Do you own a Surface Book 4? If you do, you may have been unfortunate enough to get one that suffers from a peculiar screen flickering issue. It's not known exactly how many Surface Book 4's have been affected by the issue, but thousands of angry users have been comparing horror stories about it on various discussion forums around the web. For their part, Microsoft has been very slow to even acknowledge the existence of the issue, even though there are some user videos showing the screen … Read more
Archives for June 2018
Embedded Sound Waves Could Damage Your Computer
It seems like a new attack vector emerges on a weekly basis, and this week is no exception. The latest threat: Emails containing specialized audio files whose acoustic vibrations can damage your computer's hard drive. This is possibly damaging to the point of causing system failure, data corruption, and making it impossible to successfully reboot your machine. As the researchers point out, "Intentional acoustic interference causes unusual errors in the mechanics of magnetic hard disk drives … Read more
Apple Users Are Getting Group Facetime
Apple's Legions of users love FaceTime, but there's a problem with the highly popular app. It only allows you to see and talk to one person at a time. Apple fans have been clamoring for Group FaceTime for almost as long as the app has existed, and soon, they'll get their wish. Beginning with iOS 12, Group FaceTime will finally be "a thing," allowing you to simultaneously talk with up to 31 of your contacts. Even better, the new functionality will allow you to turn any iMessage group chat … Read more
T-Mobile Site Leaked Data On Millions Of Customers
ZDNet Researcher Ryan Stevenson recently found a big problem on T-Mobile's website regarding an unprotected API. As a result of the flaw, untold millions of T-Mobile's customers' account information was left exposed and completely unprotected. Literally anyone who stumbled across the site and tried to abuse it could access a wide range of customer information with no password required. This includes, but is not limited to: Customer name Phone number Mailing Address Account … Read more
FBI Advises Users To Reboot Their Routers
Cisco's Talos Security Team has identified a new threat, and it's a nasty one impacting more than half a million consumer-grade routers in the US. According to the Talos Team's report, the new malware is impacting a broad cross-section of routers made by TP-Link, QNAP, Netgear, Mikrotik, and Linksys. Known as "VPNFilter," the malware currently infecting routers appears to be the first stage in a multi-phase attack, with the first segment allowing the hackers to collect a wide range of … Read more
Microsoft Surpasses Google In Latest Valuation
Microsoft's stock price is surging, putting the company's total valuation at $753 billion. This makes it the third most valuable company on the planet, behind Amazon (782 billion), Apple ($923 billion) and leaving Google in fourth place, valued at $739 billion. Google first overtook Microsoft in 2012, and since that time, the two companies have traded places repeatedly. So Microsoft's current 3rd place position is expected to be relatively short-lived. It's worth noting, however, that … Read more
Latest IPhone Update Syncs Messages Across All Devices
If you use Apple products, you may have noticed an annoying "feature". If you're using the messaging app on your phone and texting someone and then you move to your Mac and access the same program there, the conversation you were having on your phone isn't present. The two devices are messaging islands that can't reliably communicate with each other. Since they can't, you can't start a conversation on one device and then pick it up later on another. True, Apple fans have found workarounds … Read more
Passwords May Be Dead Soon If Microsoft Gets Its Way
Karanbir Singh (a program manager at Microsoft) is on a mission: Kill the password. As he said in a recent blog post: "Nobody likes passwords. They are inconvenient, insecure, and expensive. In fact, we dislike them so much that we've been busy at work trying to create a world without them--a world without passwords." The company's stated goal is to make it possible that an end user will never have to bother with passwords on a day to day basis and would instead provide credentials … Read more
Coca Cola Breach Proves Employees May Be Significant Threat
Coca-Cola is the latest company to fall victim to a data breach. Unlike some of the others that have recently made headlines, however, this one was conducted from within. In September 2017, an employee at one of the company's subsidiaries stole an external hard drive containing personal data belonging to more than 8,000 company employees. Law enforcement officials notified the company when the drive was confiscated, but urged them not to make a public announcement regarding the incident … Read more
Now Is A Good Time To Upgrade To SSD Drives
If you've been considering swapping out some of your old HDDs to SSDs, now is a great time to do so, thanks to the convergence of two factors. First is the fact that the manufacturers of SSDs have been making strides in terms of increasing the capacity of the drives they're offering. They are doing this while simultaneously offering other enhancements that reduce data duplication, making their products faster and more efficient than their HDD counterparts. Second is the fact that there is … Read more
