Privacy

SilentMessenger enhances your Facebook & Facebook Messenger privacy

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 24, 2016

Facebook and Facebook Messenger users who have a jailbroken iOS device are going to love the benefits of using a new jailbreak tweak called SilentMessenger.

This tweak is going to provide these users with additional steps to protect their privacy and keep their footprint in the Facebook apps as minimal as possible from the perspective of other users who are online. Moreover, it also supercharges some other features of the apps.

In this review, we'll talk about what SilentMessenger can do for your Facebook experience, and walk you through all of the tweak's options.

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How to increase your privacy by removing location from Diagnostic & Usage Data logs

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 13, 2018

Apple collects anonymous information about how you use your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and other devices so that it can improve its products in future releases. End users can easily opt in and out of diagnostic collection in the Settings → Privacy → Diagnostics & Usage section.

I have this enabled to help Apple improve their products, but privacy-minded people might opt out of diagnostic collection on the grounds that the logs include their approximate location.

In this tutorial, we'll explore increasing your privacy on iOS by having your location excluded from diagnostic data that iOS creates.

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Canadian police have had BlackBerry’s global decryption key since 2010

Cody Lee ∙ April 14, 2016

Canadian police have been in possession of a BlackBerry's global decryption key since 2010, reports Vice. The site says recently released court documents reveal that the key was used in a criminal investigation to intercept over 1 million BBM messages.

The documents were made public after members of a Montreal crime syndicate pleaded guilty to their role in a 2011 murder, and they shine some light on the extent that BlackBerry, as well as telco giant Rogers, is willing to cooperate with investigators.

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Mobile forensics firm that unlocked terrorist’s iPhone 5c thinks it can hack iPhone 6

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2016

Mobile forensics firm Cellebrite that helped the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation bypass the passcode protection on the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5c is adamant that it can also work around Apple's security protections and hack into an iPhone 6, CNN reports.

Italian father Leonardo Fabbretti, who wanted to see the photos stored on his dead son Dama's iPhone but was told by Apple that it was impossible to get into the device without a passcode, has now met with Cellebrite executives who have been working on accessing the files.

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FBI confirms a tool it bought to unlock terrorist’s iPhone 5c does not work on iPhone 5s and newer

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 7, 2016
FBI and Apple logos

James Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of iPhones—that is, Investigation—confirmed in an interview with CNN yesterday that a tool that the agency had purchased from a third-party to unlock San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook's iPhone 5c cannot be used to bypass security protections on newer models, from the iPhone 5s onward.

This implies the tool relies on the fact that the iPhone 5c and earlier models lack hardware features like the Secure Enclave embedded in Apple's mobile processors (from the iPhone 5s's A7 chip and onward) which keeps encrypted sensitive information and stuff like the number of passcode attempts isolated from the rest of the system.

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DOJ unlocks San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, withdraws case against Apple

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 17, 2018
FBI and Apple logos

The Department of Justice filed a request on Monday, asking the court to vacate its order to compel Apple to assist agents in unlocking an iPhone. As expected, the FBI was able to crack the handset without the company's assistance.

The filing comes a week after the DOJ asked the court to postpone its hearing with Apple, claiming it had found a possible method for accessing the data stored on an iPhone 5c, which belonged to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook.

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The ultimate guide to protecting your private information in Notes from the prying eyes

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 27, 2019

According to Apple, Notes is one of the most popular and most-frequently used stock applications on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

People use Notes for everything from memorizing recipes to keeping track of errands, creating shopping lists, storing inspirational quotes and even passwords, codes and medical data.

Not all notes contain sensitive information, but many do. Beginning with iOS 9.3 and OS X El Capitan 10.11.4, you can protect your notes with a password or Touch ID.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to set up Notes protection, secure items on a note-by-note basis so no one can view their contents and more.

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Apple has 6 cloud infrastructure projects to prevent unauthorized snooping

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 23, 2016

Amid reports that it's shifting some of the iCloud services to Google’s Cloud Platform, The Information is reporting that Apple has a total of six projects underway related to boosting its cloud infrastructure. One of them, code-named Project McQueen, calls for custom data storage systems.

Apple suspects that third-party servers that power iCloud might have been intercepted during shipping and that someone may have added additional chips and firmware to them “in order to make them vulnerable to infiltration,” as per the report.

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iOS 9.3 patches a bug that would let attackers decrypt photos and videos sent via iMessage

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 21, 2016

A group of Johns Hopkins University researchers led by computer science professor Matthew D. Green has discovered a critical bug in Apple's stock Messages app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

The vulnerability would allow nefarious users to decrypt photos and videos sent over iMessage, but there's nothing to worry about—iOS 9.3, which we expect to release after today's Apple event wraps up, contains a patch for this oversight on Apple's part.

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