Tag Archive for: kitchen

Social Security numbers stolen in California Pizza Kitchen data breach


The Social Security numbers of more than 100,000 California Pizza Kitchen Inc. employees have been stolen in a data breach.

According to a Nov. 15 regulatory filing the company lodged with the Office of the Maine Attorney General, the data breach was detected in September. How the data was stolen was not specified and described only as an “external data breach (hacking).”

In a breach notice to employees, both current and former, the company provided further information, saying it had detected “suspicious activity in its computing environment” on Sept. 15. Having detected something untoward, California Pizza Kitchen then secured the computing environment and engaged third-party computer specialists to launch an investigation. By Oct. 4, it says, it had confirmed that certain files could have been accessed without authorization.

While Social Security numbers were highlighted in the breach notice, data stolen also included the names of former and current employees.

California Pizza Kitchen went on with a stock-standard response to a data breach: efforts to secure its systems from future attack, reporting the incident to law enforcement and offering employees credit protection.

In a regular data breach case, that might usually be the end of the story but in this case, the lawyers are already circling. The law firm Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP said in a statement today that it’s investigating claims on behalf of current and former employees of California Pizza Kitchen whose information may have been stolen.

Although it doesn’t provide proof, the law firm claims that the data may already be for sale on the dark web, a shady corner of the internet where illegal activity thrives. It’s not an unreasonable suggestion, but likewise, names and Social Security numbers alone are not as appealing as a full data set of employee information. Still, the stolen data, if matched with other stolen data, could easily be used for nefarious purposes.

“Every business like California Pizza Kitchen possesses valuable personally identifiable information data, which makes them a prime target for attackers,” Bassam Al-Khalidi, founder, co-founder and co-chief executive…

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Cosori Kitchen Appliance Security Flaws Found


Researchers from the Cisco Talos Intelligence Group have uncovered security vulnerabilities in a popular kitchen appliance, the Cosori Smart Air Fryer. The blog post confirming these vulnerabilities states that these could “hypothetically allow an adversary to change temperatures, cooking times and settings on the air fryer.” The remote code execution vulnerabilities, CVE-2020-28592 and CVE-2020-2859 could allow remote code injection by an attacker. Temperature and timer controls in the hands of a malicious attacker could prove dangerous in the extreme, but what is the real-world risk?

Vacuum cleaners, coffee machines and sex toys

The internet of not so smart things is a security and privacy nightmare, no doubt about that, but some vulnerabilities are more worrying than others.

Last year I reported on a robot vacuum cleaner that could be hacked to spy on the user. Out of the lab and in the real world, this would require a firmware update, access to the local network and the correct ambient light and sound levels to work.

There are, truth be told, much easier ways to use technology to eavesdrop on someone.

Smart lock issues, yep. Coffee machine ransomware, less so. Connected car hacking and even permanently locking an internet-connected chastity belt, well, yeah.

Air fryer hacking, not so much.

The problem with air fryer security vulnerabilities

Obviously, the ability to tamper with temperature and timer controls on a cooking device dangerous thing that, if successfully exploited, could potentially start a fire. So why am I not overly concerned about this one?

Well, to begin with, the researchers admit that the attacker “must have physical access to the air fryer for some of these vulnerabilities to work.” Given that there are only two vulnerabilities to begin with, the exploit opportunity has already shrunk considerably, it would seem to me.

OK, you have to allow for the ingenuity of persistent threat actors, which might see a scenario involving a stack of other exploits and malware to gain access to the local network and then the air fryer firmware. Still, it’s a bit of a stretch. At least as far as the average user, or rather risk to the average user,…

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The world’s first robotic kitchen prepares crab bisque for Ars Technica

“Are there any safety mechanisms to make sure it doesn’t accidentally blend my face if I get too close?” I asked the engineer, as I watched two humanoid robotic arms prepare a delicious crab bisque from scratch. The engineer took a moment to respond, not entirely sure of the correct answer. “Well… not really…”

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited along to a warehouse in north London to see what is being billed as “the world’s first automated kitchen.” The system, made by Moley Robotics in the UK, can only make crab bisque right now—and it requires that all of the ingredients and utensils are pre-positioned perfectly. The goal, though, is to have a consumer-ready version within two years, priced at around £10,000 ($ 14,600). The company envisions an “iTunes style library of recipes” that you can download and have your robot chef prepare.

In its current form, the Moley Robotic Kitchen is essentially two very expensive robotic arms, with two even dearer fully articulated biomimetic humanoid hands made by the Shadow Robot Company on the ends. In front of the robot is a kitchen—a sink, a stovetop, an oven, and a range of utensils, including the aforementioned blender. The ingredients are placed in bowls and cups on the worktop. Once everything is set up, an engineer simply presses “start” on the controlling PC, the robot arms whirl around for 30 minutes, and voilà: crab bisque.

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Ars Technica » Technology Lab

Police offer tips on home security – Carlsbad Current-Argus

CARLSBAD — A 76-year-old Carlsbad woman returned home one day to find broken glass on her kitchen floor.

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