Claim Your FREE Copy of Network Forensics (Worth $20)

As a subject, network forensics deals with network attacks and their investigation. In the era of network attacks and malware threats, it’s now more important than ever to have the skills required to investigate these kind of attacks and vulnerabilities. And this free ebook (worth $20) will show you how to do just that.

Hands-On Network Forensics takes you through the core concepts and methodologies within network forensics. You’ll also explore the tools used in network forensics and how to work with them effectively.

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Inside this free ebook, among other things you will:

• Discover and interpret encrypted traffic.
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• Develop tools and custom scripts for network forensics automation.

Hands-On Network Forensics is not only your ticket to gaining basic skills in network forensics, but also learning how to apply them effectively!

Want in? Simply click here to download Hands-On Network Forensics from TradePub. You will have to complete a short form to access the bundle, but it’s well worth it!

This free offer expires 17 September 2019.

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Fairphone 3 is a normal smartphone with ethical shine

How long have you been using your current smartphone? The answer for an increasing number of consumers is years, plural. After all, why upgrade every year when next year’s model is almost exactly the same as the device you’re holding in your hand?

Dutch social enterprise Fairphone sees this as an opportunity to sell sustainability. A chance to turn a conversation about ‘stalled smartphone innovation’ on its head by encouraging consumers to think more critically about the costs involved in pumping out the next shiny thing. And sell them on the savings — individual and collective — of holding their staple gadget steady.

Its latest smartphone, the Fairphone 3 — just released this week in Europe — represents the startup’s best chance yet of shrinking the convenience gap between the next hotly anticipated touchscreen gizmo and a fairer proposition that requires an altogether cooler head to appreciate.

On the surface Fairphone 3 looks like a fairly standard, if slightly thick (1cm), Android smartphone. But that’s essentially the point. This 4G phone could be your smartphone, is the intended message.

Specs wise, you’re getting mostly middling, rather than stand out stuff. There’s a 5.7in full HD display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 chipset, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage (expandable via microSD), a 12MP rear lens and 8MP front-facing camera. There’s also NFC on board, a fingerprint reader, dual nano-SIM slots and a 3,000mAh battery that can be removed for easy replacement when it wears out.

There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack: The handy port that’s being erased at the premium smartphone tier,  killing off a bunch of wired accessories with it. So ‘slow replacement’ smartphone hardware demonstrably encourages less waste across the gadget ecosystem too.

But the real difference lies under the surface. Fairer here means supply chain innovation to source conflict-free minerals that go into making the devices; social incentive programs that top up the minimum wages of assembly workers who put the phones together; and repairable, modular handset design that’s intended to reduce environmental impact by supporting a longer lifespan. Repair, don’t replace is the mantra.

All the extra effort that goes into making a smartphone less ethically challenging to own is of course invisible to the naked eye. So the Fairphone 3 buyer largely has to take the company’s word on trust.

The only visual evidence is repairability. Flip the phone over and a semi-opaque plastic backing gives a glimpse of modular guts. A tiny screwdriver included in the box allows you take the phone to pieces so you can swap out individual modules (such as the display) in case they break or fail. Fairphone sells replacements via a spare parts section of its website.

Despite this radically modular and novel design vs today’s hermetically sealed premium mobiles the Fairphone 3 feels extremely solid to hold.

It’s not designed to pop apart easily. Indeed, there’s a full thirteen screws holding the display module in place. Deconstruction takes work (and care not to lose any of the teeny screws). So this is modularity purely as occasional utility, not flashy party trick — as with Google’s doomed Ara Project.

For some that might be disappointing. Exactly because this modular phone feels so, well, boringly normal.

Visually the most stand out feature at a glance is the Fairphone logo picked out in metallic white lettering on the back. Those taking a second look will also spot a moralizing memo printed on the battery so it’s legible through the matte plastic — which reads: “Change is in your hands”. It may be a bit cringeworthy but if you’ve paid for an ethical premium you might as well flaunt it.

It’s fair to say design fans won’t be going wild over the Fairphone 3. But it feels almost intentionally dull. As if — in addition to shrinking manufacturing costs — the point is to impress on buyers that ethical internals are more than enough of a hipster fashion statement.

It’s also true that most smartphones are now much the same, hardware, features and performance wise. So — at this higher mid-tier price-point (€450/~$500) — why not flip the consumer smartphone sales pitch on its head to make it about shrinking rather than maximizing impact, via a dull but worthy standard?

That then pushes people to ask how sustainable is an expensive but valueless — and so, philosophically speaking, pointless — premium? That’s the question Fairphone 3 seems designed to pose.

Or, to put it another way, if normal can be ethical then shouldn’t ethical electronics be the norm?

Normal is what you get elsewhere with Fairphone 3. Purely judged as a smartphone its performance isn’t anything to write home about. It checks all the usual boxes of messaging, photos, apps and Internet browsing. You can say it gets the job done.

Sure, it’s not buttery smooth at every screen and app transition. And it can feel a little slow on the uptake at times. Notably the camera, while fairly responsive, isn’t lightning quick. Photo quality is not terrible — but not amazing either.

Testing the camera I found images prone to high acutance and over saturated colors. The software also struggles to handle mixed light and shade — meaning you may get a darker and less balanced shot that you hoped for. Low light performance isn’t great either.

That said, in good light the Fairphone 3 can take a perfectly acceptable selfie. Which is what most people will expect to be able to use the phone for.

Fairphone has said it’s done a lot of work to improve the camera vs the predecessor model. And it has succeeded in bringing photo performance up to workable standard — which is a great achievement at what’s also a slightly reduced handset price-point. Though, naturally, there’s still a big gap in photo quality vs the premium end of the smartphone market.

On the OS front, the phone runs a vanilla implementation of Android 9 out of the box — preloaded with the usual bundle of Google services and no added clutter so Android fans should feel right at home. (For those who want a Google-free alternative Fairphone says a future update will allow users to do a wipe and clean install of Android Open Source Project.)

In short, purely as a smartphone, the Fairphone 3 offers very little to shout about — so no screaming lack either. Again, if the point is to shrink the size of the compromise Fairphone is asking consumers to make in order to buy an ethically superior brand of electronics they are slowly succeeding in closing the gap.

It’s a project that’s clearly benefiting from the maturity of the smartphone market. While, on the cellular front, the transformative claims being made for 5G are clearly many years out — so there’s no issue with asking buyers to stick with a 4G phone for years to come.

Given where the market has now marched to, a ‘fairer’ smartphone that offers benchmark basics at a perfectly acceptable median but with the promise of reduced costs over the longer term — individual, societal and environmental — does seem like a proposition that could expand from what has so far been an exceptional niche into something rather larger and more mainstream.

Zooming out for a second, the Fairphone certainly makes an interesting contrast with some of the expensive chimeras struggling to be unfolded at the top end of the smartphone market right now.

Foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Fold — which clocks in at around 4x the price of a Fairphone and offers ~2x the screen real estate (when unfolded), plus a power bump. Whether the Fold’s lux package translates into mobile utility squared is a whole other question, though.

And where foldables will need to demonstrate a compelling use-case that goes above and beyond the Swiss Army utility of a normal smartphone to justify such a whopping price bump, Fairphone need only prick the consumer conscience — as it asks you pay a bit more and settle for a little less.

Neither of these sales pitches is challenge free, of course. And, for now, both foldables and fairer electronics remain curious niches.

But with the Fairphone 3 demonstrating that ethical can feel so normal it doesn’t seem beyond the pale to imagine demand for electronics that are average in performance yet pack an ethical punch scaling up to challenge the mainstream parade of copycat gadgets.

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Could Huawei’s 2019 Products Spy on Americans?

Is Huawei spying on Americans? Maybe, maybe not. But their CEO’s keynote speech at IFA 2019 avoided all concerns regarding privacy and the trade conflict. This article explains Huawei’s 2019 product lineup and potential privacy implications.

Richard Yu, Huawei’s CEO, skirted the micron-thin line separating privacy and espionage. While his speech announced Huawei’s latest system-on-a-chip, the Kirin 990 5G, the Pro version of the P30 smartphone, a WiFi-6 router, and a pair of true wireless earbuds, it did not deal with any other points of interest.

Kirin 990 5G Chipset Facial Recognition Privacy Implications

The key selling point of the Kirin 990 5G is its facial recognition abilities. Before AI-chips matured into what we have today, smartphones needed to run their processing cores at full power in order to recognize faces. If a smartphone were collecting its users’ faces, massive battery drain would immediately give the plot away. Manufacturers needed something less processing intensive.

And that’s where specialized, low-power processors can assist facial recognition technologies. The Kirin 990 adds three special Neural Processing Units (NPU). The NPU cores are designed around three cores of dissimilar design, similar to ARM’s big.LITTLE. Huawei’s NPU technology use two larger cores and a single, small core. This arrangement allows the camera to scan and process faces faster, and more important, with greater energy efficiency than ever before—opening the door to passive snooping using facial recognition.

In other words, faces could be collected as easily as today’s smartphones collect individual voices and conversations.

Huawei Builds 5G Networks

Huawei leads its competitors in 5G cellular technology. And not only do they own significant amounts of intellectual property in its newly announced processor, they make the networking equipment that enables cellular providers to use 5G technology.

In other words, Huawei builds the cellular networks themselves. In fact, the United States believes that were Huawei allowed to construct the United States’s 5G networks, it could open the door to future espionage exploits by China, using Huawei as a proxy.

Are Any Routers Secure? Huawei Q2 Pro

A router is one of the most sensitive components of your home network. A hacked or rogue router can do terrible things. For example, a malicious router can monitor all of a user’s internet traffic, it can perform man-in-the-middle attacks against anyone on the network, it can surreptitiously redirect users to spoofed websites, and more.

In 2013, security researcher, Eloi Benoist-Vanderbeken, discovered and reported a massive security vulnerability in 24 models of Linksys, Cisco, Diamond, and Netgear routers.  Despite promises to patch the security vulnerability, each company only disguised it. The vulnerability went unpatched until researchers discovered and unveiled the ruse. In the words of Benoist-Vanderbeken:

It was added on purpose, to reactivate the backdoor. This is 100% intentional.

Could Huawei’s latest router suffer from intentionally inserted backdoors leading back to China? Certainly. But according to Ars Technica’s reporting, US-based router companies were doing this at least as early as 2013 and probably much earlier.

No Evidence of Huawei Spying (on Americans)

In the current political and trade environment, it is unpopular stating the truth: that despite the US government’s claims, no evidence proves Huawei’s involvement in spying on Americans or Europeans. There exists some evidence of Huawei’s meddling in Zambian and Ugandan domestic politics. In both cases, Huawei seemingly spied on the political opposition of elected officials.

It is therefore entirely possible that Huawei may spy on American citizens at the behest of another power. In fact, all corporations with access to consumer data, use it in order to make money. The issue is that when a US company illegally monitors, analyzes, and disseminates the personal details on American citizens, it’s called advertising. When a Chinese corporation engages in the same behavior, it’s called spying.

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Mercku M2 Swarm: Powerful Insect-Themed Mesh Wi-Fi Buzzes On

Ever wanted a swarm of bees in your house? Well, now you can thanks to Mercku’s M2 Swarm System, a powerful plug and play mesh Wi-Fi system you can use to fill your home with glorious signal. 

Mercku’s Swarm System consists of Queen Routers and Bee Nodes. The simple but effective idea is that you combine your Queens and your Bees to make a massive mesh Wi-Fi network covering your entire home, office, or otherwise, up to a range of over 22,000 feet. Yup—your network can extend to over 6 kilometers using a combination of Mercku Queen Routers and Bee Nodes. Now, I’m sure most of us don’t live in such places, but it does allow your network to extend deep into your garden, throughout your flat, over multiple floors, or onward.

Aside from the massive combined network range, the Queen and the Bee both have decent hardware under the hood.

The Queen packs a high performance WHEMS antenna, 1GHz CPU, 128 MB RAM, two gigabit Ethernet ports, a USB 2.0 port, and 1GB flash memory into a neat package. The Queen (and the Bee Nodes) provide Wi-Fi speeds up to 300Mbps over a 2.4GHz connection, and up to 867Mbps over a 5.0GHz connection. The Bee Nodes have very similar specifications to the larger Queen model, but do not have the additional USB 2.0 connection. 

Regardless, as the Bee uses the same hardware as the Queen it allows you to build a fast mesh Wi-Fi network without compromising on hardware.

Mercku’s Swarm System also has a few tricks up its sleeve, targeting network security and parental controls. You can establish different time controls for specific devices, allowing you to switch off your children’s network before bed or homework time. Similarly, you can control the network speed for individual devices at specific times. When it is time for the kids to start their homework, you can limit the device speed to allow easy browsing, but making video streaming or online gaming difficult.

Most of all, routers should look stylish and sleek, allowing you to display it rather than tucking it away under the stairs or in a cupboard. I’m happy to say that the Mercku Swarm System fits the bill perfectly, and will look good almost wherever you decide to display it. I would also add that the Mercku Swarm System is extremely well priced, given the standard range for a single Queen router (up to 6,000 feet). The standard Queen Router pack will set you back $299, but that price includes three Queens, allowing you to provide Wi-Fi signal to your entire neighbourhood if you should so choose.

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PIN-SAFE: Store Passwords on a Chipcard and Access Via NFC

So you’ve done your due diligence and created unique passwords for all your accounts. But now you struggle to remember them all. You don’t trust cloud-based services and find hardware password managers too clunky for everyday use. What else is there? How about a credit card-sized data safe that works with NFC?

The PIN-SAFE card can store up to 50 passwords, PINs, PUKs, and other sensitive data. Once linked to your phone’s IMEI number via the PIN-SAFE Android app, you can access your data using NFC and your PIN-SAFE PIN. Yes, you still have to remember that one. To access the data, just hold the card to your device’s NFC sensor and enter your PIN into the app.

Since PIN-SAFE fits into your wallet, you can conveniently carry it anywhere. Should you lose the card, your data will remain safe. First, it takes both the phone and the PIN to access it. Second, the data is encrypted with AES256. Thankfully, the PIN-SAFE package comes with a backup card.

That said, forgetting your PIN or losing access to your smartphone would render the data on your card inaccessible and forever lost. Thus, we don’t recommend using PIN-SAFE as your primary password manager. It’s a great tool to conveniently and securely access a small selection of sensitive data on your phone. You should, however, keep a secure backup of your data elsewhere.

PIN-SAFE complements traditional hardware wallets or your good old notebook. It’s safer than storing your passwords in the cloud, ultra-portable, and at EUR 19.90, it’s also affordable.

Disclaimer: We ran into a PIN-SAFE executive at IFA 2019 and received a copy of the product. Unfortunately, since PIN-SAFE has not launched outside Germany yet, we weren’t able to access the app on our phone. But we learned that the certification process for a UK launch is underway.

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Smarter FridgeCam: An Affordable Way to Bring the Smart Kitchen to Your Home

SThe idea of a smart home is great; unlimited connectivity between all of your devices, so you can sit back and relax. But it often means buying expensive new appliances that are locked to a particular ecosystem.

UK-based Smarter offers a solution. Their FridgeCam is a smart camera for inside your fridge. You can view what’s inside using their Android and iOS apps. And it’s not only available on your local network; the contents of your fridge are accessible on-the-go too.

Their three-tiered identification system means that you can tell which products you already have, and, once they’re gone from the fridge, that you need to replace them. When the FridgeCam realizes you’re out of an item, it adds it to your online grocery list, and it’ll appear with your next delivery, no effort required. In the UK, the company partners with the supermarket Tesco, as well as Amazon Fresh for auto-replenishment too.

The FridgeCam can be retrofitted into any fridge, so you don’t need to go out shopping for a new home appliance to get smart features. At IFA 2019, Smarter launched their FridgeCam Plus alongside the Powered by Smarter platform. The company partnered with AEG/Electrolux to bring the FridgeCam Plus to part of their domestic electrical lineup.

The Powered by Smarter platform means that Smarter’s AI and software can now be integrated into third-party products. This is similar to how Amazon’s Alexa is available in their own products like the Fire TV Stick and Echo, while also appearing on a wide variety of other devices.

Since launching in 2013, Smarter has released three products; the FridgeCam, Smarter Coffee, and iKettle. The Smarter Coffee machine is a bean to cup device, allowing you to customize your brew from your smartphone. You don’t even need to use the machine to get your perfect drink; just a few taps sets the machine going.

The iKettle has been relaunched as the iKettle EDITION, now available in a variety of modern colors to match your home. Like the Smarter Coffee, the iKettle allows you to customize your boil, start the kettle with just a tap on your smartphone, and even use the wake-up mode to get a boiled kettle ready for you first thing in the morning, or as you arrive home.

The FridgeCam is available to buy now for £149.99 from Smarter’s website.

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Terramaster F5-422: 10 Gigabit Ethernet for Under $600

TerraMaster may not be the first name you think of for prosumer storage devices, but they are making significant inroads in the enthusiast and semi-professional markets with their powerful, yet affordable network and local storage devices.

At IFA 2019, TerraMaster demonstrated their latest F5-422 NAS. This storage system is for users who demand performance, security, and flexibility from their systems, at a realistic price. It features:

• Intel 1.5GHz quad-core processor
• 4GB DDR3 RAM
• 1 x 10Gb Ethernet port
• 2 x Gigabit network interfaces
• 2 x USB Type-A host ports
• 1 x full-size female HDMI output

The F5-422 has four core data protection and security features:

• Automatic backups
• File system snapshots
• AES hardware encryption
• Network transport layer encryption

Depending on your requirements, you can install an SSD cache and up to five 14TB HDDs. All the popular RAID formats work as you’d expect, including RAID 0, 1, and 5. Thanks to the 10 gigabit Ethernet port, you can achieve read and write speeds greater than 650MB/s and 670MB/s respectively with mechanical hard drives, and there’s support for over 500 different remote users. This makes it possible to use this NAS as a centralised storage facility for 4K video editing, or other shared media production services.

These dual gigabit network interfaces work alongside the 10 gigabit interface to provide a resilient connection to your network. The ports are for network aggregation and failover, letting you choose between redundant access to your data in case of a network failure, or increased speeds offered by a dual-channel network connection.

TerraMaster also showcased their latest TerraMaster Operating System, or TOS for short. Version 4.1 offers you complete control over every aspect of the NAS. You can configure the network interfaces, check the health of your drives, configure a database or web server, and manage user accounts. You can learn more about TOS in our F2-221 review.

We’re big fans of TerraMaster here at MakeUseOf, and for good reason. Their systems are reliable, affordable, and available with a huge choice of different connections, sizes, and capabilities. TerraMaster have come a long way since their early models, and their passion for continuous improvement of their products is outstanding. They consistently listen to feedback and look for ways to improve their products. The F5-422 is availble direct from Terramaster for $599.99.

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Adidas FWD-01: The Wireless Earbuds for Runners

Adidas has partnered with Zound Industries to launch two new sets of sport focused headphones at IFA 2019.

The FWD-01 is a set of wireless earbuds connected by a neckband. The design is primarily for runners and the earbuds come with up to 16 combinations of sizing buds to keep them snug in your ears.

They support fast USB-C charging and claim up to 16 hours of playback time. The FWD-01 come with sweat resistance throughout, and the in-line controls are easy to use without being fiddly.

In use, the headphones gave a great range of sound and bass response, without totally blocking out outside sound. According to the Adidas representative, this was an intentional feature to allow safe usage for runners in urban environments.

While the earbuds are larger than most, they don’t feel heavy in the ears. The larger size is purportedly to accommodate better audio. There is no accounting for taste, but I like the chunky aesthetics.

While not in use, the headphones link under the chin via a magnet, which also acts as a pause button for any media playing.

Adidas also launched the RPT-01 over-ear headphones at IFA 2019. Designed to stay in place through the most rigorous workout, they are snug fitting and comfortable.

Again, fast USB-C charging features here, along with up to 40 hours of playback time. In use, they sounded great and felt good (though I didn’t have the opportunity to do a full workout with them on!)

It’s clear a lot of thought has gone into these headphones. There are no touch controls on the ear backs themselves, opting purely for solid buttons. Alongside standard controls, they feature three custom buttons, which can be assigned in the accompanying app to carry out a variety of functions.

Both headphones look and feel great, which is unsurprising for a sport/fashion company. We were quoted around $150 for the FWD-01 and $170 for the RPT-01, and they are available for pre-order from Adidas now.

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Shiftphone: Sustainable, Ethical & Eco-Friendly Smartphones

The technology industry is notorious for its electronic waste and unethical manufacturing practices. Increasing awareness of the morality of conflict materials, and the poor conditions and low pay of production facilities has made some brands pay attention.

However, many of the announcements are little more than marketing, only paying lip service to the issue. That’s not true of German manufacturer SHIFT.

The company’s flagship product, the Shiftphone, was first released in 2015, with a new model available every year since. As with the like-minded Fairphone, the company emphasizes repairability, modularity, and ethical credentials. Their phones run SHIFT OS, a modified version of the Android operating system.

The modularity of the phone is not a gimmick like many similar devices have been. The battery cover pops off, uncovering the replaceable battery inside. Once the battery is out of the way, you have access to the phone’s board. While this used to be commonplace on phones, they go a step further.

The front display detaches with just the press on the side. Only a single ribbon keeps the screen attached, allowing you to disconnect it to access the motherboard easily. Components like the camera aren’t soldered into place either, making production more sustainable, and repairs low-cost and reasonably simple.

While some may question why the German company manufactures its products in China, it is, surprisingly, the greenest choice. Many electronic components are sourced from Asia, so it reduces the environmental impact to keep production there too.

Additionally, the manufacturing process requires plastic housings to be used through the production. Shift reuses these housings internally, and with other manufacturers. This wouldn’t be economical if they had to be shipped back to China from Europe.

Shift doesn’t rely on investors either, giving them full autonomy on decisions and the direction of the company. As they don’t receive funding, the company initially used a crowdfunding campaign to launch the Shiftphone. Further releases have been supported with preorders.

Their latest project is the SHIFTmu; a universal computing setup aimed at reducing the number of unnecessary devices, with an eye on sustainability. The SHIFTmu phone is the center of the platform. You can order the phone as a standalone device or as part of the SHIFTmu Bundle, which includes peripherals like a mobile tablet screen, keyboard, hub, and power supply.

The SHIFTmu concept expands the company’s philosophy of sustainability. The phone acts as an all-in-one computing device, which can be accessed through the tablet or expanding into a more traditional computer. While their current range of phones run on SHIFT OS, the company is currently in talks to add support for other operating systems too.

The SHIFT6m smartphone is available to buy now from €555. The SHIFT6mq is available to preorder for €755, with shipments expected to start in late 2019. The SHIFTmu smartphone is also available to preorder for €888, while the SHIFTmu Bundle costs €1,222. Both editions are expected to ship in 2020.

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