Security News for the Week Ending March 26, 2021

China Bans Military and Government from using Teslas – Due to ‘Spying’

The WSJ is reporting that the Chinese government has restricted the use of Tesla vehicles near or in sensitive installations like military and government facilities. The theory is that the cameras on Teslas could be used for spying. Tesla, of course, denies that they are spies, but consider this. What is to stop hackers or state intelligence agencies from hacking ANY self driving car and stealing the data. I am sure that Musk would say that his security is great, but is it perfect? This is not a Tesla problem, this is a ’20 cameras on 4 wheels with an Internet connection’ problem and this case, I would say the Chinese are correct. The problem is that with more and more self driving cars, do you ban all cars from sensitive places? What if you convince the owner to sell their data after driving around a sensitive facility? If someone offered you $50,000 to rent your car for a week, no questions asked, would you take it? Oh, yeah, it might back with less data than it went out with. Credit: ZDNet

Facebook Fails to Derail $15 billion Privacy Lawsuit

Facebook is being accused of violating wiretap laws because of the way the Facebook “Like” icons work to track even people who do not have Facebook accounts, never mind ones who do have an account but are not logged in. Of course, Facebook monetizes this data in a variety of ways. Facebook told the Supreme Court that if they allowed the California federal court decision to let the case proceed (which is different than saying the plaintiffs will win), that would have detrimental consequences. While $15 billion is a lot of money, remember that Facebook made $30 billion in PROFIT just last year and allowing the case to proceed, does not mean anyone will win or what the penalty might be. Surely if Facebook loses it will be detrimental – to them, but that is never been a reason to stop a lawsuit from moving forward. Credit: Security Week

Amazon Contractors Have to Sign a Biometric Consent Form or Lose Their Job

Amazon continues to ratchet down on their contract drivers (and probably their own too). They are installing AI based cameras in their delivery vehicles that watch both the road and the drivers. If a driver yawns, they see that. If the driver looks at his or her phone, they see that too. Not wearing your seatbelt? Problem. Too many negatives and they are history. Or, they can quit now. Oh, yeah, they can keep the data forever. Credit: Vice

Hackers Demand $50 Million Ransom from Acer – Threaten to Leak Data

In what is probably the largest ransom demand ever (at least that we know of), hackers encrypted systems at Acer on March 14th and demanded a $50 million ransom. The hackers posted on the dark web that negotiations had broken down. Acer, apparently, offered $10 million, but Acer is not confirming anything. Leaked documents are less sensitive financial info, so we don’t really know what they have. The compromise may have started with the Microsoft Exchange Server hack. The main risk factor here, likely, is the disclosure of whatever the hackers stole. Stay tuned. Credit: Hackread

After NSA Head Says NSA Missed SolarWinds Because it Can’t Spy in US, Administration Says It Does Not Plan to Increase US Surveillance

An administration official, earlier this month, said that the administration, worried about the political blowback of the NSA spying on Americans, was not CURRENTLY seeking additional laws to allow the NSA (or others) to do additional spying on Americans. Instead, they want to focus on tighter partnerships with the private sector and allow them to provide the data to the feds. This would give the feds a cover story that they are just using data that has already been collected. This is my de-spinning of what they said. Credit: Security Week

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