iphone – Page 265 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Somebody Just Claimed a $1 Million Bounty For Hacking the iPhone

citadrianne writes with news that security startup Zerodium has just paid a group of hackers $1 million for finding a remote jailbreak of an iPhone running iOS 9. Vice reports: “Over the weekend, somebody claimed the $1 million bounty set by the new startup Zerodium, according to its founder Chaouki Bekrar, a notorious merchant of unknown, or zero-day, vulnerabilities. The challenge consisted of finding a way to remotely jailbreak a new iPhone or iPad running the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system iOS (in this case iOS 9.1 and 9.2b), allowing the attacker to install any app he or she wants app with full privileges. The initial exploit, according to the terms of the challenge, had to come through Safari, Chrome, or a text or multimedia message. This essentially meant that a participant needed to find a series, or a chain, of unknown zero-day bugs.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Somebody Just Claimed a $1 Million Bounty For Hacking the iPhone

Copyright exemption lets you modify old games to keep them running

You no longer have to dread the day that a game developer shuts off its servers and renders your favorite title unplayable. As part of a series of DMCA copyright exemptions, the US Library of Congress has granted long-sought permission to disable authentication server requirements in games where a server’s shutdown will completely break the experience. Historians can even hack the consoles themselves, if necessary. This doesn’t allow you to tweak games where you’d only lose multiplayer modes, but it does mean that at least some aspects of a classic game will live on. Via: Electronic Frontier Foundation Source: Copyright.gov (PDF)

The IRS has used Stingray phone-tracking tech

This year, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice have thankfully put into place more stringent regulations on how government agencies can use ” Stingray ” cellphone-tracking devices. However, we’re also learning more about how widespread usage of such tools was within the government: Today, The Guardian reports that the Internal Revenue Service made purchases in 2009 and 2012 of Stingray equipment from manufacturer Harris Corporation. The documents it received as part of a Freedom of Information Act request were heavily redacted but still revealed that in 2012, the IRS paid more than $65, 000 to upgrade previous Stingray equipment to a newer version called the HailStorm. Source: The Guardian

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The IRS has used Stingray phone-tracking tech

Nanofiber gel and snake venom work together to stop the bleeding

Researchers at Rice University announced a novel use for batroxobin , a hemotoxic component in the venom of two South American pit viper species. They’ve figured out how to leverage it as a potent anticoagulant — when combined with a nanofiber hydrogel called SB50 — that could save countless lives in surgery. Medical science has actually been employing batroxobin as a topical clotting agent and thrombosis treatment since the mid 1930s. But more importantly, it’s been shown to stop the flow of blood even if the patient is on heparin, a powerful anticoagulant administered before some surgeries. Via: Rice University Newsroom Source: Rice University

Update Facebook on iOS now to keep it from draining your battery

Facebook users on iOS have had a sneaking suspicion that the app was starting to misbehave, to the detriment of their phone’s battery life. After saying it was looking into the issue, Facebook has now confirmed the problem and pushed out an update to the iOS app to help offer some relief. Facebook engineering manager Ari Grant said as much in a post today on (where else) Facebook, saying that the company “found a few key issues and have identified additional improvements, some of which are in the version of the app that was released today.” While there’s more Facebook says it can do to lessen battery draing, updating the app today should provide some immediate relief. Source: Facebook

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Update Facebook on iOS now to keep it from draining your battery

Apple Tells US Judge It’s ‘Impossible’ To Break Through Locks On New iPhones

An anonymous reader writes: Apple told a U.S. judge that accessing data stored on a locked iPhone would be “impossible” with devices using its latest operating system, but the company has the “technical ability” to help law enforcement unlock older phones. Apple’s position was laid out in a brief filed late Monday, after a federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn, New York, sought its input as he weighed a U.S. Justice Department request to force the company to help authorities access a seized iPhone during an investigation. In court papers, Apple said that for the 90 percent of its devices running iOS 8 or higher, granting the Justice Department’s request “would be impossible to perform” after it strengthened encryption methods. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Apple Tells US Judge It’s ‘Impossible’ To Break Through Locks On New iPhones

iOS and OS X updates arrive with a ton of new emoji

If you’ve ever wanted to text taco pics from your iPhone or give the middle finger from your Mac, today’s your lucky day. Apple has released iOS 9.1 and OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 , both of which add a slew of new Unicode emoji ranging from Mexican food through to rude gestures. There are some important under-the-hood fixes, too. Your iPhone 6s or 6s Plus is now smart enough to stop recording Live Photos when you lower the device, and OS X shouldn’t run into trouble with Office 2016 . Whichever platform you’re using, you’ll likely want to update pronto — if just to see the cutesy characters you’d otherwise miss. [Image credit: Emojipedia ] Source: MacRumors (1) , (2)

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iOS and OS X updates arrive with a ton of new emoji

Researchers have found that a malicious Chinese ad network, used in over 250 iOS apps, has been sile

Researchers have found that a malicious Chinese ad network, used in over 250 iOS apps, has been silently collecting user data including serial numbers and email addresses. Apple has already begun removing these apps from the App Store, but you can read more here . Read more…

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Researchers have found that a malicious Chinese ad network, used in over 250 iOS apps, has been sile

Even with Background App Refresh Off, Facebook’s Killing Your iPhone’s Battery

In iOS 8, Apple allowed apps to run in the background so they can stay up to date without you opening them. This tends to kill the battery life, but thankfully you can easily turn the feature off. However, doing that for the Facebook app doesn’t seem to make a difference. Read more…

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Even with Background App Refresh Off, Facebook’s Killing Your iPhone’s Battery

Apple already blocked the first malware for non-jailbroken iPhones

With certain exceptions , most iOS-focused malware targets jailbroken devices whose compromised security makes them easy prey. However, there’s been concerns that a recent strain of malware, YiSpecter , can attack even ‘pure’ devices running stock iOS. Do you have to worry about catching a bug online and losing control over your device? Probably not, if you ask Apple. In a statement to The Loop , the company notes that it not only fixed the vulnerability with iOS 8.4 , but blocked the apps handing out the offending code. The victims downloaded apps from “untrusted sources” (that is, outside of the App Store) Cupertino adds. In short, Apple believes this is a non-issue as long as you install updates and stay cautious — and given that more than half of its users are already running iOS 9, it might be right. Via: AppleInsider Source: The Loop

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Apple already blocked the first malware for non-jailbroken iPhones