This Week’s Latest Security News and Updates

Good News for Facebookers!
Facebook has this feature called “Secure Browsing”. Turning it ON directs the browser to communicate with Facebook using a secure connection. This feature makes it difficult for hackers and malware authors to steal information using unsecured Wi-Fi networks. The good news is, Facebook kept this feature as optional two years ago, but now they are using it by default for all users. To read the complete message put up by Facebook, follow this link.

RIP Jackie Chan – Another Death Hoax Spread by Spammers on Facebook
Looks like every second Facebook spammer is out there to kill movie stars. News about celebrated actor Jackie Chan’s death is doing the rounds on Facebook. Miscreants are claiming that the actor died while performing a deadly stunt. To view the video of the actor’s death, the user must click on a link first. And if the user does click the link, whatever follows has anything but the video the user is looking for. First, the link will take the user to a page where they must allow a third party application to access their FB page, then the user might be asked to download a plugin to watch the video, and then fill up a survey form. So, while the user is getting tricked by Facebook scammers, Mr. Chan might be enjoying dumplings and noodles, being all hale and hearty.

Snowden offered a Job by Vkontakte’s founder Pavel Durov
Snowden, who spilled the beans about the American surveillance programs, was finally granted a safe house (asylum) in the Russian soil. What’s more interesting to know is, he was offered a job by the founder of the most popular social network in Europe, Vkontakte. Durove announced his intentions of employing Snowden to look after the users’ data security of the site. Read more about this development here.

Charge your iPhone and iPad but With Caution
Always charge your iPhone or iPad using only the charging device that came with it. Charging it elsewhere may not be so advisable. Billy Lau, Yeongjin Jang, and Chengyu Song, researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, demonstrated how easily they can hack into iOS devices in less than 60 seconds. And all they need for that is a malicious charger, which they call “Mactans”. Furthermore, this attack can be executed without jail breaking the device. Simply plugging the charger installs a malware that can spy and steal information, and there is no visible sign for the user to get alarmed.

Viber Hacked!
Apparently, the account of popular instant messaging app, Viber, on App store, was compromised by hackers. They changed its description from the original to “We created this app to spy on you, please download it.” The issue was taken care of immediately by changing the description. However, it is not clear whether the hackers only intended to deface the app, or they went for deeper damage. News is up that the Syrian Electronic Army may be the offenders behind this whole incident, given their recent doings in bringing down Viber’s customer service. Viber has blamed Apple for all the mishap. For more news, follow this link.