Security

If you’re looking for a secure external drive that meets both US military and government security standards, there are a number of encrypted external SSD options around. I reviewed one approach a couple of years ago, the iStorage diskAshur 2, which has a built-in PIN pad for entering a seven- to 15-digit code to unlock the drive.

The SecureDrive BT is a similar idea, but instead of a PIN pad, you unlock it via Bluetooth. Specifically, when you plug the drive into your Mac, you can use Face ID on your iPhone to unlock it…

Expand
Expanding
Close

An alarming test carried out by Princeton shows that the five largest US carriers fail to properly protect their customers against so-called SIM-swap attacks.

They were able to persuade the carriers to assign phone numbers to new SIMs without successfully answering any of the standard security questions. Once a phone number has been reassigned to a SIM in the possession of an attacker, they can reset passwords even on accounts protected by two-factor authentication (2FA)…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has removed ToTok from the App Store after a classified intelligence assessment and a New York Times investigation said that the app was a spy tool used by the United Arab Emirates.

The chat app, which last week became one of the most downloaded social apps in the US, was revealed to be feeding highly sensitive personal data to the UAE government…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Elcomsoft, a company which sells tools to law enforcement agencies to access locked iPhones, says that it is now able to extract some data from devices running any version of iOS from 12.0 to 13.3.

It relies on the checkm8 exploit of a vulnerability present in most A-series chips, which made possible the Checkra1n jailbreak.

Crucially, Elcomsoft says that the $1,495 tool works even when the iPhone is in its most secure state, known as BFU…

Expand
Expanding
Close

As first promised back in August, Apple’s bug bounty program is now open to all.

It was previously an invitation-only initiative, which attracted criticism as it incentivized non-invitees to sell vulnerability details to companies and governments who would exploit them to gain unauthorized access to Apple devices…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has released its 2019 Security guide that covers the company’s efforts across a variety of levels including hardware security and biometrics, encryption and data protection, as well as app, services, and network security.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has defended its policy of using strong iPhone encryption such that not even the company can gain access to the personal data stored on devices.

The company struck to its privacy guns despite the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman issuing a threat against Apple and other tech giants…

Expand
Expanding
Close

This week we learned that the iPhone 11 Pro still tracks location data even when users have turned the features off. Apple gave a limited response saying that “We do not see any actual security implications,” and that it was working as intended. However, now Apple has followed up with more details about why the iPhone 11 Pro is doing this and that it will include a toggle in an iOS update to stop location tracking totally.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Intel chip security flaws that affect all Macs, as well as Windows and Linux machines, still exist, say security researchers – despite the chipmaker’s claims to have fixed them. Similar flaws were found and patched in ARM processors, but there is no suggestion at this stage that further issues remain in these.

The ‘fundamental design flaw’ in Intel’s CPUs came to light last year, with the security vulnerabilities dubbed Spectre and Meltdown. They would allow an attacker to view data in kernel memory, which could span anything from cached documents to passwords …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Web designer Joshua Maddux has found the iOS Facebook app activating the iPhone camera while scrolling his feed. He found the same issue on five separate devices, with others able to replicate. The same issue does not appear to be present in the Android app.

Maddux posted a video (below) showing the behavior…

Expand
Expanding
Close

A recently discovered vulnerability in the macOS Mail app caused by Siri that currently affects Catalina and the previous three releases means that users’ encrypted emails actually aren’t. While Apple is working on a fix for the bug, read on for more details about the issue and a couple of workarounds to solve the problem now.

Expand
Expanding
Close

A new laser-based hack discovered for devices with MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) microphones makes iPhone, HomePod, Google Home, Amazon Echo, and more vulnerable to line of sight attacks from up to several hundred feet away.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Facebook is suing an Israeli company for a WhatsApp hack which allowed various governments to spy on more than 1,000 users, reports Reuters. The attack was made possible by a security vulnerability in the app, later fixed.

WhatsApp sued Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group on Tuesday, accusing it of helping government spies break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users across four continents in a hacking spree whose targets included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and senior government officials…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has confirmed that 17 malware iPhone apps were removed from the App Store after successfully hiding from the company’s app review process.

The apps were all from a single developer but covered a wide range of areas, including a restaurant finder, internet radio, BMI calculator, video compressor, and GPS speedometer …

Expand
Expanding
Close