TechWire

Author - Viduni Wickramarachchi

Chrome Vulnerability

The most recent update of Chrome which was Chrome 68 made all non-HTTPS websites non-secure. Website owners, Google is requesting you to go secure and convert to HTTPS to secure both worlds; yours and the users’.

However, the update was not only for this particular purpose. It was identified that the version of Chrome before the update had a serious bug. As a reason, the recent update was more important and necessary to fix this bug.

The major Chrome vulnerability

The vulnerability which is focused in here is identified as CVE-2018-6177. This was discovered by the security researcher, Ron Masas. Due to this, the web browser allows users to track information on other sites such as Facebook and Google. Revealing all this information to the user is a major breach of security following the Facebook breach of security of releasing user data to third-party applications.

This bug takes advantage of a weakness in audio/video HTML tags and affects all web browsers powered by “Blink Engine,” including Google Chrome.

How is this done?

In brief, this particular vulnerability makes use of Facebook advertisement data. When a page admin creates an advertisement, they are allowed to target different audiences based on demographics. This is known as audience restrictions. For example, an audience restriction may take the following form.

Male, Age 26, Interested in Computer Science, Lives in Colombo 5.

chrome vulnerability facebook

However, according to the norm and thanks to CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing), the browser should not be able to read data sent from other sites such as Facebook.

However, Ron Masas has discovered that since audio and video HTML tags don’t validate the content type of fetched resources or reject responses with invalid MIME types, an attacker can use multiple hidden video or audio tags on a website to request Facebook posts.

Therefore, even if it may not be possible to fetch Facebook advertisements directly, an attacker is able to fetch all the data of an individual a particular ad is targeted to. Imperva researcher reported the vulnerability to Google with a proof of concept exploit, and the Chrome team patched the issue in Chrome 68 release.

Warning message to all Chrome Users!! Update your browser to the latest version if you haven’t already.

Apple hits $1 trillion USD

apple $1 trillion

This news went to town, not more than a week ago. Apple has made a record of reaching a $1 trillion market capitalization. It is the first company to reach this amount of market capitalization, the question is, will they be the only one to reach this amount within a period in the vicinity?

What is this market cap everyone is talking about?

The market cap is a company’s total market value. Basically, this is a fancy name for the market value of the company’s outstanding shares. This figure is found by taking the stock price and multiplying it by the total number of shares outstanding. This value is significant in making decisions about growth versus risk potential.

 

Apple hits $1 trillion

 

This milestone was crossed by this company as its shares hit $207.05 per share. The most relied services of Apple – Apple music, iCloud and the App store and also the word being out about the release of the new iPhone in the upcoming months, have boosted the investor confidence. It’s rumored that Apple is supposed to release 3 new versions of the iPhone, which may have resulted in the boost of the share price and investor confidence.

apple $1 trillion

However, it should be noted that it is the first U.S company to hit the $1 trillion market capitalization. PetroChina which is backed by the Chinese government hit the $1 trillion market capitalization back in 2017.

“I think it just speaks to just how powerful the Apple ecosystem has become over the last few decades,” GBH Insights analyst Dan Ives told CNBC after the historic market move. “This is not the end, that they hit $1 trillion. I view this as just kind of speaking to a new stage of growth and profitability.”

 

The race to $1 trillion

 

Many tech giants are caught in the race to $1 trillion market capitalization. However, there’s one major reason that Apple is ahead of all of them. And what is that? If we have a look at statistics graphed out in the last year, visualizing representing this race to $1, we could see the growth of different companies in this race.

apple $1 trillion

Apple won this race to $1 trillion because of the fact that it was the only tech giant who conquered China. Even though Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet dominated in the market of the United States, they weren’t able to operate successfully in China. Hence, they were held behind in this race resulting in Apple being the first U.S company to reach this market cap.

apple $1 trillion

However, Amazon is not very far behind. We could expect Amazon to reach this particular market cap in the near future too. Therefore, in this race where winning isn’t everything, even though Apple reached this market cap first, I doubt it will be the last.

It’s time to make a change

Most of you might have clicked on this link to find out the change I’m talking about. Maybe out of curiosity or maybe because you yourself knows that some things need to change. My focus through this article is on renewable energy, mainly solar power.

The change we need

Well, the change I’m going to unfold is about altering our lifestyles. The way we live, the way we think. Let me get to the point.

We, Sri Lankans, are still not used to sustainable lifestyles. We still use a large amount of polythene. We still don’t dispose waste in environment-friendly ways. Last year, after the tragic incident in Meethotamulla (the “Preventable” tragedy), the talk of the town was the following news.

Central Environment Authority (CEA) has banned the use of polythene lunch sheets, rigifoam boxes, and shopping bags, with effect from 1st of September 2017. In a bid to make Sri Lanka polythene-free and find a sustainable solution to solid waste management….”

meethotamulla tragedy

Yes, we did stop using polythene. BUT, only for a while. None of us got rid of polythene completely. In my opinion, the people would only be alert once again when another disaster takes place. It’s certainly is a tragedy.

Being sustainable is not going to be a choice in the future, it will be a necessity. But do we know how to be environment-friendly? Do we know enough about sustainable solutions?

Hence, I thought of bringing to light some important news considering one aspect of sustainable solutions, Solar Power.

A recent article I read pointed out 10 benefits of going solar. I’ll point out 3 in here.

  1. Drastically reduce or even eliminate your electric bills

  2. Protect the environment

  3. Demonstrate your commitment to sustainability – Stay Competitive

People will choose this sustainable lifestyle sooner or later for a number of different reasons. While some will choose it out of love for the environment, the others would choose it for personal benefits. One way or the other, the final impact would be a positive one. Hence, the impact of being sustainable overrules the real reason for a person to choose to become sustainable.

greener world

Having said that, I deviate my focus to introduce a company who is moving fast, real fast towards sustainability with rigorous attempts to make everyone adopt this lifestyle.

By name, this company is SUNPORT.

sunport logo

What do they do — They provide an easy and affordable way for anyone to begin living a solar lifestyle. Just plug in! No panels, no contracts, no roof needed. The world’s first solar delivery service.

Sunport which follows the vision of 100% Solar was founded by Paul Droege. With a small team, they started small but thought big! They believed that if people are shown a simple way to make a difference, people will act on it. And they sure did.

For solar to truly thrive, everyone needs to use it. However, many people either do not own their roofs or still cannot afford to purchase systems. Things like zero-down solar PPAs are helping that, but today most people are simply locked out of participating in solar energy,” says Paul Droege inventor of the SunPort.

SunPort solar device

So, what is Sunport all about?

The SunPort smart device plugs into the wall between the electricity grid and your powered devices, serving as a portal to the solar energy on the grid. It instantly provides 100% solar for anything it is used with. It tracks the energy you utilize through the device to power your devices and matches that up with real solar production out there in the world. It does this by leveraging the same solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs) market that large corporations use to reduce their carbon footprints.

Sunport connects with its users through the mobile app, helping them to track the power consumption as well as the accumulated solar usage.

Do I need to use solar power? Well, tell me why you should not!

Using Sunport has many many advantages apart from moving towards a greener world as a community.

  1. Use solar power without owning a solar panel — It’s like cloud computing for solar.
  2. The upfront cost of installing solar panels is eliminated
  3. You can use solar where you want, when you want, how you want.

How would it feel like to be powered by solar energy with all your devices? With Sunport, your laptop can instantly be charged using solar power. It definitely seems very promising.

laptop solar charge

Unfortunately, Sunport has not reached Sri Lanka yet. However, they have plans of ramping up other markets outside the United States in the near future.

Let’s hope that we would get the chance to utilize solar power instantly wherever we want in the near future and drive our country towards a sustainable lifestyle.

If you are interested in getting to know more about Sunport and stay tuned for their news and timeline, you should refer their blog: https://sunport.co/category/blog/

 

Cheers for a greener world! Let’s make the change happen together!

 

Can we live on Mars?

Before we talk about life on Mars, I would like to direct a simple question at you! What is the planet shown in the image below? Is it the Earth or is it Mars? Looks a lot like the Earth to me.

wet-mars-east-hemisphere life on mars

The answer is No! This is not the Earth. This is how Mars looked like a billion years ago. Mars had a vast amount of water on its surface and a nice atmosphere surrounding it. Does this mean we can live there?

Unfortunately, we cannot live on Mars now. Though this planet was covered in water and an atmosphere similar to the Earth, it is not the same anymore. Over the years, Mars has turned into a dry, cold, almost brutal planet where no human could possibly live. Therefore, life on Mars holds to be a theory in books up to date.

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New Apple Watch can help to avoid Diabetes!

How many of you cannot get through a day without a little bit of sweetness?

I presume ALL of you needs at least a tiny percentage of sugar flowing through your blood to get through a day of hard work, maybe at your job, maybe with your studies. Irrespective of age and gender, we all love sweets. Sweetness adds some perfection to the day, no doubt. But what is dangerous about it is, we do not know when we will be diagnosed with diabetes with the amount of glucose we consume.

Around four years back, young children and youth did not have the fear of being diagnosed with diabetes. But, as of now, diabetes has the tendency to affect everyone beyond the barriers of age. Yes, it DOES sound frightening.

Are you a victim of Diabetes? Have you ever monitored how much sugar you consume per day? If not,

It’s time NOW!

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Here’s everything Apple is rumoured to be launching in 2017

apples-golden-era-whats-new-at-apple-and-how-theyre-revolutionizing-the-tech-world-1-638

The California tech giant, Apple is regarded as the phenomenal technological breakthrough of the 21st century. It has become the dream of some people to own an Apple product. And setting high standards for what users expect, Apple has revealed many upgrades and new products annually. These innovations have been mind-blowing in the past and definitely will be promising in the future.

What does Apple have in store for you in 2017?

We are already 5 months into 2017 and there are many new upgrades yet to arrive. The new releases are secrets which have been mysteriously safeguarded by Apple. However, rumors have been spread. Here’s a glimpse about all the upcoming fascinations by Apple.

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Recover the files locked with WannaCry ransomware for free!

WannaCry ransomware attack was the hottest topic in the past couple of weeks among everyone. It damaged computers which used the Windows Operating System to a level where it left users helpless. Previous articles by us gave you in-depth information regarding this topic on numerous occasions.

The damage is done! There is no option left but to find a mechanism to jump out of the damage which WannaCry caused. With this intention in mind, two researchers have successfully managed to develop a decryption tool to unlock the locked files without paying a single penny to the cyber attackers. Namely, these two tools are WannaKey and WannaKiwi.

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