here's what's coming up in the category
five TV newsroom
hey Windows users are you still using
Internet Explorer stop it there's yet
another zero-day exploit that will give
hackers the ability to remotely take
over your computer
Pyne 64 is $200 pro-grade linux laptop
is now available with a u.s. keyboard
and customers who pre-ordered theirs are
receiving the first shipment now secure
a security shocker out of Microsoft as
it has been revealed that 250 million
customer records have been exposed
online and not to create false hope but
this is too huge not to mention
scientists at Cardiff University have
discovered a part of our immune system
that can kill prostate breast lung and
other cancers in left in lab tests stick
around the full details are coming up
later in the show this is the category 5
dot TV newsroom covering the week stop
texting with a slight Linux bias
shashi Rickman joined this week by Jack
Weston and Robbie Ferguson all right
some quick honorable mentions this week
or at least one hey you ready for this
Patrick Stewart appeared on the view
this week personally invited host Whoopi
Goldberg to appear in the second season
of Star Trek Picard it's so yes sir
while promoting the premiere of the
Picard series Stewart surprise Goldberg
sang quote I'm here with a formal nom
I'm healed with a formal invitation it's
for you will be for me alex kurtzman who
is the senior executive producer of Star
Trek and all of his colleagues of which
I am one want to invite you into the
second season Stewart's invitation was
met with a big smile from Whoopi who
played the beloved and timeless Guinan
character in Star Trek The Next
Generation since the well as soon as the
applause from the studio audience
subsided and following a warm hug
between the two actors what be responded
enthusiastically saying yes good season
2 of Star Trek Picard was already
confirmed a month before the first
season even began airing Wow other
confirmed TNG alumni are Jonathan Frakes
as William Riker Marina Sirtis
as Deanna Troi brent Spiner as data aka
b4 and I must say Brent we love you and
Jonathan del arco as Hugh of Borg also
along for the show is Star Trek voyagers
Jeri Ryan as seven of nine Star Trek
Picard is available as of January 23rd
in Canada and the US and the very next
day worldwide nice let's get into the
top stories we're following this week
Microsoft Set sent out an advisory on
Friday detailing and under it an under
attack zero day vulnerability for
Internet Explorer the scripting engine
flaw can be exploited to gain remote
code execution of a vulnerable machine
by way of
pacifically crafted a specifically
crafted webpage while this particular
flaw can be mitigated by restricting
access to the JavaScript component
jscript dot d ll there is no patch
available to actually fix the
vulnerability even if Microsoft is Swift
to create a patch they plan to release
it on an upcoming patch Tuesday since we
know that's the second Tuesday of each
month
they're leaving this takeover exploit
active in the wild for a good four weeks
or so at least these kinds of horrendous
security practices are another reminder
of why we shouldn't be trusting
Microsoft to provide our antivirus to
there is no practical reason to be
running Internet Explorer these days if
you must use Microsoft Windows download
Chrome Firefox or better yet get the
brave private what excuse me private
browser from cat5 TV slash brave to
automatically block ads while you surf
the web
it's brutal yeah yeah Microsoft has been
continually letting us down Windows 10
has been a nightmare as Microsoft to
ever not let us down I mean maybe back
like Windows 93 95 we can say that but I
mean it no it did feel like they were
giving it an effort but at one point
they had the bet a team they had the the
testing team before patches went out and
but stuff like this and having to wait
for weeks for it's actively exploited
yes yes that is a takeover bug like this
is something that could completely
compromise an entire network of machines
and so if somebody a miscreant knows of
the vulnerability within let's say a
business network and actively exploits
it because it is like understand folks
this is an exploit that is currently
being used by hackers to infiltrate
networks
is currently being used so if that's the
case wouldn't it be prudent for a
company like Microsoft to say we need to
fix this and we need to fix this now
yes instead they're waiting a month at
least at least four weeks I mean we're
talking the the second Tuesday of
February why four weeks though like wow
that's that's arbitrary it's just the
second Tuesday of every month is when
they issue their patches well I get that
but yeah why not push through an update
because they don't because it's the
rollout happens on on that schedule they
this is the thing they've said it
they've set themselves up for this type
of failure see I their infrastructure is
set up for this type of failure now but
I don't know why they couldn't even just
post it to their website and say update
manually like nobody's gonna do it but
if you unless you know but even if you
know that that patch exists imagine if
you had a hundred computers and you had
to manually go like Windows
infrastructure right now is a brutal
nightmare that's true it's just
ridiculous and it's really causing
companies I especially companies that
are currently stuck on window like that
have Windows 7 machines intermixed in
their network yeah a lot of government
agencies and we're looking at okay well
what do we do next do we buy all new
systems so we can install Windows 10
because that's usually necessary unless
you can maybe put more RAM in them
because you're gonna need at least like
twice as much RAM you're gonna need an
SSD to you know make it yeah like you're
gonna need to upgrade you're not gonna
be using a five year old computer for
Windows 10 that's for sure though at
least not without a couple of little
upgrades so you know we look at that and
then we say okay well what other options
are there and these are things that
we're gonna be talking about here on the
show but it really just makes you go wow
hold on let's back up a second and say
what's really you know what's what's
happening here maybe it's a wake up call
to to say maybe Microsoft has got way
too much control over our corporation
didn't say that and I don't and I'm not
even saying that out of my Linux bias
that we call it here I'm saying that out
of the reality of this is actually
happening right now there is this active
threat that is being exploited and
Microsoft is not doing a darn thing
about it until the next Patch Tuesday
yeah that's ridiculous
it is Microsoft not vying for like some
special government contract for
something cloud related right now you're
talking like you know something but
you're not actually saying something I
feel like we've been hearing about like
there's the the US government's looking
to go cloud or something and I like
Amazon's like Amazon was in on and
there's a bunch of difficulties I
thought Microsoft was in on as well well
there's only the three big ones well
yeah but I mean I'm thinking about stuff
like this it's like if you do any push
every four weeks if I'm vying for a
government contract to create something
new you think you'd want to have a
better business model well like yeah I'm
not even touching on that like the
business end of things I'm talking like
the end of things
this impacts all should it should make
the government's grow like wise up and
say maybe there are more secure options
out there yep maybe there are better
options out there and that that my dear
friends is where my Linux bias comes in
that's right and speaking of Linux are
you ready for this there we go
Pyne 64 is $200 pro grade Linux laptop
receiving the first shipment now nice
the pine Book Pro ships with a
customized version of Debian
pre-installed that's right
this is a true Linux laptop it also has
a few other tricks up its sleeve
like a bootable microsd card slot so
that you can easily run another
operating system off a cheap memory card
whenever you feel like it just about all
laptop all laptop computers use Intel
processors these days only a very small
percentage of Windows laptops have
started using Qualcomm ARM processors
the PI Book Pro actually uses a 64-bit
ARM processor called the rockchip rk3288
60 mp4 GPU which is made by the same
company that makes the Pine Book Pro
Pine Microsystems Inc Pine also makes
other computing hardware such as compute
modules and single board computers that
you can build into other projects and as
Robbie mentioned last week there even
they even bring a cheap privacy focused
smartphone to market that runs Linux
natively the pine book pro includes 4
gigabytes of RAM which is the maximum
supported by the rockchip so it's not
upgradable by default it also includes a
64 gigabytes at emmc storage module
which you can upgrade if you want but as
westerners the biggest problem we had
with the original pine book and even the
first run of pine book pro was the
keyboard there's just no way to get
reviewers or in end-users in Canada or
the u.s. to truly love an ISO keyboard
which is a layout more familiar to users
in the UK but now as of last week users
who pre-ordered are receiving their
antsy keyboard pine book pros ANSI is
more commonly called the u.s. keyboard
layout so for $200 Linux fans can get a
solid professional and super sleek
laptop that has keys where they expect
them so how can i Pine 64 sells such a
find piece of kit for only $200 because
they love you that's why actually that's
not even sarcasm the pine Book Pro is
being sold at cost as a gift to the open
source loving community so it's not
technically meant for regular users if
you believe in freedom and like to
tinker and learn about technology the
pine Book Pro is meant for you this is
awesome
I said it last week with no words but
pine sixty-four yeah this is so good I
like it now when people first purchased
the original pine books and the pile of
pros did they know it was coming with
the alternate keyboard or were they
expecting the pine book pro yes the pine
book never did the brain book came with
the ISO keyboard that's what it came
with and when we reviewed it here on the
show you remember like it was like I
can't get my head around this thing and
for those of you who live in the UK and
places where the ISO keyboard is you're
like this is great this is fantastic but
no when you're used to an American
layout it's completely different and it
seems completely whacked I mean I've
seen reviews online and and I'm part of
that where it's like I just can't get my
head around the ISO keyboard layout my
keyboard is a French layout and Robbie
doesn't goodness yeah I mean we're here
in Canada up here in Studio T and
government I don't know if his
legislation or what says that things
have to be French and English combined
so if you walk into a Super Center and
buy a laptop it's a French English
keyboard and keys are all over the place
yeah and so even when I was setting it
up with with cloud-ready it was like I
was pushing the wrong keys yeah I just
never notice the difference in keyboard
to be honest maybe you've just never had
to experience that great well I guess
sewer is a fine keyboard well every
keyboard are using I recognize that
they're all gonna be different so I just
roll with it
but I suppose what happens is that they
don't all have to be different and
that's the do touch type like do you
type 180 words a minute like Robbie like
80 if it's a yes cyborg it bits out of
the if it's out of place I
I'm going to push the wrong Keys because
the keys are meant to be where my
fingers are trained to know that they
are cementing before the show he's like
magic before the show I was doing this
on your key you're like yeah he's like
what's your password because he needed
it to get into - like all this like
suggest a strong password - it's like
this long symbols that I didn't even
know the name of which on a French
keyboard incidentally is in the wrong
bloomin place so I showed Robbie my
phone and he was just like look at the
phone yes type in for a minute
that's how it works right on a French
keyboard - so I added a slash at the end
there because that's where the Enter key
is supposed to be so yeah knowing that
now an ANSI keyboard is available which
is the u.s. layout I'm very excited
about I really appreciate - that they're
selling it it cost me it feels like a
big hug like it's a it's just a sure
thing to know that a company cares that
much and a pint 64 I've always felt
cares about respects and is even a part
of that open-source community yeah and
there's a mindset there's like a spirit
about the open-source community the true
open-source community not the there
there's kind of two facets of it there's
the the angry like if you use Windows
you are the devil side of open-source
and there's the side that just really
loves freedom and really loves community
support and of giving help to people and
becoming part of communities and
becoming part of online forums and
helping other people like there's that
aspect and that's the aspect that I
really feel Pyne 64 really falls into mm
hmm and so to offer yeah something like
the pine book Pro which is a beautiful
notebook computer in two different
models now for ISO and ANSI so they
heard the call of the reviewers here in
Canada in the u.s. yes and they're
offering it at cost for two hundred
bucks
what so for the cost of a premium
Chromebook
you're getting a computer that you can
just slap Linux on it comes with Linux
yep it's got more power it's got a lot
of oomph mm-hmm and I'm really really
keen and excited about the Pine Book Pro
so well done pine sixty-four and to the
community at pine 64 I mean we love you
here at category 5 yes we do and
certainly appreciate the entire team so
thank you for all that you do we've got
to take a quick break more of our this
week's top tech news stories are coming
up don't go anywhere
[Music]
online this is a facepalm we really
don't intend for the news to be all
about Microsoft but this week has been a
doozy there's the internet explorer zero
day vulnerability that's being actively
exploit Adia Microsoft has hasn't issued
a patch for that revelation came just
days after the US government issued a
critical alert to Windows users
concerning the extraordinarily serious a
curveball crypto vulnerability and now
this 250 million Microsoft customer
records spanning an incredible 14 years
in all have been exposed online in a
database with no password protection the
data was accessible to anyone with a web
browser who stumbled across the
databases according to the report issued
by the security researcher team at
compare attack no authentication at all
was required to access them the nature
of the data appears to be that much that
much of the personally identifiable
information that was redacted however
the researchers say that many contain
plain text data including customer email
addresses IP addresses and geographical
locations descriptions of the customer
service and support claims cases
microsoft support agent emails case
numbers and resolutions and internal
notes that had been marked as
confidential hmm while this may seem
like no big deal considering the number
of breaches many of which affecting even
more users the thing to consider here is
that Microsoft support scams are already
rampant and it doesn't take a genius to
work out how valuable actual customer
information could be to the fraudsters
carrying out such attacks and it puts
users at a severe disadvantage and risk
of being exploited by someone pretending
to be the very company they trust
Microsoft Security Response Center
posted a response dated January 22nd
2020 in that post they confirmed that
the exposure of the database started on
December 5th 2019 as a result of
misconfigured security rules and was
fixed on December 31st it's not known at
this point if the databases were
accessed but it seems very very likely
since whitehat security researchers
picked up on the issue and even
replicated its data to their own servers
it's very likely bad actors also got
their hands on it to yet another yeah
yeah just another what is going on at
Microsoft like what do you say it's like
yeah it's that's a disheartening story
so I guess what it comes down to is the
the only thing we can say I mean sure
your facepalming I'm disgusted you as as
potential victims need to understand
that you just need to be very very
conscious that this has happened you
have to be very conscious that phishing
scams and now spear phishing scams exist
so these are now they have your
information you have a Microsoft account
right you've contacted their support or
activated software so now somebody can
call you and say I'm calling from
Microsoft and I've got your case number
here and blah blah blah and I've got
enough evidence on this piece of paper
to be able to prove to you that I am who
I say I am right just like the last time
we spoke when we offered you this and
this yes remember that yeah I remember
the time that you call just a couple of
weeks ago and we talked about this and
that oh yeah yeah ok well we just found
out that there's another exploit and so
I need to remote into your computer to
fix that for you
exactly so all of a sudden there's this
ok wait wait wait wait wait wait hold up
so here's what you need to do hang up
the phone yes okay Microsoft does not
phone its users Microsoft will not offer
you support that's not the industry that
they are in that's right that's not how
they work and so just understand that
and maybe if you just at least at least
make yourself critical enough to be able
to say Microsoft does not offer this
service if you can just say that to
yourself then maybe that's enough to
protect you so that when that call comes
in or when that email comes in that you
just don't click it last week we learned
as well last week we learned that a new
form of cookie attack is allowing
hackers to compromise PayPal accounts
just by you clicking on a link that
takes you to a site that creates the
session and then you can close that and
come back to it two weeks later and
login to the legitimate paypal.com
website and boom they've got your
information so we know that if you just
fall for it enough to click the link
they could have put something on your
computer that's enough to get you next
time so even if you don't fall for it
this time maybe you click the link and
you don't give them your information but
you clicked the link don't click the
link right stop yourself at that point
and realize Microsoft doesn't offer this
service I am NOT gonna click a link in
an email that says log into my Microsoft
account or any Microsoft service so
understand that's office 365 that's
exchange that's that's your like your
what is it Microsoft online even Xbox
whatever Xbox 360 online or whatever all
that stuff so yeah all that so Microsoft
online account for for your minecraft
and like all these things you're
compromised yep so don't trust anything
that comes in now period yes and that's
that's a blanket statement don't trust
anything now you have to decide you have
to go to your bank website and log in
correctly
you don't you ever don't ever click a
link that takes you there never don't
Google it don't search it in Bing don't
don't type it in the search
don't type your bank's name in the
search and click the first link on the
results no you type in your people do
that people do that yeah and those same
people get compromised ok not to create
false hope but this is too huge not to
mention scientists at Cardiff University
have discovered a part of our immune
system that can kill prostate breast
lung and other cancers in lab tests the
findings published in Nature immunology
have not yet been tested in patients but
the researchers say that they have
enormous potential experts are saying
that although the work was still at an
early stage it is very exciting our
immune system is our body's natural
defense against infection but it also
attacks cancerous cells the scientists
were looking for unconventional and
previously undiscovered ways the immune
system naturally attacks tumors what
they found was a t-cell inside people's
blood this is an immune cell that can
scan the body to assess whether there is
a threat that needs to be eliminated the
difference is that the one in particular
that they discovered can seemingly
attack a wide range of cancers
researcher professor Andrew Sewell says
quote there is a chance to treat every
patient previously nobody believed this
could be possible it raises the prospect
of a one-size-fits-all cancer treatment
a single type of t-cell that could be
capable of destroying many different
types of cancers across the population
end quote the discovered t-cell was able
to kill a wide range of cancerous cells
in in the lab including lung skin blood
colon breast bone prostate ovarian
kidney and cervical cancer cells Wow
crucially
left normal tissues untouched exactly
how it does all this is still being
explored the idea is that a blood sample
would be taken from a cancer patient the
T cells in the sample would be extracted
and genetically modified so that they
were they were reprogrammed to make the
cancer finding receptor the upgraded
cells would be grown in vast quantities
in the laboratory and then put back into
the patient Daniel Davis a professor of
immunology at the University of
Manchester said quote at the moment this
is very basic research and not closed
for two actual medicines for patients
there is no question that is a very
exciting discovery both for advancing
our basic knowledge about the immune
system and the possibility of future new
medicines and quote more safety checks
will be needed before human trials can
begin I like this this isn't necessarily
a text story but it's a human interest
story that is here because of tech yeah
the advancements that we have made in
science to be able to get to the point
where it's like what else is there let's
explore the body even further let's
alter this cell and see what happens
yeah and boom suddenly we're going is
this it that is so cool exactly the
truth of the matter is right now cancer
treatments are just they seem so
barbaric right now they're life-saving
but they're super intrusive so I mean
you know the chemotherapy surgery the
things that that are just really
radiation things that are really
detrimental to the human body just to
keep it alive you can have an immune
response against cancer that that just
annihilates any trace of it I just
cannot wait I don't really like does
anyone else feel that like excitement
and the anticipation like could it be
like could that be possible and
understand all they're doing is taking
t---cell that you already produce outs
and they're just replicating it like
they're kind of growing more their own
they're altering it to put in the
receptor to find the cancer cells so
that's a bit of a genetic modification
and then they're culturing more so there
can't be adverse reactions because it's
your own sure I mean I don't understand
the science like yeah pretend to
understand the science but I know there
was a time in our history when
penicillin didn't exist and when and
when it was discovered if you will it
was a mistake yeah but so when it was
accidentally discovered how
earth-shatteringly like how many lives
were saved how many lives were improved
because of it it's you know what I was
having a conversation with one of my
clients the other day and her older
siblings were born before penicillin oh
wow he said the reason I'm not deaf is
because penicillin existed for me and
not for my brothers Wow right so
heartbreaking right yet at the same time
it's like of a new era
yeah right it's very cool so are we at
that point with cancer I don't think we
are but I'm hopeful I'm like I'm so
hopeful in humanity and and our our
ability to accomplish that because I
just want that yeah that's a good news
story yes big thanks to Roy W Nash Jacob
and our community of viewers for
submitting stories to us this week
thanks for watching the category-five TV
newsroom don't forget to Like and
subscribe for all your tech news with a
slight Linux bias and if you appreciate
what we do become a patron at
patreon.com slash newsroom from the
category-five TV newsroom I'm Sasha
Rickman and I'm Robbie Ferguson and I'm
Jeff Lester