The Justice Department said that it might no longer need Apple’s assistance in opening an iPhone used by a gunman in the San Bernardino, Calif., rampage last year.
The disclosure led a judge to postpone a court hearing over the issue and temporarily sidesteps what has become a bitter clash with the world’s most valuable company. In a new court filing, the government said an outside party had demonstrated a way for the F.B.I. to possibly unlock the phone used by the gunman. The hearing in the contentious case — Apple has loudly opposed opening the iPhone, citing privacy concerns and igniting a heated debate — was originally set for Tuesday.
Read moreApple CEO declared that his company wouldn’t comply with a government search warrant to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers, a significant escalation in a long-running debate between technology companies and the government over access to people’s electronically-stored private information.
But in a similar case in New York last year, Apple acknowledged that it could extract such data if it wanted to. And according to prosecutors in that case, Apple has unlocked phones for authorities at least 70 times since 2008. In other words, Apple’s stance in the San Bernardino case may not be quite the principled defense that Cook claims it is.
Read moreWith a special hacking tool, the Federal Bureau of Investigations not only took over operations of a child pornography site, but also located some 1,300 visitors. Now the computer code used to hunt down suspects must be released per a court order.
What the FBI has called "the largest remaining known child pornography hidden service in the world," Playpen operated in the part of cyberspace known as the Dark Web on the browser Tor where its IP address was hidden. That is, until the FBI managed to capture control of the site in February 2015 where it proceeded not to shut it down, but rather kept the illegal content up for two weeks to catch 1,300 visitors’ IP addresses.
Read moreDon’t Try this at Home! An interesting software bug has been discovered in Apple's iOS operating system that could kill your iPhone, iPad or iPod Dead Permanently. Yes, you heard me right.
An issue with the date and time system in iOS had emerged recently when Reddit users started warning people that changing your iPhone's or any iOS device's date will brick your iPhone forever. You can watch the whole process in the video given below. Even regular recovery tricks do not work. So, you are recommended to Not Try This Trick with your iOS device really – unless you book a trip to your local Apple Store.
Read moreExperts reported drop-dead simple exploit that completely bypassed an OS X security feature known as Gatekeeper. Apple shipped a fix, but now the security researcher who discovered the original vulnerability said he found an equally obvious work-around.
Patrick Wardle said the security fix consisted of blacklisting a small number of known files he privately reported to Apple that could be repackaged to install malicious software on Macs, even when Gatekeeper is set to its most restrictive setting. Wardle was able to revive his attack with little effort by finding a new Apple trusted file that hadn't been blocked by the Apple update.
Read moreDodgy developers can have their data-stealing iOS applications boosted to the top ranks of Apple's App Store for as little as US$4000 thanks to services on offer by Chinese hackers. The price will get an application capable of evading Apple's security checks onto the top five paid application list through boosting services.
A payment of $US7200 will get an app onto the sought-after top 25 free apps lists, a price increase of $3800 since 2013. By contrast deviant developers can score 10,000 downloads for their malicious Android app a paltry US$16. The findings are part of analysis of the Chinese criminal underground by Trend Micro forward threat researcher Lion Gu.
Read moreMost of today's top mobile payment apps are not protected enough to handle the amount of scrutiny and effort cyber-criminals are normally willing to put into compromising payment systems.
The company studied ten of the most popular mobile payment apps, ranging from mobile wallet apps to one-click payment merchants, and from peer-to-peer payment apps to regular apps that link themselves to banking accounts. According to Bluebox, three big issues were identified. The first is related to improperly protected communication channels that would allow attackers to redirect payments to an attacker's desired location.
Read moreWhite House and congressional staffers have asked Silicon Valley executives for new talks in Washington, D.C., to resolve a standoff over encrypted communication tools in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks.
The approaches are among the most concrete signs of how last week’s bombings and shootings have put a new spotlight on the debate about whether American companies should be allowed to offer ultrasecure messaging tools. There is no evidence the Paris attacks have changed technology companies’ view that strong encryption protects consumers, and that providing a way for police to eavesdrop would open the door to exploitation by criminals.
Read moreResearchers said they've found more than 250 iOS apps that violate Apple's App Store privacy policy forbidding the gathering of e-mail addresses, installed apps, serial numbers, and other personally identifying information that can be used to track users.
The apps, which at most recent count totaled 256, are significant because they expose a lapse in Apple's vetting process for admitting titles into its highly curated App Store. They also represent an invasion of privacy to the one million people estimated to have downloaded the apps. The data gathering is so surreptitious that even the individual developers of the affected apps are unlikely to know about it.
Read moreIf you have an iPhone running iOS 9, you should be aware that it may be possible to access your photos and contacts on a locked device, even with a passcode and/or Touch ID enabled.
I’ve always ignored reports on this sort of security flaw, because they always seem to pop up with every iOS iteration, and almost always require a user to jump through what seems like a million hoops. But for some reason — call it boredom, or call it poor judgement — I got curious, and decided to try this out for myself. As it turns out, it’s not that hard to do, and it certainly seems like a security flaw in iOS to me.
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