Keeping up with every month’s tradition, a couple hours ago Google made public their new security patches for Android, the most used mobile operative system in the world. This patches fix all the new vulnerabilities that were detected during the last month in order to make the operative system safer and allow users to use it without being exposed. Unluckily, only a couple fortunate people will be able to install these patches.

These new March 2018 Android security patches solve a total of 37 vulnerabilities, many of them critical and the rest of them highly dangerous, mostly on Linux, such as the multimedia framework, the Kernes and privative codes from NVIDIA and Qualcomm’s chips.

Almost every month Google fixes security failures very similar to the ones we mentioned. This time, the most dangerous one is on Android’s multimedia framework and can enable and attacker to execute a code remotely in the device’s memory with the maximum level of privilege (root) using and executable file especially designed for this. This affects any smartphone, tablet or device, from any manufacturer or Android version.

Many privilege elevation vulnerabilities were also fixed that were being used by some tools to get root permits on the device, although it is still possible to do this in any device without any restricition. (more…)

A couple days ago, some data surfaced saying that HP spied on what their users did through a preinstalled software (bloatware) on their laptops. This supposed spyware has created turmoil and because of this, HP has had to speak out. The concrete service is HP Touchpoint Analytics Service and many users were reporting that it used too much resources and that it was also getting data from the computer without the users allowing it.

HP Touchpoint Analytics Service: a simple, very limited, diagnostic tool

HP has made some declarations to Laptop Magazine in regard to these accusations in which they said that they take their users privacy very seriously. This service, according to them, is not new and has been installing since 2014 on HP’s laptops as part of HP Support Assistant. Laptop Magazine even analyzed in detail the data that it was collecting and didn’t find anything suspicious.

For me. I like accer laptop, it has the highest price performance.

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I’ve been off the radar lately, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been busy! A lot has happened in the last month or so, so let’s get up to speed.

Home Sweet Home

The first item of note is that I am now back in Texas doing my own thing. I actually have been for some time, but didn’t feel in any hurry to announce it. Apparently the word is out, and it’s no secret on my part, so consider it confirmed. It’s nice being home.

I have received some questions recently about my status with QuadJacks. As many of you know, I took on a reduced role late last year and stopped regularly hosting on the radio program. However, I continued assisting behind the scenes and occasionally appeared on the show. That is not the case now, and I am no longer working with QuadJacks.

I am proud of the work I did at QuadJacks and don’t regret the time I spent in Las Vegas. I met a lot of interesting people, made some friends, learned a ton, and had a great time. Now it’s time for me to move on. Marco and Zac are continuing to do excellent work, and I wish them the best of luck. (more…)

Any device connected to the internet is subject to possible vulnerabilities and to being infected by a virus. This is a big issue on computers and mobile phones, but some attackers are now targeting Smart TVs with viruses. 90% of the TVs connected to Android are vulnerable.

Smart TVs can also have viruses

This has been discovered by ESET, one of the world’s biggest digital security companies and the creator of NOD32 antivirus. The company has used their presence on the MWC 2018 to launch ESET Smart TV Security, their security suite thought for smart tvs that use Android such as Sony’s models.

Televisions have more and more features that can be the target of cyberattacks, such as microphones or even cameras. With these, users can be spied on and confidential data can be stolen. Smart TVs with Android, like any mobile phone, are exposed to more security risks than other models with more limited operative systems, since an app with one of the dangerous permits can be installed. (more…)

Several weeks ago I filed eight DMCA takedown notices against QuadJacks videos containing my work. Three of the videos were direct copies from my channel that were simply reuploaded. The other videos contained work I had done while affiliated with QuadJacks. All eight videos have been removed by YouTube.

There has been some speculation about my motives for doing this, and I haven’t felt the need to go into detail about it. Now that QuadJacks has released a statement about all this, I suppose I should tell my side of the story as well.

A Change of Heart

The truth is, I didn’t mind QuadJacks using my work until very recently. We never had any sort of deal on paper, and no money ever changed hands. I was a volunteer. I allowed them to use my work because I wanted to help out, and I worked for free for eight months to do so. In addition to creating songs and hosting the radio program, I made many contributions behind the scenes to keep the website and program running smoothly.

I eventually grew tired of doing all that work. But even after I returned home, I didn’t have a problem with them using my work. My decision to put a stop to it came when the Willy Wonka You Get Nothing Remix started getting widespread recognition. This is a song and video that I created entirely myself, and am quite proud of. Once the video began receiving hundreds of thousands of views, I was disappointed to find that QuadJacks was shamelessly exploiting its popularity. They loaded the video with buttons to other songs I had made, but only the ones on their channel, as well as a button to gain more subscribers. Again, just for their channel. They also promised an MP3 download once their subscriptions reached a certain threshold. (more…)

I’m back in Las Vegas, and I’ll be here for the duration of the World Series of Poker. Unfortunately, I won’t be playing any WSOP events, but I still expect to have a great Summer.

I’ve been very pleased by the reception to my latest video ‘WSOP – I CAN’T WAIT TO GO!‘. It got a lot of action on PokerNews.com, was covered by various blogs, was warmly received on 2+2, and even got an approving tweet from the WSOP itself.

Today, however, I must address other videos of mine, as I’ve been receiving a ton of inquiries.

The Lost Videos

Over the last several months, many of my songs and videos have disappeared for various reasons. Some of the videos I removed myself due to a misunderstanding of YouTube’s guidelines and a long-term plan of mine to get accepted into the YouTube Partner program. Several videos were removed from QuadJacks’ YouTube channel at my insistence. Some of the lost content will be restored. Some will not. The status and future of these songs are as follows: (more…)

Update 1-23-2013: Sorel Mizzi has now removed all of my content from his websites.

This is Zachary Hart. Also known as Zac, Zekday0, Zekda Art, and in some circles as the “Snake in the Grass”. He owns QuadJacks, and for about 8 months we used to work together. I even considered him a friend.

I did lots of work at QuadJacks. I hosted radio, configured the radio server, did programming and web design, photoshopped graphics, and even taught Zac some of my skills. I did all this for nothing in return. Eventually, I got tired of doing all that free work. One day I told Zac and Marco that I didn’t want to do it anymore and that I was going home. This upset them very much. We talked for hours and hours as I explained why wasn’t I interested in continuing my work at QuadJacks, and that nothing was really going to convince me to stay.

The Partnership

However, Zac did find a way to convince me to stay. He proposed a business partnership. I would put my skills to use to design websites, and he would recruit professional poker players as clients. All profits were to be split 50-50. I was happy with this arrangement, so I stopped doing work for QuadJacks and got busy with the web design business right away.

The first client Zac landed was Sorel Mizzi (aka Imper1um). Zac and Sorel are both Canadian, and apparently have been friends for some time. Sorel was dissatisfied with his tarnished reputation from various cheating scandals. He wanted a personal website that he could control. Ideally people would visit his website when they searched his name on Google instead of this article accusing him of cheating John Racener at chinese poker, or his Wikipedia article that mentions his multi-accounting at Full Tilt. (more…)