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The holiday season is all about spreading happiness. It is also the season of big sales for retail stores. Retailers have high hopes of ending the year with big profits. But just like many other things, . And that’s why retailers have to adjust their holiday sales strategy to achieve their year-end goals. holiday shopping will be different in 2020 If you own a retail business, this is how you should be . planning for holiday sales Make sure your physical store is safe Since the coronavirus pandemic has hit the world, people have abandoned physical stores and started buying online. But they miss the good old days of driving to the store and picking up things. I am sure you do too. The good news is . So chances are, this holiday season, you’ll see some of them back in stores. But before you do, first you have to make it safe for them to visit by . customers still like to shop in person corona-proofing your store Clean, clean, and clean your storefront, shelves, counters. Make hand sanitizer available to every walk-in customer. Make sure everybody maintains social distancing — your team and your customers. Minimize human contact with a contactless payment system. Set up your online store With the closure of physical stores, people are shopping online like crazy. According to a new forecast from Adobe Analytics, . With Black Friday and Cyber Monday already off this list, the prediction is coming very much true. US online holiday sales will increase upto 33% from 2019 It’s almost Christmas and New Year and the online sales situation is going to get even crazier. What does that mean for you and your retail business? Well, for a starter, you need to get your online store up and running. It’s not even that hard. All you need to do is use an e-commerce integration in your and you’ll have your online store in a few minutes. You can then set it up, , and get in the game of online holiday sales. point of sale (POS) software feature your best deals Create holiday gift guides Marking your physical location safe for in-store doorbusters, check! Setting up an e-commerce store for online deal-hunters, double-check! After playing it safe, it’s time to play smart. You have to attract customers to your physical and online store and win their sales. Here’s the first move: create holiday gift guides and share them with everyone. Take all of your products and services and feature them in a gift guide. Make sections like “gift ideas for mom”, “gift ideas for dad”, “gift ideas for teenage kids”, etc to help the readers see your products and services as things they can give their loved ones as presents. Once done, share your gift guide with everyone in your email and phone contacts. Don’t forget to post it on the social media pages of your business as well as your own personal accounts. Spread the word! Offer special discounts to first-time shoppers Now that you have done a great job designing your retail store’s special gift guide and sharing it with your potential customers, it’s time to really pull them to your store with special discounts offers. Do everything in your power to make it super hard for them to say no to your awesome holiday deals, especially the people who are shopping with you for the very first time. by offering exclusive discount offers for first-time buyers. From flat discount on all items, bargained products and services bundles, and buy one get one free offers, pull every marketing tactic to lead them straight to your store. Win new customers Host a holiday-themed contest Another smart move to attract holiday shoppers is by giving away free stuff. Hosting contests and giveaways are not only fun, but they also show your customers that you want to share the holiday love and happiness with them. What can be more beautiful than that? So, this holiday season, host a fun and cheering contest on social media. Ask people to buy something from your store to enter the contest and you’ll offer free products or services for three winners. Invite people to join in by tagging family and friends in your post and sharing it. The more audience for the post, the more participants for your contest, the more sales for your business. High-five! Steal hearts with free gift wrapping and shipping services As customers are shopping online, they expect you, the retailers, to deliver their orders at their doorsteps. But here’s the catch: they don’t want to pay extra for the delivery charges. But that’s okay because it’s the holiday season and they can act a little spoiled. Customers also have a lot of options to shop from. So what do you think they will prefer? A brand that offers free shipping or the one that charges them for delivery? Of course, the former. So be that. Want to throw an even better surprise? Complement the free shipping service with a free gift-wrapping service and make their holidays. But wait, all these extras will require you to be hyper-active with your job. From wrapping up all the gifts to adding the right shipping details and getting them delivered, . get your team ready for the holidays Collect tons of reviews Customers these days are smart and sharp. They always do their research before buying a new product or service. Do you want them to get yours? Impress them with customer reviews. Show them how good have you been to other customers and they’ll take their word for it. So, after all is said and done and you have closed your holiday sales with customers, don’t forget to take their reviews to bring in more and more sales. You don’t have to put too much effort in it. Just draft an email with your POS software and set it up as to be sent to every new customer and that’s it. While all these customers trust your business with their personal data, make sure you take all the necessary . steps to prevent holiday data breaches

Retailers Guide To Win Holiday Sales in 2020

What are Stablecoins? , stablecoins are digital currencies whose price is anchored to that of a stable value asset, such as a fiat currency or a commodity. Stablecoins aim for price stability by holding reserve assets as collateral or by using computational algorithms that are meant to regulate supply. As per Adam Hayes Stablecoins offer lower transaction costs and ease of payments, especially in cross-border transactions where the traditional banking system and fintech may levy high transaction fees or foreign exchange costs. For example, Paypal with a fixed fee ranging from 5 cents to 49 cents on online transactions and Venmo in some cases for online transactions. charges 1.9% to 3.49% transaction fees charges 3% , Tether transaction fees may have an average (mean) of 12.98 USD with a median fee of 3.44 USD. It is critical to note that stablecoins transaction costs may increase exponentially based on the day-to-day transaction activity of the underlying public blockchain, its underlying network usage and increase in gas fees etc. As per research conducted by Bruce Mizrach et al For instance, as per s, a data analytics provider, the currently is 19.84 USD as of 21st December 2022. Nevertheless, stablecoins on other blockchains such as TRON and BNB may not have these . Further, as the transaction size increases, the stablecoin transfer becomes more lucrative as the transaction fees are dependent upon underlying blockchain gas fees rather than a percentage of the value of the transaction. Ychart Ethereum average gas price issues Stablecoins can be for users in a : important number of ways Price stability: Because stablecoins are pegged to a stable asset, they are less prone to the price fluctuations that are common with other cryptocurrencies. This makes them more suitable for use as a medium of exchange, allowing users to transact with stablecoin without worrying about sudden changes in value. Hedging: Stablecoins can be easily converted back and forth between fiat currencies, making them more accessible and user-friendly for those who are not familiar with cryptocurrency. This can make it easier for users to participate in cryptocurrency-based transactions and payments, even if they are not comfortable with the volatility of other cryptocurrencies. For instance, stablecoins are by crypto traders and investors to quickly get into the US dollar or other fiat-denominated stablecoins when the price of Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency falls or volatility increases. This is comparatively easier and cost-effective than cashing out cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum every time into a US dollar or other fiat-denominated bank account as a hedge against volatility. used as a hedge Greater adoption: Stablecoins can help to promote the wider adoption of cryptocurrency by reducing the perceived risk and uncertainty associated with price volatility by providing users with an instrument to hedge against volatility risk in crypto. This can make it easier for users to use cryptocurrency for transactions and payments, which can help to drive greater adoption and use of cryptocurrency in the broader economy. In my opinion, stablecoins can be an important tool for users looking to use cryptocurrency for transactions and payments, as they offer a level of price stability and ease of use that is not always available with other cryptocurrencies. How Can Yuan-based Stablecoin Help Users Yuan-based stablecoins are digital assets that are pegged to the value of the Chinese yuan, which is the official currency of China. These stablecoins can be useful in a number of ways: Yuan-based stablecoins can be used to facilitate cross-border payments and transfers, especially in countries where the Chinese yuan is widely accepted or where there are restrictions on the use of other currencies. For instance, and even . International payments: Hong Kong Zimbabwe Yuan-based stablecoins can be used by individuals or businesses in countries where it is difficult to obtain or hold Chinese yuan. For instance, Yuan-based stablecoin can be used for bilateral trade between a company in the USA for paying a Chinese-based manufacturer in Shenzhen. Increased financial inclusion: Stablecoins can be used to facilitate transactions and settlements more quickly and efficiently than traditional methods, such as wire transfers or checks. For instance, an ACH transfer may take for clearing and settlement. Increased efficiency: upto 5 days Overall, yuan-based stablecoins have the potential to increase financial accessibility and efficiency, and to facilitate cross-border payments and transfers. TrueUSD Launches TNCH, a TRON-based Yuan Stablecoin The team has introduced a new stablecoin called TCNH that is 1:1 tied to the Offshore Chinese Yuan (CNH). Customers will be able to purchase, keep, and trade TCNH on TRON, one of the most rapidly expanding public blockchains. TrueUSD The TCNH stablecoin is anchored to the Offshore Chinese Yuan (CNH). Offshore currencies are defined as those that are held and exchanged outside of the issuing nation yet are not subjected to the financial legislation of that country. They are often used in international trade, investments, and settlements. The TCNH network is reliable and open. TCNH, like other TrueUSD offerings, has been thoroughly audited by some of the best accounting firms in the world to ensure it abides by all applicable legal and technical criteria. : Vested Interest Disclosure The author is an independent contributor publishing via our . Be it through direct compensation, media partnerships, or networking. The author has a vested interest in the company/ies mentioned in this story. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYOR brand-as-author program The tens of millions of TRON blockchain users now have a new choice thanks to TCNH. It's the most recent example of our efforts to bring fiat currency online and strengthen ties between the crypto and real-world economies. What is TrueUSD? TrueUSD (TUSD) is the first digital currency backed 1:1 with USD that has live on-chain attestations from impartial third-party organisations. As one of the leading accounting companies in the United States, Armanino provides real-time certification that TrueUSD maintains a 1:1 ratio between its USD reserve and its circulating token supply, as well as a 100% collateral rate. The audit reports are always accessible on , the official website, for users to peruse. tusd.io Don’t forget to like and share the story! Image credits: , jamable chan and jean beller. Eric Prouzet

TrueUSD Launches Chinese Yuan Based Offshore Stablecoin 

Indeed, the video has revolutionized the marketing world and is becoming one of the most profitable and trendy digital marketing approaches available till date. Well! It's not too hard to understand why started using video marketing, and out of those, 82% of businesses believe that videos are one of the vital parts of marketing strategy. 63% of the businesses Due to the high acceptance of appealing and short videos, Facebook and Instagram are leveraging the power of videos and taking over the news feed. Videos are not only easily accessible and versatile but also give a huge ROI by catching the visitor's eye and promoting the business. source: filmora.wondershare Why Businesses Should Use Video Marketing Here are some reasons why businesses should invest more in video marketing: 1. Boost Conversions and Sales Just think for a moment, what is the primary objective of organizations? Yes, making money and increasing business revenue is what every organization aims for. Seriously, adding videos in the business marketing strategy improves ROI by increasing the number of sales. According to , 90% of the customers agree that attractive and informative videos help them make the best purchasing decision. statistics Indeed, engaging potential customers online is not a cakewalk. But, adding videos on the landing page will not boost the website conversion rate upto but also increase business productivity. 80% Also, it is researched that 74% of the people who watch explainer videos are likely to purchase a specific product/service. So, it's better to craft appealing and informative product videos that hit the viewer's eye and produce powerful results. 2. More Appealing to Mobile Users There are no two opinions that mobile phones are taking over the world. Also, we cannot imagine a world without personalized devices as well as the internet. And the good news is that videos and mobile phones go hand in hand. Almost 90% of people prefer watching videos on their mobile devices. Even the youtube videos are mostly viewed by the people through their smart devices. It is also evaluated that the number of viewers watching videos will be increased by 100% every year. Annoyed by those intrusive ads of YouTube? Ever thought about YouTube without Ads? If yes, then we have an amazing solution for that and It is called ‘ ’. YouTube Vanced Also, as per , the number of people using mobile phones is twice than TV viewers and 1.4 times the desktop viewers. As the number of smartphone users is growing; therefore, creating mobile-friendly videos in a deliberate way can ensure success. Google 3. Gives a Better Ranking on Google Most of the marketers invest their huge time in implementing new strategies to increase the traffic and see the business in the top searches. Well! This is where video marketing comes into play. Incorporating videos in the marketing strategy not only boost website SEO but also increases the number of click-through-rates. According to the , if our website is embedded with videos, then it will be shown 53 times more on google. Moovly statistics Getting in the top searches and promoting business organically, is not a cup of tea for the marketers. But yes, attractive and informative videos on websites can help marketers make that dream a reality. So, make sure each video we create is fully optimized, including its script, title and meta description as it will encourage customers to take the next step without any second thought. Image source: oberlo 4. Build Trust with Audience Well! Trust is the foundation of every business and the backbone of sales and conversions. This is why each marketer aims to build strong relationships with the customers in the first go. Well! The entire concept of video content marketing is based on establishing an emotional connection and trust. Yes! It's time to let people choose your product instead of selling it. To make it possible, we need to execute our thoughts and useful information in an impressive way. Well! Videos do it all. Videos have the power to influence the viewers, ignite their emotions, build trust and inspire them to make a purchase. Although building a customer's trust by explaining products online is quite challenging, creating an effective marketing video gives viewers more confidence to purchase online. This is why youtube is becoming the most powerful platform to promote the brand. 5. Increases Social Shareable Videos are more likely to be shared on social media, which further improves brand awareness. Always remember, "the more the brand awareness, the more the business productivity." According to the , 92% of the people share videos after watching it, which is highly beneficial for marketers. Probability of the videos uploaded on social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube is high. However, video marketers should always remember that people share emotions instead of facts. statistics Well! Generating emotions will not increase the ROI but increase the number of social shares, which further increase the website traffic. Thus, to be competitive and get excellent results, we need to create short, engaging and educational videos that actually convert. 6. Explains Everything Explaining complex things online, especially in this fast-paced lifestyle where people look for more in a short time, is quite difficult. But video marketing makes it possible. Creating appealing explainer videos helps in clarifying the complex idea in a much simpler and engaging way. According to the research, 98% of the people say that after watching an explainer video, they are able to understand the product better and make an informed decision. That is why 45% of the organizations incorporate videos on their homepage. Animated videos not only help in bringing concepts into life with such ease but also engage even the laziest buyers effortlessly. Thus, animated videos are a perfect combination of simplicity, amusement, and satisfaction. So, let's create perfect videos to generate powerful results by following each step appropriately. source: Slides 7. Easy and Cost-effective Last but not the least reason is cost and ease. Most likely, marketers aim to generate higher revenue by investing less amount of money. Well! Videos fulfil the desire of marketers and help them target a huge audience at one time. For creating fascinating videos, all we need is a smartphone and excellent video editing software. There are both free and paid editing softwares that helps in creating professional videos and reaching the business targets. So, let's evaluate the business needs, understand our target audience and create real miracles through videos without investing much time and effort. The Last Say Well! There are no second thoughts that videos are becoming the most effective way for business to make strong relations with the customers and generate revenue. But to do this possible business requires knowledge and creativity. Hopefully, the points mentioned above helps in understanding why 90% of the businesses are relying on videos. So, let's pull up the socks and get ready to boost sales and productivity. It's time to experiment video marketing strategy and make it work through research, creativity and a nice plan. Definitely! It will work really well. Also, don't forget to share your experience in the comments.

7 Reasons to Use Video Marketing For Business Growth

Lets get started quickly. Numpy is a math library for python. It enables us to do computation efficiently and effectively. It is better than regular python because of it’s amazing capabilities. In this article I’m just going to introduce you to the basics of what is mostly required for machine learning and datascience. I’m not going to cover everything that’s possible with numpy library. This is the part one of numpy tutorial series. The first thing I want to introduce you to is the way you import it. import numpy as np Okay, now we’re telling python that “np” is the official reference to numpy from further on. Let’s create python array and np array. # python arraya = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] # numpy arrayA = np.array([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]) If I were to print them, I wouldn’t see much difference. print(a)print(A)====================================================================[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9][1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9] Okay, but why do I have to use an np array instead of a regular array? The answer is that np arrays are better interms of faster computation and ease of manipulation. More on those details here, if you’re interested: _Is it worth my learning NumPy? I have approximately 100 financial markets series, and I am going to create a cube array…_stackoverflow.com Why NumPy instead of Python lists? Let’s proceed further with more cool stuff. Wait, there was nothing cool we saw yet! Okay, here’s something: np.arange() np.arange(0,10,2)====================================================================array([0, 2, 4, 6, 8]) What arange([start],stop,[step]) does is that it arranges numbers from starting to stop, in steps of step. Here is what it means for np.arange(0,10,2): return an np list starting from 0 all the way upto 10 but don’t include 10 and increment numbers by 2 each time. So, that’s how we get : array([0, 2, 4, 6, 8]) important thing remember here is that the stopping number is not going to be included in the list. another example: np.arange(2,29,5)====================================================================array([ 2,  7, 12, 17, 22, 27]) Before I proceed further, I’ll have to warn you that this “array” is interchangeably called “matrix” or also “vector”. So don’t get panicked when I say for example “Matrix shape is 2 X 3”. All it means is that array looks something like this: array([ 2,  7, 12,],[17, 22, 27]) Now, Let’s talk about the shape of a default np array. Shape is an attribute for np array. When a default array, say for example A is called with shape, here is how it looks. A = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]A.shape====================================================================(9,) This is a rank 1 matrix(array), where it just has 9 elements in a row. Ideally it should be a 1 X 9 matrix right? I agree with you, so that’s where reshape() comes into play. It is a method that changes the dimensions of your original matrix into your desired dimension. Let’s look at reshape in action. You can pass a tuple of whatever dimension you want as long as the reshaped matrix and original matrix have the same number of elements. A = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]A.reshape(1,9)====================================================================array([[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]]) Notice that reshape returns a multi-dim matrix. Two square brackets in the beginning indicate that. [[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]] is a potentially multi-dim matrix as opposed to [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. Another example: B = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]B.reshape(3,3)====================================================================array([[1, 2, 3],[4, 5, 6],[7, 8, 9]]) If I look at B’s shape, it’s going to be (3,3): B.shape====================================================================(3,3) Perfect. Let’s proceed to np.zeros(). This time it’s your job to tell me what happens looking at this code: np.zeros((4,3))====================================================================??????????? Good, if you thought it’s going to print a 4 X 3 matrix filled with zeros. Here’s the output: np.zeros((4,3))====================================================================array([[ 0.,  0.,  0.],[ 0.,  0.,  0.],[ 0.,  0.,  0.],[ 0.,  0.,  0.]]) np.zeros((n,m)) returns an matrix that contains zeros. It’s as simple as that. n x m Let’s guess again here: what does is np.eye() do? Hint: eye() stands for Identity. np.eye(5)====================================================================array([[ 1.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.],[ 0.,  1.,  0.,  0.,  0.],[ 0.,  0.,  1.,  0.,  0.],[ 0.,  0.,  0.,  1.,  0.],[ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  1.]]) np.eye() returns an identity matrix with the specified dimensions. What if we have to multiply 2 matrices? No problem, we have np.dot(). np.dot() performs matrix multiplication, provided both the matrices are “multiply-able”. It just means that the number of columns of the first matrix must match the number of rows in second matrix. ex: A = (2,3) & B=(3,2). Here number of cols in A= 3. Number of rows in B = 3. Since they match, multiplication is possible. Let’s illustrate multiplication via np code: # generate an identity matrix of (3 x 3)I = np.eye(3)I====================================================================array([[ 1.,  0.,  0.],[ 0.,  1.,  0.],[ 0.,  0.,  1.]]) # generate another (3 x 3) matrix to be multiplied.D = np.arange(1,10).reshape(3,3)D====================================================================array([[1, 2, 3],[4, 5, 6],[7, 8, 9]]) We now prepared both the matrices to be multiplied. Let’s see them in action. # perform actual dot product.M = np.dot(D,I)M====================================================================array([[ 1.,  2.,  3.],[ 4.,  5.,  6.],[ 7.,  8.,  9.]]) Great! Now you know how easy and possible it is to multiply matrices! Also, notice that the entire array is now float type. What about adding Elements of the matrix? # add all the elements of matrix.sum_val = np.sum(M)sum_val====================================================================45.0 np.sum() adds all the elements of the matrix. However are 2 variants. 1. Sum along the rows. # sum along the rowsnp.sum(M,axis=1)====================================================================array([  6.,  15.,  24.]) 6 is the sum of 1st row (1, 2, 3). 15 is the sum of 2nd row (4, 5, 6). 24 is the sum of 3rd row (7, 8, 9). 2. Sum along the columns. # sum along the colsnp.sum(M,axis=0)====================================================================array([ 12.,  15.,  18.]) 12 is the sum of 1st col (1, 4, 7). 15 is the sum of 2nd col (2, 5, 8). 18 is the sum of 3rd col (3, 6, 9). . That’s it at this point. Here is the follow up tutorial — part 2 Here’s a video tutorial explaining everything that I did if you’re interested to consume via video. If you’re interested to learn pandas, I wrote a tutorial article . It’s called here Intro to Pandas: -1 : An absolute beginners guide to Machine Learning and Data science If you liked this article, a clap/recommendation would be really appreciated. It helps me to write more such articles.

Introduction to Numpy -1 : An absolute beginners guide to Machine Learning and Data science.

Free internet — open wifi connections, sounds tempting but is it actually free? May be you are paying the cost with your identity! Imagine you are waiting in an airport, 5 hr transit for your next flight, Bored and nothing to do. You pick up your smart phone to pass time, but soon realize it’s not so smart without a internet connection. Which reminds you to check if there are any wifi connections around. And boom, there are many free wifi connections hosted from near by shops and airport itself. without thinking twice you connect to a wifi after filling unremarkable form it throws at you with your passport number, name, flight details etc. Or may be with your email or Facebook credentials. Congratulations!! you just gambled your identity for few mega bytes worth of internet. Open wifi connections were considered security nightmare from the beginning. But since there are no easy alternatives, open wifi connections still remain widely used in all most all public locations such as coffee shops, airports etc. Traditional open wifi hacking involves bit of manual work. Hacker needs to perform attack usually with . since websites nowadays are channel encrypted this involves more work such as “SSL striping” to get most out of it. This is doable, but not practical to do with this approach. MITM ARP Poisoning credential harvesting With development of IoT there are disturbingly easy ways for from public wifi’s. In this article i’m going to explain a simple POC which proves this in summary. credential harvesting Device used for the POC: ESP8266 ESP8266 12E NodeMCU module With latest trend in IoT there’s huge demand for low power/ low cost SoC (system on chip) with build-in connectivity features. esp8266 was manufactured by “Espressif Systems” to cater this gap in 2013. It soon got popular among IoT enthusiasts and related businesses. esp8266 supports TCP/IP stack apart from it’s microcontroller capabilities. Main advantage of this tiny/cheap chip is that it supports wifi connectivity, with full TCP/IP stack and IEEE 802.11 b/g/n WLAN protocol. Which opens up endless possibilities in IoT domain (as well as in hacking domain). Tensilica Xtensa L106 - 80MHz(default mode) or 160MHz 512 KB to 4 MB typically included in commercial variants. (supported upto 16MB) WiFi (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n) 32 KB instruction RAM, 32 KB instruction cache RAM, 80 KB user data RAM ESP8266 Feature Highlights : MCU: External flash memory: Connectivity: RAM: Quick search on will show number of esp8266 devices exposed through internet. Numbers are increasing as it’s gaining huge popularity among IoT communities. There are various development boards released with this chip as well. Further, this chip is commonly available to buy starting from 2 USDs from ebay. shodan.io In this article i’m going to explain how two esp8266 devices can be used for open wifi credential harvesting attacks. Step 1 : De-authenticate connected clients from target Access Point(s) First, the attacker needs to de-authenticate client devices connected (and connecting) to free wifi access points. (Even though this step is not mandatory it will increase success rate of the attack) In order achieve this, attacker can exploit a major flaw in IEEE 802.11 WLAN protocol prior to amendment. In early IEEE 802.11 specifications(prior to 2009), management frames (which are responsible to authenticate, maintain and discontinue the communication) are not protected from underlying encryption mechanism. This enables anyone whom within the range of the target station to de-authenticate from access point by sending de-auth frames to the target station. IEEE 802.11w-2009 If you are curious about these frames you can use following search filter in wireshark to filter de-authenticate frames. First you need to put your wifi adapter in ‘monitor mode’ on a selected channel. (There are tons of out there how to monitor wifi packets using wireshark) tutorials (wlan.fc.type == 0)&&(wlan.fc.type_subtype == 12) Filter 802.11 management frames Filter ‘de-authenticate’ frames ( ) (wlan.fc.type==0): (wlan.fc.type_subtype==12): subtype 12 If you open up the ‘monitor mode’ for all the channels and in a congested area with lots of wireless devices, you’ll soon capture deauth frames through wireshark. 802.11 deauth frame If an attacker can replay these deauth frames continuously to a router or client station, it will fail to establish successful authentication. This vulnerability has already been fixed in IEEE 802.11 protocol for protected access points since 2009. But as wifi access points need to be backward compatible with old IEEE 802.11 specifications this vulnerability still remains intact in all most all commercial routers. Further, in this scenario wifi traffic won’t get encrypted as wifi connections are open. Therefore, management frames will remain unprotected in open wifi connections despite IEEE 802.11 2009 amendment. ESP8266 based WiFi Deauthenticator I’m not going to do a step by step walk-through how to create a ESP based deauthenticator. As there’s a well documented and many online tutorials how to use esp8266 as a wifi deauthenticator based on above mentioned vulnerability. open source project spacehuhn/esp8266_deauther Unlike a wifi jammer which adds noise to wifi communication frequencies (which disable all wifi communication within range), with this approach attacker can disable given target access points (eg: target open wifi access points) as required. Step 2 : Pretend to be the public wifi captive portal When a user can’t make successful connection to a legit open wifi access point, will eventually attempt for other available open wifi options. Now attacker just needs to host an open wifi access point with spoofing to harvest credentials from target audience. captive portal ESP8266 based Captive Portal Server esp8266 can act as a fully capable REST compliant server. For a single chip system this is pretty amazing. For just little as 2USD now you can get device powerful enough to host several web services. With some fiddling I was able to develop POC captive portal server which support following features : Captive portal which supports multiple platforms (windows, ubuntu, android) DNS server to spoof any inbound traffic Handle http rest requests and mechanism to stream resources to client Use builtin SPIFFS memory to store web pages(with js,css support) Write inputs from client to SPIFFS (on REST post request from client) Access and manage SPIFFS memory remotely. Quick Demo Captive portal initial login page when connects to wifi access point Captive portal popups upon connect 2. SSO(single sign-on) style credential spoofing This can be used to spoof credentials from any identity provider. it’s just a matter of adding convincing UI This is just a POC and facebook login is nothing like the actual facebook login UI. Adding a convincing UI with proper java script validations are really easy as all those are done from client device. esp8266 just need to stream html, css and java script resources when requested by client. Additionally credentials can validated by actual sso implementation with identity provider as well. If provided credentials are invalid login failure flow can be implemented. 3. Settings page for maintenance Hidden settings page for maintenance and collect credentials Hacker can do all maintenance and credential collections remotely by connecting just as another client. Since esp8266 have limited memory(4MB) data needs to be collected and clear before data file grow beyond memory limits.This can be further improved by adding simple monitor to data file size and upload the file if size exceeds certain limit. With this, hacker won’t have any direct involvement with the device as well. Another major advantage of esp8266 is that it can act as a dns server. Therefore, it can mimic any hostname(ex: www.facebook.poc.com). For the sake this POC all requests were routed to “192.168.1.1” regardless of the hostname. I’m not going to walk-through the code base and implementation as it will make this article unnecessarily lengthy. Project files can be found in my git repository for reference. https://github.com/pumudu88/esp8266 Scariest part is that hacker don’t have to click a single button to perform this type of attack. Hacker just need to prepare both esp8266 devices (step1:deauthenticator and step2:captive portal server) and place them securely near target audience. Thanks to esp8266 low power consumption, it will last weeks or may be months without need of a battery replacement as well. Epilogue ESP8266 certainly not the the only SoC device which capable of this type of attack. But it’s the easiest do such attack with minimum cost and effort. Further, manufacturers are developing new advanced SoCs with much higher capabilities. For example esp32 which got released in 2016. It’s the successor of esp8266 which contains Bluetooth, in addition to wifi connectivity. With advancements of IoT devices, there are silent security threats which can emerge out of nowhere. Users no longer have privilege to shutoff from security aspects, thinking no one will ever be interested in their identity. Unless they want some random hacker selling their identity along with thousands of other harvested credentials in dark web to some unknown party. THIS ARTICLE IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. IF WIFI AND INTERNET USERS UNDERSTAND HOW ONE MAY CIRCUMVENT THEIR SECURITY THEN THEY HAVE THE CHANCE TO PROTECT AGAINST SUCH SECURITY BREACHES. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR RECKLESS USE OF KNOWLEDGE IN THIS ARTICLE. DISCLAIMER :

Open WiFi Credential Harvesting - IoT Edition

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is part of the HackerNoon Books series. Read this book online for free on HackerNoon! Title: The Jungle Author: Upton Sinclair Release Date: June, 1994 [eBook #140] Language: English TABLE OF LINKS Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Upton Sinclair. (1994). THE JUNGLE. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved April 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html . Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair  - Table of Links

SEC v. Ripple Court Filing, retrieved on July 13, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This part is 16 of 18. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here DISCUSSION II. Analysis B. Defendants’ Offers and Sales of XRP 5. Defendants’ Due Process Defenses Defendants each assert a “fair notice” defense, claiming that the SEC violated their due process rights; Larsen and Garlinghouse also assert an as-applied vagueness defense based on the same due process principles. See Defs. Opp. at 43 & n.28; see also ECF No. 51 at 97–99; ECF No. 462 at 97–99; ECF No. 463 at 103–05. “A fundamental principle in our legal system is that laws which regulate persons or entities must give fair notice of conduct that is forbidden or required.” FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., 567 U.S. 239, 253 (2012). This clarity requirement is “essential to the protections provided by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment,” and “requires the invalidation of laws that are impermissibly vague.” Id. Laws fail to comport with due process when they (1) “fail[] to provide a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice of what is prohibited,” or (2) are so standardless that they authorize or encourage “seriously discriminatory enforcement.” Id. (citation omitted). This “assessment cannot be conducted in the abstract; rather . . . the party claiming a lack of notice [must] show[] ‘that the statute in question provided insufficient notice that his or her behavior at issue was prohibited.’” ECF No. 440 at 8 (quoting Copeland v. Vance, 893 F.3d 101, 110 (2d Cir. 2018)). “[T]he evaluation of any fair notice defense is objective—it does not require inquiry into ‘whether a particular [party] actually received a warning that alerted him or her to the danger of being held to account for the behavior in question.’” Id. at 10 n.5 (quoting United States v. Smith, 985 F. Supp. 2d 547, 587 (S.D.N.Y. 2014), aff’d sub nom. United States v. Halloran, 664 F. App’x 23 (2d Cir. 2016)). The Court rejects Defendants’ fair notice and vagueness defenses as to the Institutional Sales. First, the caselaw that defines an investment contract provides a person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to understand what conduct it covers. See Copeland, 893 F.3d at 114. Howey sets forth a clear test for determining what constitutes an investment contract, and Howey’s progeny provides guidance on how to apply that test to a variety of factual scenarios. See Smith, 985 F. Supp. 2d at 588 (“[I]t is not only the language of a statute that can provide the requisite fair notice; judicial decisions interpreting that statute can do so as well.”). That is constitutionally sufficient to satisfy due process. See United States v. Zaslavskiy, No. 17 Cr. 647, 2018 WL 4346339, at *9 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 11, 2018) (“[T]he abundance of caselaw interpreting and applying Howey at all levels of the judiciary, as well as related guidance issued by the SEC as to the scope of its regulatory authority and enforcement power, provide all the notice that is constitutionally required.”). Second, the caselaw articulates sufficiently clear standards to eliminate the risk of arbitrary enforcement. Howey is an objective test that provides the flexibility necessary for the assessment of a wide range of contracts, transactions, and schemes. Defendants focus on the SEC’s failure to issue guidance on digital assets and its inconsistent statements and approaches to regulating the sale of digital assets as investment contracts. See Defs. Opp. at 45–52. But the SEC’s approach to enforcement, at least as to the Institutional Sales,[20] is consistent with the enforcement actions that the agency has brought relating to the sale of other digital assets to buyers pursuant to written contracts and for the purpose of fundraising. See, e.g., Telegram, 448 F. Supp. 3d 352; Kik, 492 F. Supp. 3d 169. Moreover, the law does not require the SEC to warn all potential violators on an individual or industry level. See Dickerson v. Napolitano, 604 F.3d 732, 745–46 (2d Cir. 2010) (“Courts ask whether the law presents an ordinary person with sufficient notice of or the opportunity to understand what conduct is prohibited or proscribed, not whether a particular [party] actually received a warning that alerted him or her to the danger of being held to account for the behavior in question.” (cleaned up)). Accordingly, the SEC’s motion for summary judgment is GRANTED as to the Institutional Sales and otherwise DENIED, and Defendants’ motion for summary judgment is GRANTED as to the Programmatic Sales, the Other Distributions, and Larsen’s and Garlinghouse’s sales, and DENIED as to the Institutional Sales. [20] Because the Court finds that only the Institutional Sales constituted the offer and sale of investment contracts, the Court does not address Defendants’ asserted fair notice defense as to the other transactions and schemes. The Court’s holding is limited to the Institutional Sales because the SEC’s theories as to the other sales in this case are potentially inconsistent with its enforcement in prior digital asset cases. See Upton v. SEC, 75 F.3d 92, 98 (2d Cir. 1996). Continue Reading . here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case 1:20-cv-10832-AT-SN retrieved on September 7, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. dropbox

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