Here we are again, a little late getting this online, but it is Thanksgiving week! The podcast is here and the notes are below for the main topics.
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- Informed Delivery® by USPS – https://informeddelivery.usps.com
Digitally preview your mail and manage your packages scheduled to arrive soon! Informed Delivery allows you to view greyscale images of the exterior, address side of letter-sized mail pieces and track packages in one convenient location.Images are only provided for letter-sized mail pieces that are processed through USPS’ automated equipment.
- Informed Delivery® by USPS – https://informeddelivery.usps.com
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- Amazon Key Services – https://9to5mac.com/2017/10/25/amazon-launches-smart-lock-and-security-cam-system-to-take-in-home-deliveries-for-prime-members-with-iphone-app-alerts/
Amazon has today (Oct. 25th 2017) announced its latest expansion into smart home ecosystem, with a new Alexa Cloud Cam security camera ($120) and a new Amazon Key service, which works with some smart locks to allow Amazon couriers to unlock your front door and deliver packages inside your house.Amazon Key sends a notification to your iPhone that a courier is outside. If you aren’t at home, the Amazon courier will walk in and leave your parcel inside your house. You can use the security cam to keep eyes on the delivery person as they drop off your package.
Available to Amazon Prime members in select cities, Amazon Key leaves deliveries ‘just inside your front door’. The service is only available in certain areas and requires the purchase of Amazon Key compatible hardware.
Amazon is selling an ‘in-home kit’ which includes the Alexa Cloud Cam and a compatible smart lock for $250.
- Amazon Key Services – https://9to5mac.com/2017/10/25/amazon-launches-smart-lock-and-security-cam-system-to-take-in-home-deliveries-for-prime-members-with-iphone-app-alerts/
- ‘Payment by vein’ — Fingopay – bbc.com/news/technology-41346717
A supermarket in London is trialling a biometric payment system that uses the unique vein pattern in fingertips to pay for goods. Costcutter said it would consider rolling Fingopay out more widely if the test, at Brunel University, was successful. An electronic reader maps the user’s finger veins, generating a unique key.During registration, users need to link their finger pattern to their credit or debit card and then they can pay for goods without the need to be carrying any cash or cards. The technology has been developed by electronics giant Hitachi, with biometric payments company Sthaler licensed to roll it out in the retail sector.Nick Dryden, chief executive of Sthaler, said the system would appeal to young people. “Today’s millennial generation now expects a higher level of ease, security and efficiency from the way that we pay.” he said.
- Insulin Pump and Other Implantable Device Hacking – https://www.wired.com/2017/03/medical-devices-next-security-nightmare
HACKED MEDICAL DEVICES make for scary headlines. Dick Cheney ordered changes to his pacemaker to better protect it from hackers. Johnson & Johnson warned customers about a security bug in one of its insulin pumps last fall. And St. Jude has spent months dealing with the fallout of vulnerabilities in some of the company’s defibrillators, pacemakers, and other medical electronics. You’d think by now medical device companies would have learned something about security reform. Experts warn they haven’t.
