The ShinyHunters group is known for some of the largest data breaches in 2021-2022, in which the personal data of hundreds of millions of users was leaked on the now-seized Raidforums.
In July 2022, HackRead.com reported on Sebastian Raoult, an alleged member of the ShinyHunters hacking group, who was arrested at Rabat International Airport in Morocco at the request of the United States.
This week, the 21-year-old French citizen from Epinal City was extradited to the U.S. and charged with nine counts, including conspiracy, computer intrusion, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
Raoult pleaded not guilty to the cybercrimes on Friday in Seattle federal court. The presiding Magistrate Judge, Michelle Peterson, ordered him to be detained as a flight risk until a hearing on the 3rd of April 2023.
The alleged ShinyHunters hacker Sebastian Raoult
According to the indictment announced by U.S. Attorney Nick Brown, Sebastien Raoult, also known as Sezyo Kaizen, was a member of a hacking group that called itself ShinyHunters. They are known for targeting high-profile companies, stealing their databases, and selling them on the dark web as well as clearnet.
Over the years, HackRead.com has extensively reported on the activities of the ShinyHunters group. The group has claimed responsibility for several high-profile data breaches. These include companies in the United States, India, Indonesia, Brazil, and many more.
It is worth noting that ShinyHunters was mainly active on the now-seized Raidforums. Here is a list of some of the data breaches claimed by ShinyHunters and reported by Hackread.com:
Animal Jam – Tens of millions of users’ data, especially children.
In addition to Raoult, two other French nationals have been indicted for their involvement with the ShinyHunters hacking group. Gabriel Bildstein, 23, and Abdel-Hakim El-Ahmadi, 22, were arrested along with Raoult.
According to a report from Moroccan media, the young man’s father, Paul Raoult, denounced the Moroccan court, saying his son was “betrayed by France.” “He was sold to the Americans. What is France waiting for to regain control of this file?” he said.
Raoult’s lawyer, Philippe Ohayon, also denounced the U.S. extradition request, claiming that the case fell under French jurisdiction since the alleged acts were committed in France by a French national(s).
Due to the U.S. extradition request being granted, Raoult now stands to face a harsh sentence that could reach up to 100 years of incarceration under the American penal code.
Edifier is a company that specializes in high-quality audio equipment. This includes speakers, earbuds, and headphones. The company just launched its Edifier WH950NB over-the-ear headphones. It sent Android Headlines a pair to review. So, let’s find out if these headphones keep up the company’s track record of delivering quality audio products.
Edifier WH950NB: Design and build quality
You don’t get a really radical design with these headphones. However, the accent colors and subtle aesthetic details give them a nice and sleek look. We reviewed the black colorway, and they look rather nice. We see the Edifier logo printed on the side of the headband in gold. Also, each ear cup has one of its microphones on the side of them with a gold ring.
As for the build quality, while the headphones are light, they’re made from sturdy materials. The ear cups are made from strong plastic that doesn’t feel cheap at all. Also, the headband is made from metal, so it will be able to retain its rigid shape after a long time of use.
The ear cups rotate 90 degrees, and they also fold inward. This allows you to compact these headphones in two ways when you need to store them. The cups rotate smoothly, but when you’re folding them in and out, they hold their position. Overall, the quality of these headphones can be felt in the build quality.
When it comes to the feel, the Edifier WH950NB are very light and comfortable. I would wear these for full work shifts (6+ hours), and I never felt that they were weighing my head down. The cups have a soft foam pad that fully encompasses the ears. You won’t have to worry about using these for extended periods of time.
Edifier WH950NB: Sound quality
The story of the sound quality is rather nuanced, as it is with most other Edifier products. Half of the story has to do with the hardware, but the other half is in the software. Starting off with the hardware, the sound quality sounds really good with the powerful 40mm drivers.
Taking them out of the box and playing some music, the sound is nice. You have a nice balance of bass and treble with some nice attention to the mids as well. Edifier is good at creating balanced audio between the lower and higher end. This is especially true with its MP230 Bluetooth speaker.
You can listen to more bass-heavy modern music, but you’re still able to comfortably listen to more balanced music. Do you like jazz? You’ll enjoy listening to it with these headphones. Maybe you fancy some 70s pop. It’ll sound great. Even for you classical music listeners, you’ll be able to listen to your music without skipping a beat.
Edifier Connect app
That’s if you’re listening to the music right out of the box. Digging into the Edifier Connect app, you’re presented with some powerful tools to customize your sound. Let’s start off with the power EQ. When you open the built-in equalizer, you’ll see the four bands that you can adjust. Each band has a volume range between -9dB and +3dB.
Other EQs have more bands, but this one has an ace up its sleeve. You’re able to adjust each band’s frequency range in intervals as low as a single hertz. The lowest band can be set between 20Hz and 200Hz, 2001Hz-3KHz for the second lowest, 3001Hz-5KHz for the second highest, and 5001Hz-10KHz for the highest band. If that’s not enough, you can Q factor of each band.
Next, if you want to hear higher-quality music using Bluetooth devices, you can select the LDAC audio codec from the app. With it, you have the option to listen to higher-quality music sampled at 96kHz or at 48kHz/44.1kHz.
The audio quality of these headphones is great out of the box, but the ability to deeply customize your sound only makes them a more compelling offering.
Edifier WH950NB: Sound modes
As with most premium headphones, the Edifier WH950NB come with ANC (Active Noise Cancelation), and ambient mode. Starting off with the ANC, these headphones have three modes. If you don’t need aggressive noise cancelation, there’s the low noise cancelation mode. It will filter out a fair amount of the noise in the environment. It’s meant for more quiet places.
Out of the box, however, it’ll automatically switch to high noise cancelation. This mode will filter out a wider range of noise in your environment, and these headphones do a great job at it. When I activate the mode, I feel that feeling of isolation. The headphones destroy noise from the AC or refrigerator at home. They still do a great job when working in a noisy coffee shop. A lot of the chatter and machines are filtered out to make listening to music better. The next mode is wind mode. For this mode will help filter out the noise you get from the wind.
One thing that I was extremely happy to see is the ability to switch between ambient mode, ANC, AND regular mode right on the headphones. Most other wearable audio devices I’ve reviewed don’t allow you to switch to just regular mode from the actual device- I’d have to use the app. That’s a major annoyance, especially if you’re using a device that’s not compatible with the app.
It’s neat having the noise cancelation mode on, you most likely won’t need it on ALL the time. That mode uses extra battery power, so having an easy way to turn it off just helps.
Along with those modes, these headphones have Game Mode. This mode is supposed to offer low-latency audio streaming for people who want to play games with them. However, when I activated this mode, I didn’t really notice a difference in the latency. There was still about half a second between when I perform an action and when I heard it.
Edifier WH950NB: battery
If you’re planning on using these headphones for the long run, the Edifier WH950NB won’t have any issue getting you through. When I fully charge these headphones, I can go through days of work shifts, and casual listening before I need to reach for the charger. You can charge these headphones up before a long road trip or work shift, and you won’t need to worry about them dying on you.
If you need to have a quick charge, you’re able to get a few hours of playback time on a single 30-minute charge. One thing to note is that when you get the first battery warning with other headphones, you’d usually have about 30 minutes before they bite the dust. However, with the Edifier WH950NB, you only get about 10 minutes. Just keep in mind that when you get the battery prompt, you’ll want to act fast.
Edifier WH950NB Dual-device connection
One of the standout features of the Edifier WH950NB is the Dual-Device connection mode. This mode allows you to connect to two devices at the same time. Now, you won’t be able to listen to both of them simultaneously. Instead, you’re able to quickly switch between the devices without having to repair them.
My phone is my primary media device, but I listen to music on my computer while I work. So, I have the headphones connected to both of these devices. If I want to listen to anything on any of these devices, I simply need to play the media on that device. If I want to switch devices, I just need to pause what’s playing on Device #1 and press play on Device #2. The audio will switch over in a matter of seconds.
Just know that, if you want to switch from Device #1 to Device #2, there can’t be any audio playing in Device #1 at all. This means that there can’t be any music, Twitch streams, notifications, or anything. Otherwise, the audio will remain locked to the first device.
Gripes
For as great as these headphones are, there is just one minor gripe that I have: those dang voice prompts! Voice prompts are useful, but you hear them often when using these headphones. You hear them when switching between ANC, ambient mode, and regular modes. Also, you hear them enabling Game Mode, switching EQ presets, and activating Music and Theater modes.
One issue is that when you hear a voice prompt, the audio you’re listening to mutes while the prompt is playing. It just gets in the way if you’re quickly switching modes. Unfortunately, you can’t disable them. You can turn the voice prompts’ volume down, but your audio still gets muted. Also, you won’t be able to hear your battery prompts.
It’d be neat if you could select which voice prompts you want to play. Also, if you disable a prompt, it’d be cool if the mode could just change without muting the media.
You should buy the Edifier WH950NB if you:
Want quality audio
Have LDAC-compatible devices
Want to customize your audio
Want a sturdy pair of headphones
Like having your headphones connected to more than one device at once
is this website safe ? In this digital world, Check website safety is the most important concern since there are countless malicious websites available everywhere over the Internet, it is tough to find a trustworthy website. We need tobrowse smart and need to make sure the site is not dangerous by using Multiple approaches.
In general, it is good to type the website URL instead of copy-paste or clicking an URL. Also, check to see if the website working with HTTP OR HTTPS.
Investigating: is this website safe
In order to find, is this website safe, we need to figure it out if the URL was received from an unknown source and we would recommend cross-checking the URL before clicking on it. Copy the URL to analyzers that are available over the Internet and ensure it’s Integrity.
If it is a shortened URL you can unshorten itwith the siteand then analyze the actual URL.
Methods to analyze Websites
To check website safety, the first and the most recommended method is to check online page scanners, which uses the latest fingerprinting technology to show web applications are up to date or infected by malware.
Like this number of scanners available
Website reputation check needs to be done to find the trustworthiness of the website with WOT .
Ensure SSL is there before making a purchase
In order to check website safety, Ensure the website availability with https before entering the payment card details. We can audit the HTTPS availability with the SSL analyzer URL’s available over the internet.
Also, there is a range of certificates available over the Internet from low assured (domain validation) to the Most trusted Extended validation certificates, you can refer the URL for more details.
Moreover, we can verify their prompt installation with various popular checkers available
Google Safe Browsing: is this website safe
According to Google, in order to check, is this website Safe, Browsing is a service that Google’s security team built to identify unsafe websites across the web and notify users and webmasters of potential harm.
In this Transparency Report, Google discloses details about the threats we detect and the warnings we show to users.
We share this information to increase awareness about unsafe websites, and we hope to encourage progress toward a safer and more secure web.
Safe Browsing also notifies webmasters when their websites are compromised by malicious actors and helps them diagnose and resolve the problem so that their visitors stay safer.
Safe Browsing protections work across Google products and power safer browsing experiences across the Internet.
Check the Browsing Website have Any unsafe Content or not – Google Safe Browsing
To Report Malicious websites
Please report the dangerous URL to the services mentioned below. They are arranged in categories which should make it relatively easy to decide which services you should report the site to.
Services which blacklist Dangerous sites
Check the Blacklist IP Address
There are some awesome tools to Check the website IP Address has been listed in the Global Blacklist Database.
analyzes a website through multiple blacklist engines and online reputation tools to facilitate the detection of fraudulent and malicious websites. This service helps you identify websites involved in malware incidents, fraudulent activities, and phishing websites.
Important tools for Checking the Website’s Reputation and confirming is this website Safe.
Conclusion
Cybercriminals are using various sophisticated techniques to fool online users to drop malware and other cyber threats to cause unbearable damage. so please beware of the malicious website, don’t blindly open the website, and check the website safety before opening it.
Malicious actors are using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to build malware, dark web sites and other tools to enact cyber attacks, research by threat intelligence company Check Point Research has found.
While the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot has put restrictions on its use, including using it to create malware, posts on a dark web hacking forum have revealed that it can still be used to do so. One user alludes to this by saying that “there’s still work around”, while another said “the key to getting it to create what you want is by specifying what the program should do and what steps should be taken, consider it like writing pseudo-code for your comp[uter] sci[ence] class.”
Screenshot provided by Check Point Research
Using this method, the user said they had been able to create a “python file stealer that searches for common file types” that can self-delete after the files are uploaded or if any errors occur while the program is running, “therefore removing any evidence”.
Many more users have posted to the forum, toting ChatGPT as a way to “make money”, with claims that it can make users more than US$1,000 per day. According to Forbes, these methods include using ChatGPT’s abilities to pose as young women to enact social engineering attacks on vulnerable targets.
Screenshot provided by Check Point Research
Cyber security experts told Cyber Security Hub that they predicted a top threat to cyber security in 2023 would be crime-as-a-service; platforms where malicious actors can offer their services to those who would otherwise be unable to carry out cyber attacks. With ChatGPT able to expedite the process of creating malware for free, this could make crime-as-a-service even more lucrative for cyber criminals.
Adam Levin, cyber security expert and host of cybercrime podcast What the Hack with Adam Levin, explains that malicious actors being able to create “increasingly sophisticated software” and sell this software as-a-service is dangerous as it “allows anyone, regardless how tech savvy, to conduct phishing, ransomware, distributed denial of service and other cyber attacks”.
Levin predicts that throughout 2023, “criminal software enterprises will continue to threaten enterprises of any size”. Furthermore he says cyber-crime syndicates behind current as-a-service platforms are set to grow over the next 12 months as “they can make more money enabling entry-level cyber criminals to commit crimes than they can directly targeting victims and with less risk”.
However, Levin says that these types of attacks can be mitigated with the use of multifactor authentication, the implementation of zero-trust architecture and regular cyber security training and penetration testing.
A ruling declared that Apple violated the United States labor laws by warning employees against leaking the company’s confidential information.
In 2021, Tim Cook allegedly sent an email that stated that people who leak confidential information about Apple — product I.P. or meeting details — don’t belong in the company. Cook further threatened that Apple was doing everything possible to find the culprits.
A Bloomberg report revealed that Cook sent the email after details of a company-wide meeting in which the management fielded questions on several topics leaked. The discussion focused on pay equity, Texas’ anti-abortion laws, COVID vaccinations, and working from home.
“I want to reassure you that we are doing everything in our power to identify those who leaked. As you know, we do not tolerate disclosures of confidential information, whether it’s product I.P. or the details of a confidential meeting. We know that the leakers constitute a small number of people. We also know that people who leak confidential information do not belong here.”
As you may have guessed, the email about stopping leaks in Apple found its way to the internet. What’s more, it turns out that sending such a message violates the United State’s labor laws.
Here’s why.
NLRB: Sending an Anti-Leak Email Violates Labor Laws
According to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, Apple’s anti-leak rules could interfere with, restrain, or coerce its employees from exercising their labor rights.
Former senior engineering manager at Apple, Ashley Gjovik, brought the dispute to the NLRB when she filed a claim against Apple. Her suit alleged that the email pledging to punish leakers, including a set of policies in Apple’s employee handbook, violated federal law.
The National Labor Relations Board has found merit to these charges. Furthermore, the Bloomberg report reveals that the agency intends to issue a complaint against Apple if the company doesn’t settle.
The NLRB can’t act on its own to punish companies for violations. However, it can file complaints. Consequently, administrative law or federal court judges can review the filing to enforce policy changes.
While the US has three major carriers – AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon – they aren’t always the cheapest. You see, phone plans are mostly split into two categories, prepaid and postpaid. Prepaid is where you pay for your service before you use it, Postpaid is paying for it after you get the service. Naturally, prepaid normally has no credit check, while postpaid does.
The other big difference is that postpaid generally offers more features, and they also get priority on the network. This is important in areas that are very congested. Typically, postpaid customers get priority, followed by the carrier’s own prepaid customers and then MVNOs.
So, I’ve said all that to say that you can be spending a lot less on your phone bill every month. And we are here to show you the best cheap phone plans that are currently available.
The best cheap cell phone plan
Our pick for the best cheap cell phone plan goes to Mint Mobile. There’s a good chance that you’ve heard of them before. They’ve done quite a few popular commercials with Ryan Reynolds (who has a stake in the company).
Mint Mobile is our pick for the best cheap phone plan because you can get service for just $15 per month. Now there is an asterisk there. As Mint Mobile has you pay 3 months at a time, so you’re paying $45 for three months of service (which equals $15 per month). That’s still a fraction of what you’d pay at the big carriers though.
Mint Mobile offers unlimited talk and text along with 4GB of data (on 5G and 4G LTE networks) here for $15 per month. There are other plans that offer 10GB, 15GB and unlimited data (unlimited will slow after 35GB per month).
It’s also important to note here that Mint Mobile runs on T-Mobile’s network.
The cheapest phone plan
Believe it or not, there are plans that are even cheaper than Mint Mobile, and that would be b. You can actually get a plan that is as low as $5 per month. Which offers 500MB of data and no call minutes. But the more popular plan will be $10 which is 1GB of data and unlimited minutes.
Tello lets you choose how many minutes you want, this is good for those that don’t talk on the phone much. And also your data. Which includes 500MB, 1GB, 2GB, 5GB, 10GB and Unlimited. Unlimited talk, text and data will cost you $29. Which is not bad at all.
Tell Mobile runs on T-Mobile’s network as well.
The best plan running on AT&T’s network
All of the carriers have their own MVNO’s these days, and AT&T has Cricket, which is a really impressive MVNO.
Cricket has plans that start at just $30 per month. This includes 5GB of data and unlimited talk and text. Plans go up to $60 for unlimited data and 15GB of mobile hotspot. You can also get just unlimited data (without a hotspot) for $55 per month. Customers on Cricket’s most expensive plan also get HBO Max (with ads) included for free. So it may be worth it to spend that extra $5 for the more expensive unlimited plan.
As mentioned, Cricket does run on AT&T’s network. And unlike some of the other MVNOs out there, Cricket will get priority since AT&T owns it as well.
The best plan running on Verizon’s network
Visible is an interesting MVNO (owned by Verizon). It markets itself as an app, and not as a carrier. Because it uses eSIM, it is super easy to switch over and get started with Visible. And because it uses Verizon, that means that you can bring over virtually any unlocked phone to use on Verizon’s network.
Visible has two plans, Visible and Visible+. The regular Visible plan is $30 per month and only includes the basics. That’s unlimited talk, text, data and hotspot. The caveat on the hotspot is that speeds are limited to just 5Mbps. You’ll also get unlimited talk and text to Mexico and Canada.
Visible+ offers all that, plus a bit more for $45 per month. You also get 5G Ultra Wideband (that’s C-Band and mmWave). As well as unlimited talk, text and data roaming in Mexico and Canada, International calling from US to 30+ countries and International texting from US to 200+ countries. So those that travel a lot or have families in other countries in North America, the Visible+ plan is worth the price.
These prices all come with taxes and fees included too.
The best plan running on T-Mobile’s network
Finally, we have Metro by T-Mobile. Also owned by T-Mobile, as you might expect from the name. This is formerly MetroPCS, and finally renamed to Metro by T-Mobile a couple years ago.
Metro by T-Mobile has three plans available, all of which are unlimited. Starting at $40 per month. And if you’re eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program, you can get up to $30 off.
The first unlimited plan is $40 per month and gives you unlimited talk, text and data. As well as access to T-Mobile Tuesdays, Scamshield and a 1-year subscription to Vix.
Next up is a $50 per month plan which includes everything from the cheaper plan, but you get 5GB of hotspot data, and 100GB of Google One storage. Finally, there’s the $60 per month plan, which includes everything from the cheaper $50 plan, but hotspot data is bumped up to 15GB, and you also get Amazon Prime included. Which is a really big deal.
Of course, Metro by T-Mobile runs on T-Mobile’s network and does get access to its full 5G network.
The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro are undoubtedly one of the best phones to have launched last year and have received widespread praise from the tech world for their excellent software and cameras. However, just like every other phone from Google, the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro have had several hardware issues over their short lifetime. Last month, reports of camera glass shattering for no apparent reason began to surface, and now some users have started to report their volume button falling off randomly on the Pixel 7 Pro.
Unlike the camera-shattering issue, this issue is interestingly exclusive to the Pixel 7 Pro. So far, based on Reddit and Google Support pages, only a limited number of users have experienced this issue, but there is no logical explanation for why it is happening.
The issue was first reported by Nick Sutrich from Android Central when his Pixel 7 Pro’s volume button fell off. While some users, like Nick, were able to reattach the volume button to the phone, many reported that it remained loose and felt crunchy. On the other hand, some users even reported the volume button refusing to stay in place no matter what they do.
Google is not willing to cover the issue under warranty
However, unlike the camera shattering issue where Google offered to replace the phones of many affected users, in this case, Reddit users who contacted the company were told that the issue would not be covered under warranty, as this is due to the “mishandling” of the phones.
This raises some concerns among Pixel 7 Pro users, as they did not expect to encounter these hardware issues just a few months after the launch. Until Google offers a solution to the problem, users should be mindful of this potential problem and consider using a high-quality case. This will not only protect the phone from potential damage but also give the volume button added protection.
Samsung’s Camera Assistant app was released for the Galaxy S22 series with the One UI 5.0 update. Sammy plans on sharing the Camera Assistant app with more Galaxy handsets. According to SamMobile, besides bringing the Camera Assistant to more Samsung handsets, the app is expected to come with more features. One new feature will give users control over image capture speed, image sharpening, and the timer.
Pre-order the Galaxy S23 Ultra right now!
The Camera Assistant app will give users the opportunity to choose among three options for picture softening: Off, Medium (50%), and High (100%). The shutter tap speed can be changed to activate as soon as the button is pressed instead of waiting for the button to be released. A series of burst images, a GIF, or a video can be shot by sliding or holding the on-screen shutter button.
Shutter lag can also be improved by using the upgraded Camera Assistant app thanks to three new settings. Speed Priority will snap a photo as fast as possible with the quality of the photo taking a backseat to speed. Disabling the Auto HDR feature will also eliminate shutter lag. The other two shutter settings include Balanced, and Quality Priority. The former looks to balance the shutter speed along with the quality of the image. Quality Priority gives up a speedy shutter speed in favor of a focus on the quality of the picture being taken.
The Samsung Camera Assistant app delivers three tiers of photo sharpening including Off, Medium, and High
Samsung has also added additional options for the timer. Photos can now be snapped every 1 second, 1.5 seconds, 2 seconds, 2.5 seconds, and 3 seconds. And if your phone gets hot while taking photos or videos it could be due to the processing required to support whatever it is you’re doing with the camera. Having the screen brightness set all the way up could be another reason why the phone is overheating. The Camera Assistant app can be set to dim the screen automatically after 1 minute (or 10 minutes) of video recording.
So which phones are getting the Camera Assistant? Thanks for asking. The app is coming to the Galaxy Note 20 series and all Galaxy S phones starting with the Galaxy S20 line and running through the Galaxy S23 models. It also will be offered to those with the Galaxy Z Flip 3, Galaxy Z Flip 4, and all of the Galaxy Z Fold handsets from the Fold 2 through the Fold 4.
So to reiterate, these Galaxy phones will get the Camera Assistant app:
Galaxy Note 20
Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Galaxy S20
Galaxy S20+
Galaxy S20 Ultra
Galaxy S21
Galaxy S21+
Galaxy S21 Ultra
Galaxy S22
Galaxy S22+
Galaxy S22 Ultra
Galaxy S23
Galaxy S23+
Galaxy S23 Ultra
Galaxy Z Flip 3
Galaxy Z Flip 4
Galaxy Z Fold 2
Galaxy Z Fold 3
Galaxy Z Fold 4
If you have one of the Galaxy phones in the above list, keep your eyes peeled for the update that will bring Camera Assistant to your phone.
Here, Cyber Security Hub explores the threat vectors used and vulnerabilities exploited by hackers specific to cryptocurrency-based cyber crime.
Why do hackers target cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency attacks can have large payouts
With Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether having market caps of $330.6bn, $152.6bn and $68.2bn respectively, cryptocurrency traders and wallets can be an attractive target to hackers. So much so that Blockchain data platform Chainanalysis reported that a total of $3.8bn in cryptocurrency was stolen by crypto hackers in 2022.
In September 2022, malicious actors compromised cryptocurrency market maker Wintermute’s hot wallet to steal $162.5mn. The term hot wallet refers to a cryptocurrency wallet that is available online and can facilitate transactions between the owner and others’ wallets. To do this, the hackers exploited a vulnerability in private keys generated by the Profanity app. Private keys are a secure code proving ownership of a cryptocurrency wallet and allowing the holder of the wallet to make transactions. If these keys are unsafe, however, it can allow malicious actors access to a cryptocurrency wallet.
Cryptocurrency companies may be more vulnerable to attacks
While the first cryptocurrency, eCash, was created in 1990 by Digicash, cryptocurrency did not reach the mainstream until the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009. With around 100 new cryptocurrencies created and minted each day, the urge to join the market may mean so-called cryptopreneurs are more focused on creating and launching their cryptocurrency over protecting their business.
Luke Willmott, co-founder and COO of crypto-based car marketplace AutoCoinCars notes that this enthusiasm to launch can lead to security issues that are a big draw for hackers. He notes that as people do not need to invest a large amount of money to form startups in the cryptocurrency space, this can mean that their investment focus is on the front end of the company, for example making an attractive webpage, rather than protecting the back end of their business. This leaves them vulnerable to attacks.
“Even some of the larger cryptocurrency companies likely do not have sophisticated enough cyber defenses to outsmart hackers. With the cryptocurrency industry growing at such a rapid rate it is understandable why this may be difficult to keep up with. Add on top of that the rate at which both hackers and technology grow in intelligence, you would need a full-time person to deploy a strong cyber defense strategy and infrastructure,” Wilmott explains.
In January of this year, it was revealed that collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX had $415mn worth of cryptocurrency stolen by hackers. The loss was discovered after FTX lawyers and advisors identified $5.5bn worth of assets to be recovered, with the stolen cryptocurrency making up around a tenth of the assets to be recovered.
Global news company Insider suggested that the stolen cryptocurrency “could be linked to a hack that took place just hours after FTX filed for bankruptcy” and prosecutors noted that more than $370mn in crypto had “vanished from the exchange”.
Cryptocurrency transfers cannot be reversed
Cryptocurrency transfers take place on a decentralized network, meaning that when funds are transferred they cannot be cancelled or reversed, only refunded by the receiver. This is due to the immutable nature of the blockchain making it impossible for any data within the network to be edited. Digital currency protocols put in place by cryptocurrency companies to allow merchants to accept digital currency without chargebacks also prevent funds being cancelled or reversed.
This means that if hackers are able to gain access to and transfer funds from a victim’s cryptocurrency wallets, it is very unlikely that they will be able to regain these funds.
On January 15, a cryptocurrency and NFT influencer who uses the moniker NFT God poster to Twitter that their “entire digital livelihood was violated” after hackers gained access to and stole “a life changing amount of [their] net worth” in funds and NFTs from their digital wallet.
Every channel I have with my community, friends, and family was compromised over the last 24 hours
My Twitter, Substack, Gmail, Discord, and wallets were all invaded and taken over by bad actors
Significantly less important than all of that I lost all of my digital assets
In a series of tweets, NFT God explained that they believed hackers had gained access to their computer and digital wallet after they mistakenly downloaded malware they believed was video streaming software. The hackers stole all of NFT God’s digital assets.
Cryptocurrency news site Metaverse Zeus reported that blockchain data showed that these assets included “at least 19 ETH, worth almost $27,000 at the time, a Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFT with a current floor price of 16 ETH ($25,000), and several other NFTs”.
Speaking on the hack, NFT God tweeted: “There’s no recourse. It’s not fixable. You can’t revert blockchain transactions.”
Hackers have even capitalized on the fact that those who lose their digital assets will want to regain them. The prevalence of hackers exploiting this desperation has led to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issuing a warning to cryptocurrency owners not to trust individuals or companies that offer cryptocurrency recovery services. In this scams, malicious actors will tell victims they can return their funds and assets to them, then either charge them a fee or ask for their financial information to do so. This leads to the victim being further defrauded.
How do malicious actors target cryptocurrency users and companies?
Social engineering attacks against unsuspecting investors
As those looking to invest in cryptocurrencies feel pressure to buy in at the most opportune moment, malicious actors exploit this pressure in social engineering attacks. An example of this was seen in July 2022, after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned cryptocurrency investors that fake cryptocurrency applications had led to losses of $42.7m in just six months.
Between November 1, 2021 and May 13, 2022, the FBI identified 244 victims who lost between $900,000 to $5.5mn each to fake cryptocurrency apps. The scams involved fraudsters posing as legitimate US investment services and specifically targeting those who had an interest in cryptocurrency and mobile banking. During communications with the victims, the hackers used the logos and names of said investment services to make themselves appear more legitimate. Using these techniques, the hackers were able to convince the investors to download mobile apps, which led to them being defrauded.
The two companies the scammers created fake websites for were YitBit, which is the name of former legitimate cryptocurrency service and Supayos, an Australian currency exchange business. The FBI suggested this was an attempt to make the scam apps seem more legitimate.
The criminals were able to defraud at least four victims of $5.5mn while posing as YitBit, by waiting for investors to deposit funds into the fake accounts, then telling them via the app that to withdraw any funds, they must pay taxes. This meant that the victims were unable to withdraw any investments from the fraudulent app.
Blockchain bridges are used by cryptocurrency users to transfer cryptocurrency between different blockchain. The bridges work by depositing the assets as ‘wrapped’ tokens across the bridge. Wrapping the tokens allows them to function on the blockchain they are being transferred to. Unfortunately, this makes bridges more susceptible to attacks as they have vulnerabilities on each end of the transfer.
The funds were stolen after hackers exploited a flaw in the bridge’s code that allowed malicious actors to replace the intended destination wallet with their own account.
Phishing attacks to gain access to digital wallets
Similar to the use of fake cryptocurrency companies to defraud investors, hackers will similarly pose as cryptocurrency companies to gain access to cryptocurrency users’ wallets via phishing attacks.
Monkey Drainer is notorious for using phishing-based hacking techniques to steal from victims by setting up fake cryptocurrency and NFT sites. To make these fake sites more believable, Monkey Drainer has been known to pose as legitimate blockchain sites including RTFKT and Aptos. After logging in to the fraudulent sites, victims enter sensitive details about their cryptocurrency wallets and sign off on transactions, allowing Monkey Drainer to access their wallets and their funds.
The most prominent victims in the October 2022 attack were referred to only as 0x02a and 0x626. The pair lost a collective $370,000 via malicious phishing sites operated by Monkey Drainer, with 0x02a losing 12 NFTs worth around $150,000.
0x626 held around $2.2mn in their cryptocurrency wallet at the time, however, some of the transactions pushed by Monkey Drainer were rejected by the network the wallet was on as they were marked as suspicious. This meant that the overall actual loss was $220,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
When Amazon announced an addition to its Omni TVs back in September 2022, I was pretty excited. I had heard plenty of great things about the existing Omni TVs, but they lacked QLED. Now, Amazon has a QLED TV in the Omni lineup, and it’s pretty inexpensive. While the MSRP is $799 for the 65-inch, it is routinely under $600. Making it one of the cheapest QLED TVs on the market.
Now being the cheapest isn’t always good. How does it perform? We’ll go over all of that and more in this review.
First off, what is QLED?
If you’re not big into TVs, you might not even know what QLED is. So let’s take a minute to go over what it is exactly, before continuing in this review of the Amazon Omni QLED TV.
QLED is:
A quantum dot display is a display device that uses quantum dots, semiconductor nanocrystals which can produce pure monochromatic red, green, and blue light. Photo-emissive quantum dot particles are used in LCD backlights and/or display color filters.
In layman’s terms, it’s similar to OLED, but at a much cheaper price point. It also doesn’t suffer from burn-in like OLED would. In addition to that, QLED also still offers close to real-life colors. Since it doesn’t use a backlight, that means that the blacks will actually be black, instead of gray.
Amazon Omni QLED TV Review: Display & Picture quality
The picture quality on this TV is pretty good. It’s not quite as bright as I’d like, but if you don’t have a lot of sunlight coming into the room, then the brightness is going to be just fine. It is also really good with darker TV shows. Since it’s QLED and actually shows deeper blacks versus an LED or LCD TV. So shows like Manifest or The Oval actually look good on this TV.
Some will say that the picture quality here isn’t that great, but you have to remember that there are QLED TVs out there that are 3x or more the price of this TV. So of course, some corners are cut here. But if you’re coming from a 4K LED TV, then you’re going to find this display to be quite nice.
There is HDMI 2.1 here, but it does not support 4K120. That sounds strange right? Well, the TV itself only offers 60Hz refresh rate, so it’s not the port, but more the panel that is limiting that.
Amazon has also included Dolby Vision IQ here, which does help to make this TV look incredible. It also supports HDR10, HLG and HDR10+ Adaptive. Along with HDR10+ Gaming.
For the Omni QLED, the strong point isn’t really the picture quality, it’s more the Alexa and smart hub features.
Amazon Omni QLED TV Review: Sound quality
Typically, TV sound quality sucks. Unless you’re buying an expensive TV from Sony, Samsung, or LG. That’s really the only time that they focus on the sound. But here, Amazon did focus on the sound quality. It doesn’t have Dolby Atmos, unfortunately, but the sound is still pretty good.
I did use the TV for a good month or so without my Sonos Beam Gen 2 and Sub Mini plugged in. And it sounded pretty good, but I did miss having the Sub available for movies and such. So if you have a soundbar, you’ll probably still want to use it here. But this is a TV that doesn’t absolutely need a soundbar.
Amazon Omni QLED TV Review: Alexa & Software
If you’ve used any Fire TV device over the past few years, then the software here is going to feel right at home. It’s basically like having an Amazon Fire TV Cube plugged into your TV, except you don’t lose an HDMI port for that. I say the Cube, because it does have always-on Alexa. So you can talk to Alexa while the TV is off. Below the TV, there’s a little box with an indicator light that will indicate when the TV turns on, as well as when Alexa is listening to you. Now there is still a physical button to turn off the mic. So you can press the microphone button on the remote to talk to Alexa.
The software is slightly different here, since it is powering the TV. So it needs to add support for switching ports and such. Which works well here. But what really works well is the software. Much like the Fire TV Cube, Amazon put in a decent amount of power into the TV. Which makes Fire TV OS absolutely fly on this TV. The experience is similar to the Fire TV Stick 4K Max or the Fire TV Cube. Every app opened and worked quickly. However, YouTube TV was quite slow, and I think that’s more of a YouTube TV problem. Since it was the only app struggling.
Amazon makes it quite easy to jump into different apps on the TV, as well as finding something to watch. But it also works really well as a smart home hub, thanks to Alexa being built-in. Now, this isn’t anything new, since this is all on the Fire TV Sticks and Cube as well. But you can view your Ring cameras on your TV, get notified when a package arrives and much more.
However, what is new here is the Ambient Mode. It’s basically a screensaver for your TV. But Amazon has added widgets. So when it does jump into Ambient Mode, it can also show a few widgets at the bottom of the screen. Like one for your smart home products, one for weather, etc. It’s almost like having an Echo Show 15 on your TV. In addition to that, it can also turn itself off if it detects that everyone has left the room, and then turn on when people come back into the room. This works about 70% of the time. Ambient Mode and Widgets are okay features, but not features that I really used a whole lot.
Amazon Omni QLED TV Review: Ports & Connectivity
The Omni QLED TV has a pretty good selection of ports available. That includes Ethernet, Three HDMI 2.0, One HDMI 2.1, Cable/Ant, USB, IR Emitter, Headphone and Optical. So there’s three HDMI ports available, with one being HDMI 2.1. But as we talked about already, this TV does not support 4K120, because it has a 60Hz panel. And since the HDMI 2.1 port is the eARC port, you’re probably going to plug your sound bar into it anyways.
However, with four HDMI ports, that means that you can plug in your gaming console(s), and a soundbar and be good to go. Or use one for another streamer like a Chromecast with Google TV or Roku, if you prefer that ecosystem over Fire TV.
Amazon Omni QLED TV Review: Design
When it comes to TV design, I don’t really think it matters. Since you’re mostly looking at the display anyways. Sure the thin bezels are nice to have, but what TV doesn’t have thin bezels, that’s not under $100. The Omni QLED TV has a pretty nice design. With thin bezels on the sides and top. The bottom has a slightly thicker bezel and is brushed aluminum, with only a Fire TV logo in the center. Which I rarely notice is there, to be quite honest.
Of course, below the Fire TV logo, we also have the Alexa box, as I call it. This has the button for turning off the microphone. Which does show up as an icon there showing you it’s off. There’s also an indicator strip there that shows when the TV is being interacted with, when Alexa is listening and/or talking back to you, and such. It takes a little getting used to, as this isn’t something you see all the time.
Now, there is another box at the top of the TV, but it’s kinda behind it, so you don’t really see it. This is used to help the TV see if there’s anyone in the room to turn off the TV with the Ambient Mode.
The legs are pretty spread out, so if you get the 65-inch or even the 75-inch model and have a shorter console for it, it may not fit. The legs screw in quite nicely and easily. Making setup super simple.
Like most TVs, the ports are on one side of the TV, and the power on the other. Thankfully, the ports aren’t on the back, but the side. Making it easier to plug in a new console or soundbar, without having to take apart your entertainment setup.
Amazon Omni QLED TV Review: Wrap Up
I really like the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED series. I know it’s not the best QLED TV out there, but for most people, especially those that are invested in the Amazon/Alexa ecosystem, I do think it’s the best option. Keep in mind that you are limited to only two sizes with this TV, 65- and 75-inch. So if you need something a bit smaller, or a bit larger (like a 55- or 85-inch), you’re out of luck here.
You should buy the Amazon Omni QLED TV if:
You already own a number of Echo and/or Ring devices.
You want a good picture quality, without spending a grand on a new TV.
You want a good Fire TV.
You shouldn’t buy the Amazon Omni QLED TV if:
You want to game in 4K120.
You use Google TV or Roku, there are better alternatives with those ecosystems.
Screenshot provided by Check Point Research
Screenshot provided by Check Point Research
Screenshot provided by Check Point Research
