‘Pandoraspear’ botnet hijacks smart TVs and boxes

Cybercrime syndicate Bigpanzi stands accused of orchestrating a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) botnet named 'Pandoraspear'.

Pandoraspear has reportedly infected potentially millions of smart TVs and set-top boxes, with at least 170,000 bots actively running during the campaign's peak.

The infection mechanism primarily targets Android-based smart TVs and streaming hardware, exploiting users who visit dubious streaming sites on their smartphones. Upon...

18 January 2024 | Consumer IoT & Wearables

Google is reportedly creating an AirTags competitor

Google appears to be working on its own tracker to compete with Apple’s AirTags.

Bluetooth-based trackers like Tile have been available for multiple platforms long before AirTags. As is often the case with Apple, the company took an existing idea and created a far better user experience.

Anyone who has used a Tile will be aware that finding items can often be problematic. Bluetooth doesn’t accurately report distance and connecting to a tracker is often difficult...

18 January 2023 | Applications

Opinion: Pixel Watch is more likely now a decent WearOS processor is available

Rumours of a Pixel Watch are now more believable following the release of a competent WearOS processor.

Unlike wearables from Apple and Samsung, Google relies heavily on third-parties. The main reason WearOS manufacturers have struggled is the inability to access hardware which can compete with the in-house chips used by Apple and Samsung for their wearables.

The main critiques of WearOS devices are they’re slow and have poor battery life. The OS didn’t help in the...

1 July 2020 | Applications