NFC, or near-field communications, is a hardware feature that has been built into most Android phones for the last four years. It's essentially a low-power data connection that can be used to initiate a quick command by bringing your device within range of a compatible receiver, be it tap-and-pay with Google Wallet, a file transfer via Android Beam, or a Tasker profile triggered by a specific NFC tag.
Seldom in recent history has a cyber security event caused so much media stir (maybe because it happened to a media company?) and international relations upheaval. Cyber security breaches seem to take place daily of major corporations, but the Sony hack seems to have captured the American imagination and, for that matter, the whole world's attention.
By now, nearly everyone with any type of media access is aware that Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked on November 24th. Although there can be many interpretations and lessons drawn from this audacious act, there is one indisputable conclusion: it and its ripples across the globe underlines how important hacking has become in our all-digital 21st century. As I have emphasized so many times in this column, hacking is the discipline of the future. From cybercrime to cyber intelligence to cy...
Though many students spend four years of high school learning a foreign language, most of us probably retained very little. Chalk it up to the carelessness of youth, but chances are you've since been in situations or places that left you wishing you paid more attention in class or had continued practicing long after you graduated.
Probably SSH is not as clean and fast as other useful tools like netcat, but it has some features which are very useful, and when you'll need them, here's how to behave with that huge amount of computers all over your house.
Welcome back, my budding hackers. So many of you are interested in hacking Wi-Fi that I have decided to revisit my Wi-Fi Hacking series with some updated and more in-depth material. I strongly suggest that you look at some of my earlier posts, such as "Getting Started with Terms and Technologies" and "Getting Started with the Aircrack-ng Suite of Wi-Fi Hacking Tools," before continuing here. If you're ready, you can also check out our updated 2017 buying guide here.
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! Now that nearly everyone and everyplace has a computer, you can use those remote computers for some good old "cloak and dagger" spying. No longer is spying something that only the CIA, NSA, KGB, and other intelligence agencies can do—you can learn to spy, too.
Jailbreaking gives you root access to the iOS file system, allowing you to install third-party apps and tweaks on your iPhone that aren't available in the App Store. It opens up a whole new realm for what your device can do, but it can also cause instability across the system and can dissuade you from getting future updates from Apple that have important features, bug fixes, and security enhancements.
Remember the feeling you had the moment you removed your shiny new Nexus device from its packaging and booted it up for the first time? You swiped through the app drawer at lightning speed and thought to yourself, "This is the last Android phone I will ever need, they just aren't going to get any better than this."
It may seem impossible to win an argument against an irrational person, but it turns out the tried-and-true techniques that hostage negotiators use against hostage-takers work surprisingly well in everyday situations. You may not ever deal with a real hostage situation personally, but life is full of negotiations with unreasonable people, and those conversations don't always have to end in rage or disappointment. The mental techniques that professional hostage negotiators use can help both pa...
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! Scripting skills are essential is ascending to the upper echelons of the hacker clique. Without scripting skills, you are dependent upon others to develop your tools. When others develop your tools, you will always be behind the curve in the battle against security admins.
There's a 2800mAh battery powering the Samsung Galaxy S5, but even it's no match for the constant day-to-day torture you put it through. Taking photos, watching videos, and playing games can make your fully charged S5 powerless in no time.
Welcome back, my novice hackers! The worst thing that can happen to any hacker is being detected by a security admin, the security technologies (IDS, firewall, etc.), or a forensic investigator.
Welcome back, my hacker apprentices! Several of you have written asking me how you can check on whether your boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse is cheating on you, so I dedicate this tutorial to all of you with doubts about the fidelity of your spouse, girlfriend, or boyfriend.
It may not be as large as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but the Galaxy S3's screen size is still big enough to make iPhone owners cry themselves to sleep. The 4.8-inch AMOLED display with 720 x 1280 pixels makes the GS3 a great mobile companion—and an even better portable gaming device.
Back in 2007, YouTube user HouseholdHacker posted a parody video on how to make a high-def speaker for under a buck. MythBusters took on the challenge and busted it.
I obviously do a lot of Steampunk projects, but there are a ton of things out there that I haven't tried yet. So, in an effort to broaden my horizons, I recently taught myself how to use Arduinos, which I plan to incorporate into some of my future Steampunk builds.
In my first installment in this series on professional hacking tools, we downloaded and installed Metasploit, the exploitation framework. Now, we will begin to explore the Metasploit Framework and initiate a tried and true hack.
This video shows you how to control your computer from your iPod touch. 1. Go to UVNC. Click on Installation. This will take you to download options. Download the latest stable version. 2. Install Hamachi, which helps you find your computer's IP address. Click on Download Here link, fill in the registration information, and click submit. 3. Install a VNC listener on your iPod so it can connect to your desktop. Jailbreak your iPod, and open the installer. Click All Programs; scroll down until ...
Though jewelry making can be meticulous and dependent on dexterity, using the right wire makes the whole process easier and faster. Wire necklaces and bracelets are simple when using the soft flexible wire, or soft flex. This demonstration video will help walk you through the process of this threading with soft flex.
Almost 20% of the US population (about 60 million Americans) live in rural areas where mobile reception is weak or nonexistent. In times of crisis, these Americans can't rely on the internet to communicate with loved ones or receive new information. This is why being able to interact offline is so important.
One of the main goals of Google Wifi (and Nest Wifi after it) is to make managing your internet connections as simple as possible. A great example of this is how easy it is to prioritize one device and allot it more bandwidth when your network is bogged down with other traffic.
To reduce stress on internet bandwidth during the COVID-19 pandemic that the novel coronavirus is causing, Google decided to set YouTube's default video quality to 480p. That said, even when you could stream at HD quality without adjusting anything, you still couldn't switch the default to whatever you liked. We have a few methods on hand to help you change that.
Smartphones are inherently bad for privacy. You've basically got a tracking device in your pocket, pinging off cell towers and locking onto GPS satellites. All the while, tracking cookies, advertising IDs, and usage stats follow you around the internet.
We've been predicting the rush of augmented reality wearable makers from China for a couple of years, and now it looks like it's in full swing, with one of the most promising entrants coming from startup Pacific Future.
Did Google CEO Sundar Pichai kill Google Glass for non-enterprise users? That's the obvious first question following news that non-enterprise Glass users will no longer have access to Google's core apps after February 2020.
Some people believe that art makes artists immortal, and now one of the best known performance artists on the planet is working on taking that immortality into the realm of augmented reality.
Thanks to the expanding universe of augmented reality tools being made available, increasingly, anybody can liven up sleepy office meetings with immersive computing.
We have seen Kickstarter-launched wearables before, but this one is particularly unique and may even have you blinking a bit in wonder when you see how it functions.
There have been enough music artists releasing Snapchat AR experiences over the past week to fill a small festival. Count them with me: Bruno Mars. Gucci Mane. Kodak Black. Missy Elliot. Imagine Dragons. Panic! At the Disco.
The augmented reality space is brutal, and that means shifting directions quickly to meet whatever need the market demands.
When there's a new game you want to play or app you need to use, but a Wi-Fi network isn't available, you can always download it over cellular data. If the size of the app is too large, however, you may not be able to on your iPhone. But that changes in iOS 13, which finally gives control over cellular data downloads in the App Store.
A hacker with privileged access to a Windows 10 computer can configure it to act as a web proxy, which allows the attacker to target devices and services on the network through the compromised computer. The probes and attacks appear to originate from the Windows 10 computer, making it difficult to detect the attacker's actual location.
In case you thought the long and unfortunate story of ODG was over, hold on, there's one last chapter to tell.
After months of waiting, it looks like HMD has finally answered the call. Nokia's parent company is finally releasing a true flagship phone — one that isn't just an enhanced version of a previous phone and actually brings something new to the table. That phone is the Nokia 9 PureView.
If waveguide display maker DigiLens has its way, enterprise businesses and consumers will soon be able to purchase smartglasses for less than $500 — as long as they can supply their own computing and battery power.
With the rapid demise of the 3.5 mm headphone jack, Bluetooth is fast becoming our best option for universal audio. The problem is, with over a decade of it being a standard component, many of us still own a reliable pair of wired headphones that we don't want to gather dust. Well with one tool, you can have your cake and eat it, too.
On Thursday, Mojo Vision, a startup comprised of former engineers from Apple, Amazon, Google, and other Silicon Valley mainstays, emerged from stealth backed by $50 million in funding for a hands-free augmented reality platform that runs without smartphones, tablets, or other devices.
While many retailers have introduced try-before-you-buy features in their apps, Walmart has gone in another direction by bringing shoppers an augmented reality tool to help them compare products they want to buy.
Smartphones and laptops are constantly sending Wi-Fi radio signals, and many of these signals can be used to track us. In this guide, we'll program a cheap IoT device in Arduino to create hundreds of fake networks with common names; This will cause nearby devices to reveal their real trackable MAC address, and it can even let an attacker take over the phone's data connection with no warning.
