Monday, October 24, 2022

Latest Tech News

An enormous malware distribution campaign has been detected leveraging more than 200 malicious domains and impersonating more than two dozen global brands to distribute all kinds of malware for both Android and Windows operating systems. 

Cybersecurity researchers from Cyble first spotted the campaign seeking to distribute various malware among Android users. 

In the campaign, the unknown threat actors set up countless domains that seem almost identical to real domains belonging to major brands such as PayPal, SnapChat, TikTok, and others. The domains only have a single character that’s different, that’s missing, or that’s extra. 

Android and Windows users attacked

This type of fraud is usually called “typosquatting” and it’s used in all kinds of attacks, for example, on GitHub, where attackers create repositories with names almost identical to legitimate repositories, to try and distribute malware.

BleepingComputer then expanded on this research to find numerous other domains distributing malware among Windows users, as well. The exact advertisement method for these domains is unknown, but the publication suggests it’s either the victims themselves mistyping the domains on their devices, or threat actors engaging in phishing and other forms of social engineering. We shouldn’t forget SEO poisoning, though.

It was also determined that the threat actors used this big typosquatting campaign to deliver all kinds of malware. In some cases, they were distributing the Vidar Stealer, and in other - Agent Tesla. Vidar is capable of stealing banking information, stored passwords, browser history, IP addresses, details about cryptocurrency wallets and, in some cases, MFA information, as well. Agent Tesla, first discovered some eight years ago, is capable of stealing credentials from many popular apps including web browsers, VPN software and FTP and email clients.

The researchers believe the threat actors are currently experimenting with different malware variants until they see what works best. Besides malware, the researchers also found the ethersmine[.]com website which tries to steal seed phrases for people’s Ethereum wallets.

Via: BleepingComputer



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Medicare Premiums and Deductibles: Here Are the Prices for 2023 - CNET

Find out how much cheaper Medicare Part B premiums will be next year, and how much extra you'll pay for Medicare Part A.

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Latest Tech News

This year, the cost of everything from food to fuel to travel has been skyrocketing up, up, and up. You can now add prices for your Apple Music and Apple TV+ subscriptions to that list. 

As posted on 9to5Mac, the company has quietly raised the price of an individual monthly subscription to Apple Music from $9.99 / £9.99 to $10.99 / £10.99 and Apple TV+ from $4.99 / £9.99 to $6.99 / £6.99. Apple Music Family plans will see a corresponding price increase from $14.99 / £14.99 to $16.99 / £16.99.

The price hikes also extend to the company’s Apple One plans, which bundle a number of services together. These have increased as follows:

  • Individual: $14.95 / £14.95 per month to $16.95 / £16.95
  • Family: $19.95 / £19.95 per month to $22.95 /£22.95
  • Premier: $29.95 / £29.95 per month to $32.95 /£32.95

This is the first time Apple has raised prices for these subscription services in the US and, according to the company, the hikes are mostly due to increased licensing costs for Apple Music and an expansion of the catalogue of available shows and movies on Apple TV+ since the service first launched back in 2019.

An Apple spokesperson provided the following statement to TechRadar:

"The subscription prices for Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple One will increase beginning today. The change to Apple Music is due to an increase in licensing costs, and in turn, artists and songwriters will earn more for the streaming of their music. We also continue to add innovative features that make Apple Music the world’s best listening experience. We introduced Apple TV+ at a very low price because we started with just a few shows and movies. Three years later, Apple TV+ is home to an extensive selection of award-winning and broadly acclaimed series, feature films, documentaries, and kids and family entertainment from the world’s most creative storytellers."

Analysis: Are Apple’s now more expensive services still worth it? 

Apple Music has ranked high among the best music streaming services for its incredible value. It has long offered both lossless and high-res music for the same $9.99 / £10.99 price, along with a large selection of albums and tracks in Spatial Audio. Compare that to market leader Spotify, which currently only streams music in a lossy, compressed format (although the company is said to finally be nearing launch of a Platinum high-res tier with a $19.99 per month price tag, or twice the cost of its current ad-free Premium plan).

Even with the price boost to $10.99 / £10.99, Apple Music still is a great value when compared to services like Tidal that also offer both lossless and high-res music streaming, but for $19.99/£19.99 per month. Following the price boost, Apple Music’s closest competitor offering lossless and high-res streaming, along with Dolby Atmos music tracks, will be Amazon Music HD ($9.99 / £9.99 per month), though that service lacks Apple Music’s elegant interface and well-organized Atmos music library.

As for Apple TV+, the same as with Apple Music and lossless/high-res, your base subscription tier gets you support for 4K and Dolby Vision HDR – there is no high-quality tier that you need to pay extra for. Compare that to Netflix, which makes you pay twice as much for those features when you upgrade from its $9.99 / £9.99 per month Basic plan (which currently doesn’t even provide HD streaming, though that will change in November when the company’s Basic with Ads plan drops).

A price hike for Apple TV+ actually seems overdue: while its offerings were extremely limited in the beginning, it now has plenty of high-quality original shows like Severance and Ted Lasso, along with a strong selection of documentaries and movies.

If you’re an Apple One subscriber, the hikes are even less painful. I currently have a Premier Apple One subscription, which gives me family access to the following Apple services: TV+, Music, Arcade, Fitness+, and News+. All of those get used on an almost daily basis, and when you consider that it also comes with 2TB of iCloud storage for photos and other files, it’s still a great bargain even if it now costs $3 per month more.

While I hate to part with more money on a monthly basis for anything, I can’t say that these Apple service price hikes are outrageous, especially for the high-value Apple One plans. It may not help the company to pile on new subscribers to Apple Music or Apple TV+, but I suspect that most current ones aren’t likely to cancel. I know I’m not.



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Daylight Saving Time: How to Adjust to the Time Change - CNET

Do you have trouble "falling back"? Here's how to recover from the end of Daylight Saving Time on Nov. 6.

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Latest Tech News

OnePlus continues to solidify its “affordable yet powerful” reputation with the Nord N300 5G. It aims to improve upon its predecessor but stumbles in some places.

When the N200 launched back in July 2021, we liked its hefty 5,000mAh battery, which lasted two full days in our tests, and its decent, if somewhat limited, camera system. The N200 apparently struck a chord with consumers, so releasing a successor makes sense. 

At a glance, the N300 is a bit of a mixed bag as it builds upon what the older model had, but doesn't raise the bar in all areas. In fact, the phone actually sees a few feature downgrades. Still, this looks like a good mid-range 5G phone at a great price; not many can claim that. 

Features

Starting with the good, the N300 sports the same 5,000 mAh battery as the N200, plus it supports 33W fast charging thanks to the company’s own SuperVOOC tech. OnePlus, unfortunately, didn’t give any details on exactly how fast the phone can charge. To give you an idea of what the speeds could be, the iPhone 14 Pro can go from a dead battery to a 50 percent charge in about half an hour with a 30-watt charger. But unlike Apple, OnePlus will include a 33W charging block with the N300.

OnePlus opted for the MediaTek Dimensity 810 chipset instead of the Snapdragon 480 on the N200. The former has a “20 percent higher CPU clock speed” (2,400 for the 810 vs 2,000 MHz for the 480), according to benchmark tests. This results in faster processing, more efficient battery usage, and better-performing games. You can also expect speedy connectivity thanks to the 5G support.

When it comes to the rest of the N300’s package, it's a bit of a rollercoaster ride. The rear camera system, for example, has gone down to just two lenses (the N200 had three). At least the main lens received an upgrade. It’s now a 48MP lens for higher quality photos, whereas the N200 had a 13MP lens (the other rear lens and the front-facing camera are still 2MP and 16MP, respectively). 

At 6.56-inches, the N300's screen is a bit bigger than the one on the N200, and it offers a 90Hz refresh rate for a smoother viewing experience. The resolution, however, dropped in quality. It’s now an HD Plus resolution (1600x900 pixels) instead of the N200’s Full HD Plus (2400 x 1080). Storage is still 64 GB, but it can be upgraded to 1 TB.

Limited availability

Our other issue with the N300 is its availability; it's rather limited. You can purchase the phone (in either Midnight Black or Jade Green) in the United States for $228 starting November 3. There will be only one 4GB RAM model at launch. The N300 is also launching in Canada, but no date was given. It’s also exclusive to T-Mobile and its prepaid service, Metro.

Don't misunderstand: T-Mobile isn’t a bad carrier by any means; far from it. Earlier this year, a report from Speedtest showed that T-Mobile has the best-performing 5G network out of all the phone carriers in the US. It just would've been good to see other options available. We reached out to OnePlus and asked if there are plans to include other carriers for the N300 phone, and for details on the Canadian launch date. This story will be updated if we hear back.

If you’re interested in other cheap smartphones, TechRadar just updated its best budget US phone list for 2022



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Latest Tech News

A collection of malicious Android apps have been discovered hiding in the Google Play Store that don't just slow down a victim's device, but also cause high phone bills via annoying malware.

Cybersecurity researchers from McAfee said they found 16 so-called "clicker" apps with currently have more than 20 million downloads. 

The apps are mostly advertised as utility solutions: flashlight apps, profile downloaders, system checkers, security apps, dictionaries, currency converters, and similar. In fact, the biggest app from McAfee’s list is DxClean, a “system cleaner and optimizer”, with more than five million installs. 

Automated ad clicks

Clicker apps are just as the name would suggest - apps that click things. They work in the device’s background, load ads so that the user doesn’t see them, and then click on them, generating extra revenue for the developers. Depending on the victims’ mobile data plans, these apps could also rake in extra expenses, as well. 

Most of the time, though, they will just slow the device down, and drain its battery a bit faster. 

The apps are also designed to mimic human behavior, as ad networks became relatively good at stopping bots and do not pay out revenues for automated and bot clicks. Furthermore, they’re also pretty good at hiding from the users, delaying their activities in the first hours after the installation, to make sure users don’t notice any significant drops in performance. 

While Google says it has now removed all of the apps from its repository, it can’t delete them from the users’ devices - so until users remove the apps themselves, they will remain at risk. 

Anyone suspecting their devices hold such apps should experiment by leaving their smartphones idle for a couple of hours. Should it lose too much battery, or show an increase in mobile data consumption, they should remove potential malicious apps before running the experiment again. 

The full list of malicious apps can be found on this link

Via: BleepingComputer



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Sunday, October 23, 2022

The Absolute Best Horror Movies on Netflix - CNET

Begin Halloween with the giant stash of impeccable horror movies on Netflix.

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Yankees vs. Astros Livestream: How to Watch Game 4 of the ALCS Online - CNET

New York faces elimination against Houston today on TBS.

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Seahawks vs. Chargers Livestream: How to Watch NFL Week 7 From Anywhere Online Today - CNET

Want to catch the Seattle Seahawks against the Los Angeles Chargers? Here's everything you need to catch Sunday's 1:25 p.m. PT game on Fox.

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Get Home for the Holidays With Big Savings on Travel Essentials at Woot - CNET

Make your journey home as easy as possible with big savings on luggage, chargers, wallets and other travel gear and accessories.

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HBO's 'House of the Dragon' Finale: What Time It Airs in Your Time Zone - CNET

The season finale of House of the Dragon airs on HBO this Sunday.

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Saturday, October 22, 2022

How Parents Get Student Loan Debt Relief Under Biden's New Plan - CNET

The White House plan to cancel up to $20,000 of debt also includes parents who borrowed money for their children's college education.

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Student Loan Debt Relief Starts in November Unless You Opt Out - CNET

If the Education Department already has your income info, you should start getting debt canceled mid-month.

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Best Xbox Gaming Headset for 2022 - CNET

Need a new headset for your Xbox One or Xbox Series X? Here are our top picks, from basic budget models to high-end, feature-packed powerhouses.

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Yankees vs. Astros Livestream: How to Watch Game 3 of the ALCS Online Today on TBS - CNET

The Yankees and Astros head to New York as their ALCS battle continues.

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Latest Tech News

They say fortune favors the bold, so why not rebel from cookie-cutter colorways and mix things up with some eye-catching tech instead? As a...