Security News – Heartbleed Exposes Millions of Online Passwords

There has been a severe password outage this week thanks to the already famous ‘Heartbleed’ breakdown. Millions of passwords, credit card numbers and other sensitive data have been revealed so it is strongly advised that you change all your passwords immediately. Other security news updates pale in comparison to this threat, so you need to act fast.

Heartbleed exposes tons of personal data to hackers

This breakdown affects the encryption technology used for secure logins (namely the HTTPS). Apparently, this threat has been present for more than 2 years now. Most of the major services like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and more are susceptible here so it is advisable to change all passwords as soon as possible. Read more here.

18 million email addresses and passwords stolen in Germany

In yet another incident of password leakage, close to 18 million passwords and affiliated email accounts have been stolen in the Germany city of Verden. The stolen addresses were being used to send spam emails, and only about 3 million of these addresses are based in Germany. Read more about this case here.

Samsung adds anti-theft features to its devices

New Samsung models like the Galaxy S5 will now come with anti-theft features like “Find my Mobile” and “Reactivation Lock”. As smartphone security becomes more of an issue, it is good to see popular manufacturers like Samsung providing such features. Hopefully, more devices come with such features soon. Read more about these features here.

Xbox One hacked by 5 year old boy

Microsoft is resting its next-gen console hopes on the Xbox One, so you may presume that the machine is highly secure right? Well, apparently not. In fact, a 5 year old boy was able to hack into his father’s Xbox One and bypass the security measures in place. When notified of this, Microsoft rewarded the boy with a $50 gift card and a year-long subscription of Xbox Live. Explore more about this story here.

Facebook in the news again

In a slew of now routine Facebook news, the social network has removed the messaging feature from its iOS and Android apps. They now want users to switch to using a separate Messenger app. Simultaneously, they are also preparing a trio of new privacy tweaks to their platform. Meanwhile, in news that was always known but never confirmed, the Facebook app causes an insane drop in the battery life of iPhones. The solution, switch off the app’s location services.

Google removes ‘Virus Shield’, a fake anti-virus app from Google Play

This app reached the top of the chart for free apps over Android, so if you installed it at any point, get rid of it now. This is a fake anti-virus app that successfully fooled plenty of Android users (close to 10,000) and raked in about $40,000 for its developers. Read more here.

This news update ends with yet another reminder that everyone should mandatorily change all their online passwords with immediate effect.

Rahul Thadani