Category: Featured

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Chrome update prevents some Macs from rebooting

A recent Chrome update has been causing issues for some. For the past few days, video editors have been panicking as a data corruption issue struck their Macs (typically 2013 Mac Pros), preventing them from rebooting their systems properly. But what was the cause? Their Avid Media Composer editing suite? MacOS itself? No — it turns out their browser was likely to blame. Google...

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Firefox Private Network test pilot program

Like a cat, the Test Pilot program has had many lives. It originally started as an Add-on before we relaunched it three years ago. Then in January, we announced that we were evolving our culture of experimentation, and as a result we closed the Test Pilot program to give us time to further explore what was next. We learned a lot from the Test...

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Clicker trojan found in Android apps with over 100M installs

Researchers found a clicker Trojan bundled with over 33 apps distributed through the Google Play Store and downloaded by Android users over 100 million times. The malware was designed as a malicious module added to seemingly harmless applications such as audio players, barcode scanners, dictionaries, and a host of other various types of ordinary software most people would install on their Android devices. These...

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Windows Defender achieves best antivirus 2019

Microsoft and best antivirus aren’t usually written in the same sentence, but they’re going to have to be following the latest antivirus test results. As Softpedia reports, the independent IT security institute AV-TEST spent May and June continuously evaluating 20 home user security products using their default settings to see which offered the best protection. Only four of those products achieved a top score,...

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iOS 13 privacy features means overhaul for Facebook apps

Privacy has been a renewed focus with Apple’s next operating system update. One new iOS 13 privacy feature could have sweeping consequences for messaging and online call apps. In iOS 13, Apple will not allow apps to run voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) in the background when the programs are not actively in use. Many apps that offer VoIP services currently run in the background,...

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Microsoft silently patched processor side channel data leak

Microsoft last month pushed a silent update that patched a processor side channel data leak in all CPUs Intel has introduced since 2012, researchers who discovered the flaw said Tuesday. The vulnerability—discovered and privately reported to Intel 12 months ago—resided in every CPU Intel has introduced since at least its Ivy Bridge line of processors and possibly earlier, a researcher from security firm Bitdefender...

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Windows Defender rebranded to Microsoft Defender

In a future update, you’ll see Windows Defender rebranded to Microsoft Defender to indicate that it now part of a cross platform family of products. This includes enterprise products, which offer solutions for multiple OS platforms. Historically, Microsoft’s consumer antivirus product has been called Windows Defender. With the release of their enterprise security offerings called Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) and Microsoft Defender...

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Adblock Plus has poor ad blocking practices

You might be perturbed if somebody calls your business an “extortion racket” or your sales pitch a “ransom note”, or says you have “poor ad blocking practices.” But Eyeo Chief Executive Till Faida, leader of the widely used Adblock Plus browser extension, is unruffled. The way he sees it, he’s just trying to rescue online advertising and the websites that rely on it. The...

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Chromium Edge is enterprise ready

At this week’s Microsoft Inspire conference in Las Vegas, the company announced some impressive improvements to my new favorite browser, Chromium Edge. I’ve become a huge fan of the new Chromium version of the Microsoft Edge browser, which is still in beta test. The reason is that I really missed the one browser-does-it-all aspect of old Internet Explorer; before this new browser, I was...

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New malware abuses DNS over HTTPS

The first ever malware strain seen that abuses DNS over HTTPS (DoH) protocol has been discovered by Netlab. Security researchers from Netlab, a network threat hunting unit of Chinese cyber-security giant Qihoo 360 made this discovery. The malware, named Godlua, was detailed in a report published on Monday by the company’s researchers. According to the Netlab team, Godlua is a malware strain written in...