Month: December 2019

France slaps Google with $166M antitrust fine for opaque and inconsistent ad rules

Posted on by Robin Edgar

France’s competition watchdog has slapped Google with a €150 million (~$166 million) fine after finding the tech giant abused its dominant position in the online search advertising market. In a decision announced today — following a lengthy investigation into the online ad sector — the competition authority sanctioned Google for adopting what it describes as Read more about France slaps Google with $166M antitrust fine for opaque and inconsistent ad rules[…]

Twitter Warns Millions of Android App Users to Update Immediately

Posted on by Robin Edgar

This week, Twitter confirmed a vulnerability in its Android app that could let hackers see your “nonpublic account information” and commandeer your account to send tweets and direct messages. According to a Twitter Privacy Center blog posted Friday, the (recently patched) security issue could allow hackers to gain control of an account and access data Read more about Twitter Warns Millions of Android App Users to Update Immediately[…]

Chinese hacker group caught bypassing 2FA

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Security researchers say they found evidence that a Chinese government-linked hacking group has been bypassing two-factor authentication (2FA) in a recent wave of attacks. The attacks have been attributed to a group the cyber-security industry is tracking as APT20, believed to operate on the behest of the Beijing government, Dutch cyber-security firm Fox-IT said in Read more about Chinese hacker group caught bypassing 2FA[…]

Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset (no, not  your phone companies’), Zero Privacy – The New York Times

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Every minute of every day, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies — largely unregulated, little scrutinized — are logging the movements of tens of millions of people with mobile phones and storing the information in gigantic data files. The Times Privacy Project obtained one such file, by far the largest and most sensitive ever Read more about Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset (no, not  your phone companies’), Zero Privacy – The New York Times[…]

267 Million Phone Numbers & Facebook User IDs Exposed Online

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A database containing more than 267 million Facebook user IDs, phone numbers, and names was left exposed on the web for anyone to access without a password or any other authentication. Comparitech partnered with security researcher Bob Diachenko to uncover the Elasticsearch cluster. Diachenko believes the trove of data is most likely the result of Read more about 267 Million Phone Numbers & Facebook User IDs Exposed Online[…]

Airbnb is a platform not an estate agent, says Europe’s top court – means they don’t have to collect taxes for counties either

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Airbnb will be breathing a sigh of relief today: Europe’s top court has judged it to be an online platform, which merely connects people looking for short-term accommodation, rather than a full-blown estate agent. The ruling may make it harder for the “home sharing” platform to be forced to comply with local property regulations — Read more about Airbnb is a platform not an estate agent, says Europe’s top court – means they don’t have to collect taxes for counties either[…]

IBM Research Created a New Battery That Outperforms Lithium-Ion, uses seawater instead of nickel and lithium

Posted on by Robin Edgar

scientists at IBM Research have developed a new battery whose unique ingredients can be extracted from seawater instead of mining. The problems with the design of current battery technologies like lithium-ion are well known, we just tend to turn a blind eye when it means our smartphones can run for a full day without a Read more about IBM Research Created a New Battery That Outperforms Lithium-Ion, uses seawater instead of nickel and lithium[…]

A Data Leak Exposed The Personal Information Of Over 3,000 Ring Users – Really, just don’t get one of these things!

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The log-in credentials for 3,672 Ring camera owners were compromised this week, exposing log-in emails, passwords, time zones, and the names people give to specific Ring cameras, which are often the same as camera locations, such as “bedroom” or “front door.” Using the log-in email and password, an intruder could access a Ring customer’s home Read more about A Data Leak Exposed The Personal Information Of Over 3,000 Ring Users – Really, just don’t get one of these things![…]

HP loses appeal vs 123inkt for suddenly borking non-HP ink cartridges in their printer with a software update

Posted on by Robin Edgar

HP is being held liable for damages to 123inkt customers who bought the ink cartridges which they suddenly couldn’t use any more. From personal experience I know how annoying this is as several printers have started doing very sketchy things suddenly which were magically ‘fixed’ by inserting HP ink cartridges. It’s ink, people, there’s no Read more about HP loses appeal vs 123inkt for suddenly borking non-HP ink cartridges in their printer with a software update[…]

Private equity buys Lastpass owner LogMeIn – will they start monetising your logins?

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Remote access, collaboration and password manager provider LogMeIn has been sold to a private equity outfit for $4.3bn. A consortium led by private equity firm Francisco Partners (along with Evergreen, the PE arm of tech activist investor Elliott Management), will pay $86.05 in cash for each LogMeIn share – a 25 per cent premium on Read more about Private equity buys Lastpass owner LogMeIn – will they start monetising your logins?[…]

Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance joined together to form working group to develop open standard for smart home devices

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance joined together to promote the formation of the Working Group. Zigbee Alliance board member companies IKEA, Legrand, NXP Semiconductors, Resideo, Samsung SmartThings, Schneider Electric, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), Silicon Labs, Somfy, and Wulian are also on board to join the Working Group and contribute to the project. The Read more about Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance joined together to form working group to develop open standard for smart home devices[…]

Camouflage made of quantum material could hide you from infrared cameras

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Infrared cameras detect people and other objects by the heat they emit. Now, researchers have discovered the uncanny ability of a material to hide a target by masking its telltale heat properties. The effect works for a range of temperatures that one day could include humans and vehicles, presenting a future asset to stealth technologies, Read more about Camouflage made of quantum material could hide you from infrared cameras[…]

Remember Unrollme, the biz that helped you automatically ditch unwanted emails? Yeah, it was selling your data, even though it said it wouldn’t

Posted on by Robin Edgar

If you were one of the millions of people that signed up with Unrollme to cut down on the emails from outfits you once bought a product from, we have some bad news for you: it has been storing and selling your data. On Tuesday, America’s Federal Trade Commission finalized a settlement [PDF] with the Read more about Remember Unrollme, the biz that helped you automatically ditch unwanted emails? Yeah, it was selling your data, even though it said it wouldn’t[…]

QuadrigaCX Want to Exhume Body of CEO Gerald Cotten who died in India under suspicious circumstances and locked customers out of $163m of BTC – to see if it is really him

Posted on by Robin Edgar

It’s been about a year since users of Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX were informed that the company’s CEO unexpectedly died, taking the password that accessed most the money from their accounts with him to the grave. And now, those clients want to know what’s inside that grave. The majority of QuadrigaCX’s holdings were kept offline Read more about QuadrigaCX Want to Exhume Body of CEO Gerald Cotten who died in India under suspicious circumstances and locked customers out of $163m of BTC – to see if it is really him[…]

Amazon slams media for not saying nice things about AWS, denies it strip-mines open-source code for huge profits

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Stung by an article mulling Amazon Web Services’ market dominance on Monday, AWS VP Andi Gutmans fired back, complaining the reporter ignored flattering comments from AWS partners – and that “AWS is ‘strip-mining’ open source is silly and off-base.” “The journalist largely ignores the many positive comments he got from partners because it’s not as Read more about Amazon slams media for not saying nice things about AWS, denies it strip-mines open-source code for huge profits[…]

Ads in Mail and Calendar app for Windows 10 are back and not removable

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Microsoft has once again flipped the switch on small banner ads in the Windows 10 Mail and Calendar UWP app for Windows 10. We last saw these ads in November last year, when Microsoft said they were an experiment. Then the ads only showed for those who were not Office 365 subscribers, but on this Read more about Ads in Mail and Calendar app for Windows 10 are back and not removable[…]

IoT gear is generating easy-to-crack keys because they repeat the key once every 172 times

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A preponderance of weak keys is leaving IoT devices at risk of being hacked, and the problem won’t be an easy one to solve. This was the conclusion reached by the team at security house Keyfactor, which analyzed a collection of 75 million RSA certificates gathered from the open internet and determined that number combinations Read more about IoT gear is generating easy-to-crack keys because they repeat the key once every 172 times[…]

Controversial sale of money grabbing .org domain faces review at ICANN

Posted on by Robin Edgar

ICANN is reviewing the pending sale of the .org domain manager from a nonprofit to a private equity firm and says it could try to block the transfer. The .org domain is managed by the Public Internet Registry (PIR), which is a subsidiary of the Internet Society, a nonprofit. The Internet Society is trying to Read more about Controversial sale of money grabbing .org domain faces review at ICANN[…]

Amazon Blocks Sellers From Using FedEx Ground For Prime Shipments – way to have fun using a monopoly!

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Amazon.com is blocking its third-party sellers from using FedEx’s ground delivery network for Prime shipments, citing a decline in performance heading into the final stretch of the holiday shopping season. The ban on using FedEx’s Ground and Home services starts this week and will last “until the delivery performance of these ship methods improves,” according Read more about Amazon Blocks Sellers From Using FedEx Ground For Prime Shipments – way to have fun using a monopoly![…]

How old ship logs are giving new insights into climate change

Posted on by Robin Edgar

n the 19th and early 20th centuries, millions of weather observations were carefully made in the logbooks of ships sailing through largely uncharted waters. Written in pen and ink, the logs recorded barometric pressure, air temperature, ice conditions and other variables. Today, volunteers from a project called Old Weather are transcribing these observations, which are Read more about How old ship logs are giving new insights into climate change[…]

Getting Drivers for Old Hardware Is Harder Than Ever

Posted on by Robin Edgar

despite the fact that all the drivers generally have to do is simply sit on the internet, available when they’re necessary. Apparently, that isn’t easy enough for Intel. Recently, the chipmaker took BIOS drivers, a boot-level firmware technology used for hardware initialization in earlier generations of PCs, for a number of its unsupported motherboards off Read more about Getting Drivers for Old Hardware Is Harder Than Ever[…]

LEDs in routers, power strips, and more, can ship data to the LightAnchors AR smartphone app

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A pentad of bit boffins have devised a way to integrate electronic objects into augmented reality applications using their existing visible light sources, like power lights and signal strength indicators, to transmit data. In a recent research paper, “LightAnchors: Appropriating Point Lights for Spatially-Anchored Augmented Reality Interfaces,” Carnegie Mellon computer scientists Karan Ahuja, Sujeath Pareddy, Read more about LEDs in routers, power strips, and more, can ship data to the LightAnchors AR smartphone app[…]

Verizon kills email accounts of archivists trying to save Yahoo Groups history

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Verizon, which bought Yahoo In 2017, has suspended email addresses of archivists who are trying to preserve 20 years of content that will be deleted permanently in a few weeks. As Verizon announced in October, the company intends to wipe all content from Yahoo Groups. As of December 14, all previously posted content on the Read more about Verizon kills email accounts of archivists trying to save Yahoo Groups history[…]