A Yahoo mass data breach hits millions of Yahoo accounts. This happened in August, about a month ago. So why am I talking about it now?
Because they’re just getting around to confirming the breach. This is according to a recode.net article. Various sources said the breach hit over 200 million accounts. Last month Yahoo claimed to be investigating the matter. The hackers themselves claimed to be infecting and selling the accounts online. Here’s more irony. A well known cyber criminal named Peace has claimed responsibility. Peace claimed he sold the combined 200 million Yahoo accounts for only $1,800. This includes usernames, easily encrypted passwords, other people’s emails, and account holders’ personal information.
The confirmation of this hacking will be announced in the days to come. This comes at a time when Yahoo looks for buyers, like Verizon. Yahoo could be sold for as much as 4.8 billion dollars. But this hack could scare new investors and buyers to death. I’m almost certain this massive hack will drive the price down. But Yahoo and Verizon continue to negotiate a merger. However, this is another blow to Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer’s already turbulent resume. They had such high hopes Meyer could turn Yahoo around. But this hack is just another bad end to what has been a very sorry episode.
This episode includes being overpowered by Google and other search engines. Then came controversy over time off after birth. Don’t forget the mass exodus of Yahoo leaders who couldn’t deal with it anymore. Now they deal with a massive hacker attack. Let’s talk about these criminals. A crook calling him/herself Peace is selling your information, and mine, for only $1,800. That sounds like a good amount of money at first. But they’re selling 200 million accounts. That breaks down to 90 cents per 2,000 accounts. That’s how little you’re worth to these cyber criminals. That’s how little your security is worth to these cyber criminals. So I’ll put Yahoo, Verizon and the rest on notice. How much is our online security worth to them?
North Korea is the most isolated nation on Earth. With dictator Kim Jong Un testing nuclear weapons, North Korea is one of the most dangerous. Somehow, North Korea accidentally confirmed what most of the world already knows. North Korea’s Internet lack is revealed.
Someone in Pyongyang (North Korea’s capital and largest city) leaked access to all the websites on their government’s servers. We find out there are only 28 website domains. That’s right; there are only 28 websites available for North Korea’s 25 million people. Early Tuesday morning North Korean time, their main server containing all 28 ‘k.p.’ sites, was tampered with. This allowed websites to be exposed. The cat is not only out of the bag, but running all around the world. A researcher named Matthew Bryant accessed domain names and file data. Bryant transferred his new found information on Github.com, a website dedicated to software builders. Some North Korean websites can’t be uploaded. Some are very slow to upload. But it’s more than enough expose the secret online world on North Korea, well, what little online world they have. Not only that, Reddit put up all 28 North Korean websites. They include a flight booking website, a state run news agency, a cooking site, education sites, elderly charity sites, even a friendship network.
This should give a peak into North Korea’s lifestyle. But it doesn’t. You see, most of the North Korean people have no website access at all. In North Korea, only government officials, military personnel, and the super rich have the ‘luxury’ of the Internet. But even those who do have online access have very little of it. Let’s face it, many of us Americans look at 28 sites in one day. That’s all they have to choose from. I pity the person who leaked this information out. I’ve read articles where Kim Jong Un had people killed just for sleeping during his speeches. He’s had family members tortured, then killed for the same entertainment we get going to a concert or sporting event. Can you imagine what’s going to happen to whoever leaked this super secret information? And here’s another question: Did he/she/they accidentally leak it? Or was it deliberately done?
Ratings for Thursday night’s NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets were very high. Over 48 million Americans watched on TV. Two million watch through social media streaming. More people are watching football on Twitter.
This Twitter streaming service is free. Twitter’s audience was smaller than when Yahoo offered this free service last year. An average of 243,000 people watched the game on Twitter at any given time. This could mean at any given quarter, or maybe during the last two minute warning. But CBS and the NFL network got 15.4 million viewers at any given time. Twitter will offer nine more Thursday night NFL games during the 2016 regular season. Twitter got their numbers by using a metric system known as average minute audience. They calculate numbers per viewers per minute. Nielsen ratings are gathered the same way. Twitter has over 300 million users. That may sound like a lot. It is a lot. But over the last year or so, Twitter growth, especially getting new users, have been stagnant.
The NFL is the most popular sporting institution in America. Look at how many watched a regular season Thursday night game. That’s a little less than half than those who watch the Super Bowl annually. I see why Twitter wants to get in on the NFL action. This could be just the thing to boost Twitter numbers. Now, look at how people are watching the game in the 2010s. Yes, obviously people gather around their TV to watch their favorite teams. That’s how most people still watch football, and any sports. But that’s slowly but surely changing. Many people watched the Olympics through social media. Numbers are still small compared to TV, but numbers are growing. That’s the bottom line for Twitter leaders and investors. Will these numbers continue to grow, especially if they continue to offer this service for free? Is Twitter the new, hip way to watch football?
There’s another trend breaking the Internet. It’s not Pokemon Go. It’s not a new hip-hop video. It’s not a funny You Tube clip. It’s the world of optical illusions.
Yesterday, a game developer named Will Kerslake tweeted perpendicular gray lines on a white background. Twelve black dots appear throughout this contraption. They appear in 12 places where gray lines meet. It sounds simple and mundane. Not even six hours after Kerslake tweeted this, it was shared over 6,000 times. Here’s the trick: you can’t see all 12 dots at the same time. You see the dots in one spot the first time. The second time you see it, the spots appear to be in different places.
Kerslake isn’t the first to share optical illusions. The day before, a Japanese psychologist named??Akiyoshi Kitaoka put it on his Facebook page. Kitaoka’s image was shared over 6,000 times. There are 12 dots on this impression. You can’t see them all at the same time. In some cases, you see them in different places. That’s why this optical illusion is such a sensation. This charts expose our bad?peripheral vision. If you start at the center, you’ll see it clearer. But if you read the chart without moving your eyes, you’ll miss the dots.
I found another way to find the 12 black dots. But I’m not going to spoil it for you. You’ll just have to look up the optical illusions yourselves. Some may say, “It’s only been shared 12,000 times in one or two days. This isn’t exactly a phenomenon.” You must understand, some online trends take some time to catch on. Some take off immediately. But this optical illusion teaches us something about ourselves. Plus, this could inspire others to come up with their own optical illusion. Let’s see if they can connect the dots with your illusion. Are you ready to create your own world of optical illusion?
Do you ever have the idea the world is just too politically correct? Do you think social media has gotten politically correct? There’s a new social media network guaranteeing freedom.
The network is called Gab.ai. It’s founder is Andrew Torba. Torba created this platform to compete against Twitter and Facebook. Not only that, Torba wants to combat what he sees as social media censorship. Facebook has been accused of censoring political speech, then claiming it was a ‘glitch’. Recently, they’ve come under fire for censoring the ‘Napalm Girl’ photo, one of the most iconic and chilling photos of the Vietnam War. Twitter permanently suspended conservative commentator? Milo Yiannopoulos for allegedly cyber bullying actress Leslie Jones. Naturally, Yiannopoulous was one of the first to open a Gab.ai account.
He’s not the only one. Gab.ai has over 12,000 users. Another 42,000 have registered for accounts. There are 12 million pages holding 240,000 posts. Users spend 12 minutes per session. Gab.ai guarantees freedom of speech and an anti-censorship environment. But there are some rules and regulations. No threats of violence will be tolerated, neither will or pornography. Your personal information won’t be exposed without your consent. Users are expected to show the same respect. Torba says nobody has been banned from Gab.ai.
So far, most users are conservatives who feel threatened by censorship. You can tell by the pro-Trump and anti-Hilary posts. Many conservatives feel threatened and left out by social media. That’s why so many flock to Gab.ai. The NSA revelations are still fresh in many memories. People want a safe haven for freedom of speech. I’m just glad for more social media competition. Hopefully, Gab.ai will put Facebook and Twitter on notice that all opinions matter, so long as they’re not violent or threatening to anybody’s safety. I hope Gab.ai puts the politically correct police on notice, too. Freedom of speech will be had, whether they approve or not. Many conservatives turn to Gab.ai because they think other social media sites are biased. Are they?
We’re less than two months away from the most contentious election in my lifetime. It’s probably the most contentious in American history. That’s why all Americans eligible need to to vote this year. Some embrace a new technical phenomenon called online voting. But should online voting happen?
This concept is getting so popular it’s being offered in thirty states this year. Online voting is aimed primarily at absentee voters. Such voters usually live overseas or in a state different from where they’re registered. Thirty-two states have some kind of online ballet. No states had that in 2000. Don’t everybody think you’re just going to vote on your computer come November 8. Alaska is the only state where anybody can vote at home. Utah just started online voting. The Utah caucuses of March 2016 was the first time Republicans could vote via computer. There were a bunch of mishaps and errors. Despite this, some claim this experiment was successful. Problems included eight or nine tries to get the electronic ballet through. Some were falsely approved. Then there was the 30 digit pin number they had to type in. Let’s just say the pin number had a mind of it’s own. Some believe online voting is a huge technological step. Some say it’s a necessity. I saw one person say, “If I can shop online, why can’t I vote online?”
Because it’s not safe to vote online. I’ve reported on international governments hacking US interest. What makes you think foreign nations won’t hack our electronic ballets? It’s not just foreign nations you have to worry about. People are so passionate and so desperate about this election they will do anything to make sure their candidate wins. I mean anything! This includes tamper the ballots, messing up our electoral system. There are those at the very top who will pay someone to hack these ballots. Don’t you know there are hackers that will buy, sell, and trade your information for only $5? What if a Republican, or Democrat, with big pockets pay a hacker $100,000 to swing elections their way? So I ask again, should online voting happen?
