Browser security extensions aren’t automatically safer — they might even make things worse. Mozilla pulls Avast’s Online Security and SafePrice extensions for Firefox, plus their AVG-branded equivalents, after AdBlock Plus creator Wladimir Palant found they were collecting much more data than necessary. This included a detailed web history that went well beyond site addresses and search history, including when and how long you visit...
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...
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...
Periodic password changes are likely to do more harm than good. In a largely overlooked post published late last month, Microsoft said it was removing periodic password changes from the security baseline settings it recommends for customers and auditors. After decades of Microsoft recommending passwords be changed regularly, Microsoft employee Aaron Margosis said the requirement is an “ancient and obsolete mitigation of very low...
Your web browser should never act as surveillance software. Unfortunately Google Chrome’s surveillance methods make it highly insecure by allowing trackers to follow you around the web. Over a recent week of Web surfing, I peered under the hood of Google Chrome and found it brought along a few thousand friends. Shopping, news and even government sites quietly tagged my browser to let ad...
Samsung’s official Twitter account posted that scanning for ‘malware viruses’ on is important to keep it running smoothly. “This also is true for your QLED TV if it’s connected to Wi-Fi!” it added. The tweet included a video showing how to perform this process on your Samsung SmartTV, which involves going to General Settings > System Manager > Smart Security > Scan. Scanning your...
Firefox (referred to as Fx) is a free and open source browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla’s team continues to focus on fixing bugs and adding useful features. Improving the user experience is especially important to the team. Users will enjoy that Firefox 67 focuses on speed, privacy, and security. In fact, you’ll get all of these things straight out of the box....
Mozilla is scheduled to add a new user anti-fingerprinting technique to Firefox with the release of version 67, scheduled for mid-May this year. Advertising networks often sniff certain browser features, such as the window size to create user profiles and track users as they resize their browser and move across new URLs and browser tabs. Called “letterboxing,” this new technique adds “gray spaces” to...
Google security officials are advising Windows users to ensure they’re using the latest version 10 of the Microsoft operating system to protect themselves against a “serious” unpatched vulnerability that attackers have been actively exploiting in the wild. Unidentified attackers have been combining an exploit for the unpatched local privilege escalation in Windows with one for a separate security flaw in the Chrome browser that...
Google is urging users to update Chrome across all platforms after a critical vulnerability was discovered and patched. The vulnerability exploits a security flaw known as CVE-2019-5786. The security flaw is a memory management issue in Chrome’s FileReader which gives hackers the opportunity to inject and execute malicious code. Security researchers at Google and Microsoft have observed attackers using a combination of a patched...
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