Articles

Chrome and Firefox will stop indicating when websites have received an "extra level of verification" to prove they are in fact genuine. The move is largely due to the fact that most users aren't aware of the Extended Validation SSL (EV SSL) system. ... The Extended Validation SSL (secure socket layer) security certificates go beyond the standard SSL certification scheme, which browsers use to show that data being sent to and from a website is in fact encrypted and secure. This means that communication is encrypted, and that no one can eavesdrop or steal data mid-stream. In other words, ... (view more)

Apple is offering a million dollar bounty to anyone who can successfully hack an iPhone and shares the details. But its limited to specific circumstances that will mean the payout is well worth it for the company. Like several tech giants, Apple ... already had a reward scheme for people who find and report bugs. To date the biggest bounty Apple has offered is $200,000 and only to people who have previously been approved to explore Apple bugs. The million dollar bounty is officially open to anyone. The new offer was made at the Black Hat convention in Las Vegas, the leading annual gathering of ... (view more)

A proposed law would dramatically increase maximum fines that can be imposed on companies that break monopoly rules. Tech firms would be among the most likely to be affected in the admittedly unlikely event the law was enacted. The proposed bill ... would be known as the Monopolization Deterrence Act of 2019. It's designed to change the current system by which the maximum penalty for violating the main US antitrust law, the Sherman Act, is $10 million. That applies regardless of the size of the company or companies involved. Critics say such penalties are little deterrent to major companies, ... (view more)

Microsoft may be ending the need to have a physical disk to reinstall Windows 10. A 'Cloud Download' option could save time and hassle. At the moment, the main way to reinstall Windows is to use a recovery disk (or a copy of the relevant files kept ... on a hard drive or USB device.) That's got a few limitations, most notably that not everyone who gets a recovery disk with a new computer will be able to find it. Other problems are that recovery disks don't always have the drivers necessary to make sure Windows 10 works smoothly with a specific PC, and that the disks don't usually work well for ... (view more)

Financial records of almost every adult in Bulgaria have been stolen in a cyber attack. It's led to the unlikely situation of the country's leader reportedly exaggerating the attacker's skills. One man has been arrested following the attack, which ... looks to have involved unauthorized access to a database with records for every working adult in the country. That's almost five million people. There's some debate over exactly what was involved in the breach. Press reports suggest it not only included personal information such as date of birth and address, but also tax ... (view more)

The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly backed a bill to crack down on unwanted robocalls. The bipartisan measure would increase regulatory power and make use of technology to tackle the problem. The proposed Stopping Bad Robocalls Act ... passed by 429 votes to 3. It follows a 97 to 1 vote in the Senate on a similar bill in May. It's now highly likely one of the bills will pass through both houses and become law. (Source: appleinsider.com ) Robocalls are automatically dialed phone calls. Because there's no need for a human to dial the number, both legitimate marketers and scammers can ... (view more)

Google is changing the way its "incognito" mode works. It says the move is necessary, but some news and magazine website owners are upset by the change. Incognito is Google's version of private browsing. Despite the name, it's mainly about privacy ... on the user's device: when in incognito mode, the local browser stops adding websites to its browsing history, which consists of a list of pages the user has visited and the searches they've carried out. The mode won't stop the activity being recorded by an Internet service provider (ISP) or by a local network administrator - something that has ... (view more)