Light Start: Teen arrested for Twitter hack, SpaceX brings astronauts back, Evetech facing consumer flack and watch Galaxy Unpacked

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Teenager arrested for the major Twitter hack

Remember that massive Twitter hack the other day? One of the most impressive social media hacks of the decade? US authorities have arrested a 17-year-old Florida native for the attack, along with another two adults. This is the point where you wonder ‘what am I doing with my life?’ because a teenager made thousands from hacking a service that should be unhackable. 

The Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren announced that 17-year-old Graham Clark was taken into custody Friday — that’s two weeks after the massive hack was conducted. In the hack, tech CEOs and celebrity accounts were targeted in a bitcoin scam. Unsurprisingly, there are enough naive people on the internet to send large amounts of bitcoin to ‘trustworthy’ tech CEOs and celebrities. A teenager became rich as a result, albeit temporarily.  Clark has been charged with 30 felony counts, including organised fraud over $50,000, fraudulent use of personal information and access to computer or electronic devices without authority.

The hack prompted followers of the accounts to send bitcoin to a specified wallet, promising double the amount of Bitcoin in return. Because, that makes sense, right? Unfortunately many fell for the scam, and Clark made over $100,000. Apparently Clarke is being tried as an adult because ‘this is not an ordinary 17-year-old’, according to the state attorney.

Source: The Verge [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

SpaceX brings astronauts back to earth safely

Thanks to SpaceX Crew Dragon, two Nasa astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley safely splashed down off the coast of Florida last week. It feels like they just left, we know. The astronauts spent a well-deserved two-month holiday away from earth, which is going through some stuff at the moment. 

While vacationing, they were also making history. They were the first Nasa astronauts to hitch a ride on a privately designed and manufactured spacecraft and rocket as part of the SpaceX Demo-2 mission. This was an important mission for SpaceX to show that its capsules are safe enough to carry humans. “We completed all the objectives for the mission while we were docked and figured out if crew could live in Dragon,” said Steve Stich, the program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program during a press conference last week. At last, we have a safe way to travel the cosmos as humans. 

Behnken and Hurley safely landed in the Atlantic ocean using a parachute. They continued to chill in the capsule until a SpaceX-operated ship came to their rescue. This was the first ocean recovery of a crewed capsule in 45 years. Let that sink in. 

Source: Wired[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Evetech may be facing the consumer protection act

Evetech has grown immensely in popularity over the past few years as the go-to-shop for PC parts and gaming peripherals. Now the company has come under fire because of dodgy business practices, according to online forum Carbonite. 

Carbonite is a PC/hardware classifieds forum for South African PC and hardware consumers. Recently, the owner of the forum announced that it has decided to ban Evetech from the site completely. The post cited the retailer’s “… blatant disregard for decency with regards to their warranties”. This followed numerous customer reviews of the company and its business methods. This includes a customer and Carbonite user that bought a PSU (power supply unit) from the company, after which it stopped working within two months. According to Evetech, it was covered in the warranty within that time period, but Evetech only gave the customer R900 store credit, instead of the full value (R1,300) of the product citing depreciation and use of the PSU as the reason. The customer complained, and Evetech offered them a replacement product valued at R1,200. 

This is a developing story, and we’ll have to wait and see whether charges are laid against Evetech in accordance with the consumer protection act of South Africa. This isn’t the first time this has happened, with negative customer reviews bombarding the company’s social accounts in recent weeks.  

Source: Carbonite[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

How to watch Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event in SA

It’s that time of the year, folks. Samsung is unveiling a slew of new products this week, and we’re geared and ready to see what they’ve been up to this year. The August event generally reveals the latest in the Note range, and a whole lot of rumours and leaks confirm we’ll see the Galaxy Note 20 lineup announced on Wednesday at Galaxy unpacked. 

The event will be held on Wednesday at 16:00 CAT, and there we’ll see the new Note devices, the new Galaxy Z Fold 2 foldable phone, the Galaxy Watch 3 and the Galaxy Buds Live (aka Bean) wireless earbuds. Last but not least, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 tablet will do its best to upstage the iPad Pro, we reckon. Samsung has been hinting at the devices for the past few weeks, and we might see even more than that. 

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2020 will be streaming live on Wednesday, 5 August, and will be broadcast on Samsung Newsroom as well as Samsung’s website. We also expect the event to stream from Samsung’s YouTube channel.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]