Security

In early January, the FBI asked Apple to unlock two iPhones as part of the Pensacola case. Apple stood its ground and said it wouldn’t create a backdoor for iOS but would help as much as it could without crossing that line. Even though the FBI has the ability to unlock the iPhone 7 and iPhone 5 with the help of third-parties, today it said it still hasn’t been able to get to the data on the devices.

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If you use WhatsApp on Mac, you’ll want to make sure the desktop app has been updated to the current version, 0.4.316. This closes a very nasty security hole.

The vulnerability was discovered by security researcher Gal Weizman. It built on an earlier issue in which replies could fake the original text…

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A Philips Hue vulnerability allows a hacker to take control of individual bulbs, switching them on or off at will, as well as changing both color and brightness. This can be done remotely using a laptop with radio transmitter. You can watch a demonstration video below.

While that risk remains, the company has acted to block an escalation vulnerability that previously allowed the attacker to compromise the Hue bridge and from there the rest of the network, including any PCs connected to it…

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Doubt is today being cast on a reported Jeff Bezos iPhone hack, which was said to have given attackers full access to the photos and messages stored on his iPhone X.

The report was based on analysis by a cybersecurity firm commissioned by the Amazon founder to find out how private messages and photos were obtained by the National Enquirer…

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A forensic analysis shows that a sophisticated attack on Jeff Bezos’ iPhone X gave full access to both his photos and messages.

The attack, and the alleged attempted blackmail that followed, led to the famous “No thank you, Mr Pecker” blog post in which the Amazon founder decided to go public about the existence of embarrassing texts and photos…

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Google researchers have discovered “multiple security flaws” in Apple’s Safari browser, a new report from the Financial TImes says. The flaws were found in Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature, which is designed to protect users from cross-site tracking and other online privacy concerns, and have since been fixed.

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Kicking off 2020, security and privacy is a hot topic between the latest standoff between Apple and the FBI over the Pensacola incident as well as Apple reportedly abandoning its plan to bring end-to-end encryption to iCloud backups. With an in-depth report on what a robust iPhone cracking operation looks like from the inside, Fast Company shares some fascinating details and photos of NYC’s $10 million cyber lab.

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Amid its ongoing encryption battle with the FBI, Apple has published its latest biannual transparency report. This report reveals how many requests were made for user data by governments around the world, and how many with which Apple could comply.

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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…

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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)…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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