Jayendra Makwana

Friday, April 10, 2015

Why You Need to Update to OS X 10.10.3 Now

Updates to your operating system aren't just to get cool new features. In fact, their primary raison d'être is to provide vital security updates that patch holes and vulnerabilities. Such is the case with Mac OS X 10.10.3, which fixes a potentially devastating flaw, but only for OS X Yosemite users.

Emil Kvarnhammar, writing for Swedish security firm TrueSec's blog, explained that he discovered a nasty vulnerability known as Rootpipe back in October 2014. It took Apple six months, but the manufacturer did finally issue a patch in its most recent security update. The only trouble is that not everyone will receive it.

MORE: Apple's New 12-inch Retina MacBook Reviewed

As Kvarnhammar points out, Mac OS X 10.9.x and older will not receive the patch, necessitating an update to 10.10.3 as soon as possible. To be clear, this means that if you are running OS X Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion or Snow Leopard, you are missing out on a very important security update.

Rootpipe is a hack developed by Kvarnhammar himself that takes advantage of a backdoor in Apple's application program interface. Basically, it takes advantage of a hole in a Mac operating system's code, then escalates privilege so that any user can pretend to be an administrator. From there, hijacking the computer is child's play, as is installing all manner of spyware or malware

One important thing to keep in mind is that Kvarnhammar is a researcher, and Rootpipe is a proof-of-concept. There is no evidence that hackers are currently taking advantage of this exploit in the wild.

However, Kvarnhammar shared some details about the process in his blog post, and will give a whole talk about it at Security Conference 2015 in Stockholm on May 28. After that, an enterprising malefactor could probably piece together a similar program.

Many Mac users are hesitant to upgrade to Yosemite because it has the potential to slow down older systems (most Macs from 2007 or later are eligible for a free upgrade), perhaps necessitating the purchase of an expensive new machine. We leave it to you to weigh a nasty security risk against a machine that runs at peak efficiency, and decide which is more important.

Google's latest patent could put spoilers to bed

Has Facebook or Twitter become spoiler-filled ground you fear to tread because you can't watch "Game of Thrones" as it airs? Google's got your back.

The search giant was granted a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday for a "system and method for processing content spoilers." The proposed filter would identify spoilers about TV shows, books and movies and remove them from your social media feeds until you're up to date.

Google's patent takes it a step further than a simple keyword-based filter that blocks all related content, though. Rather than sticker every post about a certain show or book with a spoiler warning, the patent proposes a system that tracks, for example, all the episodes of a show that users have watched. It could then automatically censor content in a user's feed if the post is about an episode the user hasn't seen for themselves.

An illustration of how the spoiler blocker may filter posts.USPTO/Google

The post itself would still appear, but if the system thinks it detects a spoiler, the content would be censored. And, on the off chance you succumb to temptation, you can click past the spoiler tag and see what was posted. But don't say you weren't warned.

Of course, this would all depend on users either manually logging or opting in to having their viewing tracked, similar to how Netflix currently tracks viewing and posts to connected social media accounts. But with streaming on-demand content fast becoming the new norm and people tweeting their reactions to red weddings as soon as they happen, the potential for integration and the need to give unwanted spoilers the boot is definitely there.

However, don't expect it to keep your feeds safe any time soon. "We hold patents on a variety of ideas -- some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don't," a Google spokeswoman said in a statement. "Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patents."

The patent doesn't outline what social media accounts the system would filter, and there's no word on how Google would integrate the system with social networks it doesn't own. But with audiences living under a spoilerific Sword of Damocles, a smart spoiler blocker would certainly be a better option than, say, staying off social media.

from http://www.cnet.com/

Monday, April 6, 2015

Android Apps Can Now Be Run On Mac Or PC With Google Chrome

WASHINGTON — Google has now made Android applications available on Windows / Linux PC, Mac, or Chromebook with the company's convergence of Chrome and Android wherein users can download Android application package (APK) on existing Android app to launch it.

According to the Verge, users simply need to download the ARC Welder app and obtain APKs from Google's Play Store.

However, only one app can be loaded at a time and users need to select landscape or portrait layout and whether they need to run in phone- or tablet-style.

Multiple apps can be loaded by selecting download ZIP option in Arc Welder and extracting it and then enabling extension developer mode to load the folder of the extracted APK.

Developers will need to optimize their apps for ARC, and some Google Play Services are also supported right now, making that process a lot easier.

Android malware reduced by 50% says Google

WASHINGTON: Google has said that malware infections onAndroid devices have been cut in half in the past year following security upgrades for the mobile platform.

In a security review for 2014, Google said it made significant strides for the platform long seen as weak on security.

Android security engineer Adrian Ludwig said in a blog post that the overall worldwide rate of potentially harmful applications installed dropped by nearly 50% between the first quarter and the fourth quarter of the year.

Google 'declares war' on China's biggest web registrar

Washington: Google has declared war on China's biggest web registrar, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), due to its "bad behavior."

In its security blog post, Google made it clear that it would no longer accept HTTPS certificates from the CNNIC, effectively cutting the registrar out of the SSL system that secures the web. HTTPS certificates ensure that web content cannot be intercepted in transit and CNNIC controls that process for the whole Chinese web, The Verge reported.

Defending its decision, Google argued that CNNIC was not careful enough in handling how its certificates were used as recently an Egyptian web company used its certificates to carry out a man-in-the-middle attack.

Meanwhile, CNNIC has strongly protested against Google's decision, calling it "unacceptable" and "unintelligible." It urged the tech giant to take users' rights and interest into full consideration.

Although CNNIC's existing certificates would still be valid, but new ones would not be issued. In order to recertify itself, CNNIC has already started working through Google's Certificate Transparency process.

CNNIC 's share of the certificate market is already very small, representing less than 0.1 percent of the certificates used on the web, as the Chinese government discourages the use of HTTPS by Chinese web companies as a way to reinforce the Great Firewall.

Google X Head: I m Afraid of People's Reactions to Technology

Google X’s moonshot division is in the business of pushing technology’s capabilities to their limits.

“When we say moonshots, what we mean is that we're shooting for things that are 10 times better, not incremental improvements,” Astro Teller, Google X’s ‘Captain of Moonshots’ told the audience at his keynote SXSW Panel this year, Moonshots and Reality. Current moonshots include Project Loon, which aims to connect the entire global population to the digital world through a network of balloons, Project Ara, a development effort to create a modular hardware ecosystem, self-driving cars and (until recently) Google Glass.

The projects span industries, but share common characteristics and a common goal: they work to find a solution to a big problem that affects many people, they propose to fix the problem in an innovative way, and they incorporate “a hard technical thing that we think we can maneuver and solve that would make a science fiction sounding proposal possible.”

Some of these moonshots, particularly Google Glass and to a lesser extent, self-driving cars, have been met with resistance from the public; a common objection to Google Glass is that it violates personal privacy, which baffles Teller. “I’m amazed by how sensitively people respond to some of the privacy issues,” Teller said. While he understands overarching privacy concerns, “Google Glass did not move the needle, it was literally a rounding error on the number of cameras in your life.”

In general, the public’s response to new, cutting-edge technological advancements concerns him. “I’m afraid of people’s reactions to technology,” he said bluntly, noting that although technology’s rate of change is rapidly accelerating, our laws, regulations and social norms aren’t keeping pace: “That’s what makes me afraid. Because when those things start to widen, as a society we get scared, and scared people do dumb things.”

A telling example of the way regulation often lags behind technology: Google’s self-driving cars – which don’t have steering wheels, acceleration pedals or breaks, but do have mirrors and windshields. “I have a sadly good answer…that’s the law,” Teller said when asked why the mirrors were included. “You’re not required to have a steering wheel, but you are required to have rear-view mirrors.”

While Teller said that he understands society’s concerns – “I’m not saying all technologies are OK” – he believes the pace at which we digest, process and respond to technological advancements needs to speed up. “I would rather we keep pace and feel confident rather than afraid, because then we can make good decisions about how we want technology to affect our lives.”