Internet Security, Abuse, Data Harvesting, Etc.

[andydp]

We knew this was going to get ramped up.

Russia exploring options for potential cyberattacks on U.S. energy sector, FBI warns

The FBI has warned the U.S. energy sector about "network scanning activity" stemming from multiple Russia-based IP addresses. The activity is believed to be associated with cyber actors "who previously conducted destructive cyber activity against foreign critical infrastructure."

The FBI bulletin, issued March 18 and obtained by CBS News, was released just days before President Biden announced Monday that "evolving intelligence" suggests Russia is exploring options for potential cyberattacks targeting the U.S. homeland.

Federal law enforcement revealed that activity of Russian IP addresses "likely indicates early stages of reconnaissance, scanning networks for vulnerabilities for use in potential future intrusions."

<SNIP>

U.S. lawmakers and cybersecurity experts have long warned of the Kremlin using its Ukrainian neighbor as a "testing ground" for powerful cyber weapons.

The urgent memo to private sector owners and operators comes just days before the president is set to travel to Brussels Thursday for a NATO summit before heading to Poland.

"The magnitude of Russia's cyber capacity is fairly consequential," Mr. Biden said Monday, addressing the Business Roundtable, an association of some of the nation's largest corporations. "And it's coming."


www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-cyberattacks-us-energy-fbi-warning/?fbclid=IwAR3a5516lnPz6DeUqZK-_jnZi4q4GMO_xxhXk4E8J-C-cK1Un3JZ_50fai4

In our policy of fairness, here's is an opposing viewpoint.

Kremlin dismisses U.S. warning of potential Russian cyber attacks

March 22 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected U.S. warnings that it may be preparing to conduct cyber attacks in response to Western sanctions, and said it did not engage in "banditry".

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday told businesses to do more to protect themselves against possible cyber attacks by Russia, warning there was "evolving intelligence" that Moscow was exploring options on that front. read more

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "The Russian Federation, unlike many Western countries, including the United States, does not engage in state-level banditry."

www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-accuses-us-state-level-banditry-rejects-cyber-attack-plans-2022-03-22/?fbclid=IwAR2f2LBx6l7h5FBiwginPdhQzEegEmspVWRgSPXOB4nn7piuOtNIJXI77vE

[LFC]

BUSTED! The leader of this hacker group simply pissed off the wrong people.

City of London Police have arrested seven teenagers due to their suspected connections with a hacking group that is believed to be the recently prolific Lapsus$ group, BBC News reports.

“The City of London Police has been conducting an investigation with its partners into members of a hacking group,” Detective Inspector Michael O’Sullivan of the City of London Police said in a statement to The Verge. “Seven people between the ages of 16 and 21 have been arrested in connection with this investigation and have all been released under investigation. Our enquiries remain ongoing.”

Lapsus$ has taken responsibility for some major security breaches at tech companies, including Nvidia, Samsung, Ubisoft, Okta, and Microsoft. On Wednesday, reports surfaced indicating an Oxford-based teenager is the mastermind of the group. City of London Police did not say if this teenager was among those arrested.

At least one member of Lapsus$ was also apparently involved with a data breach at EA, cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs reported on Wednesday in an extensive article about the group. Vice corroborated the group’s involvement in that breach in its own article on Thursday, noting that it was “emblematic of Lapsus$’s subsequent and massive hacks.”

The suspected mastermind’s identity was apparently revealed by angry customers doxing him. According to Krebs’ report, the group’s leader purchased Doxbin, a site where people can share or find personal information on others, last year, but was a poor owner of the site. He apparently gave up control in January but leaked “the entire Doxbin data set” to Telegram, and the Doxbin community retaliated by doxing him.

[LFC]

We finally had enough of constant spam and high cost, including the cost of a service to reduce the spam, and got rid of our land line. Of course we're hardly the only ones who got spammed to death. Luckily so far it's quite rare on our cell phones.

What made the robocall invasion possible

Calling and texting anyone anywhere in the world has become relatively cheap and easy. There was a time when you had to go through a switchboard to be connected to another person. Up until a few decades ago, there were only a few phone companies in the country, and they owned all the phone lines. And long-distance calls cost a lot. This made it difficult and prohibitively expensive to embark on mass-calling operations at the scale we see today.

Then the Telecommunications Act of 1996 came along.

“Congress passed a law that broke up all the monopolies,” Jim Dalton, CEO of the robocall prevention software company TransNexus, told me.

“The good news is it allowed all these different companies to come in and create all kinds of innovation, which drove down the price to basically nothing,” Dalton said.

Innovations like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, which transmit calls over the internet rather than over wires. The bad news is, VoIP makes spoofing phone numbers — telling your phone’s caller ID that the call comes from a different number than it actually does — very simple, while autodialers that can call many people at the same time cost very little. It’s also a lot harder to track down and go after the people who do it, as is often the case with internet-based bad behavior. There are thousands of VoIP providers in this country alone, and some of them don’t care if their services are used by scammers.

That means there are lots of scammers using lots of services and technologies to make lots of calls and texts to run lots of scams on lots of us. Trying to stop them is a constant game of whack-a-mole; when one avenue of reaching us is shut down, another pops up. And when regulators tried to crack down on spoofed calls, scammers shifted to other means of reaching us. That’s why you’re getting more scam texts than you used to.

Or, as Dalton put it: “There is no integrity in the telephone network. It’s a free-for-all. You can do whatever the heck you want.”

To put that free-for-all in numbers: TNS says Americans got almost 80 billion in 2021; YouMail, a robocall blocking app, puts it at about 50 billion. Some truly unfortunate people get hundreds of calls a day. And if you think the number of scam calls you get on your mobile phone is bad, it’s even worse for landlines. TNS says that nearly half of all calls to landlines are unsolicited, compared to a fifth to wireless numbers. And then there are the texts. Robokiller, which makes a robocall blocking app, estimates that Americans got 86 billion spam texts last year — 55 percent more than the year before.

I still want us to implement the solution proposed by a Princeton professor where there is a 1 cent tax on every outbound call. That would impact consumers by pennies or maybe a few dollars. Large-scale spammers would be staring at bills in the millions.

[andydp]

More info in the IT "war" against Russia.

Volunteer hackers form 'IT Army' to help Ukraine fight Russia

... one of the things that we found that I found really interesting is that Russian hackers have this amazing reputation, right? They've hacked into Estonia's power grid. They've hacked into Ukraine's power grid. We just found out this week that the White House revealed that they've hacked into the U.S. power grid. So there's this sense that they're 10 feet tall. But what we're learning is that they're 10 feet tall when they have lots of time to plan, but they aren't all that creative or intuitive or nimble when they're hit with something they're not expecting.

So maybe the best thing that came out of all of this is maybe not so much that the Ukrainian IT army sort of hacked Russia in a way that changed things materially there. Instead, what they've done is they've kind of revealed what the weaknesses are of Russian cyber army, the same way the invasion of Ukraine has shown us that this 10 foot tall, we thought, Russian army is actually maybe not as skilled as we thought they were.

www.npr.org/2022/03/27/1089072560/volunteer-hackers-form-it-army-to-help-ukraine-fight-russia?fbclid=IwAR26RqAbz7ikNNggqvtpcBg8J4k0dCk7pm4CVmQiTueuxEciOIenlUgAdtc

Side note:  Russian Soldiers are trained to do exactly one "mission" at a time.  If they're done with a task, they will not take initiative to improve the position, or other tasks until told to do so.  It used to be Russian tanks only had receivers.  The only perople with two way radio were the commanders.  Its a heavily top down structure.  Creativity is not encouraged

[LFC]

Fake police stole data from both Meta and Apple.

Last year, cybercriminals used phony law enforcement data requests to steal an unknown amount of user information from Apple and Meta. The data requests were submitted to the tech companies using hacked police email accounts, making them appear to be from legitimate government sources.

Bloomberg reports that, in mid-2021, the two tech giants were fooled into handing over an unknown amount of “basic subscriber details”—including users’ home addresses, IP addresses, and telephone numbers. Snap Inc., the company that owns Snapchat, also received at least one similar request, but hasn’t said whether data was turned over as a result or not.

Exactly how many phony requests were directed to Apple and Meta and how much data was turned over is unclear at this point. We reached out to both companies for comment and will update this story if they respond.

In a statement provided to Bloomberg, Meta spokesman Andy Stone apparently told the outlet: “We review every data request for legal sufficiency and use advanced systems and processes to validate law enforcement requests and detect abuse.” He added: “We block known compromised accounts from making requests and work with law enforcement to respond to incidents involving suspected fraudulent requests, as we have done in this case.”

A Snap representative, meanwhile, couldn’t confirm or deny whether data had been turned over, but told Gizmodo that Snap had “safeguards” designed to “spot fraudulent law enforcement requests, including from hacked accounts.”

On Tuesday, cybersecurity blogger Brian Krebs broke the news about this weird new cybercrime trend—which sees hackers using compromised police email systems to submit fraudulent “emergency” data requests to tech companies. Such requests, known as EDRs, are used by police in time-sensitive, life or death situations, and do not require a court order. Thus, unlike other subpoenas, EDRs don’t involve extensive internal reviews and companies are more willing to turn over data quickly if the request comes from a reputable law enforcement agency. Unfortunately, police email login credentials can be purchased with relative ease on the dark web—making this practice not a huge stretch for the trained cybercriminal.

[LFC]

Israeli spyware company NSO, again.

European Commission officials were targeted by an unknown entity using spyware designed by the Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group, according to a report by Reuters. EC Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders and some of his staffers were among those who received warnings from Apple that their iPhones were “targeted by state-sponsored attackers” last November when thousands of the phone users also were told they were hacked. The commission then sent out a notice by email to the officials. “Given the nature of your responsibilities, you are a potential target,” one email seen by Reuters warned. The bulk of the breaches came between February and September of last year, when the members were targeted by someone using cyber surveillance spyware ForcedEntry, which is a product of the NSO Group generally sold to foreign spy agencies. NSO—already in litigation and blacklisted by the U.S. over human-rights abuses—responded to Reuters’ request for comment that it was not responsible for the hacks and that the incursions “could not have happened with NSO’s tools.”

[LFC]

More scary stuff.

Malware designed to target industrial control systems like power grids, factories, water utilities, and oil refineries represents a rare species of digital badness. So when the United States government warns of a piece of code built to target not just one of those industries, but potentially all of them, critical infrastructure owners worldwide should take notice.

On Wednesday, the Department of Energy, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the NSA, and the FBI jointly released an advisory about a new hacker toolset potentially capable of meddling with a wide range of industrial control system equipment. More than any previous industrial control system hacking toolkit, the malware contains an array of components designed to disrupt or take control of the functioning of devices, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that are sold by Schneider Electric and OMRON and are designed to serve as the interface between traditional computers and the actuators and sensors in industrial environments. Another component of the malware is designed to target Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) servers—the computers that communicate with those controllers.

"This is the most expansive industrial control system attack tool that anyone has ever documented," says Sergio Caltagirone, the vice president of threat intelligence at industrial-focused cybersecurity firm Dragos, which contributed research to the advisory and published its own report about the malware. Researchers at Mandiant, Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, and Schneider Electric also contributed to the advisory. “It’s like a Swiss Army knife with a huge number of pieces to it.”

Dragos says the malware has the ability to hijack target devices, disrupt or prevent operators from accessing them, permanently brick them, or even use them as a foothold to give hackers access to other parts of an industrial control system network. He notes that while the toolkit, which Dragos calls “Pipedream,” appears to specifically target Schneider Electric and OMRON PLCs, it does so by exploiting underlying software in those PLCs known as Codesys, which is used far more broadly across hundreds of other types of PLCs. This means that the malware could easily be adapted to work in almost any industrial environment. “This toolset is so big that it’s basically a free-for-all,” Caltagirone says. “There’s enough in here for everyone to worry about.”

[andydp]

NSO again...


Report: NSO Group's spyware is everywhere

Governments around the world have made even more extensive use of commercial spyware from Israel's NSO Group than previously known, according to new reporting in the New Yorker by Ronan Farrow.

Why it matters: Governments are simultaneously employing NSO's Pegasus software while grappling with the impact that it and similar tools can have when used against their interests.

Among the revelations:

The report says that "there is evidence that Pegasus is being used in at least 45 countries."
Pegasus and similar tools are being used by U.S. law enforcement agencies as well as those in Europe.

“The big, dirty secret is that governments are buying this stuff — not just authoritarian governments but all types of governments,” Microsoft executive Cristin Flynn Goodwin tells Farrow.
Catch up quick: Pegasus, NSO's flagship product, is used by governments to gain access to the contents of cell phones by exploiting flaws in the devices' operating systems and software.

Between the lines: One former Israeli intelligence official says that NSO prizes Western European customers because they lend more legitimacy to the company's products.

"Most of their business is subsidized by the Saudi Arabias of the world,” the official says.

The big picture: NSO Group, for all its success in infiltrating phones, faces a number of legal and financial hurdles.

Apple and Facebook are both suing NSO over its technology, while a number of spying targets have filed suit in courts around the world.

The company is also under financial pressure following a leveraged buyout that has left the company with significant debt.

www.axios.com/nso-group-pegasus-spyware-ronan-farrow-618a4b9c-5c53-4485-86ef-d3102cfae471.html

[LFC]

Lenovo laptops are in danger of getting malware that's nearly impossible to detect or remove.

Lenovo has released security updates for more than 100 laptop models to fix critical vulnerabilities that make it possible for advanced hackers to surreptitiously install malicious firmware that can be next to impossible to remove or, in some cases, to detect.

Three vulnerabilities affecting more than 1 million laptops can give hackers the ability to modify a computer’s UEFI. Short for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, the UEFI is the software that bridges a computer’s device firmware with its operating system. As the first piece of software to run when virtually any modern machine is turned on, it’s the initial link in the security chain. Because the UEFI resides in a flash chip on the motherboard, infections are difficult to detect and even harder to remove.

[LFC]

Another major Android bug, this one caused by not updating software and using a version of it that hasn't been updated since 2011.

Security researchers said they uncovered a vulnerability that could have allowed hackers to commandeer millions of Android devices equipped with mobile chipsets made by Qualcomm and MediaTek.

The vulnerability resided in ALAC—short for Apple Lossless Audio Codec and also known as Apple Lossless—which is an audio format introduced by Apple in 2004 to deliver lossless audio over the Internet. While Apple has updated its proprietary version of the decoder to fix security vulnerabilities over the years, an open-source version used by Qualcomm and MediaTek had not been updated since 2011.

Together, Qualcomm and MediaTek supply mobile chipsets for an estimated 95 percent of US Android devices.
Remote bugging device

The buggy ALAC code contained an out-of-bounds vulnerability, meaning it retrieved data from outside the limits of allocated memory. Hackers could exploit this mistake to force the decoder to execute malicious code that otherwise would be off-limits.

“The ALAC issues our researchers found could be used by an attacker for remote code execution attack (RCE) on a mobile device through a malformed audio file,” security firm Check Point said on Thursday. “RCE attacks allow an attacker to remotely execute malicious code on a computer. The impact of an RCE vulnerability can range from malware execution to an attacker gaining control over a user’s multimedia data, including streaming from a compromised machine’s camera.”

Check Point cited a researcher who suggested that two-thirds of all smartphones sold in 2021 are vulnerable to the attack unless they've received a patch.

The ALAC vulnerability—tracked as CVE-2021-30351 by Qualcomm and CVE-2021-0674 and CVE-2021-0675 by MediaTek—can also be exploited by an unprivileged Android app to escalate its system privileges to media data and the device microphone, raising the specter of eavesdropping on nearby conversations and other ambient sound.

[goldenvalley]

Just bought new washer and dryer...wifi enabled. Why?  Another way to hack into my phone, my house internet router?

[Bact PhD]

Apr 21, 2022 22:44:59 GMT goldenvalley said:

Just bought new washer and dryer...wifi enabled. Why?  Another way to hack into my phone, my house internet router?

Yeah, the set I bought about 3 years ago is “Wi-Fi enabled,” too. I never set it up; it struck me as a “feature” having more potential downside than upside.

Not only that, I’m dreading the day my 11-year-old refrigerator craps out and the stores will do their darnedest to sell me a “smart” refrigerator—just point me to the “dumb” ones, please.

[indy]

Literally had a new fridge delivered yesterday to replace the twenty something old one and, yes, they still make ones that are nice and dumb like the one we got. Basic brand name fridge (we tend to get GE because they last a really long time for us) runs about a thousand bucks less than a 'smart one'.

Still using the twenty something washer and dryer, also GE. I'm hoping by the time we need to buy new ones that by 'smart' they mean the washer moves the clothes into the dryer and the dryer folds and stacks.

[LFC]

We have a "smart" TV in the bedroom which we refuse to hook into our WiFi. Because it is now a computer filled with special apps it has the same issues like rebooting literally every single day. I have no issues with smart devices when it makes sense but too often the added complexity causes problems with basic functionality.

[Bact PhD]

Apr 21, 2022 23:33:33 GMT indy said:

Literally had a new fridge delivered yesterday to replace the twenty something old one and, yes, they still make ones that are nice and dumb like the one we got. Basic brand name fridge (we tend to get GE because they last a really long time for us) runs about a thousand bucks less than a 'smart one'.

Still using the twenty something washer and dryer, also GE. I'm hoping by the time we need to buy new ones that by 'smart' they mean the washer moves the clothes into the dryer and the dryer folds and stacks.

Good to know about the fridge. Our current one has already had compressor issues while under warranty, and I’m pessimistic about how much life it has left.

Love your definition of “smart” laundry appliances! The only thing I would add is “sort before washing” — that’s almost as time-consuming as stacking afterwards.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 21, 2022 23:33:33 GMT indy said:

Literally had a new fridge delivered yesterday to replace the twenty something old one and, yes, they still make ones that are nice and dumb like the one we got. Basic brand name fridge (we tend to get GE because they last a really long time for us) runs about a thousand bucks less than a 'smart one'.

Still using the twenty something washer and dryer, also GE. I'm hoping by the time we need to buy new ones that by 'smart' they mean the washer moves the clothes into the dryer and the dryer folds and stacks.

I wanted one that takes everything upstairs and puts it away.  Alas such a thing doesn't exist.  Our old equipment was showing every sign of needing repairs that there are probably no parts for.  This new stuff uses less water and now that I've run it a few times I realized just how bad the spin cycle on the old one was.  This set will last us until we die.

[indy]

Apr 21, 2022 23:51:26 GMT LFC said:

We have a "smart" TV in the bedroom which we refuse to hook into our WiFi. Because it is now a computer filled with special apps it has the same issues like rebooting literally every single day. I have no issues with smart devices when it makes sense but too often the added complexity causes problems with basic functionality.

I have only ever had the dumb TV and smart add on devices (Apple TV and Apple speakers for us) solution. You can replace an add on device every few years and get significantly enhanced hardware at a fraction of the cost of replacing everything if you want to though I haven't seen a need yet.

[indy]

Apr 22, 2022 4:43:15 GMT goldenvalley said:

Apr 21, 2022 23:33:33 GMT indy said:

Literally had a new fridge delivered yesterday to replace the twenty something old one and, yes, they still make ones that are nice and dumb like the one we got. Basic brand name fridge (we tend to get GE because they last a really long time for us) runs about a thousand bucks less than a 'smart one'.

Still using the twenty something washer and dryer, also GE. I'm hoping by the time we need to buy new ones that by 'smart' they mean the washer moves the clothes into the dryer and the dryer folds and stacks.

I wanted one that takes everything upstairs and puts it away.  Alas such a thing doesn't exist.  Our old equipment was showing every sign of needing repairs that there are probably no parts for.  This new stuff uses less water and now that I've run it a few times I realized just how bad the spin cycle on the old one was.  This set will last us until we die.

Just out of curiosity what does a smart washer and dryer even do? I mean I understand the less water thing but that doesn't require a wi-fi connection. Do they include any functions that might be useful?

[Bact PhD]

Apr 22, 2022 11:54:05 GMT indy said:

Apr 21, 2022 23:51:26 GMT LFC said:

We have a "smart" TV in the bedroom which we refuse to hook into our WiFi. Because it is now a computer filled with special apps it has the same issues like rebooting literally every single day. I have no issues with smart devices when it makes sense but too often the added complexity causes problems with basic functionality.

I have only ever had the dumb TV and smart add on devices (Apple TV and Apple speakers for us) solution. You can replace an add on device every few years and get significantly enhanced hardware at a fraction of the cost of replacing everything if you want to though I haven't seen a need yet.

Our TVs are “dumb”, except for the one in Dear Son’s room— the most recent purchase of a “family” set was right about the time the “smart” ones hit the mass market. We’ve had the networked DVD players, which as you pointed out, are far easier to replace when they crap out.

[Bact PhD]

Apr 22, 2022 12:03:07 GMT indy said:

Apr 22, 2022 4:43:15 GMT goldenvalley said:

I wanted one that takes everything upstairs and puts it away.  Alas such a thing doesn't exist.  Our old equipment was showing every sign of needing repairs that there are probably no parts for.  This new stuff uses less water and now that I've run it a few times I realized just how bad the spin cycle on the old one was.  This set will last us until we die.

Just out of curiosity what does a smart washer and dryer even do? I mean I understand the less water thing but that doesn't require a wi-fi connection. Do they include any functions that might be useful?

I seem to get no better than 7 years out of laundry appliances. The most recent replacement was in 2018, after the buttons on the 2011 GE literally stopped working.

The alleged advantages with the “smart” washer are the ability to custom-program a cycle (uh, ok) and connectivity with your phone so it can tell you when the load is done (I guess that’s useful if your house is that big).

[indy]

Apr 22, 2022 12:50:41 GMT Bact PhD said:

Apr 22, 2022 12:03:07 GMT indy said:

Just out of curiosity what does a smart washer and dryer even do? I mean I understand the less water thing but that doesn't require a wi-fi connection. Do they include any functions that might be useful?

I seem to get no better than 7 years out of laundry appliances. The most recent replacement was in 2018, after the buttons on the 2011 GE literally stopped working.

The alleged advantages with the “smart” washer are the ability to custom-program a cycle (uh, ok) and connectivity with your phone so it can tell you when the load is done (I guess that’s useful if your house is that big).

I generally will repair them myself, depending on what is wrong. I replaced the electronics board on our fridge went it went bad (bought a used one off ebay). This time the compressor died so not worth it.

Our washer is entirely mechanical---no electronics to speak of,  and I have replaced the agitators twice (kids overloaded it and stripped the plastic), replaced the pressure switch when it went bad, and have replaced a couple of the rotary switches (selects wash cycle, etc.). Probably some other stuff I have forgotten about.

Dryer I have replaced one maybe two rotary switches and otherwise trouble free.

I have replaced the oven igniter (at least twice) on the stove; electronics boards, igniter, flame detector, and vacuum switch on the furnace. Furnace has been---by far--the most troublesome but it is 22 now too.

All made possible with the help of youtube. Places that sell replacement parts will often have a video on how to replace the part they are selling.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 22, 2022 13:20:19 GMT indy said:

Apr 22, 2022 12:50:41 GMT Bact PhD said:

I seem to get no better than 7 years out of laundry appliances. The most recent replacement was in 2018, after the buttons on the 2011 GE literally stopped working.

The alleged advantages with the “smart” washer are the ability to custom-program a cycle (uh, ok) and connectivity with your phone so it can tell you when the load is done (I guess that’s useful if your house is that big).

I generally will repair them myself, depending on what is wrong. I replaced the electronics board on our fridge went it went bad (bought a used one off ebay). This time the compressor died so not worth it.

Our washer is entirely mechanical---no electronics to speak of,  and I have replaced the agitators twice (kids overloaded it and stripped the plastic), replaced the pressure switch when it went bad, and have replaced a couple of the rotary switches (selects wash cycle, etc.). Probably some other stuff I have forgotten about.

Dryer I have replaced one maybe two rotary switches and otherwise trouble free.

I have replaced the oven igniter (at least twice) on the stove; electronics boards, igniter, flame detector, and vacuum switch on the furnace. Furnace has been---by far--the most troublesome but it is 22 now too.

All made possible with the help of youtube. Places that sell replacement parts will often have a video on how to replace the part they are selling.

I was more interested in the front loaders, realizing that at some point bending down to reach the bottom of the washer will get difficult.  They don't make dumb versions of front loaders.  

I hear you on the mechanical aspects of your machine. I don't have the expertise to do it. Mostly, I don't have the desire to figure it out. I briefly looked at ye olde' Speed Queens which are about as stripped down as you get these days.  They remind me of the washers that were in my granddad's laundromat back in the 60's and 70's.  I think he always bought Frigidaires.  They were built for heavy use.

[indy]

Yeah, the learning curve is always a pain and I certainly understand the desire not to bother. What took me a couple of hours the first time I can now do in 10 minutes.

I tend to enjoy figuring out how these things work so part of the reason I suppose I became an engineer. Funny though I spent a lot of my time doing electronics stuff on the job, but it can take several hours to figure out what is wrong with a board (if you can figure it out at all) but I never, ever do that. It's just faster to replace the board and I can almost always find a replacement for 20 or 30 bucks. I have all the equipment and the knowledge but...I don't want to.

Getting a new fridge, however, requires shopping, delivery, installation and I live in a remote area with a long drive and lots of issues with big trucks. If I can fix it instead, then I will.

[LFC]

Apr 22, 2022 11:54:05 GMT indy said:

I have only ever had the dumb TV and smart add on devices (Apple TV and Apple speakers for us) solution.

We bought a 55" for when we finished the garage conversion a few months back. Every set we were interested in was "smart" with built-in streaming apps, ability to surf the web, blah, blah, blah. And the web is brimming with complaints about software bugs and even people with TVs that completely brick.

[LFC]

Apr 22, 2022 14:12:14 GMT indy said:

I have all the equipment and the knowledge but...I don't want to.

Reminded me of this classic line in Deadpool.