This week in InfoSec

With content liberated from the “today in infosec” twitter account and further afield

18th October 1985: Nintendo releases the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in New York and limited other North American markets. An immediate hit, Nintendo released the game nationwide in February 1986. Along with the NES, Nintendo released eighteen games that day, including: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan’s Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Mach Rider, Pinball, Stack-Up, Tennis, Wild Gunman, Wrecking Crew, and Super Mario Bros.

14th October 1977: Atari releases their Video Computer System (known as the VCS and later as the Atari 2600). It took two years for the VCS to gain traction, but by 1979 it was the best selling gift of the Christmas season. Once it was established, the Atari VCS took the market by storm, popularized home video gaming, and helped cement the video game movement into mainstream culture. 

18th October 1958: William Higinbotham and Robert Dvorak, Sr. show off a tennis simulator game they called Tennis for Two. Developed on a Donner Model 30 analog computer using an oscilloscope, it is the first known electronic game to use a graphical display. Higinbotham and Dvorak developed the game to show off to visitors to the Brookhaven National Laboratory where they worked. The game was only shown off twice, during the laboratory’s annual visitor’s day. While hundreds of visitors lined up to play the game when it was made available, little was known about the game for decades. While somewhat similar in gameplay to the later hit Pong, there is no known direct relationship between the games.

14th October 1957: British Computer Society is Founded.  October 14 is the anniversary of the British Computer Society (BCS), founded in 1957. 

The BCS is one of the several international societies that have an affiliate membership relationship with the IEEE Computer Society. Since 1984 BCS has operated under a Royal Charter which requires it to: "...promote the study and practice of Computing and to advance knowledge therein for the benefit of the public."

Rant of the Week

The Black Market for Blue Checks

Billy Big Balls of the Week

Inside the messy fight between Meta and The Wire

Earlier this year, a new source reached out to journalists at the nonprofit Indian news site The Wire with a tantalizing offer. The source worked at Meta, they told the publication, and wished to share information about the company’s internal workings with reporters.

The Wire met with the source, who sought to verify their identity by providing Sen with documents including their work badge and pay slips. Many conversations followed, reporter Jahnavi Sen told Platformer in an interview, and by the fall The Wire trusted the source enough to turn to them while investigating a potential story: the suspicious removal of seven Instagram posts satirizing an official in India’s right-wing government.

Meta issued a strong denial to the resulting story, which claimed that the company had given a high-ranking official in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party the ability to remove Instagram posts at will. What followed has been one of the strangest tech journalism stories in recent memory: The Wire gradually releasing more information about its sources and methods in reporting the story, and Meta leveling unheard-of accusations — supported with evidence — that the documents underpinning the publication’s stories appear to be fabricated.

Industry News

Hackney Council Ransomware Attack Cost £12m+   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g30UrPyEP5YK6HuUtApXHe2MNyseOcM5/view

Spanish Police Bust Region's "Biggest Narco Bank"

Amazon Customers Receive Smishing Warning After Receiving Fake Texts

Wine Merchant Among Aussie Firms Breached, Exposing Millions

European Police Catch Suspected Car Hackers

Digital Natives Are Undermining Corporate Security

Moola Market Reveals $9m Crypto Exploit

NSA Cybersecurity Director's Six Takeaways From the War in Ukraine

Microsoft Misconfiguration Exposes Customer Data

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/chetdorn/status/1582457548484931587§

Thom's holiday snaps

https://adobe.ly/3EQoxTs

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