Miscellaneous Tech News
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Even creepier COVID tracking: Google silently pushed app to users’ phones
Massachusetts launched a COVID tracking app, and uh, it was automatically installed?!
Over the weekend, Google and the state of Massachusetts managed to make creepy COVID tracking apps even creepier by automatically installing them on people's Android phones. Numerous reports on Reddit, Hacker News, and in-app reviews claim that "MassNotify," Massachusetts' COVID tracking app, silently installed on their Android device without user consent. Google gave the following statement to 9to5Google, and the company does not deny silently installing an app. -
Now that China has all but banned cryptocurrencies, GPU prices are falling like Bitcoin
https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/22/as_china_shutters_cryptomining_plants/
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Monero emerges as crypto of choice for cybercriminals
Untraceable "privacy coin" is rising in popularity among ransomware gangs.
For cybercriminals looking to launder illicit gains, bitcoin has long been the payment method of choice. But another cryptocurrency is coming to the fore, promising to help make dirty money disappear without a trace. While bitcoin leaves a visible trail of transactions on its underlying blockchain, the niche “privacy coin” monero was designed to obscure the sender and receiver, as well as the amount exchanged. As a result, it has become an increasingly sought-after tool for criminals such as ransomware gangs, posing new problems for law enforcement. The rise of monero comes as authorities race to crack down on cyber crime in the wake of a series of audacious attacks, notably the hack on the Colonial Pipeline, a major petroleum artery supplying the US east coast. -
Ahoy, there’s malice in your repos—PyPI is the latest to be abused
Open source repositories can be vectors for badness, so look before you run.
Counterfeit packages downloaded roughly 5,000 times from the official Python repository contained secret code that installed cryptomining software on infected machines, a security researcher has found. The malicious packages, which were available on the PyPI repository, in many cases used names that mimicked those of legitimate and often widely used packages already available there, Ax Sharma, a researcher at security firm Sonatype reported. So-called typosquatting attacks succeed when targets accidentally mistype a name such as typing “mplatlib” or “maratlib” instead of the legitimate and popular package matplotlib. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Ahoy, there’s malice in your repos—PyPI is the latest to be abused
Open source repositories can be vectors for badness, so look before you run.
Counterfeit packages downloaded roughly 5,000 times from the official Python repository contained secret code that installed cryptomining software on infected machines, a security researcher has found. The malicious packages, which were available on the PyPI repository, in many cases used names that mimicked those of legitimate and often widely used packages already available there, Ax Sharma, a researcher at security firm Sonatype reported. So-called typosquatting attacks succeed when targets accidentally mistype a name such as typing “mplatlib” or “maratlib” instead of the legitimate and popular package matplotlib.Same as with closed source. No news.
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US tycoon McAfee found dead in Spanish prison
Anti-virus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been found dead in his cell at a Barcelona prison.
Just hours earlier, Spain's National Court had agreed to extradite him to the US to face tax evasion charges.
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@hobbit666 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
US tycoon McAfee found dead in Spanish prison
Anti-virus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been found dead in his cell at a Barcelona prison.
Just hours earlier, Spain's National Court had agreed to extradite him to the US to face tax evasion charges.
wow
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The final years of John McAfee's controversial life
In 2012, the game appeared to be up for John McAfee.
After going on the run in Belize, he had been arrested in Guatemala after his neighbour was found dead. The police described him as a "person of interest" in the case. However, as in many situations in his life, he somehow managed to wiggle free. McAfee shot to fame in the 1980s, after launching an anti-virus software company he named after himself. His success brought with it money - but throughout his life, McAfee seemed almost as good at losing money as he was at generating it. In 2008, he had moved to Belize, where he ended up living next to man called Gregory Faull. -
Dell SupportAssist bugs put over 30 million PCs at risk
Security researchers have found four major security vulnerabilities in the BIOSConnect feature of Dell SupportAssist, allowing attackers to remotely execute code within the BIOS of impacted devices.
According to Dell's website, the SupportAssist software is "preinstalled on most Dell devices running Windows operating system," while BIOSConnect provides remote firmware update and OS recovery features. The chain of flaws discovered by Eclypsium researchers comes with a CVSS base score of 8.3/10 and enables privileged remote attackers to impersonate Dell.com and take control of the target device's boot process to break OS-level security controls. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
The final years of John McAfee's controversial life
In 2012, the game appeared to be up for John McAfee.
After going on the run in Belize, he had been arrested in Guatemala after his neighbour was found dead. The police described him as a "person of interest" in the case. However, as in many situations in his life, he somehow managed to wiggle free. McAfee shot to fame in the 1980s, after launching an anti-virus software company he named after himself. His success brought with it money - but throughout his life, McAfee seemed almost as good at losing money as he was at generating it. In 2008, he had moved to Belize, where he ended up living next to man called Gregory Faull.And those are just the final years. In his youth he made that evil trainwreck of a company that is named after him that still dogs the industry with its terrible "borders on malware" products. His name is more associated with bloatware and being a total creepoid than anything else.
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@scottalanmiller yeah I've actively had to remove McAfee AV from numerous systems throughout my life as it caused way more issues than having nothing at all.
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Apparently his net worth went from 100 mill down to 8. ouch...
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Hackers are using unknown user accounts to target Zyxel firewalls and VPNs
Authentication bypass attacks allow hackers to change breach network security.
Network device maker Zyxel is warning customers of active and ongoing attacks that are targeting a range of the company’s firewalls and other types of security appliances. In an email, the company said that targeted devices included security appliances that have remote management or SSL VPN enabled, namely in the USG/ZyWALL, USG FLEX, ATP, and VPN series running on-premise ZLD firmware. The language in the email is terse, but it appears to say that the attacks target devices that are exposed to the Internet. When the attackers succeed in accessing the device, the email further appears to say, the -
Is Windows 11 the beginning of the end for Skype?
Microsoft has officially announced Windows 11, its new operating system which will replace the current version over the next few years.
Among all the new features are two seemingly small but related things that jumped out. First - Microsoft Teams, the video-calling app which saw a boom during 2020's pandemic, will be integrated into Windows 11 by default. And second - Skype will not be, for the first time in years. That seems to suggest that Teams is the new favourite child, and many pundits think this is the beginning of the end for what was once the king of calling apps. "Looks like Microsoft is killing off Skype," wrote the Irish & Sun -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Is Windows 11 the beginning of the end for Skype?
Microsoft has officially announced Windows 11, its new operating system which will replace the current version over the next few years.
Among all the new features are two seemingly small but related things that jumped out. First - Microsoft Teams, the video-calling app which saw a boom during 2020's pandemic, will be integrated into Windows 11 by default. And second - Skype will not be, for the first time in years. That seems to suggest that Teams is the new favourite child, and many pundits think this is the beginning of the end for what was once the king of calling apps. "Looks like Microsoft is killing off Skype," wrote the Irish & SunSkype still exists?
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I think Windows 8.1 was the end for Skype, lol.
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@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Is Windows 11 the beginning of the end for Skype?
Microsoft has officially announced Windows 11, its new operating system which will replace the current version over the next few years.
Among all the new features are two seemingly small but related things that jumped out. First - Microsoft Teams, the video-calling app which saw a boom during 2020's pandemic, will be integrated into Windows 11 by default. And second - Skype will not be, for the first time in years. That seems to suggest that Teams is the new favourite child, and many pundits think this is the beginning of the end for what was once the king of calling apps. "Looks like Microsoft is killing off Skype," wrote the Irish & SunSkype still exists?
Skype is the entire backend for Microsoft Teams, granted Microsoft may have finally rebuilt everything from the ground up, but the last that I recall on it, was that Teams is Skype with a new face...
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@dustinb3403 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Is Windows 11 the beginning of the end for Skype?
Microsoft has officially announced Windows 11, its new operating system which will replace the current version over the next few years.
Among all the new features are two seemingly small but related things that jumped out. First - Microsoft Teams, the video-calling app which saw a boom during 2020's pandemic, will be integrated into Windows 11 by default. And second - Skype will not be, for the first time in years. That seems to suggest that Teams is the new favourite child, and many pundits think this is the beginning of the end for what was once the king of calling apps. "Looks like Microsoft is killing off Skype," wrote the Irish & SunSkype still exists?
Skype is the entire backend for Microsoft Teams, granted Microsoft may have finally rebuilt everything from the ground up, but the last that I recall on it, was that Teams is Skype with a new face...
MS has been saying that there is nothing of Skype left in Teams.
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Google tracking cookies ban delayed until 2023
Google has delayed its plan to block third-party cookies from its Chrome internet browser.
Cookies track users' internet activity and allow digital publishers to target advertising. They are already blocked by a number of Google's rivals, including Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla. But critics say Google's ban forces ad sellers to go direct to the tech giant for this information instead - giving it an unfair advantage. This is because it plans to replace the system with another one of Google's own design, which it claims is better for privacy but still allows marketing. Its proposals are already under investigation by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). -
@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
I think Windows 8.1 was the end for Skype, lol.
Skype was dead when first purchased by Microsoft.
