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Viber adds End-to-End Encryption and PIN protected Hidden Chats features

Viber adds End-to-End Encryption and PIN protected Hidden Chats features

Apr 19, 2016
In Brief Viber, the popular mobile messaging app announced Tuesday that it has added full end-to-end encryption for video, voice and text message services for its millions of users. Here, the end-to-end encryption means only you and the person you are communicating with can read the content, and nobody in between, not even the company and if court orders company to provide user data, they will get only the heaps of encrypted data. Viber is the latest messaging platform to join WhatsApp , Telegram , and Apple iMessage , who strengthened their default privacy features in recent times. Founded in 2010 and acquired by Japanese e-commerce titan Rakuten for $900 Million in 2014, Viber is currently being used by more than 700 Million users globally across Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and desktop, the company claimed in a blog post published today. The move comes just a couple of weeks after Facebook-owned Whatsapp messaging app implemented full end-to-end encryption by default
Telegram Messenger Offers Large File Sharing up to 1.5GB while you Chat

Telegram Messenger Offers Large File Sharing up to 1.5GB while you Chat

Feb 02, 2015
In spite of all the things smartphones can do, messaging remains one of the most popular activities. Popular messaging apps like WhatsApp , Viber, WeChat  support text messages, voice calls, photo & video sharing features, but there is no provision for sharing every file types on these amazing messengers. But, some or the other day, we all got struck into an awkward situation where we have to share PDF, apk or zip files with our friends while chatting. However using any other 3rd-party file sharing services, we can share image, video, audio, zip files or any other file type with our friends, but it would be a lengthy process and sometimes require to use computer. Gone are the days when you relied on your computer to get all of your work done. Telegram Messenger , the most popular and ultra secure messaging application, is now offering file sharing feature that allows its users to share large files and documents (up to 1.5GB) securely . Telegram is a messaging a
Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu
Twitter Launches Digits – A Password Free Login Service For App Developers

Twitter Launches Digits – A Password Free Login Service For App Developers

Oct 25, 2014
There's a good news for app developers. On Wednesday at Twitter's first annual developer conference Flight, the company announced a new tool for developers which will allow users to log-in to mobile applications using their phone numbers rather than a traditional username and password combinations. SAY NO TO PASSWORD The service will be called Digits, aimed at application developers looking for an easier, password-free login option for their mobile applications  – in a similar way to Snapchat , WhatsApp and Viber that rely only on verified users' mobile numbers for sign-in, rather than the traditional ID and password combination. " This is an entirely new native mobile sign up service that makes mobile-first sign-up frictionless, and creates an identity relationship entirely between you and your users ," said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, speaking at the Twitter Flight developer conference in San Francisco. DEVELOPERS DON'T TRUST TWITTER On one hand, where o
cyber security

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.
Viber's Poor Data Security Practices Threaten Users' Privacy

Viber's Poor Data Security Practices Threaten Users' Privacy

Apr 23, 2014
Last week we reported a critical vulnerability in the world's most popular messaging application WhatsApp, that could expose users' GPS location data to hackers  and was discovered by the researchers at UNH Cyber Forensics Research & Education Group. Same Group of researchers reported new set of vulnerabilities in another most popular messaging application ' VIber '. They claimed that Viber's poor data security practices threaten privacy of its more than 150 million active users. Cross Platform messaging app Viber allows registered users to share text messages, images, doodles, GPS Location and videos with each other, along with its popular free voice calling feature which is available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry and Desktops as well. The researchers found that users' data stored on the Viber Amazon Servers including images and videos are stored in an unencrypted form that could be easily accessed without any authentication i.e.which giv
Viber's Apple App Store account hacked; Description changed by hackers

Viber's Apple App Store account hacked; Description changed by hackers

Jul 28, 2013
Last week, we exclusively reported that the popular messenger Viber was hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army, and Support page was defaced with the message, " The Israeli-based - Viber is spying and tracking you. " Today we found that Viber's Apple App Store description has been defaced as well. The new modified description read " We created this app to spy on you, PLEASE DOWNLOAD IT! ", It's not clear at this point if this new hack is also performed by  Syrian Electronic Army or not, but it is possible that the hackers have gained access to the other various developer-facing functions. Viber later responded after a previous attack that one of its employee's fell victim to a phishing attach and attackers could gain access to a customer support panel and support administration system, insisting that no sensitive user data was exposed. Last week, SEA was able to access the Popular messaging app Tango's website and also a World's biggest
After Viber, Saudi Arabia threatens to block WhatsApp and Skype

After Viber, Saudi Arabia threatens to block WhatsApp and Skype

Jun 18, 2013
Viber was blocked last week for non-compliance by The government of Saudi Arabia and Now they may move to block Skype and WhatsApp in the coming weeks, if the U.S. based messaging provider fails to comply with requirements set by the country's telecom regulator. CITC confirmed that they could take the nasty step even before the holy month of Ramadan that commences on 9 July. " We have been communicating with WhatsApp and other similar communication platforms to get them to cooperate and comply with the Saudi telecom providers, however, nothing has come of this communication yet ." The main issue seems to be that such channels bypass Saudi's communications monitoring capabilities and consequently do not conform to local regulations.  Saudi Arabia's three main operators Saudi Telecom, Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) and Zain Saudi had been asked to tell CITC if they were able to monitor or block such applications. " We gave them a week to comply and have been co
Critical flaw in Viber app allows full access to Smartphones

Critical flaw in Viber app allows full access to Smartphones

Apr 24, 2013
More than 50 millions of Smartphone users worldwide are facing a risk posed by a critical flaw in Viber app. The security company Bkav announced that it has found a way to gain full access to Android phones using the popular Viber messaging app. Unlike the Samsung lockscreen issue we reported on earlier, this attack doesn't take any fancy finger work. Instead, all it needs is two phones, both running Viber, and a phone number. " The way Viber handles to popup its messages on smartphones' lock screen is unusual, resulting in its failure to control programming logic, causing the flaw to appear, " said Mr. Nguyen Minh Duc, Director of Bkav's Security Division. Steps to exploit: Send Viber message to victim Combine actions on Viber message popups with tricks like using victim's notification bar, sending other Viber messages, etc. to make Viber keyboard appear Once Viber keyboard has appeared, to fully access the device, create misse
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