This week Ray, Tom and Sean discuss the hacking of the adultery-centric site Ashley Madison, drones causing problems for California firefighters, and security flaws in Jeep Cherokees. That and more on this episode of the Deemable Tech podcast.

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THIS WEEK’S RUNDOWN

Ashley Madison gets hacked

Last week, hackers targeted AshleyMadison.com, an online dating site for married people looking to have an affair, and claimed to have downloaded its complete database of 37 million user profiles. The hackers, who call themselves The Impact Team, are threatening to release all the profiles publicly unless Avid Life Media, the company that owns Ashley Madison, shutters the site permanently along with sister site EstablishedMen.com.

The hackers also take issue with Ashley Madison’s paid “full delete,” where the site charges users $19 to full erase their profile. The hackers claim that Ashley Madison does not in fact purge all of their records from their database, even after a full delete has been paid for.

Strangely, as of this podcast, the hackers have released only two of the 37 million profiles. One belongs to a man in Brockton, Massachusetts, the other to a man in Mississauga, Ontario, in Canada.

Stupid, stupid drones

Drones prevent firefighters from putting out a fire on the 15 Freeway in Southern California’s Cajon Pass. Cars were stopped on the 15 because of a wildfire and several caught fire. Firefighters were unable to get water to the cars because five drones were hovering over the site. Apparently this has been an ongoing issue with the wildfire that is so bad it’s been given a name, North Fire.

Drone operators have been flying around while firefighter helicopters have been trying to do their job. This particular incident was so bad, several people were severely burned, and twenty vehicles were completely destroyed. Two of the drones even pursued the helicopter.

In equally stupid drone news, an 18-year-old decided to attach a gun to a drone and fire the gun. He probably would have been fine if he hadn’t also decided to video record it and post the video to YouTube. The FAA is investigating the case to see if any federal laws were broken.

This isn’t the first time someone has weaponized a drone. In 2013 a company that creates screen protection built a drone, attached a gun to the gimble and shot some video of the Skynet-esque monstrosity shooting soda bottles and cans, and a Samsung Galaxy.

Hackers demonstrate exploit that allows them to remotely control Jeep Cherokee

Wired reports that white hat hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek were able to take control of a Jeep Cherokee using the Chrysler Uconnect system installed in the vehicle. The hackers performed their exploit remotely while Wired’s journalist was inside. The hacker’s code reportedly allows them to control the AC, change the volume of the stereo, control the transmission, disable the brakes, and kill the engine.

The hack comes just as senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal are introducing new legislation that will mandate digital security standards for cars and trucks.

Apple kicks Nest out of bed

Re/Code is reporting that the Apple Store no longer carries the Nest Thermostat, Nest Protect or Nest Cam online or in its retail stores.

This all happens of course after Google bought Nest last year, and Apple is about to launch the first of its HomeKit automation enabled products. No surprise, around the same time as the Nest Thermostat was taken off the shelves, the Ecobee 3, a wireless thermostat that does work with HomeKit quickly took its place.

Unfortunately, none of this is terribly surprising. Apple sold tons of fitness bands like the Jawbone Up and the Nike FuelBand… right up until they launched the Apple Watch when they quickly dumped the products off their shelves.

This could be a sign that Nest won’t support HomeKit. Which is sad for iPhone users who were looking forward to the day when we could tell Siri to turn the temperature down, like their Android friends can do with Google Now.

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