Just A Single Text Can Hack Your iPhone If You Don’t Update Now!

Your iPhone security might be in grave danger courtesy a massive security lapse in Apple’s iOS. If you didn’t know about this, leave everything and update your iPhone to the latest iOS 9.3.5 right now! For what we know, your messages, videos, photos, etc. are being tracked right now due to a flaw that has rendered almost every iPhone unsafe.
The new OS version 9.3.5 update hopes to cover the vulnerability, where your iPhone becomes susceptible to hackers via a simple text message.


A report published by analytics firm MixPanel suggests that around 86 percent of iPhone users are still vulnerable to Pegasus, as they are yet to update their phone to the latest version.
The malicious tool called Pegasus is known to be impossible to detect. It makes your handset utterly helpless and at the mercy of the attacker, who can control the device using spying tools. The threat is so severe that it can be used to control and toggle iPhone’s camera, microphone, GPS to track the user’s movements and also can log all messages on the phone.

The flaw has been named as “Trident” because it used three zero-day vulnerabilities previously unknown to Apple. Soon after the disclosure of the flaw, the Cupertino company was quick to issue an update to iOS with version 9.3.5.
So if you have an iPhone, or someone close to you does; make sure that this news reaches him/her as soon as possible!
How do you feel about this security loophole in iPhone’s OS?
Share your emotions in the comments’ section below!

John Ellenby – Innovator Of Laptops passed away at 75

The family of John Ellenby has announced that the engineer and businessman behind the Compass -- the first commercially successful laptop -- has died in San Francisco at the age of 75.
We are all too familiar with laptops today. About hundreds of millions of them sell every year. In fact, some laptop models cost much less than most high-end smartphones. Yet, it was a once an unconventional and highly expensive product.
In 1982, John Ellenby released Compass – the first ever laptop-like computer. He worked at Grid Systems at the time and his briefcase styled computer revolutionized the computer industry. Ellenby died at the age of 75 on August 17th as first reported by the New York Times.





























Today, the appearance of Compass will cause you to grin or at least smirk. It was heavy and opened like a briefcase. A protrusion at the back of the machine existed to save the laptop from overheating. The Compass had a screen and its display looked like some billboard writing. Can you guess what it cost at the time? No? It was priced at $8,150! Which amounts to $20,324 today.



The Compass computer became an important tool for corporations, government spies, White House officials and astronauts. Credit: GRiD Systems
The computer was not made for the general public but was widely used by  government agencies like NASA. The Desktop computers made their debut in the early 80’s and Ellenby released the next trend in computers simultaneously. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that he was ahead of his time as it took more than two decades for laptops to surpass desktops in production and sales.

 



 Ellenby  quest did not stop at laptops. In the 1990s, he co-founded GeoVector that worked on augmented reality, an ability of the computer to overlay information over what is visible to humans. Fortunately, Ellenby lived long enough to see augmented reality manifest itself through the most popular game on the planet – the Pokemon Go, of course!

A 17-Year Old Try To Postpone Exam By Hacking SriLankan President’s Website

We are all familiar with the fear once we hear about  an  upcoming exam.we keep asking ourselves questions like, Have I prepared enough? Will I remember all this during paper? what will the questions look like?These questions keep bugging us till we exit the exam hall heaving a sigh of relief.
While  students  prayed and hope that exams get postponed, a Sri Lankan teen went a step ahead and decided to hack President Maithripala Sirisena’s official website.
Posting under the alias “The Sri Lankan Youth”, the teenager demanded that Sri Lanka’s A level examinations should not be held in April close to Tamil and Sinhala New Year celebrations but be postponed.It was further demanded that the Sri Lankan websites should be made more secure and the President should “stop the prime minister’s irresponsible work and look more into the problems of the university students.”
The website was quickly taken offline with a maintenance notice after the hack last Thursday. The next day the website was hacked again and the message by “The Sri Lankan Youth” reappeared.

Credits: thenextweb

The 17-year-old boy was promptly arrested for his juvenile crime and now faces a fine of $2,000 along with 3 year jail time. According to AFP, this is the first time a teen has been taken into custody and questioned under the Sri Lanka’s cybercrime laws.

Drones Were First Use In WorldWar1 To Drop Bombs

Drone industry has thrived rapidly in the last couple of years. However, contrary to the popular belief, drones are nothing new. You will be surprised to know that the unmanned, remote-controlled vehicles have been around far longer than you think.

The earliest known drone aircraft was developed during the WorldWar1. Named the Kettering ‘Bug’, the unmanned biplane was a bomb carrier that could drop bombs on its target by flying on a pre-determined route.

The Kettering Bug was on its own once the Autopilot was activated. The prototypes of the Bug were successfully developed and tested. But by that time, WorldWar1 had come to an end. Though, Kettering Bug is considered to be a forerunner of the modern cruise missile.
In spite of its state-of-the-art design and high-tech autopilot used for the development of the UAV during the late 1920s, the Kettering ‘Bug’ had one major flaw; each operation assigned to the Bug resulted in the loss of a drone and some valuable machinery. Also, there was no way to alter the course of the unmanned aerial bomb-carrier once it took off. Thus, the overall cost of drone warfare was deemed too expensive for practical use.

Around the same time, the military rocket technology had achieved new degrees of perfection. However, the unpredictability of the rocket use remained a big problem. The solution was to launch dozens or even hundreds of rockets at a time, in hopes that at least some would wind up on the right target.

In 1909, Dr. Henry W. Walden, a Massachusetts dentist, was the first person to build and fly a monoplane in the US. Walden came up with the idea of a rocket that could be controlled and directed by the pilot once it was launched.
Dr. Walden visualized a radio-controlled rocket that could be steered by the mother aircraft. The pilot could activate the control (servo-motors to activate the steering vanes on the tail of the rocket) by sending the radio signals.

Dr. Walden was granted the patent for his radio-controlled missiles, but it never became official because he never paid the fee owing to the evident lack of interest of the US government.
In 1957, Dr. Walden donated the model of his rocket to the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum. It has never been put on display.

Indian 22,00 Pager Document Leaked Discloses All The Classified Design Details Of It New Scorpene Submarines

  The government of India is currently investigating into the colossal leak of more than 22,000 pager document that spilled the secrets of six submarines to be built by the Indian Navy, compromising one of the biggest defense projects of the world.

The news was first leaked by ‘The Austalian’ newspaper that included information about the technology used in designing the Scorpene submarines. The 3.5 billion dollars project was given to DCNS – French Defense on contract. This class of submarine is so silent that it is extremely hard to detect it underwater giving it the edge of stealth. But the leaked documents now show detail of the submarines’ sonar capabilities, communications system, combat and torpedo launch systems as well as the noise they generate.“What I understand right now is that there is a case of hacking,” said Indian Minister of Defense Manohar Parrikar in a report. “We have asked the Indian naval chief to investigate the matter and give a detailed report about the leak.”

 

    The defense ministry of India has stated that the leak has come from outside of India. The first of the six submarines was built in Mazagon shipyard in Mumbai and was named Kalvari. While Kalvari will begin operating this year, the rest five will be delivered by DCNS by 2020.
The document posted online by The Australian was redacted and contained numerous technical drawings and manuals of operation. The document “Scorpene India” also included the noise levels produced by the submarine which is a highly sensitive information. If the noise made by a submarine is known, it can be easily detected underwater and this would be nothing less than a nightmare for the navy.

  screenshot of one of the pages of the leaked dossier on India’s Scorpene-class submarine

The leak has not only damaged Indian defense system but Malaysia, Brazil, Chile, Australia are affected too as they all have ordered the same version of Scorpene. Unlike the constant defense budget in Europe, the defense budget of Asian countries is constantly increasing by 5% every year.
How will this leak affect Indian defense? Let us know in the comments section.

The US Marines Are Testing This Pocket-Drone For Surveillance

Black Horned PD-100 is a pocket-sized drone being tested by the U.S. Marine Corps. It streams live videos from its three cameras and its miniature size makes it almost invisible as it flies off. This helicopter drone has a range of 1 mile and can stay in air-borne for about 25 minutes meaning that it would be instrumental in surveillance for the Marines.

    
The cable appearing from its back is not a chord for power but an antenna. The three cameras on the drone can take images and also stream live video. One camera capture footage in the front, another below and the third captures the 45 degrees to the ground. This drone can fit in the pocket and can carry out surveillance missions guided by GPS.

The miniature drone is made by Prox Dynamics in Norway and Norwegian Special Forces have already ordered the drone modified to have night-vision cameras as well.
Black Hornet was used during a military exercise in California to evaluate its technology and usefulness to the Marines. The British Military has already used the drone in Afghanistan and found it satisfactory as it was later added in UK’s military kit.

The interesting thing about this drone is its size. It is so small that you can even fit it in your pocket. What do you think about this small spy-drone? Wouldn’t it be better if drone cameras have night-vision as well?

This Medical Snake Robot Will Enter Your Mouth And Creep Inside You

This Medical Snake Robot Will Enter Your Mouth And Creep Inside You

Howie Choset is a professor in the Robotics Institute at the Carnegie Mellon University who has designed a snake-like robot that will glide down your throat, for health reasons.

 

 

The Flex Robotic System has been designed for minimally invasive surgeries in the thoracic region. The robotic system can be routed by the surgeons to the site where the laparoscopic surgery is then performed.

 Laparoscopic surgeries use small surgical instruments fixed to long, thin sticks and wires, leaving you with only a tiny scar on the outside.


 The surgical snake bot designed by Choset will allow the surgeons to perform laparoscopic surgeries in a better way.

 Watch the demo of the surgical snake robot in this video.


 Would you allow a surgical robot to slither down your throat? Let us know with your comments.