6.7 Inch iPhone- Thinner Yet; Cal Uber Drivers to Set Own Pricing; Citrix Pushes VPN Patch; FBI Grabs Data Breach Selling Site

The latest iPhone rumors have a 6.7 inch model that’s been on a reducing plan…it is rumored to be 7.4mm thick, which is 10% thinner than the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Macrumors.com also reports that all 4 new iPhones will have OLED displays and Face ID. The smaller 5.4 inch screen model and a 6.1 inch model will have two rear cams, with the other two phones having 3. In addition, the big, 6.7 inch model will have larger sensors for its cams than the 11 Pro Max. We may yet see someday actual phones like the parody one with the entire back covered with camera lenses!

In one response to California’s new gig work law, Uber is going to let drivers increase fares in 10% increments over the base fare set by Uber….for up to 5 times the base price! According to theverge.com, this would create a bidding system where drivers that keep the price down will get the first customers. For now, the test is limited to drivers who are making trips from airports in Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, and Sacramento. (Interestingly, this is happening since a major airport van service folded up at the end of 2019…nothing like raising prices when there’s less outside competition!) Uber hopes the new pricing will help them continue to classify drivers as independent contractors, and not employees under the new California law. With Uber’s new system, riders are no longer given an exact price up front…it’s a price ‘range.’ Passengers will also be able to select specific ‘favorites’ and request them again.

Another day, another way for hackers to get into systems. Sigh. Citrix has released some patches for a vulnerability in its Citrix Application Delivery Controller and Citrix Gateway VPN servers. The hold allowed an attacker to remotely execute code on the gateway without a login. There are tens of thousands of known VPN servers, including at least 260 at federal, state, and local government agencies. Arstechnica.com says that at least two VPNs were operated by the US Army! The patches are for versions 11.1 and 12.0, which used to be marketed under the NetScaler name. More patches will be out on January 24th. There are at least 26,000 VPN servers that need to be patched…pronto!

In part of an international operation, the FBI seized and shut down a website called WeLeakInfo. The thieves had sold private user data from over 10,000 data breaches. According to engadget.com, cops in Northern Ireland and the Netherlands hauled in two 22 year olds connected with the site. The site claimed to have over 12 billion usernames and passwords from some 10,000+ breaches at various companies and websites. The operators had organized the info into an easily searchable database, letting users look up and email address and find what passwords, names, phone numbers, and IP addresses were linked. Access by subscription was for as little as $2!