The Hacker News | #1 Trusted Source for Cybersecurity News — Index Page

If you are backing up your data using iCloud Backup , then you need you watch your steps NOW! In government fight against encryption, Apple has positioned itself as a staunch defender of its user privacy by refusing the federal officials to provide encryption backdoors into its products. When it comes to Apple's iMessage service, the company claims that it can't read messages sent between its devices because they use end-to-end encryption, which apparently means that only you and the intended recipient can read it. Moreover, in case, if the federal authorities ask Apple to hand over messages related to any of its users, there is nothing with Apple to offer them. "If the government laid a subpoena to get iMessages, we can't provide it," Apple CEO Tim Cook told Charlie Rose back in 2014. "It is encrypted, and we do not have a key." But Wait! There are still hundreds of Millions of Apple users whose data are stored on Apple'...

One of the world's largest smartphone makers is being sued by the Dutch Consumers' Association (DCA) for its lack in providing timely software updates to its Android smartphones. This doesn't surprise me, though. The majority of manufacturers fail to deliver software updates for old devices for years. However, the consumer protection watchdog in The Netherlands, The Dutch Consumentenbond, filed a lawsuit against Samsung, due to the manufacturer's grip over the local market compared to other manufacturers. Last year, the discovery of the scary Stagefright Security Bug , which affected over 1 Billion Android devices worldwide, forced Samsung to implement a security update process that " fast tracks the security patches over the air when security vulnerabilities are uncovered a security update process that " fast tracks the security patches over the air when security vulnerabilities are uncovered, " and that the security updates will...

Google is planning to make Chrome faster in order to provide its users fast Internet browsing experience. Thanks to a new, open-source data and web compression algorithm for the Internet called Brotli , which Google announced last year to boost its web page performance. With Brotli, Google will speed up Chrome and users could get a significant performance boost in coming months. Google introduced Brotli last September and claimed that the new algorithm is a "whole new data format" that could reduce file sizes by up to 26 percent higher than Zopfli , the company's three-year-old web compression technology. Net result – Fast Internet Browsing In a post on Google+ on Tuesday, web performance engineer at Google Ilya Grigorik announced that the new algorithm is coming to Chrome soon, which will change the way files are compressed, improving loading speeds by a quarter. Besides faster loading speeds, Brotli also have additional benefits for smartphone users, which ...

Some things online can never change like -- Terrible Passwords by Humans . When it's about various security measures to be taken in order to protect your Internet security, like installing a good anti-virus or running Linux on your system doesn't mean that your work gets over here, and you are safe enough from online threats. However, even after countless warnings, most people are continuously using deadly-simple passwords, like '123456' or 'password,' to safeguard their most sensitive data. Evidence suggests that weak passwords are as popular now as they ever were, and the top 25 passwords of 2015 are very easy to guess. Password management firm SplashData on Tuesday released its annual " Worst Passwords List ". The 2015 list almost resembled the 2014 list of the worst password, but there are some interesting new entries, including the Star Wars-inspired ' solo ,' and ' starwars .' Also Read:  Best Password Manager —...

Apple to make future iPhones compatible with a cutting-edge technology that has the capability to transmit data at 100 times the speed of WiFi , suggests the code found within the iOS firmware. Apple may ship future iPhones with Li-Fi capabilities, a new technology that may end up replacing the widely-used Wi-Fi in the future technology. Beginning with iOS 9.1 update, the operating system's source code makes mention of " LiFiCapability " alongside declarations to other hardware and software capabilities, hinting that Apple may be experimenting with ways to integrate Li-Fi technology with future iPhones models. Li-Fi compatibility with Future iPhones Li-Fi compatibility was spotted in the code for iOS 9.1 by a Twitter user, who goes by name Chase Fromm, and was independently confirmed by Apple Insider. However, there is no such indication that Apple is actually working with Li-Fi. But, as pointed out by Apple Insider, Apple filed a patent applic...

Apple has patched a critical vulnerability in its iOS operating system that allowed criminal hackers to impersonate end users' identities by granting read/write access to website's unencrypted authentication cookies. The vulnerability was fixed with the release of iOS 9.2.1 on Tuesday, almost three years after it was first discovered and reported to Apple. The vulnerability, dubbed " Captive Portal " bug, was initially discovered by Adi Sharabani and Yair Amit from online security company Skycure and privately reported to Apple in June 2013. Here's How the Vulnerability Worked The vulnerability caused due to the way iOS handles Cookie Stores at Captive Portals , generally a login page that requires users to authenticate themselves before connecting to the free or paid public Wi-Fi hotspots when they are first joining. So, when a user with a vulnerable iPhone or iPad connects to a captive-enabled network ( sample page shown in the screensho...