John Lister

Two ad-blocking Chrome extensions have been removed from distribution after they were altered to collect user data. People who've already installed Nano Adblocker and Nano Defender should now remove the tools. Instructions for removal are near the ... end of the article. Both Nano Adblocker and Nano Defender started out as legitimate extensions which users could integrate into the Chrome browser to block ads. They had a combined total of 250,000 downloads, and ironically that success seems to be what ended up causing the problems. New Owners Manipulate Extension The original developer sold the ... (view more)

A couple have reportedly named their daughter after an Internet company in return for 18 years of free mobile broadband. Perhaps fortunately the girl now only has "Twifia" as a middle name. The couple took up a promotional offer from Swiss company ... Twifi. It made the offer to any parents who named their child with Twifia or Twifius. It's not clear why the offer covers these variations rather than the brand name itself. The deal requires a parent to upload a photograph of the birth certificate with one of the names on it and await verification. They will then get 18 years of service for the ... (view more)

Microsoft has added links to Office web apps on Windows 10 computers without asking permission. It's more of an irritation than a damaging problem, but it's certainly safe to say some folks are irritated. The links appear to have been added by an ... automatic update, with some users reporting their computer restarted without warning and they lost some work that hadn't been saved. (Users can set Windows 10 to only restart automatically at set times such as during the night to stop this happening.) The links appear in the Start Menu alongside other apps as a single tile that contains several small ... (view more)

Microsoft is to warn Windows 10 users when an app will start up automatically when they start their computer. The move is designed to prevent the start up process being slowed down against the user's wishes. Users already have the ability to ... manually decide whether an app starts up automatically when they switch on their computer. The change is to the way apps are set when they are originally installed. Which apps should start up automatically is a balancing act. With some it's important to start up automatically for functionality purposes, such as having anti-malware software running right ... (view more)

Microsoft says it has disrupted "one of the world's most persistent malware operations." The action against "Trickbot" reportedly involved working with the US military. Trickbot is a botnet , created by infecting computers with malware then ... hijacking and combining their resources for further malicious activity. The operators largely built it using bogus emails that tricked users into opening a file attachment or clicking a link that downloaded and installed malware. The uses of Trickbot have included stealing login details such as online banking credentials; accessing sensitive data; and ... (view more)

Review site Yelp is to highlight businesses that have been accused of racist behavior. Critics argue the policy is open to malicious abuse. Yelp says over this summer it has noticed a surge in reviews which warn users of racist behavior. However, it ... believes many of these may be written by people reporting to social media or news reports of such activity, rather than from their own experience of using a business. According to Yelp, it needed to change its policy to deal with two issues. The first is that its rules only allow reviews based on first-hand experience. The second is that it ... (view more)

Apple is suing a recycling company it suspects of reselling more than 100,000 devices rather than disposing of them. It warns they may have been rebuilt with counterfeit components that pose a safety risk. In a three year period, Apple sent more ... than 500,000 iPads, iPhones and Apple Watches to GEEP Canada for recycling. However, it later carried out a security audit and discovered Apple products were being stored at the recycling center in a separate location, and that this location wasn't covered by security cameras. Apple then checked its database and scanned online where it found 18 ... (view more)

Windows 10 users can once again disable Bing Internet results from showing up in the Windows search taskbar. Unfortunately, it involves editing the Registry rather than changing a settings menu. One of the "improvements" of Windows 10 is a combined ... search function. Users who type in a search through the Start menu will not only see results from the computer itself (for example, matching filenames) but also website results retrieved from Microsoft's Bing search engine. While theoretically this could be useful in some cases, some users find it frustrating or intrusive, particularly with the ... (view more)

Google is creating a dedicated security team to hunt for bugs in "sensitive" Android apps. It will concentrate on the nature of the app rather than how widely its used. The new team will working in a different way to Google's existing program that ... offer bounties to independent security researchers who spot bugs in apps from the Google Play Store. To get the most "bang for its buck," that program only covers apps which have more than 100 million downloads. While it's logical enough to prioritize those apps as the number of people affected by a security breach will be highest, it doesn't take ... (view more)

COVID-19 hasn't had much direct effect on the world of malware, but it may be why ransomware scams are getting scarily efficient. So says Microsoft in its latest "Digital Defense Report." The report is based on Microsoft's experiences through its ... built-in and standalone security measures on consumer and business devices and networks. It covers the year from July 2019 though June 2020. (Source: microsoft.com ) Microsoft suggests COVID-19 itself hasn't made much difference to most forms of malware. That's something of a surprise given more people are working from home and thus sending ... (view more)