Free Republic

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO, April 22 (Reuters) - Apple Inc is planning to fix a flaw that a security firm said may have left more than half a billion iPhones vulnerable to hackers. The bug, which also exists on iPads, was discovered by ZecOps, a San Francisco-based mobile security forensics company, while it was investigating a sophisticated cyberattack against a client that took place in late 2019. Zuk Avraham, ZecOps' chief executive, said he found evidence the vulnerability was exploited in at least six cybersecurity break-ins. An Apple spokesman acknowledged that a vulnerability exists in Apple's software for email on iPhones and...

As Apple stands firm against requests to break iPhone encryption, many people have questioned why the FBI needs Apple’s help in the first place. There are plenty of tools available from third-party companies that are more than capable of unlocking the iPhone 5 and iPhone 7 used by the Pensacola gunman. Further emphasizing that point, a new report from Forbes says that the FBI recently used one of those black/gray market tools to unlock the newest — and theoretically the most secure — iPhone that Apple sells. According to the report, FBI investigators in Ohio used the GrayKey hardware box...

ToTok, an Emirati messaging app that has been downloaded to millions of phones, is the latest escalation of a digital arms race. IMAGE: The Aldar Building in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where the Emirates’ signals intelligence agency and Pax AI, a data mining firm linked to ToTok, have their offices.  Photo Credit...Ben Job/ReutersWASHINGTON — It is billed as an easy and secure way to chat by video or text message with friends and family, even in a country that has restricted popular messaging services like WhatsApp and Skype.But the service, ToTok, is actually a spying tool, according to American officials...

(CNN) — Facebook says a bug that inadvertently accesses a user's iPhone camera while they're scrolling through the News Feed will be fixed sometime today. The bug, which was discovered by Joshua Maddux, owner of web design firm 95Visual, appears to be exclusive to iOS and does not affect Android devices. Maddux took to Twitter to report his discovery, where he posted a video that showed his camera, pointing forward, was running in the background while he was scrolling Facebook. "I thought I had opened the camera by accident," Maddux wrote in an email to CNN of the discovery. "Then,...

People are finally waking up to the importance of privacy and the risk of entities over whom we have no control hoovering up the details of our digital lives, and that’s why the latest news from Duck Duck Go is so worthwhile. Apple’s good privacy just got better We know Apple is working to protect privacy – its newly updated privacy website shares a huge amount of information on its efforts, while the newly-published Safari white paper confirms the browser’s privacy protections include (among other things): Protection from cross-site tracking. Ad measurement tools that respect user privacy. Secure payments. Sign-in...

Apple today released iOS 13.1.3 and iPadOS 13.1.3 for compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. iOS 13.1.3 includes bug fixes and improvements for your iPhone. This update: Addresses an issue that could prevent a device from ringing or vibrating for an incoming call Fixes an issue that may prevent opening a meeting invite in Mail Resolves an issue where data in the Health app may not display correctly after daylight savings time adjusts Fixes an issue where Voice Memos recordings may not download after restoring from iCloud Backup Addresses an issue where apps might fail to download when restoring...

Researchers say suspected nation-state hackers infected Apple iPhones with spyware over two years in what security experts on Friday called an alarming security failure for a company whose calling card is privacy. A mere visit to one of a small number of tainted websites could infect an iPhone with an implant capable of sending the smartphone owner's text messages, email, photos and real-time location data to the cyberspies behind the operation. "This is definitely the most serious iPhone hacking incident that's ever been brought to public attention, both because of the indiscriminate targeting and the amount of data compromised by...

When you hear “Android fragmentation,” we often conjure up the negatives, but there is more to the mobile OS forks than slightly slow software updates. Unlike Android, iOS has an end-to-end experience controlled by Apple from start to finish. That means that because of iOS, we sometimes wrongly see fragmentation as a dirty word. The thing is, it is actually quite the opposite on the Android side of the fence. In terms of experience and features, fragmentation within Android can, and should, be considered a very good thing. Note how I say “experience and features,” as there are some trade-offs...

Apple is having a bad week. Just days after Face ID was hacked and the company’s “user-hostile” iPhone battery practices were exposed, an extraordinary story of Apple neglect has resulted in a warning every iPhone and iPad user needs to know about. Picked up by AppleInsider, security firm Check Point has revealed it has found a way to hack every iPhone and iPad running iOS 8 right up to betas of iOS 13. This spread covers eight years of devices (iOS 8 supports the 2011 iPhone 4S) and, with Tim Cook stating there are 1.4BN active iOS devices around the...

The time of a new Android operating system is now upon us, with the venerable Android 8 (aka Oreo) setting in the west and the sparkling, new Android 9 (aka Pie) rising in the east. This latest iteration of the world's most popular mobile operating system tackles screen addiction and reimagines how we interact with Android with new gestures. It also refreshes the look and feel of Android to be more Google-like. Android 9.0 is an Editors' Choice, along with Apple's iOS 12.

Remote exploitation can be achieved with no user interaction. Five bugs in Apple’s iMessage service for the iPhone have been uncovered that require no user interaction to exploit, including one that would allow remote attackers to access content stored on iOS devices. First discovered by Google Project Zero security researcher Natalie Silvanovich, Apple has fully patched four of the flaws as part of the 12.4 iOS update. CVE-2019-8646 is the bug that allows an attacker to read files off a remote device with no user interaction. An exploit could leak the SMS database, binary files like images and more. Silvanovich...

Apple contacted me over a week ago via telephone saying that we need to ban “offensive” content off Parler or they will take Parler off the App Store. We flat out refused and now we cannot push updates. Obviously by offensive they mean conservative content. Twitter is exempt from this clause as they generate more hatred then any platform in history.

Apple releases macOS Mojave 10.14.5 Monday, May 13, 2019 · 2:35 pm Apple today released macOS Mojave 10.14.5 which improves the stability and reliability of your Mac, and is recommended for all users. This update: Adds AirPlay 2 support for sharing videos, photos, music and more from your Mac directly to your AirPlay 2-enabled smart TV Adds the ability to follow a magazine from the Apple News+ catalog browsing view Improves audio latency on MacBook Pro models introduced in 2018 Fixes an issue that prevented certain very large OmniOutliner and OmniPlan documents from rendering properly For more detailed information about...

USB 4.0 (to be called "USB4") has officially been announced, with the final specification being released later this year. It will include notable changes such as 40 Gbps speed, and two-lane data transfer. For example, this means it will be able to transfer regular data, and send video data for a monitor simultaneously. It also implements features of Thunderbolt 3, which Intel has provided royalty free! | USB 4: Oh LAWD it Comin' | ThioJoe | Published on Mar 6, 2019

Political figures who support the so-called Green New Deal and other proposals to restrict carbon dioxide emissions are up against some “inconvenient facts” that Americans may access immediately through a smartphone application, a geologist and author says. But there’s one big problem. The app, called Inconvenient Facts, is available only to Android users through the Google Play Store. Since March 4, users of Apple’s iPhone no longer can access the app through the tech giant’s App Store. Gregory Wrightstone, a geologist with more than three decades of experience, told The Daily Signal in an interview that he has his own...

Academics from Greece have devised a new browser-based attack that can allow hackers to run malicious code inside users' browsers even after users have closed or navigated away from the web page on which they got infected This new attack, called MarioNet, opens the door for assembling giant botnets from users' browsers. These botnets can be used for in-browser crypto-mining (cryptojacking), DDoS attacks, malicious files hosting/sharing, distributed password cracking, creating proxy networks, advertising click-fraud, and traffic stats boosting, researchers said. . .

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has been slammed as 'shameful' after defending the firm's controversial research app and claiming teens 'consented' to having all their activity monitored. The social media giant's controversial 'research' app, got Facebook's app permissions revoked by Apple and raised the ire of employees inside the company. In an interview with CNBC, Sandberg said Facebook pulled the app after it 'realized we weren't in compliance with the rules on [Apple's] platform.' However, it was Apple who yanked the 'research' app from its App Store, not Facebook. Apple decided to ban the app, formerly known as Onavo VPN, from...

Outlined in a exposé by TechCrunch, Facebook's latest gambit to acquire user data pays participants $20 plus referral fees for nearly unfettered access to iOS usage patterns and activity. Through the Facebook Research app for iOS, which has been available since 2016, the company is able to collect data by enabling root access to a user's device. Marketed as a "social media research study," the VPN app is distributed through beta testing services Applause, BetaBound and uTest, the report says. Facebook relies on the three software testing platforms to enable sideloading of the Research app, effectively bypassing Apple's App Store...

Apple releases macOS Mojave 10.14.3 Tuesday, January 22, 2019 · 3:22 pm Apple today released macOS Mojave 10.14.3 improves the security, stability, and compatibility of your Mac and includes the following enterprise content: When making a file-sharing connection that uses a valid Kerberos TGT to authenticate, users are no longer prompted to enter credentials. macOS Mojave 10.14.3 is available via Software Update Apple Releases iOS12.1.3 Tuesday, January 22, 2019 · 3:39 pm Apple today released iOS 12.1.3 which contains the following improvements: Fixes an issue in Messages that could impact scrolling through photos in the Details view Addresses an issue...

Without any shadow of doubt, Android and IOS have dominated the operating systems market for the past few years. This is because they offer a high level of compatibility and flawless support for mobile application. Compatibility and support are what individuals are looking for above all else. However, did you know that there are operating systems other than Android and IOS that offer the same or even better functionalities? Here is a comprehensive list to check out: Ubuntu Touch On the outlook, Ubuntu Touch mimics any other operating system. While Ubuntu Touch trails Android in certain aspects, the latest crop...