Instagram has steadily been growing to become one of the most prominent social media platform over the last couple of years. With user base numbers easily crossing several hundreds of millions, there will always be “bad company”. Potential hackers that seek to harm or exploit are found in every major website or social platform. However, Instagram in its bid to strengthen its defences against these parties is now making accounts safer and easier than before to recover.
Numerous people had gone online to voice their grievances regarding their accounts that were broken into by hackers in 2018. Instagram now seeks to make the process of recovering users [...]
Back in early 2016, WhatsApp introduced end-to-end encryption for WhatsApp chats. However, a new report claims that the group chats in WhatsApp can be easily infiltrated. A group of German cryptographers have discovered flaws in WhatsApp’s encryption that makes this possible.
The cryptographers from Ruhr University Bochum in Germany announced this at the “Real World Crypto Security Conference in Zurich, Switzerland on the 10th of January. The report from Wired says:
Anyone who controls the app’s servers could insert new people into private group chats without needing admin permission. The [...]
OnePlus cannot seem to catch a break. A few days after it was revealed that OnePlus left an application that allowed backdoor entry to OnePlus devices, a new application has been found recording sensitive data and storing it unencrypted inside the phone. This app is reportedly called OnePlusLogKit and, like its name suggests, logs an extensive amount of user data.
The same researcher who exposed the EngineerMode app a few days ago has made the new revelation as well. The researcher wrote in a post that all of the user data stored by this app is unencrypted, and also added that this data could also likely be sent to China. The researcher, who goes by the moniker of Elliot [...]
Some digging into the deep system apps on OnePlus phones has resulted in the exposure of the vulnerability that OnePlus devices possess. A developer has found an application that can be manipulated into to granting a backdoor root access. In a Twitter thread, the developer explained how he was able to gain root access and surprisingly, the app has been pre-installed on all current OnePlus phones, and on OxygenOS for OnePlus One.
<Thread> Hey @OnePlus! I don't think this EngineerMode APK must be in an user build…????This app is a system app made by @Qualcomm and customised by @OnePlus. It's used by the operator in the factory to test [...]
Internet warfare and cyber espionage has been going on for a while now. Hackers breaking into secret government records, swindling banks off their money or just simply having a laugh on the internet is something not unheard of at all in contemporary times. Therefore it’s only natural that we talk about some of the most well-executed hacks that made the world sit-up and listen.
1. First Worm on the Internet (1990):
I only wanted to see the size of the web -is what Robert Morris said in 1988 when he was caught for creating what would be known as the first worm on the Internet. He tried hiding his online trail by releasing the worm from MIT, instead of Cornell where [...]
Ku Klux Klan is a white supremacist group in the United States of America and Anonymous is a self-proclaimed “hacktivist” group. How are the two even connected? Well, recent reports tell us that Anonymous hacked into KKK’s Twitter account and have furthermore vowed to release the names of about one thousand Ku Klux Klan members.
We've gained access to yet another KKK Twitter account. Using the info obtained, we will be revealing about 1000 klan member identities.
— Operation KKK (@Operation_KKK) October 22, 2015
This is not the first time that Anonymous has taken upon itself the responsibility to reveal the [...]
Next time you think of leaving your wired headphones plugged into your iOS or Android phone, think again. The wires of headphones act as antennae which can be used to hack into your phone with the right equipment. Welcome to the world of hacking where radiowaves are the newest tool.
A group of researchers at a French government security unit have figured out a way to send silent commands to phones. All that they needed was a laptop and an antennae -things that fit pretty much in a bag.
Like FM radio chips, the antenna on the headphones catch radiowaves to convey the command of the hacker to your handset. Depending on these commands, your phone can be used to make calls, [...]
Dow Jones and Co. ran into a security breach when records of over 3,500 employees were broken into. The cyber-attack involved carte blanche access to payment card and contact information of the people involved. The publishing and financial information firm said in an official statement:
“Out of an abundance of caution, we are notifying you that we recently determined there was unauthorized access to our systems. While we recognize that no company is immune to cyberattacks, we are committed to doing everything we can to protect our customers.”
The goal of the hack is mostly assumed to be an attempt to obtain contact information and send fraudulent [...]
Stagefright, Android’s media playback system, was found with a bug earlier this year in July. The bug allowed hackers to break into any device by simply sending a specifically structured text message. However Google promptly responded to this and fixed the bug.
You ask how is this news relevant now, in a world of iPhone launches and Google events, about half a year away from Stagefright’s illness? The answer lies with a similar discovery made by Zimperium, the same company which had earlier found this bug. Stagefright is open to two such similar bugs and requires no more than a certain kind of multimedia message this time.
This basically means that a hacker [...]
Heads up, iOS 9 users. In what seems to be another of the many disappointing updates about Apple, it has been revealed that your photos and contact details are open to access by others in seven basic steps. This comes in wake of the recent breach of security in Apple’s iOS App Store.
If you thought your iPhone’s lock code and TouchID can protect your data from hacking, it’s time to burst that little bubble with the following seven steps:
The first step requires you to enter a wrong password four times on your PIN-protected Apple device which runs on iOS [...]A few days back, Sony Pictures faced an unprecedented cyber attack where all the computers connected to its servers got hacked. All the computers of this major studio were rendered inaccessible. The hackers warned that if their demands weren’t met, they would release sensitive data. They had released .zip files that showed all the data that they had acquired by their contemptible doxxing of the company’s systems. The hackers have now released many upcoming and recently leaked movies from the production house online, along with other important documents. The hacker group, which calls itself Guardians of Peace or #GOP, is now linked to the hermit kingdom of [...]
The free text messaging app on your phone can be used to occupy your personal information. Hackers and cyber security professionals have claimed that internet companies can access a mobile user’s chat logs and phone data, which includes location, contacts, mail and much more, through some of the free texting apps.
As per TOI, a team of young hackers demonstrated on Sunday how text messages sent through a Chinese free texting app can be decrypted. They said foreign governments could also be using this method to access data for surveillance or spying.
Participants at The Hackers Conference in Delhi on Sunday [...]
