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Back in July, a security researcher disclosed a zero-day vulnerability in Mac OS X that allowed attackers to obtain unrestricted root user privileges with the help of code that even fits in a tweet . The same vulnerability has now been upgraded to again infect Mac OS X machines even after Apple fixed the issue last month. The privilege-escalation bug was once used to circumvent security protections and gain full control of Mac computers. Thanks to the environment variable DYLD_PRINT_TO_FILE Apple added to the code of OS X 10.10 Yosemite. The vulnerability then allowed attackers to install malware and adware onto a target Mac, running OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), without requiring victims to enter system passwords. However, the company fixed the critical issue in the Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta builds as well as the latest stable version of Mac OS X – Version 10.10.5 . Mac Keychain Flaw Now, security researchers from anti-malware firm MalwareBytes spotted t

Earlier this year, Microsoft had announced to bring its Office 2016 soon to the world. Also, Office 2016 software version for Mac was released in July 2015. Now speculations gearing up are hinting towards a final release date of Office 2016 for Windows as 22nd September 2015. Though, for Window users it may not be quite a change, because in the new Office suite as compared to its predecessor Office 2013 no such major improvements are visible. Office 2016 for Windows is supposedly debuting in less than a month away and will be available for home and professional users initially. Improvements in Office 2016 Office 2016 is going to be more colorful, with bright and dark colored theme options. Also, this time Microsoft has made it pretty clear that people are required to have Office 365 subscriptions because this time Microsoft is going to send new updates of Office along with the updates of Office 365. Mostly, modifications are done in the Outlook applicat

The  ransomware industry surged in 2023  as it saw an alarming 55.5% increase in victims worldwide, reaching a staggering 5,070.  But 2024 is starting off showing a very different picture.  While the numbers skyrocketed in Q4 2023 with 1309 cases, in Q1 2024, the ransomware industry was down to 1,048 cases. This is a 22% decrease in ransomware attacks compared to Q4 2023. Figure 1: Victims per quarter There could be several reasons for this significant drop.  Reason 1: The Law Enforcement Intervention Firstly, law enforcement has upped the ante in 2024 with actions against both LockBit and ALPHV. The LockBit Arrests In February, an international operation named "Operation Cronos" culminated in the arrest of at least three associates of the infamous LockBit ransomware syndicate in Poland and Ukraine.  Law enforcement from multiple countries collaborated to take down LockBit's infrastructure. This included seizing their dark web domains and gaining access to their backend sys

A security researcher has discovered a critical vulnerability in the latest version of Apple's OS X Yosemite  that could allow anyone to obtain unrestricted root user privileges with the help of code that fits in a tweet. The privilege-escalation vulnerability initially reported on Tuesday by German researcher Stefan Esser , could be exploited by to circumvent security protections and gain full control of Mac computers. The most worrying part is that this critical vulnerability is yet to be fixed by Apple in the latest release of its operating system. This could make it easier for hackers to surreptitiously infect Macs with rootkits and other types of persistent malware. Thanks to an environment variable DYLD_PRINT_TO_FILE Apple added to the code of OS X 10.10 Yosemite. Apple Mac OS X Vulnerability Gives Full Control of your Mac This environment variable specifies where in the file system an operating system component called the OS X dynamic linker dyld

After Google made its Android users happy by unveiling new features in Google I/O developer conference last month, it's now time for Apple fans… WWDC 2015 event is upon us. Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is going on in San Francisco and the company has many new surprises for its users. One of them is the new operating system for Macs, which Apple unveiled on stage on Monday. Long served Yosemite, a Heartiest Welcome to the newest version of OS X: El Capitan . Yes, El Capitan — the famous mountain in Yosemite National Park — is the latest version of Apple's desktop operating system that. What are the best features of EI Capitan? EI Capitan is the Apple major move towards providing a better desktop experience to its users. With OS X El Capitan, Apple wants to focus heavily on performance improvements to make its Mac computers " snappier and more efficient. " So, What's new in OS X 10.11 El Capitan? Improved User Experience 1. New sm

First time ever in the History, Apple Inc. has pushed out an automatic security update for Macintosh OS X computers to address a critical security issue that, according to the company, was too risky to wait for users to patch after seeking their prior approval. Despite having the ability for years to silently and automatically update its users computers, Apple typically asks its users' permission to approve them manually or automatically before installing any security update of this kind. But, the company has exercised its ability for the very first time to patch a critical security flaw in a component of its OS X operating system called the Network Time Protocol (NTP) . This newly discovered security vulnerability, assigned CVE-2014-9295, became public late last week and affects all operating systems, including OS X and other Linux and Unix distributions, running versions of NTP4 prior to 4.2.8. NTP is used for synchronizing clocks between computer systems and across the globa

Just few days after the announcement that Russian government will pay almost 4 million ruble (approximately equal to $111,000) to the one who can devise a reliable technology to decrypt data sent over the Tor , now the government wants something which is really tough. APPLE & SAP, HAND OVER YOUR SOURCE CODES Russian government has asked Apple to provide the access to the company's source code in an effort to assure its iOS devices and Macintoshes aren't vulnerable to spying. Not just this, the government has demanded the same from SAP as well, which is an enterprise software that manages business operations and customer relationships. Russia proposed this idea last Tuesday when Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov met SAP's Russian managing director Vyacheslav Orekhov , and Apple's Russian general manager Peter Engrob Nielsen, and suggested that both the companies give Russian government access to their source code. APPLE iOS BACKDOOR CONTROVERSIES The idea