John Lister

A malicious network of 500,000 computers used to spread malware around the globe has been taken over by do-gooders in an apparent hijack meant to foil cyber criminals. Victims of the botnet have not only found the stealth malware removed from their ... system, but are also receiving an on screen warning to update their computers. It appears the malware creators are themselves the victim of a hack attack by an online vigilante. Phorpiex Botnet a Decade Old, 500k Strong The malware concerned is distributed through the Phorpiex botnet, which has been operating for nearly 10 years. A botnet is a ... (view more)

New York state senators want a legal ban on local governments paying ransomware demands. The bipartisanship move is based on the idea that paying up simply incentivises the attacks. Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts files on a hard ... drive so that they become unusable. Cyber criminals then demand a hefty ransom to unlock the files. Two state senators, one Democrat and one Republican, have each proposed broadly similar bills. They are currently in the committee stage and its likely that one will go ahead to a full vote of the New York State Senate. Both bills are based on similar ... (view more)

Microsoft has issued one extra fix for Windows 7 after it passed the deadline for security updates to the system. In an all-too-familiar move, the extra update fixed a problem caused by the final scheduled update. January 14, 2020 officially marked ... the end of Windows 7's Extended Support period . During the Extended Support period, Microsoft no longer added new features or offered free support, but did issue security patches, fixed major bugs and offered chargeable support for consumers. That's now over and the official position is that there will be no further updates of any kind for Windows ... (view more)

Ransomware attackers could turn a key Windows security tool against the system, according to new research. The tactic could also evade leading security tools. The research from SafeBreach Labs covered "EFS", otherwise known as Encrypting File ... System. EFS was released as far back as Windows 2000 (in the year 2000), and is somewhat similar to Bitlocker. The main difference between the two is that Bitlocker can encrypt an entire volume, while EFS can encrypt individual files and folders. In either case, the reason for encrypting files / folders or an entire volume is that if an ... (view more)

Reports suggest that Apple has been pressured by the FBI to drop plans to improve the security of its customer backups. The plan was to better encrypt backups on the iCloud service. iCloud serves two purposes: it's a way for Apple users to store ... data and documents online and access them from anywhere (from any Apple device) with a password; it's also a way to automatically backup the contents of iPads and iPhones. Data from the iCloud is stored on Apple servers in an encrypted format, which means that if somebody gained access to the files (either through a remote hack, or a physical breach ... (view more)

The Chrome browser may soon put less drain on processors and battery life in Windows 10. Perhaps surprisingly, that's because of changes made by Microsoft rather than Google. The relevant tweaks were discovered by Microsoft as part of its work to ... rebuild the Edge browser that comes with Windows 10. Originally it ran on Microsoft code, but the new version of Edge is now based on Chromium. For those unaware, Chromium is an open source project, which is the basis of Google's Chrome browser. Microsoft found one cause of battery drain was disk caching during online video playback. In simple terms ... (view more)

Google says it will block third-party cookies, which can track Internet users in ways they don't expect. But it could be up to two years before the block is fully in place. A cookie is a small text file placed on a user's computer by a website. The ... idea is the site can check for the cookie later on and customize the users' web experience. Examples of 'legitimate' cookie use would be an online store that holds items in a virtual 'shopping basket', and a movie theater chain's site 'remembering' a user's location to automatically show them local listings. The more controversial variant is third- ... (view more)

The National Security Agency (NSA) has told Microsoft about a major Windows 10 bug which also affects Windows Server 2016 and 2019. A patch is already available and is a must install. For the NSA to tell Microsoft about a Windows vulnerability and ... then discuss it publicly is relatively rare. In the past, the NSA has used such security flaws to take advantage of potential suspects, as part of its surveillance program. In this case, the bug was so serious the NSA seems to have concluded any benefits it could gain itself would be more than wiped out by the threat to the general public (and US ... (view more)

50 privacy groups have urged Google to crack down on pre-installed "bloatware" on Android devices. They say the apps haven't been properly vetted and could threaten privacy. Bloatware refers to software that is already installed on a device when a ... user first starts it up. With Android phones it's particularly significant as it's difficult or even impossible to uninstall. Sometimes manufacturers consider such apps to be genuinely useful for phone owners and even part of the appeal of getting a handset. In other cases it seems more likely the manufacturers have struck deals with developers to ... (view more)

An old Internet scam has got a new twist. The new scam makes it appear as if local police have taken over the web browser in order to "fine" the user for "illegal activities". The "police browser locker" scam is an example of what's dubbed scareware ... by preying on a user's paranoia (or guilt). It involves popup window from within the web browser, or an unexpected web page appearing and giving a bogus message demanding payment. A common form of this scam is the infamous Microsoft tech support scam stating that the computer has been infected with malware and the user needs to ... (view more)