### Issue 1270 - Monday 14th December, 2020

## In Today's Issue

- US Treasury hacked, because SolarWinds was hacked, using tools stolen from FireEye hack
- Riot at Indian iPhone factory after workers had enough of being paid less than promised
- VIC government ditched $4.2m IBM analytics platform after 2 days during COVID-19 crisis
- US schools are buying Cellebrite phone hacking devices to spy on students and staff
- Cheap TP-Link smart plug, Lenovo Android tablet, 1Password, Amazon Echo Show 5, Edifer bookshelf speakers

## The News

### US Treasury hacked, because SolarWinds was hacked, using tools stolen from FireEye hack

Reuters is proclaiming that Russian hackers have been "monitoring internal email traffic at the U.S. Treasury Department and National Telecommunications and Information Administration" and are linking it to SolarWinds products, who told Reuters that "software updates it released in March and June of this year may have been surreptitiously tampered with in a 'highly-sophisticated, targeted and manual supply chain attack by a nation state'". Reuters seem to be linking this to FireEye's spectacular dropping of the ball revealed last week. FireEye gets whipped, which leads to SolarWinds getting slapped and then the US government's email turned into an open book for Russia. FireEye just posted a detailed report on this "global intrusion campaign".

### Riot at Indian iPhone factory after workers had enough of being paid less than promised

Engineers and factory workers at a Wistron factory in India that manufactures iPhones, IoT products and biotech devices have rioted after they got shafted by their bosses. They're pissed off that when joining Wistron (a Taiwanese company that Apple outsources to) they were promised nice salaries, only to get paid much lower, then lower again a few months later. Check out one of the videos in the article, they fucked the joint up really nicely. Cars overturned, smashed windows, damaged furniture. Apple nor Wistron has commented, but I hope the bourgeois in Cupertino see this, feel very guilty and give all those workers making iPhones what they deserve plus an extra "sorry we fucked you" payment.

### VIC government ditched $4.2m IBM analytics platform after 2 days during COVID-19 crisis

It looks like the Victorian government panic bought into an IBM i2 analytics tool during the peak of the COVID-19 second wave. The IBM product was awarded a tender to do "predictive modelling of COVID-19 data to inform policy and public health decisions" only to find after a "two-day period of use" that "IBM's i2 platform capabilities did not extend to predictive analysis or automated alerts" - the primary reason they wanted the system for! Shame it cost them $4.2m and valuable time during a pandemic to figure out this "misguided and costly mistake. It's unclear if the government didn't explain to IBM their needs fully, or if IBM lied and took their money.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### US schools are buying Cellebrite phone hacking devices to spy on students and staff

Case #352 in why the USA is a failed state - school districts across the country are buying Cellebrite phone hacking devices, normally used by law enforcement, to spy on student's personal devices. These "mobile device forensic tools" were originally designed for use by spy agencies to crack the phones of terrorists and legit Bad People, but it's filtered down to your local cops doing it for Semi-Bad People and now, sadly, plain ol' kids. Worst bit is they don't even need a warrant as the Supreme Court in the USA once said schools can do whatever "so long as officials have a reasonable belief a student has broken the law or school policy".

## Bargains

- TP-Link HS100 smart wi-fi plug - $20 at JB Hi-Fi
- Lenovo Tab M7 Android tablet (its shit, but fine for something very very basic) - $74 from Amazon
- 10 months free 1Password for new users only
- Amazon Echo Show 5 - $49 at JB Hi-Fi
- Lots of Edifer bookshelf speakers (active & passive) from Wireless1 with free shipping

## The End

📻 The Everlasting Gaze - The Smashing Pumpkins

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