Year: 2019

The Feds favorite ‘backdoor tool’ for iPhone is for sale on eBay

CompuScoop Staff February 27, 2019 1

When eBay merchant Mr. Balaj was looking through a pile of hi-fi junk at an auction in the U.K., he came across an odd-looking device. Easily mistaken for a child’s tablet, it had the word ‘Cellebrite’ written on it,” Thomas Brewster reports for Forbes. “To Mr. Balaj, it appeared to be a worthless piece of electronic flotsam, so he left it in his garage to gather dust for eight months.”

“But recently he’s learned just what he had his hands on: a valuable, Israeli-made piece of technology called the Cellebrite UFED,” Brewster reports. “It’s used by police around the world to break open iPhones, Androids and other modern mobiles to extract data. The U.S. federal government, from the FBI to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been handing millions to Cellebrite to break into Apple and Google smartphones.”

“Mr. Balaj (Forbes agreed not to publish his first name at his request) and others on eBay are now acquiring and trading Cellebrite systems for between $100 and $1,000 a unit. Comparable, brand-new Cellebrite tools start at $6,000,” Brewster reports. “Cellebrite isn’t happy about those secondhand sales. On Tuesday, two sources from the forensics industry passed Forbes a letter from Cellebrite warning customers about reselling its hugely popular hacking devices because they could be used to access individuals’ private data. Rather than return the UFEDs to Cellebrite so they can be properly decommissioned, it appears police or other individuals who’ve acquired the machines are flogging them and failing to properly wipe them.”

Read more in the full article here.

Apple self-driving car layoffs give hints at division’s direction

Reuters News February 27, 2019 0

(Reuters) - Apple Inc said on Wednesday it planned to lay off 190 employees in its self-driving car program, Project Titan, changes that provide a rare window into the automotive technologies the company has been pursuing.

The tech firm said in a filing with state regulators that it planned to lay off people from seven different Santa Clara facilities near its Cupertino, California headquarters, as of April 16. A company spokesman confirmed that the reduction was from the self-driving car program.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Apple removes VoIP app clones from App Store

CompuScoop Staff February 27, 2019 0

“Following my report from yesterday, Apple has removed many of the apps I pointed out,” Romain Dillet reports for TechCrunch. “When you try to find them on the App Store, they are no longer available.”

“App Store Review Guidelines are very clear when it comes to app duplicates. According to rule 4.3, you can’t release the same app multiple times on the App Store has it is considered as spamming,” Dillet reports. “But that rule has been poorly enforced and some companies have taken advantage of that. In my original report, I focused on one category in particular — VoIP apps that let you get a second phone number and send and receive calls and texts from that new number.”

“Developers release multiple versions of the same app so that they can use different names, different keywords and different categories. This way, they can cover a wide range of keywords when you’re searching for an app in the App Store,” Dillet reports. “Companies have released clones of their apps and benefited from that strategy for many years. The main issue here is that App Store rules aren’t enforced consistently.”

Read more in the full article here.

Star Trek: Discovery renewed for Season 3

CompuScoop Staff February 27, 2019 0

CBS All Access announces Discovery renewal for season three; Michelle Paradise to join Alex Kurtzman as co-showrunner.

It's official: CBS All Access today announced the third season renewal of Star Trek: Discovery and also that Michelle Paradise will join Alex Kurtzman as co-showrunner for season three. Additionally, Kurtzman will continue to oversee the expansion of the growing Star Trek universe for CBS Studios.

“Michelle joined us midway through season two and energized the room with her ferocious knowledge of Trek,” Kurtzman said. “Her grasp of character and story detail, her drive and her focus have already become essential in ensuring the Trek legacy, and her fresh perspective always keeps us looking forward. I’m proud to say Michelle and I are officially running Star Trek: Discovery.”

“The massive success of Star Trek: Discovery's second season launch exceeded our expectations in both driving subscriber growth and generating a phenomenal response from Star Trek fans,” said Julie McNamara, Executive Vice President, Original Content, CBS All Access. “With Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise at the helm, we look forward to continuing Star Trek: Discovery's journey, growing the Star Trek franchise on CBS All Access and bringing fans new Star Trek stories for many years to come.”

Paradise, prior to serving as co-executive producer on Discovery, was co-executive producer on the CW series The Originals. She also wrote for the series Rogue on the Audience network and The CW’s Hart of Dixie. Additionally, she created, wrote and starred in the MTV/Logo series Exes & Ohs.

Star Trek: Discovery streams exclusively on CBS All Access in the United States and is distributed concurrently by CBS Studios International on Netflix in 188 countries and in Canada on Bell Media’s Space Channel and OTT service Crave.