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Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#411

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

SoftTalker wrote: post #210
awakeasleep wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One problem I see with your analogy is that the dangerous lawnmower can cause an easily quantifiable harm. You have to be able to show damages you incurred and assign a dollar value to them to sue people. That doesn’t work at all for a something that sells your bandwidth to a proxy service. People wouldn’t even be aware that it was happening they weren’t told.

What about when the police show up because some highly illegal content was traced to your IP address? Will they believe that you were the unwitting victim of a rogue proxy server running on your streaming stick? Would you have even been aware of that possibility?

That shows the problem or trying to link an IP address to an individual.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#412

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

azan_ wrote: post #316
ColdStream wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I did forget about that. When you flatten the pay structure across the board, it makes bribes and scams so much more desirable. But also, communist structure in practices is sort of the total opposite of capitalism at a distance. It was said that Karl Marx was completely right about Capitalism and completely wrong about Communism. And that is fairly accurate, both have big flaws. Most times, the opposite of one…

I think it's really far fetched to say capitalism is bad idea. It's great system, it has some problems, but the upside is so big and alternatives are so bad that it's really unfair to call it bad system.

I think that encouraging corporations to destroy our environment (e.g. climate change) as fast as possible to maximise profits is a very good reason to call it a bad system. Yes, some goods and services become much more efficient, but now we're all going to have to pay the price for it.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#413

Post by lesostep »

boondongle wrote: post #183
SoftTalker wrote: post #145

> Despite repeated warnings from the FBI and security industry leaders about the security and privacy risks of using these streaming devices, major e-commerce providers like Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg and others continue to sell hundreds of different models and brands I scanned the comments and I didn't see anyone suggesting that these companies should share any responsibility for selling these harmful products. Why is…

Just being realistic here; many of these are of Chinese make so how exactly would you stop it other than blocking them from being sold. They certainly don't advertise to the big box retailer that buys them "and it uses the customer's internet connection for fraud." Hell, there's a section of comments that would probably going "hey, RELAX guy" because it's not US companies doing this. For any American companies that d…

Simple. Buy one, put it on a test stand, and look at connection log.

Buying in bulk for a resell without testing even one product is kinda insane.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#414

Post by bigiain »

bluGill wrote: post #343
bdamm wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My electric mower has lasted longer than the gasoline mower before it, which literally had plastic valves inside the carbeurtator.

There is a big difference in quality levels. If you want a good mower pay the price for a commercial mower, people who use them 8 hours a day need something that lasts. 30 years ago a friend of mine did the mold for a lawn mower. They put an engine on it and it ran for 120 hours before the deck failed. It took 7 more tries until the deck failed after 80 hours. Commercial mowers are expected to run over 1000 hours.

I remember asking a chippie (carpenter tradesman) a while back why he was using Ozito brand power tools (the cheapest Chinese brand from the local tool barn). He said "The good gear like Milwaukee and Makita last years. The cheap Chinese junk lasts maybe six months. Whatever I buy it gets stolen about every 3 months. I'd rather have a spare $40 drill waiting at home when my van gets broken into, than have to go buy another $600 Milwaukee one that I'd otherwise rather be using."

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#415

Post by PufPufPuf »

CrimsonCape wrote: post #266
PufPufPuf wrote: post #169

My "streaming device" of choice, ThinkCentre Tiny with Linux, always feels validated with news like these. It fits behind a TV, you can get it second hand for around $40 and depending on model it can even act as a retro game console as well.

Is there a good TV UI OS that runs desktop youtube under the hood for ad blocking?

I use the VacuumTube app (https://flathub.org/en/apps/rocks.shy.VacuumTube), which has ad block, sponsor block, and some more advanced settings! You can use GNOME with scaled up UI or KDE Bigscreen (recently resurrected) for the DE.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#416

Post by ChrisRR »

r_lee wrote: post #175
bigmattystyles wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, everything is Chinese made. I would be even the Apple TV and NVIDIA Shield are made in China and if a state actor is determined to get a malicious payload in....

Made in China and random Chinese brands are two very different things

Often they're exactly the same things

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#417

Post by throwawsy7273 »

scottydelta wrote: post #334
cryptoegorophy wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sales friction is how you lose sales. Make your website one click purchase product page. One button - apply pay, customer pays with preset shipping and then you handle everything from there.

Trust me, I really wish it were that easy. We're based out of Spain, so to sell in the US (or other countries) we either need to figure out assembly of the device there, or we need to solve cross-border payments, logistics, customs clearance, tax remittance to individual states, and hardware compliance. That said, we're working hard on all of it and plan to go D2C as soon as possible.

I haven't used them myself, but it seems that services such as paddle.com takes care of the payment and tax compliance. There are probably similar sevices for logistics as well.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#418

Post by tollgategit »

simojo wrote: post #108

We purchased a Chinese-made projector from Amazon, which was surprisingly inexpensive (~40 USD). Upon connecting it to the internet, it placed a constantly running feed of ads on the corner of the screen, even while movies were playing. There was no way to disable it either. Even though it's not a stick, it's a similar principle.

> Upon connecting it to the internet,

I dare not ask why you would do such a thing, instead, I will simply ask if you now think the reason was good, and I will hint at you that if the reason was "convenience", then you should answer "No".

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#419

Post by tollgategit »

SiempreViernes wrote: post #161
mikestew wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upon connecting it to the internet… I hesitate to blame the victim here, but why on earth would you do that? “$40 Chinese-made” didn’t give you pause?

This is an age where even teacups demand internet connectivity to fetch firmware updates

And yet, it is now still just as stupid to do it as it was before we arrived here.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#420

Post by snickerbockers »

acdha wrote: post #181
snickerbockers wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theres the question of whether or not the fraudulent advertisement clicking is using enough traffic to inconvenience or impose fees upon the user but otherwise I agree with you and am tempted to buy one just to fuck with advertisers. Backdoors and spying are also a problem in theory except at this point you can't even trust "legitimate" companies on that front so it's a moot point.

> otherwise I agree with you and am tempted to buy one just to fuck with advertisers. How that actually works in practice is that your favorite sites make less money and your IP gets a bad reputation so you CAPTCHAs or outright blocked. There’s no “sticking it to the man” here, just contributing to the frictional grind making the internet worse for ordinary people.

You are drastically over-estimating how much fondness I have had for the web ever since social media companies and search providers colluded to drive everybody into their walled-off fiefdoms.
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