Apple hires Encryption Expert to Beef Up Security on its Devices

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies have waged legal war on encryption and privacy technologies.

You may have heard many news stories about the legal battle between Apple and the FBI over unlocking an iPhone that belonged to the San Bernardino shooter. However, that was just one battle in a much larger fight.

Now, in an effort to make its iPhone surveillance-and-hack proof, Apple has rehired security expert and cryptographer Jon Callas, who co-founded the widely-used email encryption software PGP and the secure-messaging system Silent Circle that sells the Blackphone.

This is not Apple’s first effort over its iPhone security.

Just a few months back, the company hired Frederic Jacobs, one of the key developers of Signal — World's most secure, open source and encrypted messaging app.

Now Apple has rehired Callas, who has previously worked for Apple twice, first from 1995 to 1997 and then from 2009 to 2011.

During his second joining, Callas designed a full-disk encryption system to protect data stored on Macintosh computers.

Apple's decision to rehire Callas comes after rumors that the company is working on improving the security of its iOS devices in such a way that even Apple can't hack.

Earlier this year, Apple was engaged in a battle with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) over a court order asking the company to help the FBI unlock iPhone 5C of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook.

Basically, the company was deliberately forced to create a special, backdoored version of its iOS, so that the FBI may be able to Brute Force the passcode on Farook's iPhone without losing the data stored in it.

Although Apple refused to do so, and now the Apple wanted to remove its own ability to break its iPhone security in future iPhone models, thereby eliminating the chances for government and intelligence agencies for demanding backdoors.

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Researcher releases Free Ransomware Detection Tool for Mac OS X Users

 IN BRIEF:

Introducing RansomWhere, a free generic ransomware detection tool for Mac OS X users that can identify ransomware-like behavior by continually monitoring the file-system for the creation of encrypted files by suspicious processes.

This ransomware detection tool helps to block the suspicious processes and waits for the user to decide whether to allow or stop the process.

Ransomware has risen dramatically since last few years... so rapidly that it might have already hit someone you know.

With hundred of thousands of ransomware samples emerging every day, it is quite difficult for traditional signature-based antivirus products to keep their signature database up-to-date.

So, if signature-based techniques are not enough to detect ransomware infection, then what else can we do?

Some Antivirus companies have already upgraded their security solutions that detect suspicious behaviors like the sequential accessing of a large number of files, using encryption algorithms and key exchange mechanisms.

Here’s the latest ransomware detection tool for Mac OS X users:

RansomWhere? – a smart application that can identify ransomware-like behavior by detecting untrusted processes rapidly encrypting files, stop that suspicious process, and then alert the user.

How RansomWhere tool works

Patrick Wardle, a former NSA staffer who now leads research at bug hunting outfit Synack, has developed the RansomWhere tool, which aims at detecting and blocking generic ransomware on Mac OS X by regularly monitoring the user's local filesystem for the creation of encrypted files by any process.

"The ransomware will likely encrypt a few files (ideally only two or three), before being detected and blocked," Wardle wrote in a blog post.

This ransomware detection tool, by default, scans Mac apps and binaries that are signed with an Apple Developer ID and not by official Apple certificates.

If the tool detects any untrusted process, it suspends the suspicious process and alerts the user by showing a pop-up asking user to continue or terminate the process in question.

Wardle successfully tested RansomWhere against KeRanger as well as Gopher ransomware proof-of-concept, which was developed by a pro-Apple Mac hacker, Pedro Vilaca, last year.



Though Wardle admitted that his tool does not guarantee 100 percent result and that it could be circumvented by malicious hackers who can discover a way to bypass RansomWhere and avoid detection, it is always better to be somewhat safer than completely vulnerable.

Some known Limitations of RansomWhere tool:

• RansomWhere would not be able to help if any Ransomware malware abuses Apple-signed file or app.
• RansomWhere detects ransomware infections after they have already encrypted some of your important files.
• Files outside of your home directory are not protected by RansomWhere. So sophisticated ransomware could shift all your files outside home directory and lock them up.

Since hackers are always a step ahead of researchers, the RansomWhere tool has already been bypassed. Vilaca had tweaked his Gopher ransomware to bypass RansomWhere in a matter of minutes.

As mentioned in the limitations, Vilaca added just ten lines of code in its ransomware proof-of-concept to take the victim's files outside of the home directory and lock them up. You can watch the video above showing his hack.

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Get an iPhone 6s for $1 at Best Buy this weekend

The retailer is offering an insane discount on Apple's most popular product, but there are a few caveats.

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If you’ve been holding off on getting a new iPhone 6s, this weekend might be your time to buy.

For a limited time, Best Buy is offering the 16GB iPhone 6s for only $1 when you sign up for a two-year contract with Verizon or Sprint. This sale only will end this Sunday, December 20, and it excludes AT&T customers. The 16GB iPhone 6s model normally retails for $200 with a two-year contract. 

You can use this $1 promotion in-stores and online at BestBuy.com. The weekend promotion applies to the iPhone 6s in all its four colors: silver, gold, space gray and the high-demand rose gold.

According to CNET, Best Buy is also selling the previous-generation iPhone 6 for $1 with a two-year contract on Verizon or Sprint. Additionally, you can get a $200 Best Buy gift card when you trade in your iPhone 5 or newer model.

 This isn’t the first time retailers and carriers have used Apple’s most popular product to lure new customers. The day the iPhone 6s first came out back in September, all major carriers had it on sale.

If you’re not in a position to sign up for a two-year contract in order to take advantage of this $1 sale, don’t fret. The iPhone 6s could potentially go on sale again should Apple release a cheaper iPhone in the coming months.

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13 Million MacKeeper Users Hacked — 21 GB of Data Exposed

MacKeeper anti-virus company is making headlines today for its lax security that exposed the database of 13 Million Mac users' records including names, email addresses, usernames, password hashes, IP addresses, phone numbers, and system information.

MacKeeper is a suite of software that claims to make Apple Macs more secure and stable, but today the anti-virus itself need some extra protection after a data breach exposed the personal and sensitive information for Millions of its customers.

The data breach was discovered by Chris Vickery, a white hat hacker who was able to download 13 Million customer records by simply entering a selection of IP addresses, with no username or password required to access the data.

21 GB Trove of MacKeeper Customer Data Leaked

31-year-old Vickery said he uncovered the 21 GB trove of MacKeeper customer data in a moment of boredom while searching for openly accessible databases on Shodan – a specialized search engine that looks for virtually anything connected to the Internet – that require no authentication.

"The search engine at Shodan.io had indexed their IPs as running publicly accessible MongoDB instances (as some have already guessed)," Vickery said in a Reddit post. "I had never even heard of MacKeeper or Kromtech until last night. I just happened upon it after being bored and doing a random "port:27017" search on Shodan."

As a result, four IP addresses took him straight to a MongoDB database, containing a range of personal information, including:

• Customer Names
• Email addresses
• Usernames
• Password hashes
• Mobile phone numbers
• IP addresses
• System information
• Software licenses and activation codes

Security Product Using Weak Algorithm to Hash Passwords

Although the passwords were encrypted, Vickery believes that MacKeeper was using weak MD5 hashes to protect its customer passwords, allowing anyone to crack the passwords in seconds using MD5 cracking tools.

The company responded to the issue after Vickery posted it on Reddit, saying that the company had no evidence the data was accessed by malicious parties.

"Analysis of our data storage system shows only one individual gained access performed by the security researcher himself," Kromtech, the maker of MacKeeper, said in a statement. "We have been in communication with Chris, and he has not shared or used the data inappropriately."

Though the company claims Vickery was the only person to access the MacKeeper users’'information; you should still change your MacKeeper passwords and passwords on websites that use the same password.

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Samsung makes last-chance appeal to Supreme Court on Apple verdict

The court is being asked to take a fresh look at 120-year-old case law

The West Pediment located above the front entrance of the Supreme Court building.

 

Samsung is attempting to take its years-old patent fight with Apple to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Monday, it filed an appeal to the court asking it to take a look at the rules regarding design patents -- rules that haven't been touched in 120 years.

The appeal comes on the same day Samsung is due to pay Apple $548 million in damages in relation to multiple patent claims and is something of a last-ditch effort by the company to reduce the overall total due.

It relates to an award of $399 million in damages for infringement of three design patents, which cover the face and rounded bezel design of the iPhone and the grid of sixteen icons on the phone's home screen.

The damages award covered Samsung's entire profit from the phones it made that are covered by the suit, something the company says is not only unfair but based on case law that's out of date.

"Samsung is escalating this case because it believes that the way the laws were interpreted is not in line with modern times," the company said in a statement.

Lawyers arrive at the San Jose federal court house with boxes of documents ahead of opening statements in the Apple v Samsung case on April 1, 2014.

Specifically, Samsung is asking the Supreme Court to provide rulings on two questions:

• Where a design patent includes features that don't contribute to the ornamental design, should a court limit the extent of the patent to just the ornamental features?
• Where a design patent applies to one component of a product, should the damages be limited to profits attributable just to that component?

Interpretation of the law as it was done in the case, Samsung argues, provides "a vehicle for design-patent holders to obtain unjustified windfalls far exceeding the conceivable value of any inventive contribution."

To win its argument, Samsung first has to persuade the Supreme Court to even hear the case. The court receives around 10,000 such appeals annually and has the time and energy to hear about 75 cases. And then, Samsung would have to successfully argue the case outlined in its appeal. Both are far from certain.

Monday's appeal isn't a surprise. Samsung said earlier this year that it planned to attempt to take its fight to the highest court in the U.S. Monday was the last day it could file its appeal.

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Apple's new Smart Battery Case extends your iPhone's life up to 25 hours

Apple is now selling an external add-on battery for the iPhone 6 and 6s that doubles the phone thickness and boosts battery life by 80 percent

Apple's smart battery case for the iPhone 6 and 6s doubles the phone's thickness, but doesn't quite double its battery life.

 

Sure, it’s just an iPhone battery case, but what marks this one out from the many others is the manufacturer: Apple.

The $99 iPhone 6s Smart Battery Case is the first sign that Apple is ready to acknowledge that its phones are too thin to contain adequate batteries. The case adds 80 percent to the battery life—and about 100 percent to the thickness—of an iPhone 6 or 6s.

Unlike most third-party battery add-ons, the back of the case isn’t flat, but has a bulge in the middle housing the battery. 

Apple claims the iPhone 6s allows you to surf the Internet on LTE for “up to” 10 hours, a figure that could reach up to 18 hours with the external battery. The battery could also boost talk time from up to 14 hours to around 25, while video could play for up to 20 hours rather than 11.

The catch is in the words “up to”—and Apple is by no means unique in using them: Pretty much every electronic device manufacturer does the same.

If you spend your days in an office with subdued designer lighting in hyper-connected Silicon Valley, where the nearest cell tower is no more than a few hundred meters away, you’re going to get something close to the maximum theoretical battery life as your screen dims and the phone whispers to the nearby network.

For the rest of us, lighting is harsher and cell towers more distant, so our phones crank up the brightness and shout to the network, draining their batteries all the faster. That “all-day” battery can often be empty long before it’s time to go home.

It used to be possible to keep a spare phone battery for situations like that, but one of Apple’s innovations with the first iPhone in 2007 was to make the battery non-removable, a feature it has replicated in every model since, and which other manufacturers have since adopted too.

One justification given for using non-removable batteries is that without the need for a removable protective cover and clips to hold it in place, the phone can be made thinner—or the battery can be bigger for a given thickness of phone.

Until now, Apple has chosen the former course (as have other manufacturers), making phones ever thinner, frustrating many who would like to be able to use their phones for longer and who would barely notice if their phones were a millimetre thicker.

They’ll certainly notice the additional thickness of the iPhone 6s Smart Battery Case, which appears to add about 7 mm to the 7.1 mm iPhone 6s, to judge by the photos Apple has released. Had Apple chosen to make the iPhone 6s that much thicker to begin with, it may well have been able to boost the phone’s battery life by 400 percent, not 80 percent.

Maybe it just wants a slice of the profit that the many other manufacturers of external battery cases are making—or maybe Apple is testing customer acceptance of a thicker, not thinner, new phone.

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Apple's MacBook Air claims laptop reliability crown

Consumer Reports' survey shows that just 7 out of every 100 Airs breaks down in the first three years, the lowest rate of all notebooks

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Apple’s MacBook Air is the most reliable laptop on the market, according to a survey of nearly 60,000 American consumers conducted recently by Consumer Reports.

The ultra-light notebook has an estimated failure rate of 7% within the first three years of ownership, according to the publication’s poll of people who purchased a laptop in the last five years.

Apple’s other primary line of laptops, the pricier MacBook Pro, came in with a failure rate of 9%. Combined, Apple’s mobile PCs turned in a failure rate of 10%, the lowest of any OEM (original equipment manufacturer).

MacBooks fail at lower rates than those powered by Windows even though they’re used three hours more each week than the overall average.

Consumer Reports found that Windows-powered laptops, which on average are much less expensive than those sold by Apple, failed at significantly higher rates. Those made and sold by Gateway and Samsung, for example, failed at an estimated rate of 16% in the first three years. Notebooks from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba, meanwhile, were in the 18% to 19% range.

Each Windows OEM had specific models that failed at rates less than the average, just like Apple: Lenovo ThinkPads, for instance, failed at an estimated rate of 15% during the first three years, three percentage points under the Chinese OEM’s average, while Dell’s XPS portfolio, also with a 15% failure rate, was four points better than average.

Consumer Reports noted that Apple’s notebooks were more expensive to repair than Windows PCs when they did go south, with a third costing $300 or more, more than three times the repair cost of an average Windows notebook.

That’s why the website recommended Apple notebook buyers also purchase AppleCare, the Cupertino, Calif., company’s extended warranty. The program lengthens the warranty from one year to three, and free technical support from 90 days to three years.

More than a third of those polled who bought an Apple laptop added AppleCare, more than twice the fraction of Windows notebook buyers who purchased an extended warranty from the retailer or maker. But AppleCare isn’t cheap: It costs $183 for a MacBook Air, or 18% of the purchase price of the $999 13-in. model.

AppleCare runs $183 for the 13-in. MacBook Pro and 12-in. MacBook, or $239 for the 15-in. MacBook Pro.

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Hidden Tips & Tricks of iOS9 – New Features List

iOS 9 was officially announced during WWDC15 earlier this month. And the beta version is available for developers for testing and to gear new innovative features from Apple.Inc and if you’re a iPhone lover then just check out some new added iOS 9 Hidden specs and Tricks!

To be frank, iOS 9 will give you a great experience in better way to manage all your mobile stuffs which include your payment and more which are more useful for your day-to-day applications. So today I will dig into some Cool iOS 9 Features to know how better the new update is!

Hidden Tips & Tricks of iOS9

Here are the Latest Features of iOS 9 follows…

1. New Battery Widget

The new iOS 9 comes with a new battery widget. Yeah with new look placed in the notifications drop-down menu. This new feature also shows the better level of the connected to Apple Watch.

2. Text scrolling

A new Text Scrolling feature, which allows you to scroll, copy and paste text by swiping up from the spacebar just by using your 2 fingers.

3. Digit Passcode

This will be a new option which allows users to have 6 Digit Passcode instead of 4. For that you need to just tap the 6 instead of 4 while entering the password. Or you can navigate to the Touch ID Panel and Change your Password and enter any 6 Digit Passcode.

4. New iCloud Drive App

The new iOS 9 comes with another feature, iCloud Drive App. You can enable it by going through settings tab and then click on the iCloud option. Then tap the iCloud Drive and enable the toggle option. That’s it!

5. New Gesture

All you need is just swipe down on a photo to go back to the gallery. You can bring the camera again just by swiping it down if you’ve opened the image or gallery on your iPhone.

6. Gallery Scrubber

The Scrubber features which used for photos & videos to browse it faster than older versions. Yeah you can surf your gallery more faster & precise.

7. Zoom inside a video

If you are an Android user and used MX player there to zoom in & out your videos and tried the same on iPhone it won’t be working! But in iOS 9, you can now zoom in on a video. As you do on your Android device you can use your two fingers to zoom any video file.

8. Functionality of Switch

Here you can choose your own Functionality of the Switch. You can now make it lock your orientation instead muting your device without having any issues. You can enable this feature by going to Settings App > General > ‘Use Slide Switch To:’ and Choose what you want functions you want for that particular button.

9. Change Video Recording Resolution

Yeah, this will be a new tweak found on iOS 9. Just go to the settings panel under photos and camera you can now choose your Resolution of your recordings or follow this,

Go to Settings App >> Photos & Camera Panel >> Scroll Down to ‘Camera’ and change it.

10. Enable Low Power Mode.

In Android mobiles you will find many apps for such functions but now in iOS 9 it is an inbuilt feature. When you run many apps on your iPhone it will drain more power so in order reduce the speed of draining your power you can go with Low Power Mode. This feature will allows the users with an alter when they reach the battery level of around 20% with a toggle enabling Low Power mode option.

Hope you enjoyed this post and if you have any suggestion then feel free to share with us in comments below! Don’t forget to share this post with your friends on Social media sites! 

    Cheers........

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Apple's Swift programming language is now open-source and available on Linux

Swift can be downloaded from the Swift project website, and Apple is hosting the codeon GitHub. The code is licensed under version 2.0 of the Apache license.Apple unveiled its new Swift programming language to much developer interest last year. Initially a closed-source project that only ran on Mac OS X and iOS, it’s now an open-source project with an official Linux port. Apple is currently offering pre-built images forUbuntu 15.10 and 14.04 based on Swift 2.2.

It’s all about the servers

Don’t expect Linux to easily run those fancy new Mac OS X, iPhone, or iPad applications written in Swift. Those depend on various user interface libraries that aren’t being open-sourced. Just as when Microsoft open-sourced .NET, Apple isn’t open-sourcing the user interface bits required to bring existing desktop or mobile applications to other platforms.

Many servers run Linux, and it’s that market that Apple is targeting here. A developer could write both an app and the server-side code for an app in Swift, running that code on a Linux server. Open-sourcing the platform also allows developers to improve Swift and contribute those improvements back to Apple, which benefits.

That said, there doesn’t seem to be anything stopping the Linux community from taking this Swift code and running with it. It could be ported to other Linux distributions, and could even form the foundation for many Linux desktop applications in the future with some more work.

Swift could run on Windows and Android in the future, too. Apple probably won’t port it to other platforms itself, but other developers could now take that open-source code and do the work.

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