Mike Thompson

Confirmed: NASA Has Been Hacked

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) this week confirmed that its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been hacked. An audit document from the U.S. Office of the Inspector General was published by NASA this week. It reveals…

Warning: Google Researcher Drops Windows 10 Zero-Day Security Bomb

A security researcher who is part of Google's "Project Zero" team tasked with hunting down zero-day vulnerabilities, has gone public with an exploitable Windows vulnerability that Microsoft is still in the process of fixing. Tavis Ormandy has tweeted…

Social Engineering

Is there a ransomware epidemic?

Why You Shouldn’t Use The Gmail App On Your iPhone

Yet again this week we have seen headlines pitching Apple against Facebook, as the iPhone maker’s crackdown on user tracking threatens mobile ad revenues. But while Facebook is clearly in Apple’s sights, it is Google just as much as Facebook that is…

Beware This Urgent New Warning For Millions Of WhatsApp Users

WhatsApp had a nightmare start to 2021, which has only just settled down. But now you might see it repeat all over again. Millions of users are suddenly being warned that they will lose access to their accounts, and no-one is quite sure what happens…

Why Facebook Messenger Users Should Switch After New Security Delays

If you’re one of the 1.3 billion people using Facebook Messenger, then you need to switch to an alternative. Facebook has suddenly confirmed significant delays with much needed security enhancements to the platform, enhancements that its own…

Remote working- what does the future hold?

Why You Shouldn’t Use Google Chrome After New Privacy Disclosure

If you’re among the billions of people using Chrome, then Google’s stark new data harvesting disclosures should come as a nasty surprise. Worse, a new Chrome revelation, one that hasn’t yet made headlines but which is detailed below, should serve as…

If Any Of These Apps Are On Your Phone, Delete Them Now

An urgent new warning for Android users today. Eight “dangerous” apps have been found on Google’s Play Store that can steal your banking details and even bypass two-factor authentication. If you have any of these apps on your phone, you need to…

Do You Suddenly Need To Stop Using WhatsApp?

WhatsApp’s nightmare week has continued to get worse—a backlash against the scale of its data collection quickly followed by its sudden forcing of new terms of service on its users to share their data with Facebook. Agree to this now or delete your…

Why You Should Stop Using SMS Security Codes—Even On Apple iMessage

Facebook, PayPal, Microsoft, Twitter, Sony, Uber, Dropbox, Amazon... the list goes on. It’s strikingly ironic—these companies are rightly pushing us to better secure our apps and services with two-factor authentication (2FA), verification codes when…

FBI ‘Drive-By’ Hacking Threat Just Got Real: Here’s Why You Should Be Concerned

Warnings that our IoT devices might be spying on us are nothing new—remember the smart speaker fiasco last year? But at least we expect those devices to be listening and can exercise some caution. The latest such warning, though, takes these risks to…

Don’t Trust Facebook? Now You Have These Two Brilliant WhatsApp Alternatives

Last month, I advised Facebook Messenger users to switch to its stablemate WhatsApp. The security differences between the two are night and day—and you really don’t want to be using anything but a fully secured messenger these days. For the same…

Is TikTok Seriously Dangerous—Do You Need To Delete It?

Reports on Friday that Amazon had asked employees to delete TikTok from their phones spread like wildfire—TikTok’s security woes have been the viral story of the month. Amazon quickly retracted the news—an internal memo had been released in error—but…

New Microsoft Security ‘Nightmare’: Users Warned Your Passwords Are Now At Risk

Microsoft security is under fire after new research, published here for the first time, exposes the serious risk of account hijack from compromised subdomains. Put simply, users visiting a genuine Microsoft web domain might actually be on a subdomain…

How To Protect Your Baby Monitor From Hackers In Three Simple Steps

After months of headline-grabbing attacks on smart cameras and baby monitors, the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) has stepped in to remind everyone with a device of the simple steps “to protect it from common cyber attacks.” This is intended,…

The Ancient Microsoft Security Flaws Driving Cybercrime In 2020

A brand-new IBM Security "X-Force Threat Intelligence Index" report was published today and reveals some very old Microsoft vulnerabilities are still causing very real problems. There was some good news to be found within the pages of the latest…

Apple Confirms Awkward Security Flaw: New Google Report Exposes Rival Tech

“We’d like to thank Google,” Apple said last month, crediting its rival with finding a Safari tracking issue that enabled “bad things” to be done to its web users. Now we’ll see whether the civility continues. A flurry of headlines have appeared…

How To Secure The Internet: Troy Hunt Talks Breaches, Passwords And IoT

Troy Hunt is busy. He’s been travelling across the world giving talks about security, and his much loved and lauded website HaveIBeenPwned went up for sale in June. But that’s not before the site–which gives users the chance to see if their emails…