MasHD Blog

Online privacy is virtually extinct in this time and age , but that doesn't mean that companies can use that excuse and continue spying at their own will , take Facebook for example , the social media company which has connected billions of users are now on apparently using tracking cookies to mine some more money for the sake of advertising . Although this is nothing new , it is probably the first time that Facebook has gone aggressive  as users who log into facebook have no way to prevent Facebook from basically "checking" your activity and content your search on the internet . Facebook - who will ultimately profit from this endeavor states - "When we ask people about our ads, one of the top things they tell us is that they want to see ads that are more relevant to their interests.” which is kind of a funny excuse because more and more users install software like Adblock to get rid of the same menace Facebook describes of .To sum it up , there is no turning back ...

In the good old days of tech , Macs were considered to be safe and "Virus free" , but now in the age of  large scale spying and eavesdropping and cloud storage violations , that term might just be a thing of a past ,and the latest "WireLurker" malware might be Apple's worst nightmare yet . Wirelurker - a Chinese iOS and OSX based virus is probably a first of its kind Trojan horse program that can attach and replicate its malicious code through apps , 467 apps ,which have been downloaded from third party app stores in China ( Maiyadi appstore) over 350,000 times has started the inditial crisis , Wirelurker also has a backup method of infecting and this is done through USB connections , the host device , which is already compromised with the virus can transmit Wirelurker when a iOS device like a iPhone or iPad is connected to sync or even charge .Apple recommends users not to use 3rd party USB connectors or unrecognized computers as a precautionary measure. ...

Apple has always been regarded as being safe for work , but the walled garden policy has now come under fire in China as the company ,along with many other non-Chinese tech companies such as Microsoft ,Symantec and Russia's Kaspersky labs have been effectively banned from being used in the Chinese government . Apple is the latest addition to the list , and the main fear comes from the threat of Espionage which have been exposed after "Snowden Effect" that took place last year . Government of China has effectively left out iPad's and Macbooks in its July procurement list . According to China , Apple computers , along with computers running Microsoft's Windows 8 software are said to have backdoors which allow for espionage and therefore both systems have been effectively banned . China's latest action to boycott Apple products over fear of espionage comes right after Russia's action to replace their iPads with Android tablets after Apple failed to hand o...

Most of you are sure to have the social networking app  ,Facebook linked to your smartphone and/or tablet , although you use the app to connect with your social world , the app is now ready to use you for its next survey which involves the social surveying company Nielsen and  what TV shows you watch. The survey is set to kick off in the US with a agreement that users can opt out of being included in the full survey if they wish . The process will mine data such as the users age and gender and what TV/Movies they watch on their mobile devices  but that data will be available in two different ways to both companies -Facebook and Nielsen. Raw numerical data (excluding data about the TV show) will be available to Facebook while TV show data (excluding personal data of Facebook users) will be available to Nielsen . The move however has sparked privacy concerns which relate to how much Facebook already knows about individuals and how they plan to mine more data for the purpo...

An NSA project to install spying malware on "millions" of computers around the world, dubbed TURBINE, could allow the clandestine US agency unprecedented access to "industrial-scale exploitation" in the battle for internet dominance. The spyware, which is said to have already been installed on as many as 100,000 systems after first being deployed in mid-2010, is described as both smart and aggressive, automating much of what would have previously needed a trained operative. That, The Intercept's insiders say, makes it the perfect tool for broadly infecting a huge number of machines and casting a wide net for data collection. Rather than limit such actions to human operatives, TURBINE is an "intelligent command and control capability" that can run its own deployment and make its own decisions on which gathered data is important. What makes TURBINE particularly interesting for the NSA is how little staff would have to know technically about infecte...