Have you been hearing strange, otherworldly sounds on your Bose or Sonos speakers? If so, rest assured that your speakers aren't haunted. They've likely been hijacked by hackers. Researchers at Trend Micro have confirmed that some models (the Sonos Play:1, the Sonos One and the Bose SoundTouch) of both brands of speakers are vulnerable to hacking if the speaker is connected to a misconfigured network. If the hackers find such a speaker, they can take control of the speaker and direct to … Read more
Sound Waves May Be Used In Future Hard Drive Attacks
Another week, another attack vector, and this one deserves extra points for creativity. New research has proved the viability of using something as simple and innocuous as sound waves to disrupt the normal functioning of HDDs, which can be used to sabotage a wide range of equipment from Pcs, to CCTV systems, ATMs and more. Researchers have toyed with, and been aware of the possibility of using sound waves to disrupt the normal functioning of an HDD for more than a decade, but the most … Read more
Nvidia Dropping Driver Support For Older Operating Systems
AMD long ago dropped support of 32-bit operating systems, and now, Nvidia is following suit. The long-anticipated move by the company will mean the end of driver support for the 32-bit builds of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Linux and FreeBSD. Nvidia is taking a balanced, responsible approach here. The company has pledged to continue offering 32-bit driver security updates until January 2019, but will immediately discontinue making performance updates to the drivers of older … Read more
Microsoft May Remove Windows Paint From Operating System
"Paint" is one step closer to being a thing of the past. In May of this year, Microsoft caught a surprising amount of flak when they announced that the venerable app, which had been included with the OS in every release since 1985, would be going away and replaced by a newer, sleeker version called Paint 3D. The company had not expected any backlash on the matter and was sent scrambling when tens of thousands of people complained loudly in forums all over the internet. The company … Read more
Tech Tips: Is Your Data Backup Protected Against Storm Season?
The Best Defense is a Good Offense It's that special time of year when the threat of fire, flood, severe storms, water damage and even theft are very real. This is why ensuring your company's critical data is backed up and protected in the case of power loss or system damage. To help you protect your valuable business assets, here are a few simple tips: Off Site Storage Backing up your data at an offsite location with dedicated and secure servers and cloud solutions is a must. While … Read more
Chrome OS To Get App Multitasking Soon
Chromebooks have brought Android apps to a much wider market, making them accessible to virtually everyone, but the Chrome OS has always lagged behind other platforms developmentally. One of its most serious limitations where running apps was concerned centered on its inability to multitask. Basically, if the app you're using is not "in focus" or in the window you're currently viewing, all activity in the app ceases. There are a few exceptions such as the Spotify app, but most apps that … Read more
What is the Cost of IT Support for Small Business?
One of the greatest challenges among small business owners today is making the decision about IT support and maintenance of the information system; whether to hire an in-house IT tech or to outsource IT support for their business. With the relatively recent availability of Managed Services for small business, the list of choices – and decisions – has grown once again. The Greenville IT support experts at Triangle IT Group are constantly searching for ways to make the decision making process … Read more
Virus Spread Through Facebook Messenger Mines For Cryptocurrency
Facebook scams are fairly common occurrences, owing to the sheer size of the platform's user base. It's no surprise that there's a new one making the rounds that you should be aware of. This latest threat was discovered by researchers at Trend Micro, and makes use of Facebook Messenger. If you get a message containing an embedded video file saved as a zip (the file name usually appears as "video_xxxx.zip"), don't click on it, even if it's from someone you know. This file is a modified … Read more
Major Security Flaw Discovered In Intel Processors
There's some bad news if you own a computer driven by an Intel processor. Recently, a dangerous, catastrophic security flaw has been discovered in Intel's X86-64 architecture that allows hackers to access the kernel, which sits at the heart of your OS. By accessing the kernel, a hacker can gain access to virtually everything on the targeted machine. This is accomplished by way of a little-known feature called "speculative execution" which allows the processor to perform operations before … Read more
Older iPhones Are Being Purposefully Throttled, According To Apple
Not long ago, observant Reddit users noted and began discussing a curious phenomenon. It appeared that older iPhones were unexpectedly slowing down, and no one could name the reason why. It caught the attention of a number of security researchers who delved more deeply into the issue, including a man named John Poole, who confirmed the Reddit claims. His tests confirmed that on iPhone 6s and 7s, Apple made tweaks to iOS versions 10.2.1 through 11.2.0. These changes are designed to throttle … Read more
