In a touching Instagram post, Bipasha shared adorable pictures of themselves
entertainment8 hours ago
A malevolent cyber-bug that instals itself in your handheld device remotely, without you getting a whiff of it. Just a missed call. Nothing less, nothing more. And your life is laid bare. It can track who you talk to and what you talk about. It can activate your mobile's camera and microphone. Your e-mails, chats, messages, pictures, data, calendar, even browser history. nothing is private anymore. It's out there for the nasties to exploit and fulfil their sinister motives. Sounds like a plot straight out of a spy-fi thriller, doesn't it? It isn't. It's as real as it gets, and is currently playing on the world's most preferred messenger app, no less.
A vulnerability discovered early May in the Facebook-owned WhatsApp allows malware to penetrate mobile phones with a simple missed voice call or two on the app, thus compromising the device. The app is used by no less than 1.5 billion users globally, making the so-called "buffer overflow vulnerability" a matter of grave concern. Updating the app will secure our devices for now, but it certainly isn't going to be the last update we're going to need. (If you haven't updated WhatsApp on your phone in the past two days, it'll be wise to do so tout de suite.)
Privacy concerns have long plagued Facebook, and now they seem to be bugging its adopted child, too. This time, though, it wasn't a hand-in-glove operation (thankfully) - it was a vulnerability that was patched swiftly after being discovered. But it does once again bring to light the porous nature of our digital firewalls on the one hand and our growing apathy to such discoveries on the other. Our unmitigated dependence on these modern tools for communication, to stay in touch with our friends and family, and to get our daily dose of news, views and entertainment has somehow nudged us into a rather outlandish sense of complacency. So much that we've come to accept data breaches, password thefts and viruses/worms as part of the plot. It is this infatuation with apps, the addiction to devices and the obsession with technology that exposes our own vulnerabilities. Now let's look for a patch for that.
In a touching Instagram post, Bipasha shared adorable pictures of themselves
entertainment8 hours ago
In this opulent saga, Bhansali delves into the world of Basra pearls
entertainment8 hours ago
The news comes just two days after his rape conviction was overturned by the New York Court of Appeals
entertainment8 hours ago
The AFI Life Achievement Award is the highest accolade granted by the American Film Institute
entertainment8 hours ago
The paths of these two stars have intersected on several occasions due to their association with the luxury brand Bulgari
entertainment8 hours ago
The students' demands range from a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas to calls for universities to stop investing in Israeli enterprises
world8 hours ago
Despite Kohli's flowing form ahead of the T20 World Cup in June, pundits have raised concerns over his strike-rate
cricket8 hours ago
Saudi Arabia has begun to explore extracting lithium from sea water
business9 hours ago