Facebook Updates Privacy Features with more Security

Great news to million of Facebook users around the world. Facebook said that they have created a new privacy features that will upgrade the privacy control of their users. They have announced Wednesday new privacy features which let you control what information you want to share with apps for games, a new dashboard for managing app permissions, a new anonymous Login feature and other changes to the Facebook login.

Now it's a “hassle-free to log in and try apps” Zuckerberg said. You can also choose to continue to log in with full Facebook identification or not. It's a way to "to try apps without fear", Zuckerberg added.

Here are the list of New Privacy Features of Facebook:

1. Anonymous Login - using this option you will be able to try an app without sharing your personal information from Facebook.

2. Facebook Login - you will now have an option to choose what information to share if you use an app. Facebook said that in 2013 users logged into apps and websites using their Facebook login credentials more than 10 billion times.

3. App control panel - this will be the one place where you can manage the apps you use. You can manage a particular permissions for every app, you can also remove apps from the dashboard.

Nokia Will become Microsoft Mobile

Microsoft reported that they will close the $7.9 billion purchase of Nokia's handset business this coming Friday. Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said that the deal was delayed by a month because they needed to clear regulatory clearances in Asia and that it will be completed on April 25.

"This acquisition will help Microsoft accelerate innovation and market adoption for Windows Phones," he said.

Nokia was the top mobile maker before it was overtaken in recent years by Samsung and Apple. A leaked online said that Nokia brand will be renamed as Microsoft Mobile according to an article on the site NokiaPowerUser.

The leaked letter seems to be a letter to Nokia's devices and services business suppliers.

    "Under the terms of the sale, Microsoft will assume all rights, benefits and obligations of the Nokia Devices and Services business, including Nokia’s agreements with suppliers, customers and partners which pertain to the Devices and Services business. Therefore, the purpose of this letter is to update you that the current terms and conditions that you have with the Devices and Services business will not change.

    Please note that upon the close of the transaction between Microsoft and Nokia, the name of Nokia Corporation/Nokia Oyj will change to Microsoft Mobile Oy. Microsoft Mobile Oy is the legal entity name that should be used for VAT IDs and for the issuance of invoices."

The letter also stated that Microsoft Mobile Oy will be creating new bank accounts, however they will not change the invoice sending method.

Nokia have said that they expect to complete the sale of its Devices and Services Business to Microsoft Corp. this month.

Last September 2013, Microsoft divulge their plans to acquire Nokia for $7.2 billion, and Nokia shareholders agreed to the deal in November.

Internet Data Security at Risk because of a bug called "Heartbleed"

A major security bug has been recently discovered that put millions of usernames, passwords and credit card numbers at risk from hackers. The bug has been exploited by hackers and NSA who snoop at everyone for more than two years. The bug is called "CVE-2014-0160" or "Heartbleed."

This is a different kind of breach, it is not like a web site getting hacked. It is a major bug, the code that suppose to keep servers secure has a flaw. Servers that keep data for thousands of sites. Experts say that this is the worst bug yet and everyone who uses the internet, do business using the internet should be worried.

It is like forgetting to unlock your car or your home, you may never know if a burglar will help themself stealing your stuff.

A Finnish security firm Codenomicon conducted a test exploiting the "Heartbleed" bug to try and steal data here how it goes:

"We have tested some of our own services from attacker’s perspective. We attacked ourselves from outside, without leaving a trace. Without using any privileged information or credentials we were able steal from ourselves the secret keys used for our X.509 certificates, user names and passwords, instant messages, emails and business critical documents and communication."

"Heartbleed" bug was discovered in a type of software called OpenSSL. OpenSSL is used on servers to encrypt sensitive information to protect people’s privacy. More than 500,000 servers were reportedly vulnerable.

Last March, another open-source encryption library "GnuTLS" discovered a bug that fails to correctly validate certificates. Now it's OpenSSL turn.

Administrators and vendors are scrambling to patch this bug since OpenSSL is used by millions of websites and it has affected almost everyone. The only way you website is not affected by this bug is if your website is not using SSL or you have an outdated versions of OpenSSL which are also equally risky.

As for Amazon, they are working to patch "Heartbleed" memory-leak vulnerablities in their Amazon Web Services hosting infrastructure.



Here are Online Tests that you can use:
http://possible.lv/tools/hb/
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/
http://filippo.io/Heartbleed/

LG Gives G2 and G Flex Knock Code

LG introduced G2 with a KnockOn feature that gives users the ability to wake or lock the device by just giving a double tap on the screen. Now LG has develop it gradually to a more secure Knock Code with the recently launched LG G Pro 2, this new feature allows the users to tap on the screen in a pattern that can be customized, which is definitely more secure way of accessing (locking/unlocking) the LG Smartphones. The Knock Code will be use for both the LG G2 and G Flex through a firmware update starting in April. Models that will be equipped with this feature are G Pro 2, G2 mini, F Series and L Series. Old version can also be updated through a firmware update.

The Knock Code security function use a "tap to unlock" gesture, it divides the smartphone screen into four invisible quadrants. The user simply need to "tap" or "knock" in an specific area to unlock the phone. The user will be able to assign from 2 to 8 taps in a quadrant using a specific sequence. This gives a combination of 80,000 possibilities which gives the smartphone a high security level.

Also the possibility of password theft will substantially decrease, considering the Knock Code is hard to mimic if you don’t know where to tap.

The Knock Code can easily be carry out anywhere on the screen and it works better than the bio-recognition systems since it is more responsive. LG hasn't announce the specific date for the roll-out. I'll keep you posted.

Apple's iOS 7.1 update Shorten battery life

The latest iOS 7.1 update by Apple has been blamed for a shorter battery life and the update is also blamed for other minor glitches in iPhone devices that have updated.

The other glitch that was reported includes, disrupt bluetooth connection, wifi connection issues, and lost contacts that are save in the phone memory.

iPhone users have storm the official Apple forum and Twitter to complain about these glitches.

Apple released iOS 7.1 last Monday and its their first major update to iOS 7, and it's causing a lot of problems I hope they fix it soon.

Bad news: after five months of testing, iOS 7.1 has an iPhone battery-killing bug. Good news: iOS 8 is only 6 short months away. Maybe 7.
— Jeremy Horwitz (@horwitz) March 14, 2014

Wow iOS 7.1 kills my battery.
— Selena Larson (@selenalarson) March 14, 2014

This 7.1 update sucks. Drains the battery on my 5s, delayed sounds, and a wonky touch screen. Sorry if I favorite your random tweets.
— Eric Smith (@ericpatricksmit) March 13, 2014

Battle of Smartphone Platform: Google and Apple Dominates

According to a comScore Report, Android devices are the king of smartphones there are more people using it than any other Platform. Android has a comanding lead at 51.7% against Apple's 41.6%. It is for the three-month period ending January 2014.

The best benefits in dominating the smartphone platform is that it spills over into the web properties also. comScore reported that Google Sites ranked as the top web property on smartphones at 89.4% of the mobile media audience, followed by Facebook 86.6%, Yahoo Sites 86.2%, Amazon sites 69%, and AOL 56.9%.

Nokia Likes XDA Developers Hack

Nokia instead of getting mad about hacking their phones got excited about a hack that will let Google Android apps and services run on Nokia X smartphone. Xda-developers member Kashamalaga found a way using Nokia X to run Google Play Store and apps like Google Now, Gmail, Google Maps, and Hangouts.

Nokia X use a forked version of Android like Kindle that has its own app store.

Nokia Developer Team Tweeted about it, and they sounded pleased.

@KashaMalaga This is awesome! Very excited to see progress is being made - we actually really like @xdadevelopers
— Nokia Developer Team (@nokiadeveloper) February 28, 2014

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