Computer access control

Encrypted email company Proton has announced one of the biggest new additions to its growing suite of privacy-focused apps: Proton Pass, an end-to-end encrypted password manager.Over the past few years the company has gone through a growth spurt, rolling out a host of new features to populate an ever expanding privacy ecosystem—including a VPN, an encrypted cloud Drive, and a calendar. Last year, it changed its name from ProtonMail to simply “Proton,” to signify its offerings had officially gone beyond email. Now, Proton…

ChatGPT is very simple to get started on. It’s free to sign up for, and you can either use your own email address or log in with your Google or Microsoft account. But you may have noticed that ChatGPT also asks for your phone number. Given all the concern over whether ChatGPT is safe to use, that may have thrown you for a loop, which begs the question — why does ChatGPT need your number after all? Hatice Baran / Unsplash Why ChatGPT requires a phone number Like many things you sign up for online, ChatGPT…

One early crypto investor’s hopes to see a major telecom provider pay up for a 2017 crypto heist have been all but dashed. According to unsealed court documents filed last Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California shared that AT&T wasn’t liable to any damages due to the 2017 SIM swap hack that stole $24 million from early crypto investor Michael Terpin.The Biggest Crypto Heists of 2022…So FarIn 2018, Terpin sued AT&T for $224 million, alleging the hacks could not have gone off…

Despite their reputation for security, Macs can still get viruses, and that’s just been proven by a malicious new Mac malware that can steal your credit card info and send it back to the attacker, ready to be exploited. It’s a reminder to be careful when opening apps from unknown sources. The malware, dubbed MacStealer, was discovered by Uptycs, a threat research firm. It hoovers up a wide array of your personal data, including the iCloud Keychain password database, credit card data, cryptocurrency wallet…

Photo: Rutmer Visser (Shutterstock)You might be familiar with the practice of regularly clearing out the local data stored by your browser, including cookies—those little files that can store your preferences, your personal details, and other bits of information that help sites know who you are. If you don’t want to have to keep doing this manually, there are ways of getting your browser to empty out its cookie collection every time you close the program.It’s worth bearing in mind what cookies do before changing anything:…

The Department of the Interior includes offices like the United States Geological Survey and the Bureau of Land Management.Image: JMiks (Shutterstock)Don’t feel bad about forgetting to change your password to something more complex—the U.S. Department of the Interior isn’t doing anybetter. A security audit published earlier this month has revealed some pretty startling password security flaws within the department, the most glaring of which is that over one-fifth of DOI passwords were easily cracked.The report was…

There are approximately one million pieces of Twitter news circulating this week. If you’re a user of the site, it could be hard to keep tabs on what’s happening behind the scenes amid Elon Musk’s chaotic takeover.One second, the company hints at 50% layoffs and the next, some of those same cut staff are suing. On Monday, Twitter’s newly installed CEO planned to start charging $20 for verification and on Tuesday, it’s $8,seemingly because of an online spat between the world’s richest man and horror author Stephen King.…

Michael Terpin during an investor summit back in 2018. That year, Terpin’s crypto account was hit with a SIM swap hack for nearly $24 million, and he’s spent years targeting both the hacker and AT&T, the latter for its security faults.Photo: JUAN LUIS MARTINEZ/GDA (AP)A young man who was not even old enough to drive back in 2018 managed to yoink nearly $24 million from a major crypto investor’s account. Now, over four years later and thousands likely invested in both an investigation and lawyers fees, Michael Terpin…

Photo: DON EMMERT/AFP (Getty Images)Uber has been hacked and boy does it look bad. The hacker, which boasted of their achievements via Telegram this week, claims to be an 18-year-old who allegedly gained such liberal access to the tech giant’s network that they were able to Slack the Uber workforce and post a picture of a dick on the company’s internal websites. Uber hasn’t said much about its security debacle yet, aside from Thursday when it admitted that it was experiencing a “cybersecurity incident.” On Friday, the…

About 1,900 users of Signal, the messaging app often considered the gold-standard of privacy, may have had their phone numbers or text verification codes accessed by hackers. The breach was part of a phishing attack on the communications company, Twilio, which provides Signal’s SMS verification service.From Signal’s Monday announcement acknowledging the data breach:An attacker gained access to Twilio’s customer support console via phishing. For approximately 1,900 users, either 1) their phone numbers were potentially…