Topics

System76 to disable Intel Management Engine on its notebooks

While Intel is working with the big brands to patch the major security holes recently discovered in its Management Engine firmware, System76 plans to take it all to the next level by disabling IME entirely via a firmware update.

Codrut Nistor, 30 Nov 2017 23:45

HP claims that customer privacy is very important and it only collects data with the consent of the user. (Source: HP)

HP releases official statement regarding spyware accusations

HP is dismissing all the allegations, claiming that Touchpoint Analytics only collects hardware data and sends it with the user's approval. The new version of the app did install itself without any user consent, but this was alrea...

Bogdan Solca, 30 Nov 2017 15:48

HP stealthily replace the older Touchpoint Manager with a Touchpoint Analytics Service app that is sending user data to HP's servers without consent. (Source: HP)

HP accused of spying on its customers through stealthy telemetry app

HP stealthily replaced the "Touchpoint Manager" app with a new version called "Touchpoint Analytics Service", causing full CPU usage on its clients' systems and syphoning user data.

Bogdan Solca, 29 Nov 2017 12:06

They may take everything but never our freedom. Never our right to choose.

The fight for Net Neutrality is on...you should take action today

The US Federal Communications Commission is set to cast a vote that will repeal the Net Neutrality laws that keep the Internet fun for everyone. American or not, it's time you had a say in this matter. Let your voice be heard toda...

Ricci Rox, 26 Nov 2017 10:19

A new set of Intel Management Engine vulnerabilities confirmed

Not long after a few security research groups discovered new vulnerabilities in the Intel Management Engine remote administration subsystem, the chipmaker confirmed these issues in a new security advisory that also lists other bug...

Codrut Nistor, 21 Nov 2017 14:10

Yet another Android exploit. (Source: Pixabay)

New Android security flaw allows screen recording without direct user permission

A security research firm has revealed an Android exploit which allows a rogue application to record all on-screen activity without the user's permission. This has been fixed in Android 8, but users on older versions are still vuln...

Craig Ward, 18 Nov 2017 19:16

Smartwatches targetted at children, like the VTech Kidizoom, are now banned in Germany. (Image: VTech)

Germany bans smartwatches marketed at children

Children's smartwatches have been found to have glaring security holes, some of which can present a serious threat to the safety of the children that wear them. These security issues, along with privacy concerns, have led German o...

Sam Medley, 18 Nov 2017 04:09

Android Oreo has new APIs which help remove developers reliance on accessibility permissions. (Source: knd61/Pixabay)

Google's new security policy on accessibility features will limit or remove 'hundreds of good, useful apps'

The next stage of Google's push to improve Android security is putting a spotlight on applications which misuse accessibility features to add functionality that wasn't expressely designed to improve use for people with disabilitie...

Craig Ward, 14 Nov 2017 21:44

Amazon Key relies on a compatible smart lock, smart camera, and Amazon Cloud. (Source: Amazon)

Amazon Key lets couriers unlock your door when you're not home

Amazon has released their Amazon Key service which uses an Amazon produced smart camera, a smart lock from Yale or Kwikset, and the Amazon Cloud to allow delivery drivers to unlock your front door and leave your parcel inside.

Craig Ward, 26 Oct 2017 01:10

The Samsung J7 smartphone. (Source: Samsung)

Samsung J7 catches fire in an Indian flight causing a mid-air scare

A Samsung J7 smartphone caught fire on a Jet Airways flight bound to Indore from New Delhi causing mid-air panic. The flight staff were unable to extinguish the fire and had to drop the phone in a tray of water to put off the flam...

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 21 Oct 2017 14:52

OnePlus makes statement regarding data collection, will release update to reduce what is transmitted

OnePlus co-founder, Carl Pei, has posted a response to the data collection being performed by his company. Some details were given on what purpose the collected data had, and what OnePlus will do going forward.

Craig Ward, 15 Oct 2017 23:05

Liberty secured: Purism's Librem 5 Linux-based smartphone meets crowdfunding goal

The Librem 5, a smartphone currently in development by Purism, recently reached its USD$1.5 million crowdfunding goal. The device will be designed with privacy in mind and will run a mobile flavor of Purism's own PureOS.

Sam Medley, 11 Oct 2017 20:47

The wolf in sheep's clothing which snuck into thousands of unsuspecting digital pens. (Source: SwiftOnSecurity)

A fake Adblock Plus extension has infected about 37,000 Google Chrome users

Posing as the world's most popular ad-blocking software, a fraudulent extension made it onto the Chrome Web Store and tricked tens of thousands of victims into installing what turned out to be a very annoying piece of adware.

John Garcia, 10 Oct 2017 21:42

A more fitting name if this trend of fails continues. (Source: CHEIL India)

OnePlus is collecting user data without permission, and you should be scared

OnePlus has dropped the ball yet again, with a user discovering a data siphon that sends his private phone information and logs to a remote OnePlus server.

Ricci Rox, 10 Oct 2017 12:33

The next all-touchscreen smartphone from BlackBerry has surfaced. (Source: Evan Blass)

Blackberry's next all-touchscreen smartphone leaks out

Serial leaker Evan Blass has introduced the new BlackBerry Motion to the world. The new device will be the third touchscreen-only Android-based model from the the once dominant Canadian smartphone maker.

Sanjiv Sathiah, 06 Oct 2017 11:53

All 3 billion Yahoo user accounts were involved in the 2013 data breach

If you held a Yahoo account in 2013, then you were almost certainly involved in the data breach. At 3 billion user accounts affected, this announcement sets the record for the largest known data breach.

Craig Ward, 04 Oct 2017 02:26

Austrian and Chinese scientists conversed over the quantum-secured communication line. (Source: Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Chinese and Austrian scientists make first unhackable quantum video call

The quantum communication process involves data that is embedded into entangled photons. Any unauthorized tempering with the quantum data stream is immediately exposed and the quantum signature is automatically changed to prevent ...

Bogdan Solca, 03 Oct 2017 11:32

Sirin Labs intends to bring the crypto world closer to mainstream with the upcoming Finney devices.

Sirin Labs is developing world's first blockchain smartphones and PC terminals

The Finney smartphones and PC terminals will be the first open-soruce devices to connect to an independent blockchain network. These will run a proprietary Android-based Shield OS that comes with an array of security features like...

Bogdan Solca, 28 Sep 2017 15:00

The Wi-Fi exploit could be affecting billions of devices. (Source: Google)

Google and Apple release emergency patches to fix Wi-Fi exploit in iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7 Edge

The Wi-Fi exploit works with any mobile device that integrates Broadcom Wi-Fi chips. Google and Apple claim they have released emergency patches for Android 8.0 Oreo and iOS 11, but it may take some time to patch all devices.

Bogdan Solca, 27 Sep 2017 15:02

CBS-owned 'Showtime' joins The Pirate Bay and rogue chrome extensions in using your CPU to mine cryptocurrency

CoinHive's cryptomining JavaScript has been found embedded in the site code of two of Showtime's websites, causing increases CPU usage. The script has now been removed, but silence from Showtime leaves the question open on whether...

Craig Ward, 26 Sep 2017 17:15

The neuromorphic processor integrates 130,000 artificial neurons that can develop 130 million synapses. (source: Intel)

Intel presents its first self-learning neuromorphic processor codenamed Loihi

Intel's self-learning Loihi processor is built using the 14 nm manufacturing process and integrates 130,000 artificial neurons that can develop up to 130 million synapses. The chip can perform training and inference tasks, so it a...

Bogdan Solca, 26 Sep 2017 15:04

All this considered, this is about par for cyber information control in most parts of the world. (Source: The Verge)

Your private data isn't so private after all, Wechat confirms

It's been a good week for privacy intrusions, with GO Keyboard being reported to siphon user data. This time out, it's the Wechat app on all the headlines, as the app's new privacy policy sheds light on how public, private user da...

Ricci Rox, 24 Sep 2017 09:56

The main weakness of pattern and PIN is the ability for those around you to obverve entry. (Source: Msporch/Pixabay)

Android pattern unlock is the easiest authentication method to snoop

A study by researchers from the University of Maryland and the US Naval Academy has been published showing that a six-spot pattern unlock is six times easier for snoopers to repeat after seeing once than a six-digit PIN.

Craig Ward, 23 Sep 2017 02:20

Equi-fail: Equifax directs customers affected by hack to fake phishing website

In another major misstep for Equifax, an employee of the credit services company responded to customer tweets with a link to a fake phishing website. The site, which was styled to look like the official Equifax site dedicated to t...

Sam Medley, 21 Sep 2017 23:58

CCleaner's binary was modified by hackers to insert a backdoor. (Source: Piriform)

CCleaner hijacked by hackers to open a backdoor for remote code execution

Piriform, makers of the popular PC cleaning software CCleaner, said that a few versions of the program's 32-bit binary were hijacked by hackers who could insert a two-stage backdoor capable of remote code execution. Investigation ...

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 19 Sep 2017 10:20

Google Tez aims to make payments hassle-free. (Source: Google)

Google Tez aims to revolutionize the digital payment landscape in India

Google has launched a new payment service, Tez, which enables fast payments without the need to share information such as bank account numbers, fund transfer codes, or even pair up mobiles by NFC. The new service is compatible wit...

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 18 Sep 2017 21:11

Equifax security breach blamed on known web vulnerability in Apache Struts

One week after announcing a major data breach affecting over 143 million consumers, Equifax is pointing blame at a security vulnerability in the Apache Struts web framework. However, the vulnerability was publicly announced in Mar...

Sam Medley, 14 Sep 2017 22:15

The QNAP TS-x77 features upto an 8-core 16-thread AMD Ryzen 7 CPU and 64 GB of RAM. (Source: QNAP)

QNAP briefs about QTS 4.3.4 OS and the TS-x77 NAS powered by AMD Ryzen

QNAP offered a glimpse into some of the advancements coming to the QTS 4.3.4 operating system that includes new features such as snapshot support for ARM-based QNAP NAS. It also offered a closer look into the TS-x77 NAS powered by...

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 14 Sep 2017 09:54

Android and iOS-like app permissions coming to Windows 10 apps

Microsoft is bringing app permissions for improved privacy and security with UWP (Windows Store) applications. Admins of the Enterprise Edition have an option to reduce the diagnostic data collected to be reduced to the minimum ne...

Craig Ward, 13 Sep 2017 21:30

BlueBorne vulnerability could target billions of unpatched Bluetooth devices

Armis Labs discovered a Bluetooth vulnerability codenamed BlueBorne that could affect billions of devices including smartphones like Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy, tablets like Samsung Galaxy Tab, smartwatches like LG Watch Spor...

Bogdan Solca, 13 Sep 2017 14:42

Graph of the increase in cryptocurrency mining trojans as measured by Kaspersky Labs. (Source: Bleeping Computer)

Cryptocurrency mining malware has infected over 1.65 million computers this year

Data from Kaspersky Labs shows that the number of cryptocurrency mining trojan infections in 2017 has passed 1.65 million to date. Criminals use infected PCs to crunch transactions and route the success fee to their own digital wa...

Craig Ward, 12 Sep 2017 21:58

Google Chrome to include protection from man-in-the-middle attacks

Google Chrome 63 will come with a feature designed to protect users from third parties who are attempting to intercept their encrypted SSL transmissions.

Craig Ward, 11 Sep 2017 21:48

Swelling batteries in the XPS 15 9550 have caused displacement of trackpads rendering them useless. (Source: User Crashnorun on the Dell Support Forum)

PSA | Dell offers to replace swelling XPS 15 9550 batteries for free, even if out-of-warranty

There were problems with batches of 84Wh batteries in the XPS 15 9550 that led to the battery bulging and pushing against the trackpad. Once the swelling was bad enough, it not only hindered the trackpad function but also posed a ...

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 10 Sep 2017 17:17

ASRock's X10 IoT router can remotely control various smart appliances around the house. (Source: ASRock)

ASRock's X10 IoT Router remotely controls home appliances over radio and IR

The X10 comes with the usual dual band Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet connections, but also offers remote control capabilities for smart home appliances through the integrated ZigBee radio controller and IR blaster.

Bogdan Solca, 08 Sep 2017 11:29

Equifax announces major security breach affecting 143 million customers in the U.S.

Equifax announced today that the personal information of over 143 million American consumers was compromised in late July. Items such as birth dates, social security numbers, and even drivers licenses were stolen by hackers, in ad...

Sam Medley, 07 Sep 2017 23:57

Apple's Siri is vulnerable to ultrasonic voice hacks.

Siri and Alexa are vulnerable to ultrasonic voice commands

Chinese researchers have been able to launch malicious voice command attacks on every major voice assistant including Siri and Alexa. Using ultrasonics, the researchers were able to hack devices with any victim completely unaware ...

Sanjiv Sathiah, 07 Sep 2017 13:15

Lenovo has been fined US$3.5 million and had restrictions placed on pre-installed software on their systems in the United States. (Source: Geralt/Pixabay)

Lenovo fined US$3.5 million for pre-installing adware on some laptops in 2015

The saga about some Lenovo laptops coming pre-installed with adware in 2015 has now come to an end with the results of their court case being announced a few hours ago. Lenovo must pay a fine of US$3.5 million and has had some res...

Craig Ward, 06 Sep 2017 01:07

The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is all set to roll out starting October 17

IFA 2017 | Windows 10 Fall Creators Update will officially roll out starting October 17 along with a slew of Windows Mixed Reality headsets

At its IFA 2017 keynote in Berlin, Microsoft announced that the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update will start officially rolling out starting October 17. Microsoft's partners will also start shipping affordable Windows Mixed Reality ...

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 01 Sep 2017 16:01

Insiders can now test drive full Office 365 apps directly from the Windows Store. (Source: Windows Central)

Microsoft invites Insiders to test drive Office 365 from the Windows Store

Microsoft is inviting Insiders to test out Office 365 programs from Windows Store. These are the original Win32-based programs converted using the Project Centennial desktop bridge that can now call UWP-specific APIs and services.

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 01 Sep 2017 13:24

Andy Rubin issues apology for Essential customer privacy debacle

After a massive privacy foul-up, Essential's Andy Rubin has issued a formal apology to customers that had their personal information emailed to other customers. Essential will provide affected individuals with a one-year subscript...

Sam Medley, 31 Aug 2017 15:34

Acer Holo360 (left) and Acer Vision360 (right) LTE enabled 360-degree cameras. (Source: Acer)

IFA 2017 | Acer showcases 360-degree cameras with LTE connectivity

Acer has showcased two LTE enabled 360-degree cameras, the Holo360 and Vision360, at its IFA press conference. The Holo360 is a one-stop device for all things concerned with video recording, editing and sharing while the Vision360...

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 31 Aug 2017 12:25

Deep digging into the Intel ME firmware has finally enabled security researchers to disable its functioning. (Source: Positive Technologies)

Eureka! The Intel Management Engine can finally be disabled, thanks to the NSA

Researchers have found a way to disable a much hated component of Intel CPUs — the Intel Management Engine, thanks in part to the NSA's High Assurance Platform (HPA) program.

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 30 Aug 2017 20:37

WhatsApp will soon enable verified business numbers as a medium for customer interaction. (Source: WhatsApp)

WhatsApp will soon allow you to chat with verified businesses

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has started a pilot program to verify business numbers. This allows customers to directly chat with businesses for quicker updates and problem resolution.

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 30 Aug 2017 15:32

Verizon is one the first US carriers to roll out the new Android Oreo OTA update. (Source: Verizon)

Verizon starts rolling out Android Oreo to Google Pixel handsets

Contrary to popular notion, Verizon has started to seed the Android Oreo update to Google Pixel phones on its network much before any other major US carrier has initiated the process.

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 30 Aug 2017 09:30

Google's Certified Android devices program is a continuation of its security efforts. (Source: Google)

Google launches Certified Android device program

Google has announced its new Certified Android devices program. Designed to give customers the guarantee of a malware-free device out of the box, it is the company's latest effort to clamp down on Android security.

Sanjiv Sathiah, 29 Aug 2017 13:45

NY Mayor Bill de Blasio with NYPD deputy commissioner for IT, Jessica Tisch. (Source: NY Post)

NYPD contemplating on replacing 36,000 odd Windows Phones with iPhones

In the continuing habitual setback for Microsoft in its mobile endeavors, the NYPD will soon be scrapping its 36,000 odd smartphones running Windows Phone 8.1 for iPhones. The department is taking the decision in the wake of Micro...

Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 29 Aug 2017 08:20

The Librem 5 will feature hardware kill switches for the camera, microphone, and wireless radios. (Image: Purism)

Purism turns to crowdfunding to develop their Linux-based smartphone

The Librem 5, currently up for preorder through a crowdfunding campaign, is Purism's attempt to create a privacy-focused smartphone. The phone will run a mobile variant of PureOS, which is Purism's own custom GNU/Linux-based opera...

Sam Medley, 24 Aug 2017 22:43