Tag Archive for: Stick

Did The Grand Theft Auto Hacker Do It With An Amazon Fire Stick While Under Police Custody?


An 18-year-old hacker, Arion Kurtaj, a key member of the international cyber-criminal gang Lapsus$, has been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after leaking clips of the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6). The sentencing, delivered at Southwark Crown Court, sheds light on the extent of the gang’s audacious attacks on tech giants, including Uber, Nvidia, and Rockstar Games, which collectively cost the affected companies nearly $10 million.

Kurtaj, who hails from Oxford and is diagnosed with autism, was deemed unfit to stand trial due to the severity of his condition. The court heard that despite being under police protection at a Travelodge hotel, he managed to breach Rockstar Games, the developers behind GTA, using unconventional methods.

While on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE, Kurtaj reportedly continued his cyber activities. Using an Amazon Fire TV Stick, he allegedly mirrored his smartphone’s display to the hotel TV, transforming it into a makeshift monitor. Connecting a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to his smartphone, he exploited the device’s “desktop mode” (DeX) capabilities, essentially turning it into a Linux computer. The Fire TV Stick, in this context, acted as a wireless HDMI cable via Miracast.

Kurtaj’s actions resulted in the theft of 90 clips of the unreleased GTA 6, which he later posted, along with the source code, on a forum under the username “TeaPotUberHacker.” The hack reportedly cost Rockstar Games $5 million to recover from, in addition to thousands of hours of staff time.

In sentencing hearings, Kurtaj’s defense argued that the success of the GTA 6 trailer, released earlier this month and amassing 128 million views on YouTube in just four days, indicated minimal harm caused by the hack. However, the judge emphasized the real victims and harm caused by Kurtaj’s multiple cyberattacks, not only on corporations, but also on individuals.

The trial also saw…

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Ukraine Partisans Stalk High-Security Russian Base Again, Stick Photos on Internet


Ukrainian partisans on Thursday published high-res photographs of the high-security base for Russia’s 126th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade, a formation deployed by the Kremlin to protect Moscow’s military facilities in the Crimea Peninsula from commandos and sneak attacks.

Images and text data made public by the umbrella Ukrainian partisan agency ATESH on the information app Telegram showed pro-Kyiv agents approaching within a few hundred meters of the Russian unit’s base near the village Perevalne, in a mountainous region of south Crimea.

The ATESH statement claimed its operatives reconnoitered the Russian brigade defenses and security thoroughly and left the scene without being detected.

“We managed to find out the brigade’s quantity, condition and range of military equipment. We have become convinced that fuel tanks are being actively used by the enemy. We also studied the patrol pattern around the military unit in detail,” the statement said in part.

ATESH said the grids of the Russian base were N44.851830, E34.318620. The location named by the partisan group matched past geolocations associated with the unit. Kyiv Post was unable to confirm other ATESH claims independently.

The Perevalne reconnaissance of the 126th Brigade’s home base was the second claimed by Ukrainian partisans in a public space. On Oct. 30 an ATESH statement said its operatives had managed to infiltrate agents inside 126th Brigade facilities and found the unit to be at 25 percent strength and individual soldiers suffering from poor morale.

ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, November 9, 2023

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ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, November 9, 2023

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

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‘It’s a $20 solution to a $500 problem’ – this viral hack will turn your basic stick vacuum into a high-tech dupe


When Dyson launched its latest range of cordless vacuums, the internet practically lost its mind at the new Detect feature. If you haven’t seen it, Detect is basically an integrated laser in the head of the vacuum, precisely angled in a way that reveals every last particle of dust and hair on your floor. It’s a genius way to make sure you’re giving your home a deep clean when you vacuum.

It’s a feature we expect to see on all the best cordless vacuums going forward, but for Dyson’s offering, it’s only available on the V15 Detect and V12 Detect Slim Absolute. At $749.99 and $499.99 respectively, it’s a big price tag for the novelty of the laser head feature, especially if you’d recently paid out for an older Dyson vacuum model.

For Aden Wang, a product designer based in San Francisco, the laser functionality was an attractive proposition, but would mean having to upgrade his existing Dyson to the newer $500 model. However, he found a clever product on Amazon that could add the functionality to his existing vacuum.

This $20 vacuum cleaner dust display lamp from Amazon can be fixed onto a range of other vacuums, including a Dyson. It’s mounted with a sticker pad, powered by a battery (although rechargeable options are available), and turned on by a button the device.

It has some other benefits, according to Aden. ‘The Dyson laser clean head may be great for hardwood floors, but it’s inconvenient to change clean head when cleaning between hardwood and carpet. I’d rather sticking with just one clean head,’ he says.

Vacuum cleaner dust display LED lamp

Price: $19.99

Of course, it’s not the perfect solution. Unlike the Dyson Detect, the laser isn’t ever going to be integrated into your vacuum, which has its drawbacks.

‘You have to manually turn it on and off,’ Aden explains on his Instagram Reel, ‘but I found tapping it with my foot works well. It doesn’t connect to the Dyson power source. So you’ll need to change batteries. It sticks out a little bit so it hits the ground first before you drop flat your clean head.’

In spite of these flaws, for $20, it’s the perfect way to embrace this new piece of technology for now, even if you’re going to invest in a Dyson Detect later down the line.

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Making IT security training stick


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7 February 2023

Making IT security training stick

In this week’s Computer Weekly, our latest buyer’s guide looks at IT security training, and asks whether gamification could be the secret to making it stick. We examine how the metaverse might change the way we work in real life. And we find out how job cuts across the tech sector affect employment opportunities for IT contractors in 2023. Read the issue now.

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