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Submission + - macOS 26.4 Introduces ClickFix attack workaround (macrumors.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: ClickFix attacks are ramping up — these attacks have users copy and paste a string to something that can execute a command line — e.g., the Windows Run dialog, or a shell prompt. macOS 26.4 Tahoe (updated earlier this week) introduces a new feature to its Terminal app where it will detect ClickFix attempts and stop them by prompting the user if they really wanted to run those commands. By default it will block the attempt, but the user may choose to override the command.

Submission + - Police use of AI facial recognition results in murder case being tossed (cleveland.com) 2

Submitted by tlhIngan
tlhIngan writes: Police in Cleveland, Ohio investigating the murder of Blake Story were dealt a major setback when it was revealed that their suspect was identified using the services of Clearview AI. They sent the surveillance video to be analyzed and came back with a suspect, and used those results to obtain a search warrant on the suspect's house. A search turned up a weapon. However, during the trial the search warrant was ruled inadmissible because it was based on the results of the analysis done by Clearview AI, resulting in the evidence being suppressed. The report from Clearview AI clearly stated that its results are inadmissible in court and should only be used to pursue other investigative leads. Note the decision to suppress the evidence found in the search is being appealed . There are no other suspects in the case. Clearview AI is best known for scraping up photos of people to train its AI, which several courts around the world have declared it to be privacy violations and banned its use.

Submission + - TikTok Refugees using RedNote to be walled off to prevent US influence on China (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by tlhIngan
tlhIngan writes: In what is perhaps the greatest irony ever, the operators of RedNote (known as Xiaohongshu) have decided to "wall off" US TikTok refugees fleeing to its service as the TikTok ban looms. The reason? The CCP wants to prevent American influence from spreading to Chinese citizens. The ban is expected to be in place next week, while many believe that the influx of Americans to be temporary and just a reaction to the TikTok ban to move to another Chinese app. Many Chinese users are not happy with the influx as having "ruined" their ability to connect with "Chinese culture, Chinese values and Chinese news".

Submission + - iPhones suddenly rebooting while in police possession (macrumors.com) 2

Submitted by tlhIngan
tlhIngan writes: A new interesting issue has cropped up making law enforcement lives harder — iPhones have been mysteriously rebooting. The problem is the iPhone can be in one of two states — "Before First Unlock" (BFU) or "After First Unlock" (AFU). iPhones in AFU mode are much easier to unlock using the traditional tools, but after a reboot, they go into BFU mode which requires a stronger authentication scheme in order to unlock as many services, including saved passwords are unavailable in BFU mode. They discovered their iPhones, even ones locked away in Faraday cages were mysteriously rebooting on them which locked them up. They speculate iPhones can emit a "mystery signal" that tells other iPhones around them to reboot, but that seems implausible at best.

Submission + - ARRL Pays $1 million ransom to decrypt their systems after attack (bleepingcomputer.com) 1

Submitted by tlhIngan
tlhIngan writes: The ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League), one of the largest ham radio organizations out there, was attacked with ransomware way back in May of this year. It has been recently revealed that the ARRL has paid a $1 million ransom in order to decrypt their systems. The ARRL has not specified which ransomware gang was responsible but other sources have said it was traced to the Embargo gang.

Submission + - Mozilla enables ad-tracking by default in Firefox 128

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A couple of years ago, Mozilla acquired Anonym, an adtech firm started by two Meta employees that claims to anonymize user ad tracking including information on when they click on ads. Mozilla calls this feature Privacy Preserving Attribution and as of Firefox 128, it is enabled by default. Mozilla claims it's an experiement but further justfies enabling it by default as a user-hostile distraction. Now, the problem is not the technology — but Mozilla keeps advertising their browser as the most privacy protecting browser over its competitors. To disable this ad-tracking, in Firefox, go to Settings, select Privacy and Security and scroll down to Website Advertising Preferences. Uncheck "Allow websites to perform privacy preserving ad measurement".

Submission + - Starfield mod adds nVidia DLSS support - with DRM (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by tlhIngan
tlhIngan writes: Starfield, a Bethesda space-based RPG that was recently released, was criticized for not having nVidia DLSS support — instead the game was primarily written to feature AMD's FSR support instead. This isn't too surprising since the major consoles all use AMD processors and GPUs. However, an enterprising modder created a mod that enables players with nVidia cards to enable DLSS. This isn't the unusual bit — the mod makes DLSS2 (ca. 2020) available for free, while the version enabling DLSS3 (which adds the ability to use AI to generate frames in-between) is behind a Patreon paywall. This has lead to several other people to crack the DRM protecting the mod itself (note: this is not the DRM on the game itself — the game's Steam page doesn't seem to imply use of 3rd party DRM beyond Steam). Imagine that — DRM on a game mod because it requires payment.

Submission + - Chinese phone companies start copying iPhone 14's "Dynamic Island" (macrumors.com)

Submitted by tlhIngan
tlhIngan writes: The iPhone 14's "dynamic island" feature is where the pinhole used for the front facing camera is replaced by a pill shaped cutout that can be filled with "useful" snippets of information. It's basically used to help hide the black hole caused by the pinhole camera (as an alternative to the notch) or pill by multiple cameras. Apparently the feature is so innovative, Chinese cellphone company realme is asking its fans for ideas on how to copy, but not copy, the feature. They're asking for submissions in images, GIFs, text or other form on how a "realme Island" should work.

Submission + - Facebook subpeona'd for information on a teen's abortion leads to arrest (vice.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In this post-Roe world, the effects of the decision are being felt far and wide. A recent Facebook subpeona reveals that Facebook provided information on private chats regarding abortion. That evidence was then used to seize the girl's computer and phone and the evidence from that used to charge the girl and her mom for performing an abortion, now illegal in Nebraska.

Submission + - Apple faces anti-trust probe into App Tracking Transparency (macrumors.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Germany's Federal Cartel Office, the Bundeskartellamt, is investigating to see if Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature is anti-competitive and self-serving. The primary complaint is that they want a fair marketplace with business models that allow fair use of data, but Apple must ensure the rules of its marketplace are pro-competitive.

App Tracking Transparency is a feature that allows users to block access to the tracking ID of the phone, which is unique per app and per installation of the app.

Submission + - Trigger of rare blood clots in AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine found (bbc.com)

Submitted by tlhIngan
tlhIngan writes: The AstraZeneca vaccine, one of the few approved vaccines to fight COVID-19, was under fire earlier this year for causing blood clots. While the vaccine is still approved for use, and is being used, scientists have been working hard to figure out the cause. The main trigger appears to be caused by the immune system mistakenly identifying a blood protein as part of the virus. The AstraZeneca vaccine has viral RNA embedded on a normal cold virus. Platelet factor 4, a blood protein, is attracted to the virus and sticks to it. Sometimes, the immune system thinks the protein on the virus is the virus and attacks it, causing red blood cells to clump on it, creating a blood clot. This is a positive hope in helping figure out who may be susceptible to blood clots caused by the vaccine and to offer an alternative to those allergic to components of the mRNA vaccines.

Submission + - Apple users cancel Spotify over lack of HomePod support (macrumors.com)

Submitted by tlhIngan
tlhIngan writes: We know Spotify has many complaints about Apple, specifically how Apple Music competes with Spotify. This has resulted in many complaints about unfair competition from Spotify, enough to bring about the scrutiny of European regulators. However, it appears Spotify might be the architect of their own complaints, from not supporting AirPlay 2 (which they rapidly backtracked on due to customer complaints), to now, not not supporting the HomePod natively. Apple introduced 3rd party support for the HomePod, which allows the speaker to natively play streaming services audio without requiring an iOS device. Most notably, when the list of providers supporting the feature was announced by Apple, Spotify was conspicuously absent. Now Apple users are demanding Spotify add support for HomePod or they are switching to Apple Music.

Submission + - Peloton blames Apple tracking restrictions for lowered growth forecasts (macrumors.com)

Submitted by tlhIngan
tlhIngan writes: In a Bloomberg report, subscription seller and exercise equipment maker Peloton has cut their forecasted revenue by $1 billion and lowered their subscriber and new customer growth. Peloton blames Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework allowing users to choose whether to allow tracking for blocking Peloton's attempts to grow their customer and subscriber base by tracking users across apps and ads. Peloton isn't the only company blaming Apple for lowered growth — social media companies like Meta (formerly Facebook), YouTube, Twitter and Snapchat have blamed ATT for reducing revenues by as much as $10 billion for the second half of 2021.

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