Security

An upgrade to the USB-C standard allows cryptography to be used to authenticate connected devices. It will ensure that devices are properly certified, but can also be used to enhance security …

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Over the last few days, a Twining app from Popsugar has gone viral across various social media platforms. Essentially, the service allows you to snap a selfie of yourself and get an instant result showing which celebrity you look like most. As it turns out, somewhat unsurprisingly, privacy wasn’t necessarily a focus for Popsugar when developing the Twinning app…

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A recent bug with one of Twitter’s support forms has exposed user details such as phone number country code and whether accounts had been locked by Twitter. The company believes the flaw was likely used by state-sponsored actors to gain information about Twitter accounts.

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The latest Facebook security blunder involves photos from 6.8 million users. The company shared in an update on its developer page today that a bug allowed third-parties to see photos from Facebook users who had uploaded, but chose to not post them to the social media service.

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Each year, SplashData carries out an analysis of leaked passwords to find the top 25 dumb passwords. This year, the company had five million passwords to work from, most of them from hacks in the US and Europe.

There are plenty of old favorites – including ‘password’ – but this year eleven new ones made the list …

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A pair of Apple marketing team members joined the Mac Admins Podcast this week to talk about Apple’s role in enterprise and business, the T2 chip found in recent Macs, and more. Topics included Apple Business Manager, adoption of Apple hardware by companies like SAP and IBM, and more.

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The tech news was dominated in October by a dramatic Bloomberg claim that Chinese spy chips had been embedded into the Super Micro motherboards of servers supplied to Apple, Amazon and others. The report claimed that Apple had discovered the chips, and reported the fact to the FBI.

All involved – Apple, Amazon and Super Micro – denied the claims, but the motherboard supplier decided the only way to lay this to rest was to commission an independent audit to investigate. That investigation has now been completed, and the firm says it found absolutely no evidence to support the story …

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Last week, we reported that Australia had passed a new anti-encryption law that could force Apple and other tech companies to help law enforcement access encrypted messages. TechCrunch reports today, however, that Apple is among a handful of tech companies coming out against the legislation.

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An Apple security expert, who was previously hired back in 2011, and then re-hired in 2016, is now leaving the company to join the American Civil Liberties Union. Apple often touts its security and privacy efforts, so having someone who worked on Apple’s security team leave the company is always interesting, let alone leaving the company twice…

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At a Georgetown Law and Department of Justice cybercrime conference today, Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, made a strong statement that suggests Apple has a mission to “defeat legitimate law enforcement” efforts.

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If you’ve ever used a Sennheiser headset or speakerphone device with your Mac (or Windows PC), the accompanying HeadSetup app has left your machine wide open to attack.

In what has been described as a ‘monumental security blunder,’ the app allows a bad actor to successfully impersonate any secure website on the Internet …

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A major security breach, reported by TechCrunch, has underlined the sense of Apple’s approach to two-factor authentication (2FA).

A security lapse has exposed a massive database containing tens of millions of text messages, including password reset links, two-factor codes, shipping notifications and more.

The exposed server belongs to Voxox (formerly Telcentris), a San Diego-based communications company. The server wasn’t protected with a password, allowing anyone who knew where to look to peek in and snoop on a near-real-time stream of text messages …

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We haven’t quite yet worked out the pattern or the cause but we have received many reports of users waking up to find that their Apple ID has been locked, and plenty more are complaining on social media. Apple will lock accounts for many different reasons, usually when someone attempts to access an ID by entering their incorrect password too many times.

Access to the account can be restored by answering the security questions and entering a trusted phone number for validation. Users may also have to reset their passwords.

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Last month, a leaked internal service document revealed that Apple’s T2 security chip can prevent some third-party repairs for Mac users. While details were unclear at the time, and it seemed as if the policy wasn’t necessarily in full effect just yet, Apple today confirmed its existence to The Verge.

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Alongside its new hardware and software unveiled this afternoon, Apple has published a full security guide for its T2 security chip. The T2 is featured in the new Mac mini and Retina MacBook Air, and Apple is highlighting its many benefits in today’s security document.

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