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Category: Security & Privacy

  • Facebook News Tab Aims to ‘Strengthen Democracy’ 

    “What could go wrong?” is exactly the right question one would ask over the feature Facebook announced. Facebook has been facing criticism not only recently over enabling filter bubbles and fueling extremist echo chambers. “Strengthen Democracy” is a clear attempt to whitewash from accusations to actually hurt the same. Digital Trends has more details.

    Facebook News Tab

    Facebook is launching a dedicated news tab amid growing criticism for the social network. Facebook News uses articles from a list of publishers meeting a set of standards and includes a section curated by journalists. But is that enough for a platform criticized for fake news?

    Source: Digital Trends

  • Alexa and Google spy on you

    Only after the Google SVP let the public know ‘He’d let guests know about smart speakers‘, there is more bad news on these smart home devices. Researchers found approved apps that deliberately turn these devices to spy on their owner.

    Alexa is listening
    Alexa and Google Home evasedrop

    Amazon- and Google-approved apps turned both voice-controlled devices into “smart spies.”

    Source: Alexa and Google Home abused to eavesdrop and phish passwords

  • Google chief: I’d disclose smart speakers

    “Does the owner of a home need to disclose to a guest? I would and do when someone enters into my home, and it’s probably something that the products themselves should try to indicate.”

    Well, d’uh. If Rick Osterloh, SVP of Devices and Services, says so. At least the BBC writes.

  • Floppy Disks coordinate missile launches.

    Good News: US military will no longer use floppy disks to coordinate nuke launches. You’ll probably think this technology is around for many years, since the 70ies or even longer. The article confirms these 8-inch floppy disks have been in use since the 1970ies. You’ll probably also expect this is proven and well tested, and any approach to replace this is well considered.

    Well, then the article has bad news for you.

    Now, the US strategic command has announced that it has replaced the drives with a “highly-secure solid state digital storage solution,” Lt. Col. Jason Rossi told c4isrnet.com.

  • Coin Master – Abzocke mit Fun

    Jan Böhmermann hat schon am 10. Oktober mit folgendem Video auf potentiell unseriöse Vorgehen einer App namens “Coin Master” hingewiesen. Bis dahin ist mir das Spiel nicht aufgefallen, weil mir der gesamte Duktus solcher Werke schon zweifelhaft erscheint und ich deshalb kategorisch die Finger davon lasse. Virtuelle Schlumpfbeeren zu kaufen kann keinen realen Gegenwert bieten.

    Die Analyse, die im Rahmen des Neo Magazin Royale stattfindet, setzt sich investigativ mit dem Hersteller und dem zugrundeliegenden Modell auseinander. Darüber hinaus hat die Redaktion mit Glücksspielsuchtforscher Tobias Hayer für eine Analyse des Geschäftsmodells gearbeitet. Der knapp 20 Minuten lange Beitrag aus der Sendung ist hier:

    Aufgrund der Recherche durch die Neo Magazin Royale Redaktion prüft die Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Schriften seit heute offenbar eine Indizierung des Spiels “Coin Master“.

  • Thoma Bravo to buy Sophos

    Thoma Bravo to buy Sophos

    Sophos Logo
    Sophos Logo

    Both company announce the plans for the acquisition today. The private equity company Thoma Bravo plans to buy the UK-based cyber-security giant Sophos for $7.40 per share, for a total value of $3.9 billion, at a 37% market premium.

  • Hear HK now or be HK soon.

    Redditor Tmfwang hat in HK eine Botschaft gefunden, die die Protestanten offenbar allen Beobachtern an den Fernseh- und Internetgeräten zukommen lassen wollen:

    Spotted in Hong Kong: «Hear HK now, or be Hong Kong soon»
    byu/Tmfwang inpics

    Wahrscheinlich ist das nur Zufall, dass die CDU gerade jetzt eine Wiedereinführung der Vorratsdatenspeicherung und die amtierende Justizministerin Christine Lambrecht von der SPD, eine Verschärfung des Netwerkdurchsetzungsgesetzes fordert.

  • Safari in iOS sends data to Tencent

    Engadget reports, that with iOS 13 Apple started checking website details against fraudulent behavior with Tencent. While Apple already uses “Google Safe Browsing” to improve security, this behavior has been difficult before. With the latest developments in Hong Kong and China, this approach is – at a minimum – questionable and overshadows trustworthiness of Apple hardware. Engadget comments accordingly:

    You might not have to worry outside of China, but it’s still a concern.

    Source: Safari in iOS sends some Safe Browsing data to Tencent

  • What Gizmodo ‘Knows’ About Facebook

    What Gizmodo ‘Knows’ About Facebook

    This Friday, Gizmodo accused Facebook of suppressing stories they published on their platform. The evidence is based on staff observations, including Family and Friends. All together, the allegations don’t appear to be very reliable, yet imaginable. Facebook acts weird all too often, and in this case Gizmodo claims the case was about news over Mark Zuckerberg, the companies CEO.

    Mark Zuckerberg

    On Friday, Gizmodo uncovered shocking new evidence that Facebook is using its platform to suppress stories about CEO Mark Zuckerberg… or maybe his janky, busted-ass website is just bugging out again for no reason. It’s hard to say, really. That’s sort of the problem.

    Gizmodo, Friday Oct. 4, 2019

    Unrelated to these new findings, Facebook has plenty of other issues, that should make them a company not to work with. The incident, and the pure possibility such a case of influence is possible, is another indicator to why society develops fear over Big Tech. The answer once more may be another call to , however, as long as Facebook has the reach and the attention, this won’t change.

    Source: What We ‘Know’ About Facebook

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