John Lister

Nearly half a million users have been infected with "The Joker" malware through the Google Play store. The malware is particularly nasty and works by signing users up to premium services without their knowledge. The malware, spotted by researcher ... Aleksejs Kuprins, was found in 24 apps with a combined 472,000 downloads - though more apps may be found later. As of this writing, the 24 known apps have been removed from the Google Play store. (Source: techradar.com ) Infected Apps Need to be Removed If you have any of the following apps installed on your phone, they should be removed ... (view more)

Mozilla is to make an important change to Firefox browser security. It could reduce risks for users, but has raised concerns among governments and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), as it could limit their tools for filtering and monitoring online ... activity. The change has to do with a feature called DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH), and will first affect users in the US. It's already possible to enable DoH in Chrome, but it takes some technical know-how because the feature currently isn't widely used. DoH is all to do with the DNS (Domain Name System), which is effectively the phone book of the Internet ... (view more)

The latest Windows 10 update ( KB4512941 ) has produced two different problems. Some users report the search function is no longer working, while others have found their processors under immense strain. The problems stem from an update which itself ... fixed several problems with a major Windows 10 Update release in May, also known as Windows 10 version 1903. Note that users who do not have Windows 10 version 1903 won't have KB4512941 installed. You can find out which version of Windows 10 you have by clicking Start, then type in "winver" (no quotes) and hit enter. It will say the ... (view more)

Microsoft has changed its mind about phasing out support for Adobe Flash, which is used to help web browsers view multimedia. Both Internet Explorer and the current edition of Edge browsers will continue to support the technology by default until ... the end of 2020, in contrast to other browsers. Adobe says it's ditching Flash at the end of next year, largely because it's become redundant with website designers now preferring to create multimedia and interactive elements in HTML 5, rather than with Flash. HTML 5 works in modern browsers without the need for plug-ins like Flash. Chrome and ... (view more)

Google has released a security update fixing a major flaw in the Chrome browser. While Chrome normally updates automatically, it's a serious enough problem that it's worth manually checking for updates to the browser in order to be certain. The bug ... was highlighted by the Center for Internet Security, a non-profit organization that crowd sources security problems and fixes. It says the flaw could be exploited simply by the user visiting a compromised web page. It says that: "Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the ... (view more)

Facebook is taking new steps to prevent misleading political ads following the Cambridge Analytica scandal , which had millions of Facebook profiles harvested and used without consent for political advertising purposes. It says it's tightening the ... rules on buyers, which must now not only prove their identity, but also the organization they are associated with. Since 2018, anyone paying for an advertisement on Facebook relating to elections, politics or social issues has had to prove their identity to Facebook. They also have to include a disclaimer in the ad marked "Paid for by...", which is ... (view more)

Google Calendar users have been hit by a spate of spam "events" that are nothing more than dubious web links. Users have several ways to stop the problem, but with some drawbacks. The problem involves mysterious entries appearing in Google Calendar, ... sometimes seeming to have been added by friends. Speaking from experience, I had several entries appear for an "event" which was supposedly a time-limited offer to pick up a free iPhone, along with a link to confirm I wanted to take advantage. Although I did not click on the link, it's a safe bet it would not have taken me to the Apple store. ... (view more)

Chrome may soon warn users if their passwords have been compromised. It works by checking inputted passwords against those exposed in public data breaches. The feature is already available for Chrome from an official Google extension known as ... Password Checkup, but users need to actively install this extension to use it. Web browser Mozilla Firefox already has a similar feature built-in. Now a similar feature named "password leak detection" has been spotted in the code of Chrome Canary. That's a version of Chrome that includes test features planned for release in the main Chrome edition in a ... (view more)

Users of both Apple devices and the VLC media player should watch out for potentially serious security bugs. The former is a particular embarrassment for Apple. It turns out the company fixed a security bug in iOS 12.3 in April, then accidentally ... removed the fix in iOS 12.4, which it released last month. It now plans to fix it imminently in an emergency update to be titled iOS 12.4.1. The bug is very serious as it potentially allows a rogue app to "execute arbitrary code with system privileges." That effectively means malware could have complete control over an iOS device, something that's ... (view more)

Facebook is to show users what data it collects about their activity on other sites. It won't stop tracking, but will make the data anonymous if users ask. The changes will come in a new settings option called "Off-Facebook Activity." This will list ... all websites and apps that share data about user activity with Facebook. This most commonly happens through two methods. One is that the user has opted to log in to the third-party site through Facebook. In other words, as long as they haven't logged out of their Facebook account, they don't need to create or input user names and passwords for the ... (view more)