Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Researchers Find Mysterious Russia-Linked Malware That Hijacks Anti-Theft Software Lojack

Security researchers are warning that malware with suspected links to Russian cyber-espionage group and alleged Democratic National Committee hackers Fancy Bear is turning up in installations of Lojack, an anti-computer theft program used by many corporations to guard their assets. On Tuesday, researchers with Arbor Networks’ ASERT lab said in a new report that they … Continued

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United Airlines to Resume Putting Cats and Dogs in Cargo Holds This July

United Airlines has announced that it will allow cats and dogs to travel in the cargo holds of its planes again starting this summer. Earlier this year, the airline suspended its cargo hold pet program following two high-profile incidents involving dogs on its flights, one of which died. United is partnering with American Humane, an … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Critical Flaws in Industrial Software Left US Infrastructure Wide Open to Hackers

Vulnerabilities in two applications widely used by manufacturers and power plant operators may have given hackers a foothold in America’s critical infrastructure, prior to being discovered by a Maryland-based cybersecurity firm. Tenable announced Wednesday that flaws in two human-machine interface (HMI) tools developed by Schneider Electric, a global energy management and automation company, are being … Continued

Tech NewsApple

Apple Will Spend $100 Billion of That Cash It Stashed Abroad Buying Back Its Own Stock

For all the tortuous interactions with now-President Donald Trump that Apple CEO Tim Cook has endured over the past few years, in late April he was still making the rounds at fancy White House events—probably because his company has, all told, been a major beneficiary of Republican-backed tax cuts. On Tuesday, Apple revealed where a … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

GitHub Tells Some Users It Accidentally Stored Their Passwords in Plain Text But Hey, NBD

Code repository GitHub warned “a select number of users” on Tuesday that due to a flaw in its password reset system, the company had stored their passwords in plain text on internal logs. Per BleepingComputer, the site says this security flaw was discovered during “regular auditing” and no one but a small number of GitHub … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Facebook Vows to Fix Its Biggest Problems, but It’s Clearly Ready to Move on

Mark Zuckerberg may have ditched the dark suit he wore during his congressional appearances last month, but the serious data-privacy and election-security issues raised during his testimony are still very much on his mind. Zuckerberg said it to members of the House and Senate in mid-April and repeated it to a convention center packed with … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Amazon Bends the Knee to Autocrats, Threatens to Cut Off Signal for Using Anti-Censorship Technique

Telegram has been putting up an impressive fight against the governments of Russia and Iran in high-profile efforts to censor the messaging service over the last few weeks. But we’ve heard little about its fellow encrypted messaging app Signal. Both services have used an anti-censorship technique called “domain fronting” to get around tyrants—and now, Google … Continued

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Older Users Seem to Like the New Snapchat, And That’s About the Only Good News Snap Shared Today

Snapchat’s big, controversial redesign—the one that really put us in our place by separating our social from our media—doesn’t appear to have done the app much good. Snapchat still has 191 million daily users, but things aren’t looking up for the company that Facebook has done everything in its power to destroy. Snapchat is growing … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

Tinder Owner to Facebook: 🍆🔪

It’s still unclear who, exactly, has been begging to give Facebook even more intimate data, but the social giant’s newly announced dating features nevertheless pose a significant threat to other online dating businesses. News of Facebook Dating sent shares of the Match Group (the parent company of Tinder, OkCupid and Match.com) tumbling on Tuesday, and … Continued

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FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly Violated Federal Law to Promote Trump, Special Counsel’s Office Says

The federal agency charged with policing the political activity of federal employees has determined that FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly violated federal law in February when he instructed a crowd of people to vote for President Trump, according to a letter obtained by Gizmodo. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) determined that O’Rielly violated the Hatch … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

You Can Now Buy Facebook’s Phone-Free Oculus Go VR Headset

During Facebook’s F8 developer conference today, human CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the availability of the Oculus Go, the company’s latest VR headset and its first standalone device for virtual reality that doesn’t require a PC or smartphone. While smartphone-free VR has been in the works for some time, a fully functional VR headset for $200—the … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

All the Changes Coming to Your Instagram

At Facebook’s F8 conference on Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg discussed how Instagram will be changing in the coming weeks. The upgrades include video chat, an Explore redesign, AR camera effects, and a bullying filter. The new video chat feature will allow users to talk with one or more people. “You’re going to be able to just … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

Facebook Wants to Help You Find Love (So Please Hand Over More Data)

Facebook, still reeling from a scandal concerning the improper sharing of tens of millions of its users’ data, now wants to get even more intimately involved in your life. At the F8 developer conference on Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social network will soon offer dating features slated to roll out later this year. … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

The Essential Elements of a Terrible Bitcoin Rap Video

If you were looking for another reason to hate crypto culture, then YouTube has a plethora of Bitcoin rap videos for you to peruse. Every single one of these blockchain anthems is just as bad as you can imagine, and often worse. However, if you yourself want to become a cryptocurrency rapper, it will behoove … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

Facebook Says It’s Giving You a Tool to Kill Third-Party Tracking

Facebook is holding its F8 developer conference on Tuesday. Given that it’s been going through a lot of trouble related to third-party developers it brought a surprise announcement to take your mind off of privacy concerns. It will soon give you control over the information that apps and websites are seeing about you, and let … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

Facebook Accidentally Asked Users If Every Single Post in Their Feed Contained Hate Speech

For a brief period on Tuesday morning, Facebook asked at least some of its users to report whether every single post in their feed contained hate speech. Right above where one would normally like or comment on a post, Facebook users were asked: “Does this post contain hate speech?” For users who saw this request … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Here’s What Those New Full-Page Warnings in Chrome Mean

Google Chrome users will soon encounter a full-page warning whenever visiting a website whose SSL certificate is not registered with a public certificate log. For users, this means additional protection from websites whose SSL certificates may have been maliciously acquired, exposing them to server impersonation and other attacks. Whether by compromising a certificate authority or … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

UK Threatens to Force Mark Zuckerberg to Testify the Next Time He’s on British Soil

The British government keeps asking Mark Zuckerberg to testify about his company’s abysmal privacy record, and the Facebook CEO keeps turning them down. Zuck likes to send his lackeys instead, but the UK has had about enough of Zuck’s bullshit. The next time he’s in the UK, the government is going to make Zuckberberg testify. … Continued

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California Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Gig Workers 

In a unanimous decision yesterday, California’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of independent contractors seeking employee status from a last-mile delivery service in a case that could have wide ramifications for Uber, Lyft, Amazon, Instacart, and other companies buoyed by the sweat of the gig economy. First filed in April of 2005, the suit alleged … Continued

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UNICEF Wants You to Donate By Mining Cryptocurrency While You Browse

The Coinhive service was always intended to help people mine cryptocurrency for good, but we’ve mostly seen it deployed by bad actors hijacking people’s CPUs without their permission. UNICEF is giving everyone a chance to support refugees with the mining tool just by opening a webpage. The humanitarian program is trying to raise money for … Continued