Group chats can be chaotic enough without unwanted participants poking around. That’s why it would be nice to have an extra layer of security to keep all that hot goss contained. To that end, Google has opened a beta program allowing users of the Messages app on Android phones to sign up to have their group chats… Continue reading End-to-End Encryption Is Coming to Android Group Chats
Author: Wired Magazine
China’s Police State Targets Zero-Covid Protesters
It was another busy week in security that saw big news about protests, surveillance, spyware, data breaches, and more. In the US, recent court filings detail how the FBI’s use of a controversial warrant yielded a trove of Google’s location data from thousands of devices in and around the Capitol on January 6. Meanwhile, in Iran,… Continue reading China’s Police State Targets Zero-Covid Protesters
Android Phone Makers’ Encryption Keys Stolen and Used in Malware
While Google develops its open source Android mobile operating system, the “original equipment manufacturers” who make Android smartphones, like Samsung, play a large role in tailoring and securing the OS for their devices. But a new finding that Google made public on Thursday reveals that a number of digital certificates used by vendors to validate… Continue reading Android Phone Makers’ Encryption Keys Stolen and Used in Malware
Devialet Mania Review: Bottom-Heavy, But Powerful
For all that Mania seems a slightly un-Devialet product as far as looks and specification are concerned, though, the company’s ethos comes strongly back into focus when the speaker starts doing its thing. Connected to an Apple iPhone 13 via AirPlay 2, and with music ranging from John Coltrane’s “My Favourite Things” to Nation of Language’s “This Fractured… Continue reading Devialet Mania Review: Bottom-Heavy, But Powerful
San Francisco’s Killer Police Robots Threaten the City’s Most Vulnerable
One effect of AB 481 is to add local oversight to hardware like the kind obtained through a US Department of Defense program that sends billions of dollars of military equipment such as armored vehicles and ammunition to local police departments. Equipment from the program was used against protesters in the wake of the police killings… Continue reading San Francisco’s Killer Police Robots Threaten the City’s Most Vulnerable
Google Moves to Block Invasive Spanish Spyware Framework
The commercial spyware industry has increasingly come under fire for selling powerful surveillance tools to anyone who can pay, from governments to criminals around the world. Across the European Union, details of how spyware has been used to target activists, opposition leaders, lawyers, and journalists in multiple countries have recently touched off scandals and calls… Continue reading Google Moves to Block Invasive Spanish Spyware Framework
Why China Is Still Stuck in a Zero-Covid Nightmare
Scott Kennedy, senior adviser with the Washington, DC, think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, visited China in October. “When I was there, it seemed clear to me that, privately, officials understood they needed to exit zero-Covid, and that plans were in the works to do so that would be implemented after the 20th… Continue reading Why China Is Still Stuck in a Zero-Covid Nightmare
Pliocene-Like Monsoons Are Returning to the American Southwest
Leaf waxes also predate climate records from Antarctic ice cores, which go back only about a million years and require a climate that can support ice. One study used leaf waxes to glimpse the climate of a warmer Spain some 15 to 17 million years ago. Another looked at the moisture history of Southwest Africa for the past… Continue reading Pliocene-Like Monsoons Are Returning to the American Southwest
Volvo EX90: The Biggest Problem for the New EV Flagship is Polestar
Working with another brand means there will be some corporate arm twisting, says Callum. The challenge is to keep any similarities hidden where possible: “To be fair to the design teams, they’ll be told to use a lot of similar components, like the touchscreens. But, for example, you should never use the same switches on… Continue reading Volvo EX90: The Biggest Problem for the New EV Flagship is Polestar
Scientists Reexamine Why Zebra Stripes Mysteriously Repel Flies
For the current study, Tombak, then a PhD candidate at Princeton, and her team wanted to test stripe width to see if narrower ones might be even more repulsive to flies—a potential evolutionary advantage that would explain the difference between zebra species. They also restricted their experiment to close-range encounters to rule out the theory… Continue reading Scientists Reexamine Why Zebra Stripes Mysteriously Repel Flies