(This is a migrated post from an old version of the site, carried over for posterity).

Repeat Headline- “Largest Data Breach Ever”

Yeah… we’re doing this one again apparently. Some no-name company called National Public Data that does background checks had 2.9 BILLION, yes, BILLION, individuals in it’s leaky little database that is now all over the web. The company operates by scraping public and non-public data, as well as taking SSNs, addresses, full names, ya know… all the tasty bits, “rivalling the 2013 Yahoo data breach”. Also since apparently people like sources (thanks for the email by the way) so here. Personally, I hate modern websites, so if someone prefers I dump the articles into PDFs that had reader mode enabled (a common way I share articles with friends) let me know.

I’m still pre-coffee this fine Wednesday morning, so let me just go ahead and say this- I hope this company gets crucified. We have to stop throwing our arms up and saying “well, shucks, I guess that’s the way the world works now” and like good little sheeple wait for the next culling. No. Be stubborn sheep. Bite, kick, and charge. People wanna riot and burn shit down? Start with these shady fucks.

While We’re At It, Consider Going After Your Insurance Company Too

Business Insider wrote up a nice little piece about abusing surveillance technology to not only push your home insurance premiums through the roof, but deny claims by way of drone, satellite image, and AI use. In spite of many reports finally outting the use of these tactics, I don’t recall seeing anyone mention getting an updated terms of service regarding usage of such data. Maybe call your local agent today and ask if they’re using these things to screw you too.

People Are STILL Getting Scammed On Zelle, CFPB Steps In

Bloomberg reported this morning that JP Morgan and the likes are facing questions as to why the fuck people keep getting money stolen through Zelle, and why there’s no recourse to get the money back when it happens. Considering you need a.) a bank account to send money, and b.) a bank account to receive the money, they should just as easily be able to claw back any scammy transfers. To compound the issue, Zelle lacks the more robust chargeback processes that credit cards have, so you’re at the mercy of your bank to try to help you when you accidentally click the link in that SMS and your account gets drained. Further proof supporting my buddy Kyle’s theory that the only 3 things guaranteed in life are death, taxes, and that the modern tech industry has added so many layers of obfuscation and complication there’s no way to secure things properly.

RetroTech Wednesday: Wordstar Gets Re-Released FREE!

Yes, THAT Wordstar. Ars Technica has published news that science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer has taken the bold move of publishing a copy of Wordstar 7.0 for the world to download. Sawyer is a book author, not software author or publisher, so giving away someone else’s stuff may be a bit of a chance here, but we’re here for it. Ars also reports they’re unable to get Wordstar to run… which has me asking two questions: 1.) did you even try, and 2.) are you under 30? Kids these days are so divorced from the command line, DOS, and all the stuff that made this industry fun it’s not even funny. I notice it with a lot of our customers- apps have coddled people for so long that if they can’t just tap the screen they sit in the corner and cry that “it doesn’t work”. Fucking worked just fine for me. Proof Below.