The year in Internet events
2017
September
Major data breach of Verizon customer accounts
Passwords of 500,000 vehicle location devices leaked online
Apple launches Face ID (with a glitch!) https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/12/apple-iphone-x-launch-face-id-mistake
Transport for London refuse Uber a new operating licence
When visitors access websites, their computers are secretly hijacked to generate cryptocoins https://gizmodo.com/how-to-stop-pirate-bay-and-other-sites-from-hijacking-y-1818549856
October
Mass attacks with ransomware called Bad Rabbit https://securelist.com/bad-rabbit-ransomware/82851/
Harvey Weinstein: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41594672
#Metoo movement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_Too_movement
November
China makes big investment in Facial Recognition https://www.ft.com/content/4d008d46-bed2-11e7-b8a3-38a6e068f464
Amazon Key introduced - and cracked in no time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GSK7cIimFY&feature=youtu.be
Mozilla releases second largest publicly available voice dataset into public domain: https://medium.com/mozilla-open-innovation/sharing-our-common-voice-mozilla-releases-second-largest-public-voice-data-set-e88f7d6b7666
December
Trump repeals net neutrality in US. https://www.recode.net/2017/12/14/16771910/trump-fcc-ajit-pai-net-neutrality-repeal
The Mirai Botnet that took down the internet in 2016 turns out to be from three college kids in Alaska https://www.wired.com/story/mirai-botnet-minecraft-scam-brought-down-the-internet/
Worst passwords of the year revealed. Depressing: https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/12/27/worst-passwords-year-revealed/
Windows Hello Face Authentication Bypassed - with a picture!\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8WqLxSkGs
2018
January
Pope Francis covers his iPad camera for opsec
{width="3.901042213473316in"
height="4.203005249343832in"}
Trump taunts Kim Jung on twitter - my nuclear button is bigger than yours… https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/03/donald-trump-boasts-nuclear-button-bigger-kim-jong-un
Strava App maps military bases https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracking-app-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases
Aadhar information of a billion people sold for £6. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/04/india-national-id-database-data-leak-bought-online-aadhaar
Amazon opens a supermarket with no checkout https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42769096
February
Hacker strikes ‘Stalkerware’ companies, stealing alleged texts and GPS locations of customers https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/7x77ex/hacker-strikes-stalkerware-companies-stealing-alleged-texts-and-gps-locations-of-customers
March
Amazon Alexa “Creepy Laugh” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/07/amazon-alexa-random-creepy-laughter-company-fixing
Cambridge Analytica scandal https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election
British Airways announce Facial Recognition at check-in https://www.ft.com/content/da415b5a-10b7-11e7-b030-768954394623
Fatal Uber and Tesla car crashes https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/31/tesla-car-crash-autopilot-mountain-view
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/24/uber-in-fatal-crash-detected-pedestrian-but-had-emergency-braking-disabled/
Google uses its Deepmind AI in US military drones. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/07/google-ai-us-department-of-defense-military-drone-project-maven-tensorflow
Details of 150 million users of MyFitnessPal app leaked
April
Mozilla launches Internet Health Report https://www.wired.com/story/mozilla-internet-health-report/
Facebook seeks facial recognition consent in EU and Canada https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43797128
European Union launches GDPR https://www.eugdpr.org/
Mark Zuckerberg testifies before US Congress committees: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/11/mark-zuckerbergs-testimony-to-congress-the-key-moments
TSB computer failure
WhatsApp Founder quits Facebook due to changes in Whatsapp privacy policies. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/30/jan-koum-whatsapp-co-founder-quits-facebook
Amazon launches Echo Dot Kids’ Edition with enhanced Disney and Pixar content: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/28/hands-on-with-the-echo-dots-kids-edition/
UK has six months to rewrite snooper's charter, high court rules
Trump and Kanye West Share Praise-Filled Tweets. And, Apparently, ‘Dragon Energy.’ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/us/politics/kanye-west-trump-twitter-maga.html
The Twitter alternative Mastodon got launched https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/783akg/mastodon-is-like-twitter-without-nazis-so-why-are-we-not-using-it
Wikipedia got blocked in Turkey: https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/04/30/turkish-authorities-block-wikipedia/
May
Facebook promises to publish its Internal Enforcement Guidelines https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/comprehensive-community-standards/
Amazon’s Latest Security Device Let People Spy on us https://www.theinformation.com/articles/how-amazons-latest-security-device-let-people-spy-on-you
Google Duplex unveiled: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd1mEm2Fy08
Chelsea Manning is released from military prison
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/17/chelsea-manning-released-from-prison
China exports Facial recognition to Africa
https://qz.com/1287675/china-is-exporting-facial-recognition-to-africa-ensuring-ai-dominance-through-diversity/
Siri and Alexa can be hacked through command words hidden in songs https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/10/researchers-show-siri-and-alexa-can-be-exploited-with-silent-commands-hidden-in-songs/
Yanny or Laurel? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/16/yanny-or-laurel-sound-illusion-sets-off-ear-splitting-arguments
Net neutrality advocates gain symbolic win as Senate votes to save Obama rules https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/16/net-neutrality-us-senate-fcc-obama-era-rules
June
1.2 million Dixon Carphone customer accounts compromised
Tapplock Smart Lock hacked (again) https://medium.com/\@evstykas/totally-pwning-the-tapplock-smart-lock-the-api-way-c8d89915f025
Yet another story of insecure security cameras... https://boingboing.net/2018/06/23/password-123.html
VISA hardware fails and transactions declined
Data breach affects nearly 5% of Ticketmaster customers
Uber granted a 15 month operating licence in London
Union wins challenge to gig economy self-employment status https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/15/union-wins-first-round-in-deliveroo-high-court-employment-challenge
UN criticises Welsh police over use of facial recognition to monitor public demonstrations https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/29/un-privacy-chief-criticises-use-of-facial-recognition-in-wales
July
Indian government complains to WhatsApp after a year of Fake News leading to killings. https://qz.com/1320859/after-a-spate-of-lynchings-india-blames-whatsapp-for-the-spread-of-fake-news/
A milestone for Chrome security: marking HTTP as “not secure” https://www.blog.google/products/chrome/milestone-chrome-security-marking-http-not-secure/
Cher's Twitter Is Still the Best Thing on the Internet, in Case You're Wondering https://www.glamour.com/story/cher-best-tweets
Roomba will monetize the maps that it has made from your home https://gizmodo.com/roombas-next-big-step-is-selling-maps-of-your-home-to-t-1797187829
August
Apple becomes world's first trillion-dollar company https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/02/apple-becomes-worlds-first-trillion-dollar-company
August 7th - Elon Musk tweets TESLA is going private
August 25th - Tesla tweets staying public
Smartphone-only bank Monzo eyes billion-pound valuation https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/17/smartphone-only-bank-monzo-eyes-billion-pound-valuation
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is banned from Twitter (for a week) https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/8/15/17692428/twitter-suspends-alex-jones-infowars
Facebook rumoured to be developing its own voice recognition, ‘Aloha’, and a smart speaker, ‘Portal’: https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/21/facebook-voice/
The Unlikely Activists Who Took On Silicon Valley — and Won (California privacy law) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/magazine/facebook-google-privacy-data.html
The Syrian officials comfirm that the Open Web Activist Bassel Khartabil Executed by the Syrian Regime https://advox.globalvoices.org/2017/08/01/global-voices-honors-the-life-of-open-web-activist-bassel-khartabil-executed-by-the-syrian-regime/