Month: March 2019

Apples’ Shazam for iOS Sheds 3rd Party SDKs. Keeps pumping your data through on Android.

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Shazam, the song identification app Apple bought for $400M, recently released an update to its iOS app that got rid of all 3rd party SDKs the app was using except for one. The SDKs that were removed include ad networks, analytics trackers, and even open-source utilities. Why, you ask? Because all of those SDKs leak Read more about Apples’ Shazam for iOS Sheds 3rd Party SDKs. Keeps pumping your data through on Android.[…]

Facebook receives personal health data from apps, even if you don’t have a FB account

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Facebook receives highly personal information from apps that track your health and help you find a new home, testing by The Wall Street Journal found. Facebook can receive this data from certain apps even if the user does not have a Facebook account, according to the Journal. Facebook has already been in hot water concerning Read more about Facebook receives personal health data from apps, even if you don’t have a FB account[…]

W3C approves WebAuthn as the web standard for password-free logins using FIDO2

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) today declared that the Web Authentication API (WebAuthn) is now an official web standard. First announced by the W3C and the FIDO Alliance in November 2015, WebAuthn is now an open standard for password-free logins on the web. It is supported by W3C contributors, including Airbnb, Alibaba, Apple, Google, Read more about W3C approves WebAuthn as the web standard for password-free logins using FIDO2[…]

Missing Out On Deep Sleep Causes Alzheimer’s Plaques to Build Up

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Getting enough deep sleep might be the key to preventing dementia. In a series of recent experiments on mice, researchers discovered that deep sleep helps the brain clear out potentially toxic waste. The discovery reinforces how critical quality sleep is for brain health and suggests sleep therapies might curb the advance of memory-robbing ailments, like Alzheimer’s disease. Read more about Missing Out On Deep Sleep Causes Alzheimer’s Plaques to Build Up[…]

Massive Database Leak Gives Us a Window into China’s Digital Surveillance State

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Earlier this month, security researcher Victor Gevers found and disclosed an exposed database live-tracking the locations of about 2.6 million residents of Xinjiang, China, offering a window into what a digital surveillance state looks like in the 21st century. Xinjiang is China’s largest province, and home to China’s Uighurs, a Turkic minority group. Here, the Read more about Massive Database Leak Gives Us a Window into China’s Digital Surveillance State[…]

Scientists turn CO2 ‘back into coal’ in breakthrough carbon capture experiment

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The research team led by RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, developed a new technique using a liquid metal electrolysis method which efficiently converts CO2 from a gas into solid particles of carbon. Published in the journal Nature Communications, the authors say their technology offers an alternative pathway for “safely and permanently” removing CO2 from the Read more about Scientists turn CO2 ‘back into coal’ in breakthrough carbon capture experiment[…]

Google’s DeepMind can predict wind energy income a day in advance

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Wind power has become increasingly popular, but its success is limited by the fact that wind comes and goes as it pleases, making it hard for power grids to count on the renewable energy and less likely to fully embrace it. While we can’t control the wind, Google has an idea for the next best Read more about Google’s DeepMind can predict wind energy income a day in advance[…]

Studies Keep Showing That the Best Way to Stop Piracy Is to Offer Cheaper, Better Alternatives

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Study after study continues to show that the best approach to tackling internet piracy is to provide these would-be customers with high quality, low cost alternatives. For decades the entertainment industry has waged a scorched-earth assault on internet pirates. Usually this involves either filing mass lawsuits against these users, or in some instances trying to Read more about Studies Keep Showing That the Best Way to Stop Piracy Is to Offer Cheaper, Better Alternatives[…]

Ready for another fright? Spectre flaws in today’s computer chips can be exploited to hide, run stealthy malware

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Co-authored by three computer science boffins from the University of Colorado, Boulder in the US – Jack Wampler, Ian Martiny, and Eric Wustrow – the paper, “ExSpectre: Hiding Malware in Speculative Execution,” describes a way to compile malicious code into a seemingly innocuous payload binary, so it can be executed through speculative execution without detection. Read more about Ready for another fright? Spectre flaws in today’s computer chips can be exploited to hide, run stealthy malware[…]

Amazon Ring Doorbell allows people to eavesdrop with video and even insert footage

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Plaintext transmission of audio/video footage to the Ring application allows for arbitrary surveillance and injection of counterfeit traffic, effectively compromising home security (CVE-2019-9483). […] We moved over to sniffing the application. Here we see a more sensible SIP/TLS approach, with pretty much all notifications, updates and information being passed via HTTPS. However, the actual RTP Read more about Amazon Ring Doorbell allows people to eavesdrop with video and even insert footage[…]

Stonehenge: Geologists have found exactly where some rocks came from

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Five thousand years after people in the British Isles began building Stonehenge, scientists now know precisely where some of the massive rocks came from and how they were unearthed. A team of 12 geologists and archaeologists from across the United Kingdom unveiled research this month that traces some of the prehistoric monument’s smaller stones to Read more about Stonehenge: Geologists have found exactly where some rocks came from[…]

Incredible Experiment Gives Infrared Vision to Mice—and Humans Could Be Next

Posted on by Robin Edgar

By injecting nanoparticles into the eyes of mice, scientists gave them the ability to see near-infrared light—a wavelength not normally visible to rodents (or people). It’s an extraordinary achievement, one made even more extraordinary with the realization that a similar technique could be used in humans. Of all the remarkable things done to mice over Read more about Incredible Experiment Gives Infrared Vision to Mice—and Humans Could Be Next[…]

How artificially brightened clouds could cool down the earth

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Clouds, however, naturally reflect the sun (it’s why Venus – a planet with permanent cloud cover – shines so brightly in our night sky). Marine stratocumulus clouds are particularly important, covering around 20% of the Earth’s surface while reflecting 30% of total solar radiation. Stratocumulus clouds also cool the ocean surface directly below. Proposals to Read more about How artificially brightened clouds could cool down the earth[…]

Plain wrong: Millions of utility customers’ passwords stored in plain text by website builder SEDC

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In September of 2018, an anonymous independent security researcher (who we’ll call X) noticed that their power company’s website was offering to email—not reset!—lost account passwords to forgetful users. Startled, X fed the online form the utility account number and the last four phone number digits it was asking for. Sure enough, a few minutes Read more about Plain wrong: Millions of utility customers’ passwords stored in plain text by website builder SEDC[…]

Samsung is loading McAfee antivirus software on smart TVs – which may be impossible to uninstall

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Samsung is adding bloatware to its 2019 TVs because McAfee is paying them to do so. There is arguably no reason for Samsung to offer third-party antivirus software for an operating system that is developed in-house. Partnering with software vendors is fairly common practice for large hardware manufacturers. Laptop makers frequently pre-install bloatware in return Read more about Samsung is loading McAfee antivirus software on smart TVs – which may be impossible to uninstall[…]

China bans 23m from buying travel tickets as part of ‘social credit’ system.

Posted on by Robin Edgar

China has blocked millions of “discredited” travellers from buying plane or train tickets as part of the country’s controversial “social credit” system aimed at improving the behaviour of citizens. According to the National Public Credit Information Centre, Chinese courts banned would-be travellers from buying flights 17.5 million times by the end of 2018. Citizens placed Read more about China bans 23m from buying travel tickets as part of ‘social credit’ system.[…]

Excel Can Now Turn Pictures of Tables Into Actual, Editable Tables

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Microsoft is introducing a really useful feature for Excel on mobile devices. The company is rolling out a new update to the Excel app for Android that makes it really easy to capture data. If you ever had to manually enter data from a paper in real life into your spreadsheets, you are going to Read more about Excel Can Now Turn Pictures of Tables Into Actual, Editable Tables[…]

Surprise! Facebook Low-Balled the Percentage of young teens It Paid to Install Spyware – by a factor of 4!

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In January, when news first broke that Facebook had been paying teens in gift cards to let it install what is, by definition, essentially spyware on their phones, it seemed like just another Tuesday. Had it been virtually any other company, the outrage would have been tenfold. After all, paying 13-year-olds to gain access to Read more about Surprise! Facebook Low-Balled the Percentage of young teens It Paid to Install Spyware – by a factor of 4![…]

Comcast set mobile pins to “0000,” helping attackers steal phone numbers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A bad security decision by Comcast on the company’s mobile phone service made it easier for attackers to port victims’ cell phone numbers to different carriers. Comcast in 2017 launched Xfinity Mobile, a cellular service that uses the Verizon Wireless network and Comcast Wi-Fi hotspots. Comcast has signed up 1.2 million mobile subscribers but took Read more about Comcast set mobile pins to “0000,” helping attackers steal phone numbers[…]

Four new DNA letters double life’s alphabet

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The DNA of life on Earth naturally stores its information in just four key chemicals — guanine, cytosine, adenine and thymine, commonly referred to as G, C, A and T, respectively. Now scientists have doubled this number of life’s building blocks, creating for the first time a synthetic, eight-letter genetic language that seems to store Read more about Four new DNA letters double life’s alphabet[…]

As China frightens Europe’s data protectors, America does too with Cloud Act

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A foreign power with possible unbridled access to Europe’s data is causing alarm in the region. No, it’s not China. It’s the United States. As the US pushes ahead with the “Cloud Act” it enacted about a year ago, Europe is scrambling to curb its reach. Under the act, all US cloud service providers, from Read more about As China frightens Europe’s data protectors, America does too with Cloud Act[…]

Boeing Just Revealed the ‘Loyal Wingman’ Fighter Drone—For Australia

Posted on by Robin Edgar

American plane-maker Boeing has revealed a stealthy, robotic fighter jet that could fly into battle alongside old-school manned planes. But the “loyal wingman” drone, as officials call it, isn’t for the U.S. military. The Australian government funded the ‘bot’s development in the hope of equipping Royal Australian Air Force squadrons with drone wingmen. Which is Read more about Boeing Just Revealed the ‘Loyal Wingman’ Fighter Drone—For Australia[…]