EdTechSR Ep 280 LastPass Security Breach

Welcome to episode 280 (“LastPass Security Breach”) of the EdTech Situation Room from January 11, 2023, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week’s topics include the recent breach of password manager LastPass and what that means for users, as well as security best-practices overall. (Spoiler: Keep using a recommended password manager!) Additional security articles discussed included leaked addresses of millions of Twitter users, and a Supreme Court decision allowing the NSO iPhone hacking (Pegasus spyware) case to move forward. On the Google front, the 2022 Chromebook of the year, enhanced spam prevention in Google Voice, and a review of the “Framework Chromebook” were highlighted and analyzed. Lastly, a variety of articles on the artificial intelligence / AI front were explored. These included articles highlighting the ability of ChatGPT to write malware, a college student’s software program to “detect” AI-authored essays, and others. Geeks of the Week included the search engine Neeva, youtubetranscript.com, and a free Chrome extension which facilitates summarization of YouTube video transcripts using ChatGPT. Our show was live streamed and archived simultaneously on YouTube Live as well as our Facebook Live page via StreamYard.com, and compressed to a smaller video version (about 100MB) on AmazonS3 using Handbrake software. Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR and Mastodon (@edtechsr@mastodon.education) for updates, and join us LIVE on Wednesday nights (normally) if you can at 9 pm Eastern / 8 pm Central / 7 pm Mountain / 7 pm Pacific or 3 am UTC. All shownotes are available on http://edtechSR.com/links. Stay savvy and safe!

Shownotes

  1. Subscribe to our EdTechSR Substack Newsletter!
  2. EdTech Situation Room Listener Survey: wfryer.me/edtechsr
  3. Follow @edtechSR on Twitter and on Mastodon!
  4. Audio podcast feed (Subscribe with iTunes or Stitcher)
  5. Video version on YouTube
  6. Check out our video podcast feed and subscribe to our YouTube Channel (episodes also in this YouTube playlist)
  7. Jason Neiffer (Mastodon: @neif@mastodon.cloud – Twitter: @techsavvyteach) – blog: blog.ncce.org
  8. Wes Fryer (Mastodon: @wfryer@mastodon.cloud – Twitter: @wfryer ) – wesfryer.com/after
  9. LastPass users: Your info and password vault data are now in hackers’ hands (Ars Technica; 22 December 2022)
  10. Hackers reportedly leak email addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users (The Guardian; 5 January 2023)
  11. Supreme Court declines to block WhatsApp lawsuit over NSO phone hacking (TechCrunch, 9 Jan 2023)
  12. A New Chat Bot Is a ‘Code Red’ for Google’s Search Business (NY Times, 21 Dec 2022, Gift Link)
  13. A college student created an app that can tell whether AI wrote an essay (NPR; 9 January 2023)
  14. Microsoft’s new AI can simulate anyone’s voice with 3 seconds of audio (ArsTechnica, 9 Jan 2023)
  15. Controversy erupts over non-consensual AI mental health experiment (ArsTechnica, 10 Jan 2023)
  16. ChatGPT is enabling script kiddies to write functional malware (ArsTechnica, 6 Jan 2023)
  17. My pick for 2022 Chromebook of the Year (About Chromebooks; 2 January 2023)
  18. Google Voice Can Now Flag Suspected Spam Calls (CNET; 30 December 2022)
  19. Review: Framework Chromebook is what enthusiasts have been waiting for (9 to 5 Google; 10 January 2023)
  20. The best Chromebooks for work (ZDnet, 9 Jan 2023)
  21. Jason has moved to… 1password.com
  22. Jason’s Geek of the Week: Search Engine neeva.com
  23. Wes’ Geeks of the Week: youtubetranscript.com and YouTube Summary with ChatGPT (Example)
Anonymous computer hacker over abstract” (CC BY 2.0) by focusonmore.com

EdTech Situation Room Episode 115

Welcome to episode 115 of the EdTech Situation Room from November 21, 2018, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the past week’s technology news through an educational lens. Topics for the show included the recent outages of cloud services including Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory and LastPass Password Manager, and multiple signs of “The Technology Correction.” These included calls for regulating Facebook, surveys showing many young computer scientists do not want to work for Facebook, and Facebook’s apparent inability to regulate / fix itself. Processor upgrades to the Samsung Chromebook Plus, the enduring value of Google Pixelbooks, and Black Friday week deals on Pixelbooks were also discussed. On the security front, a new, stealthy Russian hacking tool, a phishing test tool, the first amendment and Facebook, and student protests over Facebook’s sponsored learning management system “Summit Learning” were also discussed. The use of streetlight concealed cameras by US security agencies and the viability of the iPad Pro as a laptop replacement were topics rounding out the show. Geeks of the week included T-Mobile’s One Plus Plan (great for international travel) and a technique for bypassing news website free article limits with browser incognito mode. Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR for updates, and join us LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can (normally) at 10 pm Eastern / 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain / 7 pm Pacific or 3 am UTC. All shownotes are available on http://edtechSR.com/links

Shownotes:

  1. EdTech Situation Room Listener Survey: wfryer.me/edtechsr
  2. Follow @edtechSR on Twitter!
  3. Audio podcast feed (Subscribe with iTunes or Stitcher)
  4. Video version on YouTube
  5. Check out our video podcast feed and subscribe to our YouTube Channel (episodes also in this YouTube playlist)
  6. Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) – blog: blog.ncce.org
  7. Wes Fryer (@wfryer) – blog: speedofcreativity.org
  8. Office 365, Azure users are locked out after a global multi-factor authentication outage (TechCrunch, 19 Nov 2018)
  9. LastPass Knocked Offline, Freezing Out Password Users (Tom’s Guide, 20 Nov 2018)
  10. Microsoft and Google working on Chrome for Windows on ARM (The Verge; 21 November 2018)
  11. From Mark Zuckerberg to George Soros, here’s everything you need to know about Facebook’s latest crisis (The Verge; 19 November 2018)
  12. Facebook ads urge its staff to leak secrets (BBC News; 21 November 2018)
  13. ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ So Say Some Computer Science Students. (New York Times; 15 November 2018)
  14. The Messy Fourth Estate (danah boyd, 20 June 2018)
  15. It’s time to start regulating Facebook (Washington Post OpEd by Nina Jankowicz, 15 Nov 2018)
  16. Facebook won’t fix itself (Vox OpEd by Emily Stewart, 15 Nov 2018)
  17. With A Core m3, The Samsung Chromebook Plus v2 Gets A Massive Upgrade (21 November 2018; Chrome Unboxed; 21 November 2018)
  18. The Google Pixelbook After A Year: 5 Reasons It’s Still Worth Your Money (Chrome Unboxed; 19 November 2018)
  19. $300 Off Any Pixelbook From Amazon!
  20. Technical error exposes Amazon users’ names, email addresses (CNet, 21 November 2018)
  21. Russian hacking tool gets extra stealthy to target US, European computers (CNet, 20 November 2018)
  22. Phishing Test Tool: https://www.knowbe4.com/
  23. Should the First Amendment apply to Facebook? It’s complicated. (Recode; 19 November 2018)
  24. Students protest Zuckerberg-backed digital learning program and ask him: ‘What gives you this right?’ (Washington Post, 17 Nov 2018)
  25. The DEA and ICE are hiding surveillance cameras in streetlights (Quartz, 9 Nov 2018)
  26. Writing with iPad Pro: The first 48 hours away from Mac (9to5Mac, 9 Nov 2018)
  27. Almost 50% of the world is online. What about the other 50%? (The Guardian, 18 October 2018)
  28. Jason’s Geek of the Week: T-Mobile’s One Plus Plan
  29. Wes’ Geek of the Week: Use Incognito Mode to Read Articles Exceeding Website Quotas