John Lister

If you use Chrome, you need to make sure it's up to date. The browser has been hit by a dreaded zero-day flaw . In this case, hackers are aware of the bug and are actively exploiting it before Google has a chance to issue a security patch. The name ... comes from the fact that Google has "zero days" head start in getting the patches out. Google confirmed that it "is aware of reports that an exploit for CVE-2021-21166 [the bug in question] exists in the wild." (Source: googleblog.com ) High Severity Flaw The security flaw is rated as "high severity" on Google's rankings of how much ... (view more)

A federal judge says California can begin enacting a controversial law on net neutrality. Broadband companies who are suing to have the law thrown out had argued it should be put on hold until that case is complete. Net neutrality is a broad ... principle that all Internet traffic should be treated in the same way. Translated into practical effects that could mean barring broadband carriers from blocking otherwise legal content or charging extra to access specific services (such as Netflix). Federal rules on net neutrality have been a particularly contentious issue. At the moment that Federal ... (view more)

Apple says it has dealt with the risk from a newly-discovered piece of malware affecting macOS. It's a reminder that macOS isn't completely immune from malware - which may have been the point of the attack. Security company Red Canary discovered the ... malware and dubbed it Silver Sparrow. It says data from Malwarebytes showed it was present on 29,139 computers. (Source: redcanary.com ) It appeared to target computers which have the M1 chip. That's an Apple produced processor designed specifically for Macs. It's combines multiple functions on a single chip, the idea being to increase efficiency ... (view more)

A proposed US law would ban states and local governments from offering broadband services. Supporters of the bill say "municipal broadband" crowds out commercial providers, while critics say such services only exist to fill the gap left by the ... commercial market. If passed, the bill would become law as the CONNECT (Communities Overregulating Networks Need Economic Competition Today) Act. It would ban any state or political subdivision (such as a city) from starting to provide "retail or wholesale broadband Internet access service." (Source: house.gov ) This would apply whether it was provided ... (view more)

Two thirds of emails contain a "spy pixel" according to one provider. The invisible pixel could let companies discover where people live and what devices they own. At the very least, it will report back to spammers that the email has been opened, ... which then validates your email address and will result in additional spam. The figures comes from "Hey," an email provider that offers a paid service rather than scanning emails to get information for targeted advertising. That means it's possible its user base isn't reflective of the general public, though that shouldn't distort the ... (view more)

A research group says the number of people using mobile video calling rose 50 percent last year. It forecasts that will continue to rise rapidly even when life returns to a post-pandemic normal. Juniper Research estimates 1.8 billion mobile service ... customers used a mobile video calling service in 2020 compared with 1.2 billion the previous year. That's almost certainly a direct result of more people working remotely and/or making social video calls, rather than meeting friends in person. (Source: techradar.com ) Handheld Video Calls Convenient For Some It might seem ironic that more people ... (view more)

Canon has launched an app that automatically picks out poor quality photos that you've taken, ready for deletion. Sadly for those who remember physical prints, it doesn't add a quality control sticker to the image. The Photo Culling app is based on ... the fact that, unlike with prints, there's no real cost to a user taking hundreds of digital shots except for eating up storage space. That can be an issue given modern smartphones often have very high resolution cameras and in turn large file sizes. (Source: 9to5mac.com ) The idea of the app, which is currently only available on iPhone, is for ... (view more)

Microsoft has described three Windows security fixes as an "essential" install even among users who normally take their time or pick and choose updates. It's one of 56 fixes in the latest monthly security update sometimes dubbed Patch Tuesday. Two ... of the fixes are rated "Critical" and the other "Important". Those ratings are based on a combination of how likely the flaw is to be exploited and how serious the resulting damage could be. Remote Code Execution Risk The two critical fixes (codenamed CVE-2021-24074 and CVE-2021-24094) both create a risk of remote code execution. That's arguably the ... (view more)

A hacker tried to poison a city's water supply using software designed to remotely control computers. Officials in Oldsmar, Florida say that even if the attack hadn't been spotted, it would have been unsuccessful. The attacker struck a system that ... treats the water supplied to around 15,000 people. Last Friday, they gained access to a control computer for around three to five minutes through TeamViewer, which appears to have been in place to allow remote work. (Source: independent.co.uk ) 100-Fold Lye Increase The computer controlled the levels of some chemicals in the water including ... (view more)

Canadian privacy regulators say a company that used online photos to train artificial intelligence tools breached privacy rules. They said Clearview had used "the mass collection of biometric information from billions of people, without express ... consent." US company Clearview offers services to law enforcement agencies and private businesses trying to identify people from a photo. It maintains a database of more than three billion images which it uses to try to find a match using artificial intelligence. Clearview gathered most of these pictures by "scraping" online sites such as Flickr. That ... (view more)