Internet to be protected by High speed encryption in future

Making a hacker's job tougher, scientists have introduced a new mechanism which creates virtually hack-proof "high-speed" encryption formats driven by quantum computers. The creators claim that the new system can encrypt data 5-10x faster than existing ones and can run without any special requirement of high-speed internet.

The technique uses faint laser beams to encode photons with information, storing up to 2 bits per particle, which is then read using high-speed detectors. This method requires a unique set of encryption keys shared by both the sender and the receiver and if anyone tries to tamper with the message or the encryption keys, both the users will be alerted.

How To Find Out If You’ve Been Hit By The Equifax Hack

Everyone should be worried about the latest cybersecurity breach.

Equifax, one of the main credit score providers in America, announced Thursday that the company was the victim of a large-scale hack that exposed the personal information, including Social Security numbers, of an estimated 143 million Americans.

Hackers gained access to names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and some driver’s license numbers. About 209,000 customers’ credit card numbers were also exposed, as well as dispute documents containing personal information for about 182,000 customers.

With a hack that could affect up to 44 percent of the American population, people are understandably anxious to find out if they are among the many whose information is now at risk of identity fraud or being sold on the black market, an underground online marketplace where criminals sell personal information that can be used to get credit cards, take out loans or make purchases.

“When this type of stuff happens, it’s like, ‘Oh, crap,’” Alex McGeorge, head of threat intelligence at the security firm Immunity, told Wired. “Your Social Security number doesn’t change, so this data is going to get resold on the black market and hold its value for a while.” 

To find out if you’ve been affected, you can check on a website Equifax has set up in response to the hack: www.equifaxsecurity2017.com.

At the bottom of the page, the company directs you to a link titled “Potential Impact,” which allows you to see if your information is safe. In order to do so, you have to provide your last name and the last six digits of your Social Security number.

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Once you do that, victims of the breach will be scheduled for enrollment in the company’s “complementary” credit-monitoring service, TrustedID Premier, for one year. After the year is up, users may have to pay for the service if they don’t proactively cancel. The terms of use say customers must have internet access and a credit or debit card to sign up.

The terms of use for TrustedId says that customers using its products are subject to mandatory, binding arbitration. However, on Friday, Equifax clarified on its website that the “arbitration clause and class action waiver included in the Equifax and TrustedID Premier terms of use does not apply to this cybersecurity incident.”

EQUIFAX

When several HuffPost staff members attempted to check their status, they received one of two messages: One confirms that the user was not affected by the breach and the other message says you may have been affected. Both provide a link to enroll in the company’s credit-monitoring service, TrustedID Premier.

EQUIFAX

This is the message you’ll receive from Equifax if your information has not been affected by the security breach.

EQUIFAX

This is the message you’ll receive from Equifax if your information may have been affected by the security breach.

In the meantime, you can protect yourself by doing the following:

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1. Freeze your credit.

Enabling a credit freeze restricts who can see your credit report, preventing lenders and others who you aren’t already familiar with from accessing your information. To do this, call each of the three major credit monitoring bureaus: Experian (888‑397‑3742), TransUnion (888-909-8872) and Equifax (800-349-9960).

2. Activate a free 90-day fraud alert. 

According to the Federal Trade Commission, you are allowed to activate a free 90-day fraud alert with one of the three credit bureaus, which will make it harder for identity thieves to steal your information. You can also renew it after the 90-day period is over.

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3. Check your credit report.

Although Equifax announced the security breach on Thursday, it discovered the actual breach on July 29. That means that hackers may have had personal information for a few months before they were caught. Check your credit report using a verified credit report company to see if there have been any accounts opened under your name without your permission.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story listed an incorrect contact number for Equifax. Language has also been changed to note that all three credit score companies, not just one, must be contacted to initiate a credit freeze

Iranian Hacker Charged With Stealing HBO ‘Game Of Thrones’ Episodes

U.S. prosecutors have charged an Iranian national with hacking into cable TV network HBO and stealing episodes and plot summaries for unaired programs including “Game of Thrones,” then threatening to release the data unless he was paid $6 million.
Behzad Mesri, also known as “Skote Vahshat,” was charged with the hack in a sealed indictment that was released on Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan. A spokesman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Mesri has not been arrested, and declined to comment on the suspect’s whereabouts.
The indictment described Mesri as a “self-professed expert” in hacking who had worked on behalf of Iran’s military to attack military systems, nuclear software systems and Israeli infrastructure.
HBO
The hacker stole unaired episodes of the popular HBO series and then threatened to release them. Actress Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys Targaryen, is seen.
It also alleged that he helped an Iranian hacking group, Turk Black Hat Security Team, deface hundreds of websites in the United States and other countries.
The cyber attack surfaced over the summer as HBO was running a new season of “Game of Thrones” and as the cable network’s parent Time Warner Inc (TWX.N) sought regulatory approval to sell itself to AT&T Inc (T.N) in an $85.4 billion deal announced in October 2016.
The indictment charges Mesri with hacking into HBO from May to August and stealing unaired episodes of programs including “Ballers,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Deuce.”
Mesri also stole scripts and plot summaries for “Game of Thrones,” according to the indictment. It said he obtained credentials that HBO employees use to access the network, then used those accounts to steal data from the company’s servers from May to August of this year.
He demanded up to $6 million to keep the data secret in extortion emails to HBO staff, some of which ended with photos of Night King, a menacing zombie villain from “Game of Thrones,” according to the indictment.
Reuters was unable reach Mesri for comment.
Prosecutors charged Mesri with computer fraud, wire fraud, extortion and identity theft.
HBO spokesman Jeff Cusson declined to comment on the indictment. ”As far as the criminal case is concerned, we prefer to leave any comments to the US Attorney’s Office,” he said in an email.
He declined to say if the company’s investigation into the breach was complete or how much the incident had cost the cable network.

Intel issues security alert for major vulnerability in firmware

According to a recent report from Ars Technica, Intel has issued a security alert regarding its management firmware on a number of recent PC, server and Internet-of-Things processor platforms which makes it vulnerable to remote attacks. First uncovered by Mark Ermolov and Maxim Goryachy of Positive Technologies Research, the vulnerabilities can be exploited by remote attackers to launch commands on a host of Intel-based computers dating back to 2015.

Attackers can access privileged system information and in order to protect the users, Intel has posted a detection tool on its support website which can identify systems that are vulnerable. Computer manufacturers are expected to roll out firmware upgrades in the coming weeks to patch the vulnerabilities. If you wish to check whether your system is vulnerable or not you can head to the support page and run the detection tool.

ProtonMail Launches 'Contacts' - The world's first Encrypted contact manager

ProtonMail, the popular end-to-end encrypted email service, recently launched a secure contacts management tool which is claimed to be the world's first encrypted contacts manager.

Dubbed 'ProtonMail Contacts', the service offers 'zero access encryption' which means even the company can't get access to the data stored by users on their cloud servers.

Moreover, the new offering also comes with a digital signature feature which makes it virtually impossible for malicious parties to tamper with the data and only allows users to decrypt and edit their contact information with a unique encryption key.

Instagram users can now send request to join a friend's live stream

Instagram is in the process of rolling out a new feature which allows users to send requests to their friends in order to join their live stream.

Following the release, Instagram users will be able to add a 'Request' button on their live video page which can be tapped by their friends to send a proposal for joining their live stream.

However, the feature only has support for two people in the live stream and once a request is accepted, the screen divides in half to accommodate two individuals in the live feed.

Jiochat partners with MillionLights to offer skill-based Education

The online learning platform, MillionLights, has launched its channel on Jiochat through which the company is planning to offer skill-based learning to Jio users on their mobile. The channel’s content is sourced from Microsoft, RedHat, Saylor, and other global initiatives.

Jiochat users will be able to get instant replies on queries related to skills, career prospects and improvement of employability. MillionLights CEO Akshat Shrivastava said, "We take pride in the fact that this initiative will empower millions of lives. Our vision is to give access to relevant content which is curated, and that helps up-skill our subscribers."

2018 Iphones to feature Gigabit LTE technology

According to an updated analysis of Apple's work on creating a 5G iPhone by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the company might adopt faster antenna modules in all of the iPhones expected to release next year.

Kuo details the antenna design in his report and explains that it will be a key factor in the "anticipated boost to LTE transmission speed" which will arrive with the 2018 iPhone lineup. He claims that the iPhones produced next year will be capable of supporting 4x4 MIMO standards which will significantly improve speeds for users.

A report from earlier this month revealed that Apple is working closely with Intel to develop the 5G modems for future iPhones.

Apple used illegal High school student labour to assemble the ipone X

According to a recent report from the Financial Times, Apple's supplier Foxconn has been employing students to illegally work overtime & help assemble the iPhone X. The circumstance became public when six students from Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School told that they were "forced" to work at the facility to complete internship requirements.

Apple has since then confirmed the news and said that it took action once it discovered the students were working overtime. The statement said, "During the course of a recent audit, we discovered instances of student interns working overtime at a supplier facility in China. We've confirmed the students worked voluntarily, were compensated and provided benefits, but they should not have been allowed to work overtime. A team of specialists is on-site at the facility working with the management on systems to ensure the appropriate standards are adhered to."

Google pushes UI Improvements with the Latest Android wear update

In an attempt to make using Android smartwatches more intuitive, Google has released an update for Android Wear (v2.6) which brings a number of improvements and UI tweaks. Here are all the changes introduced in the latest update:

Text size of notifications can now adapt to message length so that the entire message is displayed in one go.Users can now swipe down in Quick Settings to see their active connections (WiFi, Bluetooth, or Mobile).New progress indicator in notifications to check download progress.New Recent App complication which allows users to quickly launch the last-used app.Better prevention of accidental side-swipe and new long-press gestures.

Download Android Wear (v2.6) from the Google Play Store (Free)

Google Admits to collecting user location even when the setting is disabled

According to Quartz, Google tracked users' location even when the setting was turned off and there was no SIM card in the phone. This finding is quite surprising, and in fact, Google has admitted to doing it. A source familiar with the matter stated that Google added the cell tower data-collecting feature to improve its Firebase Cloud Messaging, where devices have to ping the server at regular intervals in order to receive messages promptly.

The result is that Google has access to data about individuals’ locations and their movements that go far beyond a reasonable consumer expectation of privacy. The company has also confirmed that an update that removes this cell tower data-collecting feature will roll out by the end of this month and Android phones will no longer send this data to Google.

Nova Launcher updates brings support for Adaptive icons & more

TeslaCoil Software has finally released a stable build of Nova Launcher (version 5.5) and it has brought a number of noteworthy changes to the highly customizable launcher, including adaptive icon support and pop-up menu among others.

Listed below are the key changes brought by the update:

Adaptive icon support: Nova launcher's updated version now has support for adaptive icons on devices running Android 5.0 or later versions.Docked search bar: The update also brings Android Oreo's search bar in the dock, whose position can be changed and can also be substituted with widgets.Pop-up menu similar to the one present on stock Android Oreo-running devices, aside from optimizations and bug fixes.

Download Nova Launcher from the Play Store (Free)

OnePlus confirms 'No project Treble support' for its smartphones

In a recently hosted AMA on its official forum, OnePlus has confirmed that the OnePlus 3, 3T, 5, and 5T will soon be updated to Android 8.1 Oreo, but they won't get support for Project Treble, Google's software solution for speeding up the process of rolling out Android updates.

Responding to a user's query about Project Treble support on the aforementioned OnePlus devices, a company executive named Adam Krisko said,"No, we are not currently supporting treble and do not plan to for these devices."

OnePlus 5T easily beats the iphone X in real world speed test!

Apple's iPhone X features the A11 Bionic chipset, claimed to be the world's fastest processor as per benchmark scores which doesn't quite translate into record-breaking performance in real life. According to a recent speed test in which it competes with the freshly launched OnePlus 5T, the iPhone X lags far behind its competitor.

The speed test, conducted by YouTuber 'EverythingApplePro', saw the Snapdragon 835-packing OnePlus 5T absolutely crush the iPhone X while launching and reloading a wide array of apps. Just to give you an idea, the iPhone X took 65 seconds to reload minimized apps, but the OnePlus 5T took a mere 30 seconds to do so.

Deleted WhatsApp message can still be accessed by Recipients.

WhatsApp recently introduced a feature which lets users delete sent messages, but according to a recent report from Spanish tech website Android Jefe, the deleted messages can still be accessed by the recipient. The deleted message exists on the recipient's device in form of a notification and with the use of proper software, it can be read even hours later.

The Android notification log, which records everything from a particular session, lists every single notification a user receives since their phone was last switched off. While a majority of data in the notification log is just technical information meant for developers, it also lists the first 100 characters of WhatsApp messages, including the deleted ones.

Users can access the notification log by either creating a home screen widget on a custom launcher that links to it or by downloading a notification history app which lists down all the notifications from the active session.