Last month, a new WiFi security vulnerability known as "Krack" was discovered by a security researcher named Mathy Vanhoef. It was about as serious as a security flaw could be, enabling hackers to clone a router and funnel traffic through it, either monitoring all the activity on the network or, if they wanted to be more destructive, conducting all manner of "man in the middle" attacks against anyone on the network. The major tech companies were all given advance notice of Vanhoef's research, … Read more
Touch And Vibration May Be The Fingerprints Of The Future
Researchers at Rutgers University have hit upon a novel idea that could be a game-changer in terms of biometric identification. The team published a paper entitled "VibWrite: Towards Finger-input Authentication on Ubiquitous Surfaces via Physical Vibration," and demonstrated a prototype of the device at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) conference in Dallas, Texas. The new technology is a lesson in simplicity, consisting of a simple vibration motor and a receiver on almost any … Read more
Granting Photo Access In iPhone Might Allow Unauthorized Photographing
An Austrian software engineer named Felix Krause has made a disturbing discovery about iPhones using iOS11. Once an app has been given permission to access the device's camera, it can take pictures and videos without alerting the user and upload them to the internet in real time. Unfortunately, there are a lot of apps that users grant camera permissions to. Basically, any time you upload an avatar or post a picture with an app, you've got to give it camera permissions to do that. Krause … Read more
Ransomware Continues To Evolve On Android Devices
Hackers around the world are continuing to innovate at a terrifying, relentless pace, and that truth is reflected in the latest form of ransomware to be found in the wild. Dubbed "DoubleLocker," this new strain targets Android devices. It uses and abuses the platform's Accessibility Service, reactivating itself every time the user presses the phone's "Home" button. Initial forensic analysis of the code base reveals this new threat to be based on Svpeng, which is a nasty form of malware … Read more
Hard Drives Susceptible To Sound Waves, Can Double As Microphones
File this one away under “obscure and terrifying.â€� Recently, a security researcher named Alfredo Ortega, speaking at a security conference in Buenos Aires, unveiled research revealing that the hard drive in your computer can be, with a bit of work, turned into a rudimentary microphone and used to spy on you. It should be noted that this hack only works on HDDs and takes advantage of the way they are designed. Understand that this isn’t a flaw; it’s simply the way the technology … Read more
OnePlus Mobile Phone Found To Be Collecting User Data
If you own a smartphone made by Chinese manufacturer OnePlus, you can thank security researcher Chris Moore for making a discovery that the manufacturer wasn’t going to tell you about. It turns out that OnePlus phones running the OxygenOS are recording a disturbing amount of user data and sending it back to a company server. The data being collected on users include, but are not limited to: • Any time the user locks or unlocks the phone • Any time the user launches, uses or closes an … Read more
Microsoft Officially Pulls Plug On Windows Phone
The Windows phone is officially dead, with the announcement from Joe Belfiore that there would be no new feature updates and no further development. The writing has been on the wall for a while now, with Microsoft gutting its phone division and laying off thousands of employees. But until Belfiore’s announcement, the company hadn’t made it official. Microsoft was very slow to recognize how big a footprint smartphones would ultimately have on the market, and as such, paid little attention … Read more
Microsoft Edge Browser Coming To Android And IOS
Since ditching its beleaguered Internet Explorer browser, Microsoft’s latest offering, Edge, which is bundled with Windows 10, has been struggling to gain a foothold in the market. Yes, it comes preloaded on Windows 10 machines, and that fact alone has prompted significant use. However, the browser has its share of weaknesses and limitations, one of the largest beings that it has, until now, completely lacked a cross-platform, multiple device experiences. That has changed. Users can now … Read more
Google Has Announced Earbuds That Translate Language In Real Time
Google Labs has produced some amazing ideas. Some of them have found their way to the market, and many others have not. The one thing they have in common, though, is that they’re all intriguing and exciting. That’s especially true of Google’s latest offering, Google Pixel Buds. If you’ve ever read “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy,” then you know the term “Bable Fish.” If you grew up watching Star Trek, then you know all about the Universal Translator. Well, Google has built the … Read more
Firefox Will End Support For XP, and Vista Users In 2018
Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP and Vista quite some time ago., Butbut so far, Firefox has been hanging tough, continuing to provide updates to their browser’s users on both platforms, doing at least something to extend their useful life a bit longer. That’s soon coming to an end going to change soon. Mozilla recently announced that as of June 2018, their support for both XP and Vista would be coming to an end. Originally, Mozilla planned to discontinue support to both XP and Vista … Read more
