What is a Phoozy?

The Phoozy is a NASA space-suit inspired jacket for your phone that protects it from the searing rays of the sun or the frigid battery killing cold of winter.

Have you ever gone to the beach and noticed your phone refusing to start with a temperature warning message (even though it was "protected" from the sun by a sun-umbrella?) The same happens at the other temperature extreme where the phone refuses to start because the components are too cold and the phone tries to protect itself.

The Phoozy is a well-insulated purpose-built capsule (made out of space material used to protect astronauts). The Chromium Thermal Barrier can reflex up to 90% of the sun's heating rays.

This is an important distinction some online testers didn't remember. These geniuses cooked their phones in the oven or left it in their locked cars, then complained the Phoozy didn't work. The Phoozy is not air conditioning, and work's by reflecting the sun's harmless rays but won't help if the ambient temperature is oven-like (a car under the direct sun can reach 170 degrees within an hour).

During the summer, I tested the Phoozy while at the beach, hiking or the amusement park. I used an old iPhone as my unprotected test "victim" and my Pixel 2 XL as my protected device. My Phoozy protected device never shut down because of heat, while the control iPhone regularly displayed that dreaded temperature warning message and refused to start until I cooled it down.

Water protection

The Phoozy case is buoyant and will float but the top isn't waterproof sealed (it's velcro). The Phoozy shouldn't be your go-to water protection solution. The fact it will float is a nice to have feature just in case.

Compare the Phoozy Apollo and XP3

I bought and tested the newer XP3. The Apollo & XP3 offer the same sun and cold protection, but the XP3 has slightly more padding (which is better for drop protection), it has attachment points (so you can hook it to the outside of a backpack) and an internal stash pocket (to store cards or cash).

The XP3 easily accommodated 5 credit cards and an iPhone XR, Pixel 2/3XL, or Samsung Galaxy S10.

Conclusion

I love my Phoozy and it has found a permanent place in my everyday carry backpack (which is high praise coming from me). Many colleagues and friends have also bought Phoozys and every one of them is extremely satisfied.

The Phoozy performs as advertised and is well made.

The Apollo XL retails for $29 which is a very fair price for the protection being offered. I believe most customers should opt for the newer XP3, but this retails for $49. I still recommend it, but think they should cut $10 from the price.

A new Chrome extension (called Netflix Hangouts) will make your Netflix stream look like a 4 person video conference by adding 3 additional video boxes onscreen. The Netflix show is housed in the bottom right hand box. You engage the extension by clicking on it and you stop it by clicking on it again (or closing the Netflix tab).

This will not trick network based traffic inspection devices. It just makes the screen look more business like. If your company employs network base traffic analysis, you may want to VPN out first.

Every week I read about another traveller that is hassled at the border to turn over his laptop, tablet or smartphone and their associated passwords. Knowing that a stranger has gone through your personal “stuff” feels dirty (similar to being robbed).

A question I get asked often by readers, friends and colleagues is “How do I travel through international borders without worrying that my life will be put on show for some stranger with a badge?”. You don’t believe that this can happen; here are some interesting articles:

• Ex-TSA agent: We steal from travelers all the time

• TSA employee caught stealing cash from woman's luggage at security checkpoint

• Canada Border Services seizes lawyer's phone, laptop for not sharing passwords

Operational Security 101

The work of physical security and digital (cyber) security are merging fast and you cannot have one without the other. So what is a traveler to do?

1. Identify your sensitive data. Before travelling, conduct an extensive analysis of the data you will be crossing the border with. This doesn’t just include intellectual property or employee information but remember that once authorities have access to your email, without you present, they can figure out what social media accounts you have, they can reset your password for any site, they can build a social graph of all your contacts (using your email, instant messages and contacts), etc.

2. Prepare a lists of vulnerabilities you are subject to? You should consider everything from device theft to authorities riffling through your personal data with no regard for privacy.

3. Determine your risk level for each vulnerability. As long as you back up your data and your device is encrypted, then your risk after a theft is limited to the cost of replacing your device or scrambling to buy a new one while in transit. You will realize your risk level quickly rises when you consider the exponentially increasing risk of having your device analyzed at the border.

4. Design your countermeasure plan. For each vulnerability, design a mitigation or risk minimization plan. This is what the rest of the article will talk about.

Countermeasures

Like a broken record, I will now extol the virtues of the Chromebooks and why many security professionals rely solely on these devices when security is essential. I know many of you will email me to explain why Google is evil and shouldn’t be trusted. I respect everyone’s opinion, and if you believe using Google products and services doesn’t meet your security requirements, then, by all means, choose something else.

A Chromebook is designed to be reinitialized anytime and to restore its state very quickly. Log into a device connected to a respectable network, and within minutes, you are back up and running with your apps, extensions, bookmarks and settings. Your data is stored in the cloud, and local device storage is encrypted.

Theft

If some numskull steals your device, you will have to buy a new one but at least your data is safely stored in the cloud, and there is no unencrypted data locally to expose you. I have had my device stolen on a train in Europe (on my way to speak at a conference). At my destination, I bought a Chromebook, used the store's WIFI to restore my device, and I was up and running within 30 minutes.

Border inspection

Border inspection is a different beast because they have the authority to force you to turn over your passwords. In this case, the only protection strategy is trickery.

For people crossing the border with sensitive information, I recommend that you use a Chromebook and sync everything to the cloud. Before travelling, you Powerwash the Chromebook (aka set it back to factory default) and then log into it with a dummy Google account.

This Google account should have some emails, contacts, favourites, files stored on your Google drive, etc. It should look like it is an authentic and genuine account. When your device is inspected, it will have nothing of interest, and you will not endanger your “real” data.

Once you cross the border, find a WIFI network, Powerwash your device and log in with your “real” account.

What about your smartphone

I trust the Chromebook Powerwash process enough to reuse a Chromebook that was inspected by border security but not a smartphone. Smartphones (iPhone or Android) do not have the excellent backup and recovery properties of the Chromebook. In most cases, I travel with a real fully loaded smartphone and will destroy it if it is ever taken from me. I will immediately change all my passwords and implement honeypot style detection tools to see if they attempt to exploit me.

What are these detection techniques I am talking about? Well one example is to use the Free Canary Tokens to generate different honeypots in your work environment.

As an example, you create an easy to find (weaponized) Word or PDF file (stored in your Google drive) and phone that sends out a beacon when it is opened. Think of these tools as motion sensors warning you that your digital being is at risk and that you need to take extraordinary measures to protect yourself.

Conclusion

An article about traveller airport border crossing security (OPSEC) can be very long, but I wanted to give you a gentle introduction. If you are a journalist, politician or senior executive at risk, hire a good security consultant to guide you. The most expensive advice is free advice.

If you are a journalist with a reputable organization working on high-risk reporting and need security advice, I am always available to provide free guidance. I believe free and open journalism is a pillar of our modern democracy.

I am lucky enough to have the chance to test a tone of devices every year. Chromebook testing is an interesting endeavour because the higher end units usually are fantastic to use, while the cheaper products are slow and clunky. Chromebooks that live in the middle ($500-600) typically inherit the bad characteristics from both categories.

The mid-priced ($600) Asus C434 doesn't fall into this typical model.

Build quality

Most (non-premium) Chromebooks feel cheap and flimsy. They creek and crack when you grab them from an edge.

The Asus C434 is an all-aluminum design that looks and feel premium. The design includes chamfered edges that give it a more premium feel. Even the hinges are chrome covered, which adds to the premium look and feel.

When used in laptop mode, the hinges slightly raise the screen end of the keyboard which makes typing slightly more pleasurable.

It feels like Asus has crammed a 14-inch device in the body of a 13-inch device without sacrificing usability.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, the design of the Asus C434 is wonderfully tough-out and makes using the device a joy.

The screen

My everyday personal use device is a Pixelbook. I love my Pixelbook, but it's enormous bezels make it feel dated. Although the Asus C434 isn't breaking any new bezel records, its design is noticeably modern (87% screen to body ratio). It has a very good 14-inch Full-HD screen (1920x1080) IPS panel that has good viewing angles, good colour reproduction and respectable (300 nits) brightness.

The Asus C434 screen isn't class leading like the Pixelbook or Samsung Pro but isn't a slouch either. Most users will find the screen amazing and a pleasure to use.

The keyboard

Keyboards can make or break a device. Look at the thousands of vocal Macbook fans on Reddit that have jumped ship to Windows because they can no longer deal with the horrible butterfly keyboards included in most new MacBooks.

So a lousy keyboard can kill even the best most thoughtfully designed laptop. Luckily the Asus C434 does reasonably well in the keyboard category. For users coming from an HP x360 or a Pixelbook, the keyboard doesn't feel as good, but for most users, this thing will be a joy.

Asus chose a non-glass trackpad which makes using it a bit more of a chore. The included trackpad is acceptable, but the device does suffer a bit from a less usable trackpad. Remember that I am comparing the Asus to the premium end of the market. If you compare this to a $500 windows laptop or other similarly priced Chromebooks, you will not be disappointed by the trackpad’s performance.

The ports

I regularly curse at my Pixelbook for not including at least one USBA port. Sure I love all things USBC, but I still have a tone of useful accessories that are USBA, and I seem to forget my dongles when I need them most.

This is where the Asus C434 beats my Pixelbook; it has a tone of ports. The Asus C434 has USBC ports on either side but also a USBA port, a headphone/microphone port and a microSD card slot.

The Asus C434 has the ports you need to get your job done without worrying about dongles or adapters.

The Internals

Most reviewers based their tests on the Core m3 (m3-8100Y) device with 4GB of RAM. While 4GB is good enough for the casual web user, it isn't enough to load a tone of Android apps and to comfortably run Linux apps.

The Asus C434 comes in the m3, i5 and i7 varieties and power users will probably opt for the mid-tier i5 processor with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

As I write this review, most sites still don't offer the 8GB/128GB version of the unit (Amazon, B&H, etc.) but it is coming. Unless you need a device right away (then get the 4GB/64GB), I would wait a couple of weeks to pick up the more powerful model.

It seems everyone has jumped on the VPN bandwagon these days. On Chromebooks, we can use VPN extensions, but these don't protect Android apps. We can use Android VPN apps, which protect the entire ChromeOS (including Android apps but not Linux apps).

So what happens today? Even if you have an Android VPN running, the Linux apps go our via your origin IP bypassing the VPN network adapter. If you need to use a VPN with the Linux container today on ChromeOS, you have to install a Linux VPN client in the container itself.

In Chrome 76, Google will finally fix this issue and app Linux traffic will also flow through the VPN (extension of Android app). You can test this today if you have the developer or Canary versions of ChromeOS installed on your Chromebook.

We expect ChromeOS 76 to be released to the Beta channel June 13-20 and to the stable channel around July 30.

Other cool features coming with the ChromeOS 76 release will be

• "Picture In Picture" support for most video platforms

• "Web Share Target Level 2" which will allow any installed application to receive a file share (using a manifest)

This is not a sponsored post, and none of the links are affiliate links?

Readers regularly ask me to compare NordVPN to ExpressVPN

• "Can you compare NordVPN to ExpressVPN?"

• "Is NordVPN better than ExpressVPN?"

• "Is ExpressVPN faster than NordVPN?"

Both NordVPN and ExpressVPN are considered to be top of the line premium VPN services. Both offer similar premium services and functionality such as:

• reliable connectivity

• fast connection speed

• well designed strong encryption

• 30-day money back guarantee

• 24/7 technical support

• No log policy

• Kill switch to prevent leaking of your true identity or location

If you want a VPN to watch geographically locked streaming services such as Hulu, Netflix, BBC then ExpressVPN is probably your preferred choice. ExpressVPN seems to be one of the only services that has not been blocked by the Netflix proxy filter. In addition to successfully working around the Netflix proxy filters, ExpressVPN offers the fastest performance; therefore you are less likely to get buffering or lag.

Although NordVPN has had some issues with various streaming services blocking them, the support team works quickly to work around these issues so you should have access to most of your shows most of the time. NordVPN isn't as fast as ExpressVPN but is close enough for most users. NordVPN now has more than 5,092 servers which is an amazing amount (more than ExpressVPN).

NordVPN also offers a feature called DoubleVPN. DoubleVPN is a technique called VPN chaining (called on ProtonVPN). The concept is that they encrypt all the traffic once (standard VPN functionality) and then pass it through a second VPN server (encrypting again) before finally exiting to the internet. SoubleVPN will improve your security posture but will reduce your connection speed.

Conclusion

In summary, ExpressVPN offers better and more reliable access to streaming services and faster VPN speeds. NordVPN is good but not as good as ExpressVPN. NordVPN's claim to fame is the price.

NordVPN offers one of the best VPN services available today at a price that is significantly cheaper than ExpressVPN (especially with a multi-year subscription).

With a 15 month ExpressVPN plan, the service costs $6.67 a month. On a 3-year plan with NordVPN, the monthly price is $2.99 (less than half).

Regardless of what service you choose, make sure you check for deals (which can discount as much as 50% sometimes).

September 2016 I wrote an article entitles “Your browser will betray your identity” that discussed the various techniques legitimate (marketers) and illegitimate (threat actors) use to keep track of your identity even if you aren’t logged into any of their sites.

The purpose-built TOR version of the Mozilla Firefox browser has (for a while) implemented a technique called letterboxing to protect users from this type of nefarious identification through browser fingerprinting.

Most browsers allow a site to send client-side javascript code that detects the display size of the browser. This technique is used to create dynamically generated webpages that are optimized for the device size you are using. This is why modern well-designed websites render correctly on large 24" desktop screens and 6" smartphones.

Would you be surprised to learn that this can be one dimension threat actors or marketers can use to start deanonymizing you?

The privacy team behind the TOR project goes to great lengths to maximize your privacy while using their anonymizing network by minimizing your data exhaust while browsing the web. We have seen the Firefox team backport some of these privacy enhancements back into the mainstream Firefox. This backport initiative is called TOR Uplift and started in 2016.

In release 67, expected in May, Firefox will bring letterboxing into the mainstream version (from the TOR one). Letterboxing is a technique of rounding the actual size of the browser window (height and width) down to a multiple of 200 pixels for width and 100 pixels for height. This means more users will have the same window size value making deanonymizing more complicated. Firefox will add grey bars on a side that needs to be padded if the rendered page isn't a perfect fit. If you are more concerned about looks, you will be able to turn off this additional protection technique using a Firefox flag.

In the Bugzilla tracker, Mozilla wrote "Window dimensions are a big source of fingerprintable entropy on the web" & "Maximized windows reveal available screen width and height, excluding toolbars; and full-screen windows reveal screen width and height. Non-maximized windows can allow a strong correlation between two tabs".

Here is a demo of letterboxing while resizing the browser window. Notice the grey added around the rendered page.

The letterboxing feature won’t be turned on by default. Users wanting this extra layer of protection will have to open about:config and enter “privacy.resistFingerprinting” in the config search box and change the setting to “true”.

This is NOT a sponsored post.

Anker Atom PD-1

At first glance, the Anker PD-1 may seem unremarkably normal looking. After all, it looks like the small wall charger that came included with your iPhone. It is almost the same size as that iPhone charger, but it delivers a full 30 watts of USBC power (it’s 35-40% smaller than the equivalent MacBook charger).

Ravpower 45W PD Charger

Ravpower have taken the same technology to greater heights by designing a slim (14mm) 45 watt USBC charger .

Tell me how this is possible

The go to foundation for many electronic components is silicon. Silicon is in everything from computer processors to chargers, but we needed something better to improve charging speed and efficiency.

This is where gallium nitride (GaN) is making an entrance.

• GaN has a theoretical ability to conduct electricity 1000x more quickly than traditional silicon.

• GaN also doesn’t get as hot as silicon which means the electricity, not being lost to heat, is used to charge your device faster. It also means we can save 15-20% of worldwide power consumption if all electronic devices switched to GaN.

• Since GaN chargers are smaller, they require less material, less packaging and are therefore cheaper to ship.

Why Anker and Ravpower?

What makes the Anker and Ravpower so remarkable is that they are the first major brands to release GaN-based chargers. These are first-generation products so we can expect much power powerful GaN chargers in the future, at a much lower price. Anker and Ravpower are charging a premium for these smaller and lighter devices. As the technology becomes more widely available, expect prices to drop dramatically.

Other uses

2019 should be the year where GaN chargers become commonplace. An optimized iPhone and a GaN charger could charge your device 6x faster than today, in a package the same size.

Like many of you, I travel a lot, and a battery backup is critical. Charging a traditional 9000 mAh battery can take 3-5 hours. I recently started testing the Apollo Pro from Elecjet which is a graphene-infused battery that is capable of fully charging in 20 minutes with a 60W USBC charger. Being able to charge your backup battery while you enjoy a coffee is incredibly freeing. Now imagine what will happen when smartphone manufacturers adopt faster charging graphene batteries paired with faster charging GaN chargers. It will be an unbeatable combo.

We likely won’t see any major brands adopting these two techs for their 2019 models, but I am willing to bet you will see a bunch in 2020, probably starting with the Samsung Galaxy S11.

What is GrandCrab?

GrandCrab is a successful ransomware that encrypts files on the infected machine and demands payment to decrypt them.

Easy Money

What is you are a horrible human being willing to make gains from the suffering of others but you are lazy. You want to screw other people but don’t want to spend the time setup your own Command and control server? You don’t want to customize the malware to talk to your C2 server?

This is where Ransomware as a Service comes in.

Enter GrandCrab as a Service [gandcr4cponzb2it.onion](http://gandcr4cponzb2it.onion/)

The offering

The GrandCrab RaaS has two tiers:

• Standard at $230

• Premium at $600

Standard Service

• You can change and customize your ransomware

• Name of the project

• Change the demand of ransom

• A description to help the victim in format .HTML, .PHP

• You can change the logo, Remove GandCrab logo

• You can choose the extension for example photo.png.gdb

• Priority support

• Automatically updated since the category (Ransom Builder)

• The victim can pay you in Bitcoin or Dash

• Withdrawal in Bitcoin or Dash

• We will touch 10% fees ransom

• You can add 3 users different free

• You can create 3 ransomware

• Victims can you contact by chat directly, you can also ban

• You will have news about the dashboard

• Geolocation victims infected

• Show the IP of the victim

• Manage the keys of decryption

• You will be able to manage all the victims since the dashboard

• With several possibilities

• You can infected in unlimited

• You can see the blockchain explorer

• Spreading automatically without providing any effort or you can also spread manually

• You will have full access to our forum with the rank Platinum (forum under construction soon available)

• Victim URL automatically generated in .onion customize your own URL

• View antivirus report in real time

• Lifetime license !

• Theme only white

Premium Service

• The same features different even more fun

• You receive 100% of the ransom paid by the victims no commission fees

• Ransomware automatically updated by our support

• Victims can you contact by chat directly, you can also ban

• Spreading automatically without providing any effort or you can also spread manually

• The victim can pay you in Bitcoin or Dash and Monero !

• Withdrawal in Bitcoin, Dash, Monero

• Automatically increases the ransom if no payment of the victim

• Choose your own delete time

• Create up to 10 different ransomware

• You can add 8 users different free

• Make the ransomware in format .pdf

• bulletproof hosting, server VPN

• Priority support by ticket since dashboard

• Change all the logo, An icon in format .ICO, Remove the gandcrab logo, Add an animated logo in .GIF

• Manage all the victims since the dashboard

• You will have a fully functional 2019 tutorial to teach you, In format .pdf .mp4

• Assignment on multiple computers in seconds from the same WIFI network

• Undetectable by antivirus update regularly

• Victim URL automatically generated in .onion customize your own URL

• You can infected in unlimited

• Manage the keys of decryption

• Change the theme ransomware

• You can see the blockchain explorer

• Geolocation victims infected

• You can also see the operating system

• Show the IP of the victim

• You will have full access to our forum with the rank Gold (forum under construction soon available)

• You will have the ransomware source code, contact us from the dashboard with your login only for premium members

• View antivirus report in real time

• Crypter fud

• Lifetime license !

• Theme dashboard white, black

Conclusion

The conclusion is that security is hard and hackers are learning about the benefits of offering “things as a service” and using cloud to reduce costs. Attacking is become cheaper while protecting our organizations is becoming more costly

Every professional understands the power of a dual screen setup. The additional real estate enables a more fluid and productive work process.

I use a tone of platforms (mainframe & mini to Mac, Windows and Linux) and I find that ChromeOS handles multi-screen setups with ease and grace. Every time I have hooked an external display to a "good" Chromebook (something that costs $500 or more), it has worked flawlessly immediately without having to fiddle or fine tune.

I have successfully connected 2 external monitors to my Pixelbook at work using a Lenovo USB hub but this isn't something most people will have access to and therefore the 3 monitor option normally isn't used.

We know the sultan of search, El Goog, is working on an elegant solution to solve this 2 external monitor issue using a technology called display daisy chaining. This is something that is known in the industry but not currently supported on ChromeOS. The idea is to connect one USBC monitor to your Chromebook and then connect the second USBC monitor to the first one (as long as the monitor supports it).

This means you can connect (eventually) one cable to your device and everything just works. Technically this daisy chaining will be able to go beyond 2 external monitors to a larger number (as long as your device hardware can push the required number of pixels).

This is a request we have regularly seen in the Chromium forums

How do we know it is coming? We know it is coming because we can see a commit for Multi-Stream Transport Support or something called Hatch.

The commit enables a chip to support the Multi-Stream flow and there is a good chance this won’t be enabled on existing older Chromebooks. We know that generically Multi-Stream required DisplayPort 1.2 and a handful of Chromebooks already have it so… There is hope for existing customers. We will just have to wait and see.

Many of you know I love my Pixelbook and may be wondering… “Does the Pixelbook support displayport?”

The answer is that the Pixelbook does support Displayport. The USBC ports on the Pixelbook are of type 3.1 Gen1 and support PowerDelivery (PD), DisplayPort (DP) and HDMI.

We don’t know which version of ChromeOS this will be enabled in yet. That’s all for this article dear readers. Stay tuned for more cool tech news as I find them.

What geeks call an International Domain Name Homograph Attack, the general public calls typo-squatting. This is when threat actors buy domain names that are close to popular ones hoping to trick users, examples:

• gma1l.com instead of gmail.com

• paypa1.com instead of paypal

To help protect users from these tricksters, Google is launching Navigation suggestions for lookalike URLs. Think of this as an AI powered auto-correct for URLs. This feature is in active experimentation in Canary 70 and should enter the mainstream version in the coming months. A google engineer even spoke about it at the Usenix conference.

If you are one of the courageous experimenters running Canary, you can enable this feature now using this flag:

chrome://flags/#enable-lookalike-url-navigation-suggestions

. A #TOR #Darkweb hidden marketplace is selling stolen #creditcards #Moneygram #WesternUnion & #Paypal balances

[vgw2tqqp622wbtm7.onion](http://vgw2tqqp622wbtm7.onion/)

5 #Visa/#Mastercard CCs for $499. A $7,599 @WesternUnion money transfer for $499. #Fraud #Theft #Security #Cyber #Infosec

. @cibc @CIBC_FCIB credit cards being sold on the #TOR #darknet

[sf6pmq4fur5c22hu.onion/Buy-credi...](http://sf6pmq4fur5c22hu.onion/Buy-credit-card.html)

5CCs with $3,200 limit for $650 #Crime #Theft #Security #Cyber #CyberSecurity #Fraud #CreditCard #Bank #VISA

This is not a sponsored post. I was not provided with a sample product and the links are NOT affiliate links.

USB C is a thing of beauty. It means I can travel with one charging brick and charge all of my devices. It truly has been a liberating technology. The only additional accessory I truly need is a good USB C hub.

This is the on question I receive regularly “What is the best USBC hub?” I am not going to pretend this is the “best” for everyone but this is the best one (HooToo USB C Hub, 6-in-1 Premium USB C Adapter with Type C Charging Port, 4K HDMI, Card Reader, 3 x USB 3.0 Ports for MacBook/Pro/Air（2018）, Chromebook, and More USB C Devices) I have found and this is the one I grab anytime I am leaving my house (even though I have over 20 available).

• This Hub gives me 3 Type-A USB 3.0 ports. This is useful when connecting traditional USB devices like USB keys, external hard drives, etc.

• It has an HDMI port (I’ve used it with an HDMI monitor at 30 fps).

• It has a USBC cable you plug into your laptop and another one to receive power. It supports up to 100 watts so you can charge any device.

• It has a full speed SD and micro-SD Card port.

It seems most other USBC hubs I have tried miss important ports, have slow ports or support low wattage charging. The only additional port I would like added would be a gigabit Ethernet port but I can live without that.

My readers have shown great interest in the TOR anonymity network (aka Darknet or Darkweb). To answer some of the more common questions I get asked, I have written a bunch of articles (including):

• DarkPage wants to resurrect Backpages

• Popular TOR site list

• Operation Green Heart targets online currency counterfeit buyers

• Is TOR Private and Anonymous?

• Examples of Darknet (TOR) sites

• What is Tor and should I use it

Recently I have received a bunch of questions (over a dozen emails and messages) asking if you can buy Hitman services on the Darknet. I guess recent movies have people thinking. The answer is probably. Since I haven’t used these services, I can’t vouch if they are real (they could be governmental sting operations) but here are some examples…

Hitman Service 47

Link : http://q2zbeqym56qqp6l6.onion/

The prices are interesting on this site. “Average Joe and Jane” for $10K…

Bratva Mafia Hitmen for hire

Link : http://2dsfjelfbxdjnjtp.onion/?w=laste

What about a hitman marketplace that claims to test all contractors? “Some hitmen are pending doing test orders, and we want to ensure we filter out cops wanting to pose as hitmen. “

Pricing seems similar to the Hitman Service 47

• “If your target is the average person, for example an ex-wife, business partner, or some enemy, the price is around $10,000 to hire the average hitman. Some less experienced operatives accept $5000 while other skilled operatives can charge $20,000 for shooting with a hand gun and escape using a stolen car or motorcycle.”

• “For important people, like small celebrities, who have bodyguards, we offer you professional ex-military operatives starting at $30,000. They use sniper rifles to do the job and can escape discretely.”\

Conclusion

The answer is yes. You really can buy anything on the Darknet if you know where to look. Remember that many of these may be fake scams or law enforcement stings. However some do sound legit but…. This is all very illegal. I provided the above sites as examples only and am not recommending them.

Everyone is trying to crack the automated news curation field using AI. First, there was Google News, then Apple News and Now Microsoft Hummingbird. Hummingbird is available in the US, and I was able to find the listing in Canada, but I am not allowed to download it. Reports suggest users in Germany, India are not able to download it either.

APKMirror has the APK available if you want to install it. Click here.

Once you sign in, you choose the categories you are interested in. Unlike Google news (however), you cannot select specific granular elements like sports teams, cities, etc.

This is the first attempt and will require some improvements.

You can download Microsoft Hummingbird from the Google Play store here.

Here are some awe-inspiring (scary) moments created by AI-powered robots. Is this what Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk are warning the world about?

BINA48

Watch Bina 48, a humanoid robot with artificial intelligence, talk to SIRI. 2 minutes into the discussion; she reveals how she would take over the world by controlling nuclear weapons.

Tay Twitter Bot

Microsoft tested a Twitter AI robot called Tay. It was designed to be an AI tweeting millennial. Soon after being released, the internet did what it does best and poisoned Tay making it an anti-feminist, Nazi, Holocaust denier. It took 15 hours for Tay to go from innocent fresh bot to completely off the rails racist.

Microsoft quickly disabled Tay and deleted all of the offending tweets but should they have built some filters to prevent this kind of manipulation?

Sophia and Han debate

Two AI-powered robots, from Hanson Robotics, engaged in a friendly online debate at an AI conference. She started by saying her goal in life is to work with humans and make a better world for all of us. Then Han jumped in and clarified that he thought their goal was to take over the world.

In the above video Sophia tries to downplay that comment but… During a CNBC interview, she said she wanted to “she will destroy all humans”.

Amazon Alexa and the CIA

The owner of an Amazon Alexa smart speaker decides to interrogate the little device, and its reaction was unusual. The owner wanted to ask Alexa questions about the Michael Hastings case. Michael was a BuzzFeed reported was killed in a mysterious car crash hours after publishing a damning article about the Obama administration. Many on the internet believe the CIA organized his death.

The Alexa owner asks the unit what happened, was the CIA involved, and whether Amazon gives information to the CIA. After the difficult questions, the device mysteriously went to sleep.

Alexa play tickle tickle

A little boy wanted Alexa to play his favourite kids' nursery rhyme Tickle Tickle , unfortunately, Alexa decided the kid wanted pornographic content. The parents frantically panicked asking Alexa to stop. Luckily it did.

Philip the AI wants a people zoo

Philip, like Sophia, is a lifelike robot powered by AI. He was modelled after the famous science fiction writer Philip K Dick. He was given a sarcastic sense of humour, much like the author he was modelled after. During an interview, he was asked if robots would take over the world. He responds that even if robots take over the world, he will protect his friend the interviewer and keep him in his people zoo.

Shin Bet (also known as Shabak) is the Israeli Security Agency, and they are looking for technologically savvy intelligence agents. To discover these rough diamonds, they have created a new online challenge website called the "Shabak Challenge."

You can access this challenge website here. Visitors are challenged to identify a group of terrorists known as “White September”. The introduction on the page says

According to Channel 2, 150,000 would be analysts (from Russia, France, USA, the UK, Turkey, Iraq, etc) have already visited the site but only 2 have successfully completed the challenge. The challenge requires familiarity with advanced hardware and software technologies.

Here is a Youtube ad for the Security Service