### Issue 1528 - Tuesday 18th January, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Australian Border Force are randomly yanking data off the phones of innocent returning Aussie tourists
- NSW Electoral Commission not using iVote for upcoming elections due to poor performance in the last one
- Crypto.com finds a fresh way to weasel its way into my life
- Stuff I saw on the internet
- Cheap Eero 6 Pro mesh wi-fi, ProGrade SDXC cards, Canon EOS R camera, 14% Lenovo cashback & free CISSP course

## The News

### Australian Border Force are randomly yanking data off the phones of innocent returning Aussie tourists

I'm just going to copy and paste this one straight from The Guardian's article. "Software developer James and his partner returned from a 10-day holiday in Fiji earlier this month and were stopped by border force officials at Sydney airport. They were taken aside, and after emptying their suitcases, an official asked them to write their phone passcodes on a piece of paper, before taking their phones into another room". 30 minutes later the phones were returned and they were allowed to go. James doesn't know why this was done or what happened with the data collected. I don't think I need to explain why this is a very bad thing and why the argument of "I've got nothing to hide" is horse shit.

### NSW Electoral Commission not using iVote for upcoming elections due to poor performance in the last one

A report produced by the NSW Electoral Commission found that 6 council election results last year were impacted by its online voting system iVote crapping out to the point where not everyone who wanted to vote could vote. NSWEC "simulated the missing votes by randomly resampling them from existing votes made via iVote, and repeated this 1000 times. If an alternative result does not appear in these tests, the result was accepted by the NSWEC". An independent report by Dr Vanessa Teague and Dr Andrew Conway reckons 39, not 6, election results were impacted by iVote being unavailable and wants the system scrapped entirely. The NSW state government was so confident in iVote, it wants to roll out iVote for everyone to use, not just specific circumstances. Today NSWEC announced it is indefinetly pausing the iVote system for "extensive configuration and testing".

### Crypto.com finds a fresh way to weasel its way into my life

Crypto.com is now the "Official Cryptocurrency Exchange and Official Cryptocurrency Trading Platform of AFL and AFLW". They will have exclusive naming rights of the "Crypto.com AFL Score Review" all season. Not only will I have to sit through the misery of the Kangaroos losing a game by 1-point after a last second goal from Cam Zurhaar is overturned on a dubious score review, I'll have to be reminded that cryptocurrency is a thing. Meanwhile, Crypto.com banned users from withdrawing funds for 12 hours and made all users reset their 2FA methods after some users reported large amounts of funds missing. Crypto.com says all funds are safe, but do you believe them?

## Stuff I Saw On The Internet

- We've all seen the cute photo of cats huddling on a Starlink dish (impacting signal quality) because it's warm, yeah? All those custom ASICs in the antenna to tweak the signal generate a fair bit of heat.
- LEGO has an official Sonic The Hedgehog set (#21331), based on the Green Hill Zone level from the games. There's even a Sonic minifig and a Dr. Robotnik. One for all you AFOLs out there.
- The Sensor Watch crowfunding project (usual warnings apply) wants to turn the classic Casio F-91W digital watch into a smartwatch by adding a Cortex-M0+ SoC that'll run simple apps on its simple LCD screen.
- Look at these slate tile coasters etched to look like popular microchips. All the classics are there. I want some!! Maybe the missus can whip them up with her fancy Cricut machine?
- Lusting after one of those cool Wacom Cintiq pen displays but also like owning both your kidneys? Check out the Huion Kamvas Pro 24. It's very good and costs half as much. Christmas present for the wife sorted.

## Bargains

- 14% cashback at Lenovo's online store via Cashrewards
- Eero Pro 6 mesh wi-fi 3-pack - $799 from Amazon
- Free short course for the Certified Information Systems Security Professional qualification via IT Masters
- ProGrade SDXC UHS-II V60 250R memory cards - 64GB $42.74, 128GB $63.74, 256GB $116.99 at Amazon
- Canon EOS R (body only) mirrorless camera - $1916.99 from RYDA's eBay store after Canon Cashback

## The End

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