Showing only posts in Ars Technica. Show all posts.

Cloudflare’s CAPTCHA replacement lacks crosswalks, checkboxes, Google

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Enlarge / CAPTCHAs are meant to prevent these kinds of browsing scenarios, not train us all to better recognize vehicles and infrastructure in grainy photos. (credit: Getty Images) Cloudflare has recently made an audacious claim: We could all be doing something better with our lives than deciding which images contain …

Apps can pose bigger security, privacy threat based on where you download them

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Enlarge (credit: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/blinkee-city-rental-scooter-is-seen-in-warsaw-poland-on-news-photo/1031626648 ) Google and Apple have removed hundreds of apps from their app stores at the request of governments around the world, creating regional disparities in access to mobile apps at a time when many economies are becoming increasingly dependent on …

Russia plans “massive cyberattacks” on critical infrastructure, Ukraine warns

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Enlarge (credit: gwengoat | Getty Images) The Ukrainian government on Monday warned that the Kremlin is planning to carry out “massive cyberattacks” targeting power grids and other critical infrastructure in Ukraine and in the territories of its allies. “By the cyberattacks, the enemy will try to increase the effect of …

Artist finds private medical record photos in popular AI training data set

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Enlarge / Censored medical images found in the LAION-5B data set used to train AI. The black bars and distortion have been added. (credit: Ars Technica) Late last week, a California-based AI artist who goes by the name Lapine discovered private medical record photos taken by her doctor in 2013 …

Trojanized versions of PuTTY utility being used to spread backdoor

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) Researchers believe hackers with connections to the North Korean government have been pushing a Trojanized version of the PuTTY networking utility in an attempt to backdoor the network of organizations they want to spy on. Researchers from security firm Mandiant said on Thursday that at …

New Linux malware combines unusual stealth with a full suite of capabilities

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) Researchers this week unveiled a new strain of Linux malware that's notable for its stealth and sophistication in infecting both traditional servers and smaller Internet-of-things devices. Dubbed Shikitega by the AT&T Alien Labs researchers who discovered it, the malware is delivered through a multistage …

Organizations are spending billions on malware defense that’s easy to bypass

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images / Aurich Lawson) Last year, organizations spent $2 billion on products that provide Endpoint Detection and Response, a relatively new type of security protection for detecting and blocking malware targeting network-connected devices. EDRs, as they're commonly called, represent a newer approach to malware detection. Static analysis …

FTC sues data broker that tracks locations of 125M phones per month

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) The Federal Trade Commission on Monday sued a data broker for allegedly selling location data culled from hundreds of millions of phones that can be used to track the movements of people visiting abortion clinics, domestic abuse shelters, places of worship, and other sensitive places …

Debit card fraud leaves Ally Bank customers, small stores reeling

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Enlarge / Ally debit card owners are reporting fraudulent charges at a steady cadence over the past week. (credit: Getty Images) Ben Langhofer, a financial planner and single father of three in Wichita, Kansas, decided to start a side business. He had made a handbook for his family, laying out …

Zoom patches critical vulnerability again after prior fix was bypassed

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Enlarge / A critical vulnerability in Zoom for MacOS, patched once last weekend, could still be bypassed as of Wednesday. Users should update again. (credit: Getty Images) It's time for Zoom users on Mac to update—again. After Zoom patched a vulnerability in its Mac auto-update utility that could give …

Ring patched an Android bug that could have exposed video footage

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Enlarge / Ring camera images give you a view of what's happening and, in one security firm's experiments, a good base for machine learning surveillance. (credit: Ring) Amazon quietly but quickly patched a vulnerability in its Ring app that could have exposed users' camera recordings and other data, according to …

iOS VPNs have leaked traffic for more than 2 years, researcher claims

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) A security researcher says that Apple's iOS devices don't fully route all network traffic through VPNs as a user might expect, a potential security issue the device maker has known about for years. Michael Horowitz, a longtime computer security blogger and researcher, puts it plainly …

Update Zoom for Mac now to avoid root-access vulnerability

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Enlarge / A critical vulnerability in Zoom for Mac OS allowed unauthorized users to downgrade Zoom or even gain root access. It has been fixed, and users should update now. (credit: Getty Images) If you're using Zoom on a Mac, it's time for a manual update. The video conferencing software's …

Amid backlash from privacy advocates, Meta expands end-to-end encryption trial

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Meta is ever so slowly expanding its trial of end-to-end encryption in a bid to protect users from snoops and law enforcement. End-to-end encryption, often abbreviated as E2EE, uses strong cryptography to encrypt messages with a key that is unique to each user. Because the …

10 malicious Python packages exposed in latest repository attack

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Enlarge / Supply-chain attacks, like the latest PyPi discovery, insert malicious code into seemingly functional software packages used by developers. They're becoming increasingly common. (credit: Getty Images) Researchers have discovered yet another set of malicious packages in PyPi, the official and most popular repository for Python programs and code libraries …

Small businesses count cost of Apple’s privacy changes

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Enlarge (credit: Kentaroo Tryman | Getty Images ) Small businesses are cutting back marketing spending due to Apple’s sweeping privacy changes that have made it harder to target new customers online, in a growing trend that has led to billions of dollars in lost revenues for platforms like Facebook. Apple …

Hackers are targeting industrial systems with malware

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) From the what-could-possibly-go-wrong files comes this: An industrial control engineer recently made a workstation part of a botnet after inadvertently installing malware advertising itself as a means for recovering lost passwords. Lost passwords happen in many organizations. A programmable logic controller—used to automate processes …

Vulnerabilities allowing permanent infections affect 70 Lenovo laptop models

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Enlarge (credit: Lenovo) For owners of more than 70 Lenovo laptop models, it’s time once again to patch the UEFI firmware against critical vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit to install malware that’s nearly impossible to detect or remove. The laptop maker on Tuesday released updates for three …

Vulnerabilities that could allow undectable infections affect 70 Lenovo laptop models

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Enlarge (credit: Lenovo) For owners of more than 70 Lenovo laptop models, it’s time once again to patch the UEFI firmware against critical vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit to install malware that can be nearly impossible to detect or remove. The laptop maker on Tuesday released updates for …

Microsoft makes major course reversal, allows Office to run untrusted macros [Updated]

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Microsoft has stunned core parts of the security community with a decision to quietly reverse course and allow untrusted macros to be opened by default in Word and other Office applications. ( Update on July 11: The company later clarified that the move is temporary.) In …

Microsoft makes major course reversal, allows Office to run untrusted macros

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Microsoft has stunned core parts of the security community with a decision to quietly reverse course and allow untrusted macros to be opened by default in Word and other Office applications. In February, the software maker announced a major change it said it enacted to …

End-to-end encryption’s central role in modern self-defense

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) A number of course-altering US Supreme Court decisions last month—including the reversal of a constitutional right to abortion and the overturning of a century-old limit on certain firearms permits—have activists and average Americans around the country anticipating the fallout for rights and privacy …

Google closes data loophole amid privacy fears over abortion ruling

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Enlarge (credit: Lari Bat | Getty Images ) Google is closing a loophole that has allowed thousands of companies to monitor and sell sensitive personal data from Android smartphones, an effort welcomed by privacy campaigners in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision to end women’s constitutional right …

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