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Contract Lawyers Latest Sector to Face Remote Surveillance Programs

Andrew Orr ·

As WP reports, businesses are increasingly using surveillance software to monitor what their employees do on computers. Contract lawyers are the latest group to face this.

The monitoring is a symptom of “these pervasive employer attitudes that take advantage of these technologies to continue these really vicious cycles … that treat employees as commodities,” she said. “The irony in this situation is that it’s attorneys, who traditionally advocate for employee rights or justice when they’re made aware of intrusions like these.”

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Newly Discovered 'OSX.CDDS' Implant Targets Visitors to Hong Kong Websites

Andrew Orr ·

Google’s Threat Analysis Group discovered a new macOS implant that security researcher Patrick Wardle dubbed OSX.CDDS. It targets “visitors to Hong Kong websites for a media outlet and a prominent pro-democracy labor and political group.”

Notable features for this backdoor include: victim device fingerprinting, screen capture, file download/upload, executing terminal commands, audio recording, keylogging.

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How Thieves are Stealing Apple ID Credentials for Stolen iPhones

Andrew Orr ·

A report from India Today shares the story of how thieves tricked an Apple user to steal his credentials in order to unlock the iPhone they stole.

Vedant narrated his ordeal on Twitter and urged users to be aware of the types of attacks that can be used to extract sensitive information from users. He revealed that the first thing he did after losing his phone was log in to the Find My app with his Apple ID using his MacBook and try to get the phone’s exact location through the Find My app.

Classic phishing attack.

Cool Stuff Found

Deal: Get an Apple TV 4K For US$119

Charlotte Henry ·

B&H Photo has a deal on a previous generation 32GB Apple TV 4K (spotted by MacRumors). It is offering the device for US$119. That’s US$59, or 33 percent, off the usual US$179 RRP. The deal is time-limited, with under 11 hours to go at the time of this writing, so get in there quick if you want one at this price.

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Could Apple Make Major Smart Home Moves in 2022?

Charlotte Henry ·

As we go hurtling towards the holiday season, it’s always exciting to look at what might come next. Dan Moren has written a very astute take at what Apple might do in 2022 for Macworld. His look at the moves the company could make in the smart home market is particularly interesting.

Apple’s had a challenging couple years in the home space. It’s discontinued its full-size HomePod in favor of the smaller HomePod mini, and while it’s ramped up support for the upcoming Matter initiative that aims to interconnect smart home devices across manufacturers, that really won’t kick off in earnest until next year. But word of a “homeOS” project reared its head once again this week, after a mention in an Apple job posting. The term had cropped up earlier this year, ahead of the Worldwide Developers Conference, but nothing more was heard of it until now. It could suggest a more in-depth investment in smart home tech for Apple, and, combined with a recent hire to oversee HomePod software might mean the company is reinvigorating development in that area.

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YouTube Moves to Hide Dislike Count From User Interface

Andrew Orr ·

YouTube announced on Wednesday that it will begin hiding the number of dislikes videos have on its platform.

And earlier this year, we experimented with the dislike button to see whether or not changes could help better protect our creators from harassment, and reduce dislike attacks — where people work to drive up the number of dislikes on a creator’s videos.

YouTube is only making it harder to spot crappy videos at a distance. Now you’ll have to click on each video to be sure, or read the comments. More views = more money for Google.