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Smartphone s If you always leave Bluetooth on your phone on, you might want to rethink things. A vulnerability known as BlueBorne was  discovered this week by security research firm Armis . With it, researchers were able to infiltrate Samsung Galaxy Phones and the Google Pixel as well as an LG Sports Watch and a car audio system, all by exploiting the Bluetooth connection. Other devices  are also vulnerable . Specifically, iPhones and iPads that haven’t been upgraded to iOS 10, as well as a number of other Android, Microsoft, and Linux products. A BlueBorne attack reportedly only takes 10 seconds to do and can give a hacker control of your Bluetooth-enabled device, even if it isn’t connected to anything when the attack begins. Google and Microsoft put out security patches to get rid of the vulnerability this week. If you haven’t updated your phone in the past few days, you should go ahead and do that right now. No really, do it now. The issue brings up a much bigger problem: you

Facebook While Facebook prepares to offer readers a way to  subscribe and pay for news  directly from inside its app, the social network continues to tinker with how it presents publishers’ content elsewhere. In the latest development, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Facebook has removed Instant Articles — Facebook’s self-hosted, faster-loading article format for mobile — from Messenger. “As we continue to refine and improve Instant Articles — and in order to have the greatest impact on people and publishers — we’re focusing our investment in Instant Articles in the Facebook core app and are no longer offering Instant Articles in Messenger,” a spokesperson said. “We believe that Messenger is an exciting channel for new and interesting news consumption experiences, including the opportunity to build unique messaging experiences in Messenger that many publishers (including TechCrunch) have executed successfully via the Messenger Platform.” Instant Articles was a pared-down

War game NATO has put Moscow on notice that it will be keeping a close eye on a major military exercise with Belarus next week, in a region still on edge after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. Similar drills in the past included a simulated invasion of Poland by tens of thousands of Russian troops culminating in a nuclear strike on Warsaw, and the coming show of force, codenamed "Zapad 2017" (West 2017) has sparked months of speculation and fears along NATO's eastern flank. Observers say that while there is little chance of Russia using the exercise as cover for an actual invasion, there are concerns about what troops and equipment it will leave behind afterwards. Moscow has said about 12,700 Russian and Belarusian troops will take part in the exercises, to be held in Belarus and Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad from September 14 to 20, but Lithuania and Estonia have put the figure as high as 100,000. "We are concerned about the nature and the lack

Bitcoin  Yesterday  a video teaser  from blockchain technology company Blockstream created  waves of excitement  among enthusiasts of both cryptocurrencies and space. Most participants speculated that Blockstream was about to implement the idea, promoted by Bitcoin developer Jeff Garzik (among others), of a satellite system that streams the Bitcoin blockchain to the whole planet from space. The speculations were, indeed, correct. Today, the company is announcing  Blockstream Satellite , a new service that broadcasts real-time Bitcoin blockchain data from satellites in space to almost everyone on the planet. Blockstream Satellite covers across two-thirds of the Earth’s land mass and, according to the company, additional coverage areas will soon come online to reach almost every person on the planet by the end of the year. “Bitcoin is a powerful and transformative internet native digital money that has blazed a trail of disruption, with its full potential yet to unfold. Because it’s

100 Bitcoin The Bitcoin community is not taking kindly to  BitPay  this week.  Influential  developers are accusing the major payment processor of fraud, Bitcoin users on  social media  are calling for boycots, bitcoin.org  is  removing recommendations of the company’s products, and NBitcoin developer Nicolas Dorier has  launched  an initiative to fork some of BitPay’s projects altogether. Here’s why. Bitcore The controversial issue has to do with Bitcore . Bitcore is a type of Bitcoin node developed by BitPay. It is specifically designed to offer a development platform, on top of which it is easy to build all kinds of Bitcoin applications. Anyone can use this open-source tool; some of the better-known applications that utilize it include video-streaming service  Streamium ,  Trezor ’s web interface and BitPay’s own  Copay  wallet. Within the  next a couple of days , most likely on August 23, the long-awaited Bitcoin protocol upgrade  Segregated Witness  (SegWit) will activate.

Luxurious home for bitcoins The Russian real estate firm Kalinka Group has  announced  that once of its clients is selling his luxurious home for bitcoins. The 4200 square foot country mansion is located in the village of Nikolino, situated in a fashionable neighborhood off the Rublevo-Upenskoe highway. According to the Kalinka Group, this is the first time in the history of the Russian real estate market that a client has offered to sell a property for cryptocurrencies. "Such transactions are still a novelty, even for world real estate markets,” Ekaterina Rumyantseva, the chairman of the board of Kalinka Group, said in a statement. “We are pleased to be pioneers and open new frontiers in business.” She pointed out that Russian legislation has not yet defined the rules for working with bitcoins, and so far there is no legal definition of the cryptocurrency. Also, as there is no regulatory or legal framework governing the sale, the agency's service fees will still be paid i

CIVIC Blockchain-driven digital identity fraud firm Civic has partnered up with  wikiHow​  ​to provide its user base with login security. The partnership will mean that around 150 million monthly wikiHow users will now able to use Civic’s identity platform to log in securely with a verified identity, without needing a username and password. Vinny Lingham, CEO of Civic, said in a statement: “We are pleased to officially welcome wikiHow to Civic’s Partner Network. This collaboration illustrates our continuing, strong momentum in building our ecosystem for on-demand, secure and low-cost access to identity verification services.” Civic says it will help improve wikiHow’s user experience, providing users with a more secure account creation and login process. WikiHow is an open source online “how-to” platform that operates in 87 different languages. Its focus is on “teaching anyone in the world how to do anything” in a collaborative, shared-learning environment. The advantage for wiki

Bitcoin In July, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)  moved in on the "Wild West" world of ICOs , which has sent the blockchain world reeling. Now, the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) has announced its own plans to form a panel to regulate Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). This week, the ISA announced that its chairman, Prof. Shmuel Hauser, has put together a committee to examine the regulation of ICOs. The committee will investigate the applicability of securities regulations on ICOs based on shared ledgers that are being offered to the Israeli public. On July 31, the Israeli Bitcoin Association (IBA) made its own  official public statement on the topic of ICOs. The IBA cautioned potential ICO participants that it’s important to understand the huge risks that exist in investing in ICOs. This new world tends to captivate innocents tempted by the hope of getting rich quick. We implore the public considering investment in ICOs to treat the matter with serious

BTC A brand new technical conference is hitting the Bitcoin space this week. Loosely inspired by the well-known  Scaling Bitcoin  workshops, the French Bitcoin community will host the  Breaking Bitcoin conference in Paris, on September 9 and 10. The conference has an explicit focus on security and is targeted at an audience with an understanding of the technical aspects of Bitcoin. “All of the talks and panels will have different angles that tie in to this theme,” co-organizer Elizabeth Stark told  Bitcoin Magazine. The Breaking Bitcoin conference was born out of discussions on the   CryptoFR Slack , a discussion platform for the growing developer community in France. A group of volunteers, including French Bitcoin community member Pierre Lorcery, Chainsmiths  managing director Kevin Loaec  and Ledger  CTO Nicolas Bacca, as well as California-based  Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark, decided to organize the technical event. “The idea was simple,” said Stark, who has previously

cryptocurrency With the aggregate cryptocurrency market cap soaring above $150 billion, an  above-800% increase  in the first eight months of this year, parties that previously dismissed digital currencies as a niche market are starting to make their mark. Governments and financial institutions, which were previously observers, are now taking a more active role in the development of  token sales  and the trading of digital currencies. Some analysts and speculators are interpreting these developments as the glimmers of  the cryptocurrency bubble  preparing to burst. However, some interesting developments are indicative that the landscape might in fact be evolving into a more stabilized market. While stricter regulation might put a plug into the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies, it will also help bring order to the chaotic landscape of cryptocurrencies. In tandem, startups and projects are emerging to help the market adapt to the new rules. Crypto exchanges mature The first crypto

Africa Egyptian antiquities workers with three ancient mummies discovered in the tomb of Amenemhat, a goldsmith, at the Draa Abul-Naga necropolis near the Nile city of Luxor. His name was Amenemhat, and he lived in Egypt about 3,500 years ago, toiling away as a royal goldsmith whose work was dedicated to an ancient Egyptian sun god. A wooden sacophagus was among the items unearthed. The niche dates to Egypt’s 18th dynasty New Kingdom era — about the 15th century BC, the antiquities ministry said. KHALED DESOUKI / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES After five months of digging under an unforgiving sun, a team of  Egyptian  archaeologists unearthed the tomb belonging to the goldsmith who had lived in the desert province of Luxor, the authorities said on Saturday. The jeweler, who lived during the 18th dynasty (about 1567 B.C. to 1320 B.C.), had dedicated his work to Amon-Re, the most powerful deity at the time. Amenemhat’s tomb was found in Draa Abul-Naga, a necropolis for noble

Head up! The term mansplaining is relatively new, but the concept is an old one. If you’re not familiar, the term refers to when someone (most often a man, thus mansplain) explains something to someone (typically a female) in a condescending or patronizing way. If you’re a woman, then chances are this happens to you on a weekly if not daily basis. However, figuring out what to do about it can be a bit challenging. About 10 years ago, I worked as a barista part time as an excuse to get out of the house and to satisfy my coffee addiction. I was a pretty successful writer already at the time, but I loved the human interaction on a regular basis (working from home can get lonely!). One day, a regular customer came in and started to explain a new web app to me. He had gotten an important detail wrong, and when I politely corrected him explained to me in a condescending way that I was wrong because he had read an article in PC Magazine about it and pleasantly suggested I should “See if my

Updated : Equifax’s  “security incident” earlier this week  affected 143 million Americans. That’s a huge number of people, which means that the chances that either you or someone you know being affected are pretty high. Equifax’s site was even providing positive results for fake social security numbers at one point. If you were one of the millions affected by the attack, then you have to figure out what to do next. CNET put together  a pretty good step by step  for people. Here are a few of its suggestions: Enroll in TrustedID Equifax is offering  a free year of TrustedID to everyone. The credit monitoring service “includes 3-Bureau credit monitoring of Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit reports; copies of Equifax credit reports; the ability to lock and unlock Equifax credit reports; identity theft insurance; and Internet scanning for Social Security numbers.” Equifax faced a bit of backlash via social media when it made the offer, one because you have to wait to sign up o

HOW TO: If you somehow forgot the pattern, PIN, or password that locks your Android device, you might think you're out of luck and are destined to be locked out forever. These security methods are hard to crack by design, but in many cases, it's not entirely impossible to break into a locked device. There are several different ways to hack a locked Android smartphone or tablet, but unfortunately, there's not a one-size-fits-all method. So below, I'll go over 7 of the most effective methods, and hopefully one will help you get back into your device. Method 1Use Android Device Manager For newer Android phones and tablets, a service called  Android Device Manager  is probably your best bet. As long as you're logged into your Google account, you can use any device or computer to access the service, which is available at  this link . As counterintuitive as it may sound, start by clicking the "Lock" button once Android Device Manager gets a fix on your devi

 hackers! Do you need to get a Wi-Fi password but don't have the time to  crack it ? In previous tutorials, I have shown how to crack  WEP ,  WPA2 , and  WPS , but some people have complained that cracking WPA2 takes too long and that not all access points have WPS enabled (even though quite a few do). To help out in these situations, I present to you an almost surefire way to get a Wi-Fi password without cracking— Wifiphisher . Steps in the Wifiphisher Strategy The idea here is to create an  evil twin AP , then de-authenticate or DoS the user from their real AP. When they re-authenticate to your fake AP with the same SSID, they will see a legitimate-looking webpage that requests their password because of a "firmware upgrade." When they provide their password, you capture it and then allow them to use the evil twin as their AP, so they don't suspect a thing. Brilliant! To sum up, Wifiphisher takes the following steps: De-authenticate the user from their legitimat