Security

The Benefits of Living in a Total Surveillance State

Suppose you’re walking home one night, alone, and you decide to take a shortcut through a dark alley. You make it halfway through, when suddenly you hear some drunks stumbling behind you. Some of them are shouting curses. They look large and powerful, and there are several of them. Nonetheless, you feel safe, because you…

SmartWater Booby Trap Secretly Turns Thieves Green for Weeks

If you’re planning on stealing anything from the London Borough of Brent, you might want to think twice—or at least hope you look good in green. The Brent Police Department has a crazy new secret weapon that covers crooks head to toe in a semipermanent emerald, ultraviolet glow. And they have no idea until it’s…

Iran Hacked US Navy Computers

US officials have revealed that Iran has hacked US Navy computers. According to the WSJ, The Iranian hackers were able to tap into a “network that is used for e-mail and the service’s internal intranet.” The network is unclassified and US officials don’t currently believe that the hackers were able to obtain any information of…

iOS 7.0.2 Is Here and It Fixes the iPhone’s Major Security Hole

iOS 7.0.2 is has started making its way out there, and it fixes that embarrassing lockscreen exploit we saw last week. Phew! And, as a bonus, it also reintroduces Greek language options for passcode entry! But the (re)added security is what you’ll want. So go check for an update now, or hop over to 9to5Mac…

Tiny Combination Locks Prevent Your Bike’s Parts From Getting Pinched

The most expensive, most intricate bike locks you can buy are really only guaranteeing that your bicycle’s frame doesn’t get stolen. Everything else, from your wheels to your seat, are fair game if not taken with you or somehow secured. But that ‘somehow’ could very well be these clever Sphyke miniature combination locks, which make…

Mailbox for iOS Has a Huge Security Flaw (Update: It’s Fixed)

Mailbox, the tidy iOS email app recently purchased by Dropbox, has a pretty wide-open hole that could allow bad actors to hijack your device. And unlike phishing attempts that should probably set off your sketchiness detector, this flaw involves emails that look completely innocuous. https://gizmodo.com/mailbox-review-your-bad-email-redemption-5983668 As Italian researcher Michele Spagnuolo shows, the Mailbox app will…

Why California’s New Web-Wide Delete Button For Teens Won’t Work

In a noble (if a bit misguided) attempt at ensuring minors’ privacy on the web, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law requiring all websites to have an “eraser button” allowing users under 18 to delete their own posts. Too bad it’s never going to work. According to the legislation, all websites, apps, and online…

Remote Lock Comes to Android

A new remote locking feature just appeared in the Android Device Manager. Users running Android 2.2 or better can now lock a lost or stolen phone, even if it’s in use. The new functionality asks you to enter a PIN that will unlock your phone once it’s found — Google recommends you use something different…

iPhone 5S Fingerprint Security Can Be Easily Broken, Hackers Show

Apple says that the new iPhone 5S’ fingerprint sensor is “a convenient and highly secure way to access your phone.” The former is true. The latter, not so much. The fingerprint security can be easily broken. Jealous spouses and industrial spies, rejoice! The usual Apple boosters bought into the company’s claims without even questioning their…

Anyone Can Blow Past Your iOS 7 Lockscreen to Make Calls

Just the other day we came across an iOS 7 vulnerability that will let creeps see your photos and even share them from behind the lockscreen. But that’s not all! Turns out you can make calls from behind the lockscreen too. This bug was discovered by Karam Daoud, and it’s even easier to pull off…

Apple told AllThingsD that it’s working on a fix for the bug that lets anyone bypass the iOS 7 lock screen to access pictures and share them through e-mail, Twitter and more. The bug will be fixed in a “future software update”.

Warning: Your just-updated iOS 7 iPhone has a serious security bug

Once again, Apple has left a security backdoor wide open in a new version of their mobile operating system. iOS 7 allows anyone with physical access to your iPhone to see your private photos and then share them online. https://gizmodo.com/anyone-can-bypass-your-ios-7-lockscreen-to-see-and-sha-1350617707

Anyone Can Bypass Your iOS 7 Lockscreen to See (and Share!) Your Photos

Got fancy new iOS 7 on that iPhone of yours? Beware. There’s a super simple bug that can let anyone blow right by your lockscreen and look through your pictures, and even share them. The process was discovered by Jose Rodriguez, and even though it has quite a few steps, it’s super easy to master.…

Report: Google May Stop Using Cookies to Track Users

According to a report from the WSJ, Google is considering ditching cookies to track its users. Instead, Google would “create its own anonymous identifier for each individual”. Google, which has previously secretly planted cookies in Internet Explorer and the iPhone, says it’s an attempt to make the Internet more secure for users. A Google spokesperson…

Is the Data on Your SSD Secure?

SSDs are wonderful things that take up next to no space and are incredibly fast to boot. But while most people understand the basics data security on HDDs, the same isn’t necessarily true of solid state storage. Deleting files may not mean they’re gone, overwriting them isn’t safe, and a thorough scrub is at the…

Stop Worrying About the New iPhone’s Fingerprint Scanner

Last week’s announcement that the new iPhone 5 will include a fancy new fingerprint scanning security system was met with a chorus of protests. What if someone lifts my prints and makes a fake finger and unlocks my phone? What if the government snoops on my phone (more than it already does) and steals my…

Google Knows the Wi-Fi Passwords of All Android Users

A new privacy fuss is kicking off around Google’s Android mobile OS, with security boffins claiming that the software’s backup tools mean that a copy of everyone’s Wi-Fi password history is now saved to Google’s servers. Which may mean it could be legally compelled to hand them out, should a government come calling. The key…

Apple Missed the Best Use for a Fingerprint Scanner

The iPhone has a fingerprint scanner now. Great. It will make your iPhone more convenient (or a pain in the ass) to unlock. But unlocking is sort of beside the point when it comes theft. The truth is, Apple didn’t give the iPhone 5S the one feature that could actually help get a stolen phone…

The NSA Can Access Basically Everything On iOS, Android and Blackberry

I guess we’re not even surprised at this point. Der Spiegel is reporting that internal NSA documents prove the agency’s widespread smartphone data access. And it’s pretty exhaustive. Spiegel found explicit mention of information access from iPhones, BlackBerry handsets, and devices running Android. Everything from contact lists to texts and location tracking is available, and…

An IT Flaw Has Let Unauthorized Users Exploit Army PCs for Years

Earlier this week, Buzzfeed reported that a computer security flaw in has left Army computers vulnerable for at least two years; today, the Army confirmed to Buzzfeed that this was, in fact the case. And that they have no plans to do anything to fix it. While the specifics of the flaw haven’t yet been…