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Can you rely on a single loudspeaker in your living room for great sound throughout your home? Nah! In the same way, you can not expect a single WiFi router to provide stable range throughout your home. To solve this issue, Google will soon power your home's wireless internet network with its own-brand new WiFi router called Google WiFi , according to a new report. Google is set to launch a lot of new gadgets at its hardware event on October 4 including the new Pixel smartphones, Google Home, the refreshed 4K-capable Chromecast rumored to be called Chromecast Ultra and the new Google WiFi router. But the Google WiFi router might be the biggest surprise of the bunch. Google WiFi is said to be designed in such a way that it can be deployed in groups to create a mesh network so that multiple units can be linked together, similar to Eero's incredible router, according to a report from Android Police. With Google WiFi, you simply need to plug one device into your ...

After the iPhone encryption battle between Apple and the FBI , Apple was inspired to work toward making an unhackable future iPhones by implementing stronger security measures even the company can't hack. Even at that point the company hired one of the key developers of Signal — one of the world's most secure, encrypted messaging apps — its core security team to achieve this goal. But it seems like Apple has taken something of a backward step. Apple deliberately weakens Backup Encryption For iOS 10 With the latest update of its iPhone operating system, it seems the company might have made a big blunder that directly affects its users' security and privacy. Apple has downgraded the hashing algorithm for iOS 10 from "PBKDF2 SHA-1 with 10,000 iterations" to "plain SHA256 with a single iteration," potentially allowing attackers to brute-force the password via a standard desktop computer processor. PBKDF2 stands for Password-Based Key Deri...

The OpenSSL Foundation has patched over a dozen vulnerabilities in its cryptographic code library, including a high severity bug that can be exploited for denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. OpenSSL is a widely used open-source cryptographic library that provides encrypted Internet connections using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) for the majority of websites, as well as other secure services. The vulnerabilities exist in OpenSSL versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2 and 1.1.0 and patched in OpenSSL versions 1.1.0a, 1.0.2i and 1.0.1u. The Critical-rated bug ( CVE-2016-6304 ) can be exploited by sending a large OCSP Status Request extension on the targeted server during connection negotiations, which causes memory exhaustion to launch DoS attacks, the OpenSSL Project said . What is OCSP Protocol? OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol), supported by all modern web browsers, is a protocol designed to perform verification and obtain the revocation status of a digital ...

If you are a hacker, you might have enjoyed the NSA's private zero-day exploits , malware and hacking tools that were leaked last month. But the question is: How these hacking tools ended up into the hands of hackers? It has been found that the NSA itself was not directly hacked, but a former NSA employee carelessly left those hacking tools on a remote server three years ago after an operation and a group of Russian hackers found them, sources close to the investigation told Reuters . The leaked hacking tools, which enable hackers to exploit vulnerabilities in systems from big vendors like Cisco Systems, Juniper, and Fortinet, were dumped publicly online by the group calling itself " The Shadow Brokers ." NSA officials have also admitted to the FBI that their careless employee acknowledged the error shortly afterward, and hence the agency was aware of its operative's mistake from last three years. But instead of warning the affected companies that their c...

500 million accounts — that's half a Billion users! That's how many Yahoo accounts were compromised in a massive data breach dating back to 2014 by what was believed to be a "state sponsored" hacking group. Over a month ago, a hacker was found to be selling login information related to 200 million Yahoo accounts on the Dark Web , although Yahoo acknowledged that the breach was much worse than initially expected. "A recent investigation by Yahoo! Inc. has confirmed that a copy of certain user account information was stolen from the company's network in late 2014 by what it believes is a state-sponsored actor," reads the statement . Yahoo is investigating the breach with law enforcement agency and currently believes that users' names, email addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, passwords, and in some cases, encrypted and unencrypted security questions-answers were stolen from millions of Yahoo users. However, the company does not believe ...

It has only been a few days since the launch of Apple's brand new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, but it appears that the new iPhone has already been jailbroken. That didn't take long. Right? Security researcher and well-known hacker Luca Tedesco shared an image of his jailbroken smartphone on his Twitter account to show off the world that the new iPhone 7 has been jailbroken. The image posted by Tedesco on Wednesday clearly shows an iPhone 7 running both iOS 10.0.1 as well as the Cydia app store, which allows jailbreakers to install apps and other software that Apple does not officially support. Unfortunately, Tedesco has not publically released the exploit, nor he has provided much information about it. So, right now, it is hard to say if and when he will release the iPhone 7 jailbreak to the public. It is also not clear whether the exploit is an untethered jailbreak. The untethered jailbreak is a jailbreak where your device doesn't require any reboot every ti...

Hey! Wait! Wait! Wait! Don't plug in that USB stick into your laptop. It could infect your computer with malware and viruses. Australia's Victoria Police Force has issued a warning regarding unmarked USB flash drives containing harmful malware being dropped inside random people's letterboxes in the Melbourne suburb of Pakenham. It seems to one of the latest tactics of cyber criminals to target people by dropping malware-laden USB sticks into their mailboxes, in the hope unsuspecting users will plug the infected devices into their personal or home computers. The warning, published on the official website of the Victoria Police, one of Australia's state police departments, reads: "Members of the public are allegedly finding unmarked USB drives in their letterboxes. Upon inserting the USB drives into their computers victims have experienced fraudulent media streaming service offers, as well as other serious issues [malware]. The USB drives are belie...

In past few months, Microsoft opened the source code of a lot of its projects, convincing people that the company loves Linux . But a new report shows that Microsoft is not really a big supporter of Linux. Microsoft has banned Linux on some Windows 10 powered Signature Edition PCs, which provides the cleanest Windows experience on the market. Signature Edition PCs are different from other systems because it is carefully and meticulously configured by Microsoft to run Windows 10 with no bloatware, paid promotional web shortcuts, or other pre-installed apps, for providing better performance. But besides bloatware and other pre-installed apps, Microsoft won't allow you to install Linux (or any operating system) on it. This news is not a rumor as a Reddit user BaronHK reported that he found it impossible to install Linux on the Signature Edition Lenovo Yoga 900 ISK2 UltraBook because Microsoft has locked the SSD in a proprietary RAID mode that can only be read by Window...

Are you good at hiding your feelings? No issues, your Wi-Fi router may soon be able to tell how you feel, even if you have a good poker face. A team of researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have developed a device that can measure human inner emotional states using wireless signals. Dubbed EQ-Radio , the new device measures heartbeat, and breath to determine whether a person is happy, excited, sad, or angry. Using EQ-Radio, which emits and captures reflected radio frequency (RF) waves, the team bounced waves off a person's body to measure subtle changes in breathing patterns and heart rates. This data was then run through a bunch of algorithms and a machine-learning process programmed to match a person's behavior to how they acted previously, categorizing the person's emotion as one of the four emotional states: Pleasure, Joy, Anger and Sadness. The impressive part about the technique: EQ-Radio doesn't r...

It's a Fact! No matter how smart the criminals are, they always leave some trace behind. Two Harvard students have unmasked around 229 drug and weapon dealers with the help of pictures taken by criminals and used in advertisements placed on dark web markets. Do you know each image contains a range of additional hidden data stored within it that can be a treasure to the investigators fighting criminals? Yeah it's true — "A picture is worth a thousand words." Digital images come with basic metadata, as well as EXIF data that contains information about the device with which it was taken. EXIF, stands for " Exchangeable Image File Format ," may contain image dimensions, date and time (when it was originally taken and modified), the model of camera and its settings, information about the software used for editing, it's creator and copyright information, as well as GPS co-ordinates of the location where the photo was taken. If a criminal, let's say a...

Next time when you find yourself hooked up behind the wheel, make sure your car is actually in your control. Hackers can remotely hijack your car and even control its brakes from 12 miles away. Car hacking is a hot topic. Today many automobiles companies have been offering vehicles with the majority of functions electronically controlled, from instrument cluster to steering, brakes, and accelerator. These auto-control electronic systems not only improve your driving experience but at the same time also increase the risk of getting hacked. The most recent car hacking has been performed on Tesla Model S by a team of security researchers from Keen Security Lab, demonstrating how they were able to hijack the Tesla car by exploiting multiple flaws in the latest models running the most recent software. The team said the hacks worked on multiple models of Tesla and believed they would work across all marques. "We have discovered multiple security vulnerabilities and suc...

Network equipment vendor Cisco is finally warning its customers of another zero-day vulnerability the company discovered in the trove of NSA's hacking exploits and implants leaked by the group calling itself " The Shadow Brokers ." Last month, the Shadow Brokers published firewall exploits, implants, and hacking tools allegedly stolen from the NSA's Equation Group, which was designed to target major vendors including, Cisco, Juniper, and Fortinet. A hacking exploit, dubbed ExtraBacon , leveraged a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2016-6366) resided in the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) code of Cisco ASA software that could allow remote attackers to cause a reload of the affected system or execute malicious code. Now Cisco has found another zero-day exploit , dubbed "Benigncertain," which targets PIX firewalls. Cisco analyzed the exploit and noted that it had not identified any new flaws related to this exploit in its current products. But,...

A critical vulnerability resides in the fully-patched version of the Mozilla's Firefox browser that could allow well-resourced attackers to launch man-in-the-middle (MITM) impersonation attacks and also affects the Tor anonymity network. The Tor Project patched the issue in the browser's HTTPS certificate pinning system on Friday with the release of its Tor Browser version 6.0.5 , while Mozilla still has to patch the critical flaw in Firefox. Attackers can deliver Fake Tor and Firefox Add-on Updates The vulnerability could allow a man-in-the-middle attacker who is able to obtain a forged certificate for addons.mozilla.org to impersonate Mozilla servers and as a result, deliver a malicious update for NoScript, HTTPS Everywhere or other Firefox extensions installed on a targeted computer. "This could lead to arbitrary code execution [vulnerability]," Tor officials warned in an advisory. "Moreover, other built-in certificate pinnings are affected as wel...

British citizen and alleged hacker Lauri Love will be extradited to the United States to face allegations of hacking into United States government computer systems, a UK judge ruled on Friday. Love, 31, is currently facing up to 99 years in prison for allegedly hacking into the FBI, the US Army, the US Missile Defence Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and New York's Federal Reserve Bank during 2012 and 2013. US Prosecutors claim that Love was allegedly involved in #OpLastResort , an online protest linked with the Anonymous collective following the persecution and untimely death of activist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide in 2013 while under federal charges for data theft. Speaking at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, District Judge Nina Tempia said : "I'll be extraditing Mr. Love, by which I mean I'll be passing the case to the Secretary of State." Tempia said Love could appeal against the court decisi...

Do you remember the infamous encryption fight between the FBI and Apple for unlocking an iPhone 5C belongs to a terrorist? Yes, you got it right, the same Apple vs. FBI case where the FBI paid almost $1.3 Million to a group of hackers to unlock that iPhone. However, if the agency had shown some patience to explore more ways to get into that iPhone, then it might have cost them nothing less than US$100. Yes, you heard that right. Now anyone can unlock an iPhone for less than $100, for which the FBI paid more than $1 million . Cheap Method to Unlock iPhone 5C Cambridge University security researcher Sergei Skorobogatov has published a new research paper detailing a technique that would have helped the FBI bypass the iOS passcode limit on the shooter's iPhone 5C. Dubbed NAND Mirroring , the technique was proposed to the FBI earlier this year, but the agency claimed that the method would not work. "It does not work," FBI Director James Comey said back in March, ...

Two Researchers have discovered a couple of vulnerabilities in Signal , the popular end-to-end encrypted messaging app recommended by whistleblower Edward Snowden. One of those vulnerabilities could allow potential attackers to add random data to the attachments of encrypted messages sent by Android users, while another bug could allow hackers to remotely crash vulnerable devices. The vulnerabilities have just been patched, but the updated version of Signal is yet available on the Github open source repository, and not on the Google's official Play Store for Android apps, leaving millions of privacy conscious people vulnerable to attacks. That means, if you have installed Signal messaging app via Google Play Store, like other millions of Android users, you are still vulnerable to hackers. Developed by open source software group Open Whisper System, Signal is a free and open source messaging application specifically designed for Android and iOS users to make secure and e...

Note — Don't miss an important update at the bottom of this article, which includes an official statement from Xiaomi . Do you own an Android Smartphone from Xiaomi, HTC, Samsung, or OnePlus? If yes, then you must be aware that almost all smartphone manufacturers provide custom ROMs like CyanogenMod, Paranoid Android, MIUI and others with some pre-loaded themes and applications to increase the device's performance. But do you have any idea about the pre-installed apps and services your manufacturer has installed on your device?, What are their purposes? And, Do they pose any threat to your security or privacy? With the same curiosity to find answers to these questions, a Computer Science student and security enthusiast from Netherlands who own a Xiaomi Mi4 smartphone started an investigation to know the purpose of a mysterious pre-installed app, dubbed AnalyticsCore.apk , that runs 24x7 in the background and reappeared even if you delete it. Xiaomi is one of the ...

Should you put a tape or a sticker over the lens of your laptop's webcam? Yes, even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and FBI Director James Comey do that. Covering your laptop's webcam might be a hell cheap and good idea to guard against hackers and intruders who might want to watch your private life and environment through your devices. In fact, Comey recently came out defending his own use of tape to cover his personal laptop's webcam. People Are Responsible for Their Safety, Security & Privacy During a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, when Comey was asked that he still put tape over his cameras at home, he replied: "Heck yeah, heck yeah. And also, I get mocked for a lot of things, and I am much mocked for that, but I hope people lock their cars… lock your doors at night. I have an alarm system. If you have an alarm system you should use it, I use mine." Comey went on to explain that it was common practice at ...

Another Day, Another Data Breach! And this time, it's worse than any recent data breaches. Why? Because the data breach has exposed plaintext passwords, usernames, email addresses, and a large trove of other personal information of more than 6.6 Million ClixSense users. ClixSense, a website that claims to pay users for viewing advertisements and completing online surveys, is the latest victim to join the list of " Mega-Breaches " revealed in recent months, including LinkedIn , MySpace , VK.com , Tumblr , and Dropbox . Hackers are Selling Plaintext Passwords and Complete Website Source Code More than 2.2 Million people have already had their personal and sensitive data posted to PasteBin over the weekend. The hackers who dumped the data has put another 4.4 Million accounts up for sale. In addition to un-hashed passwords and email addresses, the dump database includes first and last names, dates of birth, sex, home addresses, IP addresses, payment histories,...

Why waiting for researchers and bug hunters to know vulnerabilities in your products, when you can just throw a contest for that. Google has launched its own Android hacking contest with the first prize winner receiving $200,000 in cash. That's a Hefty Sum! The contest is a way to find and destroy dangerous Android vulnerabilities before hackers exploit them in the wild. The competition, dubbed ' The Project Zero Prize ,' is being run by Google's Project Zero, a team of security researchers dedicated to documenting critical bugs and making the web a safer place for everyone. What's the Requirements? Starting Tuesday and ending on March 14, 2017, the contest will only award cash prizes to contestants who can successfully hack any version of Android Nougat on Nexus 5X and 6P devices. However, the catch here is that Google wants you to hack the devices knowing only the devices' phone numbers and email addresses. For working of their exploits, contes...