Off Topical Shownotes

Disney+ Says it has 94.9 million subscribers

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/11/disney-says-it-now-has-94point9-million-disney-plus-subscribers.html

• Reportedly Netflix has 204m, Disney+ has 94.9m
• This growth beat their initial subscriber goal of 60-90 million by 2024.
• This puts them on track to hit 230-260 million by 2024...
  and 12-14 billion users by 2030 😏
• Growth has been especially strong because of the pandemic
• Around 80% of Disney's film and television projects are slated for direct release on Disney+
• "It's time to break up Disney," said noted anti-monopoly pundit Gardiner Bryant.

Calling all Linux Engineers: AMD is hiring

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-Hiring-More-Linux-2021

• And are looking for a Manager of Linux Kernel Development, Linux Technical Lead, Linux Engineers, and Linux system architect among many other more traditional software and hardware roles
• These jobs are part of a broader effort by AMD to expand their Linux support and bolster their Linux team
• AMD does a heck of a job with their Linux support, especially on the graphics side of things... but they're not without their faults.
• Mainlining new hardware into the kernel takes a while, and ensuring said new hardware is available downstream in distros when the product launches would be a killer feature

CD Projekt Red's hacker sold their booty

https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/11/22278121/cd-projekt-red-ransomware-hack-cyberpunk-2077-the-witcher-3-auction-sale

• If you hadn't heard, Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red were hit with a cyberattack
• The criminals were able to make off with  troves of data including source code, HR and financial info, and much more.
• Hackers were reportedly auctioning off the stolen data on the dark web.
• The starting bid for the auction was $1 million and they had a "buy it now" price of $7 million
• Cybersecurity firm KLEA confirmed that the auction was closed and that hackers reported having sold the info. Quote:

An offer was received outside the forum that satisfied usWith the conditions of further non-distribution, in this regard, they were forced to withdraw the lot from the sale

• It's not clear who made the "satisfying offer" to the ransomeware proprietors
• My suspicion is that CD Project Red made the offer, but I have nothing to base that on.

Microsoft approached Pinterest about an acquisition

https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-reportedly-tried-to-buy-pinterest?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

• Microsoft has been making many plays to enter the social media space.
• The acquisition of LinkedIn or GitHub two "social media" companies targeting professionals come to mind, or it's bid for TikTok last year.
• Reportedly, Microsoft had set its sights on a more consumer-facing platform: Pinterest
• Pinterest is worth about $51 billion dollars.
• And that's probably why the offer fell through.
• During the pandemic, Pinterest's value has skyrocketed (some might say "inflated") and, if MS paid it's current value, it would be the largest acquisition in the company's history.
• Apparently, the value wasn't on the table at that price... and I can't blame them.

Florida Water Treatment Plant that was hacked had atrocious security. Shocker.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/02/breached-water-plant-employees-used-the-same-teamviewer-password-and-no-firewall/

• Last Friday, a city in Florida had its computers compromised and a potentially deadly attack was carried out against the population of 15,000
• The intruder was able to increase the amount of sodium hydroxide by a factor of 100.
• The plant has been using a Windows 7 machine to remotely access the control software called SCADA
• Even more bananas? All the employees shared a single username and password for remote logins... and they were using TeamViewer.
• Investigators said:

The unidentified actors accessed the water treatment plant’s SCADA controls via remote access software, TeamViewer, which was installed on one of several computers the water treatment plant personnel used to conduct system status checks and to respond to alarms or any other issues that arose during the water treatment process. All computers used by water plant personnel were connected to the SCADA system and used the 32-bit version of the Windows 7 operating system. Further, all computers shared the same password for remote access and appeared to be connected directly to the Internet without any type of firewall protection installed.

• Let's count the ways this plant failed:
• Windows 7 is now officially dead, no security patches are being issued anymore. Failure #1
• Use of the TEAMVIEWER to remotely access the SCATA system is an abomination
• And the use of a SINGLE username/password across the entire plant is tragically preventable--especially if you have someone managing the plant who knows what they're doing.
• Reportedly, there were other safeguards in place that would have alerted dangerous conditions in the water supply if this attack was successful. And that's good...
• But all this raises an even more serious question: Why is critical infrastructure even connected to the Internet in the first place?!?