Month: July 2024

Loss of popular 2FA tool puts security-minded GrapheneOS in a paradox

Losing access to Authy leads to another reckoning with Google’s security model.

Scientist looking at a molecular model of graphene in a laboratory

Enlarge / Graphene is a remarkable allotrope, deserving of further study. GrapheneOS is a remarkable ROM, one that Google does not quite know how to accommodate, due to its "tiny, tiny" user numbers compared to mainstream Android.

"If it's not an official OS, we have to assume it's bad."

That's how Shawn Wilden, the tech lead for hardware-backed security in Android, described the current reality of custom Android-based operating systems in response to a real security conundrum. GrapheneOS users discovered recently that Authy, a popular (and generally well-regarded) two-factor authentication manager, will not work on their phones—phones running an OS intended to be more secure and hardened than any standard Android phone.

"We don't want to punish users of alternative OSes, but there's really no other option at the moment," Wilden added before his blunt conclusion. "Play Integrity has absolutely no way to guess whether a given custom OS completely subverts the Android security model."

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Meta to pay $1.4 billion settlement after Texas facial recognition complaint

Facebook’s parent accused of gathering data from photos and videos without “informed consent.”

Meta to pay $1.4 billion settlement after Texas facial recognition complaint

Enlarge (credit: SOPA Images/Getty)

Facebook owner Meta has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle claims that the company harvested millions of citizens’ biometric data without proper consent.

The settlement, to be paid over five years, is the largest ever obtained from an action brought by a single US state, said a statement from Attorney General Ken Paxton.

It also marks one of the largest penalties levied at Meta by regulators, second only to a $5 billion settlement it paid the US Federal Trade Commission in 2019 for the misuse of user data in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.

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Dynabook Portégé X40-M is a thin and light Meteor Lake laptop with full-sized Ethernet and HDMI ports

Dynabook’s Portégé X40 series laptops are premium, business-class 14 inch notebooks with thin and light, but sturdy designs and some features you don’t always find on compact notebooks these days: like smart card readers and full-sized Eth…

Dynabook’s Portégé X40 series laptops are premium, business-class 14 inch notebooks with thin and light, but sturdy designs and some features you don’t always find on compact notebooks these days: like smart card readers and full-sized Ethernet ports. The company’s newest model is the Portégé X40-M, which launches today with a Intel Core Ultra “Meteor […]

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Gefakte Videos: Wahlkampf à la Elon Musk

Elon Musk hat seinen X-Account in eine Wahlkampfplattform für Donald Trump umfunktioniert. Politiker sind alarmiert. Ein Bericht von Friedhelm Greis (Elon Musk, Twitter)

Elon Musk hat seinen X-Account in eine Wahlkampfplattform für Donald Trump umfunktioniert. Politiker sind alarmiert. Ein Bericht von Friedhelm Greis (Elon Musk, Twitter)