Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

Your IoT Device is Likely Spying on You through Backdoor Security Flaws

Many people are used to trading privacy for convenience these days. After all, this is how those with nefarious agendas get people to adopt technology that continually spies on them. IoT technology is no different. A recently discovered security vulnerability from a major manufacturer of IoT devices has exposed just how dangerous this technology can be. The following article from TweakLibrary details how this sort of surveillance technology can wreak havoc upon our lives. – Truth Unmuted Editor Jesse Smith

This Security Vulnerability Could Change An IoT Device Into A Nasty Spy

IoT has had a remarkable impact on our lives. We now have devices connected over a network that are capable of making our lives much easier and comfortable. From smartphones to smartwatches to internet-powered doorbells, door alarms, security cameras, speakers, door locks, lights, bulbs, and baby monitors, the list is just endless. However, with this boon, a bane looms around and that is, miscreants can hack into these devices and if not acted upon promptly, they can wreak havoc on our lives. But, when can hackers feed on IoT devices? The answer is when they sniff a security vulnerability or when we as users don’t practice healthy security habits.

We’ll get into the security habits on a user’s part later in the blog but, let’s first discuss how a security vulnerability can lead a hacker into your IoT device and then into your personal or professional life. Quite recently, a security vulnerability has hit IoT devices. This security flaw can give access to your IoT audio and video feeds and turn into a spying tool.

What is This Security Vulnerability All About? How Severe Is The Security Flaw

As per the researchers at Nozomi Networks Lab and DHS, the security flaw can let malicious attackers tamper with an IoT device. They can easily convert a given IoT device such as a home security camera, a baby monitor, or a smart doorbell into a spying tool. Owing to this vulnerability, they can steal crucial data or spy on video feeds as well. Apart from intruding into one’s personal lives through the aforementioned channels, an attacker can even steal crucial business data such as data related to customers, employees, or even production techniques. The security flaw is indeed very severe. So much so that the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) rates it at 9.1/10 on a severity scale.

How Did This Security Flaw Surface?

The flaw is a supply chain bug that was discovered in a software component (P2P SDK) manufactured by a company called ThroughTek who is one of the prominent suppliers of IoT devices. The P2P’s SDK gives remote access to audio/ video streams over the internet. The SDK is found in smart sensors, security cameras such as baby and pet monitoring cameras,  doorbells, etc. and it help a viewer gain access to audio/ video streams. The flaw affects P2P’s version 3.1.5 or before. As Nozomi has demonstrated, the older versions of the SDK allow data packets to be intercepted while in transit. A hacker can refurbish these packets into complete audio or video streams.

ThroughTek’s Defence

ThroughTek has countered this bug in version 3.3 that was released in mid-2020. Though the issue is that quite many devices still run the older build. Secondly, as per ThroughTek, to conduct an attack, a prospective attacker will need to have extensive knowledge of network sniffer tools, network security, and encryption algorithm.

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Cuomo slammed for taking Rockefeller Park space for concrete COVID memorial

Residents of Battery Park City are protesting a plan by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to take green space from a local park to make way for a concrete coronavirus memorial to honor essential workers.

The growing number of opponents said they were blindsided and steamrolled by Cuomo, who made the announcement last week to erect the “Circle of Heroes” memorial for COVID workers in Rockefeller Park — without input from the Battery Park City community.

“This memorial requires bulldozing a local community park with natural grass and trees where many friends and family members gathered safely outdoors during the pandemic, and where many children run and play. The memorial will replace natural grass with concrete and an ‘eternal flame,’” said Battery Park City resident Adrian Mak.

“The memorial site was chosen in secret without any public hearings, public meetings, or community input.”

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Amazon Studios ‘inclusion playbook’ includes guidelines on hiring diverse crew, avoiding “problematic” jokes

Amazon Studios has released an “Inclusion Playbook” with hard rules on writing humour and satire, going against the long-held standard that talent matters more than identity. The critical race theory-driven initiative is yet another attempt by Big Tech to reinforce and drive “equity” policies to the public. 

On Monday, Amazon Studios’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team released a playbook that sets the standards for the number of minority and underrepresented employees and characters required to create a TV show or a movie. 

The Daily Wire reports that the playbook is based on Amazon Studios’ inclusivity policy, which requires “Each film or series with a creative team of three or more people in above-the-line roles (Directors, Writers, Producers) should ideally include a minimum 30% women and 30% members of an underrepresented racial/ethnic group.” 

The company says it wants to increase these goals to 50 per cent by 2024. 

The policy calls on filmmakers to include at least one speaking character from a minority background, with half of them being women: “LGBTQIA+, person with a disability, and three regionally underrepresented race/ethnic/cultural groups.” The policy states that filmmakers can get away with having a single character (i.e. a transgender Hispanic woman in a wheelchair) to fulfill the requirement of these identities. 

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World Economic Forum makes censorship pledge to “tackle harmful content and conduct online”

The World Economic Forum, an international group that works to “shape global, regional and industry agendas,” has formed a new “Global Coalition for Digital Safety” that’s made up of Big Tech executives and government officials and intends to come up with new “innovations” to police “harmful content and conduct online.”

The scope of so-called “harmful” content that will be targeted by this Global Coalition for Digital Safety is far-reaching and encompasses both legal content (such as “health misinformation” and “anti-vaccine content”) and illegal content (such as child exploitation and abuse and violent extremism).

Big Tech companies already censor millions of posts under their far-reaching rules that prohibit harmful content and misinformation. They also publish detailed quarterly reports about this censorship.

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Pseudopandemic

Covid 19 was and is a pseudopandemic. It was the gross exaggeration of the threat posed by a low mortality respiratory illness, comparable to influenza.

The pseudopandemic was a psychological operation (psy-op) designed to terrorise the public. The objective was to accustom the people to draconian system of government oppression by familiarising them with the mechanisms of a biosecurity state.

The pseudopandemic was based upon an influenza like illness which, regardless of its origin, was not and is not a disease which can legitimately be considered the cause of a “pandemic.” The only way it could ever be described as such was by the removal of any reference to mortality from the World Health Organisation’s definition.

COVID 19 is a disease which has a mortality age distribution profile indistinguishable from standard mortality. Unlike influenza, which disproportionately impacts the young, in terms of threat to life, COVID 19 was and is a wholly unremarkable illness.

Were it not for political theatrics and mainstream media propaganda, which began in China, no one, outside of the medical profession and COVID 19 sufferers, would have remarked on this disease.

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Stonewall accused of “ponzi scheme,” “coercing” brands to promote trans ideology on social media

The charity Stonewall is accused of bullying companies and organizations to adopt its gender ideology on social media for a higher ranking on its top 100 list of best employers, leaked documents revealed.

According to a report in The Times (paywall), Stonewall is using its ranking to “lobby on their behalf.” The charity is rewarding those who promote its gender and sex policies and punishing those who do not.

Hundreds of companies, organizations and government bodies, including the Scottish government and NHS trusts, apply to be included in the charity’s exclusive list. Applicants have to fill a 31-page form, which can take months to complete. The leaked documents revealed the changes applicants have to make to satisfy Stonewall’s diversity policies.

For instance, the Central London Community Health NHS Trust had to replace the term “mother” with “birthing parent” or “pregnant employee.”

The organization was also asked to make sure its social media accounts “clearly shows support for LGBT equality.” With those changes, the organization ranked 339th in last year’s list.

Simon Fanshawe, a former founding member of Stonewall said: “[The index] started out as a way of helping employers ensure their lesbian and gay staff were well looked after.

“But what it has turned into now sounds more like coercion – a way of coercing employers in their language and structure, instead of encouraging them to embrace the different needs of their LGBT staff.”

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Babylon Bee CEO says satirical site ‘punching back’ against liberal media, Big Tech censorship

“Facebook recently announced they’ll be moderating satire to make sure it doesn’t ‘punch down.’ Anything that punches down—that is, anything that takes aim at protected targets Facebook doesn’t want you joking about—doesn’t qualify as ‘true satire,’” Dillon wrote. “In fact, they’ve made it clear they’ll consider jokes that ‘punch down’ to be hatred disguised as satire.” 

Dillon noted that Slate recently published a piece that accused the Bee of punching down. 

“This is not a coincidence. Having failed in their effort to lump us in with fake news, the media and Big Tech are looking for new ways to work together to deplatform us. They now hope to discredit us by saying we’re spreading hatred—rather than misinformation—under the guise of satire,” Dillon wrote. “But we’re not punching down.’ We’re punching back.”

Dillon feels “the left’s new prohibition of ‘punching down’ is speech suppression in disguise” and blasted anyone who plays along. 

“It’s people in positions of power protecting their interests by telling you what you can and cannot joke about. Comedians who self-censor in deference to that power are themselves a joke,” he wrote. 

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