keyword: Apple

sophisticated-hackers-snuck-sleeper-malware-into-nearly-30,000-macs

Sophisticated hackers snuck sleeper malware into nearly 30,000 Macs

There’s a popular stereotype that Apple’s computers are largely immune to malware. Not only is is that incorrect, it appears that sophisticated hacker(s) might have been toying with the idea of a heist or drop nasty enough they’d have needed to cover their tracks. As Ars Technica reports, security researchers at Malwarebytes and Red Canary discovered a mysterious piece of malware hiding on nearly 30,000 Macs, one designed to deliver an as-yet-unknown payload, and with a self-destruction mechanism that might remove any trace that it ever existed. They’re calling it Silver Sparrow.

Red Canary’s own blog post goes into more detail, including how they discovered multiple versions targeting not only Intel, but also newer Macs based on Apple’s own M1 chip — which is quite the thing, given how new Apple’s M1 computers are and how few vulnerabilities have been discovered yet. It was literally just one week ago that Objective-See security researcher Patrick Wardle published a story about the first piece of malware discovered in the wild targeting Apple Silicon, and now we have two.

Thankfully, Silver Sparrow was not able to cover its tracks before being outed, there’s no indication it was used to do any damage, and Red Canary writes that Apple has already revoked the binaries (which should theoretically keep you from accidentally installing it yourself). But the idea damage could have been done isn’t theoretical: they actually found these strains of malware on Macs in the wild.

Given all of this, Silver Sparrow is uniquely positioned to deliver a potentially impactful payload at a moment’s notice, so we wanted to share everything we know with the broader infosec community sooner rather than later.

— Red Canary (@redcanary) February 19, 2021

Researchers warn that Apple’s transition from Intel to its own silicon may make it easy for other bad actors to slip malware through the cracks, too: you can read quotes from several of them in this Wired story.

samsung-imagines-how-its-first-ar-glasses-might-look-in-these-leaked-concept-videos

Samsung imagines how its first AR glasses might look in these leaked concept videos

Samsung has been toying with AR glasses for years, most recently trotting out an extremely basic set of image-projecting goggles on the CES 2020 stage, but I’ve never seen the company suggest it might like to build an actually ambitious augmented reality wearable computing device — until perhaps today.

WalkingCat, a fairly reliable source of gadget leaks, has published two new concept videos that show off some of the fun things a pair of “Samsung Glasses Lite” could do, like projecting a giant virtual screen where you can play your games, letting you kick back in your private movie theater, give you a giant virtual computer monitor, fire up an auto-dimming “sunglasses mode,” or act as an instant first-person-view screen for your DJI drone, complete with telemetry.

The second video shows off the very similar “Samsung AR Glasses” concept, though this time it’s letting the user “see” 3D digital objects appear in the real world, a visual that should be instantly familiar to you if you’ve ever seen any of Microsoft’s HoloLens marketing.

If you’ve never tried a Microsoft HoloLens or Magic Leap, though, you should know that reality is a long ways away from the visualizations you see here. Today’s waveguides, lasers, projectors and micromirror combinations usually give you a pretty small field of view with see-through AR glasses like these. If you’re standing right next to a virtual computer monitor, you’d only be able to see part of it at a time — the rest would be out of your field of view.

To me, the most interesting part of these videos is how Samsung imagines you’ll be using a smartwatch to navigate the interfaces. Short-term, that might be more realistic than trying to tap on things that don’t actually exist or make midair gestures with your hands, and smartwatch control is a paradigm that other companies working on AR headsets are no doubt considering. Apple has both a smartwatch and an AR headset in development, of course, and the Facebook hardware division that’s building AR glasses is reportedly now working on a smartwatch, too.

Speaking of Samsung and smartwatches, two known leakers are now saying Samsung may go back to Android for its next smartwatch, instead of its own Tizen platform it’s used for watches for years now.

apple-patent-paves-way-for-notchless-iphone-13

Apple patent paves way for notchless iPhone 13

(Image credit: Apple)

There’s a chance the iPhone 13 might do away with the notch, but could still offer both face ID and Touch ID. That’s if a recently unearthed Apple patent (spotted by Apple Insider) comes to fruition.

The patent is titled ‘Photodetectors Integrated into Thin-Film Transistor Backplanes’. Without going into too much detail, the patent basically details how to embed Touch ID and Face ID sensors under a phone screen. Doing so would enable more ways to unlock the device and authenticate payments without having an unsightly notch eating into the screen space.

These technologies aren’t brand new – phones with in-screen fingerprint sensors and selfie cameras are already on sale, but the execution has been a bit hit and miss. Apple is hoping it can nail both to provide an effortless user experience.

As well as appearing in the iPhone range, the tech could also appear in the Apple Watch, where screen real estate is even more precious. And maybe the iPad range too.

Just because Apple has filed a patent, it doesn’t automatically mean the tech will make an appearance in Apple products. This particular patent was filed in July 2020, which could be too soon for the iPhone 13. But if you’re not particularly enamoured with the notch, the fact the patent even exists could be cause for celebration.

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