Tech Digest daily round up: Security camera hack investigated
A hack of up to 150,000 security cameras installed in schools, hospitals and businesses is being investigated by the firm that makes them. Hackers claim to have breached Verkada, a security company that provides cameras to companies including Tesla. Bloomberg reported feeds from prisons, psychiatric hospitals, clinics, and Verkada’s own offices were hijacked. Verkada told the BBC it was “investigating the scale and scope of this issue”. See story on the BBC.
The Government is set to introduce a new “right to repair” law in the UK from the summer that could save households up to £75 a year. The legislation will mean that appliances such as washing machines, fridges and televisions should last longer and be cheaper to run. Manufacturers will be required to make spare parts available for customers to order, meaning more items can be repaired instead of being replaced. See The Telegraph.
Meanwhile, energy labels for appliances are to get a post-Brexit makeover, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) revealed today. The government says the new system will provide more accurate information to consumers and incentivise product manufacturers to produce greener products. It claims that the previous EU labelling system had not kept pace with improvements in energy efficiency, leading to most appliances being confusingly classed as A+, A++, or A+++. Under the new labelling system, appliances will be scored on an A-G scale, with the bar raised for each grade so very few appliances can claim the top A grade. See https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4028296/farewell-government-debuts-streamlined-energy-efficiency-labelling-greener-product-standards-push
Russia said on Wednesday it was slowing down the speed of Twitter in retaliation for its alleged failure to remove banned content and threatened a total block if the U.S. platform did not comply with its deletion demands. The move, which escalates a growing stand-off between Moscow and U.S. social media, comes weeks after Russian authorities accused Twitter and others of failing to delete posts it said illegally urged children to take part in anti-Kremlin protests. See Reuters.
Office workers are being encouraged to think before they share after a new study suggested nearly a third have been reprimanded over their use of communications tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. The research found that 71% admitted to sharing business-critical data, and three quarters said they had shared sensitive personal details. The report, published by data management firm Veritas Technologies, showed workers admitted to sharing personal information such as their date of birth, medical and salary information, even bank details and their Pin. It also found that workers admitted sharing client details, business plans, Covid test results and company credit card details on such platforms. See Daily Mail.
More than 300 grams of meteorite fragments have been found in and around the English town of Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, after a dazzling meteor fireball was seen blazing over the south of the UK on 28 February. Early analysis suggests that the Winchcombe meteorite is a particularly rare kind of space rock known as a carbonaceous chondrite – extremely ancient pieces of interplanetary debris that predate our own planet, explains Ashley King at the Natural History Museum (NHM) in the UK, a member of the team that verified and retrieved the meteorites. Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2270496-meteorite-recovered-in-the-uk-after-spectacular-fireball-in-the-sky/#ixzz6oiBC1bLH
According to Tech Radar, the Google Pixel 6 smartphone will record front-facing video at a 4K resolution, something very, very few smartphones do right now (and the few exceptions are super-premium phones like the Huawei Mate 40 Pro). The Pixel 6’s punch-hole front-facing camera cut-out will also be moved. In the Pixel 5 it’s to the top left of the screen, but apparently the Pixel 6 will have it in the top centre.
