### Issue 2111 - Tuesday 18th June, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- Initial court docs detail Medibank's lackadaisical approach to cybersecurity
- USA's FTC sues Adobe for being pricks when it comes to subscriptions
- US Surgeon General wants mental health warning labels on social media
- A reminder on how to use Australian consumer law & administrative tribunals to your advantage
- Cheap Sonos, HP laptop, Moto G84 phone, Seagate 16TB HDD, N100 miniITX mobo, HP & Acer micro PCs, TCN gift cards, Ryzen CPU, Fallout 4 & Death Stranding for PC, 100Ah 12V LiFePO4, Pixel Tablet

## The News

### Initial court docs detail Medibank's lackadaisical approach to cybersecurity

The start of legal proceedings from the OAIC against Medibank has revealed the utter shitshow that lead to one of Australia's worst data breaches. Justin Warren's Crux newsletter sums it up well - the documents assert "that an admin with full access to everything saved their login credentials to their personal browser profile which then synced to their home computer. Infostealer malware on the home computer then copied the credentials out, which is how the hacker could get into Medibank. Medibank's GlobalProtect VPN wasn't configured to require any multi-factor authentication". Blows my mind that the VPN didn't have MFA enabled and that Medibank's supplied computer allowed personal browser profiles to be enabled! Hope the court hands Medibank's arse to them on a very expensive platter so the rest of Australia's executive class lives in fear of the same happening to them.

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### USA's FTC sues Adobe for being pricks when it comes to subscriptions

Adobe has copped a lawsuit from the USA's Federal Trade Commission for "deceiving consumers by hiding the early termination fee for its most popular subscription plan and making it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions" - something that's been obvious to everyone that's ever had to interact with Adobe the last decade. According to the press release, the FTC is pissed off with Adobe pushing customers to annual subscriptions that are paid month, but not telling them that if they cancel in the first year, they're on the hook for the rest of the year's fees. They're also concerned about "resistance and delay from Adobe representatives", plus "dropped calls and chats, and multiple transfers" when attempting to cancel. I also hope Adobe gets its arse handed to it on a very expensive platter, so everyone that sells software lives in fear of the same happening to them.

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### US Surgeon General wants mental health warning labels on social media

The USA's Surgeon General wrote an essay for the New York Times, and in it he says social media is an "important contributor" to the "mental health crisis" in young people. His big idea to try and reduce some of the mental pain for US youth is to "require a surgeon general's warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents", like the warnings placed on ciggie packs. Could you imagine if we did that in Australia? Social media would have to be a drab olive colour and you'd have pics of people doom scrolling in a dark room instead of rotten limbs and black lungs. Please do it. Please, I beg of you, just so we'll know for sure that it'll change absolutely nothing when it comes to mental health.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### A reminder on how to use Australian consumer law & administrative tribunals to your advantage

Sizzle subscriber Simon Rumble's 9 year old Electrolux oven decided to stop working and Electrolux wanted him to pay $160 for a tech to come out and diagnose it, plus pay for whatever it costs to fix it as the oven is out of warranty. Being a smart man, Simon knew 9 years isn't good enough for a relatively premium/expensive oven, told them that isn't good enough and after the issue being escalated, was told tough shit by Electrolux. Simon then tried the same thing with the retailer of the oven, Winning Appliances, who also told him to rack off. The day after Simon filed a a case with the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, the retailer contacted him next day, sent out a tech and after the second tech call-out, the oven was fixed - for free. The system works!

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## Bargains

- Sonos Era 100 speaker - $277 at Harvey Norman
- HP EliteBook 865 G10 laptop (Ryzen 7840U, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 16" 1920x1200) - $1325 from Hotpos
- Motorola Moto G84 smartphone - $248.80 from Mobileciti's eBay store
- Seagate EXOS 16TB HDD - $261 from East Digital
- Intel N100 mini-ITX mainboard with 10GbE RJ45 LAN, 6x SATA ports, 2x M.2 PCIe slots - $270 from Aliexpress
- Refurb HP EliteDesk 800 G4 micro PC (i5-8500T, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) - $199 from Metrocom
- 20x Everyday Rewards points on TCN Gift & Party gift cards
- AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D CPU - $227 from Aliexpress
- Fallout 4 GOTY & Death Stranding Directors Cut for PC via Steam - $24.79 from Fanatical
- Refurb Acer Veriton N4640G micro PC (i3-7100T, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) - $87 from UN Tech
- 12V "100Ah" LiFePO4 battery - $195 from Outbax's eBay store
- Google Pixel Tablet with Charging Speaker Dock - $579 at Officeworks

## Image Of The Day

Telecom Australia, 1979 (National Library of Australia)

## The End

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## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.