Archive for December 19, 2022

Tesla Stock Downgraded As It Pays For Elon’s Sins…. And Other Oddities Of Life

Posted in Commentary with tags , on December 19, 2022 by itnerd

It seems that Elon Musk is causing actual problems for Tesla. Today CNN is reporting that Tesla stock, which has frankly been in free fall as Elon has “fun” over at Twitter has been downgraded:

Oppenheimer & Co. downgraded its rating on Tesla, where Musk is the CEO, solely because of risks posed by the billionaire’s ownership and management of Twitter. 

“We believe Mr. Musk is increasingly isolated as the steward of Twitter’s finances with his user management on the platform. We see potential for a negative feedback loop from departure of Twitter advertisers and users,” Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch wrote to clients. 

An exodus of advertisers will only further erode Twitter’s finances and force Musk to unload even more Tesla stock to cover the cash hole, the firm wrote.

Oppenheimer specifically cited Twitter’s decision last week to ban several journalists, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, as a catalyst for the downgrade.

And:

Rusch, the Oppenheimer analyst, said the “inconsistent standards application” for Twitter users has helped create a “broad public backlash” against Musk that will in turn hurt Tesla.

“We believe banning journalists without consistent defensible standards or clear communication in an environment where many people believe free speech is at risk is too much for a majority of consumers to continue supporting Mr. Musk/TSLA, particularly people ideologically aligned with climate change mitigation,” Rusch wrote.

In other words, Musk’s antics are bad for business, even the business of Tesla.

It likely doesn’t help that Elon and Tesla are getting some unwanted attention from a prominent senator:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Tesla’s board on Sunday questioning whether Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition had led the billionaire to misappropriate the electric-car maker’s resources and created “unavoidable conflicts of interest.”

Warren said Musk’s Twitter takeover has “raised questions about possible violations of securities or other laws, including whether Mr. Musk is funneling Tesla resources into Twitter, a potentially ‘improper diversion of resources that might impact Tesla’s sales and earnings’ and could result in ‘delays in programs at Tesla,'” The New York Times was the first to report.

The letter said those misappropriated resources could include labor, like software engineers and senior executives.

The senator warned Tesla’s board members that it is their job to ensure “that a controlling shareholder (especially one who is also a Chief Executive Officer, or CEO) does not treat the company as a private plaything.” Warren cited reports that Musk has brought in dozen of Tesla employees to assist in his Twitter takeover, saying it could violate the billionaire’s “legal duty of loyalty to Tesla.”

Well, the number of politicians on Capitol Hill sending letters like these to companies that Elon controls is starting to pile up. It honestly won’t be a surprise to me if at some point in the near future that formal investigations begin in terms of some or all of his companies.

Speaking of Elon, I noted this earlier today:

I think this is telling. After all, this is a guy who can’t go five minutes without Tweeting something. But he’s been silent for almost 24 hours, which is an eternity for him. I am sure that we’ll find out what this means shortly. As this is a guy who cannot stay out of the limelight for long.

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Targus Releases Their First Global Sustainability Report

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 19, 2022 by itnerd

Targus, a leader in laptop cases and mobile computing accessories, has released its first Global Sustainability Report detailing its sustainability roadmap and quantifiable actions to do more to impact less. Targus’ sustainability roadmap aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to provide a solid framework driven by transparency and accountability.  

The in-depth report covers three core areas: 1) an overview of the company and its strides in sustainability to date, 2) the five key UN SDGs that Targus has prioritized, as well as its actions to support them, and 3) Targus’ future goals and commitments to contribute to a greater collective impact.

Here are some of the key highlights.

  • To date, Targus has recycled 17 million plastic bottles. In 2008, Targus launched its line of laptop cases and backpacks made from recycled plastic bottles and is now expanding its EcoSmart technology into the tech accessories category. For example, the company will be launching a new Energy Harvesting EcoSmart™ Keyboard in early 2023, which was recently named a 2023 CES® Innovation Awards Honoree.
  • Sustainability should be a top priority for all businesses. In fact, more than any other region, the US sees sustainability as a motivation for where people choose to work. An overwhelming number of top-level decision makers state that sustainability initiatives have a positive effect on employee recruitment (95%) and retention (94%).
  • Targus’ global sustainability goals closely align with five of the key UN SDGs. These chosen goals focus on the following areas where Targus believes it can make the biggest positive impact: Workplace conditions and economic opportunity, responsible consumption and production, climate action, as well as conservation below water and on land.

As our world evolves and faces unprecedented environmental challenges, it’s clear that today’s businesses must play an important role in sustainability. Read the full report to learn about Targus’ journey toward creating a greener future.
 

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SevenRooms Confirms Data Breach After Data Put Up For Sale On The Dark Web

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 19, 2022 by itnerd

Bleeping Computer yesterday reported that restaurant CRM platform SevenRooms confirms a data breach after data pops up on the dark web for sale. SevenRooms, the customer relationship management platform used by MGM Resents, Mandarin Oriental, Wolfgang Puck and many more, confirmed the data breach after a threat actor began selling stolen data on a hacking forum:

On December 15, a threat actor posted data samples on the Breached hacking forum, claiming to have stolen a 427 GB backup database with thousands of files containing information about SevenRooms customers.

The samples provided by the seller include folders named after big restaurant chains, clients of SevenRooms, API keys, promo codes, payment reports, reservation lists, and more.

After BleepingComptuer contacted SevenRooms about the data being sold online, they confirmed that it was their data was caused by unauthorized access to the systems of one of its vendors.

That’s not a good look. Apparently it was “a file transfer interface of a third-party vendor” that was pwned by the hackers in question. this interface has now been disabled. SevenRooms itself however has not been pwned.

Dr. Darren Williams, CEO and Founder, BlackFog had this commentary:

     “The SevenRooms breach emphasizes the dominant trend from 2022, that data exfiltration is the main goal of all ransomware attacks. The days of data encryption are virtually behind us as the focus is on the monetization of the victim. By targeting the data the attacker has many different ways of making money, from the more blatant ransom on target, but increasingly on the victims who’s data has been exposed, which can be even more lucrative from a single exfiltration event. In addition, the data is often sold on the dark web for others to leverage into the future as evidenced from this attack.”

I would also say that attacks where connections with third parties are pwned are insanely common these days. Thus companies need to focus on those along with everything else that they need to lock down so that they don’t become the next story that I write about.

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LG Presents ESG Vision For A Better Life For All At CES 2023

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 19, 2022 by itnerd

LG Electronics (LG) will be putting the spotlight on its continuing commitment to sustainability at CES 2023, showcasing its ESG vision and latest, impactful innovations in an exclusive exhibit dubbed the Better Life for All zone.

Providing a comprehensive overview of LG’s sustainability efforts, including its major ESG milestones, current initiatives and long-term goals, the Better Life for All zone consists of three, unique sections: For the Planet, For People and Our Commitment. The exhibit will also introduce the four finalist entries of LG’s inaugural LIFE’S GOOD AWARD, an innovation challenge created to spread the company’s Life’s Good message and empower innovators seeking to make a positive difference for people and the planet.

Key focuses of LG’s ESG agenda have been built into every aspect of the Better Life for All zone. Informational materials provided in the zone will offer braille for those with visual impairments and be placed at a height that enables easy reading for people using wheelchairs. Guides proficient in sign language will be on site, as will an LG CLOi GuideBot programmed to deliver digital-human sign language services. The zone itself will be constructed with the use of eco-friendly materials.

Better Life for All: Innovations for a Sustainable Future and the Better Life Plan 2030

The For the Planet section of the zone presents LG’s diverse environmental initiatives, which include the establishment of Sustainable Cycles which prioritize ‘green’ considerations at every step of the product lifecycle, such as the collection, disposal and re-purposing of e-waste in the post-usage stage. Visitors to For the Planet can see how materials extracted from discarded e-waste at the company’s Chilseo Recycling Center (CRC) are being used to manufacture parts for new LG products. Also highlighted in For the Planet is the LG Smart Park (Changwon, South Korea), the company’s energy-efficient factory and a new Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam recycling technology developed by LG to make product packaging more eco-friendly.

The second section of the exhibit, For People, showcases LG’s efforts and achievements in product and service accessibility. These include the development of product manuals incorporating voice and sign language guides and the implementation of accessibility features – such as voice recognition, voice instruction and motion-detecting sensors – in a wide range of LG products. For Peoplewill also give visitors the opportunity to explore the accessibility options available on LG TVs; from audio-to-text captions to a sign language screen that can be easily moved and resized.

Our Commitment, the third and final section of the Better Life for All zone, reflects LG’s dedication to ensuring a sustainable future – the ultimate goal of the company’s Better Life Plan 2030. LG aims to have cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from product manufacturing by 50 percent (compared to 2017 levels), and GHG emission from the use of seven key products by 20 percent per unit sold by 2030 from a 2020 base year. Furthermore, the company plans to offer accessibility features for all of its product lines by 2025 and provide a voice instruction manual and sign language video manual for every LG product by 2030.

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Rogers Wireless Customers Report That They Are Having Issues With 5G And LTE Today

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 19, 2022 by itnerd

The last thing that Canadian telco Rogers needs is another major outage. However it is possible that we’re seeing that right now. A visit to Down Detector shows this:

That’s not good as a graph like that indicates that something happened around 10AM EST today. I personally have received reports that Rogers customers are being bumped down to 3G service when they should be getting LTE or 5G service. A quick look at Twitter shows that others are having issues:

However as I type this, I am getting word that 5G service has come back online for some. Thus whatever happened, it was brief thankfully. But there has been no confirmation of any issues from the troubled telco on this. And I would be interested to see if they do comment at this at all as it would draw some unwanted attention towards them that Rogers simply cannot afford right now.

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Guest Post: US consumers lost over $930 million to social media scams in 2022

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 19, 2022 by itnerd

Social media has made our communication much more convenient, allowing us to easily keep in touch with family and friends and connect with like-minded people within a matter of seconds. However, it also made it much easier for cybercriminals to con us.

According to the data presented by the Atlas VPN team, consumers in the United States lost a whopping $931 million to social media scams this year (approximately $3.4 million per day). 

In total, 131,409 social media scams were reported in the first three quarters of 2022. While only approximately a tenth (12%) of reported scams took place on social media, it was the most lucrative channel for fraudsters bringing in more funds than any other medium. 

Websites and apps were the second most profitable channels for cybercriminals. Fraudsters looted $692 million via 136,553 scams on websites and apps from Q1 through Q3 of 2022. 

Phone call scams occupy the third spot on the list. FTC recorded 229,494 such schemes in the first three quarters of this year, which brought criminals $590 million. 

Next up is email fraud. Overall, 195,571 such scams were documented in the first three quarters of this year, which cost victims $309 million.

Meanwhile, scams conducted via text messages earned criminals $231 million. Despite occupying the fifth space in terms of losses, text message fraud was the most frequently reported, with 252,647 fraud instances disclosed in Q1 through Q3 of 2022.

Fraudsters also employed online ads and popups in their schemes. While FTC documented only 27,678 such cases, online ads and popup scams brought in $131 million.

Finally, US consumers also reported 25,803 mail scams. Collectively, such scams earned cybercriminals $53 million.

To read the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/us-consumers-lost-over-930-million-to-social-media-scams-in-2022

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New Report On 8 Most Prominent Vulnerabilities In 2022 & New Research On The Log4Shell Anniversary

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 19, 2022 by itnerd

Rezilion has released a new report exploring the 8 most prominent vulnerabilities that have been discovered during 2022: Pwnkit, Dirty Pipe, Spring4Shell, NimbusPWN, Dirty Cred, ProxyNotShell, Text4Shell, and Spooky SSL. The researcher investigates what it is, when it was published, how it can be exploited, remediation, and mitigation for each vulnerability. 

Rezilion also recently published Log4Shell Anniversary research showing:

  • Over 57K publicly accessible servers are still vulnerable, which is only the tip of the iceberg.
  • Over 30% of the overall publicly accessible servers still run versions vulnerable to Log4Shell.
  • Survey of all exploitation attempts conducted in the year since Log4Shell was first discovered.

You can read the full report here.

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Musk Loses A Poll Asking Whether He Should Stay As CEO…. But That’s Not the Story That You Should Pay Attention To

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 19, 2022 by itnerd

I promise, I will get to the whole circus surrounding that poll that Elon Musk posted yesterday asking if he should stay as CEO. But first I want to cover one other item that is more important than Elon’s poll. Yesterday Twitter decided to forbid users from “promoting” other social media sites. And the blowback from that policy was swift. And it must have had an influence on Twitter / Elon because the page that once detailed how this policy works is gone and so are any Twitter tweets referencing it. What this means is the policy no longer exists.

I am guessing that it might have something to do with this:

While Elon isn’t afraid to pick a fight, he might have decided that if the EU came knocking on his door, that this was one fight he could not win. I have an alternate theory though. Advertisers use multiple social media platforms to increase their exposure. And I suspect that they might have dialled up Twitter on Sunday afternoon to say “WTF?”. One of those who uses multiple social media platforms and advertises their presence on Twitter is, Tesla:

That’s just too funny. And so is this:

That might have played a part in walking back this dumb policy as well. This whole episode illustrates how unhinged and unfocused Elon is. And at some point, it’s going to cost him.

Now over to that poll that asked Twitter users if he should step down as CEO. Well, he lost that poll:

Now keep in mind that anything that Elon says cannot be trusted. Not even for a few minutes. And as a result, he could easily ignore this and continue the suicide mission that he and Twitter are on. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine that even Elon can want the chaos to continue indefinitely. In particular, the value of Tesla has halved over the past few months because of his Twitter escapades. And it’s cost him a lot in terms of his net worth. So he might be looking for an exit ramp that saves face. The thing is, he would still own Twitter, and anyone who would be stupid enough to become CEO of the company would just be his puppet who could be fired by him at any time based on whatever his whims are at that second. Thus even if he goes, the circus will still be in town because Elon won’t be going anywhere unless his investors / lenders force him out.

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