MacOS Catalina is live and out now for the masses to download—and Apple being Apple, it’s packed with features focused on user security and privacy. Here’s how Catalina promises to make your Mac safer and better protected than ever, from warnings about weak passwords to smart ways to retrieve a lost MacBook. Improved Data Protection MacOS Catalina makes apps jump through more hoops—as in, forcing them to ask for permission—if…
The past week brought a heaping helping of not so comforting cybersecurity news, starting with President Donald Trump’s apparent plans to pull out of the Cold War-era Open Skies treaty. We explained why that would be as bad an idea as it sounds. But that’s just for starters. We also took a look at how planting a spy bug on IT hardware is a lot easier—and cheaper—than you might assume….
Elkins programmed his tiny stowaway chip to carry out an attack as soon as the firewall boots up in a target’s data center. It impersonates a security administrator accessing the configurations of the firewall by connecting his or her computer directly to that port. Then the chip triggers the firewall’s password recovery feature, creating a new admin account and gaining access to the firewall’s settings. Elkins says he used Cisco’s…
At this point, it’s painfully unsurprising to hear new examples of tech companies misusing customer data. But a particularly shameful version of the story has become increasingly common: services pulling phone numbers and other data used for two-factor authentication into their marketing databases. On Tuesday, Twitter became the latest tech giant to join those ranks. The company said in a statement that it accidentally ingested phone numbers and email addresses…
At this point, it’s painfully unsurprising to hear new examples of tech companies misusing customer data. But a particularly shameful version of the story has become increasingly common: services pulling phone numbers and other data used for two-factor authentication into their marketing databases. On Tuesday, Twitter became the latest tech giant to join those ranks. The company said in a statement that it accidentally ingested phone numbers and email addresses…
At this point, it’s painfully unsurprising to hear new examples of tech companies misusing customer data. But a particularly shameful version of the story has become increasingly common: services pulling phone numbers and other data used for two-factor authentication into their marketing databases. On Tuesday, Twitter became the latest tech giant to join those ranks. The company said in a statement that it accidentally ingested phone numbers and email addresses…
“We lost almost the entire patrol,” said the lieutenant. “It was horrific.” “We walked right into an enemy ambush,” he continued. “They easily picked my men off, one by one, because they were looking at their screens.” Thankfully, the young lieutenant was not describing an actual firefight from Iraq or Afghanistan. It was a recent live-action simulation that used laser tag-like equipment and new tablet devices that display maps, live…
That centralization of DNS requests worries detractors. Unlike end-to-end encrypted messaging, in which only you and the person you’re talking to can read the messages on each of your devices, encrypted DNS doesn’t quite succeed at boxing everyone out. It cuts telecoms and governments out of the equation in one way, but introduces new tech giants and third parties in another. “I would love it if there were 100 other…
The disinformation wars are only just getting started, warns a new report on Russian social media interference released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Published Tuesday, the report offers the most comprehensive look at the efforts of the now-infamous Russian propaganda factory known as the Internet Research Agency to divide Americans, undermine public faith in the democratic process, and aggressively support then-candidate Donald Trump before and after the 2016…
If you looked across the tarmac at the Great Falls, Montana airport in April, you likely would have been surprised to see a fully marked Russian Air Force jet parked nearby. Its mission that week would have been even more puzzling: The unarmed Tupolev Tu-154M spent four days flying over some of the most sensitive military bases in the United States, including the complex in the Nevada desert known as “Area…