by Carceron | Jan 30, 2022 | Techminutes
For those that aren’t aware, PCI SIG is short for the PCI Special Interests Group. They have just announced the release of the latest PCI Express (PCIe) specification which is called PCIe 6.0. It has the entire industry abuzz. Standards aren’t usually all that exciting but, in this case, it’s a very big deal. That’s because it is the specification that matters in terms of connecting your computer’s CPU to graphics cards, SSDs, your Wi-Fi, and the like. The old 5.0 standard offered transfer rates of up to 64 Giga Transfers per second (64 GT/s). The new standard literally doubles this to a whopping 128 Gigabytes per second in a single direction on 16 lanes (or 8 GB/s per lane). That makes it the largest rate of increase in the entire 19-year history of the standard. Even better is that the new standard is designed to be backwards compatible so older devices will continue to retain their value. It’s important to note that as good and exciting as the new standard is, it’s probably too soon to hold off making a strategic purchase to take advantage of it. New products that take advantage of the 6.0 standard won’t hit the market for a few years. So if you need something now, get it. Just know that the day is coming when we’ll all be able to enjoy equipment with significantly improved transfer speeds. If the past is any guide the first products to be released taking advantage of the new standards were equipment used by server farms and big, industrial concerns. These include research labs that are investing heavily...
by Carceron | Jan 29, 2022 | Techminutes
Google is once again raising the bar where messaging and team meeting software is concerned. The company just rolled out the first phase of its new live translation service for Meet users after months of beta testing the feature. Naturally this is the first step in a long process, so there are some limitations and caveats to be aware of. Right now, the translation service only works if you speak English and it can only translate your speech live into four different languages at present. These include French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Currently Google and Microsoft are in a bit of a Translation War with Microsoft recently upping their translation game and allowing for real time live captioning of content from English to 27 different languages. The limitation here being that they are not translated from one language to another. Google may be a bit behind the curve but their goal is to catch up quickly. If history is any guide at all that’s entirely within the realm of possibility. We’ve seen Google move at a blistering pace when the company gets excited about something and they seem determined to catch up with and ultimately surpass Microsoft on the translations front. All of this is superb news for anyone who has business dealings in various parts of the world where language differences can be a significant barrier to getting anything meaningful done. As Google puts it they see their efforts as equalizing information sharing, learning and collaboration. It does all those things and more. We are thrilled to see two of the biggest tech firms on the planet pouring...
by Carceron | Jan 27, 2022 | Techminutes
If you have an iPhone by now you’ve almost certainly heard of the security flaw in the HomeKit protocol which allows Apple users to discover and control a wide range of Smart Devices in their home from the HomeKit dashboard. The recently discovered security flaw dubbed “DoorLock” allows an attacker to essentially brick your phone by deploying a maliciously crafted HomeKit accessory name. The issue is being tracked as CVE-2022022588. Apple has now addressed the issue with the release of iOS 15.2.1 and iPadOS 15.2.1. Both updates improve input validation with the result that the devices are no longer susceptible. That’s the good news. Trevor Spiniolas is the researcher who first discovered the flaw and he gives us the bad news. The company has known about it since August of 2021, and it has taken months for them to issue a fix for it. During that time Apple said very little about the issue while exposing their user base to unnecessary risk. Spinolas had this to say about the matter: “I believe this bug is being handled inappropriately as it poses a serious risk to users and many months have passed without a comprehensive fix. The public should be aware of this vulnerability and how to prevent it from being exploited, rather than being kept in the dark.” We agree. It does appear that where the DoorLock issue is concerned, Apple dropped the ball. The company is normally much better at handling and responding to issues like these. Here’s hoping they take Spinolas’ criticism in the spirit in which it was intended and strive to do better when the...
by Carceron | Jan 27, 2022 | Techminutes
You may find many people who would argue that the iconic Blackberry was ahead of its time. It was in many ways the godfather of the entire smartphone industry. When it was initially released it was an absolute game changer. Of course, time allowed other companies including tech giants Apple and Google to catch up and ultimately surpass what the Blackberry was capable of. It was clear quite some time ago that the sun had essentially set on the once ubiquitous device. What you may not have known was that the Blackberry was still supported until very recently. In fact, it wasn’t until September of 2020 that the company announced the formal end of life for the product which was set for January 4 of this year (2022). That day has now come and gone. At this point the party is officially over for Blackberry. All of its related services including Blackberry Messenger and Blackberry email are now gone. There’s a short message on the company’s website announcing this fact. It reads simply: “As of this date (January 4, 2022), devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or Wi-Fi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 (emergency) functionality.” It is truly the end of an era and Blackberry was given a Twitter send off as people around the world read the announcement of the final curtain call for the technology. Most of them were speaking in fond and wistful terms about what was a revolutionary piece of technology when it was first introduced. Farewell Blackberry. You were truly ahead...
by Carceron | Jan 24, 2022 | Techminutes
A research team from Minerva Labs are working in conjunction with the MalwareHunterTeam. They have recently been tracking a Trojan called Purple Fox and have published a warning about it. The group behind the Trojan is now distributing their malicious code disguised as a Telegram installation file. If you’re not familiar with that name Telegram is one of several online messaging apps available on the web. The Trojan has been around since at least 2018 and the hackers who control it have tried a number of different ways to get their malicious code onto unsuspecting desktops. The use of Telegram as a masking agent is new and the group is also now breaking their malware up into several small files. That makes it less likely to be detected and the researchers have been able to confirm it. They found few AV engines capable of detecting a Purple Fox installation and it is worrisome indeed. The team behind Purple Fox isn’t resting on their achievements either. They have been steadily adding features and functionality to their code. These new features include a new .net backdoor dubbed “Fox Socket” spotted by Trend Micro in October of last year (2021) and Guardicore Labs discovered a version of the code with wormlike capabilities which allowed the variant to spread with blinding speed. In addition to that, the malware comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit variants so this one is not to be underestimated. Purple Fox may wind up being one of the biggest threats on the landscape in 2022. Of course, it’s early days yet and we haven’t seen what other nasty surprises...
by Carceron | Jan 24, 2022 | Techminutes
By now you’re almost certainly aware of the Log4j Java issue. It’s a serious and fixable flaw relating to java logging. Recently the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a chilling warning to anyone who hasn’t yet fixed the flaw and protected against the vulnerability. The FTC’s statement reads in part as follows: “The FTC intends to use its full legal authority to pursue companies that fail to take reasonable steps to protect consumer data from exposure as a result of Log4j, or similar known vulnerabilities in the future. Failure to identify and patch instances of this software may violate the FTC Act. The Log4j vulnerability is part of a broader set of structural issues. It is one of thousands of unheralded but critically important open-source services that are used across a near-innumerable variety of internet companies. These projects are often created and maintained by volunteers, who don’t always have adequate resources and personnel for incident response and proactive maintenance even as their projects are critical to the internet economy. This overall dynamic is something the FTC will consider as we work to address the root issues that endanger user security.” The FTC has already made it clear that they’re not playing around with this issue either. Not long ago in 2019, they hit Equifax with a staggering $700 million fine because of customer data exposure. The FTC clearly has the muscle to make this threat stick. So if you haven’t already installed the remedy for Long4j, do it now before you lose track of it. Keep an ear to the ground for other similar issues. Fines of the sort that the FTC is threatening are enough to rock any business back...
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