#salttyphoon — Public Fediverse posts

@Satiah I'm also daily driving a #Librem5 with most important think working for my use case: Volte calls and SMS (although I avoid both since #SaltTyphoon), 4G data, Wi-Fi, web browsing on Firefox, email, e2ee messaging and calls using #SignalApp, #DinoIM (XMPP), latest apps from Flathub, and of course the headphone jack!

#PureOS offers a solid, stable experience but in case you want to try something else, #postmarketOS (with phosh, KDE Plasma, Gnome, SXMO) and #Mobian also work on the Librem 5.

@ati1 @linmob Depends what the user wants from a personal device, how they use it and what their priorities are. If someone's priorities are a modern camera, running proprietary Android apps and their money is held hostage by banks requiring #Duopoly apps, they should check back later, perhaps when the Librem 5 "Fir" model is released.

On the other hand, if #FreeSoftware, #privacy, #modularity, #repairability, #ecofriendliness, #decentralisation, #digitalindependence, etc. are valued above other things, the Librem 5 and the higher-spec model, the #LibertyPhone, can absolutely work in 2025 and beyond.

I am daily driving a #Librem5 with #postmarketOS and everything important to me works: VoLTE calls and SMS (although I avoid them due to #SaltTyphoon), 4G data, Wi-Fi, camera with OK quality photos (see: #ShotOnLibrem5), GPS with #PureMaps, web browsing with #FirefoxESR, web apps (including banking) using #GNOMEWeb and #BraveBrowser, email using #Geary and #DeltaChat, audio calls on #SignalMessenger, #Matrix ( #ElementMessenger), #XMPP ( #DinoIM), #JitsiMeet, etc.

There are occasional bugs and quirks, and the device itself has limitations but nothing that I can't work around.

Not sure if I missed anything. Let me know if you have a specific use case that you absolutely require and I'll see if I can test...

Weekly output: Android 16, Mark Vena podcast, CISA communications-security advice

I hope this finds you well and with family this holiday season, by which I mean I hope that family tech support has not been too strenuous whether you’re the provider or the recipient of it.

Patreon readers got an extra post this week: a look at the massive dent that data centers will put into Virginia’s electric grid in coming decades if current trends continue.

12/18/2024: Latest Android 16 Preview Tips Improved App Response, Location Security, PCMag

This short post covered the second developer preview of Android 16, moving forward on an earlier development cycle than previous releases of Google’s mobile operating system.

12/18/2024: Ep 105 SmartTechCheck Podcast — Expected CES Trends, Intel CEO departure, new incoming FCC leader, Mark Vena

My major contribution to this episode of my tech-analyst pal’s podcast was trying to unpack the agenda of incoming Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr.

12/19/2024: The Feds Have Some Advice for ‘Highly Targeted’ Individuals: Don’t Use a VPN, PCMag

I’ve been impressed for the past few years by how the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency offers specific and actionable advice even if it may upset some vendors. CISA stuck to that pattern with the guidance it issued to people high enough in government or politics to draw the attention of Chinese state-sponsored hackers who have burrowed deeply into U.S. telecom infrastructure–guidance that included the seemingly counter-intuitive advice not to use a VPN for privacy protection because that only transfers the privacy risk from your current sources of connectivity to a single company. I think CISA’s right about that, certainly in the context of most PCMag readers. And in my own case: My major use case for VPNs these days is to evade geoblocking restrictions, like when I’m trying to read GDPR-incompliant U.S. news sites from somewhere in the EU.

#Android16 #BrendanCarr #ChinaHacks #ChineseHacking #CISA #cybersecurity #encryptedMessaging #FCC #infosec #SaltTyphoon #VPN

Weekly output: Boost Mobile, AI at BT, digital privacy, Elon Musk’s X agenda, Salt Typhoon breaches T-Mobile

I have more than enough practice at traveling to the other side of the Atlantic, but this week’s trip to Lisbon for Web Summit had me sandbagged by jet lag almost every night. It appears that I never got my head into Western European Time, to judge from my not feeling wiped out in a “do not operate heavy machinery” way after I got home Friday night.

11/11/2024: Boost Mobile Touts 5G Network Progress, Adds Sub-$100 5G Phone to Lineup, PCMag

The advance copies of Boost’s PR materials were vague about some key points, but the carrier’s press rep did get back to me to clarify that the $10 billion network-buildout expense shared in them was a total estimate, not a forecast of costs to come.

11/12/2024: Will Gen AI generate value for the corporate landscape?, Web Summit

My first panel at this conference had me interviewing Alex Bell, BT’s digital director of service, and Michael Park, a senior vice president and global head of AI go-to-market at ServiceNow, about how the former company had enlisted the latter to put AI to work in some important IT and customer-service systems.

11/12/2024: Secure swipe: protecting customer data, Web Summit

My second and final panel–fewer than I usually field at this conference–put me on stage with Brittany Kaiser, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower turned Own Your Data advocate, and Marcus Räder, founder and CEO of the lodging-services firm Hostaway, to discuss how companies collect and keep data and how they would be better off not hoarding so much customer information.

11/14/2024: ‘Things Are Different for Elon’: Who Needs X When You Have Political Power?, PCMag

I only wrote up one Web Summit panel for PCMag, but it was a very good one: New York Times reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac talking about Elon Musk’s chaotic takeover of Twitter. They went beyond their recount of that in their book Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter to discuss our new oligarch-in-chief’s privileged perch in Donald Trump’s circles.

11/16/2024: Chinese State-Sponsored ‘Salt Typhoon’ Hackers Also Breached T-Mobile, PCMag

I usually try to avoid writing posts on the weekend, but a) this was news that had gone uncovered at my client and b) I had written less than usual over the rest of the week and c) I have bills coming that aren’t going to pay themselves.

#AI #BoostMobile #BrittanyKaiser #BT #ChineseHackers #ElonMuskTwitter #KateConger #Lisbon #oligarch #RyanMac #SaltTyphoon #TMobile #WebSummit

#China Connected #SaltTyphoon Compromised AT&T / #Verizon / #LawfulIntercept #Backdoors

Installed #Windows Kernel Rootkit

"backdoors protect kids"....

Don't buy into this #propaganda.

#privacy #News #infosec #cybersecurity #USA #Telecom #CISA #ATT

https://www.heise.de/en/news/China-s-cyber-spies-intercept-phone-data-and-calls-from-US-network-operators-10036196.html

Laut dem #WallStreetJournal wurden mehrere US #Telekommunikationsanbieter, darunter #Verizon, #AT&T und #LumenTechnologies, Opfer eines Hackerangriffs. Hinter dem #Angriff soll angeblich die chinesische #Hackergruppe #SaltTyphoon stehen. Möglicherweise hatten die Angreifer seit mehreren Monaten oder länger Zugriff auf Systeme, die von der US-Bundesregierung für gerichtlich genehmigte Anfragen zum Abhören von Netzwerken genutzt werden.

#cyberangriff #abhoeren #leak #breach #cybersec #hacked