Vertical Video Support On YouTube For iOS Finally Here

January 20, 2018 by Joseph Martin

The owners of Android devices have been able to properly view vertical videos for more than two years, but for Apple users, it was a different story.

Instead of getting the traditional full-screen experience when viewing vertical videos, Apple users were saddled with annoying vertical bars that would appear on either side of the video itself. It’s a small thing, but undeniably annoying. Now, at long last, the problem has been solved and now Apple users can enjoy the same vertical, full-screen experience as the rest of us.

YouTube announced the upgrade in a tweet that read as follows:

“Bye-bye, black bars. Now the YouTube player on iOS will automatically adapt to the shape of the video you’re viewing!”

It matters because smartphones were designed to be held in that position, so it’s the natural way to interact with the device, no matter what you’re doing with it, including watching videos.

There’s one caveat, however: A surprising number of vertical videos won’t go full screen because they’ve actually been encoded with black bars on the sides, which technically makes them landscape vids that are only mimicking the appearance of a vertical video.

Now that YouTube has made this change, over time, you’ll probably see fewer and fewer videos shot like this and uploaded. In the short to medium term, don’t be the least bit surprised if you run into videos shot like this on a regular basis.

Why it took the company so long to update the Apple version of their app with this functionality, no one knows, but it’s not hard to hazard a few guesses. In any event, it’s not something that’s likely to have a major impact on your life, but it is a welcome change and we were happy to see it.

Joseph Martin

President & CEO
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Weird Sounds Coming From Your Speakers? Could Be A Hacker

January 19, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Have you been hearing strange, otherworldly sounds on your Bose or Sonos speakers? If so, rest assured that your speakers aren’t haunted. They’ve likely been hijacked by hackers.

Researchers at Trend Micro have confirmed that some models (the Sonos Play:1, the Sonos One and the Bose SoundTouch) of both brands of speakers are vulnerable to hacking if the speaker is connected to a misconfigured network.

If the hackers find such a speaker, they can take control of the speaker and direct to play any audio file hosted at a specific URL.

It should be noted that this is an extremely exotic, fairly elaborate hack, and one that’s not likely to gain the hacker much, if anything in the way of useful information about the target network. Overwhelmingly, if and where this hack is seen at all, it will be used to play pranks on the target. About the worst thing that could happen is that the hacker would play a particularly annoying or alarming sound (a woman screaming, glass breaking, a baby crying or similar), which might lead to some sleepless nights or confusion, but not much else.

Even so, it’s worth making note of, because if a hacker is able to take control of a speaker connected to your network, it means that there’s a misconfiguration somewhere that could lead to a more serious hack down the road. If it happens to you, it’s well worth reviewing your network setup and security settings.

A spokesman for Sonos had this to say about the hack: “…looking into this more, but what you are referencing is a misconfiguration of a user’s network that impacts a very small number of customers that may have exposed their device to a public network. We do not recommend this type of set-up for our customers.”

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time such a hack has been seen. In 2014, a developer created a hack that went by the name “Ghosty” that did more or less the same thing.

Joseph Martin

Sound Waves May Be Used In Future Hard Drive Attacks

January 18, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Another week, another attack vector, and this one deserves extra points for creativity.

New research has proved the viability of using something as simple and innocuous as sound waves to disrupt the normal functioning of HDDs, which can be used to sabotage a wide range of equipment from Pcs, to CCTV systems, ATMs and more.

Researchers have toyed with, and been aware of the possibility of using sound waves to disrupt the normal functioning of an HDD for more than a decade, but the most recent research conducted by scientists from Princeton and Purdue universities have outlined exactly how such an attack could be carried out.

The attack exploits a peculiar design feature of HDDs. Because they store large amounts of data on small platters, they’re designed to shut down in the presence of excessive vibration to avoid scratching or damaging the platter, and thus, destroying information on the drive.

If a hacker can determine the optimal attack frequency against a given HDD, then he could play a sound aimed at the drive that would cause it to stop functioning. If the sound were played long enough, it would require the system to be manually restarted to get it working again.

As the researchers demonstrated, finding the optimal attack frequency is a trivial enough task, but it should be noted that this is a fairly exotic type of attack, and not likely to see widespread use.

The biggest threat one would potentially face from such an attack would be the disruption of the functioning of security cameras to create a blind spot at a facility, which could then be physically breached. But given that the tones are within the range of human hearing, anyone in the vicinity could come and investigate.

Nonetheless, it’s an intriguing bit of research with potentially damaging implications.

Joseph Martin

Nvidia Dropping Driver Support For Older Operating Systems

January 17, 2018 by Joseph Martin

AMD long ago dropped support of 32-bit operating systems, and now, Nvidia is following suit. The long-anticipated move by the company will mean the end of driver support for the 32-bit builds of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Linux and FreeBSD.

Nvidia is taking a balanced, responsible approach here. The company has pledged to continue offering 32-bit driver security updates until January 2019, but will immediately discontinue making performance updates to the drivers of older OS’s.

In some respects, it’s long overdue. Today’s application environment is incredibly resource intensive, with a growing number of applications requiring more computing horsepower than 32-bit systems can deliver, since a 32-bit OS can only support up to 4GB of RAM.

The picture gets even bleaker if you’re a gamer. Even modest games tend to require more than 4GB of RAM these days, and most top-tier titles no longer offer support for 32-bit systems. That, combined with the fact that 32-bit systems are somewhat less secure overall, it’s probably time they were put to pasture.

Given this landscape, it’s probably time to pronounce the 32-bit operating system dead. If you’ve got some legacy applications still running on an old machine, now is the time to get serious about your migration plan.

Most of the older OS’s are no longer receiving security updates, which leaves you increasingly vulnerable to a wide range of hacks. That, coupled with the increasingly sparse driver support makes it inevitable that you’ll have to migrate at some point, and it’s always better to do it on your terms than someone else’s.

If you haven’t yet worked out what to do about your old legacy systems, it’s long past time to do so. The clock has been ticking for a while now, and the ticking just got a little bit louder.

Joseph Martin

Microsoft May Remove Windows Paint From Operating System

January 16, 2018 by Joseph Martin

“Paint” is one step closer to being a thing of the past.

In May of this year, Microsoft caught a surprising amount of flak when they announced that the venerable app, which had been included with the OS in every release since 1985, would be going away and replaced by a newer, sleeker version called Paint 3D.

The company had not expected any backlash on the matter and was sent scrambling when tens of thousands of people complained loudly in forums all over the internet.

The company quickly revised its position, explaining that while Paint would no longer come pre-installed on future releases of Windows, it would still be available on Microsoft’s app store. This move seemed to mollify Paint’s surprising number of fans and followers, but now, Microsoft is in the news again over the surprisingly cherished app.

In a recently released Windows 10 Insider Preview, the following message was discovered when accessing Paint: “This version of Paint will soon be replaced with Paint 3D. Classic Paint will then become available in the store.”

Note that this message was not displayed upon opening Paint itself, but rather upon clicking the “Product Alert” button at the top right corner of the app screen.

While the news is certainly no surprise, given the above, the sparse wording of the message does raise the question of whether the transition will be occurring during the next Windows 10 release. So far, the company has not offered any sort of clarification or confirmation.

In any case, we’re now one step closer to saying goodbye to Paint. While it was never a very good image editing program, it has proven to have a surprisingly deep base of support. Support or no, however, the day is soon coming when it will be a thing of the past, unless users go to the store and manually download and install it.

Joseph Martin

Tech Tips: Is Your Data Backup Protected Against Storm Season?

January 15, 2018 by Joseph Martin

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

It’s that special time of year when the threat of fire, flood, severe storms, water damage and even theft are very real. This is why ensuring your company’s critical data is backed up and protected in the case of power loss or system damage. To help you protect your valuable business assets, here are a few simple tips:

Off Site Storage

Backing up your data at an offsite location with dedicated and secure servers and cloud solutions is a must. While regularly backing up your data is crucial, many business owners only backup their files on in-house servers and hard drives. If those servers are damaged or those hard drives are stolen, you’ll quickly find yourself helpless. The easiest solution for this is having a system in place at another location.
Safe from the Surge

Quality surge protectors are a simple but often overlooked solution to protecting your computers and data during storm season. Remember quality cannot be skipped here. Try opting for a high-quality surge protector combined with a power supply batter backup.
Head for High Ground

Flooding is a real threat when it comes to severe storm season. This is why it’s very important to make sure your critical equipment such as servers are lifted off the floor. Server racks are inexpensive and can be easily installed to help minimize flood damage. This is also a situation in which cloud backup solutions can save the day.
Have a Plan

Make sure you have a plan in place in case disaster does strike. You need to protect your business continuity and this means having a plan in place so employees and systems can continue to work and keep the business running no matter the situation. Make sure your staff knows where to go, who to call and how to access critical files, data and software.

Joseph Martin

Chrome OS To Get App Multitasking Soon

January 14, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Chromebooks have brought Android apps to a much wider market, making them accessible to virtually everyone, but the Chrome OS has always lagged behind other platforms developmentally.

One of its most serious limitations where running apps was concerned centered on its inability to multitask. Basically, if the app you’re using is not “in focus” or in the window you’re currently viewing, all activity in the app ceases.

There are a few exceptions such as the Spotify app, but most apps that rely on real time data and most games will freeze when a user clicks out of the window. If you’re coming to Chromebook from almost any other platform, it can be annoying and hard to get used to.

Fortunately, you won’t have to deal with this for much longer. Google recently announced the release of Chrome OS 64, which will, among other things, allow apps to continue running in the background, even when you’re not using them in the active window.

Right now, the update is available on the company’s Beta channel, so it’s a fair bet that it will be rolled out to the general user base in the very near future. However, the company has not given a firm timeframe for that.

If you have a Chromebook, this is good news indeed as it corrects what many industry insiders have long seen as a glaring weakness of the platform.

While Chromebooks don’t get much use at the Enterprise level, they are a cost-effective computing option for students and low-income people, and it’s good to see Google spending time and resources improving them.

While the latest version offers a number of enhancements, the two biggest are the multitasking support mentioned above, and the “split view” feature which will further enhance the multitasking capabilities of the platform.

Joseph Martin

Virus Spread Through Facebook Messenger Mines For Cryptocurrency

January 13, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Facebook scams are fairly common occurrences, owing to the sheer size of the platform’s user base. It’s no surprise that there’s a new one making the rounds that you should be aware of.

This latest threat was discovered by researchers at Trend Micro, and makes use of Facebook Messenger. If you get a message containing an embedded video file saved as a zip (the file name usually appears as “video_xxxx.zip”), don’t click on it, even if it’s from someone you know.

This file is a modified form of a legitimate piece of software called “XMRig”, an open source project that allows users to mine the cryptocurrency called Monero.

When the user clicks on this poisoned version, it will direct them to a website controlled by the hackers, in addition to quietly installing the corrupted software in the background. Once installed, the hackers put the infected PC’s processor to work for them, creating a distributed network of hash power to solve advanced cryptographic puzzles and generate new Monero “coins” for themselves.

The hackers have gone to some lengths to mask their true intentions. The site appears to be a video streaming service, and users who click on the embedded file will actually see a video playing. Of course, the website is also part of the C&C structure.

There are several intriguing things to note about this new threat:

It only affects people who use the Google Chrome web browser

It only affects PCs and Laptops. Smartphones are not impacted in any way

The miner software is actually controlled via the C&C server, meaning that the hackers can upgrade their malware, adding new functionality in the blink of an eye

So far, the virus has been spreading mostly in south east Asia, but has also begun appearing in the Ukraine and Venezuela. Given the global nature of Facebook’s user base, this is wholly unsurprising, so be on the lookout for it. Don’t click embedded files in Messenger, even if you think you know the sender.

Joseph Martin

Major Security Flaw Discovered In Intel Processors

January 12, 2018 by Joseph Martin

There’s some bad news if you own a computer driven by an Intel processor. Recently, a dangerous, catastrophic security flaw has been discovered in Intel’s X86-64 architecture that allows hackers to access the kernel, which sits at the heart of your OS. By accessing the kernel, a hacker can gain access to virtually everything on the targeted machine.

This is accomplished by way of a little-known feature called “speculative execution” which allows the processor to perform operations before it’s received definitive instructions that they need to be done. It’s a way of milking more speed out of the system.

Unfortunately, any such system runs the risk of giving programs permission to execute that, under normal circumstances, would not get permission. For example, a hacker could exploit this time-saving trick to force a piece of malware that Windows Defender (or related programs designed to safeguard your system) would otherwise catch and keep from running.

The truly terrifying part about this newly discovered exploit is its scope and scale. Intel chips are found in the majority of PCs and laptops being sold today, and this exploit has been sitting undiscovered until now, in every chip the company has made over the last ten years.

So far, Google researchers have identified two distinct attacks that could be used to exploit the flaw, dubbed “Meltdown” and “Spectre,” both being every bit as bad as they sound, and both capable of giving a hacker complete control over a target system. Fortunately, there have been no reported instances of either being used in the wild…yet.

The company is aware of the problem, and although they are playing things close to the vest, a fix is already in the works. Unfortunately, there’s a drawback. In order to implement the fix, it’s going to require a huge restructuring. This will likely eliminate the “speculative execution” feature, which is going to notably slow systems down. Early estimates are that when the fix is rolled out, you’ll see your system’s performance degraded by between 17-23%.

If there’s a silver lining in all this, if you happen to own a machine built around an AMD processor, give yourself a pat on the back. They don’t contain the flaw.

Joseph Martin

Older iPhones Are Being Purposefully Throttled, According To Apple

January 11, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Not long ago, observant Reddit users noted and began discussing a curious phenomenon. It appeared that older iPhones were unexpectedly slowing down, and no one could name the reason why.

It caught the attention of a number of security researchers who delved more deeply into the issue, including a man named John Poole, who confirmed the Reddit claims. His tests confirmed that on iPhone 6s and 7s, Apple made tweaks to iOS versions 10.2.1 through 11.2.0.

These changes are designed to throttle the phone’s performance when the battery degrades beyond a certain point. While the company itself has subsequently confirmed the findings, they didn’t offer much in the way of a detailed explanation other than to say:

“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batters become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.

Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”

If you have an older iPhone, you may find yourself in disagreement that throttling its performance optimizes your user experience, and admittedly, it isn’t an optimal solution. On the other hand, having your phone power down unexpectedly when the battery life still reads 40 percent can be worse than annoying.

The only way around it is to replace your battery, which will not trigger the throttle built into the OS.

Joseph Martin

Weird Sounds Coming From Your Speakers? Could Be A Hacker

Sound Waves May Be Used In Future Hard Drive Attacks

Nvidia Dropping Driver Support For Older Operating Systems

Microsoft May Remove Windows Paint From Operating System

Chrome OS To Get App Multitasking Soon

Major Security Flaw Discovered In Intel Processors

Older iPhones Are Being Purposefully Throttled, According To Apple

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The Best Defense is a Good Offense

Off Site Storage

Safe from the Surge

Head for High Ground

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