Walmart-exclusive Router and Others Sold on Amazon and eBay Contain Hidden Backdoors To Control Devices

Bernard Meyer, reporting for CyberNews: In a collaboration between CyberNews Sr. Information Security Researcher Mantas Sasnauskas and researchers James Clee and Roni Carta, suspicious backdoors have been discovered in a Chinese-made Jetstream router, sold exclusively at Walmart as their new line of “affordable” wifi routers. This backdoor would allow an attacker the ability to remotely control not only the routers, but…

42% of Amazon’s Reviews Might Be ‘Unreliable’

Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo quotes Bloomberg: Fake reviews on Amazon.com Inc. during the pandemic have reached levels typically seen during the holiday shopping season. About 42% of 720 million Amazon reviews assessed by the monitoring service Fakespot Inc. from March through September were unreliable, up from about 36% for the same period last year. The rise in fake reviews corresponded with…

Walmart Ends Contract With Robotics Company, Opts For Human Workers Instead

According to The Wall Street Journal, Walmart has cut ties with Bossa Nova Robotics, opting for human workers instead. CNBC reports: A Walmart spokesperson told the Journal that about 500 robots were in Walmart’s more than 4,700 stores when the contract ended. According to the Journal’s report, Walmart has come up with simple and cost-effective ways to manage the products on…

Amazon Now Has More Than 1 Million Employees

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: Amazon.com said it now has about 1 million employees after hiring 250,000 workers in the third quarter, part of a growth spurt driven by booming ecommerce sales during the coronavirus pandemic and a milestone for a company founded in 1995 by Jeff Bezos as an online bookseller. Despite its rapid ascent, Amazon…

Quibi Is Shutting Down

Quibi is considering shutting itself down, WSJ reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter, a move that points to a possible crash landing for a once-highflying entertainment startup that raised $1.75 billion in capital. From the report: The streaming service has been plagued with problems since it launched in April, facing lower-than-expected viewership, disappointing download numbers and a lawsuit from…

‘Revolutionary’ Video-Streaming Service Quibi is Up For Sale Six Months After Launch; Apple, WarnerMedia, and Facebook Have Turned Down the Offer

The Information: Six months after launching his revolutionary video-streaming service, Quibi, Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg is looking for a buyer. So far, he is coming up short [paywalled; alternative source]. Over the past few weeks, Katzenberg has pitched several tech and entertainment executives about buying Quibi, only to be turned down. Among those he approached was Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice…

51% of Developers Say They’re Managing 100 Times More Code Than a Decade Ago

An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica: Sourcegraph, a company specializing in universal code search, polled more than 500 North American software developers to identify issues in code complexity and management. Its general findings are probably no surprise to most Ars readers — software has gotten bigger, more complex, and much more important in the past ten years — but the sheer…

With New Security and Free Internet Issues, What Did the TikTok Deal Really Achieve?

Though the U.S. government averted a shutdown of TikTok through a new Oracle/Walmart partnership, that leaves much bigger questions unresolved. The biggest issue may be that banning apps “defeats the original intent of the internet,” argues the New York TImes. “And that was to create a global communications network, unrestrained by national borders.” “The vision for a single, interconnected network around…

Last-Minute TikTok Deal Averts Shutdown

“President Donald Trump said Saturday he’s given his ‘blessing’ to a proposed deal that would see the popular video-sharing app TikTok partner with Oracle and Walmart and form a U.S. company,” reports CBS News:
Mr. Trump has targeted Chinese-owned TikTok for national security and data privacy concerns in the latest flashpoint in the rising tensions between Washington and Beijing. The president’s support…

Amazon Plans To Put 1,000 Warehouses In Suburban Neighborhoods

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Amazon plans to open 1,000 small delivery hubs in cities and suburbs all over the U.S., according to people familiar with the plans. The facilities, which will eventually number about 1,500, will bring products closer to customers, making shopping online about as fast as a quick run to the store. It will also…