Tips and information from Nikon Canada: How to Prepare for The Solar Eclipse

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 5, 2024 by itnerd

With parts of Canada in the path of Monday’s solar eclipse, many are excited to photograph and/or record it. However, there are important steps you need to take in order to properly protect your equipment, as well as your eyes.

Nikon Canada has a two-part video series available that includes all you need to know to properly (and safely) capture this exciting event:

How to Prepare for The Solar Eclipse – Part 1: 

In this video, Nathan from Nikon will show you what kind of lenses, filter, and other accessories you will need to capture the eclipse.
*Please note there is an option for French captioning for this video under Settings.

A few important considerations from Nikon Canada:

  • The solar filter must be placed in FRONT of any telescope, camera lens or mirror.
  • It should NEVER be used behind an eyepiece, viewfinder or lens, including any drop-in filters found on lenses.
  • Do NOT point the camera at the sun when the lens is NOT protected by a filter that is specifically designed for SOLAR VIEWING.
  • Even if you are wearing solar observing glasses, do NOT look through a viewfinder of a camera if the lens is not protected by a solar viewing filter.

You can find additional resources on how to record the eclipse on Nikon.ca here: https://en.nikon.ca/learn-and-explore/s/solar+eclipse.html  

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Car Companies Are Not Doing Enough To Stop Car Theft

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 5, 2024 by itnerd

Car theft in Canada in general, Toronto specifically, is completely out of control. It’s to the point where everyone I know either has had a car stolen, or knows someone who has had a car stolen. And the thing is, while there are calls for the police to do more, it’s really the car companies who need to do more.

Now I am pretty sure that I know what the car companies will say. They comply with laws requiring the use of engine immobilizers within their products since 2007. That’s nice. But given the fact that in 2023, a car in Toronto was stolen every 40 minutes on average, they’re clearly not working. What is clear is that key reprogramming, CANBUS attacks, relay attacks and the like are more effective than engine immobilizers. If you’re not clear on what any of that means, this will help you get up to speed.

So you’d think that car companies would say that what they’re doing isn’t working. So they have to up their game. Well, the cynic in me says that they’re not going to do anything to improve things on this front because they have a financial incentive not to. As in if your car gets stolen, they get to sell you a new car. I hate saying that, but in pretty much any other industry, if you have a security issue that affects your customers, you fix it and you make things better for your customers. I don’t see that happening with the car industry. Thus what I would argue is that the Federal Government needs to force car companies to do the right thing. Which is to replace engine immobilizers with something more secure. Maybe it’s two factor authentication? Maybe it’s making it harder for the attacks that are out there to execute? Maybe it’s higher levels of encryption? Nothing when it comes to security is perfect. But if you do things that reduce the likelihood that something bad will happen to as close to zero as possible, you’re winning. Unfortunately that’s not the world we live in because at present, it seems that any bipedal primate with opposible thumbs can steal a car. And that’s totally on the car makers. Not the owners of the car, not the police, and not the government.

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SafeBreach Labs to Present Three Pieces of Original Research at Black Hat Asia 2024

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 4, 2024 by itnerd

SafeBreach has announced original research from its SafeBreach Labs team will be featured in three separate sessions at Black Hat Asia 2024. SafeBreach’s Vice President of Security Research Tomer Bar and fellow researchers Or Yair and Shmuel Cohen are set to release a series of high-profile research pieces following a successful year at Black Hat USA 2023 and DEFCON 2023, where the SafeBreach Labs team presented an unprecedented five sessions.

The sessions at Black Hat Asia will include several significant discoveries exploring how endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions and unfixed, known software issues can be exploited to present a significant security risk to enterprises. Details about the sessions, including dates and times, are included below:

For more information about the sessions and to connect with SafeBreach at Black Hat Asia 2024 on April 16-19, visit www.safebreach.com/events.

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Truth Social Is More Of A Dumpster Fire Than Previously Thought

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 4, 2024 by itnerd

Truth Social is exactly what the title suggests. It’s a dumpster fire. I’m going to speak to two examples of this. Starting with infighting within the company that’s led to a lawsuit:

The media company that Donald Trump recently took public is suing its co-founders, accusing them of failing “spectacularly” to get the company off the ground and then trying to “thwart the deal.”

The lawsuit filed in Sarasota County, Florida, civil court seeks to bar Trump Media & Technology Group co-founders Wesley Moss and Andrew Litinsky from appointing members to the company’s board — or from owning any of its shares.

Moss and Litinsky claim that a 2021 agreement that Trump signed with a company they founded, United Atlantic Ventures, LLC, guarantees them an 8.6% share of Trump Media’s total stock, undiluted by the issuance of new shares.

At DJT’s closing price Tuesday, that share would be worth about $601 million.

In February, Moss and Litinsky sued Trump Media in Delaware Chancery Court over their stake in the company.

The Florida lawsuit was filed in late March, around the same time that shareholders in the shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp. voted to approve a merger with Trump Media, a private company behind the fledgling social media app Truth Social.

Following the special purpose merger, stock in the newly public Trump Media began trading under the ticker DJT and shot up by as much as 50% in its Nasdaq debut last week.

But the share price fell sharply Monday, after the company disclosed a $58.2 million net loss in 2023.

Trump Media’s lawsuit wants the court to award it damages for what it claims are Moss and Litinsky’s “breaches of fiduciary duty.”

In addition to Moss and Litinsky, the lawsuit names DWAC founder Patrick Orlando a co-defendant, accusing him of being involved in those breaches.

Moss and Litinsky were responsible for establishing Trump Media’s corporate governance structure, preparing the launch of Truth Social and finding a shell company for a merger to take the media company public, the lawsuit says.

This is kind of comical and illustrates the kind of chaos that exists at this company. And based on this latest event, one wonders if there will ever be a positive outcome that will result in everyone making money. My guess is not, but I am free to be proven wrong on that front.

Speaking of money. There’s a report in The Guardian that suggests that Truth Social was financially floated by someone who will raise eyebrows:

Donald Trump’s social media company Trump Media managed to go public last week only after it had been kept afloat in 2022 by emergency loans provided in part by a Russian-American businessman under scrutiny in a federal insider-trading and money-laundering investigation.

The former US president stands to gain billions of dollars – his stake is currently valued at about $4bn – from the merger between Trump Media and Technology Group and the blank-check company Digital World Acquisition Corporation, which took the parent company of Truth Social public.

But Trump Media almost did not make it to the merger after regulators opened a securities investigation into the merger in 2021 and caused the company to burn through cash at an extraordinary rate as it waited to get the green light for its stock market debut.

The situation led Trump Media to take emergency loans, including from an entity called ES Family Trust, which opened an account with Paxum Bank, a small bank registered on the Caribbean island of Dominica that is best known for providing financial services to the porn industry.

Through leaked documents, the Guardian has learned that ES Family Trust operated like a shell company for a Russian-American businessman named Anton Postolnikov, who co-owns Paxum Bank and has been a subject of a years-long joint federal criminal investigation by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into the Trump Media merger.

The existence of the trust has previously been reported by the Guardian and the Washington Post. However, who controlled the account, how the trust was connected to Paxum Bank, and how the money had been funneled through the trust to Trump Media was unknown.

The new details about the trust are drawn from documents including: Paxum Bank records showing Postolnikov having access to the trust’s account, the papers that created the trust showing as its settlor a lawyer in St Petersburg, Russia, and three years of the trust’s financial transactions.

That all sounds more than a little suspect to say the least. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised that at some point, a three letter federal agency starts executing search warrants and/or arresting people. Which in turn will likely cause Truth Social to crash and burn.

We seriously live in strange times at the moment.

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Valimail Along With Google and Yahoo Host Roundtable On New Bulk Sender Requirements

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 4, 2024 by itnerd


Valimail, in collaboration with email giants Google and Yahoo, hosted a roundtable to discuss newly implemented bulk sender requirements aimed at enhancing email authentication and security. With the surge in threats like spam and phishing, the conversation, featuring Google’s Neil Kumaran and Yahoo’s Marcel Becker, centered on the urgent need for more stringent email authentication to protect users and improve deliverability of legitimate emails. The new rules focus on large senders initially, due to their higher risk of impersonation and potential impact, and emphasize the use of standards like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to verify sender identities, thereby reducing the risk of impersonation and spam. The initiative reflects a collective effort to bolster email security and deliverability, with Valimail offering tools and guidance to aid senders of all sizes in achieving compliance and enhancing the email ecosystem’s overall safety.

Here is a link to the recorded webinar and recap. I watched it and if you’re responsible for email in your organization, or your organization’s marketing efforts, you should watch it as well: https://www.valimail.com/blog/roundtable-with-google-yahoo-recap/

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IntelBroker Releases Documents Belonging To The Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance…. Yikes!

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 4, 2024 by itnerd

Notorious hacker IntelBroker has allegedly released stolen documents containing classified information belonging to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance. The group claims to have breached Acuity, a technology consulting firm which provides DevSecOps, IT operations and modernization, cybersecurity and more to the state agency.

Darren Williams, CEO and Founder, BlackFog has this comment:

 “Data exfiltration continues to plague government institutions which hold invaluable information pertaining to both national security initiatives as well as those who work on national security initiatives. Those members will likely be targets of phishing and social engineering attacks for some time. Government entities should be incredibly careful of which third-party firms they work with, especially regarding IT and cybersecurity efforts. Any third-party which handles sensitive information should be vetted to ensure they invest in technology such as anti data exfiltration tools, which will prevent any unauthorized data from leaving the system.”

This is an area where I can comfortably say that most organizations need to improve upon. Because when you work with a third party, you have to be able to trust that they won’t have weaknesses that will lead to you being pwned. So I would strongly recommend that this is an area that organizations need to pay particular focus on.

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Bell Gets Its Story Out There About Their Restructuring Among Other Things

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 4, 2024 by itnerd

With events like firing a bunch of workers via video conference, execs getting big bonuses despite missing their own key performance indicators, and stopping their fibre rollout because they’re not happy with the government along will significant job cuts, Bell is perhaps not seen in the best light at the moment. Which is why it doesn’t surprise me that Bell has decided to put out their own talking points in advance of being summoned to Ottawa to explain all of this. This Tweet was posted to the Bell Twitter account today:

That Tweet leads to these talking points that puts forward Bell’s view of this. I’ll let you read them for yourself. But what this suggests to me is that the heat must be on Bell from a PR perspective for them to put something like this out. I say that because I’ve been following Bell for years. And Bell doing something like this is a rare event. And other people who I know that follow Bell agree with that sentiment.

The other thing that I note is that they’re trying to use the term “disinformation” to bolster the fact that their talking points are the ones that you should be listening to. I find that to problematic as we live in a time where this term has some really negative connotations. I’m not sure that I would have used that word in relation to what we’re talking about. But I don’t run Bell’s PR department.

I’ll make sure to see if I can find a broadcast of Bell in front of Parliament on the 11th of April. Based on the talking points that they put out, it will certainly be worth a look.

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iRobot Unveils New Roomba Combo Essential 

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 4, 2024 by itnerd

iRobot, the leader in consumer robots, today unveiled its newest and most affordable robot designed to offer customers cleaning essentials at an affordable price – the Roomba Combo® Essential.  

As an improvement to iRobot’s best-selling Roomba® 600 Series, the Roomba Combo Essential is the company’s simplest 2-in-1 robot vacuum and mop designed to deliver cleaning essentials at an affordable price. It outdoes the Roomba 600 Series with notable features including: 

  • Four-Stage Cleaning System with 2-in-1 Cleaning: Adjustable suction and liquid settings, a special V-shaped brush roll, an Edge-Sweeping brush, and a water pump-fed microfiber mop pad will work together to vacuum multiple floor types – or vacuum and mop hard floors in a single pass. 
  • iRobot OS Intelligence: Powered by iRobot OS, it uses intelligent navigation to clean in neat rows. Users can automate, tailor, and schedule their cleaning routines via the device’s three suction power levels and three water level options, access detailed Clean Map reports and set the robot to automatically clean when they leave home. 
  • Superior Cleaning Experience: Customers can expect cleaner floors with 20x more suction power and 25% better hard floor dirt pickup than the Roomba 600 Series. The robot can also cover more ground on longer cleaning jobs thanks to a 120-minute battery life.  

Also available next month at select retailers in North America, iRobot will debut its new Roomba® Vac Essential robot, which will include the same feature set as the Roomba Combo Essential but in a vacuum-only package.  

Pricing & Availability

North America:

The Roomba Combo Essential robot is available in the U.S. now on iRobot.com and will be available at select retailers beginning April 7. It will be available in Canada for $369.99 CAD on iRobot.ca and at select retailers beginning April 12. The Roomba Vac Essential will be available at select retailers in the U.S. beginning April 7 and in Canada ($329.99 CAD) beginning April 12.

Rest of World:

The Roomba Combo Essential is available in EMEA now, and it will be available in APAC beginning later in April.

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Cyberattack Forces Northern CA, Non-Profit Hospital To Turn Away Patients

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 4, 2024 by itnerd

According to local media, non-profit, NorthBay VacaValley Hospital is struggling with a systemwide disruption impacting its website and phone lines following a cybersecurity incident leaving patients in flux.

Linda Sperow, a patient of the hospital, attempted to contact the hospital Monday regarding the walk-in x-ray clinic. As the phones and website were down, she was unsuccessful and when she showed up at the clinic for her x-ray appointment on Tuesday morning, Sperow was turned away.  

Sperow was told by a staff member that they had experienced a cyberattack and the system outage left them unable to check her in or access her medical records.

At the time of writing, the hospital’s website is still not accessible. In response to inquiries, NorthBay VacaValley Hospital issued a statement to CBS13:

“Upon detecting this incident, we launched an investigation and engaged leading external cybersecurity experts to support our response. We are working diligently to restore systems as quickly and safely as possible.”

VacaValley Hospital is a non-profit hospital providing medical services to the residents of Solano County, California.

Jan Lovmand, CTO, BullWall:

   “Hospitals and healthcare organizations are particularly attractive targets for cybercriminals, and their reliance on technology to manage everything from patient records to surgical equipment makes them uniquely vulnerable. This is compounded by their limited resources to invest in cybersecurity measures. But with ransomware continuing to be a significant threat to these organizations, investments must be made to contain these attacks, eliminating the need to resort to a complete shutdown of IT systems, and healthcare services.”

This is yet another example of how vulnerable the health care industry is to cyberattacks. This is something that needs to change. And change now. Otherwise these stories will keep popping up on this blog and threat actors will continue to run rampant. And most importantly, people won’t get the health care that they need.

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Sage Report: HR Professionals Ready to Embrace AI in the Face of Burnout

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 3, 2024 by itnerd

With today’s workforce constantly evolving, businesses are turning to technology and embracing AI to help navigate the changes of an expanding labour force, ease workloads within their operations, and improve job satisfaction.

Today, small and mid-sized business accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology leader, Sage, published findings from their annual ‘The Changing Face of HR’ global report, which highlights how HR professionals are using AI for the aforementioned, while also boosting competitiveness and creating jobs in the industry.

The research revealed that:

  • Top concerns for HR professionals include increasing workloads (80%), low employee morale and burnout (79%), and limited budgets (79%)
  • The role of HR will change considerably due to AI (80%) and implementing AI in HR tasks will create more jobs (71%)
  • There’s a significant shift towards automation and analytics; HR leaders are currently using HR metrics (45%), utilizing automation (44%), and employing cloud HR solutions (43%)
  • HR leaders believe AI has the potential to revolutionize ways of working within their company (77%), freeing up time to focus on strategic planning (61%), data-driven decision-making (59%), and employee engagement (59%).

You can read the report here.

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