Security

A data recovery firm says it found 3.1 million "deleted" files on a second-hand hard drive. It also found 35 percent of drives had readily-restorable files. The experiment by Secure Data Recovery comes with an obvious warning. It's a company that ... helps people recover deleted or corrupted files from their own drives, so it has an interest in highlighting that such recovery is possible. That said, in this experiment conducted for Tech Radar, the company only tackled those drives where recovering data proved a straightforward task. (Source: techradar.com ) This involved buying 100 hard drives, ... (view more)

An FBI branch has warned people not to use free USB charging points as they could spread malware. The agency says it's safer to use a charger plug and power outlet. However, the FCC notes that while such attacks are technically possible, there's no ... evidence of it actually happening. The FBI Denver Officer posted on Twitter: "Avoid using free charging stations in airports, hotels or shopping centers. Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices. Carry your own charger and USB cord and use an electrical outlet instead." The ... (view more)

Quantum computers could produce genuinely random numbers according to new research. It could boost security, an ironic effect given fears over the ways cyber criminals could use quantum computing. In extremely simplified terms, a quantum computer ... uses quantum physics in which something can exist in more than one state at a time. That's in contrast to traditional computing where data is stored in bits that represent either a 0 or a 1 at any given time. To date, the main claimed advantage of quantum computing has been processing speed. The same "bit" representing multiple states removes a ... (view more)

Google has warned users of some Android handsets to turn off some voice call features. A series of vulnerabilities could mean attackers can compromise a handset just by knowing its phone number. The problem involves four vulnerabilities in a ... Samsung-made component called an Exynos chipset. It's used for voice calls made over mobile data rather than the voice network. At the time of writing, Google says the affected products include phones made by Samsung (A04, A12, A13, A21s, A33, A53, A71, M12, M13, M33, S22), Google itself (Pixel 6 and 7) and Vivo (S6, S15, S16, X30, X60, X70) along with ... (view more)

A notorious botnet that spreads malware through fake emails is back in action. Emotet has returned with some new tactics to try to bypass security checks. Emotet had already gained a reputation for being (comparatively) successful at fooling humans ... and computers alike. Its most notable characteristic was that it not only used messages that appeared to come from a trusted contact, but that it addressed the recipient by name and even appeared to be a reply to a previous genuine message. Most commonly, Emotet sends malware through Microsoft Word documents with macros. These are now disabled by ... (view more)

Samsung's flagship phone is getting special protection against a particularly nasty form of mobile malware. It combats zero-click attacks, which can steal data or compromise a handset without needing any action by the user. The hacking technique ... hasn't been widely seen in real-world attacks on Android phones, though Samsung claims it has worked on Apple devices. Samsung clearly believes it's just a matter of time before attackers find a vulnerability that would make such an attack almost irresistible. The company explains that a zero-click attack would exploit such a vulnerability by sending ... (view more)

The FBI says it disrupted a major ransomware network that had already taken around $100 million in payments. It says its work to infiltrate the Hive group saved a potential $130 million in future demands. The group is said to have compromised ... networks run by hospitals and schools among other organizations. The $100 million compares with an estimated annual total of $886 million payments in the US across all ransomware attacks. (Source: nbcnews.com ) Scammers Pay Royalties Hive is one of the more notorious "ransomware-as-a-service" groups. Its business model means individual attackers will use ... (view more)

The next version of Android may make it much harder to install and run apps from third party sources. The change will mainly affect older apps that haven't been updated in some time. Unlike with Apple's iPhones, Android handsets aren't restricted to ... apps from the official App Store. Users may either use other app stores (other than the Google Play Store), or download and manually install apps from the web in a process known as "sideloading." Doing this doesn't require any "hacking" of the device, though users do have to change the phone's settings and confirm they understand the ... (view more)

The Supreme Court has asked the government for advice over two cases involving social media. The court is reviewing challenges to laws that could effectively ban moderation on sites. The state laws in Florida and Texas both limit the ability of ... social media companies to moderate some content, though they would work in different ways. The Florida law covers online platforms with more than 100 million users. It says companies must publish their moderation rules and apply them consistently to all users. It also says companies cannot ban any user who is an active political candidate for a future ... (view more)

Some "smart" home products could become unsupported in just two years according to a consumer group. That could mean premium features stop working and may even create security risks. The details come from "Which?," a British organization very ... similar to Consumer Reports in the US. It explored a big potential problem with smart tech: that the support for such features is often guaranteed for much less time than the expected useful lifespan of the product itself. The group researched smart features, meaning devices were linked to the Internet or a local network and allowing extra ... (view more)