Tag Archive for: Turn

‘It’s a $20 solution to a $500 problem’ – this viral hack will turn your basic stick vacuum into a high-tech dupe

/in


When Dyson launched its latest range of cordless vacuums, the internet practically lost its mind at the new Detect feature. If you haven’t seen it, Detect is basically an integrated laser in the head of the vacuum, precisely angled in a way that reveals every last particle of dust and hair on your floor. It’s a genius way to make sure you’re giving your home a deep clean when you vacuum.

It’s a feature we expect to see on all the best cordless vacuums going forward, but for Dyson’s offering, it’s only available on the V15 Detect and V12 Detect Slim Absolute. At $749.99 and $499.99 respectively, it’s a big price tag for the novelty of the laser head feature, especially if you’d recently paid out for an older Dyson vacuum model.

For Aden Wang, a product designer based in San Francisco, the laser functionality was an attractive proposition, but would mean having to upgrade his existing Dyson to the newer $500 model. However, he found a clever product on Amazon that could add the functionality to his existing vacuum.

This $20 vacuum cleaner dust display lamp from Amazon can be fixed onto a range of other vacuums, including a Dyson. It’s mounted with a sticker pad, powered by a battery (although rechargeable options are available), and turned on by a button the device.

It has some other benefits, according to Aden. ‘The Dyson laser clean head may be great for hardwood floors, but it’s inconvenient to change clean head when cleaning between hardwood and carpet. I’d rather sticking with just one clean head,’ he says.

Vacuum cleaner dust display LED lamp

Price: $19.99

Of course, it’s not the perfect solution. Unlike the Dyson Detect, the laser isn’t ever going to be integrated into your vacuum, which has its drawbacks.

‘You have to manually turn it on and off,’ Aden explains on his Instagram Reel, ‘but I found tapping it with my foot works well. It doesn’t connect to the Dyson power source. So you’ll need to change batteries. It sticks out a little bit so it hits the ground first before you drop flat your clean head.’

In spite of these flaws, for $20, it’s the perfect way to embrace this new piece of technology for now, even if you’re going to invest in a Dyson Detect later down the line.

Source…

New law could turn UK into a hacker’s playground

/in


It looks as if people are at last waking up to a second extraordinarily dangerous requirement buried within a UK government bill designed to promote the nation as a surveillance state. It means bureaucrats can delay or prevent distribution of essential software updates, making every computer user far less secure.

A poor law

This incredibly damaging limitation is just one of the many bad ideas buried in the UKs latest piece of shoddy tech regulation, the Investigatory Powers Act. What makes the law doubly dangerous is that in the online world, you are only ever as secure as your least secure friend, which means UK businesses will likely suffer by being flagged as running insecure versions of operating systems.

I’ve written about the bill before, of course. The proposals are so appalling that Apple, WhatsApp, Meta, and others are quite prepared to shutter messaging services for UK customers if need be.

I expect Apple will make good on this threat; it is not prepared to negotiate the safety of its users. You can read its nine-page statement on the matter for more insights.

The UK becomes a hacker’s playground

Make no mistake, the proposals from the UK Home Office will make the internet less secure. UK users will become magnets for complex attacks as hackers, rogue governments, and well-organized criminals exploit any newly revealed threats in the UK as they know the law will automatically generate a delay before software updates ship.

The rest of the world might have patched any such flaws, but the UK might not. That means if you want to create a botnet, spread phishing attacks, or design complex multi-stage attacks, you’ll target UK computer users first, because they will be less well-protected by design.

Source…

Android users should turn off this feature, Google warns

/in


(NEXSTAR) – If you have an Android phone, you may want to stop using Wi-Fi calling, a team of security experts with Google warns.

Earlier this month, Google’s Project Zero team confirmed it had found multiple vulnerabilities in Exynos chipsets, made by Samsung. Of those, four can allow “Internet-to-baseband remote code execution,” giving hackers the ability to remotely compromise certain Android phones.

The hacker would only need to know your phone number, explained Project Zero, a team of security researchers that study zero-day vulnerabilities, which are flaws in software that are known but don’t yet have a patch to protect against them.

“With limited additional research and development, we believe that skilled attackers would be able to quickly create an operational exploit to compromise affected devices silently and remotely.”

The remaining 14 vulnerabilities found by Project Zero were determined to be “not as severe.”

Devices that may be affected because they use the Exynos chipset, according to Samsung, include:

  • Samsung Galaxy S22, M33, M12, M13, A71, A53, A33, A21s, A13, A12, and A04 models
  • Vivo S16, S15, S6, X70, X60, and X30 series
  • Google Pixel 6 and 7

Some vehicles may also be impacted if they use an Exynos Auto T5123 chipset. Pixel phones already received a fix for the vulnerabilities, according to Google, while Samsung lists that an update was released for some of the vulnerabilities.

If you haven’t had an update on your phone recently, you can also turn off Wi-Fi calling and Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) to protect from hackers.

Wi-Fi calling allows you to make calls and send text messages when you aren’t connected to cell service while VoLTE uses your LTE network instead of the usual network.

For Samsung users, Wi-Fi calling settings can be found under Settings, then Connections, then Wi-Fi Calling. You’ll find a toggle that, if it isn’t already, can be switched off. Google Pixel users can find…

Source…

Turn off 2 Pixel and Samsung Galaxy settings to prevent hackers from owning your phone

/in


Google has a Project Zero team that analyzes software and hardware, looking for exploits allowing malicious attackers to get into various gadgets. Project Zero just found one such severe vulnerability, a 0-day issue that would allow hackers to remotely control phones like the Pixel 7 and 6 series, and Samsung Galaxy phones like the Galaxy S22.

The issue resides in the Exynos modems inside those devices. Until manufacturers, Google included, patch them, users should turn off two phone features to eliminate the risk of hacks. These are VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling and shouldn’t impact your overall phone experience.

With VoLTE turned on, you’ll be placing your calls over 4G, and the feature should improve the overall quality of phone calls. Wi-Fi calling, meanwhile, helps you make calls in areas with spotty cellular reception. They’re not must-have features that you immediately think of when buying a new phone. Rather, you take them for granted, if you’re even aware of them.

Whatever the case, you can easily turn these features off from the phone’s Settings app. Once the Exynos patches start rolling in via security updates, you can reenable them.

You might not consider yourself a target for hackers, but that doesn’t mean you’re safe.

Project Zero found 18 vulnerabilities in Exynos modems from late 2022 and early 2023. Four of them are critical, including issues that would allow an attacker to control phones remotely:

The four most severe of these eighteen vulnerabilities (CVE-2023-24033 and three other vulnerabilities that have yet to be assigned CVE-IDs) allowed for Internet-to-baseband remote code execution. Tests conducted by Project Zero confirm that those four vulnerabilities allow an attacker to remotely compromise a phone at the baseband level with no user interaction, and require only that the attacker know the victim’s phone number. With limited additional research and development, we believe that skilled attackers would be able to quickly create an operational exploit to compromise affected devices silently and remotely.

These vulnerabilities are serious enough that they convinced Project Zero to delay the disclosure of the…

Source…