News in the Hardware category

Laptop Makers Overestimate Battery Life Stats, Study Finds

A year-long study revealed on Friday that laptop manufacturers seriously overstate their claims on a device's battery life, sometimes by hours, not minutes.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- April 02, 2017
- 09:32 AM
- 6
DDR5 RAM Will Arrive Next Year, Will Be Twice as Fast as DDR4

Work on DDR5 (Double Data Rate 5), a standard for computer memory chips, has already begun, JEDEC, a standards body for the microelectronics industry, said on Thursday.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- April 01, 2017
- 10:30 AM
- 0
Gigabyte Firmware Flaws Allow the Installation of UEFI Ransomware

Yesterday, at the BlackHat Asia 2017 security conference, researchers from cyber-security firm Cylance disclosed two vulnerabilities in the firmware of Gigabyte BRIX small computing devices, which allow an attacker to write malicious content to the UEFI firmware.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- April 01, 2017
- 04:20 AM
- 0
USB Canary Sends an SMS When Someone Tinkers with Your USB Ports

A new tool released on GitHub last week can help paranoid sysadmins keep track of whenever someone plugs in or disconnects an USB-based device from high-value workstations.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 31, 2017
- 01:00 PM
- 0
About 90% of Smart TVs Vulnerable to Remote Hacking via Rogue TV Signals

A new attack on smart TVs allows a malicious actor to take over devices using rogue DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial) signals, get root access on the smart TV, and use the device for all sorts of nasty actions, ranging from DDoS attacks to spying on end users.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 29, 2017
- 01:30 PM
- 4
New Attack Uses Microsoft's Application Verifier to Hijack Antivirus Software

A new technique named DoubleAgent, discovered by security researchers from Cybellum, allows an attacker to hijack security products and make them take malicious actions.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 21, 2017
- 03:45 PM
- 9
Cisco's Investigation into Vault 7 Leak Uncovers 0-Day Affecting 318 Products

Over 300 Cisco products are affected by a zero-day vulnerability Cisco discovered last week, and for which no patch is available at the time of writing.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 20, 2017
- 09:32 AM
- 0
Ubiquiti Devices Exposed to Hacking via 20-Years-Old PHP Version

Some Ubiquiti network device models can be hacked thanks to an unpatched vulnerability, allowing attackers to gain control over the device, or use it as a pivot point in the victim's network to hack other nearby equipment.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 17, 2017
- 06:01 AM
- 0
Microsoft Forces Owners of Recent CPU Architectures to Use Windows 10

Users of new CPU architectures will not receive Windows 7 and 8.1 updates anymore, according to a Microsoft support topic published last week.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 16, 2017
- 06:27 PM
- 6
Headphone Batteries Explode on Flight, Burn Woman's Face and Hands

A woman traveling on a flight from Beijing, China to Melbourne, Australia suffered burns on her face and hands after her battery-powered headphones exploded.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 15, 2017
- 08:00 AM
- 4
Researchers Hack Accelerometers with Sound Waves

Scientists from two US universities have found a way to attack accelerometers by using sound waves, a technique that has allowed them to spoof accelerometer signals and feed devices and applications with fake data.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 15, 2017
- 05:40 AM
- 0
"Super Malware" Steals Encryption Keys from Intel SGX Enclaves

In a research paper published at the end of February, a team of five scientists from the Graz University of Technology has described a novel method of leaking data from SGX enclaves, a secure environment created by Intel CPUs for storing sensitive information for each process, such as encryption keys, passwords, and other.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 12, 2017
- 03:00 AM
- 0
Millions of Smart Meters May Over-Inflate Readings by up to 600%

Lab tests carried out by Dutch scientists have shown that some of today's "smart" electrical meters may give out false readings that in some cases can be 582% higher than actual energy consumption.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 11, 2017
- 04:20 PM
- 2
This Device Works as a Firewall for Your USB Ports

The USG is an USB attachment that allows users to connect USB flash drives and other USB devices to their computer without any of the risks.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 11, 2017
- 01:40 PM
- 6
Researchers Break MAC Address Randomization and Track 100% of Test Devices

For many years, MAC Address Randomization was slated as the next big thing for protecting user privacy on the modern Internet.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 10, 2017
- 06:25 AM
- 0
Nearly 200,000 WiFi Cameras Open to Hacking Right Now

What started as an analysis of a simple security flaw in a random wireless IP camera turned into seven vulnerabilities that affect over 1,250 camera models and expose nearly 200,000 cameras to hacking.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 09, 2017
- 01:26 PM
- 0
Dahua Left Device Credentials Exposed to Anyone Knowing Where to Look

Believe it or not, there are DVRs and IP cameras available online today that you could hack just like in the movies, in a matter of seconds.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 08, 2017
- 11:05 AM
- 0
WikiLeaks Claims CIA Could Turn Samsung Smart TVs Into Listening Devices

The CIA has developed a hacking tool named Weeping Angel that can turn Samsung smart TVs into covert listening devices.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 07, 2017
- 12:38 PM
- 1
Multiple Unpatched Vulnerabilities Discovered in Western Digital NAS Hard Drives

Multiple Western Digital MyCloud Networked Attached Storage (NAS) devices are affected by several security flaws, varying in severity, that allow attackers to bypass authentication, execute code on the device, and upload or download user data.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 07, 2017
- 03:20 AM
- 0
Researchers Store Movie, Malware, and Computer OS Inside DNA Molecules

Scientists from the Data Science Institute at Columbia University and the New York Genome Center (NYGC) published new research this week detailing a new data storage technique that leverages DNA molecules to store digital information.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- March 04, 2017
- 04:50 PM
- 3