web

Google's plans to block third-party cookies in Chrome have prompted "hundreds" of complaints in from businesses in Germany. They say the move is anti-competitive because Google will still be able to track users for its own advertising business. ... Apple's Safari browser already blocks third-party cookies. That means websites can issue and use their own cookies (for example, remembering somebody's location or interests to customize a web page) but cookies originally issued by another site won't work. That makes it considerably more difficult to track a user's activity across multiple websites. ... (view more)

Mozilla has announced a rethink of a key technology used to make web users safer. The latest update to its Firefox browser improves the "sandboxing" approach. One of the biggest security concerns with web browsers is the way a single application ... (the browser) can handle data from multiple sites open in different tabs. It creates the risk that a compromised site could access data from another site; for example, one tab might display or transmit emails, login details or financial information. The way browsers tackle this risk is called sandboxing. That means telling operating systems such as ... (view more)

We live in the age of technology where every day is full of advancements that make our lives easier. At what cost, though? Our Internet security is constantly under fire by hackers and cyber criminals using these technological advances to their ... gain. Through the dark web, a virtual underworld full of criminal activity that can be accessed using specific tools, such activity is made possible. However, many people aren't sure what the dark web actually is. According to Business Insider, it's "defined as all content hosted on darknets, or online networks that require a specific browsing software ... (view more)

Apple has warned users to check their portable devices to ensure they are up to date. A bug that affects iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches may already be under attack by hackers. The bug affects WebKit, which is the underlying software for Safari and ... any other web browsers which use Apple's operating system iOS. Specifically, it covers the way web content appears and the way browsers keep track of which sites a user has recently visited, allowing features such as the browser back button to work properly. Apple isn't giving many details of exactly how the bug works or could be exploited, which ... (view more)

World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee wants to rethink the way people control online data. He says his "pods" proposal would bring the online world closer to his original vision of the web. Berners-Lee has launched an open-source project and ... associated business to try to counter what he sees as the web's biggest problem: major companies collecting user data and exploiting it as a core part of their business. His new idea is "pods", or personal online data store. This would involve users having a space on a server that acted like a digital safe and contained a range of data. This could be ... (view more)

Google is making Chrome extension publishers give users more details about the data they collect. They will also have to promise to follow a new policy limiting the way they use the data. Extensions are third-party tools (called plug-ins or add-ons ... with some browsers) that interact with a web browser to provide a useful function. Examples include password managers that automatically fill in log-in details on a site, and an official Amazon plug-in that can send a copy of a long web page article direct to a Kindle e-Reader. One of the main concerns about extensions is that they inherently need ... (view more)

Mozilla has designed a site that will open 100 tabs at once, quite likely crashing a web browser. It's meant as a creative way to show how web tracking works. The stunt is based around cookies: small text files put onto a computer via the browser to ... customize an online session to a website. Third-party tracking cookies are then generated, which keep a record of the sites a user visits. This information is then used by ad servers to deliver targeted ads based on website history. "Track THIS" works by opening 100 tabs selected to represent a particular type of web user. The idea is that there ... (view more)

Hackers are now far more likely to target Microsoft Office than web browsers according to a security firm. Kaspersky Labs says the big problem is that fixing some of the most common MS Office flaws would cause serious compatibility problems. The ... figures are based on the number of users affected, rather than the sheer volume of attacks. That's arguably more informative as it doesn't treat all attacks as equally significant. Kaspersky compared the last three months of 2018 with the same period in 2016 and found a dramatic difference in just two years. Browsers and Flash Less of a Problem In the ... (view more)

The creator of the World Wide Web (WWW) says it faces a "downward plunge to a dysfunctional future." Sir Tim Berners-Lee said many of its problems were unintended consequences. Berners-Lee spoke to mark the 30th anniversary of him submitting a ... proposal to his managers at European science group CERN for a way to organize data. That technology, based on hyperlinked text, became the World Wide Web. In turn, that helped shape the Internet into something used worldwide by ordinary people. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) Writing an open letter, Berners-Lee noted that the web is now "a public square, a library ... (view more)

The demise of the password has come a step closer this week with the adoption of a new standard for physical "keys" for logging in to websites. "WebAuthn," as it's called, makes it easier for sites to let users log in through a physical method - ... rather than relying on users having to remember a password. These methods range from USB devices that act like a physical key to biometric devices such as fingerprint or eye scanners. The big hope is that such devices reduce the need to rely on passwords which can be guessed or stolen in data breaches. Browsers Already On Board Having a ... (view more)