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Cooler and drier air will settle in for the remainder of the week, as high pressure builds into the region from the northwest.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The father of 16 children rescued from a Vinton County home was set to appear in court Thursday, but the hearing was pushed back for a second time. Gary Siders II, 36, is one of four adults arrested June 30 and initially charged with 16 counts of child endangerment. Deputies said [...]

GRANVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) -- Now under new ownership, the historic Buxton Inn will host a grand reopening highlighting its dining and event options this September. The 214-year-old landmark at 313 E Broadway was sold to New England Development Co. in April after nearly two years of attempted sales. Kevin Shau, the property's new owner, announced [...]

Ohio Village is set to host a two-week reopening during the Ohio State Fair starting July 29 to showcase its expanded historical timeline and recent renovations.

MCCONNELSVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) -- A baby bison is the newest member of the Appalachian Hills Wildlife Area family. The bison, who was born early Monday, marks the first birth since the herd's arrival in April, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said. The bison was up, roaming around and following his mama just hours after [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- At least three tornadoes have been confirmed in Ohio after multiple rounds of thunderstorms on Tuesday. One confirmed tornado was in Muskingum County. The National Weather Service office in Pittsburgh was expected to send a team to survey the damage, particularly around Duncan Falls, to determine the tornado's rating. NWS Pittsburgh [...]

HILLIARD, Ohio (WCMH) -- Site development and utility work have begun on a planned 135-home community in western Hilliard, the first for-sale housing project in the Columbus area for Indianapolis-based builder Onyx+East. The Village at Alton Place is planned on roughly 31.9 acres north of Bridgeview Trace and west of Alton Darby Creek Road. An [...]

GAHANNA, Ohio (WCMH) – The demolition of five buildings in Gahanna’s Creekside district was completed this month to make way for new development, but there is no clear timeline for when construction will begin. Five vacant buildings along Mill Street – including three on the west side and two on the east side, all just [...]

MARIETTA, Ohio (WCMH) -- The federal government is looking to open Wayne National Forest to fracking, with a lease sale scheduled for September. On Friday, the Bureau of Land Management announced companies will be able to bid on oil and gas leases on Sept. 15. The lease would open up 2,840 acres of Wayne National [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A recently signed Ohio bill will expand the state’s vehicular homicide law to include golf carts, motor scooters and other low-speed vehicles. Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 533, sponsored by Rep. Kevin Miller (R-Newark), on July 7 after it unanimously passed the House in March and the Senate in June. [...]

On Tuesday, parts of Ohio experienced straight-line, microburst, and even tornado wind damage.

Cybercriminals are harnessing AI not to break in, but to make sense of their stolen loot and increase their leverage in multi-million dollar ransomware heists. This episode unpacks how AI is now turbocharging extortion and negotiations on the dark side.

• The "bone crushing" didn't happen this month.
• Revisiting and inspecting July's Patch Tuesday.
• A widespread and worrisome flaw in OpenSSL.
• Claude can now access your 1Password credentials.
• Bitwarden is aware that we need whole new security.
• The day ends in "y" so a new prompt injection attack.
• A true (and rare) core Wordpress emergency update.
• Lots of interesting listener feedback.
• And new ways AI is being used by bad guys

Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1088-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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The home appliance giant LG Electronics USA said this week it plans to suspend any apps built for its smart TVs that turn one’s television into an always-on residential proxy node. The move comes less than a month after researchers found that more than 42 percent of games and other apps available for download on LG’s webOS store allow unknown third-parties to route their Internet traffic through a user’s TV.

Proxy SDK prevalence among smart TV apps for LG (webOS) and Samsung (Tizen OS) televisions. Image: Spur.us.

On July 2, we featured research by the security firm Spur that examined the prevalence of residential proxy software development kits (SDKs) in smart TV apps. Spur found more than 42 percent of apps available for download on LG smart TVs include SDKs that turn one’s television in a proxy node indefinitely, and that more than a quarter of the apps made for Samsung’s Tizen operating system had similar residential proxy components.

Responding to questions about Spur’s research, LG Senior Vice President John Taylor told KrebsOnSecurity the company was working with app developers to remove the residential proxy option from their apps on the webOS platform. Developers that fail to comply, he said, will find their apps suspended.

“A residential proxy network is not an intended use for LG smart TVs, and LG Electronics is working with developers to remove the residential proxy option from their apps on the webOS platform,” Taylor said. “If this option is not removed, these apps will be suspended.”

Taylor said LG is committed to keeping residential proxy networks out of its smart TV apps going forward, and that the company’s review of those apps is “well underway now.”

“As part of our ongoing efforts to enhance platform quality and the user experience, LG will continue to strengthen our evaluation process for developer-submitted apps, including those that incorporate residential proxy SDKs,” Taylor wrote in an emailed statement.

App makers looking for ways to monetize their creations can turn to residential proxy providers, which pay developers to include SDKs that turn the user’s device into a residential proxy node that is rented to paying customers. In the case of LG and Samsung smart TVs, Spur found residential proxy SDKs bundled with everything from simple games like Pac-Man to screensavers and file utilities.

A Pac-Man smart TV app from Bright Data offers users the choice between viewing ads in the game or agreeing to allow their TV to serve as a residential proxy node. Image: Spur.us.

Spur’s report found the residential proxy network Bright Data accounted for a majority of proxy SDKs across both Samsung and LG smart TVs. Bright Data did not respond to requests for comment.

Bright Data and other proxy providers named in Spur’s report all say they follow rigorous know-your-customer processes to validate legitimate uses of their services, which is often heavily tied to content-scraping activities by said customers. The proxy companies also say they incorporate technological countermeasures to prevent proxy service customers from being able to interact with and control other devices on the proxy user’s local network.

Spur argues the problem is not that residential proxy networks exist, but rather that they are being embedded at scale in devices that most consumers do not think of as computers and are not equipped to audit.

“A one-time consent prompt buried in a TV app is not a substitute for meaningful transparency, ongoing control, and platform oversight,” Spur’s Trevor Sutter wrote. “The risk is amplified when consent comes from individuals within the household who use the device but shouldn’t give consent, such as minors.”

LG’s announcement that it is culling residential proxy SDKs from its app store is welcome news, but the company recently came under fire for another questionable partnership: Pimping McAfee security products via software drivers included in its high-end LCD monitors.

Earlier this week, the Youtube channel Gamers Nexus showed that certain LG LCD monitors will automatically install an app that promotes paid McAfee antivirus subscriptions, and that the app arrives through Windows Update without an approval prompt.

DUBLIN, Ohio (WCMH) — Two of the five victims who perished in Delaware County’s Scioto River have been named. According to authorities, four of the five victims -- two married couples -- were Honduran citizens. Two of the adults who have been identified are Jose Mario Pineda Dias, 33, and Marina Suyapa Regalado, 28, Honduran [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it will not move forward with a permit that would have allowed some data centers to discharge wastewater into the state’s lakes, rivers and streams. The EPA said it received more than 7,000 comments on the proposal and decided to scrap the plan given [...]

DUBLIN, Ohio (WCMH) -- Dublin City Schools Superintendent John Marschhausen is stepping down after five years leading the district, effective July 31, according to a letter he sent to district families Tuesday. He did not cite a reason for the decision. The Board of Education is scheduled to consider approving his resignation during a special [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Powerful storms that ripped through central Ohio Tuesday have left thousands of AEP customers without power, and multiple areas of the region with storm damage and flooded roads. As of 5 p.m., AEP is reporting 20,088 customers without power, the majority of those in Licking County, which is reporting 10,549 outages. [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A West Side apartment complex and adjacent business property are under scrutiny by the city attorney’s office after a lawsuit was filed to declare them a public nuisance. According to a news release, the city filed a lawsuit against the owner of multiple properties after years of reported criminal activity, code [...]