Latest News - Page 2722

A recent flaw has been discovered in multiple Netgear router models, reportedly allowing hackers to bypass administrator authentication and gain full access to the device as found by Network engineer, Peter Adkins.

Adkins discovered that routers in the popular Netgear 'WNDR' range are running a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) service as part of the Netgear Genie device administration application. Seemingly secure, he was able to bypass filtering and authentication for the SOAP service over a Wi-Fi connection without much effort.

Once the connection had been established, Adkins was able to extract the admin password, Wi-Fi interface credentials, station identifiers, the device serial number and even information on connected clients. He then notified Netgear of this security issue, however was met with a response which included "the network should still stay secure" - apparently due to hidden built-in security features.

Following news that millions of dollars have been stolen from banks by cybercriminals was yet another startling wakeup call for cybersecurity experts. Not surprisingly, hackers delivered the malware payload via social engineering phishing attacks targeted at reckless employees.

"Even after 20 years, social engineering is still the easiest way into a target's network and systems, and it's still the hardest attack to prevent," said Kevin Mitnick, legendary hacker and Chief Hacking Officer of KnowBe4.

Companies need to be aware that employees - in a number of different departments - are often untrained and rather careless when checking their emails. Spear-phishing tends to be a popular choice among cybercriminals, able to trick employees by using a customized approach.

Sony has announced its SmartEyeglass Developer Edition is available for pre-order in the UK and Germany, with sales opening up in the United States, Japan, France, Belgium, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain and Italy beginning next month.

The hands-free device superimposes images into the wearer's vision range, with Sony hoping it will be able to drive interest in the workplace. The company also was careful to create a more aesthetically pleasing product than Glass, which drew a high amount of criticism from potential wearers.

SmartEyeglass also uses a 3-megapixel CMOS image sensor, gyro, accelerometer, electronic compass and brightness sensor - paired with GPS data from a smartphone - to allow custom data to be shared with the wearer.

Apple is anticipating big demand for its Apple Watch smartwatch, asking Asian suppliers to prepare five to six million units ready for launch in April. The company will release three models and wants to ensure there is adequate stock of each one.

At least half of the production numbers will be for the Apple Sport, the company's entry-level smartwatch model, though production plans can be adjusted as needed.

The high-end Apple Watch Edition has seen small pre-orders to date, but Apple will produce at least one million units per month during Q2, according to sources. The watch has an 18-karat gold casing and could be extremely popular in China, as Apple products have become increasingly popular there as of late.

Kaspersky has some damning claims against HDD giants Seagate and Western Digital, where it has said that the NSA has spying backdoors installed onto the HDD firmware of the leading HDD manufacturers products.

The cyber-security giant says that the US spy agency has full access to raw data, agnostic of partition method (low-level format), file system (high-level format), operating system, or even at the user access level. Kaspersky has said that it has found PCs in at least 30 countries with the spying programs installed, with the most infections found in Iran. After that, we have Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria.

Kaspersky has said that the HDD firmware backdoors are used right now to spy on foreign governments, telecommunication giants, banks, nuclear researchers, the media, and many more. Kaspersky isn't outright naming the company that has designed the malware, but it has said that the company responsible has close ties with the development of Stuxnet. But it does get worse, as the company adds that each time you turn your PC on, the malware is activated, which means it has utter control to all of the critical OS components - possibly gaining access to your network, and file system.

The time has come for Samsung to tease to the world that it has started the mass production of its 14nm FinFET process technology, moving from its current node at 20nm.

Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing, System LSI Business, Samsung Electronics, Gabsoo Han, said: "Samsung's advanced 14nm FinFET process technology is undoubtedly the most advanced logic process technology in the industry. We expect the production of our 14nm mobile application processor to positively impact the growth of the mobile industry by enabling further performance improvements for cutting-edge smartphones".

This is quite the achievement, as the new 14nm FinFET processors offer up to 20% more speed, 35% less power consumption, and 30% productivity gain when compared to Samsung's current 20nm process technology. Samsung's new 14nm FinFET process will see its way into the company's upcoming Exynos 7 Octa later this year, as well as many other products in the near future.

If you didn't already know, Sony sold its VAIO brand off to Japan Industrial Partners last year, with the new owner of VAIO announcing new models in Sony's old PC brand. We have the new VAIO Z and VAIO Z Canvas laptops, which are some flashy new transforming Ultrabooks.

Starting with the VAIO Z which comes in two flavors, both with a 13.3-inch display, but you can choose between an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor. We also have a beautiful aluminuium carbon shell body, and an SSD that the company says can have the Ultrabook booting up in an impressive 0.3 seconds.

Better yet, a hinge on the rear of the Z's chassis allows the Ultrabook to turn the display on, so it can either be facing outwards to use it like a tablet, or flipped down to show others what you're doing. The VAIO Z is something Japan Industrial Partners calls a "monster PC" but it won't be going through its battery too quick. The company says that you should expect over 15.5 hours of use out of it, which is pretty damn impressive, and more than any other VAIO laptop released.

There was an interesting post that I read yesterday somewhere in the world of Reddit, but it was late and I was laying in bed. I awoke today to the news being spread throughout the Internet, that Apple could purchase Tesla Motors sometime in the next 18 months for an absolutely gigantic $75 billion.

The rumors are coming from Interent entrepreneur and angel investor Jason Calacanis, who is saying that all the dominoes are lining up for Apple to acquire Tesla. Calacanis said that he has no insider information, but he has said that Apple's all of the sudden interest in building cars, and Tim Cook's "obsession" with renewable energy are giant hints. Calacanis wrote: "No one else in the world could actually make a run at Tesla, because they either don't have the cash and, most importantly, they don't have the ability to give assurances to Elon that they won't f- it up. Apple's design team, software, and global distribution would actually LEVEL Tesla up".

Remember, this probably won't happen - I would dare say it will not happen, but the rumor is interesting nonetheless. Maybe Apple is testing the waters by pushing this rumor out into the world?

With Skylanders and Disney Infinity figures continuing to move impressive numbers for gaming systems worldwide, late last year Nintendo got into the market with their range of Amiibo figures for the WiiU and New 3DS systems, releasing a total of 29 NFC equipped Amiibo figures, with a further two waves to come in the next few weeks. With product shortages and some of the rarer figures commanding big prices on eBay, it's no shock that Nintendo completely underestimated the lines popularity, but today's earnings call reveals how strong that popularity is.

Nintendo announced that they've sold through 5.7 million Amiibo figures worldwide, with 'The Legend of Zelda' character Link proving the most popular in all listed countries - except in Australia where Mario topped the chart. Our friends at Vooks are the first to translate the sales charts here.

Following in the footsteps of the US, Malaysia has now officially recognized eSports as a professional sport - listing it under the Sports Commission of Malaysia.

Reportedly kicked off due to their local team Orange eSports placing highly in Valve's 2013 International Dota2 tournament, eSports began receiving a lot of publicity throughout the nation. This push was majorly supported by Malaysia's Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin directly - eventually ending up with the ruling as seen today.

It hasn't always been smooth sailing, with Arrow Gaming being accused and found guilty of match fixing - but this controversy has further pushed the government towards this ruling, meaning that they can now directly control any issues that may occur in the future.

With Google launching Fiber in Kansas City, other internet providers are looking to step up their game in order to continue profit and growth. AT&T have been the first to do so in this region, offering up their U-Verse with GigaPower network - set for launch in Kansas and "parts of Leawood, Lenexa, Olathe, Overland Park, Kan. and in surrounding communities located throughout the metro area."

Offering 1Gbps for $70 per month, with an additional Internet and TV package bumping the price up to $120 per month total - AT&T is trying to closely match Google's Fiber pricing in that regard. However AT&T are also offering something a little different, with an internet, TV and Voice plan for $150 per month.

Their Kansas president Mike Scott issued a release, stating "we're proud to launch in these cities as the first locations where we will offer ultra-high speeds to local consumers and employers in the Kansas City area. The AT&T GigaPower network will help encourage economic development in the area by facilitating a new wave of innovation through enhanced opportunities for education, health, research and small business growth."

The prisons of South Carolina don't mess around. Prisoner Tyreem Henry has been handed 37 years in solitary confinement for writing 38 posts on Facebook whilst incarcerated.

Whether these posts were him whinging about sleeping conditions, letters to his family or setting up connections outside - that is not clear. However what is clear that this man has not only lengthened his 15 year sentence to 37 years of solitary confinement, he's also lost 74 years of canteen, phone and visiting privileges.

Have you had a chance to get your own Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm (Heroes) beta yet? Set out to be a fast-paced and action packed MOBA style game, Blizzard have made it publicly known that they're interested in turning this title into another large eSport offering.

With plenty of different Blizzard characters on offer including your favorite Warcraft and StarCraft personalities, they've set out to make this game somewhat of a LoL style environment (jump in and play, or practice and go pro) with a twist. There's a bunch of side objectives you can complete in every game alongside each match shortened to around 20 minutes.

This game also does away with singular hero leveling. A little confusing at first, all heroes on the same team will level at the same rate no matter how many kills or deaths one player may have. This helps your team progress together and provide some more linear game-play. There's no earth-shattering ultimate abilities like in Dota2, however the fast-paced nature and quick games make for an enjoyable experience.

Researchers are looking forward to the future of medical technology that could have major life-changing impact, with great breakthroughs in bionic vision. During the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference last week, medical researchers discussed everything from telescopic contact lenses to prototype bionic prosthetics.

New technology developments greatly aid patients suffering from vision impairments - and varying levels of blindness - giving them the chance to better distinguish the world around them.

"Retinal implants have moved from sci-fi into reality over the last few years," said Daniel Palanker, professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University, in a statement to the San Jose Mercury News. "Now we are in the race of improving resolution, improving image processing, dynamic range (of light intensity) and levels of gray - and will keep improving."

DARPA is constantly working on various things that we'll see in the next couple of decades, but one of them is something that started out as "supervision" contact lens for soldiers. But as things progressed, it was looking like it was better suited to age-related macular degeneration.

The latest version of the 'supervision' contact lens has bulked up a bit from its first iteration which was 1.17mm, to 1.55mm. The added thickness could have something to do with adjusting the reflective bits inside of the lens itself, or that there's a different material used in its construction.

When asked about the added thickness, researcher Eric Tremblay said that out of the five patients that have used the lens, said it was light enough and more than comfortable to wear around for daily use. The contact lens itself works as a pair of liquid crystal glasses that the user wears, where winking your right eye turns on the magnification, while winking the left eye turns it off. Blinking, does nothing. The big issue now is getting oxygen through the lens, and to the users' eye. Without oxygen to the eye, the contact can only be worn for around half an hour. The team is already working on fixing this, with current experiments leading them to use tiny channels cut into the contact that feed oxygen as well as add reservoirs of oxygen-rich fluids.

Mobile phones are under attack by cybercriminals, trying to steal personal data and possible financial information stored on devices. Studying information collected on cellular networks, 0.68 percent of mobile phones suffer from malware infection, according to Alcatel-Lucent.

Google Android devices - the No. 1 mobile OS across the world - make up 99 percent of the infected devices, with infection rates increasing. Adware.Uapush, Trojan.Ackposts and SMSTracker are the top three infections, commonly hidden in legitimate looking mobile applications.

"Most importantly is the fact that there is less control - you can download the apps from third-party app stores and there is very little checking of the digital signature that you sign the app with," said Kevin McNamee, director of Alcatel-Lucent's Motive Security Labs.

First released as a teaser trailer on YouTube in late 2014 - The Gadget Expo 2015 sets out to plug the gap as seen in the Australian tech calendar. Aussies often have EA Games press events, EB Games running their massive gaming exhibition and PAX Australia with two years of gaming pop culture success - but what about the lovers of straight up technology?

There were a few main points covered in this trailer. Some of the most interesting inclusions include: the announcement that it will contain an emphasis on it being more of an 'event show' rather than a 'trade show', the event will contain a 'Gamers Bubble' - functioning as a sort of mini-PAX or mini-EB Expo, alongside a Home Tech Zone and an Innovation Zone.

As a whole this show is setting out to be somewhat of an Australian CES 2015, in which companies will come and showcase their latest and greatest technology - alongside various big-name tech heads sharing their thoughts and knowledge to thousands of seated fans. The Gadget Expo does promise "world renowned" tech experts, inventors, entrepreneurs and more at the event - here's hoping that all of these big claims can be pulled off.

Also known as the Commodore 64DX, Hackaday has spotted this piece of technological history for sale on eBay - eventually going for the cool price of $22,862.01 via the method of auction.

Including a whopping 128kB of RAM (expandable to 8MB) and a 1280x400 resolution displaying 4096 colors, this model was Commodore's last project in the early 1990's before the company was liquidated completely.

The C65's on hand were sold to members of the public after this closure and it's likely that the PC's which have been occasionally popping up on eBay are these exact ones. In regards to the high price, it's certainly not unusual - the last system spotted on eBay sold for $20,100 and even featured some missing parts.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that investment firm Columbus Nova purchased Sony Online Entertainment, which renamed to Daybreak Game Company, but now we're seeing layoffs from within the company.

Development of games will still happen for Daybreak Game Company, including the ongoing work for H1Z1, with the company explaining: "To better position our newly independent studio for future growth opportunities and to deliver on our legacy of making top online games, we have had to make some tough choices including realignment of resources".

Daybreak Game Company continued: "Unfortunately, this realignment means adjusting staffing as well. We announced today that we will eliminate positions in our San Diego and Austin studios. Many of us are saying goodbye to close friends and colleagues who we've worked with over the years, and we are grateful for the memories and all that they've contributed. They will be greatly missed, and we wish them nothing but the best for the future". The developer says that the layoffs will not have an effect on its current development operations.

Cybercriminals carrying out data breaches on organizations are helping create a suddenly booming cyberattack liability insurance market.

Traditional insurance companies - and a growing number of niche cyberattack insurance providers - are overwhelmed by an avalanche of new applications. The cyberattack insurance industry reached close to $2 billion in 2014, which is double the previous year, according to industry analysts.

"Think of a massive cyberattack as an intelligent hurricane," said Ty Sagalow, COO of the eBusiness division of AIG, in a statement published by the Los Angeles Times. "If it hits a house that doesn't fall down it learns why the house didn't fall and it changes. It is a scary thing... scary things sell insurance."