There's a new world record data breach, yay! A cache of "billions of records stolen from police in Shanghai, containing data on one billion Chinese citizens", verified as legit by a few outlets, is currently for sale on the dark web. The collection of "individuals’ personal names, national ID numbers, phone numbers, birthdays and birthplaces, as well as detailed summaries of crimes and incidents reported to the police" can be yours for 10 Bitcoin (~A$300,000). Imagine all the blackmailing you could do with this treasure trove!
Australian government IT has done it again, ushering in a new series of pain and anguish upon our fellow innocent citizens. Workforce Australia is the latest abomination and introduces a points based system for people to receive government payments and to use it you have to visit a website to receive the debasing tasks Centrelink hands out. The website didn't work for many people and still continues to time out at various time using the website or smartphone app. If people can't submit their reports, they don't get paid. If they don't get paid, they can't pay rent or buy food. Robodebt 2.0 in the making.
Hands up who remembers Popcorn Time? It streamed pirated TV shows and movies over BitTorrent and put a Netflix style interface over the top. You installed the Popcorn Time app on your device, opened the app, browsed the content, pressed play and it played. No configuration or setup needed. It was the best example of piracy I have ever seen and would easily be worth billions of dollars if the source of the content was from the owners of that content instead of BitTorrent. The creator of Popcorn Time and its many forks eventually got found out and punished by the criminal system. Today a new Android binary suddenly appeared on GitHub. Caveat emptor and enjoy.
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