Every day, we scan the tech world for interesting news, sometimes from outside the tech world. Every Thursday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Thursday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!<\/span><\/p>\n New Google Chrome Attacks Bypass More Than Just 2FA\u2014Millions At Risk<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n I recently reported how millions of Google Chrome users were being put at risk by dozens of fake browser extensions as part of an attack that replaced the genuine ones in order to bypass 2FA protections. If you thought that things couldn\u2019t get much worse, you\u2019d be wrong: new security and privacy analysis has revealed how hackers are manipulating Google\u2019s search protections to expose hundreds of millions more users to malicious and potentially dangerous extensions. Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/span><\/p>\n How Hackers Manipulate Google Search To Distribute Dodgy Chrome Extensions<\/span><\/p>\n Although the wave of attacks towards the end of 2024 that replaced genuine Google Chrome web browser extensions with malicious duplicates capable of bypassing account 2FA protections used phishing methodology to gain access to the developer accounts required to pull off the switch, phishing is not the only tactic that is being employed by dodgy extension threat actors…<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Read more at Forbes.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Experts warn millions of email servers could be vulnerable to attack<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Over 3 million IMAP and POP3 mail servers are without TLS encryption<\/span><\/p>\n New research from ShadowServer has revealed 3.3 million POP3 (Post Office Protocol) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) mail servers are currently exposed to network sniffing attacks, due to being without TLS encryption.<\/span><\/p>\n TLS, or Transport Layer Security, is a security protocol which provides end-to-end security between applications over the Internet. It is used for secure web browsing, and encrypts communications through email, file transfer, and messaging.<\/span><\/p>\n Time to retire<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Without TLS, passwords for mail access could be intercepted, and that exposed services could allow password guessing attacks on the server. Without the encryption, credentials and message content is sent in clear text, which exposes hosts to eavesdropping network sniffing attacks…<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Read More at TechRadar Pro.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Upgrading to Wi-Fi 7 is about to get more complicated \u2014 and these new routers are to blame<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Imagine buying a new device only to find out after the fact that it can\u2019t do what you expected it to. If something doesn\u2019t change soon, this could very well become a common occurrence with the best Wi-Fi 7 routers.<\/span><\/p>\n As we move from one wireless standard to the next, faster speeds are usually the biggest selling point and one of the main reasons people upgrade in the first place. Over the past few years, we\u2019ve seen a big jump in Wi-Fi speeds, and the reason for this is that with Wi-Fi 6E, you\u2019re able to use a brand new band in addition to the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands found on all of the best Wi-Fi routers.<\/span><\/p>\n With a Wi-Fi 6E-powered router, you also get access to the 6 GHz band, which has a theoretical top speed of 9.6 gigabits per second (Gbps). While the 5 GHz band also tops out at this same theoretical speed, one of the reasons the 6 GHz band feels a lot faster is due to the fact that it\u2019s less crowded since most of our other connected devices use the other two bands instead. Likewise, the 6 GHz Wi-Fi spectrum is also wider at 1,200 MHz and sports even larger data channels…<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Read more at Tom’s Guide<\/span><\/span><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Protect Yourself from Scams<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n What Are Social Security-Related Scams?<\/span><\/p>\n Criminals continue to impersonate SSA and other government agencies in an attempt to obtain personal information or money.<\/span><\/p>\n Scammers might call, email, text, write, or message you on social media claiming to be from the Social Security Administration or the Office of the Inspector General. They might use the name of a person who really works there and might send a picture or attachment as \u201cproof.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Social Security employees do contact the public by telephone for business purposes. Ordinarily, the agency calls people who have recently applied for a Social Security benefit, are already receiving payments and require an update to their record, or have requested a phone call from the agency. If there is a problem with a person’s Social Security number or record, Social Security will typically mail a letter.<\/span><\/p>\n Four Basic Signs of a Scam<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Recognizing the signs of a scam gives you the power to ignore criminals and report the scam.<\/span><\/p>\n Scams come in many varieties, but they all work the same way:<\/span><\/p>\n — Scammers pretend to be from an agency or organization you know to gain your trust.<\/span> Read more at SSA Gov<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Dell roasted at CES for adopting Apple-like device names<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Heads up: Pro Premium and Pro Max Premium are two different things.<\/span><\/p>\n Dell rebranded all of its PCs at CES 2025, and while it might ultimately be more simple to understand in the long run, everyone seemed to immediately notice some similarities to Apple’s approach.<\/span><\/p>\n Rather than going by nonsense names like “XPS” and “Inspiron,” every Dell machine will now be separated into three categories: Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max. This is, of course, very similar to Apple’s approach to naming its devices. Per Bloomberg (via 9to5mac), people in the audience at Dell’s CES press conference noted it verbally…<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Read more at Mashable.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Thanks for reading this week’s Thursday Newbytes. We hope these articles were informative, interesting, fun, and helpful. <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New Chrome Attacks – Millions at Risk; Millions of Email Servers Vulnerable to Attack; Upgrading to Wi-Fi 7 Will Get More Complicated… and more! Every day, we scan the tech world for interesting news, sometimes from outside the tech world. Every Thursday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4496,2247,1678,1680,1674,4522,2145],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29647"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29649,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29647\/revisions\/29649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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