In a series of hacks targeting Ring camera devices, attackers are terrifying homeowners and making them feel violated in their own homes after taunting them or speaking to their children over the device's speakers.

On December 12th, numerous media outlets reported that homeowner's Ring devices were being hacked and used to talk to people in their homes while they are making dinner, having breakfast, or playing in their rooms.

In one attack, the hacker has a creepy conversation with an eight-year-old girl while she in her room by herself and tells her to break her tv or "mess up your room".

In another hack, a person talks to a young boy and asks him what video games he plays, while the boy casually disconnects the Ring camera.

For the first time, BBC News published a news story for every constituency that declared election results overnight - all written by a computer.

It was the BBC's biggest test of machine-generated journalism so far.

Each of nearly 700 articles - most in English but 40 of them in Welsh - was checked by a human editor before publication.

The head of the project said the tech was designed to enhance the service provided rather than to replace humans.

Attention WordPress users!

Your website could easily get hacked if you are using "Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder," or "Ultimate Addons for Elementor" and haven't recently updated them to the latest available versions.

Security researchers have discovered a critical yet easy-to-exploit authentication bypass vulnerability in both widely-used premium WordPress plugins that could allow remote attackers to gain administrative access to sites without requiring any password.

What's more worrisome is that opportunistic attackers have already started exploiting this vulnerability in the wild within 2 days of its discovery in order to compromise vulnerable WordPress websites and install a malicious backdoor for later access.

A string of hacks on Ring and Nest security cameras are being linked back to a podcast that broadcasts the intrusions for laughs.

According to a report from Motherboard, a podcast dubbed NulledCast, has been involved in a number of hacks on the Amazon-owned Ring security cameras in which hackers commandeer the device's microphone to harass victims on the other side.

Just this week, a mother from Mississippi released a video of the team behind NulledCast talking to her eight-year-old daughter through a Ring security camera in her bedroom.

The group is also linked to an incident in Florida, in which one of the hosts who calls himself 'Chance,' hacked into a device to blare loud noises and berate a family with racial slurs, Vice reports.

Facebook is 'watching' you make purchases in physical store in order to show you relevant ads on its platform.

The social media giant has partnered with numerous retailers to gather customer data, allowing it to find profiles on the site and target them with specific ads.

However, users can opt-out of being severed ads by selecting 'Ads' in Facebook settings and choosing 'Not allowed' under 'ads based on data from partners'.

The recordings she and her co-workers were listening to were often intense, awkward, or intensely awkward. Lonely sounding people confessing intimate secrets and fears: a boy expressing a desire to rape; men hitting on Alexa like a crude version of Joaquin Phoenix in Her. And as the transcription program grew along with Alexa’s popularity, so did the private information revealed in the recordings. Other contractors recall hearing kids share their home address and phone number, a man trying to order sex toys, a dinner party guest wondering aloud whether Amazon was snooping on them at that very instant. “There’s no frickin’ way they knew they were being listened to,” Slatis says. “These people didn’t agree to this.” She quit in 2016.

Video showing a hacker talking to a young girl in her bedroom via her family's Ring camera has been shared on social media amid warnings people need to secure the devices better.

The hacker tells the young girl: "It's Santa. It's your best friend."

Technology website Motherboard reported online forums used by hackers were offering software making it easier to break into such devices.

Ring owner Amazon said the incident was not related to a security breach.

MX Linux is a cooperative venture between the antiX and former MEPIS communities, using the best tools and talents from each distro. It is a midweight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint.

Microsoft has confirmed that 44 million account details have been leaked. If your details were published online, you will need to change any other accounts that use the same email address and password combination – since hackers will be able to login to any with the same details.

That could leaves users’ social media accounts, email address, or worse yet, bank details vulnerable to cybercriminals.

The vast leak was unearthed by Microsoft’s threat research team. They carried out a routine scan of all Microsoft accounts between January and March – these details were then compared with a database of more than three billion sets of leaked login credentials. Out of the three billion or more, Microsoft got 44 million matches. It’s unclear how these email address and passwords were stolen and published online.

CHINA has ordered all its government offices and public institutions to remove American computers amid trade negotiations between the two countries failing to progress.

The aim of the move is reportedly to increase China’s reliance on home-made technologies. But this is likely to hit US companies such as HP, Dell and Microsoft hard. Analysts at Jefferies say that US technology companies generate as much as $150bn a year in revenues from China.

A software glitch is preventing the BBC's iPlayer streaming service from running on many of Samsung's smart TVs.

Affected owners are being advised to download a software update.

But the patch does not work on some older models, which will have to wait until next year to get a separate fix.

The BBC has said that it expects thousands, but not tens of thousands, of screens to be unable to use its catch-up service over Christmas as a consequence.

By Aaron Kesel

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”? Benito Mussolini

Jeff Bezos has embraced fascism, criticizing Silicon Valley for employees of companies like Google who don’t wish to work with the military. Bezos made the comments during a Department Of Defense contractor meetup on Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum, Defense One reported.

“One of the things that’s happening inside of technology companies is there are groups of employees who, for example, think technology companies should not work with the Department of Defense,” Jeff Bezos said Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum. “People are entitled to their opinions, but it is the job of a senior leadership team to say no,” he said.

“My view is, if big tech is going to turn their back on the Department of Defense, this country is in trouble,” he said. “That just can’t happen.”...

One man’s conspiracy theory is another man’s truth – so why not let individuals decide for themselves rather than controlling what they’re allowed to watch?

Show of hands: who remembers SecuROM? Alright, put your hands down, we can't see each other anyway. So, SecuROM was a really bad DRM used by several publishers to "protect" video games, by which I mean it mostly just annoyed legitimate buyers, got some of those publishers sued, and ultimately made the game unplayable on modern operating systems. The track record is enough to make you wonder why anyone would use DRM at all after this whole debacle.

But... it's still happening. Back in 2010, Disney released the game Tron: Evolution. The game was laced with SecuROM and suffered many of the same problems as previously described. As an example of how you don't really own what you buy anymore, the game simply bricked when Disney decided not to renew its SaaS subscription for SecuROM software.

Murder, torture, child abuse: each day we see things that keep us awake at night. Yet Mark Zuckerberg calls us ‘overdramatic’

It’s been a devastating few weeks for Android users. There have been warnings over dozens of apps capable of generating money for criminals behind your back using adware, and an app that could reinstall itself whenever users tried to delete the harmful programme from their handset – Android users don't have to install anything to be vulnerable. And then there was StrandHogg – a flaw the allows hackers to create a fake login page pretending to be a legitimate banking app on your handset, siphoning off your bank login details.

Worse still, StrandHogg will still direct users to the legitimate app once they’ve inputted their details. So, from your perceptive, all you’ve done is log into your banking app – unaware that hackers have just been handed over all the details they need to do the same.

Cybersecurity researchers have spotted a new variant of the Snatch ransomware that first reboots infected Windows computers into Safe Mode and only then encrypts victims' files to avoid antivirus detection.

Unlike traditional malware, the new Snatch ransomware chooses to run in Safe Mode because in the diagnostic mode Windows operating system starts with a minimal set of drivers and services without loading most of the third-party startup programs, including antivirus software.

Snatch has been active since at least the summer of 2018, but SophosLabs researchers spotted the Safe Mode enhancement to this ransomware strain only in recent cyber attacks against various entities they investigated.

By Aaron Kesel

The Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) branch has reversed a previous proposed plan to require all U.S. citizens to participate in its facial recognition entry/exit programs after backlash, Nextgov reported.

Earlier this week Reuters reported that the Trump administration intends to propose a regulation next year that would require all travelers – including U.S. citizens – to be photographed when entering or leaving the United States.

Since CBP’s facial recognition program started in September 2018, U.S. citizens and green card holders have technically been exempt from participating, although passengers have to actively opt out...

Earlier this week, security reporter Brian Krebs published a story explaining that Apple's latest iPhones (iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro) periodically check the user's location even if the user disables location services individually for each and every app and service in the iPhone's Settings app.

Further Reading
iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max review: High quality for high prices
While this behavior ended when the user disabled location services system-wide, it was a bit of a head-scratcher. What was the iPhone doing and why? Was it sending this information to Apple? Why couldn't users find information on what was happening? Krebs had notified Apple of the issue as a potential security problem back in mid November, but the company responded this week stating:

By B.N. Frank

In August the Chicago Tribune published a report that 11 smartphone models exceeded federal RF safety levels. This led to FeganScott law firm starting a class action lawsuit against Apple and Samsung. Consumers claim they were not adequately warned about radiation exposure risks from these devices. Thanks to FeganScott for providing updates about their progress...

A cyberthreat actor has created a web site that promotes a fake VPN program that installs the Vidar and CryptBot password-stealing trojans. These trojans will then attempt to steal saved browser credentials and other information from a victim's computer.

While investigating a different malware infection, BleepingComputer stumbled upon a website promoting a VPN program called 'Inter VPN' that claims to be the "fastest VPN". It then shows an image of the VPN client, which is actually an image of the legitimate VPN Pro software.

Watching more than two hours of screens a day may harm the structural integrity of white matter in preschoolers' brains, with implications for language and literacy skills. Children under 2 years shouldn't use screens, but even those 2 and over may face lifelong consequences of too much screen time during childhood

You may want to think twice before gifting your child a new tablet or cellphone this holiday season, as increasing research suggests screen time may cause more harm than good.

More than 14,000 premium models were stolen between January and October this year, according to an analysis of insurance claims by Direct Line.

That is more than double the amount over the same period in 2015 and means a luxury vehicle is stolen once every 38 minutes on Britain's roads.

Police and insurance firms believe the rise is partly because modern keyless cars provide easy pickings for thieves.

Linux users can now stream shows and movies from the Disney+ streaming service after Disney lowering the level of their DRM requirements.

If your Firefox or Chrome browser has any of the below-listed four extensions offered by Avast and its subsidiary AVG installed, you should disable or remove them as soon as possible.

Librem 5 Features

Purism, the maker of a line of built-for-Linux laptops, is now shipping a built-for-Linux smartphone. The company announced this week that the Librem 5 smartphone is now shipping to early backers of the crowdsourced, $699 smartphone project.

The Librem 5 is unlike anything else on the market. Not only is it one of the only smartphones on Earth that doesn't ship with Android, a fork of Android, or iOS—Purism's commitment to 100% open software, with no binary blobs, puts severe restrictions on what hardware it can use. Android's core might be open source, but it was always built for wide adoption above all else, with provisions for manufacturers to include as much proprietary code as they want. Purism's demand that everything be open means most of the major component manufacturers were out of the question.

Facebook quietly rolled out a chatbot to help employees tackle questions that family and friends may ask about its disastrous reputation over the holidays.

The tool, called ‘Liam Bot’, navigates employees through tough and uncomfortable questions about Facebook’s many controversies using a series of points.

The answers are said to have been written by Facebook’s public relationship team and lineup with the executive team’s statements on such things as free speech, election meddling and more.

Almost 700 students at the University of Ghent had their mobile phone use tracked and compared to their test scores.

Researchers found that intense phone use well above the norm — around five times in an hour-long lecture — causes a five per cent drop in exam scores compared to someone who shuns their device.

Anything more significant than using the device to check the time was taken into consideration, including using social media, using the internet or playing games.

The drop-off in exam scores is also linked with a higher chance of failing.

Phone-obsessed students were eight per cent more likely to flunk, sporting a 60.6 per cent pass rate, compared to the 68.9 per cent pass rate for those capable of leaving their handset face down.

A security researcher found that Apple's latest smartphone periodically seeks the user's location even when all applications and system services are set to never request.

The Cupertino company, however, is aware the handset collects location data and said it is 'expected behavior'.

The discovery was made by Brian Krebs of KrebsonSecuirty, a source that conducts in-depth investigations into security issues, who found the issue occurs with the iPhone 11 Pro running on Apple iOS 13.2.3.

Germany's largest retailer sees AMD domination with 82% market share, Intel losing big time

A vulnerability in millions of fully patched Android phones is being actively exploited by malware that's designed to drain the bank accounts of infected users, researchers said on Monday.

The vulnerability allows malicious apps to masquerade as legitimate apps that targets have already installed and come to trust, researchers from security firm Promon reported in a post. Running under the guise of trusted apps already installed, the malicious apps can then request permissions to carry out sensitive tasks, such as recording audio or video, taking photos, reading text messages or phishing login credentials. Targets who click yes to the request are then compromised.

Researchers with Lookout, a mobile security provider and a Promon partner, reported last week that they found 36 apps exploiting the spoofing vulnerability.

Once you realize most things you search for online are boring and obvious, you realize you don't really need Google in your life.

Mozilla Observatory, an online site-scanning service operated by the nonprofit company behind the Firefox web browser, rates Giuliani Security & Safety’s website an “F” for basic connection security, with a score of 0 out of 100. In a suite of 11 tests, the Giuliani Security & Safety site passes just 3, according to Mozilla.

Amazon-owned home surveillance company Ring gave law enforcement a heat map that let police see all devices installed in an area, allowing them to view users down to the street level, according to a new report from CNET.

While the feature was removed in July, law enforcement could reportedly use the function to search for the concentration of cameras in a neighborhood, and even see circles drawn around individual user locations. The documents that revealed the feature were obtained by a privacy researcher and shared with the publication.

According to reports, the Jeff Bezos empire has formed a partnership with law enforcement that involves Amazon handing over facial recognition data from people’s Ring doorbell systems, which are equipped with tiny cameras and wi-fi systems that relay everything they “see” back to Amazon, which then sends it to local police departments.

While these extensions certainly appear useful, security researcher Wladimir Palant reported that these extensions are sending a large amount of tracking data about a user's browsing habits to https://uib.ff.avast.com/v5/urlinfo.

This data includes the URL visited, page title, the referer, your OS version, a unique user identifier, your country code, whether you previously visited the page, and other information. With the large amount of info being sent, Palant is concerned that the security companies could use this information to reconstruct a user's browsing history.

A "major" security weakness in Google's Android software has let cyber-thieves craft apps that can steal banking logins, a security firm has found.

The bug lets attackers create fake login screens that can be inserted into legitimate apps to harvest data.

More than 60 financial institutions have been targeted by the technique, a survey of the Play store indicated.

Google said it had taken action to close the loophole and was keen to find out more about its origins.

For many people, watching television is a beloved pastime — but could your smart TV be watching you in return?

As discount smart TVs fly off the shelves in Cyber Monday sales, the FBI has issued a warning that the internet-connected devices can allow hackers access to your home.

Connected televisions with cameras and microphones can provide an opening for bad actors to spy on you and violate your privacy, they warned.

By Jamie Redman

On November 26, a new Silk Road video was published that reveals underreported and never-before-seen information. The film called the Silk Road Case: The Real, Untold Story contains over 400 references to direct evidence from a wide range of sources. The organization Freeross.org published the video on YouTube and called it “the most comprehensive, researched narrative about Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht’s case.”...

By B.N. Frank

Most disruption predicted in San Jose, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Boulder, Detroit, Huntsville, Louisville, and more…

82% of Americans think Artificial Intelligence (AI) is more harmful than helpful. Reports indicate there are many good reasons for this and it’s not just about massive job loss.

Proponents insist we’ll all be okay though – we just need UBI (Universal Basic Income). $1000/month might be okay for some, but not everyone could live off that. For those who manage to keep their jobs – they’ll still be more “exposed” to AI. They also may be forced to “merge” with it...