### Issue 1501 - Thursday 25th November, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- WA Auditor-General finds LGA cybersecurity practices weak as piss
- Roblox suing serial troll for being a constant and massive pain in the arse
- Remnant news because it's a slow news day
- Samsung remotely disabling looted South African TVs when hooked up to internet
- Day 4 of bargain week - the calm before the storm

## The News

### WA Auditor-General finds LGA cybersecurity practices weak as piss

The West Australian Auditor-General did a report into the cybersecurity capabilities of WA's local governments and sadly unsurprisingly found it a total shitshow. They found the councils doing stuff like "disclosure of technical information, out-of-date software, flawed or weak encryption, insecure software configuration, and passwords sent in cleartext over the internet". The report also details that most councils didn't take into considering stuff like re-use of credentials, theft of IT devices and malware/ransomware. I'm sure WA isn't the only state with councils acting so recklessly with their IT setups.

### Roblox suing serial troll for being a constant and massive pain in the arse

I've been banned from a few websites and forums in my time, but Roblox's hate for Benjamin Robert Simon takes it to a new level. Not only is the dude banned from using Roblox, they're suing him for US$1.65m for being "leader of a 'cybermob' that with malice, fraud, and oppression, commits and encourages unlawful acts designed to injure Roblox and its users". Old mate was a massive pain in the arse troll, but took it too far when got his 780,000 YouTube subscribers to call in fake active shooter threats, claimed to have spiked drinks and told police there's an Islamic terrorist at Roblox's 2021 Developer Conference. Yeah maybe a lawsuit isn't out of question here.

### Remnant news because it's a slow news day

- Non-Fungible Token (aka NFT) is dictionary-maker Collins' word of the year for 2021. Cool, what a time to be alive.
- A group of "roughly 70 Japanese firms, including the country's three mega-banks" is making "a yen-based digital currency" that "will be backed by bank deposits". I don't know enough about economics to comment further.
- Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony are all pissed off with Activision Blizzard's CEO for refusing to resign over allegations he covered up harassment for years. Talk is cheap, let's see if any of them boycott Activision Blizzard over this.
- Apparently Qualcomm has an exclusivity deal with Microsoft that means the only ARM SoCs Windows can work with are Qualcomm ones. Could be a reason why there's no native version of Windows for Apple Silicon Macs.
- GoDaddy revealed that "unknown attacker had gained unauthorized access to the system used to provision the company's Managed WordPress sites" via a "compromised password" (aka it was stored in plain text) - 1.2m customers are impacted.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Samsung remotely disabling looted South African TVs when hooked up to internet

There was a little bit of cheeky looting going on in South Africa earlier this year and in all the fun a couple thousand Samsung TVs got liberated. Samsung South Africa has outsmarted the looters, implementing "a Television Block Function" on units "looted from our Cato Ridge distribution centre in KZN since the 11th of July 2021", that "detects if Samsung TV units have been unlawfully activated, and ensures that the television sets can only be used by the rightful owners with a valid proof of purchase". Even less of a reason to ever connect a Samsung TV to the internet! I loot my TVs fair and square.

## Bargains

- Nintendo Switch with Mario Kart 8 & Nintendo Online 3-month sub - $409 from Big W
- Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE smartphone - $379 from Hong Kong Goldway's AliExpress store
- Acer Nitro 5 15.6" gaming laptop (i5-10300H CPU, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 6GB RTX3060 GPU) - $1198 from Harvey Norman
- Seagate IronWolf 6TB SATA HDD - $193.50 from Amazon
- Telstra $300 pre-paid SIM with 200GB data - $234 from SIM Online
- iStat Menus for macOS - US$3.29 single licence or US$4.12 for family (5x) licence from Bjango
- Nintendo Switch Pro controller - $71 from Amazon
- KEF Q150 passive bookshelf speaker pair - $559 from Amazon
- AKG K72 closed back monitor headphones - $54.78 from Amazon
- Apple AirPods Max - $656 + shipping from MyMobile
- Belkin BSV401au2M 4-outlet surge protector powerboard with 2x 2.4A USB sockets - $26.99 from Amazon
- Audioengine A2+ active bookshelf speakers - $319.20 from Amazon
- Tidal Hi-Fi Plus 3 month subscription (new accounts only) - $2 at Tidal
- Yamaha YH-L700A wireless noise cancelling headphones - $399 from JB Hi-Fi
- 50% off Paramount+ 3-month subscription (new customers only) - $4.49/m from Paramount+
- Kingston 500GB KC2500 M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD - $69 from Amazon
- Various Dell 15" and 17" laptop backpacks - $12 to $28 from Dell
- 2TB Samsung 970 Evo PLUS M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD - $269.10 from Computer Alliance

## The End

📻 That's Negative Baby - Magic Dirt

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info or change email address? Visit the customer portal.

The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.