Tag Archives: security

Mojang has finally patched out a two-year old security bug that would allow people with the know-how to crash Minecraft servers by forcing them out of memory or causing them to freeze. The patch came in response to a blog post written by coder, Ammar Asker. The coder outlined a …

You probably know by now that the biggest tech companies in the US are currently battling it out with the NSA over data encryption and what the US government should be allowed to access. Since back door access to customer data is clearly out of the question following the Snowden …

Google began cracking down on Android malware pretty heavily last year and it seems to have paid off as apparently, Google has managed to cut the amount of malware hitting its mobile OS down by half. Additionally, Google also says that only 1 per cent of Android devices managed to …

Even though the battle between iOS and Android smartphones has been fought for years here in the ‘West,' in China, that war was lost long ago. With over 90 per cent of the country's smartphones running Android, you would think it's clear who the victor was, but in-fact it isn't …

Lenovo has recently been in hot water due to its use of Superfish, or what it calls “shopping aid” software, that it pre-installed on some of its laptops between September and January. It had originally said that the software was only being pulled temporally, while it waited for a new version …

It turns out that Mozilla is planning to tighten up its security restrictions regarding add-ons for the Firefox browser. In a blog post the company said that the decision to block unsigned add-ons was made to reduce a user's chances of installing a dodgy add-on that can do dodgy things …

In 2013, the United States riled up a lot of people, as Edward Snowden released a bevy of classified NSA documents to the press, which revealed the extent of the spying perpetrated by the NSA and its international contemporaries. However one person it really angered was German chancellor, Angela Merkel, …

Facebook has once again updated its privacy policy but it may be taking things too far in an effort to show you targeted ads. The new policy allows Facebook to check up on what you are doing on other apps and websites that have nothing to do with the social …

You really should disable or uninstall Adobe Flash at this point. If you haven't yet done so however here is another reason, following on from last week's 0-day exploit; there is another critical vulnerability that is being actively exploited in the wild, the only difference this time is that there is …

Android 5.0 (or “Lollipop” as its known) has been out for over 3 months now and unfortunately despite the massive improvements over earlier version of Android, it is hardly managing to make a dent in the overall Android picture. Even the long since supported Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” has over four times …

Apple will reportedly use similar security protocols to jewellery stores in order to protect the more expensive editions of its upcoming Apple Watch wearable, which will begin shipping in April. These security measures will be in place to protect the Apple Watch ‘Edition' specifically, which may cost several thousand dollars …

Raptr, the social themed video game service that comes bundled with AMD's graphics card drivers, has been hacked. According to reports, passwords, usernames, first and last names may have been accessed and as a result, password changes are recommended. Raptr Founder and CEO, Dennis Fong, gave a statement on the security …

A new Android bug is exposing around one billion devices due to a security vulnerability. This bug only affects phones and tablets that are running versions of Android that are older than 4.4 Kit Kat, which is just under one billion devices in total. The vulnerability was spotted by security …

North Korea for all of its virtues, is not a country that is known for a thriving software industry, but did you know that they have their own homegrown operating system? Well they do and it's called Red Star OS. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) first launched the OS, which …

Google has gone ahead and published a new Windows 8.1 vulnerability that allows low level users to gain administration privileges. The vulnerability was revealed this week but unfortunately, there is currently no fix from Microsoft. According to Google, the company gave Microsoft plenty of time to address the loophole, 90 …

The ViewSonic V55 smartphone is currently penciled in for an early 2015 release and could very well be the first consumer smartphone in the world to launch with iris scanning technology implemented. Bio-metrics began sneaking on to smartphones and other devices last year with fingerprint scanners but now it looks …

Apple has pushed out its first ever automated security update to computers running the Mac OS X operating system in order to help defend against new bugs that security researches warned could allow hackers to remotely take control of machines. Apple pushed out the software update yesterday to fix critical …

I'm sure most of you have either received a call yourself, or know someone who has, where the person on the other end of the phone claims to be calling from Microsoft and has identified a problem with your Windows PC. Unfortunately while it may be easy for most of …

Rambus and Cisco this week announced that the former’s Cryptography Research division has licensed select security-related technologies to Cisco Systems. The agreement allows the latter to integrate certain security technologies into Cisco products to provide protection against unauthorized access and mitigate security threats. Given the fact that it is unknown …

Microsoft has put out an emergency patch for the Kerberos Bug, which could allow an attacker to perform privilege escalation on all versions of Windows. This will mark the software maker's third emergency patch in recent months, this one in particular arrives just a week after the regular monthly patch …

The European court has been forcing Google to evaluate and remove search links based on ‘right to be forgotten' applications for some time now. The company has struggled to keep up with demand and it looks like things might get worse as the ruling may now extend out of Europe. …

Yesterday, fresh faced and bushy tailed, new head of the GCHQ, Robert Hannigan announced that he wanted tech firms of the UK to strike a new deal with intelligence agencies to ensure more cooperation. His reasoning for this call on social networks and similar companies, was to (of course) help …

Windows 10 is set to safe-guard users against data breaches by implementing multiple factor authentication for PC logins. According to Microsoft, the new OS will optionally treat a device as on authentication factor when signing in to a local or internet based account, a pin code or biometric reader will …

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have got off to a good start in China since last week but those attempting to connect to iCloud may face a nasty surprise as last night, the Chinese firewall began blocking all local connections to iCloud.com, redirecting those to a dummy site designed …

Facebook has come to the realization that securing a server just isn't enough to keep passwords out of the hands of cyber criminals anymore, which is why the company is approaching security a little differently. Facebook has announced that for the past few months, they've been searching anonymous posting sites …

Apple now lets potential second hand iPhone buyers check if the device is stolen or not before users hand over their money. The new tool requires an IMEI code or serial number, it will then check if an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch has been previously locked down by its …

Startups are a great thing for any industry, as they bring in new people, new ideas and often that leads to innovation. However when it comes to smartphone apps, it can also lead to vulnerabilities and stolen data, as the developers don't quite cover the bases in terms of security. …

While Apple denies that it was a flaw in its iCloud system that allowed hundreds of private celebrity photos to be leaked on to the web last week, it has admitted that it could do more to protect its users and will introduce additional security measures within two weeks. Apple's …

It turns out that an Android Smartphone's gyroscope can be transformed into a microphone capable of listening in on you without your express permission. The discovery was made by security researchers at Stanford University in conjunction with defense firm, Rafael, which developed a new app called ‘Gyrophone'. While apps have …

Less than two weeks after Apple and IBM agreed to offer enterprise-tailored services with sophisticated security, BlackBerry, whose main customers are enterprises, governments and other organizations requiring advanced security, announced a plan to acquire Secusmart GmbH. The take-over enriches BlackBerry’s extensive security technologies with high-security voice and data encryption and …