Mylan CEO and noted liar Heather Bresch testifying on Capitol Hill before the House Oversight Committee hearing on EpiPen price increases in September 2016 (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
This year’s worldwide recall of defective EpiPens has put people with severe allergies on alert. And now allergy sufferers have even more reasons to worry. Faulty EpiPens have been cited in the deaths of at least seven Americans so far this year, according to FDA reports that have only been made public this week.
Bloomberg News recently submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FDA for information about deaths associated in any way with the defective EpiPens. The cases at the FDA are self-reported by patients and doctors, which means that it’s a conservative estimate that probably under-counts the problem.
Bloomberg obtained data of EpiPen failures generally (with and without deaths), and the trend isn’t good. While there were just four failures of EpiPens reported in 2012, those numbers jumped to 12 failures in 2013 and 67 failures in 2014. As of mid-September, the FDA has received a whopping 228 reports of EpiPens failing to work as intended in 2017. Of the 228 EpiPen failures so far this year, thirty-five people were hospitalized and seven people died.
Mylan, the maker of the EpiPen, would prefer not to take any substantial portion of the blame. The notoriously confrontational drug company has said that it’s “confident in the quality, safety and efficacy of EpiPens†but seemed to have a tough-shit attitude about the news that people are dying while trying to use the product.
“One needs to keep in mind that an anaphylaxis event can be deadly and, sadly, even an appropriately administered dose of epinephrine from a fully functional device may not prevent a patient from dying,†Mylan told Bloomberg News in a statement. “We have not identified any causal connection between any reported patient deaths and Mylan’s epinephrine auto injector products.â€
Yeah, that sounds like the Mylan we all know and loathe.
The problem with the FDA reports obtained by Bloomberg is that they don’t specify precisely how the EpiPens failed, nor do they directly say that the failure of the EpiPens to work was the direct cause of death. Strangely, this leaves consumers without any information about what they can do to protect themselves.
Did the people who died use the EpiPen incorrectly? Is there anything that consumers can do to make sure that their EpiPens work when they’re needed most? Gizmodo has reached out to both the FDA and Mylan for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
Mylan has had one scandal after another over the past few years. First, the company jacked up the price of the product from $57 in 2007 to roughly $600 in 2016 and had to testify in front of Congress about why the company was participating in price gouging. Then the CEO lied to Congress about how much profit the company was making on each EpiPen. Then the company was exposed for over-charging the government by $1.27 billion. Then Mylan had to issue a worldwide recall for the EpiPen in March because the product wasn’t working as intended.
And Mylan’s response to consumers and the government about its price gouging has quite literally been go fuck yourself. America’s regulatory agencies are clearly broken and drug companies like Mylan can do whatever the hell they want and only get slapped with a fine here or there.
I wish I had better advice for people with serious allergies who are worried about whether their EpiPen will work, but both the FDA and the drug companies seem to have just three words for you: Good luck, sucker.
It’s not easy keeping up with all the features in your favorite apps, with dozens of updates pouring down from your app store of choice every week. Just in case you’re not using your apps to their full potential, here are 34 recently introduced tricks and tools that you might not have spotted yet.
1) Set multiple destinations in Uber
You can now specify more than one drop-off (or pick-up) point inside the Uber app when you’re getting a cab—tap the Where To? box then use the plus icons on the right to add the stops you need (you can have up to two extra ones).
2) Get feedback as a rider in Uber
Another Uber update pushed out on the driver’s side lets them give more detailed feedback on problems with riders, like punctuality or cleanliness. If you as a rider get the same tag twice in a month, you get alerted about it.
3) Explore AR with your Bitmoji in Snapchat
If you’ve set up a Bitmoji in Snapchat, it recently gained some augmented reality powers. Point your camera at a flat surface, tap somewhere on the screen, then swipe through the lenses underneath to find the AR Bitmoji ones.
4) Paint the sky in Snapchat
Staying with Snapchat and the wonders of augmented reality, if you point your camera at a scene that includes a block of sky and take a picture, as you swipe through your filters you’ll see ones for changing the light and atmosphere.
5) Add polls to your Stories in Instagram
Get feedback from your Instagram followers by adding a poll in a Story—take a picture and a poll appears as one of the sticker options. Note that all votes are public and can be seen by anyone who is allowed to view the Story.
6) Get closer with Superzoom in Instagram
in addition to polls, you can now add a Superzoom effect to any of your Stories, and it appears as a new camera option between Boomerang and Rewind. Just start recording and the app takes care of the zooming, with sound effects.
7) Relive your youth in Spotify
If you don’t pay attention to the Home screen on Spotify, you may have missed a new auto-generated playlist called Your Time Capsule from Spotify. It plays tunes plucked from your teens—back when music really meant something.
8) Play tracks with Google Assistant in Spotify
Spotify now works wherever Google Assistant can be found, so you can say “OK Google, play Spotify†on your Google Home speaker or Android phone (just be sure to set up the Spotify link in the Google Home app first).
9) Order food in Facebook
All that News Feed scrolling got you peckish? You can now order food inside the Facebook app, via the Order Food option in the main Explore menu—a number of partners are signed up, including EatStreet and Delivery.com.
10) Raise money on your birthday in Facebook
Facebook knows everything about you, including your birthday, and a couple of weeks before the big day you’ll now see an option in the News Feed to start a fundraiser for the big occasion, with a choice of 750,000 non-profits.
11) Show off your work in Dropbox
Dropbox is making it easier to create a portfolio with the addition of a new $19.99/month plan: Dropbox Professional. It lets you manage a showcase of your work, track who has seen what, and the usual 1TB boost in online storage.
12) Free up disk space in Dropbox
Also in the Professional (and Business) tier is Smart Sync, a new feature that stores all your desktop files in the cloud but lets you open them as if they’re local files. Right-click on a file or folder in Windows or macOS to get to it.
13) Say more in Twitter
News of this feature has probably appeared on your radar already, but not everyone has access to it yet: 280 characters for your tweets rather than 140, so you’ve got even more room to rail against the slow decline of civilization.
14) See what’s happening now in Twitter
Twitter is also trialling a new Happening Now box at the top of the timeline on Android and iOS, grouping together tweets and hashtags about something happening right now (like a sporting event) for easy access inside the app.
15) Skip the intros in Netflix
If you’ve seen that Orange is the New Black intro just one time too many, you’ll want to take advantage of the new Skip Intro button on Netflix—look out for it down in the corner of the screen as an episode starts.
16) Choose your own adventure in Netflix
Some of the kids shows in Netflix can now be played like a choose your own adventure game on iOS or smart TVs, where youngsters are able to pick the storylines and outcomes they want to see. Try Puss in Book for starters.
17) Delete sent messages in WhatsApp
Said something you shouldn’t have? The new Delete for Everyone option in WhatsApp lets you scrub something from the conversation: Tap and hold the message, then tap the trash icon, then choose to Delete for everyone.
18) Share your location in real-time in WhatsApp
Location sharing has been available in WhatsApp for a while, but now you can share a constantly updated, real-time report on your whereabouts with any of your contacts. Tap the attachment icon, then Location to do it.
19) Send podcasts to Sonos speakers in Pocket Casts
One of the most popular podcasting apps out there, Pocket Casts now works with Sonos speakers and software, though the feature is still in beta: Head to the Music Services section in any of your Sonos apps to find it.
20) Play podcasts on the web with Pocket Casts
Also new in Pocket Casts is a radical revamp of the web player that syncs your podcasts with whatever mobile apps you’ve got installed. The update adds better playlist tools, a dark mode, and a bunch of other improvements.
21) Check out your friends’ tastes in Apple Music
Apple app improvements are usually tied to new iOS releases of course, and with iOS 11 Apple Music gets some extra social discovery features. Head to the For You tab to find friends to follow and to set up your own profile.
22) Put your tunes on your home screen in Apple Music
Apple Music also exists on Android, and this version was recently updated with a new Recently Played widget for your home screen. It doesn’t do much besides give you quick access to your tunes, but it’s a handy option to have.
23) Reply smarter in Gmail
You may well have noticed this if you use Gmail a lot, but Smart Replies now pop up at the bottom of emails on both Android and iOS—they can help you quickly and succinctly power through your inbox in record time.
24) Install official add-ons inside Gmail
Google just opened the doors on a new Gmail Add-ons store, and while the choice at the moment is pretty sparse (Trello and Asana are here), these plug-ins fit seamlessly into the web client and Android app to add extra features.
25) Insert drawings in Apple Mail
As for Apple’s default mobile mail client, one of the new features that arrived with iOS 11 was the option to create drawings inside your messages. Long press in a message, find the Insert Drawing option, and start getting creative.
26) Drag and drop objects in Apple Mail
Also added to Apple Mail—as well as a lot of other apps in iOS 11—is the ability to drag and drop text and images inside messages. Tap and hold on an image or a block of selected text and it lifts up ready for repositioning.
27) Ask (and answer) questions about places in Google Maps
Google Maps offers a ton of information about places, but if something’s missing, you can now ask a question from a place’s details card. Google Maps also occasionally prompts you to answer questions about places you’ve visited.
28) Find parking where you’re going in Google Maps
Google Maps will now offer to find parking for you, if you’re on Android and you’re heading to one of the 25 US cities supported so far. The option appears in the driving directions card, and should roll out more widely soon.
29) Get in the right lane in Apple Maps
Here’s a new feature that might make you switch back to Apple Maps from whatever mapping app you’re using right now—the app now gives you lane guidance so you know exactly where you’re meant to be in strange cities.
30) Zoom with one hand in Apple Maps
Apple Maps has finally followed the lead of Google Maps to let you zoom with one hand rather than two when you’re out and about. Double tap and hold on the map, then move your finger (or thumb) up or down the screen.
31) Read articles later in Google Chrome
Any browser worth a look has a read-it-later feature, and Google Chrome for iOS recently added one: Open the menu, tap the Share button, and Read Later appears. Your Reading List then appears in the main app menu.
32) Download articles in Google Chrome
Over on Android, Google Chrome lets you bookmark sites or download them in their entirety. Open the app menu and tap the download icon at the top to save the whole site, or long press on a link to download that page.
33) Stop getting tracked in Safari
One of the headline features arriving with iOS 11 was an anti-tracking option in Safari, called Prevent Cross-Site Tracking under Safari in Settings. It prevents ad networks from building up a profile on you across multiple sites.
34) Automatically enable Reader View in Safari
The clutter-free Reader View in Safari for iOS can now be applied automatically on specific sites or across all sites—long press on the Reader View icon rather than tapping it to bring up the options for the current site.
Staffers for Federal Communications Commission chair Ajit Pai, who has made rolling back Barack Obama-era rules on net neutrality one of the top priorities of his tenure, met with representatives from Comcast this week to hear them out on a plan to prevent states from issuing their own neutrality rules.
According to Ars Technica, the company filed paperwork describing the meeting, in which Comcast Senior VP Frank Buono and an attorney urged Pai’s staff to revoke the classification of broadband as a Title II common carrier—a status which currently prevents internet service providers from offering more aggressively tiered services and throttling or censoring competitors’ content—as well as prevent states from imposing their own rules:
We also emphasized that the Commission’s order in this proceeding should include a clear, affirmative ruling that expressly confirms the primacy of federal law with respect to BIAS [Broadband Internet Access Service] as an interstate information service, and that preempts state and local efforts to regulate BIAS either directly or indirectly.
Motherboard noted that Verizon also recently filed a white paper urging the FCC to preempt states from imposing their own internet privacy laws. Earlier this year, congressional Republicans shot down federal laws preventing ISPs from selling their customers’ internet histories to the highest bidder.
With the likelihood that Pai’s FCC will do the same with net neutrality rules high, numerous states have begun passing their own rules. As Ars Technica noted, the push to preempt states from doing so is backed by other telecoms like Verizon as well as many Republicans. The argument goes that if federal rules conflict with state and local ones, the result will be an even more restrictive patchwork of regulations—though the effort could also be construed as a way to ensure industry-friendly federal rules remain in place with little recourse.
There’s also the matter of the industry and Republicans arguing that the FCC does not have the authority to classify broadband under Title II while simultaneously having the authority to prevent states from doing it, which seems an awful lot like a naked attempt to get the regulatory environment telecoms want. It’s disputed whether the FCC has the power to preempt state laws, and Pai has been skeptical of the idea in past.
When former Republican FCC chair Robert McDowell testified before Congress this week, he argued the agency already has “ample†authority to promote “flexible and clear national rules that protect consumers and markets alike,†arguing the trend of states and localities imposing their own rules was “disturbing†as well as “confusing and innovation-killing.â€
Sony’s concept vehicle is all about entertainment on the go. Naturally. Its SC-1 (translated) is more or less a shuttle outfitted with high-res image sensors, displays, AI, 5G data connectivity via Docomo, alternative fuels, LIDAR and a bevy of ultrasonics onboard. It can be operated autonomously, or driven, and Sony claims that the image sensors placed around the car are sensitive enough (and the displays inside high-quality enough) that you could drive the buggy at night without headlamps.
"Since the image sensor captures the surroundings, the window becomes unnecessary, and by placing a high-definition display in that area instead, you can display various images to people around the vehicle." Sounds like a perfect way to add in face scanning to deliver highly personalized ads to everyone in the car.
Sony is going one step further than that even, and will use mixed reality to overlay CGI on the windows "so that movement itself can be enjoyed more." Mother nature could use a digital facelift, to be sure. The chances of something like this actually making it out on the open road anytime soon are probably pretty slim, but perhaps seeing it idling at an amusement park (oh hi, Epcot Center) wouldn’t be too farfetched. Sony says that it’s been touring the SC-1 around the Okinawa Science and Technology Graduate University College since September.
A few years ago, Mercedes showed off something similar with its silver bean-like F 015 concept. That featured wood floors, leather egg-shaped lounge chairs and 4K touchscreen displays everywhere you’d look. Sony, it seems, just took that idea to the next logical step.
When you’re unemployed, you tend to notice the world around you a bit more than the average working stiff. That’s how a regular, unemployed fellow in London happened to find intimate and detailed security protocols and maps for London’s main airport, Heathrow, lying on the ground in broad daylight
The unnamed man noticed a USB stick in a row of bushes lining the sidewalk on Ilbert Street, along Queen’s Park, in West London, so he grabbed it. It wasn’t exactly outside the airport’s security offices. That’s eighteen miles from the airport, or about 40 minutes by car.
Most people hip to day-to-day computer security practices know that you should never, ever plug a random USB stick into any device you care about. Maybe that’s why he didn’t check it out right away. He hung on to it for a few days, thinking little of it before popping it into a public computer at the library when he logged on to look for work.
To what we can only guess was his horror-and-surprise, he discovered the unencrypted, password-free thumb drive held 2.5GB of data evidently belonging to Heathrow Airport’s highest level security team.
Rather than take it to the police, he opted to hand the USB stick over to press — the tabloid paper Sunday Mirror. The Mirror promptly reported that the little drive contained 76 folders comprised of around 200 documents, maps, videos, timetables for anti-terrorism patrons, and much more, tediously compiled and with information across numerous different systems.
The Mirror wrote that it held:
The exact route the Queen takes when using the airport and security measures used to protect her.
Files disclosing every type of ID needed – even those used by covert cops – to access restricted areas.
A timetable of patrols that was used to guard the site against suicide bombers and terror attacks.
Maps pinpointing CCTV cameras and a network of tunnels and escape shafts linked to the Heathrow Express.
Routes and safeguards for Cabinet ministers and foreign dignitaries.
Details of the ultrasound radar system used to scan runways and the perimeter fence.
To anyone working in security, this is a disastrous data set to suddenly discover is out in the wild, for an unknown amount of time, and in unknown hands. Especially at a time when officials have just stated that "Britain is facing its most severe ever terrorist threat." Right now the UK is on a terror alert at the level of "severe" — down from "critical" — after the September 17 Parsons Green tube bombing terror attack.
The Mirror reported that the London Metropolitan Police were working with airport officials to figure out how the USB stick and its information ended up physically exfiltrated from Heathrow and tossed in the bushes along an unremarkable street in London.
Of course, our first thoughts are that it was terrorists. But in the realm of all things security, it’s also possible that it was the work of errorists. Maybe they’re used to this sort of thing in the UK, though we are now too. Over here in the US, we’re running out of digits to count the number of times our government security secrets have ended up on a contractor’s computer, were promptly stolen, and then ended up "in the wild" where they’ve been used for all kinds of harm and completely avoidable stupidity.
This stuff keeps ending up on security contractor’s computers because when we say "ended up on a contractor’s computer" what we really mean is that some hacker working for Booz Allen or whoever did that thing that hackers do: They hoard. I’ve often thought there should be a version of "Hoarders" just for hackers, until I realized that was what was in the headlines every day anyway, and it would end up being too depressing.
It wouldn’t be depressing just because our security is a grade-A disaster, or because I believe every kind of hacker — white hat, black hat, grey hat, whatever nacho-flavored hat — has compulsively sticky fingers. It would be depressing because hackers are often crap at their own personal security. They will correct you, talk down to you, call users stupid every minute of the day, but it’s by and large a culture of not practicing what they preach for various reasons. If you doubt me, just look at how many of them get caught.
The point is, secrets are like catnip to hackers, and the feeling of power makes them sloppy. But oh, do they hoard. The hoarding is also functional: With employment and getting gigs, he who has the most vulns, wins. So if the USB stick with all the Queen’s secrets (literally) about Heathrow Airport ended up falling out of some red teamer or physical pentester’s pocket on a random street in London, bouncing into the bushes after being hired to do a security assessment on the airport, it’s not going to be a surprise. To me, anyway.
In a follow up Wednesday, International Airport Reviewreported that a meeting of the House of Commons Transport Committee was held on Monday in an attempt to find out what the hell was going on. In it, Heathrow’s Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye was asked what he knew about the USB stick, and what the airport was doing in its official capacity to investigate.
Holland-Kaye began with the usual verbal sleight of hand we hear from every business and organization that gets pwned, namely, that they take security very seriously. Once that commercial for nothing was over, he acknowledged that the Metropolitan Police were assisting with their investigation in addition to "setting up an independent internal enquiry."
"From the information I have seen that was on the USB stick and reported in the papers," he said, "there was nothing there that causes us any security concerns. From what I have seen, Heathrow is completely secure." Was he even worried? Maybe, or maybe not. Holland-Kaye added that they "will be reviewing that with a critical eye to see that if there are any procedures to be changed they are changed quickly to ensure that we stay ahead of the game."
It’s not the most reassuring statement, to be certain. But in an era of things somehow able to only get almost comedically worse, like having your fire extinguisher catch on fire while putting out a fire, let’s hope the somewhere in West London there’s a pentester watching all this in the news and just feeling really, really embarrassed.
Images: Sergio Perez / Reuters (Computer pile); PA Archive / PA Images (John Holland-Kaye)
In an odd turn for retail cooperation, Best Buy is now available on Alexa, Amazon’s voice-powered digital assistant. Starting today, you can learn about and order Best Buy’s Deal of the Day sales just by saying, "Alexa, talk to Best Buy." Sure, it seems odd to have a competing service on Amazon’s own devices, but as the blog post from Best Buy points out, the big box store has been selling Amazon Alexa devices in a special section in about 700 of its stores earlier this year.
Best Buy is only the latest retailer to jump on the voice-shopping trend, too. Walmart and Target both offer home shopping via Google Assistant. This isn’t the first time Amazon has allowed a competitor into its garden, either. Spotify and Pandora live easily next to Amazon’s own music service on its connected smart speakers, as do competing on-demand video services.
Once you add the Best Buy skill to your Alexa-powered device and say "talk to Best Buy," Amazon’s voice assistant will offer to link your Best Buy account to your Alexa app, and will also request that you enable your location. You can ask about the Deal of the Day, too, and Alexa will list the current deals and ask if you want to purchase them.
Hacks that target major websites are nothing new, but Crunchyroll just suffered a particularly vicious attack. The anime streaming service was compromised for hours on November 4th after intruders planted a fake home page that pushed a malicious "CrunchyViewer" program to visitors. If Windows users were trusting enough to launch the file, it installed a mysterious background process that likely affected their systems. Mobile users were safe, although Crunchyroll noted that they weren’t functional simply because the web team was fixing the website.
It’s not certain just what happened or who was responsible. We’ve asked Crunchyroll for details and will let you know if it has more to share. It’s evident that the site was deliberately targeted, though, and the perpetrators caught the site off-guard. As Customer Support Lead Nate Ming put it, the hack was the "first thing" some on the team woke up to in the morning. And the timing was definitely less than ideal if you were a viewer — you may have received a rude surprise if you spend Saturdays catching up on Dragon Ball or Attack on Titan.
Update: Crunchyroll’s parent company Ellation has explained what happened. Intruders managed to hijack and control the company’s Cloudflare configuration, which normally redirects traffic to Crunchyroll. They steered it to the rogue server hosting the malware. Thankfully, it was an "isolated attack" — it targeted Cloudflare, but not the actual website. If you have a Crunchyroll account, it’s safe and sound.
If you downloaded that executable? You’re not necessarily in trouble. You’re fine if you didn’t run the hostile program. If you did, you can manually remove the rogue files and registry entries. The team hasn’t identified a perpetrator, but it’s still hours after the attack; more definitive answers will likely take some time.
