Geekly Update - 18 December 2019

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

If you like illusions and other mind benders, check out the winner of the 2019 Illusion of the Year contest, and bunch of other fun entries.

Auto hacking is getting worse, according to a report by Upstream.auto, an Israeli research firm. Hacks perpetrated on "connected cars" have risen 99% in the past year, and 82% of them occur remotely.

Does Russia's Vladimir Putin still use Windows XP? A photo of him sitting in front a computer seems to indicate that. Support for XP ended in 2005. But at least he's not alone, NetMarketShare reporting indicates that Windows XP still has 2.3% market share.

Wired Magazine has some ideas to help you get the most out of Google's Chrome browser. Try these tips and tricks to mute annoying sites, recover accidentally closed tabs, or send a tab from one device to another.

Several stories in the news recently have headlines warning about "terrifying hacks" of Ring video cameras. But I say they're bogus. All of the so-called "hacks" involve weak passwords, or customers re-using passwords that have been compromised in other breaches.

KrebsOnSecurity has been monitoring the activities of an international cybercrime network called "Evil Corp" that has stolen $100 million from businesses and
consumers. Here is Brian Krebs' inside look at the back-end operations of this criminal enterprise.

Brain-computer interfaces allow signals from the brain to control technology. BCIs have been used to help people with injuries recover certain abilities, and to fly a drone using thought. But will they soon enable bosses to keep track of employee productivity?

The FTC says users of the Unroll.me service, which promised to help people unsubscribe from unwanted emails, were lied to when the company promised they would never look at personal information customer emails. I warned about this obvious privacy hazard back in 2014.

ZDNet has a list of this year's "tech turkeys." The list of twenty-six tech flops is dominated by ideas from Apple and Google.

Attackers on Twitter targeted the Epilepsy Foundation, apparently in an attempt to trigger seizures with strobing images. The sick attack happened during National Epilepsy Awareness Month.