Russia Arrests Some REvil Gang Members
At this point we don’t know who they ticked off, but Putin’s goons arrested 14 people and seized 426 million Roubles (about $5.5 million), $600,000 USD, 500,000 euros, computers and 20 cars. These guys definitely will not be getting a Christmas card from Vlad next year. Credit: Yahoo News
Gas or Electric – Which is Better When You are on a Virginia Highway in a Blizzard
Couldn’t resist the dig on Virginia – the government of which could not figure out recently that ice storms could cause problems and where people were stranded on the Interstate for over 24 hours with no food, water or heat. The question that electric car naysayers have been asking – or really telling – is that if you are in an electric car, stuck in a traffic jam, you are going to run out of juice and have to be towed somewhere to get a charge (vs. putting a few gallons in to your gas tank). If you want to see the details of the argument, go to the link, but at least this analysis says that it is a bit of a toss up because of all of the variables. Credit: Vice
Europe Wants to Create Its Own DNS Infrastructure
The EU doesn’t like anything that it can’t control and especially if it is controlled by companies in the U.S. The project, called DNS4EU, would enable DNS filtering, support all DNS standards and, most importantly, would effectively be under the government’s thumb, meaning that they could tell DNS4EU to block whatever the various governments wanted. Bigger point, EU ISPs won’t be happy to lose the revenue that they get from currently selling their users’ data, so it is unclear whether, unless EU law forces them to use it, they would encourage it. Credit: The Record
More Than Half of Connected Medical Devices Have Critical Vulnerabilities
A new report from Cynerio says that 53% of Internet-connected medical devices analyzed were found to have a known critical vulnerability. In addition a third of bedside healthcare IoT devices have an identified critical risk. This includes missing passes, unsupported operating systems and default passwords left operation. Credit:Cynerio
Some Russian Hackers Worried About Being Arrested
After recent arrests by Russia’s FSB of the REvil hackers, there is some chatter on Russian message boards about not wanting to go to jail. One hacker said that those who expect that Russia would protect them will be greatly disappointed. Some are even suggesting moving to a more favorable (to them) jurisdiction, but there likely aren’t many of those. If Russia continues this then the paranoia will likely increase, which is good for us. Credit: ZDNet
