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THE SOTH JOURNAL

Internet of Things

Ideas, know-how, and a little inspiration for your connected home.

WORTH A CLOSER LOOK

Internet of Things

Nordic nRF71: Wi-Fi 6, Thread and Bluetooth LE on one chip for battery devices

On November 3, 2026 Nordic Semiconductor announced the nRF71 Series, its first system-on-chip that puts Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, Thread and an application processor on a single die. Until now Nordic's Wi-Fi parts (the nRF70 Series) were companion chips that needed a separate host MCU. Nordic says the nRF71 uses up to 20 times less power in standby than
Nov 3, 2026
3
min read

Intelbras Wi-Fi cameras could be kept offline by anyone on the same network

Kaspersky published research on November 2, 2026 showing that several Intelbras home Wi-Fi cameras accepted firmware update requests from anyone on the local network, without a password and without checking the file. Each request rebooted the camera and took it offline for about a minute. Sent in a loop, the requests kept it offline for as long as
Nov 2, 2026
3
min read

Banana Pi BPI-M8 is a Raspberry Pi 5-sized Allwinner A733 board from $69, but there are no OS images for it yet

Banana Pi has put the BPI-M8 on sale, a credit card-sized single-board computer built around the Allwinner A733 and pitched as an alternative to the Raspberry Pi 5. CNX Software covered it on 2 November 2026. It comes in two versions: the BPI-M8A with 64GB of eMMC storage and the BPI-M8B with 16MB of SPI NOR flash. In the Banana Pi shop they cost $
Nov 2, 2026
3
min read

Synology warns that C3RB3R ransomware is encrypting NAS drives running DSM builds without the December 2024 fixes

Synology published a warning on 29 October 2026: attackers are exploiting a vulnerability the company patched in December 2024 to break into NAS drives running outdated versions of DSM, its operating system, then encrypt the data and demand a ransom. On 2 November BleepingComputer linked the attacks to the C3RB3R ransomware. Synology rarely issues
Nov 2, 2026
3
min read

Google and partners take down XCPE, a backdoor preinstalled on more than 1.3 million Android set-top boxes that took orders over MQTT

On 2 November 2026 Google Threat Intelligence said that last week it and its partners dismantled XCPE, a botnet built from more than 1.3 million Android set-top boxes in over 200 countries. The partners were Japan's National Police Agency, Lumen, HUMAN Security, Plume, Synthient and Trend Micro's TrendAI. Google says with high confidence that the b
Nov 2, 2026
3
min read

Australia's grid now lets a home EV charger or battery have its own settlement point behind the main meter

On 1 November 2026 the National Electricity Market (NEM), the grid that covers Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, started the main release of its Flexible Trading Arrangements. From now on an EV charger, a home battery or another controllable device can be metered and settled separately from the rest of th
Nov 2, 2026
3
min read

A second wave of attacks on supermarket refrigeration controllers hits stores in seven European countries

Supermarkets in Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland found their fridges and freezers warming up on the night of 1-2 November 2026. Inside some cabinets the temperature climbed to 50°C. It is the second wave in three weeks: on 11 October up to 700 supermarkets in France were hit the same way, with losses put at
Nov 2, 2026
3
min read