Tag Archive for: quit

Urgent warning to QUIT Facebook Messenger right now on iPhone and Android

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A SECURITY update for Facebook Messenger is said to be delayed causing experts to call for users to avoid the app.

Messenger has come under fire for not using end-to-end encryption like WhatsApp, another Facebook owned app.

Messenger isn't yet using end-to-end encrypted

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Messenger isn’t yet using end-to-end encryptedCredit: Alamy

The delay is related to concerns that encrypting Messenger would lead to child exploitation going unnoticed.

Right now, harmful messages and content in Facebook Messenger chats can be flagged.

Encryption could mean many of these messages go unnoticed.

This has left Facebook in a difficult situation as not fully encrypting chats could be crucial for lawful intervention.

Cyber-security expert Zak Doffman wrote in a Forbes article: “Messenger users reading this should switch their personal chats to WhatsApp (or Signal) and leave Messenger for trivial comms and kids.

“You should certainly not be using it as the default messaging platform if you’re on Android, where switching from the OS default is an option—unlike on iOS.”

However, the expert doesn’t think we need to encrypt all social chatting platforms and agrees that not encrypting does have some positives, including protecting children from predators.

He suggests Messenger could be left so that lawful interception can take place but users should have the option to choose end-to-end encrypted services.

Facebook is still working on its Messenger privacy update amid the backlash.

The tech giant told Forbes: “We’re building strong safety measures that are designed to prevent harm from happening in the first place and give people controls to respond if it does.

“Working together also gives us more information to identify abusive accounts and allows us to introduce safety features behind the scenes like restricting interactions between adults and minors.”

Facebook Messenger chats can help law enforcement uncover child abuse

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Facebook Messenger chats can help law enforcement uncover child abuseCredit: Getty
Donald Trump CPAC 2021 speech – Former president accuses Facebook of ‘election meddling’ as he blasts big tech

In other news, nine apps have had to be removed from the Google Play Store after they were caught stealing Facebook passwords.

Facebook is facing backlash in the US over plans to create a…

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Quit Using Passwords And Stay Safer With Pass Phrases – KIWARadio.com

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Statewide Iowa — A computer security expert suggests we abandon using passwords in favor of pass phrases. Jesse La Grew says the old way of creating short, cryptic passwords that you change frequently is no longer practical for most of us.


(As above) “If we have to change our passwords every 30 days, what are we likely to do? We’re likely to write it down,” La Grew says. “We’re going to be putting them on Post-it notes or putting them under keyboards.” 

The longer a password, the more secure it should be from hackers. Some computer systems require passwords that need to be between 16 and 20 characters, which is where using a pass phrase is handy.

(As above) “So how do you get that length of password while still maintaining the complexity required so that a computer can’t easily break into it?” La Grew says. “That’s where the passphrase comes in, where we’re using multiple words strung together.”

You can create a pass phrase out of a series of words that are easy for you to remember — but hard to guess. It will make your account more secure from most attempts by hackers to force their way in.

(As above) “You can have a very long password with a series of five words that can be very difficult to guess and can take a computer an extremely long time to break into, based on the technology that we have today,” he says.

La Grew says don’t reuse passwords on any service where you might have credit card or banking information saved.

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Microsoft exhorts enterprises to quit text, voice multi-factor authentication passcodes

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A Microsoft executive is urging enterprises to abandon the most popular multi-factor authentication (MFA) method — one-time passcodes sent to mobile devices via text or voice — for different approaches, including app authenticators, that he claims are more secure.

“It’s time to start your move away from the SMS and voice Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) mechanisms,” asserted Alex Weinert, director of identity security, in a Nov. 10 post to a Microsoft blog. “These mechanisms are based on publicly switched telephone networks (PSTN), and I believe they’re the least secure of the MFA methods available today.”

Weinert argued that other MFA methods are more secure, calling out Microsoft Authenticator, his company’s app-based authenticator, and Windows Hello, the umbrella label for Microsoft’s biometrics technology, including facial recognition and fingerprint verification. It’s no coincidence that Weinert touted technologies Microsoft has aggressively pushed in its campaign to convince enterprises to go passwordless.

More than a year ago, Weinert spelled out how, in his view, passwords alone are no defense against credential theft, but that by enabling MFA, “your account is more than 99.9% less likely to be compromised.” That advice hasn’t changed, but Microsoft’s stance on MFA has now narrowed. “MFA is essential — we are discussing which MFA method to use, not whether to use MFA,” he wrote last week.

Weinert ticked off a list of security flaws in SMS- and voice-based MFA, the technique that typically sends a six-digit code to a predetermined, verified phone number. Those defects, Weinert said, ranged from a lack of encryption — texts are sent in the clear — to vulnerability to social engineering.

App-based authentication, Weinert contended, is a much more secure means to the WFA ends. He then touted Microsoft Authenticator, which comes in versions for Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.

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Force Quit Mac Applications With The Keyboard

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So what to do if you’re confronted with the spinning beach ball of death on your Mac and the application you’re using isn’t responding? There’s a quick keyboard shortcut for that: just press …
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