Researchers in a warming Arctic are discovering organisms, frozen and presumed dead for millennia, that can bear life anew. These ice age zombies range from simple bacteria to multicellular animals, and their endurance is prompting scientists to revise their understanding of what it means to survive. “You wouldn’t assume that anything buried for hundreds of Read more about Ancient life awakens amid thawing ice caps and permafrost[…]
The tech world is probably sitting on the edge of a charger revolution, and most of us just haven’t realized it yet. No, I’m not talking about USB-C (sadly); I’m talking about GaN (gallium nitride) chargers, a material that’s started to replace silicon in chargers. I’ve had the chance to try out two of the Read more about The next generation of GaN wall chargers is getting smaller and better[…]
Kings College London breached the General Data Protection Regulations when it shared a list of student activists with the police and barred the activists from campus during a visit by the Queen, an independent report (PDF) has found. Some 13 students and one member of staff were unable to access any of the campus sites Read more about King’s College London breached GDPR by sharing list of activist students with cops – wait, it has a list of activist students?![…]
An industry group of internet service providers has branded Firefox browser maker Mozilla an “internet villain” for supporting a DNS security standard. The U.K.’s Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA), the trade group for U.K. internet service providers, nominated the browser maker for its proposed effort to roll out the security feature, which they say will Read more about Internet group brands Mozilla ‘internet villain’ for supporting DNS privacy feature which may also allow users access to porn in the UK, make it hard for the great filter there to see where everyone is surfing[…]
Before Google, Facebook and Amazon, tech dominance was known by a single name: Microsoft. And no product was more dominant than Microsoft’s web browser, Internet Explorer. The company’s browser was the gateway to the internet for about 95 percent of users in the early 2000s, which helped land Microsoft at the center of a major Read more about Privacy-first browsers look to take the shine off Google’s Chrome[…]
Google and other tech companies have been under fire recently for a variety of issues, including failing to protect user data, failing to disclose how data is collected and used and failing to police the content posted to their services. […] n May, I wrote up something weird I spotted on Google’s account management page. Read more about Google Gmail purchase history can’t be deleted[…]
Over ten million users have been duped in installing a fake Samsung app named “Updates for Samsung” that promises firmware updates, but, in reality, redirects users to an ad-filled website and charges for firmware downloads. “I have contacted the Google Play Store and asked them to consider removing this app,” Aleksejs Kuprins, malware analyst at Read more about Fake Samsung firmware update app tricks more than 10 million Android users[…]
Almost a third (30%) of the world’s top virtual private network (VPN) providers are secretly owned by six Chinese companies, according to a study by privacy and security research firm VPNpro. The study shows that the top 97 VPNs are run by just 23 parent companies, many of which are based in countries with lax Read more about Top VPNs secretly owned by Chinese firms[…]
Amazon wants the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to give it the go-ahead to launch 3,236 satellites that would be used to establish a globe-spanning internet network. Seeking Alpha reported that Amazon expects “to offer service to tens of millions of underserved customers around the world” via the network, which the company is developing under the Read more about Amazon Seeks Permission to Launch 3,236 Internet Satellites – awesome! more trash metal in low earth orbit![…]
Slack is one of many Silicon Valley unicorns going public this year, but it’s the only one that has admitted it is at risk for nation-state attacks. In the S-1 forms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Uber, Lyft, Pinterest and Snapchat addressed threats that could lower the price of their stock — including Read more about What if All Your Slack Chats Were Leaked?[…]
There’s an interesting and troubling attack happening to some people involved in the OpenPGP community that makes their certificates unusable and can essentially break the OpenPGP implementation of anyone who tries to import one of the certificates. The attack is quite simple and doesn’t exploit any technical vulnerabilities in the OpenPGP software, but instead takes Read more about OpenPGP Certificate Attack Worries Experts, due to same symptoms bothering other Open Source projects – not enough contributors[…]
A former patient at the University of Chicago Medical Center is suing UChicago, the medical center, and Google, accusing them of violating the privacy rights of patients at UChicago Medicine through the sharing of patient records containing identifiable information. The class action lawsuit, filed by Matt Dinerstein in the Northern District of Illinois on Wednesday, claims Read more about UChicago and Google Sued in Federal Class Action Suit for Patient Data Sharing between 2009 – 2016[…]
Last week, the LightSail 2 officially made its first contact with Earth. The solar-powered spacecraft will be sailing around Earth’s orbit for the next year, all part of a mission to prove that solar sailing is a viable mode of space exploration. If successful, the hope is that solar sailing could be used in other Read more about How to Track the LightSail 2 as It ‘Sails’ Around Earth[…]
Allowing cash to die would be a grave mistake. A cashless society is a surveillance society. The recent round of protests in Hong Kong highlights exactly what we have to lose. The current unrest concerns a proposed change to Hong Kong’s extradition laws that would allow island fugitives to be transferred to Taiwan, Macau, and mainland Read more about Hong Kong Protests Show Dangers of a Cashless Society[…]
Windows 10 continues to be a danger zone. Not only have problems been piling up in recent weeks, Microsoft has also been worryingly deceptive about the operation of key services. And now the company has warned millions about another problem. Spotted by the always excellent Windows Latest, Microsoft has told tens of millions of Windows Read more about Microsoft Issues Warning For 50M Windows 10 Users – VPNs are now broken[…]