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I wasn't a major aficionado of Hot Wheels growing up, however growing up I still remember asking dad to get me one. It was small and I wasn't particularly wild about it, however it was one more car to play with.<br />
<br /> A couple of years back, the <keyword id="138263" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startup">startup</keyword> <keyword id="1704989" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="anki">Anki</keyword> inspired the crowd at an Apple event by flaunting some toy race cars with AI capacity. One wouldn't expect the toy-car monster Hot Wheels to kick back and let a little startup take its turf.<br />
<br />
Model cars and track dashing are the bread and spread of Hot Wheels, yet they may look somewhat long in the tooth contrasted with conspicuous console amusements like Need for Speed or CTR. With the new Hot Wheels AI set, toy autos get somewhat of a support - in speed, as well as in knowledge. Presently you can race against a PC or your friend in that spot in your parlour.<br />
<br />
Each Hot Wheels AI set accompanies two cars, 20 pieces of track and two controllers. The 1/32 scale models look like ordinary toy cars, with awesome shells not taking into account any current certifiable vehicle - the blue configuration is called "Fast Fish" and the orange one is "Spin King." Flip them over and underneath you'll discover two infrared sensors.<br />
<br />
Hot Wheels AI set incorporates two committed RC controllers, with simple joysticks and triggers for exact directing and increasing speed. What's more, when you become weary of hustling on the track you've constructed, or don't have space for a tremendous race format, the cars can be driven around anyplace, much the same as normal RC toys.<br />
<br />
Other race modes incorporate Autodrive where up to four cars can explore the track all alone, Practice mode, in which fledgling drivers can figure out another design, or endeavour to best their past best time around a track, and Championship mode where you can race up to three other human or PC players. To make things considerably all the more intriguing in rivalry, every driver likewise has admittance to rechargeable race hazards that can be utilized to hinder and disable adversaries, or send others off the track.<br />
<br />
Price: $100 (~Rs 6600)

Hotwheels come up
with Artificial Intelligence Racing System

The Holiday Season has begun and it is that time of the year where you should gift yourself stuff that you’ve always been longing to buy. If you are a tech freak, the inner geek in you will never die and you are bound to get fascinated by <keyword id="1994871" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="tech-toys">tech toys</keyword> in the market.<br />
<br />
If you are a tech-addict, you’ll just want to keep these toys with yourself (I’m not sharing either).

5 tech toys that every grown up would love to have

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Grace Chandy is an 11-year-old who suddenly became unable to walk in July. </li><li>After several tests, doctors are still not confident about what's causing the back pain. </li></ul><p>At 11 years old, Grace Chandy is making the most of a mysterious health condition that has led to her <a href="https://www.insider.com/young-woman-needed-16-joint-surgeries-lyme-disease-2022-9">being unable to walk</a>.</p><p>In January 2022, Grace started complaining about back pain to her mother, Judy Chandy. </p><p>"Initially, I just thought it was growing pains," Judy Chandy, a doctor living in Houston, told Insider. "But it just kept getting worse. She couldn't even lay back in bed without pain."</p><p>Following ultrasounds, X-rays, and blood work, doctors couldn't find anything abnormal with Grace's presentation. Doctors would have liked to have <a href="https://www.insider.com/guides/health/can-you-have-an-mri-with-a-pacemaker">done an MRI</a>, but the family was told it wasn't possible because Grace's congenital heart disease required her to have a pacemaker.</p><p>In July, Grace was getting ready to leave the house and suddenly felt an agonizing back pain. </p><p>"She sat down and yelled for me, telling me she couldn't walk," Chandy said. "She couldn't walk again after that."</p><h2>Doctors didn't find any answers</h2><p>The incident led specialist doctors to use a device that could turn off Grace's pacemaker so they could do an MRI of her spinal cord. </p><p>"They found a lot of abnormalities, but no one could give us an answer about what was going on," Chandy said. "It was a really discouraging time, very painful to see her suffering. And then we had to go through the challenge of getting Grace around in a wheelchair."</p><p>Throughout the summer, Grace's family helped her adapt to using a wheelchair, with a focus on the upcoming school year. </p><p>"She worried about everyone seeing her in a wheelchair," Chandy said. "She started not wanting to go to the park, restaurants, or family functions because kids would stare at her or say things to her. It was really hard."</p><p>In October, a friend told Chandy about Houston's TIRR Memorial Hermann Hotwheels basketball team. Grace, an avid Golden State Warriors fan and WNBA enthusiast, went with her mom to watch a practice. </p><h2>Everything changed when she was introduced to a basketball team for kids in wheelchairs</h2><p>"It was intense," Grace told Insider of watching a gym full of wheelchair users zooming back and forth, dribbling, and passing balls. "I was pretty excited to play the sport I love but in a wheelchair."</p><p>Chandy said her jaw dropped when she saw the kids playing in wheelchairs "like it was no big deal" as they shifted all their body weight to push themselves around. </p><p>"I think it is probably three times harder than just running down the court," she said. </p><p>Grace quickly became enthused.</p><p>"I had to start on the lower team, but then I got moved up to the prep team," Grace said. "That was more exciting. I was playing regular basketball but in a wheelchair. We recently had a tournament in Dallas, and I scored my first point in one of the games. It felt amazing."</p><p>Playing basketball brought back a spark Grace hadn't had for months.</p><p>"There was this excitement and happiness — real smiles," Chandy said. "Any day there is practice, she is so joyful." </p><p>The team gave Grace the sense of belonging she had craved as a preteen navigating her place in the world in a wheelchair. </p><p>"The benefits of playing wheelchair basketball for Grace are the same as benefits of any child playing a team sport," Peggy Turner, Grace's coach and the coordinator of adapted sports and recreation community programs at TIRR Memorial Hermann, told Insider. "It improves overall quality of life, including increased physical strength, independence, self-discipline, mood, and well-being, along with improving social skills, family life, and a sense of belonging."</p><p>Turner knows children with physical disabilities are often excluded from opportunities to play sports in their schools alongside friends and classmates without disabilities. </p><p>"The Hotwheels give Grace and her teammates the chance to be included in her community on a team and compete in competitive sports," Turner said.</p><p>"It was so nice to see so many people with kids in wheelchairs," Chandy said. "They're all happy and doing things they want but in a different way. It's all about being able to adapt."</p><p>As Grace's family awaits answers, she is happy to continue zooming around the court in her set of wheels. </p><p>"It's light in her life," Chandy said. "It really is."</p><p><em>Editor's note: Since Insider's interview with Judy and Grace Chandy, Grace was seen by a doctor who suspects he knows what has caused the back pain that's led to Grace's inability to walk. Surgery is planned to attempt to help Grace walk again.</em></p>

An 11-year-old woke up one day unable to walk. She regained her confidence thanks to a wheelchair basketball team.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="145063" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mattel">Mattel</keyword>'s mini remote control versions of <keyword id="107096" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tesla">Tesla</keyword>'s upcoming <keyword id="8303602" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cybertruck">Cybertruck</keyword> have been delayed until May, Bloomberg reported.</li><li>The toys were originally expected to ship in mid-December. </li><li>Prior to selling out, two models of the Tesla car were available: a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-cybertruck-rc-car-from-hot-wheels-2020-2#the-differences-between-the-larger-model-which-mattel-calls-hobby-grade-and-the-smaller-model-are-more-than-just-size-the-400-version-does-a-bunch-of-rad-stuff-4">1:64 scale for $20 and a 1:10 scale for $400</a>.</li></ul><p>Tesla has been known for missing deadlines for product releases, and a mini version of its upcoming Cybertruck from toymaker Mattel is no exception.</p><p>The remote control vehicles won't be available as Christmas presents anymore after "unexpected challenges" meant Mattel wasn't able to deliver the products by mid-December as originally planned, the toymaker told pre-order customers, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-17/cybertruck-toy-release-delayed-five-months-but-don-t-blame-tesla?sref=lAVQtUwz">per Bloomberg</a>.</p><p>The <keyword id="145061" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hot-Wheels">Hot Wheels</keyword> toys should now arrive by early May, Mattel said.</p><p>"Due to an unforeseen production issue, we are experiencing delays in the shipment of our Hot Wheels R/C Cybertrucks," a Mattel spokesperson told Business Insider. "We are diligently working to ensure these products arrive by May 1, 2021."</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-move-texas-why-tesla-maturing-as-a-company-2020-12?r=gd-sub">Elon Musk's move to Texas is a publicity stunt that reveals how Tesla is maturing as an automaker</a></em></p><p>Mattel launched pre-orders for the toy in February, three months after Tesla CEO <keyword id="6355315" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="elon-musk">Elon Musk</keyword> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-ford-porsche-tesla-cybertruck-reveal-2019-11">first unveiled the Cybertruck</a>.</p><p>Before the Mattel models sold out, two versions were available: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-cybertruck-rc-car-from-hot-wheels-2020-2#the-differences-between-the-larger-model-which-mattel-calls-hobby-grade-and-the-smaller-model-are-more-than-just-size-the-400-version-does-a-bunch-of-rad-stuff-4">a 3-inch model at 1:64 scale for $20 and a 1:10 scale limited edition version for $400</a>.</p><p>The larger toy will be able to travel at 25 miles per hour, and will also come with functioning headlight, taillights, and a telescopic tailgate that folds out into a loading ramp.</p><p>And it even includes a "reusable cracked-window vinyl sticker," which pays tribute to how <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-reaction-to-tesla-cybertruck-window-cracking-video-2019-11?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">the window of the display truck got smashed</a> when Tesla tried to demonstrate the strength of the Cybertruck's armor glass at its unveiling in November 2019.</p><p>The real vehicle is slated for release in late 2021.</p>

Just like some of Tesla's real vehicles, Mattel's Cybertruck toys have been delayed

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>A Tesla Model S sedan can cost more than $100,000. But if you only have about $1 on hand, you can still get the car.</p><p>"Today we're launching something for the little ones (and our biggest fans)," Tesla tweeted from the company's main account on Thursday.</p><p>Elon Musk's electric car maker didn't disappoint. With a little help from Mattel, you can now get a Hot Wheels Model S for $1.09, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-17/buy-a-flat-get-a-free-porsche-as-china-developers-rush-to-sell">Bloomberg reported</a>.</p><p>It comes in silver and red, Bloomberg's Dana Hull and Matthew Townsend wrote. </p><p>This the second time Tesla has joined with Hot Wheels to create a 1:64-scale version of one of its cars. A version of the Tesla Roadster was released a few years back.</p><p>Hot Wheels tweeted a video of the Hot Wheels Model S designer developing the design of the tiny car:</p><p>But wait, you might say, Wasn't the Model S already designed?</p><p>In fact, a lot of car designers have worked for Mattel over the years, cranking out wee interpretations of existing automobiles, as well as exotic designs for car that had never previously existed anywhere except in the imagination. Designing at 1:64 scale is actually a lot different from working at full size.</p><p>Typically, Mattel's Matchbox brand does the more direct copies, while Hot Wheels does the wild and crazy stuff. But Hot Wheels is cooler, which is probably why Tesla works with that part of the Mattel empire.</p><p>Tesla shares were flat on Thursday, so evidently there's no Hot Wheels rally.</p><p>Check out a short video review of the Hot Wheels Model S, from fan channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqyf9wbM-A4">Diecastic</a>:<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p><p></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/british-tom-wagg-discovers-planet-age-15-2015-6">Scientists have confirmed a new planet first discovered by a 15-year-old</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="YycmFxdTowNOo71U4Z__VEMPE7jz2YO2" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You can now get a Tesla Model S for less than $2

<p class="p1">If you're a "Star Wars" fan, you may want to try and catch an Uber Friday in NYC.</p><p class="p1">The car service is offering customers free rides in custom Stormtrooper vehicles. </p><p class="p1">8 specially-designed Dodge Charger SRT 392 cars will pick up customers between 9 am and 5 pm in Manhattan. </p><p class="p1">Hotwheels and Uber partnered up to transform the vehicles into a larger version of its "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" First Order Stormtrooper car.</p><p class="p1">It's all to celebrate "Force Friday," Disney's day-long event of unveiling new "Star Wars" products, toys, and clothes in stores.</p><p class="p1">Here's how they look:</p><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Uber</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1">The backs of the cars read #HotWheelsForceFriday.</p><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Uber</span></p></div><p></p></div></div><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Uber</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1">Here's a closeup of the front of the car:</p><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Uber</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1">The Hot Wheels logo resides near the rear wheel.</p><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Uber</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1">Tech Insider was told the eight vehicles were wrapped in a secret garage in New Jersey Thursday afternoon.</p><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Uber</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h3 class="p1">Here's how to get your own.</h3><p class="p1">First, open up the Uber app on your phone.</p><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Uber</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1">Users can select a Hot Wheels option to see if any of the eight cars are available for pick up.</p><p class="p1"><strong>Fares will be free up to 30 minutes.</strong></p><p class="p1">Those who get picked up will also get their own Hot Wheels diecast car and a "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" starship to keep.</p><p class="p1">As of this writing, every Stormtrooper vehicle is deployed. But hey, give it a shot!</p><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Uber</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/star-wars-bb-8-sphero-toy-unboxed-2015-9">You can own a working 'Star Wars' droid for $150</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="hpODFjdzrSNzgr4vN3D0R5nqIQELplhu" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Uber is giving free rides in awesome 'Star Wars' cars in NY today - here's how to get one

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>One of the most popular Chrome extensions is selling its users' bandwidth, largely without their knowledge - and it can be used by hackers to maliciously attack websites.</p><p>Hola is a VPN - a "virtual private network." As streaming platforms like Netflix have risen in popularity, there has been a corresponding boom in VPNs, which help users circumvent the regional restrictions that forbid Americans from watching certain BBC shows, or British people from watching some shows on Comedy Central in the US.</p><p>One of the most popular of these is Hola. Unlike most VPNs, it's free to download as an easy-to-use browser plugin in the Google Chrome store. It currently has more than 6 million users. <a href="http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2014/02/03/t-stream-hacking-netflix.cnnmoney/index.html">CNN Money said</a>, "Hola is changing the way we use the internet" (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hola-tv-watch-olympics-vpn-blocker-netflix-world-2014-1">we've also written about it warmly</a>).</p><p>To avoid the need for fees, Hola uses a peer-to-peer system, routing users' traffic through other users' connections. A Brit trying to watch an American-only service, for example, might be routed through an American user's internet connection.</p><p>But it is also selling access to users' bandwidth for a profit, via the service <a href="https://luminati.io">Luminati</a>, Hola discloses on a little-read FAQ page. <span>Luminati lets users buy access to the Hola network for a fee, for instance if users need a secure way to route commercial traffic anonymously. This revenue keeps Hola free for users. But <span>in the wrong hands this same function can transform its networked </span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">users into an unwitting botnet.</span></p><p>Frederick Brennan found that out when Hola was used to attack his website earlier this week.</p><p>Brennan, often known by the online moniker "Hotwheels," is the administrator of 8chan, a countercultural online messageboard. Earlier this week Brennan was targeted by thousands of "legitimate-looking" posts, "prompting a 100x spike over peak traffic," <a href="https://8ch.net/hola.html">he wrote in a blogpost</a>. </p><p>The attack originated with a user called "Bui" (who has attacked 8chan before), who later told Brennan he had used Hola's Luminati service to carry it out.</p><p>Hola's founder Ofer Vilenski confirmed to Business Insider that Bui had "got through our screening process." he also said that the attack had been ended and Bui banned from the network.</p><p><a href="https://hola.org/faq">Hola's site explains in an FAQ</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> how the peer-to-peer network works. But before Brennan reached out following the attack, there was only a brief acknowledgement that it might be used for </span><a href="https://archive.is/tgujS">"commercial" purposes</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, and no mention at all of Luminati, which has been in operation since </span><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20141004121458/http://luminati.io/">at least October 2014</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. (A fuller explanation has </span><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20150527134053/https://hola.org/faq">since been added</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.)</span></p><p>With no indication on the homepage, it's doubtful that many users realise that Hola is selling their bandwidth. <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/37j09p/8chan_creator_fredrick_brennan_warns_against_use/">A Reddit thread discussing the subject is filled users expressing their surprise and asking how to uninstall it</a> (and in a strawpoll of people I know who use Hola, none were aware of this). "Even if they had said it all along in their FAQ," <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9614993">wrote one commenter on news site Hacker News</a>, "it's still infuriatingly disingenuous for someone to act as if anyone ever browses to Hola's site and reads their FAQ either before or after installing the Hola malware extension. No ordinary person will ever do this."</p><p>The peer-to-peer nature of the site also potentially puts users at risk. On the anonymising Tor network, which works in a similar way, users have to opt-in to become an "exit node" - a point at which traffic can come and go, in and out of the network. But <em>everyone</em> using Hola is an exit node. This implies that if someone is using the plugin to conduct illegal activity through your connection, law enforcement might suspect you're to blame.</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Brennan believes that the company is "acting extremely responsible," and wants to "help users learn that others are using their internet connections without their knowledge or express permission."</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Hola's Vilenski told Business Insider that there was nothing uniquely vulnerable about Hola's VPN - the hacker "could have used any commercial VPN network, but chose to do so with ours." Furthermore, the company has been "listening to the conversations about Hola and while we think we've been clear about what we are doing, we have decided to provide more details about how this works, and thus the changes [to the website] in the past 24 hours."</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-google-dodge-taxes-2014-5">How Apple And Google Dodge Billions In Taxes</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="lrODN1bTpDPC79CBFlvN9_t3PtihILt7" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A wildly popular Google Chrome extension was being used as a giant botnet

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>It has not been a good week for Hola.<p>The Israeli company is behind a wildly popular browser plugin and app that disguises users' identities online. Over the last few days, it has been hit with a deluge of negative press after it emerged that <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/hola-used-for-botnet-on-chrome-2015-5">users of the service had had their computers hijacked and used as a giant "botnet" to attack a website</a>.&#xa0;</p><p class="p1">A botnet is a network of (normally) unwitting computers hijacked by a third party, and used to launch some kind of malicious attack, or just to overwhelm a web site or server with fake requests or traffic.</p><p>Exacerbating the criticism is the fact that Hola is openly selling its users' bandwidth via a commercial side project called Luminati, and researchers claim to have discovered a number of serious security vulnerabilities in the software.</p><p>After reports that users' computers had been hijacked and the company was selling users' bandwidth, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/hola-used-for-botnet-on-chrome-2015-5">Hola CEO Ofer Vilenski told Business Insider that the company</a> "has been listening to the conversations about Hola... [and] have decided to provide more details about how this works."</p><p>Then, following the publication of two highly critical reports from security researchers, <a href="http://adios-hola.org">one accusing the company of</a> "negligence, plain and simple," we reached out to Vilenski again. He told me the company has experienced some "growing pains," but that the security issues have since been patched - and hopes to grow into a "great billion dollar company."</p><h2>What is Hola?</h2><p>Based in Israel, Hola has 75 employees (around 35 of which are developers), and has received more than $20 million in venture capital funding since its launch. Before the current firestorm it had enjoyed positive press coverage, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2014/02/03/t-stream-hacking-netflix.cnnmoney/">including CNN Money</a> and <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/hola-tv-watch-olympics-vpn-blocker-netflix-world-2014-1">here on Business Insider</a>. Its website says it has more than 47 million users around the world.</p><p>So what does it do?</p><p>Hola lets users access websites that are unavailable or censored on their connections. A user might want to circumvent a workplace's block on Facebook, or to access a video streaming service not available in their country. To do this, Hola uses what is known as a VPN, or virtual private network.</p><p>Most commercial VPN services require users to pay to use them, but Hola is totally free (though offers a paid option). Why? Because while most companies like this own or rent dedicated servers to act as "exit nodes" through which the user accesses the internet, Hola pursues a different approach. <em>Everyone</em> is an exit node.</p><p>So, for example, when a British user sets their location on the tool as Norway, their internet traffic is being routed through the connection of a randon Norwegian user on the Hola network. And simultaneously, the British user's connection may be used as the exit node for a South African user to connect to the web. It's a peer-to-peer network that does away with the need for dedicated hardware - allowing it be offered as a free service.</p><p>Hola doesn't hide the fact it works on a peer-to-peer system, although it wasn't always immediately clear from the website that users will by default act as an exit node. (Users can also pay a premium subscription fee to opt out of this.)</p><h2>Hola also sells its users' bandwidth</h2><p>Hola also operates a second service - one that sells Hola users' bandwidth for profit. It's called Luminati, and its customers can hire the Hola network for their own purposes. The company suggests it can be used for brand monitoring or anti ad-fraud checks, <a href="http://adios-hola.org">but a salesperson told security researchers that the company has</a> "no idea what [customers] are doing on our platform."</p><p>This can have dangerous implications - as Fredrik Brennan found out. He claims the Hola network was used to attack his website last week.</p><p>Brennan, often known by the online moniker "Hotwheels," is the administrator of 8chan, a countercultural online messageboard. The site was targeted by thousands of "legitimate-looking" posts, <a href="https://8ch.net/hola.html">he wrote in a blog post</a>, "prompting a 100x spike over peak traffic."</p><p>The Hola network - and the computers of users on it - had been used as a giant botnet, a network of hijacked machines intended to overwhelm the site, Brennan claims.</p><p>Before recent events, there was only a brief acknowledgement on Hola's site that the network might be used for <a href="https://archive.is/tgujS">"commercial" purposes</a>, and no mention at all of Luminati, which has been in operation since <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20141004121458/http://luminati.io/">at least October 2014</a>. (A fuller explanation has <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20150527134053/https://hola.org/faq">since been added</a>.) As such, it's doubtful that many users realise Hola is selling their bandwidth.</p><p class="p1"><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/37j09p/8chan_creator_fredrick_brennan_warns_against_use/">A Reddit thread from last week discussing the subject was filled users expressing their surprise and asking how to uninstall it</a>. (And in an unscientific strawpoll of people I know who use Hola, none were aware that they were being used as an exit node on the network - much less that their bandwidth was being sold by Hola.)</p><p class="p1">"Even if they had said it all along in their FAQ," <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9614993">wrote one commenter on news site Hacker News</a>, "it's still infuriatingly disingenuous for someone to act as if anyone ever browses to Hola's site and reads their FAQ either before or after installing the Hola malware extension. No ordinary person will ever do this."</p><p class="p1">Vilenski did not comment on how many clients Luminati has.</p><h2>Security researchers pile on</h2><p class="p2">Vilenski confirmed that Luminati had been used to mount the attack, though he told me last week that there was nothing uniquely vulnerable about Hola's VPN - the hacker "could have used any commercial VPN network, but chose to do so with ours." The attacker has since been blocked from the service.</p><p class="p2">Since then, however, security researchers have pointed out a number of further vulnerabilities in Hola's software.</p><p class="p2">It began with a report entitled <a href="http://adios-hola.org">"Adios, Hola!" that urged users to "immediately uninstall" the service</a>. It said that Hola:</p><ul><li>Lets users "be tracked across the internet, no matter what you do."</li><li>Makes users less secure by "[sending] traffic of strangers through your internet connection" - a reference to Hola's peer-to-peer model where everyone is an exit node.</li><li>"[Sells] access to third parties, and [doesn't] care what it's used for."&#xa0;<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">When a researcher asked the company how it enforces its terms of service for Luminati, the company responded</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;"we don't... we have no idea what you are doing on our platform."</span></li><li>Lets "anybody execute code on your computer." The researchers say they found a vulnerability in Hola that lets websites remotely execute code on a user's computer. They built an example that opened a calculator on Windows users' computers - but it could also be used for far more malicious purposes. Here's a video of the demonstration:<br><div><div></div></div></br></li></ul><p class="p2">Following the publication of the report, Hola moved to patch the vulnerabilities, and Vilenski told me that the security vulnerabilities have now been fully patched.</p><p class="p2">But an update to the Adios Hola post disputes this, saying that "many of the issues are ignored, and some claims [in a Hola statement] are simply false."</p><p class="p2">It continues: "The vulnerabilities are *still* there, they just broke our vulnerability checker and exploit demonstration. Not only that; there weren't two vulnerabilities, there were <em style="line-height: 1.5em;">six</em>."</p><p class="p2"><a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/hola-claims-to-have-fixed-holes-but-security-researchers-disagree">One of the researchers told Motherboard that</a> "while some bugs were fixed, the most critical ones haven't been, making it still possible to hack Hola users."</p><p class="p2">Vilenski countered that he disagrees, and that he cares "more about my users than what that website says." He invites the researchers behind Adios Hola to present details of the six vulnerabilities that are allegedly still in effect.</p><p class="p2">That's not all: Vulnerabilties in Hola have allegedly been exploited in the past. A second security report, <a href="http://blog.vectranetworks.com/blog/technical-analysis-of-hola">this time from Vectra</a>, discovered 5 pieces of malware online "that contain the Hola protocol."</p><p class="p2">If true, this means that<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;anyone who has used Hola in the past may have been actively targeted by hackers..</span></p><p class="p2">"Unsurprisingly," Vectra writes, "this means that bad guys had realised the potential of Hola before the recent flurry of public reports by the good guys."</p><p class="p2">Vilenski confirmed to me Hola was not aware of its vulnerabilities until the publication of the first report.</p><h2 class="p2">Hola hasn't alerted its users</h2><p class="p2">Following an avalanche on negative publicity everywhere from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32958624">the BBC</a> to <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/your-tool-to-access-netflix-content-abroad-is-hijacking-your-internet-connection">Motherboard</a>, Hola updated its <a href="http://hola.org/faq">FAQ</a> to explain more clearly the Luminati service, <a href="http://hola.org/blog/the-recent-events-on-the-hola-network">as well as a blog post in which the company says it fixed the vulnerabilities identified</a>. The company's website now has a banner across the top explaining clearly that users' bandwidth may be used by others.</p><p class="p3"></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div><p class="p3">But Hola users may not understand the technical details of how their computers are being used by the company, and unless they visit the website again, they're unlikely to find out - because as Vilenski told me, the company has made no attempt to contact existing users to explain how the tool works or that their bandwidth is being sold for profit. Hola <em>can't</em> contact them. It apparently has no way to.</p><p class="p1">This also means Hola has not alerted users&#xa0;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">about the vulnerabilities on the platform either - vulnerabilities that </span><em style="line-height: 1.5em;">have</em><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> been used to target Hola users in the past (and according to some security researchers, are still active).</span></p><p class="p3">(The company also hasn't alerted its users via its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HolaBetterInternet">Facebook</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/hola_org">Twitter</a> profiles, neither of which has been updated in several months.)</p><p class="p3">In theory, Hola could use its browser plugin to display a message explaining the peer-to-peer system, the nature of Luminati, and the vulnerabilities that may have compromised their computers. When I asked if he would commit to doing so, Vilenski told me that while it's a "good idea," but he "cannot make that promise."</p><p class="p3">The company does not want to be "technically intrusive."</p><h2 class="p3">Hola defends itself</h2><p>Again, Vilenski claims that all the vulnerabilities Hola knows about have been patched, and says that researchers should explain exactly what they've found to the contrary, instead of accusing him of negligence.</p><p>Vilenski also says it's important to keep this in proportion. He argues that the vulnerabilities amount to "growing pains," similar to what has happened to other big companies in the past. If you put a "big enough bounty" on any product, vulnerability will be found, and Hola has "just become big enough to become attractive to this scrutiny."</p><p>He also argues that Hola's peer-to-peer system is analogous to Skype, which also uses a similar method to transmit data. But Skype will only route voice data through the computers of users on the network, while Hola uses web data - and also caches content on users' machines, <a href="http://blog.vectranetworks.com/blog/technical-analysis-of-hola">Vectra's report says</a>.</p><p>This means if you were being used as an exit node for someone browsing child pornography, then that illegal material would be being saved on your machine. Vilenski counters that it would be unwise to use Hola for illegal activity, as they keep a map of the traffic between nodes, and will cooperate fully with law enforcement.</p><p>Vilenski also says that, on average, a user will only give up 6 MB of bandwidth per day using Hola, and only when their device is idle. It will not use devices' bandwidth when not plugged in so as not to waste battery power, for example. However, he couldn't put a figure on what the maximum bandwidth usage might be.</p><h2>The future of Hola?</h2><p>Vilenski remains positive about the future of the platform. It has seen no meaningful decrease in users as a result of the recent news (though this may be at least in part because they haven't been widely notified), and every developer at the company is currently working to improve security. <a href="http://hola.org/blog/the-recent-events-on-the-hola-network">Hola is also paying for a security audit from one of the</a> "big 4 auditing companies' cyber auditing team," and launching a bounty program to encourage researchers to discover and declare more bugs.</p><p>Looking ahead, Hola plans to launch a B2B video product that could cut the cost of distributing video on the internet by 90%. The aim is to "build a great billion dollar company," Vilenski told me.</p><p>It remains to be seen whether it can win back users' trust, however - or convince security professionals that its services can be relied on. And there are more immediate hurdles to overcome: The company's Google Chrome plugin, which once had more than 16 thousand positive reviews, has now been <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hola-better-internet/gkojfkhlekighikafcpjkiklfbnlmeio">removed by Google from the Chrome Web Store</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/johannes-kepler-math-theory-spherical-objects-2014-9">A Computer Just Solved A 400-Year-Old Math Problem About The Best Way To Stack Balls</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="IyamMycDrElYzzFi0OMAT1yporRy3NXE" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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