In Episode 28 of IT SPARC Cast, John and Lou uncover the latest PowerSchool student data breach, exposing security failures in K-12 education. They also dive into Ubiquiti’s new 10Gig WiFi 7 access points, Google and HP’s 3D video calling breakthrough, and Broadcom’s profit surge after acquiring VMware. In the CVE of the Week, they dissect a shocking backdoor in ESP32 Bluetooth chips, affecting billions of IoT devices. If you thought your smart home was secure—think again.

🔹 Show Notes & Timestamps

00:00 - Intro

•Welcome to IT SPARC Cast, your weekly IT news digest with insights, opinions, and sarcasm.

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📰 News Bytes

00:54 - PowerSchool’s Student Data Breach

•PowerSchool, a widely used K-12 student management system, suffered a data breach.

•Hacker gained access via compromised credentials, exposing records from thousands of schools.

•PowerSchool did not have multi-factor authentication (MFA) enabled at the time.

•Unanswered questions: How many students were affected? What data was stolen? Did they pay a ransom?

•🔥 Is your child’s school at risk?

05:12 - Unifi Releases 10Gig WiFi 7 Access Points

•Unifi redeems itself after last week’s WiFi 7 controversy with U7 Pro XG and U7 Pro XGS.

•Features:

•10G Ethernet for high-speed connectivity.

•5.8 Gbps on 6 GHz, up to 500 concurrent clients.

•Zero-Wait DFS for dynamic frequency selection.

•Real-world speeds? Maybe not. But John is upgrading his entire setup!

09:11 - Mail Bag

•Listener feedback dominates!

•Issues reported with WiFi 7 dropping IoT devices—John and Lou investigate.

•Debate over whether corporate customers care about 6GHz WiFi.

•Heated discussion: Should lower-end access points always include software-defined radios?

17:49 - Google and HP Announce 3D Video Calling

•Google’s Project Starline introduces light field displays for true-to-life video calls.

•HP to help bring it to market.

•WSJ review: “Felt like an object was crossing into my space.”

•Could this finally break the illusion of remote work video calls?

21:54 - VMware Boosts Broadcom’s Bottom Line

•Broadcom’s VMware acquisition is paying off BIG—$5.5B in quarterly profits.

•70% of large VMware customers are buying into premium bundles.

•Broadcom is ditching small customers and focusing on those who pay the “VMware Tax.”

•Is this sustainable?

🚨 CVE of the Week

27:24 - Undocumented Commands Found in ESP32 Bluetooth Chips

•Billions of IoT devices affected by a backdoor in ESP32 chips.

•Security researchers found 29 hidden commands, allowing:

•Memory manipulation (RAM & Flash writing).

•MAC address spoofing.

•Packet injection for hacking other devices.

•Expressif claims it was for debugging, but will now remove it.

•Are your smart home devices at risk? Check your firmware!

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