The new top-of-the-range iPhone does away with the home button and its built-in fingerprint reader in favor of a new biometric — called Face ID — which uses a 3D scan of the user’s face for authenticating and unlocking their device. It also replaces Touch ID for Apple Pay too.

Apple suggests this is an advancement over a fingerprint reader because it’s an easier and more natural action for the user to perform — you just look at the phone and it unlocks; no need to worry if you have wet fingers and so on. However offering to gate the smorgasbord of personal content that lives on a smartphone behind a face biometric inevitably raises lots of security questions. 

China plans to ban trading of bitcoin and other virtual currencies on domestic exchanges, dealing another blow to the $150 billion cryptocurrency market after the country outlawed initial coin offerings last week.

The ban will only apply to trading of cryptocurrencies on exchanges, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the information is private. Authorities don’t have plans to stop over-the-counter transactions, the people said. China’s central bank said it couldn’t immediately comment. Bitcoin slumped on Friday after Caixin magazine reported China’s plans, capping the virtual currency’s biggest weekly retreat in nearly two months. 

The CIA is making use of several artificial intelligence programs that access, gather, and retrieve social media intelligence for the agency.

In a statement reported by Futurism, Dawn Meyerriecks, the deputy director for technology development with the CIA said at the Intelligence and National Security Summit that the agency had over 137 AI projects as part of "In-Q-Tel" where a large portion of it is created through collaborations with Silicon Valley firms. With greater ability and power to analyse data, AI programs thus created have reportedly taken to social media platforms and "comb through" all public records –all the stuff that is posted by people using social media.

Companies must tell employees in advance if their work email accounts are being monitored and such checks must not unduly infringe workers’ privacy, the European Court of Human Rights ruled.

In a judgment in the case of a man fired 10 years ago for using a work messaging account to communicate with his family, the judges found that Romanian courts failed to protect Bogdan Barbulescu’s private correspondence because his employer had not given him prior notice it was monitoring his communications. Email privacy has become a contested issue as more people use work addresses for personal correspondence even as employers demand the right to monitor email.

China's new cybersecurity law will enable its government to discover potential security vulnerabilities of any company doing business in the country, threat intelligence firm Recorded Future warns.

The law grants the China Information Technology Evaluation Center, an office in the Ministry of State Security, the power to request source code and other intellectual property of tech suppliers operating in the country. Information gleaned might easily be exploited by CNITSEC in furtherance of its intelligence operations. Director of strategic threat development at the firm reckons the measures place companies between a rock and a hard place. 

More bad news for folks in China. Chinese internet users will no longer be able to post comments online anonymously as of Oct. 1. The new ruling is the latest in the government's move to tighten control over internet usage in the country.

Sites like social networks and discussion forums will have to verify the real identities of registered users before they can be allowed to post anything on their platforms. Comments on news stories will also have to be reviewed by the website before they can appear online. For example, Zhihu, a Quora-like discussion site, has already started asking users to verify their identities.

As soon as the target switches the phone on, it’s already too late. Digital spies have pinpointed the phone’s location and, without hacking the device itself, are tracking it from tens of thousands of miles away. This is not a capability limited to superpowers—private firms now provide global phone tracking and interception.

But whereas this used to be a fairly niche product, now a myriad of companies based all over the world offer this service to law enforcement and intelligence agencies, perhaps including those who may wish to spy on the U.S., according to a review of surveillance company websites and brochures. 

China has demonstrated a world first by sending data over long distances using satellites which is potentially unhackable, laying the basis for next generation encryption based on so-called "quantum cryptography."

Last August, China launched a quantum satellite into space, a move which was called a "notable advance" by the Pentagon. Using this satellite, Chinese researchers at the Quantum Experiments at Space Scale project, were able to transmit secret messages from space to Earth at a further distance than ever before. The technology is called quantum key distribution. Typical encryption relies on traditional mathematics.

Chinese-made drones that may have been used by U.S. service members in Syria are now banned by the U.S. Army, according to a report.

"Cease all use, uninstall all DJI applications, remove all batteries/storage media from devices, and secure equipment for follow on direction," reads the memo from Lt. Gen. Joseph H. Anderson, the Army's deputy chief of staff for plans and operations. The memo was obtained by the publication Defense One, which said it was also confirmed by two Army officials. According to the publication, the Army document cites "increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities associated with DJI products."

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Tuesday plans to introduce legislation seeking to address vulnerabilities in computing devices embedded in everyday objects - known in the tech industry as the "internet of things" - which experts have long warned poses a threat to global cyber security.

The new bill would require vendors that provide internet-connected equipment to the U.S. government to ensure their products are patchable and conform to industry security standards. It would also prohibit vendors from supplying devices that have unchangeable passwords or possess known security vulnerabilities.