Items tagged with security
A research firm called Which? has poured through Google data and claims that two out of every five Android users around the world are no longer receiving vital security updates from Google. That means that 40 percent of all Android devices globally are at risk of data theft, ransomware, and other malware attacks that...
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Security researchers are sounding the alarm on a vulnerability present in practically every processor Intel has released in the past five years. According to the researchers, the vulnerability is "impossible to fix" and "jeopardizes everything Intel has done to build the root of trust and lay a solid security...
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We fully realize we are preaching to the choir, but never open up unsolicited and/or unexpected email attachments. Remind your friends and remind your family members. Lest anyone need a reminder of why this is a bad idea, security researchers are warning of a group of attackers who have been phishing for victims as...
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As with many things in life, when it comes to mobile app security, you win some and you lose some. So it goes for Google and its Play Store. A new 2019 Mobile App Thread Landscape Report put together by RiskIQ pegs the Play Store as being the second most dangerous place to download apps, in terms of the number of...
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Samsung has announced its new Secure Element solution that offers secure key storage with CC EAL (Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level) 5+ certification and dedicated security software for enhanced data protection. The new Secure Element features a security chip and optimized software designed to guard private...
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A new security vulnerability has now been detailed that exposes portions of your device’s Wi-Fi traffic to nefarious individuals. The Kr00k vulnerability was disclosed today by ESET researchers presenting at the RSA Security Conference.
The problem lies with Wi-Fi chips that were manufactured by Broadcom and...
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As far as Mozilla is concerned, its Firefox browser is becoming more secure by being the only one to enable encrypted DNS over HTTPS (DoH) by default for users in the United States. The gradual rollout has already begun and will continue over the new few weeks, so long as no major issues rear their ugly...
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A few days ago, some Samsung device owners reported receiving a mysterious "1/1" push notification on their smartphones, from the company's Find my Mobile app. Initially, Samsung explained it as a "message sent unintentionally during internet test[ing]" and said there was "no effect" on user's devices. However...
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There are many ways for one to monitor their physical surroundings and possessions, but these methods are not always accessible or inconspicuous. Haven: Keep Watch uses an Android device’s sensors to monitor an area and watch out for unwelcome guests; its stable version was released this past December.
Haven was...
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WhatsApp is popular because its end-to-end encryption gives users warm fuzzies over the privacy and security of their chats. However, the chat messaging application might not be quite as secure or private as you thought (or at least that was the case). That's because Google had been indexing links to group chats...
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Imagine hitting it off with a love (or lust) interest, and then finding out the person who grabbed your attention never existed, at least not in the way you thought. Such a situation recently happened to hundreds of Israeli soldiers who fell prey to a "honey trap" campaign and contracted digital infections on their...
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Nearly every device on the market relies on firmware and many devices include multiple components with their own firmware. Manufacturers and developers have begun to focus on protecting system firmware from potential attackers, but peripheral firmware often receives very little attention. Security researchers at...
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It's all fun and games until a nasty bit of malware infiltrates your PC and wreaks havoc, right? To quote the late, great Bill Paxton, at that point it's "Game over man! Game over!" Fortunately, common sense computing habits are highly effective. Malware writers can be a clever, however, and security researchers are...
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The contentious relationship between the United States government and Huawei, the second largest smartphone maker in the world behind Apple, is not easing up. Just the opposite, US government officials reportedly claim to have evidence that Huawei is able to spy on users through "backdoors" installed on its mobile...
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Android users need to apply the latest round of security updates to their devices as one of them is meant to address a critical vulnerability in the Bluetooth subsystem. The flaw is known as CVE-2020-0022, and when exploited, it could allow arbitrary code to be run on the device with the elevated privileges of the...
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Hackers need physical access to a computer or need to trick a user into installing malware to steal data from an air-gapped PC (one that is not physically connected to a network). Air-gapped computers can have malware installed to steal data, but getting the data out is harder. That may not be the case with new...
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Well, this is disturbing. Russian security researcher Vladislav Yarmak is warning of a backdoor that exists in firmware for digital video recorder (DVR) and network video recorder (NVR) powered by HiSilicon system-on-chip (SoC) hardware. This is a zero-day vulnerability that could allow an attacker to gain root access...
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Security researchers are warning of an exploit in the ZigBee low-power wireless power protocol that could allow an attacker to infiltrate a home network through smart lighting. The researches focused primarily on Philips Hue smart bulbs because of their market popularity in the smart lighting segment, though the...
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Another day, another data privacy flub, and this time it's from Google. Google Takeout is a service that allows users to download their data from Google apps as a backup or to use it with another service. That sounds good on the surface until, somehow, Google managed to send backed up videos to unrelated users. Google...
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Earlier this week, we reported that Avast was under fire for its data privacy policies (or lack thereof) for its free antivirus software. Through its subsidiary Jumpshot, Avast sold vast amounts of user data to big name customers like Google and Microsoft (among others).
Although Avast claimed that the data that it...
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LabCorp is one of the largest medical laboratory companies in the country. Chances are high that anyone who has had lab tests run at the doctor's office or hospital has used LabCorp at some point. The company had a major security flaw with its website that exposed confidential medical documents, including lab test...
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Researchers have dubbed a newly discovered vulnerability affecting Intel CPUs as CacheOut (how bout dah?), noting it can "violate nearly every hardware-based security domain, leaking data from the OS kernel, co-resident virtual machines, and even SGX enclaves." As you might have guessed, this is yet another...
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