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How to Create a Honeypot URL With URL Canary

Andrew Orr ·

A service I recently discovered is URL Canary. It creates a honeypot URL that you can then put in a location such as your cloud storage. It alerts you if that URL has been accessed.

URL Canary will catch automated robots and crawlers, as well as manual human attackers. The only time it won’t catch an attacker is if they don’t see the canary, or they don’t find it sufficiently-compelling and opt not to visit it. Since you have control of the URL and the domain name, you can make your canaries as compelling as possible for your specific use case.

There’s a similar service I know of called CanaryTokens.

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MI5 Chief Wants ‘Exceptional Access’ to Encrypted Messages

Andrew Orr ·

Sir Andrew Parker is the head of MI5, the UK’s domestic security service. He wants tech firms to provide “exceptional access” to encrypted messages.

In an ITV interview to be broadcast on Thursday, Sir Andrew Parker says he has found it “increasingly mystifying” that intelligence agencies like his are not able to easily read secret messages of terror suspects they are monitoring.

Bah, this is smoke and mirrors. As the head of a security agency he knows that restricting backdoors to the good guys is impossible.

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Tim Cook Thinks China is Getting Coronavirus 'Under Control'

Charlotte Henry ·

Tim Cook appears to be more optimistic than most about China’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. In an interview with Fox Business, the Apple CEO said he felt China was getting the illness “under control.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook told FOX Business’ Susan Li Thursday that he is “optimistic” about China managing the coronavirus outbreak, which has slowed production at the tech giant’s suppliers. “It feels to me that China is getting the coronavirus under control,” Cook said. “You look at the numbers, they’re coming down day by day by day. And so I’m very optimistic there.” He stressed that iPhone gets parts from “everywhere in the world,” including China, which has seen 2,744 deaths among 78,497 cases, mostly in the central province of Hubei.

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What Impact Does Watching Netflix Have Climate Change?

Andrew Orr ·

Despite what mainstream media wants you to think, the outcome is mostly still unclear when it comes to Netflix binging.

On one hand, the paper reports, strides in data center efficiency have mostly kept pace with growing demand for data, meaning that in the last decade the total amount of energy consumed by the centers has not changed much—around 1% of global energy use. That’s about the same as 18 million US homes.

On the other hand, it’s clear that we’re approaching a limit to squeezing out more efficiency—especially given the rise of data-ravenous artificial intelligence.

What I find annoying about the debates around climate change is how a lot of mainstream media are trying to blame people. Like blaming their Netflix binging instead of reporting the facts like 100 corporations are responsible for 71% of emissions. Sure, Netflix wouldn’t exist without its users, but I think it’s important to focus on how much more damage a corporation does than an individual.

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Facebook Sues OpenAudience for Improperly Harvesting Data

Andrew Orr ·

Facebook filed a federal lawsuit in California against OneAudience, saying it improperly harvested its user data.

The social media company claims that OneAudience harvested users’ data by getting app developers to install a malicious software development kit, or SDK, in their apps. SDKs are packages of basic tools that make it easier and faster for developers to build their apps.

Oddly, Facebook isn’t suing itself.

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Microsoft, Like Apple, Will Miss Revenue Guidance For Next Quarter

Charlotte Henry ·

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it will miss its revenue guidance for the second quarter of 2020 as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, The Verge reported. Apple made the same announcement just over a week ago.

“Although we see strong Windows demand in line with our expectations, the supply chain is returning to normal operations at a slower pace than anticipated at the time of our Q2 earnings call,” Microsoft said in a press release. The company did not give a specific revenue range for the segment; instead, it said it does “not expect to meet our More Personal Computing segment guidance as Windows OEM and Surface are more negatively impacted than previously anticipated.” During its earnings call last month, Microsoft issued quarterly revenue guidance for the personal computing segment between $10.75 billion and $11.15 billion.

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Photo App Neural Cam Moves to Subscription

Andrew Orr ·

Neural Cam promises to give you Night Mode photos even if you don’t have the latest iPhones. It costs US$4.99 up front and recently moved to a subscription of US$4.99/month or US$35.99/year.

I’ve never used the app but people are saying the app is taking away features that people had paid for and locking it behind a subscription, a clear violation of App Store Review Guidelines, section 3.1.2(a).

Update: NeuralCam reached out to me to clarify: The Pro Pack is optional and only adds features for Pro users who subscribe. There’s also an additional 12-month introductory price at US$2.99/month. Finally, no features will be taken away from existing users.