hacking

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on hacking:

Enjoy lifetime access to 1,000 courses on coding, design and IT

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StackSkills Unlimited offers lifetime access to over 1,000 courses for under $40.
Explore IT, code, and design with StackSkills Unlimited lifetime access, now under $40.
Photo: StackCommerce

Want to learn something new this year? StackSkills Unlimited provides a vast library of top-rated training, and lifetime access is now only $39.97 (regularly $600) via Cult of Mac Deals.

Whether you’re interested in data analysis or dog training, good coaching can make all the difference to your progress. StackSkills is a platform that brings together learning content from over 350 popular instructors on a range of topics, covering both professional and personal interests.

iOS 14.5 makes zero-click iPhone attacks even more difficult

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If hackers dump your personal data onto the dark web, you need to know about it. Dashlane Dark Web Monitoring can sound the alarm.
“Dammit, Apple keeps breaking all my best zero-click attacks.”
Photo: sebastiaan stam/Pexels CC

The next iOS version will make it more difficult for hackers to break into iPhones. Security researchers digging around in Apple’s beta code for iOS 14.5 found that the company began encrypting pointer authentication codes, which will make zero-click attacks far tougher to pull off.

Intego Mac Premium Bundle X9’s powerful solutions secure your Mac

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Mac Premium Bundle X9 protects your computer from online threats with five apps.
Mac Premium Bundle X9 safeguards your precious computer.
Image: Intego

This Mac security post is presented by Intego.

Macs have a reputation for being less vulnerable than PCs to online threats like malware and viruses, but your machine is certainly not invulnerable. Far from it, actually. It can pay to invest in a suite of security apps like those in Intego Mac Premium Bundle X9 to protect your Mac from a variety of online threats.

Watch Mac OS X Leopard running on 2020 iPad Pro

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ipad
You've never seen an iPad Pro like this.
Photo: Hacking Jules

Running OS X on a tablet was a pipe dream for many Apple fans long before the iPad came out. Now that the iPad Pro has a processor that can compete with desktop CPUs, that pipe dream is almost a reality.

YouTuber Jules Gerard managed to get Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 running on his new 2020 iPad Pro without jailbreaking the device. Jules turned to the UTM emulator to show off how fast the old Mac operating system can run on the iPad Pro. Everything works shockingly well, including the built-in apps and Microsoft Office.

Prepare to be amazed:

Hacker who tried to extort Apple for $100k is spared prison

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Hacker who tried to extort Apple for $100k is spared prison
Kerem Albayrak sent Apple messages demanding a ransom.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A hacker who tried to extort Apple into paying him $75,000 in Bitcoin or a thousand $100 iTunes gift cards has been spared prison.

22-year-old IT analyst Kerem Albayrak, from London, claimed that he could leak passwords or carry out factory resets for devices attached to 382 million iCloud accounts. He was 19 at the time that he committed his crimes under the name “Turkish Crime Family.”

Researchers trick Face ID with modified glasses

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Facial Recognition
Face ID won‘t unlock your iPhone if you're unconscious. Glasses can trick the sensors, though.
Image: Apple

One of the advantages of Face ID over Touch ID is that the person unlocking their iPhone must be awake. However, researchers found a way to fool Apple’s facial recognition system into thinking someone is conscious when they weren’t — using modified glasses.

This method does not allow a hacker to trick an iPhone into misidentifying one person as another. But it still could prove problematic for Face ID.

Teen who hacked Apple thought it would earn him a job

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hacking pic
This was the second teenager in Australia to hack Apple's secure servers.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A second Australian teenager who hacked into Apple’s computer systems has said that he did it because he thought it would help earn him a job at Apple.

The unnamed teen was 13 when he hacked into Apple’s mainframe. Now 17 years old, he recently plead guilty to multiple computing hacking charges in an Adelaide Youth Court.

Hacker knits Mac ROM scarves to boot up your fashion game

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Mac ROM scarves
Code to keep your neck warm.
Photo: KnitYak

You could safely assume that computer hackers and people who knit have little to talk about. One activity is clearly analog and seemingly old-fashioned while the other pre-occupies the mind of a tech geek.

Fabienne Serriere blows up that assumption by being both. She combines the two rather different activities to make eye-catching scarves imprinted with Mac ROM code.

Guilty iCloud hacker sent to slammer

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Celebgate hack
Christopher Brannan gets a prison sentence for his part in the crime.
Illustration: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

A judge sentenced a former high school teacher to 34 months in prison Friday after the man pleaded guilty to his role in the “Celebgate” hack of iCloud and other accounts.

Of those convicted for the high-profile hack, Christopher Brannan, 31, received the harshest sentence for breaching accounts. The attack led to the circulation of nude photos and videos of model Kate Upton, actress Jennifer Lawrence and others.

iPhone hacking tools sell for as little as $100 on eBay

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Cekkebrite
One of Cellebrite's hacking devices.
Photo: Tryc2/ebay

The Cellebrite hacking tool used by law enforcers for pulling data off locked iPhones costs $6,000 new. However, used units now show up on eBay for as little as $100.

That’s a big discount from the full price. And it seems that Cellebrite, a security firm based in Israel, isn’t too happy about the situation — with very good reason.

‘Highly plausible’ Apple servers could be infected with spy chips, says former Apple hardware engineer

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Instrumental founder and CEO Anna Katrina Shedletsky
Instrumental founder and CEO Anna Katrina Shedletsky, who is using her experience as an Apple product design engineer to bring AI to manufacturing.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Despite Apple’s denials, it’s “highly plausible” that secret spy chips could have been planted on the company’s servers, said a former Apple hardware engineer.

Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, who spent nearly six years at Apple helping build several generations of iPod, iPhone and Apple Watch, said spy chips could have been slipped into the design of servers used for Apple’s iCloud services, as alleged in a Bloomberg Businessweek story.

“With my knowledge of hardware design, it’s entirely plausible to me,” she said. “It’s very highly plausible to me, and that’s scary if you think about it.”

Teenager who hacked Apple’s servers gets 8 months’ probation

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hacking pic
Teenager got off without a jail sentence.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The Australian teenager who hacked into Apple’s servers and downloaded sensitive data has been given probation in place of a jail sentence.

The verdict was announced on Thursday. The teenager, who carried out the hacking between June 2015 and April 2017, has not been named because their identity as a juvenile offender is protected under Australian law. They were 16-years-old at the time that the first hacking incident took place.

Apple reassures customers after teenager hacked its servers

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The CIA has a team of more than 5,000 hackers.
Teenaged hacker recently plead guilty to charges.
Photo: Brian Klug/Flickr CC

Apple has reassured customers that none of their private data was compromised after a 16-year-old teenager plead guilty to hacking into the company’s servers.

An Apple spokesperson said that, “[We] want to assure our customers that at no point during this incident was their personal data compromised.” The hacker in question managed to download 90 gigabytes of secure files.

Teen pleads guilty to hacking Apple’s computer system

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Proposed bill could hold tech giants more accountable for child exploitation
Teenager was able to hack into Apple's system and access personal data.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

An Australian teenager who repeatedly broke into Apple’s computer system is facing criminal charges after Apple contacted the FBI.

The teenager, who hasn’t been named for legal reasons, reportedly downloaded 90GB of secure files and accessed customer accounts. The information was uncovered in a raid on his family home in Melbourne, found in a computer folder called “Hacky hack hack.”

iPhone hacking van is a spy’s wet dream

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WiSpear iPhone hacking van
The WiSpear hacking van sounds like a prop from Mission Impossible, not a product on sale at a recent trade show.
Screencap: Thomas Fox-Brewster

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if something is real or was dreamed up by a Batman villain. That’s the case with the WiSpear iPhone hacking van.

This tool supposedly can be used to install malware on an iOS or Android device from a third of a mile away.

Don’t take your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook to the World Cup

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soccer
While you're enjoying some football, criminals might be grabbing your credit card number thanks to some iPhone hacking.
Photo: Mxmystro/Flickr

The FIFA World Cup, soccer/football’s quadrennial championship, kicked off this week in Russia, and literally billions around the world are watching. If you’re planning to actually attend one of the matches, be sure to leave behind your personal electronics.

This is the recommendation of both British and American government security services. They warn that the odds of your devices being hacked in Russia are very high.

Find zero-day vulnerabilities in iOS and bag $3 million

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Apple could be a $2 trillion company by end of 2021
Startup will then sell your solution to (friendly) governments.
Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A new startup, based in the United Arab Emirates, promises to give $3 million to anyone who can successfully hack iOS devices.

The Crowdfense startup is looking for zero-day exploits, referring to hacking tools which exploit vulnerabilities unknown to the system creators. In addition to iOS, the company is seeking zero-day exploits for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android.

Third man charged in ‘Celebgate’ iCloud hacking scheme

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Celebgate hack
Phishing scam targeted dozens of celebrities, along with other users.
Image: Cult of Mac

A third man has plead guilty to hacking 550 iCloud and Google Gmail accounts, including those belonging to 40 celebrities — resulting in the leaking of sensitive photos and videos.

Chicago resident Emilio Herrera participated in the phishing scam between April 2013 and August 2014, which involved sending out alerts that appeared to have come from Apple, Yahoo, and Hotmail, requesting username and password information.

FBI can keep iPhone hacking details secret

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Proposed bill could hold tech giants more accountable for child exploitation
Hacking the iPhone caused a standoff between Apple and FBI last year.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A U.S. court ruled over the weekend that the FBI won’t have to reveal to Apple exactly how it was able to hack a terrorist’s iPhone, since this could present security issues.

Federal judge Tanya Chutkan said that naming the vendor which aided the FBI, as well as the amount of money that was paid to it, could invite cyberattacks against the company. In addition, it might lead to the hacking tool which was used being stolen.

Australia wants Apple to create an iPhone backdoor

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iPhone hack
Apple is unlikely to be totally on-board.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Australia’s Attorney-General George Brandis is set to meet with a representative from Apple this week to discuss the subject of strong encryption, and how this relates to police and intelligence agency investigations.

Brandis is reportedly pushing for Apple to create a backdoor that would allow security agencies to circumvent Apple’s current end-to-end encryption.

E.U. may ban FBI-style iPhone hacking demands

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iPhone hack
Law would undermine attempts to break security.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Attempts to force tech companies in the U.K. to hand over encrypted messages could be scuttled by EU proposals.

European members of parliament for the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee have tabled laws banning countries from seeking to break encrypted messages. It would also force tech companies which don’t use strong encryption for communications to do so.

Apple updates iOS 10.3 to fix Wi-Fi security problems

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iPhone
A crucial security fix is out for iPhones.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

iPhone and iPad owners received a new software update today from Apple in the form of iOS 10.3.1.

The new iOS 10.3.1 update comes just a week after Apple released iOS 10.3, which was its biggest software update of 2017 so far. While iOS 10.3.1 doesn’t contain nearly as many new features as the last update, it does bring some crucial fixes.

Leaked CIA exploits have already been fixed, says Apple

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These are the sophisticated tools designed to exploit Apple vulnerabilities.
The CIA's leaked hacking tools don't work on updated iPhones.
Photo: CIA.org

The iOS and macOS vulnerabilities revealed by the latest WikiLeaks data dump of CIA hacking tools have already been fixed.

Apple says that an early evaluation of the info released by WikiLeaks hasn’t found any new bugs or attacks that can be used on iPhone or Mac users. Some of the exploits contained in the leaks were able to grant access to an iPhone’s call logs and SMS conversations, but only if the CIA had physical access to the device.