Daily Tech Headlines – January 29, 2018
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| Daily Tech Headlines – January 29, 2018 | |
| Number | 426 |
| Broadcast Date | JANUARY 29, 2018 |
| Episode Length | 4:32 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
Strava reveals military locations, Microsoft issues out-of-band Spectre rollback, US considering building its own 5G network.
Headlines
- Fitness tracker Strava published a heat map last year showing activity from its users around the world. This weekend, Australian conflict analyst Nathan Ruser showed how he used the map to discover activities around US military bases in regions where other users are rare sometimes revealing previously unknown military locations. Users of Strava can turn off data sharing.
- In a presentation being developed on options to combat Chinese spying on US phone calls, the US national security team considers the option of a government- built 5G network. An official confirmed the idea to Reuters after an Axios report revealed it. The option is being debated at a low level and is 6-8 months from being considered by the President. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says he opposes the idea. US Carriers along with Japan and Korea will be among the first to launch 5G service this year.
- Microsoft usually issues security updates once a month on a Tuesday, but issued what's called an "out-of-band" update for the second time this month to disable a patch for Spectre variant 2. Removing the patch prevents reboots from occurring when using Intel chips. The update must be applied manually.
- The Wall Street Journal reports that Intel did not notify the US government of the Spectre or Meltdown issues before they became public knowledge. Intel did notify some private companies to develop solutions and deploy fixes ahead of publication. Intel says this is standard practice.
- Nikkei reports that Apple will reduce its iPhone X production target for Q1 to 20 million, down from about 40 million. Nikkei did not cite a source in saying the cut was as a result of slower-than-expected holiday shopping. UBS says its surveys show the percentage of people looking to buy the iPhone X has dropped from 43% to 37%. Canaccord Genuity analysts have lowered their second-quarter iPhone shipment estimates to 59.9 million units from 66 million units.
- The US Copyright Royalty Board has issued a written ruling raising the percentage of revenue streaming companies must pay music publishers for a mechanical license from 10.5% to 15.1%. The decision comes after hearing arguments from streaming companies and the National Music Publishers Association last year.
- WhatsApp has added compatibility with Apple's CarPlay becoming the first third-party messaging service on the platform. CarPlay users can now see unread WhatsApp messages and ask Siri to read them and reply. WhatsApp has worked with Android Auto for some time.
- Elon Musk's Boring Company started selling Flamethrowers over the weekend at $500 a piece. The company sold 1000 units in the first three hours of availability January 27. The company is selling 20,000 flamethrowers.
- Jackpotting is a malicious attack on ATMs where criminals with physical access to the machine can cause it to dispense large volumes of cash. The attacks have been happening in Europe and Asia and now the U.S. Secret Service has begun warning financial institutions that jackpotting attacks are happening in the US. According to Krebs On Security thieves appear to be targeting Opteva 500 and 700 series Dielbold ATMs using the Ploutus.D malware.
- Japan's Financial Services Agency has ordered Coincheck to raise its standards after thieves stole $530 million in NEM coins from the service. NEM coins were not stored in a cold wallet and Coincheck was not using a multi-signature system. Coincheck has until February 13 to address the problems. The FSA will also investigate other exchanges and hold hearings.
- Nokia introduced ReefShark chips for 5G networking gear that increase data-handling capacity for mobile towers from 28 to 84 gigabits per second. The chips set to ship in volume in Q3 can be used in existing AirScale network gear. A single cell tower of the chips could handle 100 times the traffic generated by last year's Super Bowl crowd, a record 40 terabits per second.
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| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – January 26, 2018" |
Daily Tech Headlines – January 29, 2018 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – January 30, 2018" |