Uber Eats reveals the top 2022 health and wellness trends and items for New Year’s Resolutions

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 22, 2022 by itnerd

Come January 1st, many Canadians will wake up with the realization: “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.” Cue the abrupt annual pivot from holiday overindulgence to “New Year, New Me” intention-setting. 

Igniting your inner wellness maven can feel daunting, but have no fear! Uber Canada is providing some much-needed inspiration by revealing the top wellness trends from 2022. This latest data pull showcases how Canadians are investing in their physical, mental, sexual and even spiritual wellness through the Uber Eats app – after all, you really can get anything you need through Uber Eats. 

Canadians’ favourite self-care products from 2022 run the gamut of holistic wellness. Vitamin C & D and protein powder & supplements took the top two spots, with vibrators and personal lubricant, eucalyptus essential oils and sheet face masks also cracking the top ten. The most popular fitness products were dumbbells, fitness and yoga matts. 

Check out some highlights from the Uber Eats’ New Years Resolutions insights below. Uber is also sharing some wellness product recommendations (including mocktails and non-alcoholic beer options!), which will make sticking to those 2023 resolutions easier than ever. 

Top 10 Popular Self-Care Items from 2022

  1. Vitamin C & D supplements
  2. Protein shakes & powder
  3. Aloe vera hand soap
  4. Personal lubricant 
  5. Epsom salt
  6. Cocoa butter body lotion
  7. Vibrators 
  8. Hydrating sheet mask 
  9. Eucalyptus essential oils
  10. Coconut body washes & scrubs

Top 10 Fitness Items from 2022

  1. Dumbbells
  2. Fitness mat 
  3. Yoga mat
  4. Tennis balls
  5. Soccer ball
  6. Jump rope 
  7. Resistance bands
  8. Basketball
  9. Swim goggles
  10. Volleyball

Top 5 Wellness Books from 2022 

  1. F*ck Off, I’m Coloring by Dare You Stamp Co.
  2. The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson
  3. 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think by Brianna Wiest
  4. The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest
  5. Atomic Habits by James Clear

Top 10 Grocery Items from 2022 

  1. Banana  
  2. Strawberries  
  3. Cucumbers 
  4. Milk
  5. Eggs 
  6. Green onions 
  7. Raspberries 
  8. Tomatoes 
  9. Water 
  10. Lemons 

Top Wellness Recommendations section 

Top 5 interesting things to help you with your New Year’s Resolutions: 

  1. Dry January
    1. Mocktails 
    2. 0% beer 
  2. Healthy eating
    1. Groceries 
  3. Fitness
    1. Weights 
    2. Yoga mats 
  4. Wellness
    1. Candles 
    2. Essential oils
    3. Vitamins 
  5. Mental health
    1. Books 
  6. Skincare
    1. LED face mask 
    2. Serums
    3. Sheet masks

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New SecOps Research: Top 2023 Cost Drivers, Layoffs & Uncertain Regulatory Pressures Cause Concerns

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 22, 2022 by itnerd

Deepwatch has released a new report that finds security teams will focus on improving response capabilities over detection improvements amidst concerns about rising costs, a challenging talent shortage, and uncertain regulatory environment pressures and changes. 

The findings from the year-end SecOps pulse survey on challenges and strategies for 2023 include:

  • SOC staffing remains a challenge for 95% of organizations with experts most difficult to hire/train
  • 82% of security professionals are looking for managed services to support their security operations
  • 78% expect breach and incident reporting requirements to create more work for their teams

You can read the report here.

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Elon Musk’s Troubles Just Got A Lot Worse As Germany Calls For EU Action On Twitter

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 22, 2022 by itnerd

Elon Musk is likely waking up to a major headache. And that headache is being caused by Germany who is’s calling for the EU to take direct action against Twitter:

A senior German official said on Thursday Twitter should join other tech firms in being directly monitored by the European Commission, saying the company’s erratic behaviour under new owner Elon Musk posed a threat to free speech. 

Sven Giegold, the state secretary in charge of competition policy at Germany’s economy ministry, pointed to Twitter’s abrupt suspension of journalists’ accounts and restrictions on the access to some links.

In a letter to two European Commissioners, Giegold called on the EU to launch an investigation and said the Commission should act to prevent what he called Twitter’s “anti-competitive behaviour”. 

Twitter and the EU did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

“General terms and conditions that change almost every hour, erratic justifications for extensive restrictions on links and the blocking of journalists threaten freedom of competition and pose a risk to freedom of expression, information and the press,” Giegold wrote on Twitter, while sharing his letter.

And Elon isn’t going to like this either:

German regulators are already pushing government institutions to stop posting announcements exclusively to privately-held platforms, touting alternatives like the fledgling decentralised social media network Mastodon. 

According to the Commission’s new regulations on digital markets, it will take over the supervision of large platforms such as Facebook and Google, Giegold said. 

“However, Twitter is not yet classified as a dominant digital platform, also because the company’s sales are still too low,” he said. “Nevertheless, Twitter exerts a great influence on shaping public opinion worldwide and also in Europe.”

The fact that the Germans are pushing Mastodon is significant. Germany is a big member of the EU bloc. And if they do something, others are likely to follow. And that will make Elon’s life even more miserable than it already is. Because that will drive eyeballs away from Twitter, and his behaviour will under much greater scrutiny by a bloc that has a history of lowering the boom on big companies. That’s not a place that I would want to be if I were Elon. But then, the only person to blame when it comes to Elon Musk being in this situation is Elon Musk.

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Apple Pulls Option For HomeKit Users To Upgrade to New Home Architecture

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 22, 2022 by itnerd

One of the things that Apple touted when iOS 16 and macOS Ventura were announced were that they were moving HomeKit to a new Architecture. Apple in typical Apple fashion didn’t give details on what this meant as Apple doesn’t want you looking behind the curtain so to speak. But they did promise improved reliability and performance of your HomeKit setup. This option was finally released in iOS 16.2 and almost instantly there were reports of issues. Lots of issues. And I do mean a lot of issues. Now I was going to update to the new home architecture over the holidays because I tend to wait for a bit to see what issues others are having. And I am glad that I did based on the above.

Now it seems that Apple has pulled the option to upgrade entirely. When you go into software update in the Home app, you should see the option to upgrade. But as of last night you don’t:

The option should be above the automatic updates for HomePod option. But it’s disappeared as of last night. And Reddit users are reporting the same thing. Thus it’s clear that Apple has pulled this option. This brings forth a pair of questions:

  • What happens if you have already upgraded?
  • When is it coming back?

Apple hasn’t commented on this, because Apple never comments on anything that they screw up unless they are forced to. So we may never find out. But it would be nice if they did say something.

How about it Apple?

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Okta Pwned…. Source Code Stolen

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 22, 2022 by itnerd

Bleeping Computer is reporting that threat actors have managed to hack into Okta’s private GitHub repositories and swipe source code:

BleepingComputer has obtained a ‘confidential’ security incident notification that Okta has been emailing to its ‘security contacts’ as of a few hours ago. We have confirmed that multiple sources, including IT admins, have been receiving this email notification.

Earlier this month, GitHub alerted Okta of suspicious access to Okta’s code repositories, states the notification.

“Upon investigation, we have concluded that such access was used to copy Okta code repositories,” writes David Bradbury, the company’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) in the email.

Despite stealing Okta’s source code, attackers did not gain unauthorized access to the Okta service or customer data, says the company. Okta’s “HIPAA, FedRAMP or DoD customers” remain unaffected as the company “does not rely on the confidentiality of its source code as a means to secure its services.” As such, no customer action is needed.

At the time of writing our report, the incident appears to be relevant to Okta Workforce Identity Cloud (WIC) code repositories, but not Auth0 Customer Identity Cloud product, given the email wording.

Well, given that Okta provides authentication services and Identity and Access Management services to major companies around the world, this isn’t good. Neither is the fact that this isn’t the first time that Okta has been pwned. Craig Burland, CISO of Inversion6 had this to say:

This continues an awful year for Okta in terms of cybersecurity, adding to high-profile issues in March and September.  While these events appear to be disconnected, it seems possible that the breaches could be part of a larger event, foreshadowing a significant supply chain attack for organizations reliant upon Okta for identity and access services.

As an Okta customer, I would be worried about three things: 1) Is there a fundamental problem with how Okta is managing their environments?  2) Has the Okta platform been somehow compromised that would threaten my operation?  3) What, if anything, can I do quickly to minimize or mitigate the risk to my organization?

How Okta responds to this event and reassures its customers will set the tone for 2023 and may be telling about Okta’s future as the premier provider in this space.

At this point, seeing as Okta can’t secure itself, you have to wonder if they can secure their customers. Because I am questioning that at this very moment.

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Guest Post: Cybersquatting cases reach record highs in 2022

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 22, 2022 by itnerd

Domain names help us navigate the vastness of the world wide web and find the information and services we are looking for. However, malicious actors abuse the importance of domain names by registering ones that are identical or similar to existing trademarks, company names, or personal names, hoping to profit from the confusion. It is called cybersquatting.

According to the data presented by the Atlas VPN team based on the information provided by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), cybersquatting cases reached record highs in 2022.

In total, 5,616 cybersquatting disputes were filed to the WIPO this year — nearly a 10% rise from 2021.

If we look at the historic numbers of cybersquatting complaints, they have been steadily growing over the past six years. Compared to 2000, cybersquatting disputes have risen by a whopping 202%. 

In total, 61,284 cybersquatting complaints have been filed to WIPO from 2000 till now.

After registering the look-alike domain names, cybersquatters may attempt to sell them to the trademarks they are copying or use similarities in domain names to attract traffic to their own website. Among the latter are those that use domains to lure victims into phishing attacks.

To read the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/cybersquatting-cases-reach-record-highs-in-2022

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ASUS Slips Out A New Firmware For The ZenWiFi XT8 Four Days Before Christmas….. That’s Odd

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 21, 2022 by itnerd

I got pinged by a reader while I was dealing with a client this morning. I couldn’t look into it then, but when I got home I did. When I logged into my ZenWifi XT8 mesh WiFi system I say that an update was available. I clicked on it and saw this:

I also checked the ASUS website and didn’t see anything on this firmware. That was odd because ASUS usually updates the website with new firmware releases pretty quickly. Unless this slipped out by accident which I have seen a couple of times. In that case, ASUS usually releases a newer firmware to replace it. The other theory that I have is that ASUS felt that they had to roll out this firmware four days before Christmas because this firmware fix couldn’t wait until after the holidays. I point that out because companies don’t typically roll out stuff like this a week or two before Christmas due to not having staff on hand to answer phone calls or fix something if it goes off the rails. Making this an unusual release.

Since I have told you not to upgrade in the past due to serious issues with their firmware, as well as telling you when it was safe to upgrade, I decided to install it and report back to you my early impressions. And I also will follow up with you in a week’s time with longer term impressions. My upgrade process for ASUS routers is as follows:

  • Log into the router using a computer and a web browser
  • Backup the configuration using these instructions. 
  • Update the firmware.
  • After updating I do a factory reset of the router using these instructions. 
  • Using a computer and a web browser, connect to the router and using the advanced options in the setup wizard, upload the backup of the configuration that I saved in the first step.

I do this because I have found that simply upgrading to the latest ASUS firmware can create problems. For example, one firmware upgrade broke HomeKit for almost a day until I figured out that doing factory reset it followed by setting it up from scratch was the fastest and best way to resolve the issue. Since then, this has been my upgrade process and it has never failed me.

After walking through those steps I was back online and I started doing some testing. Right away I noticed that TimeMachine backups were way faster from all the Macs in the home. I also noted that when I had to do a VPN connection to fix something for a client, that was way faster as well. The reason why I put the words “way faster” in bold is because it was truly much faster than what I had been used to. I tried to run Speed Tests from my iPhone 14 Pro and didn’t find a difference in terms of WiFi speed. So my best guess is that besides what little is in the release notes, ASUS must have done something to make device to router connections faster. Other than that, I have noted no stability issues like I have seen previously. Nor have I noted any other improvements.

I’ll be running this for about a week and I will report back as it takes about that long before any serious issues become apparent. Also, if release notes do appear, I’ll be sure to link them here.

UPDATE 12/22/2022: ASUS just posted release notes for this firmware update on their website. It has more details than the screenshot above:

So these release notes explained why I am seeing the better VPN performance. But it doesn’t explain the improved WiFi performance that I am seeing. In terms of my observations, it’s the same as what I reported above. It seem stable and reliable thus far.

UPDATE #2: I have an update on this firmware here.

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The Guardian Newspaper Appears To Have Been Pwned By Ransomware

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 21, 2022 by itnerd

This must be a weird experience. The Guardian which is one of the U.K.’s biggest newspapers is reporting that they have been likely pwned by ransomware:

The Guardian has been hit by a serious IT incident, which is believed to be a ransomware attack.

The incident began late on Tuesday night and has affected parts of the company’s technology infrastructure, with staff told to work from home.

There has also been some disruption to behind-the-scenes services.

Online publishing is largely unaffected, with stories continuing to be written and published to the Guardian website and app.

The company said it was confident it could still produce Thursday’s print newspaper.

At least they are reporting about their own issues and not hiding anything from what I can tell. That’s better than most companies who don’t come anywhere near that level of transparency.

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

     “As we head into the holiday season and people start to take well-deserved time off, an increase in cyberattacks is unfortunately expected. Cybercriminals certainly don’t take a break over the holiday season, as is evident by today’s news about the Guardian. While there are many unknowns about the suspected ransomware attack on the Guardian, we can be confident that data exfiltration was the motive for the attackers. While we are glad to hear the publishers will continue to operate and publish the paper in the run up to the holidays, it’s the aftermath of the cyberattack that is cause for concern. With virtually all new attacks focusing on data exfiltration to extract valuable data for extortion, the damage is often unknown for quite some time. We may be well into the New Year before we know the extent of the fallout.”

It will be interesting to see if that transparency continues and The Guardian tells the world how it was hit and how extensive the pwnage was. Stay tuned to this space.

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Review: RollingSquare InCharge XL

Posted in Products with tags on December 21, 2022 by itnerd

Fun fact: Before the world started ending, I carried around a small arsenal of cables whenever I travelled or went to see clients. Besides an HDMI cable and a Ethernet cable, I had these in my tech travel bag.

From left to right I have:

  • A USB-A to MicroUSB cable
  • A USB-A to MiniUSB cable
  • A Nomad USB-A to USB-C/MicroUSB/Lightning cable
  • A Native Union USB-A to Lightning cable
  • An Anker USB-C to Lightning cable

On top of that, I also had a USB-C to USB-A adapter, and USB-A to USB-A flexible extension. My rationale for carrying all this stuff was that I never knew when I would need to use a specific cable. Thus I wanted to be ready for any eventuality. Which is to be frank overthinking what I need to carry. Now that travel is opening up again, I am rethinking this and I am moving towards having fewer cables in my tech travel bag. And the best way to do that is to go with this:

What you see here is what comes in the box of the RollingSquare InCharge XL. Staring at the top you get a carrying case, then from the left you get an extra Lightning and MicroUSB connector, the middle has a desk organizer to keep the cable handy on your desk. And finally you get the cable itself which has the following ends on it:

  • Computer end: USB-A and USB-C
  • Device end: USB-C, Lightning, MicroUSB

Here’s what that looks like:

For the record, the Lightning end also doubles as a MicroUSB connector. There’s also a cap to cover up the ends of the cable.

It comes in 1 foot, 6.5 foot and ten foot lengths. Plus there’s a choice of colours. I went with black in my case. It is not only rated for 100W charging which is good for a notebook, but it will do 18W fast charging for those of you on team iPhone. The ends snap together with magnets like this for easy storage:

If all this sounds familiar, it should. This is basically the big brother to the InCharge X that I reviewed a few months ago. Right down to the aramid fibre woven cable that is used. Testing it over the last few days brought me to the conclusion that it will perform no differently than the InCharge X. And my only concern is if it will be prone to scratches like the InCharge X is as it looks to be using the same paint as the InCharge X which isn’t that durable. I guess time will tell on that front. Having said that, one thing that I like with the InCharge XL is the fact that cap is attached to the cable. Which means your odds of losing it are pretty much zero. RollingSquare should consider bringing that feature to the InCharge X.

I got two of them in the 6.5 foot length so that I can make sure that I needed two cables for two different use cases, I have them on hand. All the cables that I had in the picture are now in my cable drawer. That should make life easier when I travel or go to see clients. Prices for the InCharge XL are as follows:

  • 1 foot: $29 USD
  • 6.5 foot: $35 USD
  • ten foot: $39 USD

If you’re always in need of different types of USB cables, the InCharge XL is a great way to cut down on the number of cables that you need to carry, but still have the cables that you need on hand. I’d check them out if you fit that use case.

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Review: RollingSquare InCharge Mini

Posted in Products with tags on December 21, 2022 by itnerd

In the interest of providing a last minute stocking stuffer suggestion, I have one in the form of the RollingSquare InCharge Mini. It gives you a charging cable on your keychain. Now some of you who read this blog are going to say, didn’t you review another RollingSquare product that does the same thing? The answer is yes. That would be The InCharge X. But there are two different use cases for them. In the case of the InCharge X, that gives you any cable type that you need on your keychain. As in:

  • From the computer’s end: USB-A and USB-C
  • From the device’s end: USB-C, Lightning, MicroUSB

But the InCharge Mini gives you a single cable to stick on your keychain. Your choices are:

  • USB-A to USB-C
  • USB-C to USB-C
  • USB-A to Ligthning
  • USB-C to Lightning

So if you have a device, say an iPhone, and you never plan on using any other device, this is perfect for you as an emergency cable to charge it or connect it to a computer. Let’s have a look at what comes with the package:

Besides a keyring, you get the InCharge Mini. In my case, it’s USB-A to USB-C. It snaps together using a magnet so that it doesn’t fall off your keychain. And the cable is woven which will make it durable. The Lightning variants are MFi certified as well as they are good for data and power. In short, this is a great “just in case” cable that you can have on you at all times. One plus is that this appears to be anodized. Which implies that it will survive better in your pocket and not get scratched up like the InCharge X did when I tested that.

At $19 USD, it is a great stocking stuffer. Thus if you know what device someone has, you might want to pick one up as it is great for emergency use or for travel.

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