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Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

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Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#231

Post by Semaphor »

kelnos wrote: post #228
Semaphor wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I don't recommend any of it to anyone who doesn't want to make a serious hobby about of it. Just to expand, it’s a scale ;) It’s very easy to have a few lights, maybe some presence detection and motion sensors, and make some automation for those without venturing into hobby territory.

Hobby or not, it's just a shame that these sorts of setups, even the simple kinds that you describe, are too complicated to set up for most people. I wish it was more the norm that people could run things this way.

Something like Philips Hue is for those people. It’s Zigbee, but as long as you stay within their ecosystem, you get a lot of automagical features.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#232

Post by hef19898 »

formerly_proven wrote: post #209
someweirdperson wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The equivilant to SWAT in Germany is run by state police. Federal.

No? SWAT ~= MEK, SEK FBI HRT ~= GSG-9

The French also have multiple: GIGN from the Gendarmerie, GIPN and RAID from the Police National. The small police departments and sheriffs offices, the latter with elected sheriffs without any real training and qualification requirements, are an US thing.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#233

Post by eternityforest »

WalterBright wrote: post #193
cortesoft wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, I have been a professional software developer for 15 years, and my whole house is smart. The trade offs are worth it to me.

I still have no idea why anyone would want automated light switches. Unless they are bedridden. The conventional light switches never fail. The dimmer switches go out every 5 years or so, and I eventually get fed up and just replace them with a conventional switch. I've had programmable thermostats, but the user interfaces on them are so terrible I eventually replace them with one with a simple dial and thermostat.

Light switches are just not currently one of the better use cases(Although RGB bulbs are fantastic for special effects and decorations).

Smarthomes are currently better at monitoring than they are at control, there's just not that much that needs real automation

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#234

Post by belter »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #212
hprotagonist wrote: post #62

https://twitter.com/ppathole/status/1116670170980859905 Tech enthusiasts: My entire house is smart. Tech workers: The only piece of technology in my house is a printer and I keep a gun next to it so I can shoot it if it makes a noise I don't recognize. The only modification i'd recommend is replacing the gun with something simpler, like a sledgehammer. Can't be too careful.

That tweet you linked was plagiarised from: https://twitter.com/rururunit/status/1116412605025935362 (I've been on twitter too long and it's given me a sixth sense for detecting clout chasers who just repost others' jokes or make incredibly low-effort tweets.)

And that one plagiarized from this post one year before...?

https://michaelblume.tumblr.com/post/169525456166/tech-enthu...

Oh wait..maybe this one copied it from this other one in 2017?

https://notcaycepollard.tumblr.com/post/167952829352/tech-en...

We need a "git blame" for the web? :-)

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#235

Post by eternityforest »

Kerrick wrote: post #188
phpisthebest wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like what? Everyone should be paperless these days. What exactly do you still need to print?

Shipping labels. Print & play board/card games. Photographs and other art for decorating physical space. Proxy/playtest cards for trading card games. Sewing & craft patterns. Table tents for events. Flyers & brochures for local clubs. Packing slips for items sold online. Study materials for use in proctored open-book tests.

I use a Bluetooth pocket size printer for shipping labels, but I unfortunately couldn't do without my color inkjet, even though I only use it a few times a year.

I'm really hoping they come out with some kind of A4 size color thermal printer for all these one off use cases.

It's just paper with chemicals on it, it probably shouldn't be more than 20 cents a page or so if it were scaled up to be the dominant type of home printing.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#236

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

Thorrez wrote: post #184
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. They use rainbow tables: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_table

Rainbow tables only work if there aren't per-user salts. I assume Ring uses per-user salts, meaning rainbow tables won't work.

You would think so, but, it seems that rainbow tables are surprisingly effective, so that tells you that a lot of corporations -I suspect IoT are the worst offenders- are on low-sodium diets.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#237

Post by ragazzina »

azinman2 wrote: post #211
midoridensha wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other parts, citizens generally don't have guns, so the idea of an "armed individual" by itself is already hard to believe.

Guns are in many countries all over the world.

Yes, but almost 50% of all the civilian guns are in the US.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#238

Post by acdha »

Bud wrote: post #123
acdha wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a problem created and continued by phone companies. It wasn’t a huge problem before VoIP because the phone company networks didn’t allow everyone to forge sender info (SS7, not CallerID). When VoIP came along they didn’t put strict authentication in because it would have cost more, and that really opened things up. Right now, you could have extra caution for 911 calls which originate from VoIP. Pass a law tha…

Sounds easy, but I think you'll find that in practice, it's not so easy to just toss around murder (or accessory to murder) charges because something annoys you. Even if it annoys you a lot. It's a slippery slope from that to making basically anything a "murder" charge. Not saying you can't pass some sort of law or create some sort of penalty, but murder-related charges aren't going to fly.

First, it’s a thought exercise - people are talking like this some unavoidable fact of nature when it’s largely unique to the United States where we have the combination of heavily armed cops with poor trigger discipline and a phone system which is increasingly useless because the companies were allowed to prioritize revenue over security.

Second, you can argue anything will be a slippery slope (you should hear what people say raising the capital gains rate 1% will do) but it’s intellectually dishonest to pretend there’s no distinction between contributing to a violence death and “basically anything”. Operating critical safety infrastructure should carry responsibilities beyond the average business.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#239

Post by macintux »

claytongulick wrote: post #182
kneebonian wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Own a musket for home defense, since that's what the founding fathers intended. Four ruffians break into my house. "What the devil?" As I grab my powdered wig and Kentucky rifle. Blow a golf ball sized hole through the first man, he's dead on the spot. Draw my pistol on the second man, miss him entirely because it's smoothbore and nails the neighbors dog. I have to resort to the cannon mounted at the top of the stair…

And yet those same people you mock, using only the tools you described, threw off the yoke of the largest world power at the time. Amongst the reasons they did, were situations eerily similar to what we call "swatting" (and no-knock warrants), which were some motivations behind the fourth amendment. An amendment that we have, through twisted legal interpretations and arguments for expediency, managed to largely de-fa…

> using only the tools you described

Well, that and the French navy.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#240

Post by phpisthebest »

kelnos wrote: post #226
phpisthebest wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like what? Everyone should be paperless these days. What exactly do you still need to print?

I resisted having a printer for many many many years (part because I didn't want to lose the space it'd take up, part because I don't want to deal with the toner cartels, and part just because I didn't think I needed one and it was fine to make a trip to FedEx Office when I did), but finally caved in a couple years ago. I'm surprised at how often I use it and find it useful, and how little a hassle it's turned out to…

I live in the US, never needed to print shipping labels, never needed to print craft things (my hobby is electronics), and I have dedicated document scanners to convert the few things that still come on paper into electronic documents
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