Apple has patched a security flaw that could compromise phones and tablets just by users receiving a message. The exploit would use an attachment in iMessages but wouldn't require the user to click or open it. It's a potentially very serious flaw ... though ironically that may be the saving factor for most ordinary users. Because it's so serious, experts believe it's most likely to be used for highly targeted attacks. The bug was discovered by researchers at the University of Toronto, who say it's an example of "zero-click spyware". While they've seen similar attacks on Apple devices before, it's ... (view more)
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Mozilla has found a way to make it easier to set Firefox as a default browser in Windows. The move may raise eyebrows at Microsoft, as it involved getting past measures designed to combat malware. By default, Windows doesn't let users set an ... application as the default for a particular task (web browsing or otherwise) within the application itself. That's in principle a sensible idea as it reduces the risk of malware setting itself as a default app or tricking a user into doing so. Once established as a default app, the malware would have a big advantage as it would be opened more often, ... (view more)
Security experts have warned users to take extra care opening Microsoft Office files. An unpatched bug in Internet Explorer can affect users regardless of their preferred browser. The bug takes advantage of the way Office files can open links in ... Internet Explorer. It means that attackers can craft Office files that, once opened, automatically load an "attack" page in Internet Explorer that installs malware. Exactly what malware to install is up to the attacker. There is some protection for some users. In many cases, Office will by default open a document in Protected View, which blocks links ... (view more)
Phone and tablet makers could be forced to update devices for at least seven years. The proposed law would only affect Europe but, if passed, could change policies around the world. At the moment, how long phones get security and feature updates is ... largely up to manufacturers. In many cases it can be as little as three years. Critics say that brings several problems, including unfairly pressuring owners to buy new devices even when their existing one works well. That also creates environmental problems with users struggling to find responsible ways to recycle old devices. Spare Parts Must Be ... (view more)
Facebook has apologized after its recommendation system labeled two black men as "primates." It's the latest in a series of blunders by automated technology. The "recommendation" was shown at the end of a video posted by a British newspaper. It ... featured a white man in the United States phoning 911 to report "being harassed by a bunch of black men." The video did not include any content of references involving non-human primates. One user who watched the video shared a screenshot of a message created by Facebook that appeared at the end of the video, asking ... (view more)
Apple has agreed to allow app developers to tell users how to save money on app payments. It's part of a settlement in a long-running dispute but it's not enough to satisfy some developers. At the moment, app developers who sell apps in the official ... Apple store can gather email addresses of customers. However, the developers are not allowed to use those addresses to tell customers about how to pay them directly for subscriptions and one-off payments relating to the app. In-App Messages Banned That's a blow to developers who use a "freemium" model where the app itself is free but ... (view more)
Microsoft has confirmed Windows 11 will start rolling out as a free upgrade from October 5th, 2021. Users of older machines may have to wait until mid-2022, however. There will be some overlap with Windows 10, further blurring the lines of whether ... Windows 11 should be treated as a totally new operating system or the latest updates to what was supposed to be a "forever" system. The semi-annual major update to Windows 10 will still come out this fall, but Microsoft isn't promising anything else other than a guarantee of security updates and support until October, 14 2025. Windows 11 will only ... (view more)
Microsoft will soon start telling Windows 10 users directly whether they'll be able to upgrade to Windows 11. It also looks likely machines that don't meet the specifications will be upgradeable but without any support. Users can already check for ... compatibility using a dedicated "PC Health Check" tool. However, Microsoft is now using Windows Update to send direct messages to users who are in the Windows test program. (Source: techradar.com ) Specifically the messages are going to those in the "Release Preview" channel, which means they can access new versions of Windows when Microsoft ... (view more)
Samsung is to remotely disable televisions stolen from its warehouses. It appears to be the first time it's activated the security measure. "TV Block" hasn't attracted much attention before but Samsung says it is installed on all its televisions. It ... hasn't confirmed if this is only in South Africa, where the feature has now been triggered, or on all sets worldwide. The activation follows looting during unrest in South Africa last month. A Samsung warehouse was among the locations ransacked. Internet Connection Used For Block The TV Block feature works because Samsung's Smart TV sets have an ... (view more)
The most viewed link for Americans on Facebook in the first three months of 2021 was to a news story about a doctor who died after getting a COVID vaccine. The story turned out to be questionable and may have given a misleading impression. The ... statistic comes in a Facebook report that was mysteriously delayed. That's raised questions about whether Facebook held it back to avoid controversy. Facebook publishes a quarterly report titled "Widely Viewed Content" that details posts, links and other content that are seen by the biggest number of users in the United States. It's designed to show ... (view more)
A new website lets users try out the new Windows 11 user interface. The unofficial site doesn't require any software installation or special hardware. The demo is available at win11.blueedge.me and is an open source project involving several ... contributors. (Source: techspot.com ) Unlike Microsoft's various test editions (and the less official leaked copies), the demo doesn't actually run any standalone software. Instead it's a web page that simulates the look and feel of the Windows 11 desktop, along with some of the key features and functions. This includes working copies of apps including ... (view more)
A recent Windows 10 update appears to have broken the Alt-Tab feature. Thankfully there's a simple fix that doesn't involve compromising security or performance. Holding down the Alt button and then hitting Tab is one of the more long-standing and ... useful Windows keyboard shortcuts. For those who've somehow missed out, it lets users quickly switch between open windows, including those not currently visible at the foreground. In later editions of Windows, including Windows 10, the shortcut displays a small image of every open windows showing its current content. That's useful when running two ... (view more)
Internet Explorer 11 users will start losing access to Microsoft 365 this week. It's the latest step towards the browser being phased out altogether. Microsoft 365 is the subscription version of Microsoft Office. Rather than buy a one-off edition, ... users pay an annual fee and will always have access to the latest versions of tools such as Word and Excel. That's because Microsoft 365 works online rather than the bulk of the software being installed and running on the user's hard drive. Internet Explorer 11 was released in 2013 and became the default browser for Windows 8.1 and earlier. It was ... (view more)
T-Mobile is investigating claims a hacker stole sensitive data about more than 100 million customers. It hasn't confirmed or denied claims. The haul included social security numbers and driver license information. The alleged breach was first ... reported by Motherboard, which spotted a hacker forum post from somebody attempting to steal the data. The would-be seller says it comes from multiple T-Mobile servers and contains "full customer info" on US customers. The seller claims the haul includes names, phone numbers and physical addresses, along with IMEI numbers that identify individual ... (view more)
Firefox has added a new feature letting users remove all traces of visiting a website, including cookies. It builds on the browser's existing technology that makes it harder for a single site to track users across the web. Both features aim to ... tackle the problem that tracking and other records of online activity come from a variety of sources. Visiting a particular site creates several pieces of data on a computer, while cookies are made more complicated because the site that places them on a computer isn't always the same as the site that access and uses the cookie. Total Cookie Protection ... (view more)
Apple has admitted it scans iPhone images for pictures of children being abused. It says it will refuse any government request to use the facility for other purposes. The scans cover any photos uploaded to the iCloud Photos backup service rather ... than scanning the entire phone. This feature is switched off by default. Once it's switched on, any photo added to the device is automatically uploaded to iCloud and will therefore be covered by the new scans. When Apple scans the image, it doesn't try to figure out the content. Instead it compares it to a database of known child abuse images. If it ... (view more)
What's one of the best one-stop video editing software available for both PC and Mac? Answer: Digiarty's VideoProc! From the makers of WinX DVD Ripper and WinX Video Convert comes VideoProc: a multi-award winning software program that allows you to ... edit, convert, resize and adjust large/4K videos, DVDs, and audio at fully accelerated speed. Update 2021/08/16 : The latest release of VideoProc can now estimate video size when converting video, plus support for Video to GIF conversion, as well as GIF to MP4, MKV, etc for sharing via SMS. AMD video hardware encoding has also been improved, plus ... (view more)
A government agency says three "random" words make for a better password than many other approaches. It says other strategies such as adding symbols and numbers can be counterproductive. The advice comes from the National Cyber Security Center ... (NCSC). That's a body in the United Kingdom that deals with major security breaches and gives advice to businesses and other government organizations. According to the NCSC, the advice is aimed at people who try to remember passwords. It says password manager tools are a good solution but remain widely unused. (Source: gov.uk ) Predictable Appr0@ch ! ... (view more)
A Senate committee has slammed cyber security in eight federal government agencies. The committee said most were failing basic security standards and had shown minimal improvements since a previous report. The report comes from the Committee on ... Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. It followed up on a similar report from another committee in 2019. Both reports looked at issues including: Whether the agencies adequately protected personal information. Whether they kept track of the various IT equipment and systems they used. Whether they installed security patches quickly enough. Whether ... (view more)
At least 175 countries have some form of online censorship according to a newly-published study. The degree varies wildly, however, and is somewhat dependent on definitions. The report comes from Comparitech, which ranked the 175 countries for ... "censorship" in six categories of Internet use: file sharing torrents, pornography, political media, social media, virtual private networks and apps for messaging or voice over Internet protocol (such as Skype). For each category it gave the country one point if it had some form of legal restriction and two points for an outright ban. That ... (view more)
Microsoft has explained the thinking behind some of the main changes in Windows 11. It's also tweaked a notification feature that could have been unnecessarily annoying. According to Microsoft it used a "new approach" in designing Windows 11. It ... suggests that the "new approach" was to give users what they wanted. The move to "human-centered design practices" involved giving users several pieces of paper marked with different operating system features and asking them to arrange them in order of importance. In an amazing coincidence, Microsoft says "the research matched up perfectly ... (view more)
A security company has warned that scammers are using bogus copies of Windows 11 to distribute malware. Kaspersky reminds users that Microsoft's Windows Insider test program is the only place to get the real deal. While the average user can safely ... wait until the system's official release, tech enthusiasts may be eager to get their hands on Windows 11. That interest may well rise in the coming days with the first release of a beta edition that, in theory at least, is complete and much less likely to crash than the currently available "dev" edition. Kaspersky notes that several rogue sites are ... (view more)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has voted unanimously to enforce "right to repair" laws. The rules should make it harder for manufacturers to maintain monopolies over fixing gadgets such as phones. The FTC follows an executive order from the ... President that covered economic competition issues in general but included a specific reference to smartphones. (Source: theverge.com ) The moves aim to tackle companies such as phone makers which either block or restrict third-party companies or device buyers from carrying out repairs. This involves a range of tactics such as refusing to supply ... (view more)
Windows 11 will soon be available for testing in a less-risky manner. Meanwhile, Microsoft has unveiled some more changes, including an end - of sorts - to the "Blue Screen of Death". Microsoft has confirmed the system will be available to people in ... the Windows Insider Program in its Beta testing channel as of July 29. It is officially the first time something resembling the finished Windows 11 is available in a complete and fully usable manner. Up until then, Windows 11 has only available in the Dev channel, meaning some features and actions may be unavailable. Microsoft also stresses that ... (view more)
A ransomware gang said to have Russian links appears to have been knocked offline. The REvil group recently demanded a $70 million ransom after a major attack. The group was linked to two recent attacks, the first on an international meat processing ... company. JBS, which is estimated to process 20 percent of the beef and pork sold in the US, had to shut down production while dealing with the breach. An even more serious attack targeted Kaseya, a company that not only offers computing services to businesses, but also powers many managed service providers that run IT for their own clients. The ... (view more)
A government agency says the current US definition of broadband may be too slow. It says the threshold of 25 Mbps likely isn't enough for today's needs, particularly for small businesses. The figure in question is the Federal Communication ... Commission's "benchmark" for broadband speeds. It's important because it's the figure officials use to assess what proportion of the US population has access to broadband and whether the country is meeting targets. The most recent estimate is that 96 percent of the population has broadband access under the current definition. The benchmark also plays a key ... (view more)
People paid to promote products in Norway will be legally required to say if they've used photo editing tools. The new law also covers using photo filters. The law has already been passed by legislators but the date it takes effect hasn't yet been ... confirmed. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) The rules will apply to any photo that's posted for promotional purposes. It will also apply to users - sometimes dubbed "influencers" - who are receiving payment or other benefits in return for making the post. Any manipulated image will need to carry a warning label, designed by the government, that tells users it ... (view more)
Nine popular Google Play apps were actually scams to steal Facebook logins according to a security company. Although Google has removed some of them, they may still be on devices. All the apps were promoted as performing a simple task and appear to ... have worked as designed. Although that meant more effort for the developers, the idea was to make users less suspecting that the apps were actually harmful. The affected apps had the following names and functions: App Lock Keep (child safety tool) App Lock Manager (child safety tool) Horoscope Daily (astrology) Horoscope Pi (astrology) Inwell ... (view more)
A federal judge has blocked a Florida law that would have made it illegal for social media sites to suspend or ban politicians from posting. The judge said the law was both discriminatory and a breach of the First Amendment. The controversial law ... was first proposed in February and signed by the state's governor in May. It was scheduled to take effect on July 1st, 2021, but was blocked by US District Judge via a preliminary injunction following a case brought by trade associations including social media companies. The law said social media companies could remove specific posts and suspend ... (view more)
A judge has thrown out two complaints from federal and state government that claimed Facebook broke competition laws. After the ruling, Facebook's market value rose to more than a trillion dollars. The first case was brought by the Federal Trade ... Commission (FTC), which said Facebook not only had a monopoly but had unfairly maintained it. The FTC said the monopoly was in the market of "personal social networking services" and that it's unfair actions included using technology to block interoperability between Facebook and other services. (Source: courtlistener.com ) Instagram Buyout Questioned ... (view more)
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My name is Dennis Faas and I am a senior systems administrator and IT technical analyst specializing in cyber crimes (sextortion / blackmail / tech support scams) with over 20 years experience; I also run this website! If you need technical assistance , I can help. Click here to email me now; optionally, you can review my resume here. You can also read how I can fix your computer over the Internet (also includes user reviews).
My name is Dennis Faas and I am a senior systems administrator and IT technical analyst specializing in cyber crimes (sextortion / blackmail / tech support scams) with over 20 years experience; I also run this website! If you need technical assistance , I can help. Click here to email me now; optionally, you can review my resume here. You can also read how I can fix your computer over the Internet (also includes user reviews).
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