Microsoft pausing the rollout of Spectre and Meltdown patches to AMD systems
Following reports that its Spectre and Meltdown fixes were leaving some AMD systems unbootable, Microsoft has stopped the patches from rolling out to certain devices.
The company is blaming AMD's failure to comply with "the documentation previously provided to Microsoft to develop the Windows operating system mitigations to protect against the chipset vulnerabilities known as Spectre and Meltdown."
D-Link DIR-2680 is an Intel-powered Wi-Fi Router with McAfee Secure Home Platform
We are living in very scary times, and I'm only referring to technology. Concerns about nuclear war and unstable world leaders aside, our computers and devices are like Swiss cheese nowadays thanks to Spectre and Meltdown. Hell, there are hardcoded backdoors in consumer devices! What a sad state of affairs...
If you want to help keep your home network safe, a quality router is always a smart purchase. Not only do you want something that is reliable, but it should be from a reputable manufacturer that issues regular updates. One such company is D-Link, and today, it unveils a new 802.11ac wireless router that leverages the McAfee Secure Home Platform to keep you safe. Called "DIR-2680," it features an absolutely gorgeous industrial design that, quite frankly, makes it appear as something other than a router entirely.
7 things you could do instead of CES
The annual scourge is upon us, as tens of thousands of attention seekers descend on Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. Nowhere else can you watch bloggers and journalists in a constant chase of their public relations foibles, who desperately hunt for all the attention they can get their clients. Think a thousand kids in a small room, calling for mommy and groping her dress. Then multiply ten times.
My last CES pilgrimage was 2008. That's right, I haven't gone in 10 years. No-o-o-o regrets. Nothing important ever comes out of the show, even though each year the hype suggests otherwise. Most new unveiled products won't ship until second half of the year. If ever. There's more vaporware at CES than hot air—and that's no easy feat. Surely the Las Vegas Convention Center installs extra carbon dioxide scrubbers so that participants don't asphyxiate. If there was an alarm for toxic babble, it would sound incessantly.
Apple releases iOS 11.2.2 and macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 updates to protect against Spectre vulnerability
Following the Meltdown and Spectre revelations, let's just say that 2018 is off to a bad start for many tech companies. Apple is among the biggest players affected by the two security vulnerabilities, with all iOS and Mac users at risk.
The company was quick to patch Meltdown, however, with iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2 and tvOS 11.2 getting mitigations against the vulnerability. And, now, it's tackling Spectre too through new updates for its major operating systems.
Windows 10 manufacturers will preload Alexa on new PCs
Amazon and Microsoft said that Alexa and Cortana would be able to talk to each other by the end of the 2017, but the two personal assistants have yet to receive this functionality until today. However, even without Cortana's help, Alexa is making a big leap forward in the Windows space.
Amazon has teamed up with leading PC manufacturers Acer, ASUS, Lenovo and HP to include its personal assistant on new Windows 10 devices that will arrive in 2018.
Hundreds of fake Android apps have a hidden Coinhive miner
The Bitcoin bubble means there is a massive interest in cryptocurrencies, particularly from those looking for an easy way to make a quick buck. It's also led to secretive mining tools making use of people's CPUs without their knowledge, mining for profitable cryptocurrency for persons unknown.
We've seen this with both websites and browser extensions, and now a security researcher has discovered a series of fake Android apps harboring an undisclosed Coinhive cryptocurrency miner. The repackaged APKs take advantage of the CPUs of the smartphones the apps are installed on.
Alert fatigue can allow cyber threats to slip through the net
Businesses are increasingly turning to software to allow them to spot cyber threats. But this can lead to a problem in the form of alert fatigue, where there are just too many warnings to allow them to be properly investigated.
Network threat detection specialist Bricata has put together an infographic to highlight the problem of alert fatigue.
McAfee launches protection against identity theft
Given the high number of data breaches in the past year and the number of records involved, many consumers now rank identity theft as one of their top concerns with 66 percent of Americans saying it's the crime they most worry about.
Security company McAfee is using this week's CES to move beyond its traditional antivirus products and launch its own Identity Theft Protection.
Meltdown patches are slowing down games such as Fortnite
Fans of the game Fortnite have been frustrated by a combination of reduced performance, and an inability to log into the game at all. The company behind the title, Epic Games, says that patches installed to mitigate against the Meltdown and Spectre bugs are to blame.
Since installing patches to address the vulnerabilities, Epic has noticed a very significant spike in processors usage. The extra strain on backend cloud services has noticeably slowed down Fortnite for some users, and rendered others unable to play the game at all.
Microsoft drops Bitcoin support [Update: it's back]
Microsoft has had something of an on-off relationship with Bitcoin over the years, and once again the Windows-maker has chosen to drop support for the cryptocurrency -- at least temporarily.
It has been reported that Microsoft is uncomfortable with the fluctuating value of Bitcoin, as well as the increased transaction fees. As such, customers will no longer be able to add to their Microsoft account balances using Bitcoin.
Warning: Microsoft's Meltdown and Spectre patch is bricking some AMD PCs
As if the Meltdown and Spectre bug affecting millions of processors was not bad enough, the patches designed to mitigate the problems are introducing issues of their own. Perhaps the most well-known effect is a much-publicized performance hit, but some users are reporting that Microsoft's emergency patch is bricking their computers.
We've already seen compatibility issues with some antivirus tools, and now some AMD users are reporting that the KB4056892 patch is rendering their computer unusable. A further issue -- error 0x800f0845 -- means that it is not possible to perform a rollback.
Western Digital 'My Cloud' devices have a hardcoded backdoor -- stop using these NAS drives NOW!
I must be honest -- I am starting to become fatigued by all of the vulnerabilities and security failures in technology nowadays. Quite frankly, between Spectre and Meltdown, I don't even want to use my computer or devices anymore -- I feel exposed.
Today, yet another security blunder becomes publicized, and it is really bad. You see, many Western Digital My Cloud NAS drives have a hardcoded backdoor, meaning anyone can access them -- your files could be at risk. It isn't even hard to take advantage of it -- the username is "mydlinkBRionyg" and the password is "abc12345cba" (without quotes). To make matters worse, it was disclosed to Western Digital six months ago and the company apparently did nothing until November 2017. Let's be realistic -- not everyone stays on top of updates, and a backdoor never should have existed in the first place.
BlackBerry Mobile site hacked to run Monero cryptocurrency miner
With the popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it's perhaps little surprise that a number of websites have recently been discovered using visitors' computer to do a little mining. The latest site found to be indulging in the activity is BlackBerry Mobile -- but this time it's thanks to the work of a hacker.
As with other sites carrying out surreptitious mining, it was a CoinHive mining tool that was found embedded in the code of the site. The same hacker also placed the same miner on a handful of other sites.
This is the new Acer Chromebook 11
Many people diss Chromebooks because they simply don't understand them. No, Chrome OS -- the operating system that powers these laptops -- is not just a glorified web browser. Actually, the OS is a full Linux distribution that is both extremely secure and easy to use. True, they can be deficient for some tasks, such as video editing and hardcore gaming, but let's be honest -- not everyone has those needs. If everything you do is in a browser -- email, web surfing, social media, YouTube, Netflix, etc. -- there is no reason to run Windows and open yourself up to malware and other bad things. Hell, Chromebooks even have Microsoft Office support these days!
Today, Acer unveils its latest Chromebook 11, and it is absolutely beautiful. The 11.6-inch Chrome OS laptop comes with 4GB of RAM by default, plus your choice of either 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage. There is even an optional touch-screen variant, which will come in handy for its Google Play Android app support. Road warriors will appreciate the impressive 10-hour battery life. The Celeron processor is passively cooled, meaning there are no fans to bother you with noise.
Google answers your questions about Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities
The revelations about the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities affecting millions of processors around the world has raised a huge number of questions for many people. While businesses and large organizations are rushing to ensure that their systems -- and their data -- are protected, the average computer user has been left wondering what on Earth is going on.
While there are a lot of very technical write-ups about the implications of the Spectre and Meltdown bugs, as well as explanations of just how the exploit works, the average Joe has been left somewhat in the dark. To try to remedy this, Google has answered a series of questions relating to the security issues.
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