Tech

Microsoft plans to integrate a “buy now, pay later” app into Edge

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Ms is taking a lot of flak for planning to integrate a short-term financing app in to the company’s Edge browser. The app would allow users to make purchases immediately and pay for them at a future date. In recent years, Edge has built a following of users attracted to the […]

Tech

Google Play apps downloaded 300,000 times stole bank credentials

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Researchers said they’ve discovered a batch of apps downloaded from Google Play more than 300,000 times before the apps were revealed to be banking trojans that surreptitiously siphoned user passwords and two-factor authentication codes, logged keystrokes, and took screenshots. The apps—posing as QR scanners, PDF scanners, and cryptocurrency wallets—belonged to four […]

Tech

Tolkien estate vanquishes Lord of the Rings-themed cryptocurrency

Enlarge / A screenshot from jrrtoken.com. All similarities to LOTR were purely coincidental, apparently. The estate of J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings, has successfully vanquished a cryptocurrency that styled itself as “The One Token That Rules Them All.” The JRR Token cryptocurrency launched in August, with a website that featured […]

Tech

A grim milestone: I maxed out the number of spammy addresses Gmail can block

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) A few months ago, my G Suite-enabled Gmail account reached a grim milestone: with no warning, the “block [email address]” feature—available from the menu with the three vertical dots in the upper left of the Gmail screen—stopped working because I had maxed out the total number of addresses Google allows to […]

Tech

Locked out of “God mode,” runners are hacking their treadmills

Enlarge / NordicTrack owners aren’t giving up the fight just yet. (credit: Sam Whitney | Getty Images) JD Howard just wanted to watch cloud security tutorials. Howard, a construction industry worker on sabbatical, spent $4,000 on a NordicTrack X32i treadmill, lured in by its 32-inch HD screen and the opportunity to exercise body and mind. […]

Tech

DuckDuckGo wants to stop apps tracking you on Android

Enlarge / Gabriel Weinberg, creator of DuckDuckGo. (credit: Washington Post | Getty Images) At the end of April, Apple’s introduction of App Tracking Transparency tools shook the advertising industry to its core. iPhone and iPad owners could now stop apps from tracking their behavior and using their data for personalized advertising. Since the new privacy controls […]

Tech

Malware downloaded from PyPI 41, 000 times was surprisingly stealthy

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) PyPI—the open source repository that both large and small organizations use to download code libraries—was hosting 11 malicious packages that were downloaded more than 41, 000 times, in one of the latest reported such incidents threatening the software supply chain. JFrog, a security firm that monitors PyPI and other repositories […]

Tech

Ford and chipmaker announce noncommittal “partnership” to alleviate shortages

Enlarge (credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images) In an effort to combat the ongoing global chip shortage, chipmaker GlobalFoundries and the Ford Motor Company have announced a “strategic collaboration” today, both via press release and coverage in The Wall Street Journal. The “non-binding agreement,” according to the release, “opens the door” for GlobalFoundries to deliver more […]

Tech

Securing your digital life, the finale: Debunking worthless “security” practices

Enlarge / Take one daily to keep Evil Hackerman away! (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) Information security and privacy suffer from the same phenomenon we see in fighting COVID-19: “I’ve done my own research” syndrome. Many security and privacy practices are things learned second- or third-hand, based on ancient tomes or stuff we’ve seen […]

Tech

Securing your digital life, part three: How smartphones make us vulnerable

Enlarge / In this story, we’re going to learn about “pig butchering. ” (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images) There are, by some estimates, more smart phones on this planet than human beings to use them. People who have never used a desktop computer use smart phones and other mobile devices every day and have […]