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Snapchat suffered a massive data breach back in December in which 4.6 million usernames and phone numbers were compromised. Earlier this month, the company launched an update to its iOS and Android apps, added a new security measure to ensure that new users aren't spambots or a robot. While signing up for the first time, it now displays nine images and then ask you to pick which images have a " ghost ". Within 24 hours of Snapchat releasing an improved security feature, a developer has written a computer program capable of cracking it. Another hacker, ' Steven Hickson ' took only 30 minutes to write a script that can crack this new security feature. In this CAPTCHA feature, basically have you choose from amongst a bunch of images, identifying the ones that have the Snapchat ghost to prove you are a person. " The problem with this is that the Snapchat ghost is very particular. You could even call it a template. For those of you familiar with template m

China has always tried to support its homegrown tech industry and even the security concerns over U.S. secret surveillance which gives Chinese Government another reasons to trust domestic vendors.Many other countries are also in favor to develop their own technology industries to reduce their dependence on U.S. The Government of China is not too fond of foreign mobile operating systems and therefore are trying to break the monopoly of Microsoft, Apple and Google in the country. This week at an event in  Beijing,  China has unveiled its own Linux-based mobile platform, dubbed China Operating System (COS) , developed as a joint effort between a company ' Shanghai Liantong ', ISCAS ( Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences ) and the Chinese Government. According to  COS website , it is designed for PCs, Smartphones, tablets, TVs, set-top boxes and other smart appliances. It runs Java applications, supports HTML5 and can run over 100,000 apps. At

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

After the exposure of various surveillance programs, including PRISM, XKeyscore, MUSCULAR, DROPOUTJEEP in recent revelation, NSA has come up as the only ' Government that Actually Listen '. Another day and here comes another revelation - According to the The Guardian , National Security Agency (NSA) has collected almost 200 million text messages per day from across the globe and is using them to extract data including location, contact networks and even credit card details. The two names that come in the limelight are,  DISHFIRE  that collects " pretty much everything it can "and PREFER  that conducted automated analysis of the untargeted communications. The program was designed to collect the text messages automatically from various service providers, to pull the details of financial transactions, roaming charges, delayed flights, missed calls and scheduled alerts, address book contacts, credit cards, bank accounts and visited locations. Now If I am not wrong the word ' Untarge

Big and Good news for all of us. A federal court judge ' Richard J. Leon ' said that he believes, US National Security Agency's (NSA) controversial practice of routinely collecting the telephone records of millions of Americans likely violates the 4th Amendment and is unconstitutional, even though the FISA court approved it. Earlier in 2013, a conservative Legal Activist Larry Klayman filed a lawsuit against the US government, alleging that NSA's massive telephone surveillance program violates the " reasonable expectation of privacy, free speech and association, right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures and due process rights. " NYTimes reported that last Monday in the decision, Judge has ordered [  Case:  Klayman v. Obama (13-851)  PDF File  ] the NSA to stop collecting U.S. Citizen's Telephone records, and to destroy the files it already holds. This was the first major court ruling about NSA' so-called metadata counter terrorism program after

Android platform is a primary target for malware attacks from few years and during 2013, more than 79% of mobile operating malware threats are taking place on Android OS. I have been working on Android Malware architectures since last two years and created 100's of sample of most sophisticated malware for demo purpose. Till now we have seen the majority of Android malware apps that earn money for their creators by sending SMS messages to premium rate numbers from infected devices. Security researchers at Lookout identified an interesting monetized Android Malware labeled as ' Mouabad ', that allow a remote attacker to make phone calls to premium-rate numbers without user interaction from C&C servers by sending commands to the malware. The technique is not new, but infection from such app notified first time in the wild. The variant dubbed MouaBad . p. , is particularly sneaky and to avoid detection it waits to make its calls until a period of time after the scree

Earlier this year, in the month of July it was first discovered that 99% of Android devices are vulnerable to a flaw called " Android Master Key vulnerability " that allow hackers to modify any legitimate and digitally signed application in order to transform it into a Trojan program that can be used to steal data or take control of the device.  The vulnerability was also responsibly disclosed to Google back in February by Bluebox and but the company did not fix the issue even with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Later, Google has also modified its Play Store's app entry process so that apps that have been modified using such exploit are blocked and can no longer be distributed via Play. Then after a few days, in the last week of July this year,  Android Security Squad , the China -based group also uncovered a second Android master key vulnerability similar to the first one. Security researcher  Jay Freeman has  discovered  yet another Master Key vulnerability in A

A very profitable line for mobile malware developers is Android Banking Trojans, which infect phones and steal passwords and other data when victims log onto their online bank accounts. One recent trend is Android malware that attacks users in specific countries, such as European Countries, Brazil and India.  The Antivirus software maker Malwarebytes noticed that a new threat distributed via file sharing sites and alternative markets in the last few months, targets Korean users. Dubbed as ' Android/Trojan . Bank . Wroba ', malware disguises itself as the Google Play Store app and run as a service in the background to monitor events.  " This enables it to capture incoming SMS, monitor installed apps and communicate with a remote server. " According to the researcher, after installation - malware lookup for existence of targeted Banking applications on the device, remove them and download a malicious version to replace. " The malicious v

A Security researcher discovered a critical privacy vulnerability on Verizon Wireless's Web-based customer portal that allows anyone to download user's SMS History and Numbers of other users he communicated with. Back in August, researcher ' Cody Collier ' found that a simple URL exploit could allow any subscriber to extract data using ' Download to SpreadSheet' function. To exploit, an attacker only needs to modify the subscriber's phone number in the URL and this would give an attacker access to the SMS history to the targeted account. https://wbillpay.verizonwireless.com/vzw/accountholder/unbilledusage/UnbilledMessaging.action?d-455677-e=2&1548506v4671=1&mtn= 999999999 Where variable ' mtn ' within the URL defines the mobile number and an attacker just need to modify this. " Message details consist of: Date, Time, To, From, and Direction an SMS or MMS took place. With no user interaction, all that was required was a subscriber's phone nu

Firefox OS is a mobile operating system based on Linux and Mozilla 's Gecko technology, whose environment is dedicated to apps created with just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. After almost two years of development, a few months back Mozilla officially launched their Firefox OS devices in stores and now the first Malware for the brand new platform is available. Shantanu Gawde , 17-years-old, an Independent Security Researcher is going to demonstrate the very first known malware for Firefox OS at the upcoming Information Security Summit - The Ground Zero (G0S) 2013, to be held on November 7th - 10th, 2013 at The Ashok, New Delhi. Firefox OS is different - Every app in Firefox OS including the Camera and the Dialer is a web app, i.e. a website in the form of an app. Simple! Mozilla has developed Web APIs so that HTML5 apps can communicate with the device's hardware and Shantanu has used the same APIs intentionally to exploit the device for malicious purpose. Basically,

A serious vulnerability in WhatsApp allows anyone who is able to eavesdrop on WhatsApp connection to decrypt users' messages. Whatsapp , the mobile application for instant messaging platform has become one of the main communication tools of the present day and its popularity makes it attractive for security researchers and hackers . This time it is debated in the protection of the messages exchanged through the application, thanks to a vulnerability in the crypto implementation they can be intercepted by an attacker. Thijs Alkemade is a computer science student at Utrecht University in The Netherlands who works on the open source Adium instant messaging project, during its research activity he disclosed a serious issue in the encryption used to secure WhatsApp messages. In the post titled " Piercing Through WhatsApp's Encryption " Alkemade remarked that Whatsapp has been plagued by numerous security issues recently, easily stolen passwords, unencr

If you're unlucky enough to lose your Smartphone or have it stolen, anyone who finds the device will also be able to access any content stored on the device, whether its contacts, music or documents. But by implementing a SIM card PIN lock, everytime the device is powered down and subsequently switch back on again, the PIN will need to enter before the phone can be used. Security Researcher - Benjamin Kunz Mejri from Vulnerability Laboratory claimed that he found a new vulnerability in the iOS v7.0.1 & v7.0.2, that allows a hacker to bypass the Sim lock Mode. In a Proof of Concept video, he demonstrates that how an attacker can bypass the restricted section of the iPhone, when Sim Lock is enabled on a Stolen iPhone Device. Flaw can be exploited without user interaction and successful exploitation results in the bypass of the SIM lock mode to the regular lock mode. Follow Steps to bypass SIM Lock on stolen Devices: Turn on your iPhone and ensur

A German security firm SRL claims a vulnerability in Touch ID Fingerprint Scanner and iCloud allows a hacker to access a locked device and potentially gain control over an owner's Apple ID. SRL points out that Airplane mode can be enabled on a stolen phone from the lockscreen , which turns off wireless connectivity and so defeats the remote wipe facility . This can be accessed without requiring a passcode, could be a major vulnerability when it comes to physically stolen devices. In a video demonstration, they point out that while Apple lets users locate and remotely wipe a device using the Find My iPhone app. Since Find My iPhone can only perform a wipe if a device is connected to the Internet, but because airplane mode will disable Internet Connectivity, that may give a thief enough time to get fingerprints off of the device and eventually log in. An attacker can create a fake fingerprint on a laminated sheet and later attached to one of their fingers, as already explained

The world of mobile search is about to get a bit more anonymous. Thanks to the fears over government surveillance and corporate tracking, Anonymous Search Engine DuckDuckGo continues to break its own search records. DuckDuckGo Search & Stories - Android app deliver the same functionality as traditional services such as Google but with the added promise that your IP address and identity will not be recorded.  In June, Anonymous search engine  DuckDuckGo  had launched its app for  iOS  and Android and during recent update, DuckDuckGo's application for Android also integrated the Tor support. " Privacy is perhaps more important on mobile than on the web, and we haven't had many private alternatives ," DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg said. To enable Tor with DuckDuckGo android app, user need to Check " Enable Tor " from setting. It will prompt the user to install about application to anonymize the Mobile data communication. As a search

Here we go again! Earlier this week, Apple released iOS 7.0.2 just to fix some Lockscreen bugs in iOS 7 and but a researcher has found a new Lockscreen bug in new iOS 7.0.2. This new Lockscreen bug is found by Dany Lisiansky , and he uploaded a proof of concept video on YouTube with the complete step by step guide. Unlike the previous bugs it will not expose your Email, Photos, Facebook and Twitter but allows attackers to access your phone call history, voicemails and entire list of contacts. A step by step guide released by iDownloadblog : Make a phone call (with Siri / Voice Control) Click the FaceTime button When the FaceTime App appears, click the Sleep button Unlock the iPhone Answer and End the FaceTime call at the other end Wait a few seconds Done. You are now in the phone app Video demonstration  It would be easy for someone who knows you or your love partner or your business partner to obtain your phone and call themselves from it

The Iranian group defeated the very basic phenomenon of an iPhone Fingerprinting scanner, which allows them to unlock an iPhone device with multiple Fingerprints. Apple's iPhone 5s , was launched just available in stores two weeks before with a new feature of biometrics-based security system called " Touch ID ", that involves analyzing a user's fingerprint and using that to unlock the phone. Apple launched the technology that it promises will better protect devices from criminals and snoopers seeking access. With this you can purchase things from the iTunes App Store. Basically, you can now use it in place of your password. " Fingerprint is one of the best passcodes in the world. It's always with you, and no two are exactly alike, " according to the Apple's website. Last week Germany Hackers showed that how they were able to deceive Apple's latest security feature into believing they're someone they're not, using a well-honed technique for

Italian Researcher Michele Spagnuolo recently revealed a serious vulnerability in the popular Mailbox iPhone app . Mailbox is a tidy iOS the email app recently purchased by Dropbox , has a pretty wide-open hole that could allow bad actors to hijack your device. The flaw occurs in the latest version of Mailbox (1.6.2) currently available from the App Store, that  executes any Javascript which is present in the body of HTML emails. With exploitation of this vulnerability, users could be subject to account hijacking, spam and phishing attacks by simply opening an HTML email containing embedded javascript. You can see a video demonstration below: The good news is that the problem is probably not as bad as it looks, because iOS is tightly sandboxed, its security features are built with this functionality in mind and normally do not allow any potentially harmful operation to take place without the user's permission. Mailbox's statement on this issue, &quo

If you lose your device, Google lets you secure it instantly from afar through Android Device Manager, that let you locate and remotely wipe your phones and tablets. The latest update to Android Device Manager enables remote password locking, overrides the built-in Pattern, PIN code, Face unlock or password-based security, making sure your data doesn't fall into wrong hands. To get started, go to google.com/android/devicemanager on your computer and go through your list of devices that are connected to your Google account. I tried the process with my Samsung Galaxy S4, and it worked like a charm. Google's new feature is a very useful one for those who don't have a lock on their phone and want to make sure their data is protected. A lock request will immediately secure any device connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network, even if it's actively being used. If a thief has turned off a phone or enabled Airplane Mode, the lock will take effect as soon as a data co

Last week Apple releases the iPhone 5S  with Touch ID , a fingerprint-scanning feature, promoted by the company as " Your fingerprint is one of the best passwords in the world ". Just after the launch of iOS7 , Hackers around the world come up with a series of security issues and privacy concerns. One of the most embarrassing hack released yesterday, when a group of German Hackers fooled the iPhone 's biometric fingerprint security by just using a high resolution photo of someone's fingerprint. Now, We all are aware about many secret surveillance projects of NSA like PRISM , where U.S. government is collecting data from these Internet companies including - Apple. Apple claimed that, iPhone will never upload fingerprints to their server, but can we believe them anymore ? It is already proven that, During Surveillance operations and for Backup purpose, Smartphone applications can upload anything from your device to their online servers without any

Android malware is continuing to cause problems for end users with huge amounts of fraud and Malware campaigns going on. A lot of fake apps are currently on Google Play Store fooling thousands of consumers. Grand Theft Auto 5 , which hit stores last Tuesday and is shaping up to be the most lucrative video game release ever. Now, Rockstar Game do plan to bring their Grand Theft Auto V iFruit app for Android devices, but before official released, it's fake malicious versions are out in Google Play Market. Rockstar have confirmed that they haven't released the Android version yet, only the iOS version is available right now and Android owners are warned not to download them, because some could contain malicious malware . There are at least two fake apps have surfaced on the Google Play Store that use the same icon as iFruit in an attempt to mimic the real thing. The deceptive part about these apps is that the developer publicly listed appears as "Rockstar Game," suggesting that th

Apple has marketed TouchID both as a convenience and as a security feature. " Your fingerprint is one of the best passwords in the world ," says an Apple promotional video. A European hacker group has announced a simple, replicable method for spoofing Apple's TouchID fingerprint authentication system. The Apple TouchID it the technology developed by Apple to replace passcode on its mobile and help protect users' devices, it is based on a sensor placed under the home button and it is designed to substitute the four-digit passcode to unlock the handset and authorize iTunes Store purchases. But is it really so? Hackers members of the Chaos Computer Club claim to have defeated Apple TouchID fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5S, just after the start of its sale to the public. " Fingerprints should not be used to secure anything. You leave them everywhere, and it is far too easy to make fake fingers out of lifted prints, " a hacker named Starbug was quoted as sa