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In Brief A suspect of child pornography possession, Francis Rawls, who is a former Philadelphia Police Department sergeant, has been in solitary confinement without charges for last seven months and will remain until he complies with a court order forcing him to decrypt his password-protected hard drives seized in connection with a child pornography investigation. Remember Ramona Fricosu? In 2012, a Colorado woman was ordered to unlock her laptop while investigating financial fraud, but she refused to unlock it saying that she did not remember the password. Later the US Court ruled that Police can force defendants to decrypt their electronic devices, of course, as it does not violate the Fifth Amendment that prevents any citizen from having to incriminate themselves. Forget the password? It might be a smart way to avoid complying with a court order, but not every time. A Philadelphia man has been in jail for seven months and counting after being refused to comply with a c

In Brief The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made its first disclosure about a software security flaw to Apple under the Vulnerability Equities Process (VEP), a White House initiative created in April 2014 for reviewing flaws and deciding which ones should be made public. Unfortunately, the vulnerability reported by the federal agency only affected older versions of Apple's iOS and OS X operating system and was patched nine months ago, with the release of iOS 9 for iPhones and Mac OS X El Capitan, according to Apple. The FBI informed Apple of a vulnerability in its iPhone and Mac software on April 14, but it's not the one used to unlock an iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, Reuters  reported . But, Why didn't the FBI disclose the hack used to get data off the San Bernardino iPhone ? Well, the answer came from the FBI is not much complicated. According to the FBI Director James Comey, the FBI is still assessing whether the hack used to unlock Farook's i

The introduction of Open AI's ChatGPT was a defining moment for the software industry, touching off a GenAI race with its November 2022 release. SaaS vendors are now rushing to upgrade tools with enhanced productivity capabilities that are driven by generative AI. Among a wide range of uses, GenAI tools make it easier for developers to build software, assist sales teams in mundane email writing, help marketers produce unique content at low cost, and enable teams and creatives to brainstorm new ideas.  Recent significant GenAI product launches include Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Salesforce Einstein GPT. Notably, these GenAI tools from leading SaaS providers are paid enhancements, a clear sign that no SaaS provider will want to miss out on cashing in on the GenAI transformation. Google will soon launch its SGE "Search Generative Experience" platform for premium AI-generated summaries rather than a list of websites.  At this pace, it's just a matter of a short time befo

In Brief Apple's head of legal has denied all rumors about providing its complete source code or any backdoor to the Chinese government. Apple officially confirmed that the Chinese government has asked Apple twice in the past two years to hand over the source code for its operating system, but the company refused in both the cases. In a Tuesday hearing entitled "Deciphering the Debate Over Encryption: Industry and Law Enforcement Perspectives,"  the police officials put allegations on Apple for handing over user data to Beijing while refusing the authorities at its home in the US. However, speaking under oath at the congressional hearing, Apple's General Counsel Bruce Sewell denied the claims, saying "We have been asked by the Chinese government" for the source code behind the iPhone. But, "we refused." The response came just after Indiana State Police Captain Charles Cohen accused Apple of providing its source code to China. N

The FBI didn't disclose the identity of the third-party company that helped them access the San Bernardino iPhone, but it has been widely believed that the Israeli mobile forensic firm Cellebrite was hired by the FBI to put an end to the Apple vs. FBI case. For those unfamiliar in the Apple vs. FBI case: Apple was engaged in a legal battle with the Department of Justice over a court order that was forcing the company to write software, which could disable passcode protection on terrorist's iPhone, helping them access data on it. However, Apple refused to comply with the court order, so the FBI hired an unknown third-party firm, most likely Cellebrite, who managed to successfully hack the locked iPhone 5C used by the terrorist in the San Bernardino shooting incident last year. The new method helped the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to hack iPhone 5C, but that wasn't the FBI's victory as the method didn't work on iPhone 5S and later iPhone

Almost two years back, Apple introduced Swift programming language at its World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) to the developers who build software applications for Apple devices. Swift was designed to make it easier for developers to create apps for Apple's mobile platform. Usually developers write complete app code and then compile it to see output, but Swift helps them see results in real time instantly while writing code. Now, reports have been emerged that the search engine giant is also considering making Swift programming language a "first class" language choice for programmers making apps for its Android platform. In between an ongoing legal battle with Oracle over Android, Google is planning to bring Swift into the Android platform with at least two major third-party developers — Facebook and Uber, reports The Next Web. Around the time when Apple officially made Swift an open source language, executives from Google, Facebook and Uber attended a m

Yes, FBI Director James Comey admitted that the investigators made a " mistake " with the San Bernardino investigation during a congressional hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee. Apple is facing a court order to help the FBI unlock an iPhone belonged to San Bernardino Shooter by developing a backdoored version of iOS that can disable the security feature on the locked iPhone. Apple's Chief Executive Tim Cook has maintained his stand over Privacy and Security , saying the company will fight the court order because it is dangerous for the security and privacy of all of its users. As the company earlier said, Apple had been helping the FBI with the investigation in San Bernardino case since early January by providing an iCloud backup of Farook's iPhone under a court order and ways to access Farook's iPhone… ...but the problem, according to Apple, was that the feds approached the company after attempting a ' blunder ' themselv

What If Apple Engineers are Kidnapped and Forced to Write (Exploit) Code? Exactly this was what FBI Director James Comey asked in the congressional hearing on Tuesday. The House Judiciary Committee hearing on "The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans' Security and Privacy" over the ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI ended up being full of drama. The key to the dispute is whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) can force Apple to develop a special version of its mobile operating system that would help the agency unlock an iPhone  belonged to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook . FBI Director James Comey was there with a prepared testimony about why the FBI wants Apple to create a backdoor into the killer's iPhone. Comey: Encryption is a Long-Term Threat to Law Enforcement Yesterday, a New York magistrate judge refused a similar order in a drug case in which the authorities asked Apple to help with the data stored in an

As the groundwork for the presidential election is being cooked up in the United States to be held on 8 November 2016, candidates are very busy in sharpening their skills to gain the vote of reliance. By struggling to gain an upper hand in the National issues at this moment could benefit the candidates bring them into the limelight and stardom. Donald Trump (a Presidential Candidate from Republican Party) is not an exception to this. Recently, Trump made a controversial statement to boycott Apple until the company handovers the San Bernardino terrorist's phone data to the authority; during a rally in South Carolina yesterday. "First of all, Apple ought to give the security for that phone. What I think you ought to do is boycott Apple until they give that security number," Trump addressed in the rally. This action was the outcome of the Apple denial to the request of Californian Judge to build a backdoor for the shooter's iPhone. Also Read:

Credit: mirror.co.uk If you love wearing tattoos and have one on your wrist, then the Apple Watch won't work for you. Yes, you heard that right. Apple watch is unable to figure out your blood pressure or even sense your skin contact if you wear the watch on a tattooed wrist. Generally, the Apple Watch automatically detects your wrist by your measuring your heart's pulse rate. So, you don't need to enter a password every time you put the watch on your wrist. The issue with the Apple Watch: However, the infrared sensors of the Apple Watch that enable wrist detection often fail when encountered by dark ink tattoos or scars. Many users on Twitter and Reddit have complained online that their Apple watches doesn't play nice when worn on a tattooed wrist. The watch's heart rate sensor loses the connection and gives inaccurate readings, even the device fails to detect direct contact with the user's skin, causing apps to shut down and repeatedly as

Good news for iOS 8.1 users! The Chinese jailbreaking team Pangu has released a software tool that allows users to Jailbreak their iPhones, iPads and iPods running the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 8 and iOS 8.1 . That was really very quick, as iOS users need to wait quite long for the jailbreaks. Pangu developer team is the same group responsible for jailbreaking iOS 7 few months back. The group made its jailbreak tool available by releasing a download link for the developers edition before quickly removing it. The link for the tool on Pangu's site is currently unavailable, with the team noting on their official Twitter account that, " Current Pangu Jailbreak v1.0.0 is disabled remotely because we are fixing bug which may cause lost of your photos. Please wait … " The developer edition of the jailbreak iOS 8 tool didn't come with the Cydia app store , which would make the tool useless for an average iOS users who likes jail

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

Quite Surprisingly, a team of Chinese hackers, Pangu have released an untethered jailbreak for iOS 7.1 and iOS 7.1.1. This untethered jailbreak is compatible with iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPad Air, iPad 4, iPad 3, iPad 2, iPad mini, Retina iPad mini and iPod touch 5G running iOS 7.1-iOS 7.1.1. The jailbreak tool is currently available for Windows but works on every iOS devices. Many iOS users have posted on Reddit that the tool works successfully. Jailbreaking is a process of removing limitations on iOS devices , Apple's operating system, so you can install third party software not certified by Apple. Such devices include the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and second-generation Apple TV. One question rises in my mind that when Apple 's system root protections have been greatly enhanced in an effort to make jailbreaks more difficult, then what's the whole story behind the unexpectedly release of this jailbreak tool? STEPS TO JAILBREAK iOS 7.1 &a

A quiet change in the privacy setting of its forthcoming iOS 8 smartphone Operating System, Apple could effectively block the path for advertisers, marketers, and other snoopers looking to collect data about you and your location from your Smartphone devices. When your mobile device scan for a free Wi-Fi network, whether at the shopping complex, airport, or restaurant, it sends out the MAC address which is a unique identifier of the device that allows devices to distinguish between one another on a network. Routers need this identifier to connect you to a network. Advertisers and retailers have been seeking to track these identifiers to help offer personalized advertisements to customers based on where they've been. Thanks to Apple's upcoming feature which will enhance users privacy to one step higher than other smartphone providers. Apple announced the change during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in Cupertino last week, revealing that the feature will restrict

The development of self own languages has become emblematic of the hot new trend in business as every big Internet service provider is now developing their own and unique programming languages. Two months ago, Facebook released its modern programming language called ' HACK ', which is specially designed to make the process of writing and testing code of complex websites and other software faster, and the company already drives almost all of the its social networking site to HACK over the last year. This Monday, Apple surprises the gathering of people who build software applications for Apple hardware devices at its World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) by introducing its whole new programming language called Swift , which probably replace Apple's main programming language - Objective-C that is being loved by the developers who build software applications for Apple hardware devices, from iPhone, iPad to Macintosh. The first app built on Swift is the WWDC ap

Apple has just released a pair of software updates for its Safari web browser addressing multiple Webkit vulnerabilities in Mac OS X, providing its users with 21 security patches. The critical bug resides in the Safari 7.0.4 for Mac OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 and Safari 6.1.4 for OS X Lion 10.7.5, OS X Lion Server 10.7.5 and Mountain Lion 10.8.5. According to Apple's security advisory , All of the 21 security flaws address the iOS browser vulnerabilities proliferating through the Safari's open-source Webkit rendering engine. This webkit vulnerability allows a malicious website to execute an arbitrary code on the host computer or unexpected termination of an application in an effort to compromise users' confidential information. " Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution ," Apple warned in the advisory. Security updates tackle a number of flaws including: CVE-2013-2875 CVE-2013-2927 CV

Despite the contrary regarding NSA's DROPOUTJEEP program, Apple had always denied working with the NSA in the creation of any backdoors used to spy on its users and also claimed that the NSA doesn't have backdoor access to its data. But, Apple could legally share your phone data with the law enforcement agencies if asked for. Being a secretive company, Apple is very clear at its point of sharing its users' data with the government when U.S. law enforcement agencies request data relating to the company's users. With the release of a set of new guidelines late Wednesday regarding requests for customer data from the U.S. law enforcement agencies, Apple specifies what information can and cannot be lifted from its users devices upon the receipt of disclosure requests, search warrants, or legal orders. " These guidelines are provided for use by law enforcement or other government entities in the U.S. when seeking information from Apple Inc. about users of Apple

A new piece of malicious malware infection targeting jailbroken Apple iOS devices in an attempt to steal users' credentials, has been discovered by Reddit users. The Reddit Jailbreak community discovered the malicious infection dubbed as ' Unflod Baby Panda ', on some jailbroken Apple iOS devices on Thursday while a user noticed an unusual activity that the file was causing apps such as Snapchat and Google Hangouts to crash constantly on his jailbroken iPhone. CHINA WANTS YOUR APPLE ID & PASSWORDS Soon after the jailbroken developer uncovered the mysteries ' Unfold.dylib ' file and found that the infection targets jailbroken iOS handsets to captures Apple IDs and passwords from Internet sessions that use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to encrypt communications and is believed to be spreading through the Chinese iOS software sites, according to the researchers at German security firm SektionEins . The researchers found that the captured login information is been sent

Samsung Galaxy S5 Fingerprint feature promises an extra layer of security for your smartphone, which also lets you make payments through PayPal. But does it really secure? Just three days after the launch of the Galaxy S5, Security researchers have successfully managed to hack Galaxy S5 Fingerprint sensor using a similar method that was used to spoof the Touch ID sensor on the iPhone 5S last year. FOOLING FINGERPRINT SENSOR SRLabs researchers recently uploaded a YouTube video, demonstrated how they were able to bypass the fingerprint authentication mechanism to gain unauthorized access just by using a lifted fingerprint with wood-glue based dummy finger. The S5 fingerprint scanner allows multiple incorrect attempts without requiring a password, so an attacker could potentially keep trying multiple spoofed fingerprints until the correct match. PAYPAL USERS AT RISK Samsung Galaxy S5 users can also transfer money to other PayPal users just by swiping their finger on the sensor, but

Heartbleed has left a worst impression worldwide affecting millions of websites and is also supposed to put millions of Smartphones and tablets users at a great risk. Heartbleed is a critical bug ( CVE-2014-0160 ) in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library, that actually resides in the OpenSSL's implementation of the TLS/DTLS heartbeat extension, which allows attackers to read portions of the affected server's memory, potentially revealing users data such as usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers, that the server did not intend to reveal. OpenSSL is a widely-used cryptographic library which implements the SSL and TLS protocol and protects communications on the Internet, and mostly every websites use either SSL or TLS, even the Apache web server that powers almost half of the websites over internet utilizes OpenSSL. But to assume that the users using desktop browsers to visit websites are vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug, will be wrong. Despite 40