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Hong Kong Internet Group Resists Chinese Censorship

The Reds are clever. They are relentless. Where they hold power they are, as they’ve always been, ruthless in suppressing challenges to it.

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demonstrators n Hong Kong

The People’s Republic of China is no different. It has long operated one of the most sophisticated, thorough, and effective internet censorship systems in the world. The PRC is especially ferocious in attacking the anyone who erects proxies or VPNs to help other citizens bypass the state blockades.

Why can’t Beijing crack down?

The PRC is supreme in its core territories. It faces extreme difficulty, though, in forcing Hong Kong’s web traffic through the state’s firewalls. Consider, for example, what happened when a report began circulating all over East Asia that Beijing was planning to block access to certain websites and online services. The Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association (HKISPA) said it would not and could not comply:

Technically speaking, given the complexity of the modern internet including technologies like VPN, cloud, and cryptographies, it is impossible to effectively and meaningfully block any services, unless we put the whole internet of Hong Kong behind large scale surveillance firewall.

Of course, Beijing could throttle web services in Hong Kong anyway. But it can do so only at the cost of stifling industry. This outcome the state wants to avoid if it can. China already suffers severe economic pain, and will tolerate otherwise intolerable challenges to prevent more.

Of course, it’s impossible to predict how much more Beijing will tolerate. The regime may be nearing its limit.

So far, though, the Hong Hong ISP Association seems undaunted. It continues to remind the regime that it will pay a fearful price for further efforts to suppress internet freedom.

What price will Beijing pay to maintain control of the web?

…Imposing any insensible restrictions on the open internet would only result in more restrictions, as the original restrictions wouldn’t be effective, and ultimately the result is putting Hong Kong’s internet behind a big firewall. Therefore, any such restrictions, however slight initially, would start the end of the open internet of Hong Kong, and would immediately and permanently deter international businesses from positing their businesses and investments in Hong Kong.

This doesn’t mean Beijing is or has been completely passive about the matter. Telegram, an encrypted message service used to coordinate recent mass demonstrations, has suffered a series of massive DDOS attacks. These attacks were almost certainly the state’s handiwork. Still, the Hong Kong ISPs insist they won’t censor Telegram or any other platform.

Beijing has to be careful. The PRC’s economy is already fragile, with growth slowing sharply, and U.S. tariffs are likely to sharpen the pain. A crackdown on internet services in Hong Kong would induce a mass exit of international businesses. China’s economic crisis, severe already, would worsen exponentially.

How will the standoff end? We’ve no idea, but we’re certain to see a great deal of drama before it’s over.

For the best internet connection, shop with Satellite Country. Compare all plans, then call 1-855-216-0185. We can help.

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The Russian Hackers Are Coming! The Russian Hackers Are Coming!

Those damned Russians will stop at nothing! They stole the last U.S. Presidential election, according to highly esteemed sources close to Hillary Clinton (cough.. cough…). But now they’re up to something even more nefarious: hacking your office equipment so they can spy on you.

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The last statement actually is true. Microsoft announced last Monday that Russian hackers have been invading corporate computer networks by attacking their most vulnerable connected devices. Typically, these are devices we don’t think of as computers: VOIP phones, printers, refrigerators, and even coffee brewers.

How are the intruders getting in?

For such devices, security is often an afterthought, if thought about at all. Since IT experts seldom expect attacks on such devices, they often fail to update their security protocols. And the password for a peripheral- if it’s protected by a password at all- is usually an obvious one such as ‘password’ or a consecutive series of numerals.

The Russian hackers, who go by names such as Fancy Bear, Strontium, and APT28, are said to work in connection with the GRU, Russian military intelligence.

Their hacking activity dates to at least to 2007. It includes such infamous intrusions as:

  • the NoPetYa attacks in Ukraine,
  • attacks on NATO,
  • overriding of the French TV network TV5Monde’s programming in 2015,
  • hacking of the International Olympic Committee,
  • attempted 2018 thefts of data from U.S. conservative political think tanks.

For the Russian hackers, peripheral devices are beachheads, the weakest links in corporate communication systems. Once they have penetrated a poorly protected camera, printer, or video decoder, the hackers can easily take over other devices connected to them. This includes the supposedly impregnable central computer system.

We warned about this two years ago. We said that the Internet of Things (IoT) would multiply headaches for online security professionals– and for us.

What can you do about the threat?

The more connected devices we own: Alexa hubs, Fitbits, ‘smart’ TV sets, etc., the more avenues of attack we leave for hackers. This means we must be all the more vigilant about guarding everything.

We’re not suggesting you should panic about this. Just be careful. Use secure passwords or biometric authentication, or two-factor authentication. Be sure to keep your security protocols updated. And be sure to protect all of your devices, including the ones most of us never worry about.

For the internet connection you need, shop with Satellite Country. We can help.

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Wall Luxury TV Set by Samsung Measures a Full 292 Inches!

Do your friends brag about the size of their TV sets? Are you jealous of a neighbor with a 65-inch screen on the wall in his living room?

Samsung announced the 292 inch large format modular display at ISE 2019 in Amsterdam
Samsung’s 292-inch Screen

Rejoice, then! Within a few months, you’ll have a chance to buy a TV set that outclasses all others in your neighborhood- IF you have the budget and the room for it. A few days ago, Samsung Electronics demonstrated a TV set, called The Wall Luxury, that measures a whopping 292 diagonal inches. That’s over 24 feet. For all of its monumental dimensions, though, it’s only 30 millimeters thick- slightly over an inch.

In addition to extreme size, Samsung’s new video display boasts a record-setting refresh rate of a blistering 120 Hz and a brightness level of 2000 nits. Most TV sets manage only 60 Hz and 250 to 500 nits. A few HDR-capable screens can be as bright as 1000 nits.

How much does it cost?

“So”, you might be asking, “how much do I have to pay for this amazing new TV set?” Well, if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. Samsung has not revealed its suggested retail price for The Wall Luxury. But its closest competitor, dubbed simply ‘The Wall’, a now-outclassed and utterly humiliated 146-inch model, sells for $100,000.

If this is still too much for you, Sony sells a 98-inch screen for a mere $70,000. Of course, you’d have to accept the embarrassment of knowing that you’ve settled for the third place finisher.

Is size all that counts?

As impressive as Samsung’s Wall is, it might not be right for you. In fact, if you’re going to pay a premium price for a TV set, we recommend thinking less about size or even resolution, and more about factors more directly and more dramatically affecting the quality of the picture and sound. These other factors are display format and HDR.

Once you have a screen measuring at least 55 inches diagonally, adding more size is unlikely to add much to your enjoyment of the picture. And while HD was a massive and obvious improvement over SD in picture quality, upgrading from HD to 4K, 5K, or 8K will do little for you unless you’re sitting within six feet of the screen.

If you’re willing to pay the price for quality, we recommend buying a good OLED set with HDR capability. For now, OLED is the best available display technology, with the darkest blacks and most intense color gamuts. HDR (high dynamic range) provides the widest available color range, and the most accuracy and subtlety in mid-range and shadows. Is your vision normal? Do you watch TV from more than three feet away from the screen? Then HDR is likely to do more for your enjoyment of the picture than 4K or higher resolution will.

We are your source for HughesNet internet service. For the best deals in all home services, shop with Satellite Country. We can help.

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Facial Recognition Technology Will Change Your Life

Any celebrity can tell you that fame comes at a price. If millions of people know who you are and recognize your facial features, you can attract an awful lot of unwanted attention.

You may be thinking: “So? I’m not a celebrity, so this has nothing to do with me.”

Don’t be so sure about this. With recent advances in facial recognition tools, you too may suffer this aspect of fame. Yes, when you’re out of your house, complete strangers could recognize you and track your every move.

Much of this you bring on yourself. Consider, for example, your use of social media. You post what you eat, what TV shows you watch, where you meet your friends for drinks, and even what your pets are doing. All this personal information you post on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram means anyone who cares to look can easily find you with a browser search.

9/11 terrorists caught testing airport security months before attacks
Mohammed Atta (right) and Abdulaziz Alomari at a security checkpoint in Portland International Airport
September 10, 2001


As if this doesn’t leave you exposed enough, small, easily concealable cameras are nearly everywhere. Add a few minor tweaks to facial recognition technology which, when it becomes just a little cheaper and more readily available, will enable nearly anyone to follow nearly anyone else in real time.

Your privacy, then, could soon become extinct. Everything you do away from home- and when you do it- will be accessible to the world at large..

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Tom Cruise as John Anderton in Minority Report sees a video ad that has been customized for him, and that calls him by name.

How did we get here?

Take a close look at the photo above. Here you see Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari, two of the most import conspirators in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, passing through an airport security checkpoint. The next day, Atta and Alomari would hijack Flight 111 from Boston and fly it into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. They and their co-conspirators would murder 2,977 people.

To counter-terrorism professionals, this is one of the most disturbing of all 9/11-related images. It disturbs not for what it displays, but what it implies.

The photo demonstrates that law enforcement and intelligence professionals had the information to prevent the 9/11 atrocities. Atta and Alomari had been testing airport security systems for months, and were on federal watch lists. But airport cops couldn’t recognize and stop the pair, lacking the necessary facial recognition tools and image database.

Law enforcement and intelligence adopt FR

Following the 9/11 atrocity, the U.S government strove to make up for lost time. Security experts wanted advanced facial recognition tools- and fast. Electronics firms were happy to meet the new demand, and continually refined their cameras and algorithms to capture ever greater detail, nuance, and accuracy. Software engineers developed machine learning apps that could sift through gigantic image databases almost instantaneously, eliding over irrelevant photos.

Now the technology is nearly perfect. Chinese police recently used facial recognition tools to find a suspect in a dense crowd of 50,000 concert attendees. The PRC also uses the tools to catch jaywalkers and send them instant fine notifications.

Amazon, one of the leaders in the field, sells a real-time facial recognition system, called REKOGNITION, to police departments all over the U.S.

Commercial uses multiply

September 12, 2017 is another signature date in the history of facial recognition. On that date, Apple unveiled the iPhone X. Previous face-scanning phones could be spoofed easily with masks or video. The iPhone X could not. It was the first phone with a truly safe face-scanning security portal.

The success of the iPhone X has opened up other possible uses:

  • Automated tagging of individuals on Facebook and Instagram
  • Recognition of, and automatic adjustment of seat and steering wheel placement for, each authorized driver of a car driven by several people
  • Flagging of frequent hotel guests immediately on their entry into the lobby, so they can bypass the usual desk check-in, and their room doors will open automatically as they approach
  • Streamlining of airport security checks… Your face will be your boarding pass.
  • More convenient shopping… At an FR-enabled retail store, you simply walk in, pick up the goods you want to buy, and walk out. You never have to produce cash or swipe a card. The store automatically deducts the price of your purchases from your credit card.
  • Highly personalized advertising… As you pass a billboard, a kiosk, or a mall sign, it will display ads tailored to your known interests, and may even call you by name.

Don’t call any of this far-fetched. Some of these applications have been implemented already. Others are on the way, and will reach consumer markets shortly.

Can facial recognition threaten your privacy or safety?

FR Technology brings many benefits, but there may be a few drawbacks in it. It could become a serious threat to your privacy, or even your career or your safety.

In a future post, we will explore the dangers of FR technology in detail.

For the best deals in internet service, contact Satellite Country. We can help.

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Can We Stop Hacks Before They Start?

As you know, vulnerability to hacks has proven the great weakness of computer architecture, and the persistent vexation of I T professionals. But what can you do about it? What can anyone do about it? Security professionals keep refining their encryption standards, and hackers quickly figure out new ways to break the encryption.

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Writing ever more sophisticated security algorithms is only a stop-gap measure, since many hackers now command such massive processing power, they can easily break the most complex codes.

Do we just have to accept our susceptibility to debilitating hacks, then? So it would seem.

Some computer security experts, though, aren’t ready to give up. A professor at the University of Michigan, in fact, claims to have developed a foolproof barrier to hackers.

MORPHEUS Weighs In

The professor, Dr. Todd Austin, says his team has produced a processor chip, called MORPHEUS, that hackers can’t defeat. The chip’s great advantage is speed. It encrypts and randomly rearranges its own code twenty times per second. This is thousands of times as fast as the most blisteringly brisk electronic hacking methods, and incomparably faster than any human hacker.

“Today’s approach of eliminating security bugs one by one is a losing proposition”, Austin says, “People are constantly writing code, and as long as there is new code, there will be new bugs and security vulnerabilities.”

“With MORPHEUS”, Austin said, “even if a hacker finds a bug, the information needed to exploit it vanishes fifty milliseconds later. It’s perhaps the closest thing to a future-proof secure system.”

Testing the New Chip

Of course, this sounds impressive in theory, but how does MORPHEUS work in practice? To answer this question, Austin’s team tested a DARPA-funded prototype. It thwarted every known form of control-flow attack, one of the most dangerous of all hacks, and one of the most commonly used.

The churn rate can be speeded or slowed depending on customer needs. Some customers will want to prioritize security; others will emphasize energy savings and speed of operation. Austin says he tested the chip at fifty milliseconds because it outstrips the speed of the fastest electronic hacks by thousands of times, but slows performance by only one percent.

The chip also incorporates an attack sensor. It maintains watch against potential hacks, and accelerates the churn rate if detects an impending attack.

Austin and his team plan to market MORPHEUS as a commercial product.

Where do we go from here?

If the MORPHEUS chip is all that Todd Austin says it is, then most of our worries about computer security will soon be a thing of the past. Hackers can never keep pace with ever-changing code arrangement, and so all hacking attempts will be futile.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we can afford negligence with passwords, nor that we can safely open attachments sent by unfamiliar parties. Still, with reasonable caution about computer use, we can be certain our data is secure.

If MORPHEUS performs as advertised, we need never fear hackers again.

For the best deal on the best internet connection, shop with Satellite Country. We can help.

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World Wide Web Inventor Calls for Its Overhaul

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, is unhappy with it.  He has been saying for years that it has evolved into something far different from what he envisioned. Not much more than ten years ago, the web was a decentralized open platform, but since then a few corporate giants have come to dominate it. Google, Facebook, Netflix, and Amazon hold a near-stranglehold over online information and commerce, and web surfers have to surrender privacy to get much use out of the web.

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So what can we do to correct this sorry state of affairs? Well, Berners-Lee is hard at work on an alternative. Next week, he will launch a for-profit business called  Inrupt. Based on a crowd-sourced platform called Solid, it is meant to enable developers all over the world to wrest control of the web away from governments and corporate giants.

“It’s a historical moment.”

If Berners-Lee and his crew are successful, Google, Facebook, and Amazon will soon be struggling for survival. Berners-Lee is open about hisdesire not only to challenge them, but to take them down.. He jokingly (?) says his goal is ‘world domination’, and he says he wants a completely new internet. He said he is not consulting with Google or Facebook about how he will upend their business models. In his words: “We’re not asking their permission.”

“We have to do it now”, he said of Inrupt. “It’s a historical moment.”

Why now?

The need for a disruptive internet model has never been more obvious. For the last five years, one scandal after another has reminded us that our personal data is subject to manipulation and theft.

You’ve no doubt heard the news about Cambridge Analytica and the Obama reelection campaign hijacking Facebook user data to aid their political campaigns. Twitter and YouTube have been caught blocking, shadow-banning, or demonetizing conservative content. Google vacuums up personal data for ads, and apparently adjusts search functions for political reasons. In a recently released video of a Google corporate conference, several executives spoke of “our values”, with some pledging to use the platform to promote them. All of ‘our values’ were blatantly political.

We obviously- and urgently- need drastic overhaul of the world wide web. Otherwise, we will soon lose all semblance of honest and objective online information service.

Who’s in control?

Berners-Lee and Inrupt propose to address the failings of the dominant internet systems with a platform called Solid. With it, the user can create his own ‘personal online data store’ or POD. It will feature his calendar, music library, video library, contact list, to-do list, chat, and research tools. It’s like combining Outlook, WhatsApp, Slack, Spotify, and Google on the same browser- all available at the same time.

Most importantly, the data is under the user’s control. All the data he produces will be protected within his POD. The information will be secure, out of reach for his ISP, Google, Facebook, or any advertising engine- unless the user wants to release it. He can customize the degree of access he wants to provide for each bit of data.

This is a huge departure from the current internet model. In the last few years,  Google, Facebook, and other firms have been holding and controlling most online data in ‘silos’ that they built.

In the Solid web model, there are no silos.

What happens next?

Beginning almost immediately, developers can start building their own apps for the Inrupt platform. And Berners-Lee will spend the autumn tutoring developers and executives in building apps for Solid and Inrupt.

Tim Berners-Lee has set a daunting goal for himself. Can he really replace the current world wide web with something far better? Don’t bet against it. He has a record of bringing into fruition projects that others thought impossible.

(For the best internet connection, shop with Satellite Country. Talk to us. We can help.)

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20,000 Devices Support Amazon’s Alexa

Amazon’s famous artificial intelligence (A I) platform has become a force in the consumer market. At last week’s IFA consumer electronics conference in Berlin, Amazon announced that its Alexa app now works with more than 20,000 devices. This is an impressive advance, given that the firm said only last January that Alexa worked with 4,000 devices. A fivefold increase in eight months is almost unheard of for any product.

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Daniel Rausch, an Amazon executive, said, “Alexa has sung Happy Birthday millions of times to customers, and she’s told over 100 million jokes.”

20,000 Devices = Fivefold Increase in Eight Months

Rausch confirmed that Alexa works with more than 20,000 devices made by 3,500 manufacturers.

Amazon manufactures its own Alexa devices, including the Echo smart speakers,  Fire TV. and Fire tablets. But the company has been trying trying to get the app into as multiple third-party devices.

What is Alexa?

Alexa is an artificial intelligence, or machine learning, app. It works in phones, speakers, TV sets, thermostats, and even cars. At this year’s IFA conference, Netgear and Huawei announced that the app would be in their home routers. Amazon said it wants to bring the app into hotels and offices.

Alexa now has more than 50,000 skills. Hundreds of thousands of developers in 180 countries work with it. Many more are coming.

Rausch is especially proud of Alexa’s voice control functions. “It turned out that your smart phone is actually a pretty terrible remote control for your house,” he said. “You don’t want to fish around in your pocket, open applications, unlock your phone to control the device right in front of you. Voice has truly unlocked the smart home. That’s because its actually simpler.”

“You won’t need a manual”, Rausch said, “becasue our devices learn about you, not the other way around.”

What are Amazon’s competitors doing?

Alexa is not alone in its market. It competes with Apple’s Siri, Google’s Home Assistant, and Microsoft’s Cortana. Alexa is by far the most successful, though. Other providers are scrambling to replicate its market penetration, and likely will take years to catch up. Still, they are moving energetically to get their apps into laptops, phones, appliances- even vehicles.

Amazon seems unworried about its competitors. Its Echo smart speaker leads the voice assistant market by a wide margin. And Rausch says his company “has barely scratched the surface” of what voice control can do.

Getting into 20,000 devices in four years is an impressive feat. But for Amazon, evidently, it’s just the beginning.

(For the most reliable internet connection, shop with Satellite Country. Talk to us. We can help.)

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Amazon Fire TV Developing Networked DVR

Amazon wants you to be able to record its live video programming. To that end, according to Bloomberg News, the web retailer and streaming video service is hard at work developing a networked DVR. Bloomberg says Amazon has not revealed a release date for the DVR.

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A networked DVR is one held in the provider’s central location, not in the consumer’s home. It records live content in real time. The consumer can view the recorded content at will, unbound by TV network broadcast schedules.

Amazon’s Lab 126, which built the Fire TV and Echo devices, is working on the new DVR. Staff for Lab 126 have dubbed the new DVR project ‘Frank’.

‘Frank’ will incorporate the same wireless technology that connects its Echo voice control devices to Fire TV boxes.

The device, according to Bloomberg, could stream recorded video to mobile tablets and phones. Existing Fire TV devices on the customer’s home network will support it. Amazon’s new DVR will be connected through the home WiFi network. It will not plug into a TV.

A conventional DVR (TiVo, Channel Master, etc.) usually plugs into a TV set, and features its own user interface. A networked DVR, by contrast, doesn’t have to be plugged into a TV.  It can be placed anywhere in the home, and can stream recorded content to any TV, streaming stick, or mobile device. In most cases, networked DVRs don’t have their own HDMI ports.

Amazon Prime Video is a subscription service, for which the customer pays monthly or annual fees. Beside the video service, customers get free or discounted shipping on goods ordered through Amazon. The video service is meant to compete with Netflix and Hulu.

 

(For streaming video, you need a reliable internet service. To find the best one for you, shop with Satellite Country. We can help.)

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HughesNet Pushes Satellite For Broadband Backup

If you operate a business, how will you respond if your wireline broadband service fails? Do you have an adequate backup?

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This is a question many business owners are asking since last month’s massive outage of Comcast services. Millions of residential customers were effected, and thousands of businesses were crippled by the outage. It affected a large portion of the U.S., from east coast to west, and all Comcast services suffered: phone, TV, internet, and business services. Ironically, even the Down Detector failed.

(The Down Detector is an online service that tracks cable and satellite service outages. It tracks dozens of internet, video, phone, gaming, and social media services. It even monitors access to individual TV channels.)

Comcast blamed the outage on a fiber cut in a Manhattan system owned by one of its backbone ‘partners’. The incident affected both business and residential customers.

Can anything insure against lost connections?

HughesNet cited the Comcast outage as the type of catastrophic surprise businesses need to insure themselves against. And HughesNet says it has the solution.

HughesNet Network Solutions now offers a backup high-speed broadband service for such events. It will automatically switch users to satellite broadband when their terrestrial web connections fail. The backup service is under the name of HughesNet Internet Continuity. For a mere $39.99 per month, it insures against losses due to DSL, cable, or telecom down time.

With the backup system, the customer gets a WiFi modem, an antenna, a router, and a radio. Once the terrestrial network is restored, the HughesNet Continuity system switches back to it automatically.

The backup system operates at speeds of up to 25 MB/S for uploads, and 3 MB/S for downloads. These speeds meet the FCC definition of broadband.

The need for some sort of internet insurance has long been evident. As many as 90% of businesses have suffered at least one web service interruption. A third report facing an outage every month. Such outages can block access to critical systems.

At minimum, the service interruptions bring loss of revenue. In extreme cases, they can alienate customers and even force business closure.

 

(For the most reliable web connection, talk to Satellite Country. We can help.)

 

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Does Your ‘Smart TV’ Know Too Much About You?

Is your TV invading your privacy? As ‘smart TV‘ becomes ever more popular, government and private parties try ever harder to exploit it to spy on viewers. If you;re not careful, your privacy could be at risk.

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Last year, a malware app called ‘Weeping Angel” targeted Samsung smart TV sets with a ‘fake off’ mode. To their owners, the TVs appeared to be off, but they were actually listening to users and recording their conversations.

With their embedded computers and microphones, these advanced TV sets are effective spy tools, so much so that the CIA has created and deployed means for transforming them into listening posts. And Wikileaks, Julian Assange’s platform for publication of stolen documents, has published detailed descriptions of viruses designed for hacking of such TV sets. MI5, Britain’s internal intelligence service, is even alleged to have helped  in designing some of the viruses.

Should you be worried about this?

Experts in cyber-security say most people don’t need to worry about hacking of their TV sets.

Most forms of malware are meant for mass surveillance. The tools designed for hacking TV sets, though, are too difficult to use to be of much value to the casual hacker. Hence, they are typically reserved for targeting individuals. Unless you suspect that you have attracted the attention of professional spies, then, you probably don’t need to worry that your TV set will be used against you.

How can you protect yourself?

If you’re still worried that your smart TV set or other devices could be used against you, a few precautions will help.

First, avoid buying electronic devices from manufacturers known to be casual about online security. And if you don’t really need networked features, avoid buying devices which include them.

Alas, protecting your privacy may require sacrificing certain conveniences. These may include voice activation, or even your TV’s web connection. You can usually find these features on your device’s ‘settings’ menu.

To be absolutely sure the device can’t spy on you, you’ll need to disconnect it from the electrical grid. If the device is battery-powered, you may need to remove the batteries.

Should you avoid ‘smart TV’ altogether?

Be realistic about this. No matter how careful you are, privacy protection in a smart TV will never be absolute. The methods we’ve mentioned here can keep your electronic devices from recording or transmitting your conversations, but your smart TV could still track your viewing history. Advertisers pay heavily for this data, and ability to collect it is built into the device’s software.

For this, the only known solution is not to buy a smart TV in the first place..

 

(For the most reliable internet connection, contact Satellite Country. We can help.)