Weekly Roundup: The Internet is No Place for Instigating Violence

4 Mins Read

PUREVPNPureVPN UpdatesWeekly Roundup: The Internet is No Place for Instigating Violence

In this weekly roundup, we will discuss how:

  • Parler (a popular social media app) is resurfacing once again
  • A woman stole Nancy Pelosi’s laptop during the riots
  • Ubiquiti devices were breached 
  • WhatsApp is backing their privacy policy 
  • Covid-19 vaccination passports

Parler Made a Comeback

Parler is back! A static web page appeared last week that shows Parler’s CEO John Matze with a subtle message for the app’s fans and haters related to some technical hardships. For those of you who have no clue about Parler, it is a popular social media application among right wing users, which operates similar to Twitter and Facebook. 

Recently, both Google and Apple have removed Parler from their app stores, and Amazon followed suit after the US Capital Riot. But looks like Parler is up and running once again. The new Parler website is hosted by DDoS-Guard, a Russian company that is known to host Russian conspiracy theorists and other extremist sites. 

Matze, current CEO of Parler, explained how things got blown out of proportion and how Parler got kicked out and sidelined by tech giants like Google, Apple, and Amazon. 

In an interview with The New York Times, Matze said: 

Well for violence or advocacy of violence, or violence specifically, it needs to be a clear and imminent threat. I haven’t seen a whole lot of illegal activity, maybe there is some, but it is the minority of the cases.” 

Imagine this: if a Russian company is hosting Parler, it can make you question the authenticity of the mobile app. Besides that, Parler users have been instigating violence and gathering people for the US Capitol attack. For instance, one Parler user said, “To all our enemies high and low, you want a war, a lawyer is asking for one.” 

Are tech giants ganging up on freedom of speech or making the internet community a peaceful haven?    

A Pennsylvania Woman Stole Pelosi’s Laptop 

After the US Capital Riot, there were many reported stolen items that included House Speaker Pelosi’s laptop. The authorities have arrested Riley June Williams for stealing a government laptop from Nancy Pelosi’s office during the US Capital Riot. 

She was allegedly planning on selling the laptop to a Russian friend, who will hand it over to the Russian Intelligence. However, Pelosi’s Chief of Staff said the laptop didn’t contain any state-related information and was often used for conference presentations.  

Looks like an innocent crime, right? Think again! These presentations might include state-level information or action plans on how to make the Capitol more secure. All in all, such presentations and the data it contains is still valuable to the government.   

Ubiquiti Devices Had a Data Breach

If you have a Ubiquiti router or any networking device, you should consider changing the password because their servers experienced a third-party data breach a few days ago. You can set up 2-factor authentication on any Ubiquiti devices that you own to protect all data access points.  

Ubiquiti is extremely popular in the residential market because they produce video recorders, Wi-Fi routers, and other IoT (Internet of Things) devices. Users authenticate a Ubiquiti device through a cloud-based provider so there is no way hackers have used local accounts. This usually happens when the cloud provider has an outage or a data breach. The bad news is that most companies offering Wi-Fi routers and networking devices use a cloud-based model. 

In other related news, if you own a Ring doorbell, then wait for end-to-end video encryption. This encryption applies at the home level where you have to use a security access key on your mobile device to start the encryption. 

Ring videos are encrypted in transit, so when uploaded to the cloud, the videos get stored on Amazon servers. You may remember that Ring cameras were under the spotlight for having raised security concerns, including falling victim to credential stuffing attacks. To combat this problem in the future, set up a strong password and use 2-factor authentication for Amazon Ring cameras until they come up with better security protocols. 

Signal is a Big Pain for WhatsApp

More people are switching to Telegram and Signal after WhatsApp announced a new policy update, which followed with Elon Musk tweeting about Signal. 

According to Niamh Sweeney, the director of public policy of WhatsApp in Europe, WhatsApp is not giving away your data at all. In fact, the blame is being shifted to poorly explained policy (so much for damage control). She said:

There are no changes to our data sharing with Facebook anywhere in the world. We want to be clear that the policy update does not affect the privacy of your messages with friends or family in any way.

Niamh Sweeney

Signal welcomed 7.5 million new users while Telegram has now 25 million users as of the middle of January 2021. WhatsApp had it coming, they were already facing a backlash because Facebook owned the company, and now the change in privacy policy was a nudge too hard in the wrong direction.  

Let’s see the other side of the coin. WhatsApp is more privacy-centric compared to Telegram at least because it is completely end-to-end encrypted and the service provider can’t access your private messages. These are some of the aspects that Telegram lacks. In fact, Telegramonly turns on end-to-end encryption when you are sharing a secret message. 

Do You Have a Covid-19 Vaccination Passport? 

Many giant technology companies including Apple are considering creating a Covid-19 vaccination passport that you can use at outdoor venues like concerts and restaurants as proof that you are vaccinated. What is that, you ask? A Covid-19 vaccination passport uses your mobile device to check whether or not you are vaccinated. 

Some organizations don’t feel comfortable with the way we show vaccination proof because it is a piece of paper called “The Vaccination Report” that includes a stamp or a sticker. Don’t you think people can create a fake piece of paper just like the Vaccination Report? 

Indeed, rumor has it that some anti-vaccine campaigners are sending their kids to school with fake vaccination reports. That is both cruel and selfish. Even if we are using technology devices as a means of Covid-19 vaccination report, some threat actors can find a way to breach networks and fake reports. 

The best possible solution, then, is to ensure everyone is vaccinated. Then, we all can put our heads together to create a techie vaccination report that everyone agrees on. 

author

Sameed Ajax

date

November 24, 2022

time

1 year ago

6-Feet Tall Tech writer.

Have Your Say!!

Join 3 million+ users to embrace internet freedom

Signup for PureVPN to get complete online security and privacy with a hidden IP address and encrypted internet traffic.