Tag Archive for: hack

TikTok Shock As Viral Video Hack Freezes Screens—2 Ways To Fix It

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TikTok users are discovering a new and unwanted type of viral video craze over the Easter weekend: a hack that prevents them from scrolling backward or forwards, effectively freezing the app. Here’s what’s happening and how to fix it.

TikTok In The News, Again

TikTok has been in the news recently thanks to the proposed ban using the app for U.S. users unless owners ByteDance divest the U.S. operation. The highest earning app in the world, TikTok’s February revenue was $189 million. With an estimated 1.7 billion users in 2023, it is also one of the most popular largely thanks to the viral videos and crazes it has seen posted over the years.

But there is one viral trend on TikTok that certainly is not very popular among its users. The videos that are part of this craze appear to freeze the ability to scroll the screen in any direction, leaving users with no other option than to restart the app. However, it’s important to note that appearances can be deceiving, and not everything is as it seems at first glance.

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The TikTok Screen Freeze Hack

Users have been taking to the internet in droves (1, 2, 3) to complain that posts are appearing that lock their TikTok app down, preventing them from scrolling to the previous or next video. Many seem to think that the videos and images in question somehow freeze the app entirely, in effect bricking it for that session, or are even somehow breaking their phones. The truth, as always, is a lot less exciting albeit nonetheless annoying.

The videos, or rather images that look like videos, all contain some glib comment along the lines of “Sorry, I have to stop you from scrolling,” and, at first and second glance, this does appear to be the case.

If you try to swipe up or down, nothing happens; you’ll likely just get your attention drawn to the “I’ve stopped you scrolling” nonsense instead. What appears to be happening is that people have worked out that if you post an image and tag it with an unfeasibly large number of people,…

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The Most Ingenious Hack I’ve Ever Seen for Eliminating Coffee Table Clutter

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It doesn’t matter if you live in a sprawling Craftsman-style home or a smaller space (think: a 200-square-foot apartment!): People are always on the hunt for a way to hide clutter, especially when it comes to living room coffee tables, which can sometimes become a stowaway place for life’s miscellaneous items.

Sure, you could purchase a coffee table with storage space, but some homes don’t have room for a normal coffee table — let alone a transformable one. So it was a pleasant surprise to stumble upon product and interior designer Shiva Farrokhi’s tip for hiding clutter in her mid-century modern apartment (that doubles as a solution for what to do with the awkward gap behind sofas!).

Perhaps it’s because the Brooklyn apartment is only 825 square feet, or because their entire space is meticulously organized (look at the book storage above their office area!) — still, Farrokhi found a way to eliminate clutter in their breezy living room.

Decorative pillow in living room.Decorative pillow in living room.

Why You Should Add a Shelf Behind Your Sofa

“Add a shelf behind your couch to fit the controller, plants, books, etc. This simple shelf moves your couch a little bit forward but creates so much space for everything that can make your coffee table look cluttered,” she shared at the time of the home tour. “It also opens up the space behind the couch for things you use rarely and want to have out of sight like extra rugs, floor mattress or air mattress, yoga mat, and etc.”

White sectional in sunny living room.White sectional in sunny living room.

This tip is a great idea if you need to get rid of the coffee table in your living room, too. If you don’t have space for a coffee table, this hidden shelf will free up some valuable space and keep clutter at bay. Or, if you want to decorate it, it’s the perfect perch for sentimental items like photos.

If this organizing tip intrigues you, you’ll want to check out how Farrokhi designed the rest of their gorgeous home. Visit the full home tour to see more.

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Feds offer reward after UnitedHealthcare hack

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The agency is offering the reward for information that would lead to the identification or location of anyone who engaged in the “malicious cyber activities” against U.S. infrastructure on behalf of a foreign government, our colleague Lauren Irwin reported.

 

“The ALPHV BlackCat ransomware-as-a-service group compromised computer networks of critical infrastructure sectors in the United States and worldwide, deploying ransomware on the targeted systems, disabling security features within the victim’s network, stealing sensitive confidential information, demanding payment to restore access, and threatening to publicize the stolen data if victims do not pay a ransom,” the State Department said in a statement.

 

The group ALPHV, or Blackcat, was first deployed in 2021. Its members have “developed and maintained” ransomware and recruited affiliates to deploy it, according to the State Department.

 

Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group that manages payment systems for most of the hospitals in the U.S., was hit by a cyberattack on Feb. 21. Many patients had to pay out-of-pocket for medicines and health care services due to the effects of the attack.

 

As of mid-March, the health care giant said that it was testing software it must restore from the attack but has no date yet for finishing the recovery. The company restored nearly all its systems for processing prescriptions, bills and payments, The Associated Press reported.

 

Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.

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China hack on MPs worse than government admitted with at least 30 targeted

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A Chinese cyber-attack on British MPs was more widespread than the UK Government initially revealed, i has learned.

Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, announced on Monday that a group of three MPs and one peer had been targeted.

The MPs, including China hawk Iain Duncan Smith, say they were privately reassured in a briefing by Parliament’s head of security that only a small number of parliamentarians had been effected.

But it has now emerged email accounts belonging to over 30 MPs, peers, and their parliamentary staff were targeted by the same cyber hack, which was in the form of a phishing email.

Mr Duncan Smith told i: “They completely screwed up the other day. They told us that there are only three or four of us that apparently had these emails – it’s complete bollocks.

“Parliament is just a joke when it comes to security, a joke.”

The identified targets were email accounts of members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), a global group of parliamentarians with hawkish views on China.

It is unclear at this stage why the full effect of the hacking attack was not revealed by Mr Dowden, but sources told i the latest analysis showed around 30 individuals were effected.

Parliamentarians in the group were sent infected emails from an account posing as a democracy-focused news website under the domain nropnews.com.

The emails contained spyware hidden within the images in a spear-phishing campaign using pixel technology capable of sending personal information to an unauthorized third-party server in order to steal private data from users, i can reveal.

The same false domain was used to hack a Belgian MP during the same period. Last year, Samuel Cogolati, also an Ipac member, was named by Belgian intelligence as the victim of an identical APT31 attack during the same period, leading to questions as to how the attack on UK parliamentarians has taken so long to emerge. Parliamentary security officers are now looking into the domain linked to the emails.

Mr Dowden on Monday said British intelligence concluded it was “almost certain” that Chinese state affiliated hacking group ‘APT31’ had conducted the “malicious cyber campaign”. The Deputy Prime…

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