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Facebook pays Millions of dollars every year to researchers and white hat hackers from all around the world to stamp out security holes in its products and infrastructure under its Bug Bounty Program. Facebook recognizes and rewards bug hunters to encourage more people to help the company keep Facebook users safe and secure from outside entities, malicious hackers or others. Recently, the social media giant revealed that India is on top of all countries to report the maximum number of vulnerabilities or security holes in the Facebook platform as well as holds the top position in the country receiving the most bug bounties paid. "India is home to the largest population of security researchers participating in the Facebook bug bounty program since its inception in 2011. The country also holds the top spot for most bounties paid," Adam Ruddermann, Facebook’s technical program manager notes . If you are one of the Facebook’s bug hunters, you might be aware of the fact t...

Do you know that your daily household items can be turned into deadly weapons? Yes, it's possible to convert some of your everyday household appliances into explosives, weapons or surveillance devices. DARPA – the agency which does research in various fields for improving the US Military and US Department of Defense capabilities – had announced a new project dubbed " Improv " to transform simple household appliances into deadly weapons i.e. homemade weapons. In previous years, various military grade weapons had been found malfunctioned by the ordinary household things that could cripple the military inventions. By various incidents happening around the Military grounds, officials observed that "how easily-accessed hardware, software, processes, and methods could be used to create products or systems that could pose a future threat." So, DARPA ( Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ) proceeded with a program and is seeking proposals ...

Hard time for mobile phone users! Just recently, two severe vulnerabilities in Qualcomm Snapdragon chip and Stagefright were spotted on the Android platform, affecting more than a Billion and Millions of devices respectively. And now: Hackers have discovered a new way to install malicious apps onto your iPhone without your interaction. Researchers at Palo Alto Networks have uncovered a new strain of malware that can infect Non-Jailbroken (factory-configured) iPhones and iPads without the owner's knowledge or interaction, leaving hundreds of millions of Apple iOS devices at risk. Dubbed AceDeceiver , the iPhone malware installs itself on iOS devices without enterprise certificates and exploits designing flaws in Apple's digital rights management (DRM) protection mechanism called FairPlay. What's more concerning about this malware: Unlike most iOS malware, AceDeceiver works on factory-configured (non-jailbroken) iOS devices as well. FairPlay ...

Attention Android users! Millions of Android devices are vulnerable to hackers and intelligence agencies once again – Thanks to a newly disclosed Android Stagefright Exploit . Yes, Android Stagefright vulnerability is Back… …and this time, the Stagefright exploit allows an attacker to hack Android smartphones in 10 seconds just by tricking users into visiting a hacker's web page that contains a malicious multimedia file. A group of security researchers from Israel-based research firm NorthBit claimed it had successfully exploited the Stagefright bug that was emerged in Android last year and described as the "worst ever discovered" . The new Stagefright exploit, dubbed Metaphor , is detailed in a research paper [ PDF ] that guides bad guy, good guy as well as government spying agencies to build the Stagefright exploit for themselves. Just yesterday, we reported about critical vulnerabilities in Qualcomm Snapdragon chip that could be exploited ...

Almost one and a half years ago after the massive leakage of celebrities' photographs — famous as " The Fappening " or "Celebgate" scandal — a man had been charged with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, facing up to 5 years in prison as a result. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday that it charged Ryan Collins, 36, of Pennsylvania for illegally accessing the Gmail and iCloud accounts of various celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence and Kim Kardashian , and leaked their photos onto 4chan. Social Engineering Helped Hacker Stole Celebs' Pics Collins was trapped by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and in the process of the trial, the hacker revealed that… The Fappening did not involve Apple's iCloud services being compromised through password cracking or brute-forcing, but rather it was the result of simple Social Engineering , in the form of Phishing Attacks. Yes, The Fappening scandal was the re...

More than a Billion of Android devices are at risk of a severe vulnerability in Qualcomm Snapdragon chip that could be exploited by any malicious application to gain root access on the device. Security experts at Trend Micro are warning Android users of some severe programming blunders in Qualcomm's kernel-level Snapdragon code that if exploited, can be used by attackers for gaining root access and taking full control of your device. Gaining root access on a device is a matter of concern, as it grants attackers access to admin level capabilities, allowing them to turn your device against you to snap your pictures, and snoop on your personal data including accounts’ passwords, emails, messages and photos. The company’s own website notes that Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs (systems on a chip) power more than a Billion smart devices, including many Internet of Things (IoTs) as of today. Thus, the issue puts many people at risk of being attacked. Although Google has pus...

The Giant search engine Google has lost an anti-monopoly appeal in Russia against ruling related to its Android mobile OS The Moscow Arbitration Court on Monday ruled that Google had violated its dominant position with the help of its free open source mobile platform " Android " by forcing its own apps and services like Youtube, Google Map, and others, on users — reducing competition. The complaint was brought against Google last February by competing search engine Yandex — Russian Counterpart of Google — which had argued that Google broke competition rules by requiring handset manufacturers to pre-install its apps on Android phones and tablets. Yandex-1, Google-0 According to the survey conducted by Liveinternet data in September 2013, Yandex accounted 57.4% of the Russian search market, while Google shared 34.9%. This stats reflected in the share market, as their shares were 62.2 and 26 percent respectively. These statistical analyzes really worried...