Google has issued a critically important update to its Chrome browser due to a nasty zero day bug. The browser should update automatically for most users, but the bug is serious enough that it's a case of checking to ensure that the update has been ... successfully applied. The update fixes three security problems, one of which is a critical. It means hackers were actively exploiting the problem before Google fixed it - meaning the update process gave users a zero day head start on the bad guys (hence the term, ' zero day exploit '). Perhaps unsurprisingly, Google isn't saying much at all about ... (view more)
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Microsoft is reportedly set to ditch "live tiles" from Windows 10. It's part of a planned revamp of the system's Start Menu. Live tiles originally debuted in Windows Phone 7 and there's a strong argument it's a feature that should have been left to ... mobile devices. The tile is a square display that shows a specific piece of information such as current weather or a stock price, updated in real time rather than the user having to click on it. Live Tiles Driven By Mobile The feature debuted on the PC desktop with Windows 8, which was widely criticized for being designed ... (view more)
Ransomware forced an unplanned shutdown of a US gas pipeline for two days. It's not yet clear if the attackers intended to have that effect. The full details, including the identity of the pipeline and its operators, have been kept under wraps. The ... only official information that's been made public comes from a security alert bulletin by the Department of Homeland Security (DoHS). (Source: us-cert.gov ) The attack started as an all-too-familiar "spear phishing" attack. That's a deliberately targeted email that tries to fool somebody (that typically works for a corporation) into clicking on a ... (view more)
Google says phone and tablet makers who alter Android's code to add security measures may actually be undermining security. It says device manufacturers should stick to Android's own measures. Jann Horn of Google's Project Zero security team ... specifically pointed to an alteration made by Samsung for the Galaxy A50 phone, which he says contained a bug that made the device vulnerable to attack. He says he discovered and reported the bug to Samsung in September 2018 but it wasn't patched until Samsung's security updates released this month. (Source: blogspot.com ) Ironically Horn believes the ... (view more)
Google has removed more than 500 rogue Chrome extensions that were scamming both computer users and advertisers. Some rogue extensions have been operating for more than a year. The rogue extensions were spotted by security researcher Jamila Kaya and ... Jacob Rickerd of Cisco. They used a Cisco security tool called CRXcavator that's specially designed to assess Chrome extensions. (Source: duo.com ) The pair worked on a project to try to spot common patterns of bogus extensions. They started by assessing "a few dozen" extensions they knew to be rogue and were able to use patterns to expose 70 ... (view more)
Two different Windows 10 updates have caused a host of problems, including some files disappearing from the desktop, or deleted permanently. Microsoft has pulled one update and is investigating the other. The update with the more serious problems - ... which is the one Microsoft has withdrawn - is numbered KB4532693 and has a couple of major bugs. The first is that some users have discovered their desktop has returned to its default state. In other words, any customizations such as the arrangement of icons and short cuts, or a background image, have been removed. The most credible suggested ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Jared P. writes: " Dear Dennis, The right click on my desktop is not working . When I right click on the desktop, all I get is a spinning blue circle . What normally appears is a dialogue menu that shows Display Settings, ... Personalize (the desktop), View, Sort by, and New (to create a folder, shortcut, text document, etc) - but instead, the cursor circle keeps spinning forever. I've left it alone for an hour but the right click keeps loading forever and never produces a menu like it should. Update: Since I've emailed you, I've found a few so-called guides online to fix my ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Lynda F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've been using Classic Shell (now called 'Open Shell') for many years and it's worked great. The best feature about Classic Shell is the ability to search and find files on my hard drive. For ... example: when I click on the Start Menu, I then type in part of the title of a document I have on my hard drive, and Classic Shell finds it instantly. In contrast, the default Windows 10 Start Menu simply can't find anything on my computer and tells me to go to Bing to find it. As if! Anyhow: the issue I'm having is that the search in Classic Shell ... (view more)
Reported cyber crime has more than doubled in the last two years according to the FBI. Over 60s are the group with the biggest value losses. The figures come from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a central resource for reporting ... cyber crime. The IC3 works with local and national agencies and businesses to coordinate work on cyber threats and identify particular patterns of risk. In 2019 it received 467,361 complaints with the reported losses topping $3.5 billion . That's up from $2.7 billion in 2018 and $1.4 billion in 2017. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) Part of the rise may be people ... (view more)
Researchers believe a new type of cable could carry Internet data at speeds 100 times greater than even the fastest on offer today. The new technology could benefit hospitals and research facilities in particular. The technique was developed by ... researchers at universities in Leeds and Nottingham in the United Kingdom, and is based around similar technology found in fiber optic cables. Those are the fastest data-carrying cables and work by sending pulses of light down a tiny transparent tube. By far, the greatest benefit of utilizing fiber optic cables is that it can transfer data over long ... (view more)
Researchers have warned of a sneaky trick that uses malware to collect passwords for online banking. The "Metamorfo" malware disables autocomplete to force users to retype passwords that can then be hijacked. Metamorfo is familiar to security ... researchers, but has developed two new characteristics. The first is that it no longer targets only financial institutions in Brazil, but has expanded to other countries. The seconds is a new tactic to make it more effective. The malware works in a familiar fashion. It's distributed through a .ZIP file that's disguised as an invoice attached to ... (view more)
A computer security company claims malware attacks are on the decrease. The difference appears to be that criminals are more closely targeting attacks, which could be good news for the average user. The figures come from Sonicwall, which offers ... firewalls and other cyber security solutions. The data is based on the attacks and attempted attacks it detected among customers covering 1.1 million sites in 215 countries. (Source: sonicwall.com ) Although the actual numbers it gives aren't necessarily meaningful, the year-on-year comparisons between its new report covering 2019 and the one it did ... (view more)
Facebook has given parents more ability to monitor their child's use of its messaging tool. The move follows criticism of Facebook producing such a tool in the first place. "Messenger Kids" launched back in 2017 for use by under 13s, who aren't ... allowed to use Facebook itself. The key selling point was that parents had to approve the contacts that the child could then exchange messages with. That hasn't always worked exactly as planned, as a glitch meant children could take part in group chats containing people who weren't approved or even that they'd blocked. Parents will now be ... (view more)
A security company has spotted 17 rogue Android apps that users should immediately delete. All 17 apps were approved by the Google Play store, where they managed to get past Google's security checks. Bitdefender, which published the list of apps, ... says the apps aren't malware as such. However, they use tactics associated with malware creators and could seriously inconvenience users. Bitdefender dubs this as 'riskware'. The List Of Shame The apps to immediately delete are: 4K Wallpaper (Background 4K Full HD) Backgrounds 4K HD Barcode Scanner Car Racing 2019 Clock LED Explorer File ... (view more)
A malicious network of 500,000 computers used to spread malware around the globe has been taken over by do-gooders in an apparent hijack meant to foil cyber criminals. Victims of the botnet have not only found the stealth malware removed from their ... system, but are also receiving an on screen warning to update their computers. It appears the malware creators are themselves the victim of a hack attack by an online vigilante. Phorpiex Botnet a Decade Old, 500k Strong The malware concerned is distributed through the Phorpiex botnet, which has been operating for nearly 10 years. A botnet is a ... (view more)
New York state senators want a legal ban on local governments paying ransomware demands. The bipartisanship move is based on the idea that paying up simply incentivises the attacks. Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts files on a hard ... drive so that they become unusable. Cyber criminals then demand a hefty ransom to unlock the files. Two state senators, one Democrat and one Republican, have each proposed broadly similar bills. They are currently in the committee stage and its likely that one will go ahead to a full vote of the New York State Senate. Both bills are based on similar ... (view more)
Microsoft has issued one extra fix for Windows 7 after it passed the deadline for security updates to the system. In an all-too-familiar move, the extra update fixed a problem caused by the final scheduled update. January 14, 2020 officially marked ... the end of Windows 7's Extended Support period . During the Extended Support period, Microsoft no longer added new features or offered free support, but did issue security patches, fixed major bugs and offered chargeable support for consumers. That's now over and the official position is that there will be no further updates of any kind for Windows ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Gina S. writes: " Dear Dennis, Last week, I was using my PC when suddenly a red screen appeared, stating that my 'PC ran into a problem' and to call 1-657-233-9938 to speak to Microsoft. I tried to close the window but the screen ... was locked. That's when I called the number and spoke to a person with a very thick Indian accent . I later discovered that the company name was Live Network Help ( livenetworkhelp.com / 1-855-295-0715 / 855-500-0425), which was different than the phone number on the red screen virus alert. At any rate - after about 10 minutes on the phone, the ... (view more)
Ransomware attackers could turn a key Windows security tool against the system, according to new research. The tactic could also evade leading security tools. The research from SafeBreach Labs covered "EFS", otherwise known as Encrypting File ... System. EFS was released as far back as Windows 2000 (in the year 2000), and is somewhat similar to Bitlocker. The main difference between the two is that Bitlocker can encrypt an entire volume, while EFS can encrypt individual files and folders. In either case, the reason for encrypting files / folders or an entire volume is that if an ... (view more)
Reports suggest that Apple has been pressured by the FBI to drop plans to improve the security of its customer backups. The plan was to better encrypt backups on the iCloud service. iCloud serves two purposes: it's a way for Apple users to store ... data and documents online and access them from anywhere (from any Apple device) with a password; it's also a way to automatically backup the contents of iPads and iPhones. Data from the iCloud is stored on Apple servers in an encrypted format, which means that if somebody gained access to the files (either through a remote hack, or a physical breach ... (view more)
The Chrome browser may soon put less drain on processors and battery life in Windows 10. Perhaps surprisingly, that's because of changes made by Microsoft rather than Google. The relevant tweaks were discovered by Microsoft as part of its work to ... rebuild the Edge browser that comes with Windows 10. Originally it ran on Microsoft code, but the new version of Edge is now based on Chromium. For those unaware, Chromium is an open source project, which is the basis of Google's Chrome browser. Microsoft found one cause of battery drain was disk caching during online video playback. In simple terms ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Kathleen S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I really need your help! I have been scammed by fake PayPal technical support . Here's how it happened: beginning some time in March, 2019, I received invoices from PayPal claiming that I paid ... for some kind of technical support for my computer. I have no recollection of this, so up until now I've kept deleting the emails, thinking they were sent in error. Flash forward to January 8, 2020, and I received another message stating that if I don't pay the original invoice ($399), I'm going to be charged an additional ' $500 late fee ,' and ... (view more)
Google says it will block third-party cookies, which can track Internet users in ways they don't expect. But it could be up to two years before the block is fully in place. A cookie is a small text file placed on a user's computer by a website. The ... idea is the site can check for the cookie later on and customize the users' web experience. Examples of 'legitimate' cookie use would be an online store that holds items in a virtual 'shopping basket', and a movie theater chain's site 'remembering' a user's location to automatically show them local listings. The more controversial variant is third- ... (view more)
The National Security Agency (NSA) has told Microsoft about a major Windows 10 bug which also affects Windows Server 2016 and 2019. A patch is already available and is a must install. For the NSA to tell Microsoft about a Windows vulnerability and ... then discuss it publicly is relatively rare. In the past, the NSA has used such security flaws to take advantage of potential suspects, as part of its surveillance program. In this case, the bug was so serious the NSA seems to have concluded any benefits it could gain itself would be more than wiped out by the threat to the general public (and US ... (view more)
Have you ever tried to watch a trending online video, only to find that it's not available in your region? A Smart DNS proxy is a solution can help. Here's how it works: A Smart DNS proxy can be used to unblock geo-restricted content from around the ... world. It does this by collecting data related to your geographical location and re-routing it through a computer server located in a region where access to the blocked content is permitted. They do this by changing your Domain Name System (DNS) settings so that the websites you visit think you're in a location where you are permitted to access ... (view more)
50 privacy groups have urged Google to crack down on pre-installed "bloatware" on Android devices. They say the apps haven't been properly vetted and could threaten privacy. Bloatware refers to software that is already installed on a device when a ... user first starts it up. With Android phones it's particularly significant as it's difficult or even impossible to uninstall. Sometimes manufacturers consider such apps to be genuinely useful for phone owners and even part of the appeal of getting a handset. In other cases it seems more likely the manufacturers have struck deals with developers to ... (view more)
An old Internet scam has got a new twist. The new scam makes it appear as if local police have taken over the web browser in order to "fine" the user for "illegal activities". The "police browser locker" scam is an example of what's dubbed scareware ... by preying on a user's paranoia (or guilt). It involves popup window from within the web browser, or an unexpected web page appearing and giving a bogus message demanding payment. A common form of this scam is the infamous Microsoft tech support scam stating that the computer has been infected with malware and the user needs to ... (view more)
Cyber analysts warn Iran may further target the US with cyber attacks as tensions rise in the Middle East. While one federal website has already been compromised for propaganda purposes, the real danger may be to infrastructure, with businesses and ... home users caught in the crossfire. The most eye-catching attack this week involved the website of the Federal Depository Library Program, which was altered to show and Iranian flag and an unflattering picture of the President. However, this doesn't appear to be a particularly sophisticated breach and may well have been the work of amateur hackers ... (view more)
Researchers have spotted new ransomware with a nasty new twist. "Clop," as it's called, doesn't just encrypt files, but deliberately attempts to screw up applications as well. The move is most likely intended to reduce the chances of the ransomware ... being blocked, but also means an attack could be even more disruptive and make it more likely a complete rebuild of the affected PC is necessary. Normally ransomware's main task is to encrypt as many files as possible on a computer. The idea here is to extort the user by forcing them to pay a ransom to regain access to the locked files. ... (view more)
Infopackets Reader Jerald B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I was using my computer the other day, then all of a sudden the screen turned red and started flashing, telling me my computer was at risk and I must call 1-855-551-6777 to find out the problem. I ... was on the phone for about an hour and a half, and the people that I spoke to had a very thick Indian accent . They told me that my IP address was open to anyone who wanted to use it and I must encrypt my IP address for the price of $399.00, otherwise hackers would get into my machine. I reluctantly paid the fee and felt uneasy about it. That's ... (view more)
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