Google, Amazon, and Facebook are always listening. But what's worse? Hackers are listening, too. Windows PCs are particularly vulnerable, but with a few simple commands, a remote attacker can even take over the microphone on someone's Mac computer, streaming audio and listening to private conversations in real time without the victim's knowledge, abusing an overlooked security consideration.
Many of us rely on our smartphones for all our media needs. Now more than ever, we're using Bluetooth connections to play audio over speakers, headphones, car sound systems — the list goes on. If you own a Samsung smartphone like the Galaxy S9, there are a number of Bluetooth tweaks and hidden tricks that can maximize your audio experience.
The share menu is a vital part of Android that lets you send data between between apps. Many of your favorite apps support the feature, including the new Direct Share sub-menu, which can lead to a messy share menu. However, there are a number of tools to clean up this clutter, three of which don't require root.
Kali Linux is established as the go-to operating system for penetration testing, but in its default configuration, it's less than ideal for regular desktop use. While in many scenarios, a live boot or virtual environment can resolve these issues, in some situations, a full installation is better. A few simple changes can be made to a Kali Linux desktop to make it safer to use in this environment.
Thanks to its advanced cameras, the Galaxy S9 can capture videos at an astonishing 960 frames per second (fps). To put it in perspective, you now have you the ability to record the world around you in ways that previously required expensive professional camera equipment. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Over the years, we've seen security breach after security breach, as well as high-profile data scandals where collected personal information was misused by companies. Apple makes customer privacy a priority, so there have been few issues to worry about when it comes to its services on your iPhone. However, there are still plenty of privacy settings to explore and change, especially within Safari.
Whether it's for your company, your professional image, or just your personal account, making a poll on Instagram is a great way to reach out to followers, friends, family, and other users to measure their thoughts and opinions about any given topic. Instagram for Android and iOS makes it fun and simple to do so, offering the same tools to professional and personal users alike.
Earlier this year, we got our first taste of Android Pie in the form of Developer Preview 1. As with all past Android previews, DP1 was limited to Google devices — but at Google I/O 2018, Google announced that Developer Preview 2 would be accessible to other devices, including the Essential PH-1.
According to Google at their 2018 I/O conference, Google Assistant is now available on over 500 million devices. Now that the assistant is available on iPhones as well, Google has to give iOS users a reason to switch to its assistant over the built-in Siri. Today, Google has eight more reasons for users to do so.
Analysis of photographs and social connections can be a huge component of social engineering. Understanding who a person is, as well as who they know, can establish links within a company. This information could be used by hackers to execute elaborate social engineering attacks.
Beginners learning brute-forcing attacks against WPA handshakes are often let down by the limitations of default wordlists like RockYou based on stolen passwords. The science of brute-forcing goes beyond using these default lists, allowing us to be more efficient by making customized wordlists. Using the Mentalist, we can generate millions of likely passwords based on details about the target.
Apple has introduced a special edition iPhone 8 and 8 Plus to bring attention to the ongoing worldwide battle against AIDS. As the second iPhones to carry the (PRODUCT)RED name, these rare iPhones may quickly sell out when preorders open up on Tuesday, April 10, at 5:30 a.m. (PDT), so we'll go over some tips to help you secure a red iPhone before it's gone.
If you've contemplated what's possible with augmented reality on mobile devices, and your interest has been piqued enough to start building your own Android-based AR app, then this is a great place to to acquire the basic beginner skills to complete it. Once we get everything installed, we'll create a simple project that allows us to detect surfaces and place custom objects on those surfaces.
With much of the hype centered around its powerful cameras, it's easy to overlook the equally impressive audio capabilities of the Galaxy S9. After all, the S9 and S9+ are the first Samsung flagships to feature AKG-tuned stereo speakers, and that's not even mentioning all the software enhancements that help deliver rich, immersive sound in several different listening situations.
Thanks to its free-to-play strategy, many items in Fortnite Battle Royale require V-Bucks, the in-game currency. You can purchase V-Bucks with real-world money, but many would rather earn V-Bucks instead of getting nickeled and dimed by micro-transactions. While limited, there are a few ways to earn free V-Bucks in the game.
After setting up your phone, there are a number of things you should do immediately before download your favorite apps. Specifically, now that your data is on the device, you need to take steps now to ensure it's both protected and retained. Fortunately, most of these steps are a one-time process.
While playing Fortnite Battle Royale, you may have noticed a few players wearing different outfits or using fancy dance moves. These are cosmetic items that can only be obtained by unlocking them. However, unlocking items in Fortnite is a little different than many free-to-play games.
If you tend to use the app switcher a lot to open recent apps, then all of the apps you accessed months ago are just sitting there cluttering things up. While force-closing all of the recent apps on your iPhone isn't really necessary, it's sometimes nice to wipe the slate clean and empty the app switcher completely to start fresh.
With Nokia's relaunch, the iconic company attempted to reimagine the budget phone market. The series of phones they introduced last year challenged the idea that good phones can't be cheap. This year, Nokia introduced the Nokia 7 Plus, a phone which offers perhaps the best balance of specs, software, and price.
Conducting phishing campaigns and hosting Metasploit sessions from a trusted VPS is important to any professional security researcher, pentester, or white hat hacker. However, the options are quite limited since most providers have zero-tolerance policies for any kind of hacking, good or bad. After researching dozens of products, we came out with 5 potentials that are ideal for Null Byte readers.
They're finally here — Samsung has officially revealed the Galaxy S9 and S9+, which run Android Oreo out of the box. Since we've spent plenty of time with the Oreo beta for the Galaxy S8, we already know about some of the best new software features coming to the Galaxy S9. Like previous updates, Samsung has enhanced its software with a fresh look and brand new functionality.
When you don't want somebody you're calling to know the real phone number associated with your iPhone, whether it's for privacy reasons, to avoid being called back, or to prevent being ignored, there are multiple things you can do to block it on their caller ID.
Every industry has its own jargon, acronyms, initializations, and terminology that serve as shorthand to make communication more efficient among veteran members of that particular space. But while handy for insiders, those same terms can often create a learning curve for novices entering a particular field. The same holds true for the augmented reality (also known as "AR") business.
After testing a series of Android 8.0 builds, Essential hit the reset button and jumped to Android 8.1 Oreo. The beta program didn't last long, as Essential has now released the official 8.1 update to the masses. The features from the 8.0 betas are all still there, plus a few goodies specific to the updated version. We'll highlight the standouts here.
When you make an awesome song or beat that you're proud of in GarageBand for iOS, one way to show it off is to turn it into a ringtone or alert tone for your iPhone. That way, anytime you get a phone call or a notification, your musical creation will sound off, and everyone around you will hear it in all its glory. Plus, it's way cheaper to make your tones than to buy them off of iTunes.
Local port forwarding is good when you want to use SSH to pivot into a non-routable network. But if you want to access services on a network when you can't configure port-forwarding on a router and don't have VPN access to the network, remote port forwarding is the way to go.
Nintendo set the internet ablaze Wednesday night with two big announcements. First, Nintendo revealed that the Switch's paid online service will begin in September (boo), but it was the other report that really got fans excited — Mario Kart is coming to your iPhone.
When traversing the web, you'll regularly come across websites that require you to create an account. With the majority of these accounts, protection is limited to a simple password. Despite this, many people are still using weak passwords such "123456." For these reasons, you really need a password manager, and our research has shown that LastPass is still your best bet.
The nemesis of music streamers is data caps, cell phone or otherwise. Restricting monthly data and forcing users to decide between quantity and quality of music has had audiophiles tearing their hair out since streaming toppled the iPod. While the problem regarding music quality seems difficult to tackle, it's far from impossible.
The internet is constantly under siege by bots searching for vulnerabilities to attack and exploit. While conventional wisdom is to prevent these attacks, there are ways to deliberately lure hackers into a trap in order to spy on them, study their behavior, and capture samples of malware. In this tutorial, we'll be creating a Cowrie honeypot, an alluring target to attract and trap hackers.
You may have seen news reports over the last two days detailing a major security flaw in virtually all smartphones. The devices that are at risk are not limited to either iPhone or Android — all of us are affected. If you want to make sure your smartphone and its data stay secure, there are a few steps you can take.
The Play Store hasn't been the most secure place for apps lately. A quick Google search for "Play Store malware" will give you a taste of some of the malicious apps that snuck their way onto Android's official app store. Google is aware of the problem and they're tying to fix it, but their new Play Protect program doesn't have a great track record, so you might want to look elsewhere.
Last week, augmented reality startup Proxy42 released Father.IO, a multiplayer game that turns any indoor or outdoor space into a laser tag arena.
For all those times when an app either isn't available or simply won't cut it, your phone's internet browser provides access to your favorite websites and services. But some browsers are flat-out better than others, and chances are, the browser that came pre-installed on your phone isn't the best option out there.
The public leaks of NSA tools and information have led to the release of previously secret zero-day exploits such as EternalBlue, which was used in the notorious WannaCry ransomware attack. Despite multiple patches being released, many users have failed to update their systems, so many devices are still vulnerable to these now-public attacks.
Introduced along with the iPhone X, Animoji are animated characters, mostly animals, that are rendered from the user's facial expressions using the device's TrueDepth camera system to track the user's facial movements.
Shodan calls itself "the search engine for internet-connected devices." With so many devices connected to the internet featuring varying levels of security, the special capabilities of this search engine mean it can provide a list of devices to test and attack. In this tutorial, we'll use Python to target specific software vulnerabilities and extract vulnerable target IP addresses from Shodan.
Word games can expand your vocabulary skills in all sorts of exciting and creative ways. Because of this, both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store are awash with word games, making it hard to differentiate between good and bad titles. This is especially troublesome if you're looking to purchase a game, as everyone hates to waste hard-earned cash.
Smartwatches are an excellent way to keep track of our smartphone's notifications as well as our own fitness. However, these devices are not usually cheap. If you'd rather not pay a premium for a piece of wearable technology, check out all the Black Friday deals on smartwatches — we've got all the best ones listed right here.
Proxies can be quicker to use than a VPN for specific applications, like web browsers or torrent clients. Both services will hide your true IP address, but a VPN is slowed down because it encrypts all data through a VPN network, while a proxy just acts as a middleman for fetching and returning requests from a server on your behalf. When speed is needed, go proxy.
