Mozilla to drop NPAPI plugins from Firefox
Mozilla will kill "most" NPAPI plugins in Firefox almost two years after Google took the same action with Chrome. Back in September 2014, Google announced that NPAPI support would be removed starting in January 2015. Mozilla is now playing catch-up, and plans to end NPAPI support by the end of 2016.
When Google announced its decision, speed, stability, and security were cited as reasons for ditching plugins, and Mozilla is taking much the same line. The company also points out that many features and functions that only used to be possible through the use of NPAPI plugins can now be achieved through native web APIs. But what is this going to mean for users?
Who's looking at your screen and how can you stop them? [Q&A]
We can all remember seeing kids at school hunched over their desks to prevent anyone seeing what they were writing on their test papers. But when it comes to hiding sensitive information on your screen things aren’t that easy.
How big a problem is eavesdropping in this way and what can be done to guard against it? To find out, we spoke to Dr Bill Anderson, Chief Product Officer of technology company OptioLabs which has just announced a collaboration with AMD to help solve the issue.
US government will not force companies to decode encrypted data... for now
The Obama administration has announced that it will not require companies to decrypt encrypted messages for law enforcement agencies. This is being heralded as a 'partial victory' by the Electronic Frontier Foundation; partial because, as reported by the Washington Post, the government "will not -- for now — call for [such] legislation".
This means that at the moment companies will not be forced to build backdoors into their products, but there is no guarantee that this won’t happen further down the line. The government wants to continue talks with the technology industry to find a solution, but leaving things in limbo for the time being will create a sense of unease on both sides of the debate.
How to confuse a self-driving car using everyday hardware
We've already seen that conventional cars can be vulnerable to attacks by hackers. But it seems that self-driving vehicles may be equally vulnerable.
It's possible to trick a self-driving Google car into stopping or taking evasive action using around $60 worth of hardware according to a leading security researcher.
Corvil makes network data available across IT teams
Network data is an increasingly important resource for IT teams, particularly when it comes to analyzing and resolving security threats. But unlocking the potential of that data can be difficult.
Dublin-based analytics specialist Corvil is launching a new platform that unlocks the power of network data, with an intuitive and customizable user interface and a new data automation engine that dramatically reduces the time, expense, and complexity of working with network data.
Technology affects our long-term memory
Technology is making us forget things, and now we’ve got a Kaspersky Lab research to prove it.
According to a study by security firm Kaspersky Lab, when asked a question, 57 percent will try to remember the answer themselves, but 36 percent won’t even think about it -- they’ll just pull up their phone and head for Google.
New solution allows secure networking via public Wi-Fi
We've come to expect public Wi-Fi pretty much everywhere we go these days. But using these networks can leave you open to a whole range of security risks.
There's now a way to use public networks safely as network specialist Xirrus is launching Xirrus EasyPass Personal Wi-Fi. This is a key feature now available in all Xirrus cloud managed networks that safeguards users and their data when accessing public Wi-Fi, guest networks and hotspot environments.
Malwarebytes: There's no WinRAR vulnerability, we're sorry!
Security firm Malwarebytes recently unveiled a vulnerability in WinRAR, the popular compression program which, according to the firm, has put millions of its users at risk.
The program’s developers, RARLab, shrugged it off saying it’s not really a vulnerability. It turns out they were right, and Malwarebytes has apologized for its mistake.
Malware targeting Microsoft Outlook Web App is after your password
A newly discovered malware targets Microsoft’s Outlook Web App, the company’s web-based email client. The news was unveiled by security firm Cybereason, which said the advanced persistent threat (APT) can enable patient attackers to steal an organization’s email passwords over time.
By using this approach, the hackers managed to collect and retain ownership over a large set of credentials, allowing them to maintain persistent control over the organization’s environment, Cybereason says.
90 percent of companies have suffered at least one cyber attack
According to the latest survey by Kaspersky Lab, 90 percent of companies have suffered a cyber attack and for larger businesses the cost could be as much as half a million dollars.
Of the 5,500 companies surveyed nearly half, 46 percent of businesses, lost sensitive data due to an internal or external security threat.
Why buying a used mobile could get you more than you bargained for
If you buy a mobile device or a hard drive second hand are you buying the previous user’s data along with it?
A new study from data erasure company Blancco Technology Group and recovery specialist Kroll Ontrack suggests that in a high percentage of cases the answer is yes.
DDoS attacks increase in frequency, use less bandwidth
The recently released mid-year report by Corero Network Security has identified some worrying trends in the cyberthreat landscape.
In particular, the research revealed that attackers are changing the way that they use DDoS attacks in an attempt to make them more effective.
Yes, there's malware that infects your router to keep you safe
Well, this is a new one -- a piece of malware has been discovered which infects routers, but bolsters their protection against other viruses and nastiness, rather than doing anything bad.
Linux.Wifatch apparently improves the security of routers, many of which are poorly configured and are increasingly targets for malware authors.
LookingGlass helps to close the DNS security gap
One of the biggest areas of vulnerability for corporate networks is DNS, with companies having to contend with DDoS attacks and attempts to steal data.
In an effort to help customers close the gap in DNS security, threat intelligence specialist LookingGlass Cyber Solutions has developed an intelligence-driven network security solution that identifies and stops DNS-based cyber threats.
Top court rules European-US Safe Harbor data sharing agreement invalid
The European Court of Justice has ruled that the Safe Harbor agreement that is in place between technology companies is invalid. The agreement covers the sharing of data between the EU and the US but the court said there are insufficient privacy and data protection checks in place.
European law dictates that data should only be shared with and transferred to countries that offer a comparable level of data protection to the EU. The Safe Harbor agreement has been in operation for around 15 years, but after concerns that European data could be shared with the likes of the NSA it means that companies such as Facebook, Google, and Apple could be sharing data illegally.
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