Wednesday Newsbytes – News for You – 042722
Every day we scan the tech world for news that affects all of us who use Windows computers. Every Wednesday, we feature some of the news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s “Wednesday Newsbytes” informative and interesting!
Scammers used AI-generated faces to pose as a Boston law firm
It’s easier than ever for scammers to prey on their victimsNicole Palmer is a lawyer who graduated from Columbia University. Her profile states that she “specializes in the application and protection of industrial design” and has “been building her career successfully for 30 years.”
The only problem is that she doesn’t exist. And she helped me uncover an online scam operation involved in shady activities, including extorting backlinks from bloggers and website owners.
I’ve spent a good part of the past week investigating Arthur Davidson, the so-called “law firm” Nicole works for. What I found was unsettling, a testament to how advances in technology have made it easy for scammers to set up legitimate-looking outfits to prey on their victims.
DMCA copyright infringement
On April 13, Nicole emailed me a ‘DMCA Copyright Infringement Notice,’ presenting herself as a ‘Trademark Attorney of Arthur Davidson Legal Services’ and claiming that an image I had used in TechTalks belonged to one of her clients.
‘Our client, is happy for their image to be used and shared across the internet. However, proper image credit is due for past or ongoing usage,’ she wrote.
I had seven days to add the image credit to the ‘offending page’ with a link to the homepage of her client’s website, she added. ‘Otherwise, we are required to take legal action.’
Millions of Windows laptops infected with ‘unremovable’ malware – are you affected?
WINDOWS users are being put on alert after security experts discovered malware on millions of laptops that is virtually impossible to remove. If you’re wondering whether your device is affected and how to stay safe then here’s what you need to know.
Security experts are warning that millions of Windows laptops are infected with malware that is effectively ‘unremovable’. Over 100 laptops made by technology firm Lenovo appear to be affected by a trio of critical vulnerabilities which allow hackers to secretly install malware that is virtually impossible to remove or even detect. The flaws allow hackers to modify a computer’s Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), which is the first piece of software that runs when a PC is turned on.
A UEFI is the link between a computer’s firmware and operating system, and is found on a PC’s motherboard itself, making UEFI infections difficult to detect and even harder to remove.
The study by ESET found the vulnerabilities on over 100 different consumer Lenovo laptop models including affordable devices like the Ideapad-3 to more advanced ones like Legion 5 Pro-16ACH6 H or Yoga Slim 9-14ITL05.
Lenovo was informed of ESET’s findings last October, with the Chinese tech giant pushing out an update this month that will keep affected users safe.
Read the rest at Express Online
Will free speech mean more hate speech on Elon Musk’s Twitter?
Musk, who struck a $44-billion deal to buy Twitter on Monday, is a libertarian and self-described “free speech absolutist” who has made it clear that he supports more unbridled expression on Twitter.
Once he gains control of Twitter, will the world’s richest person welcome back extremists banned for spreading hate, violence and lies in recent years?
“Only a matter of time before Elon flips the switch and we get our accounts back,” one QAnon influencer wrote on social media platform Telegram.
Experts aren’t so sure Musk is ready to turn back on the spigot full blast, but they are concerned that a platform already rife with disinformation and harassment could get even worse or just revert to an earlier version of Twitter, where oversight was minimal and harassment was commonplace.
Since being banned from Twitter, extremists have decamped to social media platforms like Gab and Telegram, where there is less content moderation but also fewer followers. Some appear giddy at the prospect of regaining access to a mainstream platform that gives them considerably more reach.
Microsoft Releases Optional Windows 11 Update with a Number of Fixes
April 2022 non-security preview update tagged as the “C” release is now available for Windows 11. This is an optional update in preview, which means you should probably wait until next month’s Patch Tuesday updates to get the fixes being delivered today to avoid any surprises. However, if some specific problem has been bugging you that has been addressed with this release, you can get the update via Windows Update or manually through the Update Catalog.
Preview updates are also available for the supported versions of Windows 10, including KB5011831 which is out for versions 20H2, 21H1, and 21H2 (Builds 19042.1682, 19043.1682, and 19044.1682, respectively).
Cookies: this AI-powered extension will (soon) overcome consent pop-ups
The GDPR, in Europe and the CCPA, in California, are there to protect the privacy of users online, and require websites to clearly state what uses of cookies they make. However, these pop-ups, which are everywhere, often turn online surfing into a hell of validation and revalidation. Worse, they are regularly designed so that Internet users give their consent out of spite or to finally be able to see the desired content. These methods are not called dark patterns for nothing… Moreover, the French Cnil imposed a fine of 150 million euros on Google and 60 million on Facebook, last January, because it was easier to accept all cookies than to refuse them.
CookieEnforcer: he’s the law!
In short, you are not the only ones to have noted these abuses. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Google engineers made the same observation and decided to find a solution. This project, called CookieEnforcer, has a simple objective: to automate the validation of the choices offered so that your privacy is respected. In addition to respecting the rights of Internet users, it is therefore also a good way to avoid the twelve clicks necessary, on average – according to the researchers, to overcome these windows of consent.
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope you found these articles useful, informative, interesting, and helpful. Darcy & TC
I have been using the “I don’t care about cookies” Extension in Firefox for a couple years now. Mainly because I don’t care about cookies. 😉 I very rarely, if ever, see any popups about cookies.
Not sure if that’s what CookieEnforcer is all about, but sounds like they’re a bit late….
This is totally different than the “I Don’t Care About Cookies” extension released in 2017 and which we discuss here. Cookie Enforcer uses AI to deal with “consent” popups. Cookie Enforcer has not been released yet. Read more here.
and has not been released yet.
Thanks for clarifying! 👍