Public Service Announcement: Recent leaks and other news

[mdlbear]

1. The entirety of Twitch has reportedly been leaked: source code, user payouts, hashed passwords. Change your password RIGHT NOW.

2. Company That Routes Billions of Text Messages Quietly Says It Was Hacked; Criminals were inside Syniverse for 5 years before anyone noticed - Malwarebytes; Syniverse responds to data breach. Good reason to switch to Signal, if you haven't already. Won't help with ordinary SMS text messages, though. Don't send secrets via SMS.

... and in other news,

3. Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen details company's misleading efforts on 60 Min. Facebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety. It is subsidizing, it is paying for its profits with our safety. But you knew that already, right?

4. This morning I got an email from my mobile provider, AT&T, offering me a pair of free security apps collectively called AT&T ActiveArmor (details). I'd quote the email, but it was nothing but a pretty image. I went to the Google and Apple app stores and read the reviews. Apparently, it's just like all the other AT&T bloatware I've deleted over the years: flaky, a memory and bandwith hog, and not worth the price you pay for it. And when I can say that about something free, well...

5. ...and speaking of free, Windows 11 drops Oct. 5: Mark your calendars - TechRepublic. That would be today. Also, Windows 11 upgrade: Five questions to ask first | ZDNet. Fortunately it won't run on any of my machines, so I don't have to care.

P.S. In case you're trying to understand yesterday's Facebook et. al. outage, that's what I'll be writing about next.

Comments

[elf]

The Twitch leak does not seem to contain (usable) passwords or user banking info. So, sigh of relief, but that doesn't mean we're in the clear - this one was labeled "Part 1" and there may be a "Part 2" coming later with different types of data.

Report: Less than half of business PCs can run Windows 11 - so that'll be a trainwreck to watch, as corporate IT departments demand to install an OS on machines that can't run it. Won't matter this year, but in another year and a half, we can expect companies to start demanding people upgrade while failing to issue them new hardware. There's concerns about whether the changes in standard office equipment can happen before the Win10 shutdown in 2025.

(So, ahhh... I guess it's really time for me to figure out how Linux works and how to run all my Win-only programs via Wine?)

[spiffyvoxel]

I'm not directly affected by the Windows 11 debacle as I'm a Mac user and no longer have a need for any Windows apps even in a VM. Though of course Apple has their own issues when it comes to macOS, particularly on the bug-fixing side, and my Mac will be considered 'obsolete' in a few years time. Linux is looking pretty good as a substitute, so I may well convert it at that point.

[mdlbear]

My mac mini has been obsolete for years, but the only thing I've been using it for is my tax software (H&R Block). Have to decide whether to get a new mini or fire up the Windows 10 that came with my current laptop to run it next year. Not looking forward to either.

I've been using Linux for nearly 30 years now and highly recommend it.

[spiffyvoxel]

I used Twitch briefly to follow some of my friends' streams, but deactivated it a few months ago, finally found out how to delete it yesterday. (Of course it's an Amazon property so they hide that option really well.)

At this point anyone using Facebook needs to treat it as the hostile environment it is and protect themselves as much as possible (ad-blocking, FB Purity, etc.) or make plans to leaves ASAP. I honestly think the only way FB will change is if it's literally starved into submission.

I hate that I still have to use SMS messages for two-factor authentication for some services (mostly financial) instead of one-time codes from an authenticator app. Looking at you in particular, PayPal!