of choice for hackers, and as SMBs remain focused on security software, hackers are
looking to printers as the easy way into a business.

Gracey explains that smart printers can retain sensitive information and are often excluded from risk assessments. “Small businesses need to ask what data
they have, where it’s kept and where it is being used,” he says.”

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If nothing else, we know no matter the business, nobody is prepared. Lets have a discussion on what we can do to start the process of doing the best we can, even though a lot of it is out of out of our hands.

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Talking technology and security, podcast 4

Podcast 4 of the talking tech and security show is now up. Go to our RSS feed to pick up your copy.

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Here are the show notes:

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Welcome to podcast 4 of the talking tech and security show on 986themix.com and wherever else it may go. This week, several different topics came up, and one, we didn’t have time to cover but will link to in case people want to comment.

• Our first topic deals with Microsoft and Be my Eyes. This article from Microsoft entitled Microsoft joins Be My Eyes app to provide tech support to Blind and Low Vision customers is where you can read more. Join the discussion as well. According to a paragraph in the article, it says: “Through the new app update, customers in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, and the United States will be able to connect with the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk.” This is a first step and this got a lot of praise.
• Next, from Cyberscoop, Report: Cybercrime causes over $600 billion in damage annually comes from Cyberscoop. Lots of different comments from this one, and the numbers are staggering. I have a feeling that its only going to get worse.
• The third item talks about technology and its usage by various people. Herbie facilitates this talk, and you’re welcome to join in.
• The Dark Net: Inside the Digital Underworld was discussed. One of our guests talked about the Tor (anonymity network) browser and other aspects. This was enlightening, learning that the browser is accessible and usable. Many people were surprised on what it was about and what people can find in the underbelly of the Internet. For those using NLS services, the Digital book number is DB 82835. The description from bard says: “Description: Technology academic and columnist explores areas of the Internet that are havens for questionable activities. Examines the growth of the Internet
  from its earliest days, types of personalities who benefit from anonymity, and how the Internet is used outside the public eye. Strong language and some
  descriptions of sex. 2014.” I have this on my wishlist to read.
• In a topic we did not cover due to time constraints, we had planned to talk about elder fraud. An article found through the FBI entitled: Elder Fraud: Law Enforcement Action Aimed at Those Who Victimize Senior Citizens. If you want us to cover this topic in a future program, please let us know.

To contact us, please Email us at or follow our twitter page who’s name can be gotten from listening to the show. Thanks so much for listening, and make it a great day!

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The zone is closing

There is no official date for the zone bbs closing, but it is now officially announced. Some months ago, it was rumored that the zone was closing on a thread on there. There was nothing official, and I was just curious on what was up.

On February 18, 2018: it was announced and a mass log in was announced for 9 eastern on that day. At the time I logged in, there was a total of 117 total users logged in. People are allowed to exchange contact info, and I’d say that you should do that with people you trust.

While I’ve dropped off the zone for awhile, and haven’t really participated for a number of years, I have enjoyed my time. It was an interesting ride, and I did get first on one of the week’s football pools and I had a lot of fun.
There have been people bashing, and people who are nice. One of the threads indicates a replacement site, but it seems to be on a forum site. While I respect people wanting to have a site that would be similar to the zone, I don’t think a forum site is the right solution.

Now-a-day, sites like face book and twitter have become more accessible, and of course linked in for those who are looking for jobs or connections.

My user number over on the zone is 769, so you can find information on contacting me there., and of course, this blog will continue to run and podcasts released.

To J.J. and the gang, it has been fun. Thanks for creating a very interesting site.

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Talking tech and security podcast 3

We had a great show, and it was fun to do. Please go to our RSS feed to pick up your copy.

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Welcome to tech and security, podcast 3. On this program, we are going to talk about several different topics including an update to a blind individual who was involved in swatting, social engineering, and other types of crime. Herbie Allen is also along with a segment dealing with technology and younger youth, and we also have a segment on Meltdown and Spector as Armando joins us. Below, please find some links to articles that might be of interest to you.

• BLIND HACKER SENTENCED TO 11 YEARS IN PRISON (wired)
• Sharing passwords: An act of love or recipe for disaster?(lastpass)
• Some Notes On Meltdown And Spectre (f-secure)

We hope you’ll enjoy the show as much as we have putting it together for you. Please Email with thoughts, comments, and suggestions on things to cover for future shows.

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More Russia news in regards to metaling in our election

Hi all,

On an earlier post, we linked to a news article with a link to news in regards to Russia’s involvement in the United States Election. I’d like to take this opportunity to give you a couple of more articles that may be better to read.

• Mueller Indictment Of Russian Operatives Details Playbook Of Information Warfare (npr)
• Read Robert Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russians for election interference (qz.com)

I hope that these articles may help to shed the light on the serious problem that we had in the elections. We’ll of course keep you up to date when we learn more, as social media, and other aspects of technology was used.

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Robert Mueller charges 13 and one company for interfeerence

Read Robert Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russian nationals for election meddling is the story dealing with the potential issue of the elections and how they were messed with. It does link to another page, and the article here is quite short. I downloaded the video that was found on you tube, and you can get to Special Counsel Mueller’s video by using this link to go there. Thanks so much for listening and participating.

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Equifax hack worse than previously thought: Biz kissed goodbye to card expiry dates, tax IDs etc • The Register

This is the update on the equifax deal that has been going on. I saw a retweet but this comes from Sans via the registor in the UK.

Pwned credit-score biz quietly admits more info lost

Source: Equifax hack worse than previously thought: Biz kissed goodbye to card expiry dates, tax IDs etc • The Register

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Hotbraille now a spanish site dealing with Java

Hi all,

Those of us who have been around awhile on the net remember a site called hotbraille.com. I got a piece of text that wasn’t translated properly, so sent an Email. They just said resubmit it. It was important, so I went elsewhere. It worked with short texts up to 2 pages or so of print.

For the longest time, the site was dormant, and decided to check in to it today. It looks like, and I have it confirmed, that Hot Braille is now a site promoting the teaching of Java in Spanish.

One thing I worry about when we have a good site that closes for some reason or another, is the bad that can come with the particular site. In this case, I think the promotion of Java in an alternate language other than English is all right by me. I don’t think it fits the domain, and I’m wondering why they chose that one for a spanish blog on Java? We’ll never know.

I thought I’d write about this, in hopes people might find it interesting.

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Tech 272

In this podcast, an update on Mr. Weigman from way back in 2008 and podcast 62. Then, we’ve got an NVDA segment and something to think about that. Its on our RSS feed for you to go get.

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Talking technology and security, podcast 2

Technology podcast 2 of the tech and security show is up on its RSS feed. This show has its notations done a little bit differently, and the RSS feed has them. Below, please find these notes.

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Welcome to the second broadcast of the technology show here on 986 the mix entitled Talking Tech and Security. I’m Jared Rimer, and I hope you’ll enjoy your listen. We have several links and topics for you to reference. Remember that you can Email us at with your thoughts and comments.

• Cyberbullying: is there something we can do? There’s a site that has some great information on what it is, and some things you can do. Read more from the Stop Bullying web site from the government. Lets discuss how to curve this big time problem.
• In a segment called crazy criminal, Canadian Police Charge Operator of Hacked Password Service.
  http://Leakedsource.com and it was definitely interesting how other types of things came up including phone and other types of scams. It can all be tied in to one thing, crime does not pay. You’ll eventually be caught.
• In our third segment we talk about security, two factor, whether we need it, and an article entitled Are You More Secure than 90% of Google Users? Some of us think this is not quite the case. I think the results are scued.
• Our final segment talked about prior security and other breaches through the years. What started this discussion was Trend Micro’s excellent writing A Look Back: Reviewing the Worst Cyber Attacks of 2017 and the Lessons Learned which I highlighted the headings and we want people to take a read. In talking about this, other breaches such as Target and other well known breaches came up.
• Other articles linked to this discussion of breaches included:

• Equifax says more private data was stolen in 2017 breach than first revealed which talks about Equifax’s problems and hopefully now they have a handle on it.
• The second article spurred from this was: Target to pay $18.5M for 2013 data breach that affected 41 million consumers which I remember seeing from other sources.

Thanks for listening, and we hope you enjoy your stay!

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Talking Tech and Security, podcast 1

Hello folks,

98.6 the mix is an Internet Radio station where I run two independent artist shows. There is a new DJ that came to us and asked us to produce a show talking tech and security. This show premiered this last Saturday, the 3rd.

I thought it’d be a cool idea to cross post the show to this podcast, as we can have a pannel of people talking about various things.

Don’t worry, this podcast will continue, in fact, we have a new podcast almost ready to go.

Here is the show discription from the mix’s schedule.

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This show will talk about the latest in technology and security including but not limited to accessibility, IOS, Android, and the underground.

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I believe this can only supplement the podcast I already run. This show also contains music, and a couple of promos about other shows across the network.

I’m only the board operator, not the music selector, but I hope you’ll enjoy the show anyway.

Here is the RSS feed for the show.

Here is the show notes for our very first show.

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Hello folks, welcome to our first ever show talking about tech and security with Laura and Jared. We’ve got several different topics for you today. The first topic is dealing with Net Neutrality. We have an article entitled: the net neutrality repeal and next steps. This article is a little dated, but we do not have any other information about this at this time. We have two dumb criminal awards thanks to Krebs on Security. The first: Drugs Tripped Up Suspects In First Known ATM “Jackpotting” Attacks in the US . In this story, there is an attached video from a well known hacker named Barnaby Jack, who is a well known hacker and has done demonstrations dealing with various things. This was a bonus black hat talk. The first article that came out about this was an article entitled: First ‘Jackpotting’ Attacks Hit U.S. ATMs . This was the first time in United States History that this has ever been recorded where something this big has occurred. In the dumb criminal award and the prior story, we see that someone gets caught, with the ATM and some drugs, bad combo? Finally, File Your Taxes Before Scammers Do It For You talks about how we has citizens need to file our taxes before the bad guys do, or suffer the consequences of not being able to file. We also will have a segment dealing with early technology and how it began for us in the assistive technology standpoint of things. During a segment of talking tech, Laura was asking about floppies. Here’s a link to the history of the floppy disk via Wikipedia. Contact information is given throughout the show. Thanks for listening!

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Enjoy the show and feel free to contact us! Thanks for reading.

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