Syd Mead, the artistic director on Blade Runner says Tesla's new Cybertruck "has completely changed the vocabulary of the personal truck market design."

Or, for another perspective, "Tesla's Cybertruck looks weird... like, really weird," wrote Toni Sacconaghi, a senior equity research analyst at the global asset management firm AllianceBernstein. "Add a little bit of dirt, and you could even say it gives off a retro-future vibe a la Mad Max."

That's from a Market Insider article citing Wall Street analysts they say "aren't buying the futuristic design of Tesla's new electric pickup truck." For example, Dan Levy of Credit Suisse, who wrote "amid the radical design for Cybertruck, it's somewhat unclear to us who the core buyer will be." "We do not see this vehicle in its current form being a success," Jeffrey Osborne of Cowen wrote in a note on Friday, adding that he doesn't see the Tesla brand or the Cybertruck design "resonating with existing pickup truck owners...."

Still, the Cybertruck's design wasn't unanimously disliked by Wall Street. The design "will be a hit with the company's fanatic EV installed base globally as Musk & Co. are clearly thinking way out of the box on this model design," Dan Ives of Wedbush wrote in a Friday note....

[And] "While styling will always be subjective, we believe the unique and futuristic design will resonate with consumers, leading to solid demand," Jed Dorsheimer of Canaccord Genuity wrote in a Friday note.
The article also quotes Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein as saying that the "really futuristic, like cyberpunk Blade Runner" design "is too bad, because its on-paper specs are insane."

But IGN reports there's another group commenting enthusiastically on the Cybertruck's looks: gamers. Unlike anything else we've seen from Musk's line of vehicles before, the Tesla truck resembles something you'd see in an old video game set in the future or sci-fi flick from the late '90s to the early 2000s.

Of course, gamers all over the internet couldn't help themselves from sharing images, making memes, and drawing comparisons to look-alikes we've seen in games, TV shows, and movies... According to the internet, the Tesla Cybertruck either hasn't finished rendering yet or is made of some very dated graphics. Either way, it takes us back to the days where we got to experience the famous low-poly Lara Croft.

"Be Smart. Shop Safe," warns Mozilla's annual buyer's guide for secure connected products. Based on their conversations with developers and dozens of privacy experts, they've awarded smiley faces with different expressions to rate products from "Not Creepy" up to "Super Creepy".

"While the variety of smart devices on offer is rapidly increasing, so are the number of products that pay no heed to even basic security measures..." notes the editor of Mozilla's Internet Health Report. "Now that more and more companies collect personal data about you, including audio and video of your family, and sensitive biometric and health information, like your heart rate and sleeping habits, it's worrying that more are not upfront about the privacy and security of their products."

Or, as The Next Web writes, "god bless Mozilla for having our lazy backs." And, well, if you're a user of any Ring cameras⦠we're sorry. Basically, there are five things that every product must do:

- Have automatic security updates, so they're protected against the newest threats

- Use encryption, meaning bad actors can't just snoop on your data

- Include a vulnerability management pathway, which makes reporting bugs easy and, well, possible

- Require users to change the default password (if applicable), because that makes devices far harder to access

- Privacy policies -- ones that relate to the product specifically, and aren't just generic

Doesn't seem too much to ask right...? Well, of the 76 devices Mozilla selected, 60 of them passed this test... And what devices didn't meet the criteria?

There were nine of them overall (including the Artie 3000 Coding Robot and the Wemo Wifi Smart Dimmer), but the real loser in this test is the Amazon-owned Ring. Three of the company's products (which is effectively all of their major devices) didn't meet Mozilla's criteria. Yes, that's right, the Ring Video Doorbell, Ring Indoor Cam, and Ring Security Cam all didn't meet minimum standards for security.... The main reasons for not meeting this criteria is due Ring's history with poor encryption policies, and vulnerability management.
To be fair, Nest Cam's Indoor and Outdoor Security Cameras and Google Home also fell into the "Very Creepy" category -- and so did Amazon's Echo smart speakers. (The Amazon Echo Show even made it into Mozilla's highest "Super Creepy" category, where the only other product was Facebook Portal.) But at least the Nest Hello Video doorbell only appears in Mozilla's "Somewhat Creepy" category.

"Just because something on your wishlist this year connects to the internet, doesn't mean you have to compromise on privacy and security..." warns the editor of Mozilla's Internet Health Report. And in addition, "Fitness trackers designed for kids as young as 4 years old, raise questions about what we are teaching our children about how much digital surveillance in their lives is normal." Going forward, they suggest that we push for better privacy regulations -- and that whenever we rate products on performance and price, we should also rate them on their privacy and security.

But in the meantime, as Mozilla explained on Twitter, "Friends don't let friends buy creepy gifts."

Microsoft's Edge browser is built on the same open source code as Google Chrome. But Ed Bott, writing for ZDNet, noticed something interesting: On January 15, 2020, Microsoft is scheduled to roll out a completely revamped Edge browser to the general public. That browser, which is available for beta testing now on all supported versions of Windows and MacOS, includes a feature called Tracking Prevention. If that name sounds familiar, you're not imagining things. Microsoft added a Tracking Protection feature to Internet Explorer 9, back in 2011; it used simple text files called Tracking Protection Lists (TPLs) to allow or block third-party requests from specific domains. That's the same general principle behind Tracking Prevention in the new Edge, but the implementation is more usable and more sophisticated, with multiple Trust Protection Lists taking the place of a single TPL.

I've spent the past week looking closely at this feature... [A]lthough it's aimed at the online advertising and tracking industries in general, my tests suggest that its effects are likely to be felt most directly by one company: Google.

Using the default Balanced setting, Tracking Prevention blocked a total of 2,318 trackers, or an average of 35 on each page. Of that total, 552 were from Google domains. That's a mind-boggling 23.8% of the total. To put that into perspective, the second entry on the list of blocked trackers was Facebook, which represented 3.8% of the total.
Rather than an anti-Google conspiracy, the article suggests this is instead just a reflection of both Google's ubiquity and its business model.

"Google Analytics and Google AdSense are embedded on a staggering number of web pages."

An anonymous reader quotes CNET's Roadshow: The Tesla Cybertruck will have a solar charging option that can extend its driving range 15 miles a day, Chief Executive Elon Musk said Friday. On top of that, "fold-out solar wings" could increase that extra range to 30 to 40 miles per day, he said.

"Would love this to be self-powered," Musk tweeted of the Cybertruck solar charging option, adding that the average car in the United States travels 30 miles per day...

Photovoltaic panels to charge car batteries haven't been a big deal on cars so far, since they require a lot of surface area to generate significant power, and even small, aerodynamic electric vehicles demand a lot of that power. However, solar panel efficiency has been gradually increasing, the Cybertruck has a lot of surface area and the photovoltaic industry has been advancing solar cells that can be built into transparent glass -- just the thing for a transparent Cybertruck roof.

Solar charging could also be a nice way for Tesla to make Cybertrucks more profitable.
TechCrunch notes that the trucks will be made from the same stainless steel alloy that SpaceX is using for its Starship -- and that Tesla received 146,000 reservations for the vehicle in just the first two days since its announcement. "Of those, 41% picked the most expensive tri-motor option and 42% of future customers chose the dual motor version. The remaining 17% picked the cheapest single-motor model."

Long-time Slashdot reader Ammalgam is the founder and editor of a Microsoft cloud news site called The Redmond Cloud. He writes: In a recent document, Microsoft outlines a whole bunch of features in Windows 10 that they are not only not developing anymore but, wait for it, might remove from future versions.

Their words:

Every version of Windows 10 adds new features and functionality; occasionally we also remove features and functionality, often because we've added a better option. Below are the details about the features and functionalities that are no longer being developed in Windows 10. For information about features that have been removed, see Features we removed.

These features are no longer being actively developed, and might be removed in a future update. Some features have been replaced with other features or functionality and some are now available from other sources.

"Guests coming to Asahi Ryokan have the option to pay just ¥100 (about $1) per night to stay the night -- if they agree to have their entire stay livestreamed," reports CNN: [T]here are restrictions around how the livestreaming works. [27-year-old manager] Tetsuya Inoue explains to CNN Travel that the feed is video-only, so guests will have privacy in their conversations or phone calls...

Guests are permitted to turn the lights off, and the bathroom area is out of camera range.

"This is a very old ryokan [traditional Japanese hotel] and I was looking into a new business model," says Inoue, who started running the hotel last year. "Our hotel is on the cheaper side, so we need some added value, something special that everyone will talk about." So far, four guests have taken him up on the offer since Inoue began offering the deal last month.

"Young people nowadays don't care much about the privacy," Inoue adds. "Some of them say it's OK to be [watched] for just one day."
Inoue ultimately hopes to monetize the YouTube channel, according to CNN . (Though it currently appears to be down.)

But Inoue told CNN that when the hotel room is vacant, he plans to just livestream himself, working in his office.

Jeff Archambeault (Slashdot reader #41,488) writes: Amateur Radio and computing worlds mourn the death of another pioneer.

From Phil Karn, KA9Q on the the 44Net mailing list:

I have very sad news. My good friend, Brian Kantor, WB6CYT suddenly passed away this week at his home in San Diego, California. Brian retired only two years ago after 47 years of service on the staff at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Way back in the mid 1980s, Brian and I founded AMPRnet, the TCP/IP over amateur radio network. He continued to manage it until his passing.

Brian recently created and served as chair and CEO of Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), a charitable foundation funded by the sale of unused AMPRnet IPv4 addresses. ARDC promotes STEM education and amateur radio digital development through scholarships and by funding the development of open source hardware and software.

Brian will be sorely missed and impossible to replace. Memorial arrangements will be announced when known.
Brian Rogers, N1URO, author of URONode packet software added:

Brian was an interesting yet friendly character unlike anything you'd imagine for someone of his status. He invented things such as eMail (smtp) and usenet (nntp) along with half of the VPN services of ipip. In doing so, he not only helped the amateur community world wide but also the general public globally.

One would think that he wouldn't be an approachable type of person however nothing could be farther from the truth. He was very approachable and would try to offer anyone a hand if he could.

The world has no idea who they're going to miss as someone of his statue is simply irreplace-able!

Slashdot reader Rutabaga8 is the CEO of a web site conducting in-depth research on personal finance topics. They recently contacted Slashdot to share "some surprising results" from their analysis of a nonprofit advocacy group's seven years of data on Tesla batteries: By seven years of age, the typical car could still deliver around 93% of the original range on a full charge. That means a Tesla battery typically loses around 1 percentage point of range each year on the road.

Of course, cars that put more miles on the odometer are likely to get faster battery deterioration, because it's the number of charges that really impact battery degradation. However, the data showed that by 150,000 miles Tesla cars still achieved more than 85% of their original range when they were charged to full capacity.

This week America's National Transportation Safety Board presented its findings on the fatal 2018 crash of a Uber test robocar with a pedestrian in Arizona. Forbes reports: The NTSB's final determination of probable cause put primary blame on the safety driver's inattention. Contributory causes were Uber's lack of safety culture, poor monitoring of safety drivers, and lack of countermeasures for automation complacency. They put tertiary blame on the pedestrian's impaired crossing of the road, and the lack of good regulations at the Arizona and Federal levels... When it comes to human fault, the report noted that [pedestrian] Herzberg had a "high concentration of methamphetamine" (more than 10 times the medicinal dose) in her blood which would alter her perception. She also had some marijuana residue. She did not look to her right at the oncoming vehicle until 1 second before the crash.

There was also confirmation that the safety driver had indeed pulled out a cell phone and was streaming a TV show on it, looking down at it 34% of the time during her driving session, with a full 5 second "glance" from 6 to 1 seconds prior to the impact. While Uber recorded videos of safety drivers, they never reviewed those of this driver to learn that she was violating the policy against cell phone use. She had received no reprimands, and driven this stretch of road 73 times before... Had the vehicle operator been attentive, she would likely have had sufficient time to detect and react to the crossing pedestrian to avoid the crash or mitigate the impact. The vehicle operator's prolonged visual distraction, a typical effect of automation complacency, led to her failure to detect the pedestrian in time to avoid the collision. The Uber Advanced Technologies Group did not adequately recognize the risk of automation complacency and develop effective countermeasures to control the risk of vehicle operator disengagement, which contributed to the crash... The detrimental effect of the company's ineffective oversight was exacerbated by its decision to remove the second vehicle operator during testing of the automated driving system...

Most notably, they do not attribute the technology failures as causes of the crash. This is a correct cause ruling -- all tested vehicles, while generally better than Uber's, have flaws which would lead to a crash with a negligent safety driver, and to blame those flaws would be to blame the idea of testing this way at all.
Forbes also notes the report criticizes Arizona's "shortcomings" in safeguarding the public because of the state's lack of a safety-focused application-approval process for automated driving system testing.

The article adds that today Uber "is only doing very limited testing -- just a one mile loop around their HQ limited to 25 miles per hour."

"Researchers have discovered a new multi-platform backdoor that infects Windows and Linux systems allowing the attackers to run malicious code and binaries on the compromised machines," reports Bleeping Computer: The malware dubbed ACBackdoor is developed by a threat group with experience in developing malicious tools for the Linux platform based on the higher complexity of the Linux variant as Intezer security researcher Ignacio Sanmillan found. "ACBackdoor provides arbitrary execution of shell commands, arbitrary binary execution, persistence, and update capabilities," the Intezer researcher found.

Both variants share the same command and control (C2) server but the infection vectors they use to infect their victims are different: the Windows version is being pushed through malvertising with the help of the Fallout Exploit Kit while the Linux payload is dropped via a yet unknown delivery system... Besides infecting victims via an unknown vector, the Linux malicious binary is detected by only one of the anti-malware scanning engines on VirusTotal at the time this article was published, while the Windows one is detected by 37 out of 70 engines. The Linux binary is also more complex and has extra malicious capabilities, although it shares a similar control flow and logic with the Windows version...

ACBackdoor can receive the info, run, execute, and update commands from the C2 server, allowing its operators to run shell commands, to execute a binary, and to update the malware on the infected system.
The article warns that the Linux version will disguise itself as the Ubuntu UpdateNotifier utility, renaming its process as the Linux kernel thread [kworker/u8:7-ev].

A new Facebook blog post explains the company doesn't mandate one development environment internally. "Some developers use vim. Some use Emacs. And even more engineers use our internal, unified development environment called Nuclide," which originally was a set of open-source packages built on top of the Atom editor.

But in late 2018, Facebook "announced to our engineers" that the company was moving to Microsoft's Visual Studio Code, a free and open source editor released under the permissive MIT License that runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. And the Facebook for Developers blog reports that they're now actually helping Microsoft build the IDE: While engineers at Facebook have Visual Studio Code installed locally on laptops, most development is done directly on individually-reserved development servers that live within our data centers. Being able to access code on these servers in a seamless, performant way is critical for productivity.

As Microsoft's Visual Studio Code team stated when they first released the remote extensions, remote development is an emerging trend... [W]e at Facebook believe that we can apply our unique expertise in this problem space to help. That's why today we are excited to share not just our usage of their remote development extensions, but our involvement in helping Microsoft further improve remote development extensions, with a lens on enabling engineers to do remote development at scale with Visual Studio Code...

Microsoft has now created such a robust remoting experience, it has allowed us to move off our own custom solution... Visual Studio Code is now an established part of Facebook's development future. In teaming with Microsoft, we're looking forward to being part of the community that helps Visual Studio Code continue to be a world class development tool.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Drive: Volkswagen announced Friday that it will discontinue all of its motorsport activities outside of electric vehicles. The Volkswagen factory will no longer support racing efforts powered by internal combustion engines, which includes halting the development of a new Golf GTI TCR car. Because works racing programs largely exist to market a company's cars, it makes some sense that Volkswagen would want to shift the focus of its racing efforts to line up with its big electrification push. Per today's announcement, Volkswagen Motorsport will help develop new concepts based on the Modular Electric Drive Kit (or MEB for short) platform that underpins Volkswagen's ID. family of electric cars. Volkswagen Motorsport Director Sven Smeets explained in today's announcement: "Electric mobility offers enormous development potential, and in this regard motorsport can be a trailblazer: on the one hand, it serves as a dynamic laboratory for the development of future production cars and, on the other, as a convincing marketing platform to inspire people even more towards electric mobility. That is why we are going to focus more than ever on factory-backed electric drive commitments and continue to expand our activities with the development of the MEB. Innovative technology relevant to the car of the future is our focus."

Yesterday, Alphabet's Loon announced that it has signed a new commercial agreement with Internet Para Todos Peru to provide mobile internet connectivity to parts of the Amazon rainforest in Peru starting in 2020. The Verge reports: Loon will use its high-altitude internet balloons to provide mobile internet from Telefonica to the selected areas. Telefonica is a part owner of Internet Para Todos Peru, a mobile infrastructure operator that is working to bring internet connectivity to remote populations in Latin America. Alphabet's blog says that the deployment will initially provide service to an area where nearly 200,000 people live, and that the deployment will make Peru the first country in Latin America to use high-altitude balloons to provide internet connectivity "on a sustained, non-emergency basis."

fahrbot-bot shares a report from Live Science: Scientists have finally found traces of the axion, an elusive particle that rarely interacts with normal matter. The axion was first predicted over 40 years ago but has never been seen until now. Scientists have suggested that dark matter, the invisible matter that permeates our universe, may be made of axions. But rather than finding a dark matter axion deep in outer space, researchers have discovered mathematical signatures of an axion in an exotic material here on Earth. The newly discovered axion isn't quite a particle as we normally think of it: It acts as a wave of electrons in a supercooled material known as a semimetal. But the discovery could be the first step in addressing one of the major unsolved problems in particle physics.

The research team worked with a Weyl semimetal, a special and strange material in which electrons behave as if they have no mass, don't interact with each other and are split into two types: right-handed and left-handed. The property of being either right- or left-handed is called chirality; chirality in Weyl semimetals is conserved, meaning there are equal numbers of right- and left-handed electrons. Cooling the semimetal to 12 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 11 degrees Celsius) allowed the electrons to interact and to condense themselves into a crystal of their own. Waves of vibrations traveling through crystals are called phonons. Since the strange laws of quantum mechanics dictate that particles can also behave as waves, there are certain phonons that have the same properties as common quantum particles, such as electrons and photons. [Study co-author Johannes Gooth, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in GermanyGooth] and his colleagues observed phonons in the electron crystal that responded to electric and magnetic fields exactly like axions are predicted to. These quasiparticles also did not have equal numbers of right- and left-handed particles. (Physicists also predicted that axions would break conservation of chirality.) "It's encouraging that these equations [describing the axion] are so natural and compelling that they are realized in nature in at least one circumstance," said MIT theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, who originally named the axion in 1977. "If we know that there are some materials that host axions, well, maybe the material we call space also houses axions."

The research was published in the journal Nature.

An appeals court ruled that Apple doesn't have to pay $503 million to VirnetX, a company often accused of being a patent troll. The court didn't reverse the original patent-infringement decision though, it just said the amount must be recalculated or a new trial held. Cult of Mac reports: VirnetX Holding Corp is sometimes referred to as a patent troll because it doesn't produce any products. It just collects patents, forces other companies to pay licensing fees on them, or files lawsuits when it thinks its patents have been infringed. VirnetX and Apple have gone head-to-head multiple times over the years. In this latest case, the iPhone maker was ordered to pay $302.4 million because FaceTime infringes on two patents. This was later increased to $439 million.

The figure had apparently grown to $503 million before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected that amount, according to Bloomberg. In its decision, the court decided that Apple can't re-argue the question of whether VirnetX's patents are valid. But the company does get a chance to lower the penalty.

New submitter magzteel shares a report from MIT Technology Review: A new report from the MIT Energy Initiative warns that EVs may never reach the same sticker price so long as they rely on lithium-ion batteries, the energy storage technology that powers most of today's consumer electronics. In fact, it's likely to take another decade just to eliminate the difference in the lifetime costs between the vehicle categories, which factors in the higher fuel and maintenance expenses of standard cars and trucks. The findings sharply contradict those of other research groups, which have concluded that electric vehicles could achieve price parity with gas-powered ones in the next five years. The lingering price difference predicted by the MIT report could stunt the transition to lower-emission vehicles, requiring governments to extend subsides or enact stricter mandates to achieve the same adoption of EVs and cuts in climate pollution.

The problem is that the steady decline in the cost of lithium-ion batteries, which power electric vehicles and account for about a third of their total cost, is likely to slow in the next few years as they approach limits set by the cost of raw materials. Current lithium-ion battery packs are estimated to cost from around $175 to $300 per kilowatt-hour. (A typical midrange EV has a 60/kWh battery pack.) A number of commercial and academic researchers have projected that the costs of such batteries will reach $100/kWh by 2025 or before, which many proclaim is the "magic number" where EVs and gas-fueled vehicles reach retail price parity without subsidies. And they would continue to fall from there. But reaching the $100 threshold by 2030 would require material costs to remain flat for the next decade, during a period when global demand for lithium-ion batteries is expected to rise sharply, MIT's "Insights into Future Mobility" study notes. It projects that costs will likely fall only to $124 per kilowatt-hour by then. At that point, the "total cost of ownership" between the categories would be about the same, given the additional fuel and maintenance costs of gas-fueled vehicles. The price of an EV with 200 miles of range "would still run thousands of dollars more than a comparable gas-fueled vehicle in many areas," the report adds. "While closing the gap on total cost of ownership would be a solid step for electric vehicles, the average consumer is very sensitive to the upfront price tag -- and what it equates to in monthly payments."

New York City has created a position primarily to ensure that there are no biases in AI and other algorithms. Engadget reports: Mayor Bill de Blasio has issued an executive order creating a position for an Algorithms Management and Policy Officer. Whoever holds the position will work within the Mayor's Office of Operations and serve as both an architect for algorithm guidelines and a go-to resource for algorithm policy. This person will make sure that city algorithms live up to principle of "equity, fairness and accountability," the Mayor's office said.

The officer will have the help of advisory and steering committees that will respectively draw on appointed public members and city officials to "drive the conversation" around algorithms. To put it another way, the algorithms officer should have a better understanding of how algorithms apply in the real world. It's not yet clear who will take the position.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: An Ohio man was sentenced last month to six years in prison for a series of DDoS attacks against websites for the city of Akron, Ohio, and the Akron police department. The man, 33-year-old James Robinson, was arrested in May 2019 and pleaded guilty to all accusations, most of which were easy to prove, as Robinson had publicly documented all the attacks on the @AkronPhoenix420 Twitter profile while they happened.

The account contains a litany of tweets about DDoS attacks Robinson allegedly carried out. Targets included websites for the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of the Treasury, and NATO. These attacks never caused any mass outages, and two cyber-security firms which provide DDoS mitigation services said they were never aware of his activities until his arrest in 2018. On Twitter, through the AkronPhoenix420 persona, Robinson always associated with the Anonymous hacker collective, often tagging tweets to suggest they were part of broader attacks -- although no evidence has been found to suggest he collaborated with others for coordinated attacks. [...] In court documents, the FBI said that some of Robinson's DDoS attacks against Akron's official website were successful, and most notably a series of attacks he carried out in early August 2017 that caused prolonged downtime. [...] Following his guilty plea, Robinson was sentenced to six years in prison on October 3, last month. He was also ordered to pay $668,684 in restitution to Akron officials.

A group of major broadcasters and telco giants, including Rogers and Bell, have obtained the first Canadian pirate site blocking order. TorrentFreak reports: Last year, a coalition of copyright holders and major players in the telco industry asked the Canadian Government to institute a national pirate site blocking scheme. The Fairplay coalition argued that such measures would be required to effectively curb online piracy. Canada's telco regulator CRTC reviewed the request but eventually denied the application, noting that it lacks jurisdiction. The driving forces behind the request, Bell, Rogers, and Groupe TVA, were not prepared to let the blocking idea slip away, however. A few months ago the companies filed a lawsuit against the operators of a 'pirate' IPTV service GoldTV.ca. The companies argued that the service provides access to their TV content without licenses or authorization. Among other things, the rightsholders requested an interim injunction to stop the operators, who remain unidentified, from continuing to offer the allegedly-infringing IPTV service. This was granted, but despite the order, some of the infrastructures remained available.

This resulted in a follow-up request from the media giants, which became the setup for the first-ever pirate site blocking order in Canada. Specifically, the companies requested an interlocutory injunction order that would require several Canadian ISPs to block GoldTV domain names and IP-addresses. Late last week this request was granted by a Federal Court in Ontario. An order, issued by Judge Patrick Gleeson, requires most of Canada's largest ISPs, including Cogeco, Rogers, Bell, Eastlink and, TekSavvy, to start blocking their customers' access to GoldTV within 15 days. The order is unique in North America and relies heavily on UK jurisprudence, can be extended with new IP-addresses and domain names, if those provide access to the same IPTV service. The court doesn't prescribe a specific blocking method but mentions DNS and IP-address blocking as options.

OnePlus has sent out an email informing recent OnePlus customers of a security issue. "This 'Security Notification' from OnePlus informs customers that an 'unauthorized party' was able to access order information from the company's online store," reports 9to5Google. "OnePlus says that payment information as well as account details were not accessed, but names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers 'may' have been exposed. The company says it will continue to investigate the matter, but obviously this is no small issue." From the report: Speaking to Droid-Life, OnePlus says that they took "immediate steps to stop the intruder and reinforce security," and that they are currently "working with the relevant authorities to further investigate this incident." OnePlus didn't explain what went wrong, but they are apparently working to start a bug bounty program by the end of this year.

This isn't the first time the company's store has fallen victim to a security issue like this. In early 2018, OnePlus customers found evidence of credit card fraud stemming from the Store that triggered OnePlus to shut down credit card payments temporarily. Just a day later, OnePlus' investigation into the matter revealed that 40,000 credit card numbers had been exposed. OnePlus has a thread on its forums with more details about the breach.