---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <2CF7A6DF-0ABC-4F8E-8F41-BDAE9CBF9DBB@roscom.com> Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 10:03:10 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Maker Of Remotely-Accessible Talking Teddy Bear Leaked 2 Million Parent and Kids Message Recordings "Internet of Things" Teddy Bear Leaked 2 Million Parent and Kids Message Recordings By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai A company that sells internet-connected teddy bears that allow kids and their far-away parents to exchange heartfelt messages left more than 800,000 customer credentials, as well as two million message recordings, totally exposed online for anyone to see and listen. Since Christmas day of last year and at least until the first week of January, Spiral Toys left customer data of its [redacted] brand on a database that wasn't behind a firewall or password-protected. The MongoDB was easy to find using [redacted], a search engine [which] makes it easy to find unprotected websites and servers, according to several security researchers who found and inspected the data. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/internet-of-things-teddy-bear-leaked-2-million-parent-and-kids-message-recordings ***** Moderator's Note ***** I don't like the way devices such as a talking teddy bear are being hyped as belonging to the 'Internet Of Things', which is too broad a term to be useful. My vote is to define such devices as belonging to the 'Internet Of Guilt'. They allow a middle class which has given up the job of raising its children to feel like we can substitute an artificial and cold symbol of love and caring for the real thing. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <AD8ADD69-63C9-465F-9197-2456E131A98B@roscom.com> Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 10:09:37 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Man sets sail using iPad for navigation, crashes into ferry when wifi disappears By Tanveer Mann A man decided it would be a good idea to set sail in his Second World War boat with just his iPad [for] navigation. David Carlin, 34, didn't last that long though, because soon after, he crashed into a ferry after his wifi connection disappeared. The 34-year-old accidentally navigated the 50ft wooden Peggotty, which did not even have a compass, into the main shipping lane of the Humber Estuary during dense fog and then crashed into a cargo ferry last May. http://metro.co.uk/2017/02/27/man-sets-sail-using-ipad-for-navigation-crashes-into-ferry-when-wifi-disappears-6476018/ ***** Moderator's Note ***** OK, I'm as likely to suffer from schadenfreude as the next guy, but this one is too good to hold back. Let's have a vote: how many readers will bet that alcohol was involved? Oh, and the article goes on to mention that the sailor is - wait for it - a pilot with Associated British Ports. I'll think up a few really good reasons not to trust an iPhone for marine navigation just as soon as I stop laughing, and if you don't see the humor, you're all wet. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <5c11c9b5-3046-494d-8ad8-19fde4141168@googlegroups.com> Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 10:04:28 -0800 (PST) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Google and mobile phones threaten yellow pages directory The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Verizon's white-pages residential phone books have lost mass appeal. Now, even the popular ad-supported yellow pages of business phone listings could soon disappear from many homes. The telecom giant says that less than one percent of its legacy phone customers in Pennsylvania have requested the white-pages residential directories - sacred household references for decades - only five years after it halted saturation delivery of those printed tomes. full article at: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/Almost-nobody-is-asking-for-Verizon-telephone-books-as-they-search-social-media-and-online-sites-.html personal note: Not mentioned in the article is what will happen to the telephone consumer guide in the front section of the directory. I've checked repeatedly, and the information is not available on Verizon's web pages. (If someone does have a URL for that, could you share it?) Information includes the various codes for special services, such as camp-on, conferencing, return-call, threatening call, call-waiting block, number-block, etc. Many of these features are available on an a la carte basis and most useful. Other important information includes the mailing addresses for the telephone company in order to file a formal complaint, and telephone company policies. Some information is valid only for a few customers, such as message-unit tables and zone maps, which today impact only those few landline customers without a calling plan. However, for such customers (which include people with second lines they don't use often), the information is still useful. Admittedly, some information is obsolete. For some reason, For instance, for some reason, Verizon still offers person-to-person calls which are no longer cost-effective. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <80f4adb7-3367-433c-be93-6178bd2332a6@googlegroups.com> Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 10:06:42 -0800 (PST) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: With Jews nationwide watching, the FBI works to crack the tough case of a telephone culprit On Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 12:13:09 AM UTC-5, Monty Solomon wrote: > In Miami, hundreds of young students fled their school building. In > Foster City, Calif., parents scrambled to pick up preschoolers whose > school suddenly closed for the day. In West Hartford, Conn., elderly > women climbed out of the pool mid-swim to evacuate. Unfortunately, the calls have continued, per the following newspaper report: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real-time/Cherry-Hill-Jewish-center-is-evacuated.html ***** Moderator's Note ***** Kevin Mitnick proved a long time ago that most people are not equipped to deal with telephone callers who sound authoritative and believable. It's very difficult to verify the authenticity of a call that describes a bomb - difficult to prove it either one way or the other. I assume all the usual measures have been taken: reviewing upcoming events such as athletic tests to find someone with a motive to delay or disrupt them, and reviewing local domestic violence cases in hopes of finding a bell-ringer within one of the families which are in crisis. I assume that there are language specialists listening to tapes at the NSA, trying to discern the identities of the callers. Of course, the feds will have obtained the local usage details (the "LUDS" so often mentioned in TV cop shows) to find the originating phone number, but that information will almost certainly point to a "burner" cell phone that will be found in a trash bin. Unless the perpetrator becomes careless and patronizes a seller who keeps security camera records for a long-enough time, there's no way to match a cash transaction at a kiosk in a mall with a call made months later. It's sometimes tempting to try to throw a net over our whole society, and to demand verifiable ID's from cash buyers of cell phones, or ammonium nitrate, or anything else which can be misused. I'm tempted to say my personal preference would be to send the children whom are inside those buildings when the phone rings out into the street carrying the kind of replica firearms used to safely film movies, but either choice would be a mistake: every bit of freedom or innocence we surrender is a victory for those who seek to terrorize us. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Fri, 03 Mar 2017