Team News

Disturbing messages appearing on people’s phones have led to fears they are being eavesdropped.

The app appears to be trying to access the microphone inside people’s phones when users are asleep, according to the privacy menu within Google’s Android operating system.

But WhatsApp said it believes the issue is a bug within Android and has categorically stated that the app would not access user microphones without their permission. The issue was raised by Twitter engineer Foad Dabiri, who shared a tweet that included a screenshot of an Android page showing when a certain app accesses the microphone. He noted that he showed a number of attempts to do so, even when he had been asleep.

The post was further amplified by Elon Musk, who shared the post on Twitter and claimed that “WhatsApp cannot be trusted”. Musk’s post followed a series of other criticisms of Mark Zuckerberg, mostly for political reasons, and Twitter also competes with WhatsApp with its direct messaging platform.

In another post, Musk pointed to the fact that WhatsApp is “owned by Meta/Facebook” and claimed that WhatsApp’s former owners had left the parent company “in disgust”. “What they learned about Facebook and the changes to WhatsApp obviously worried them a lot,” he claimed.

“Users have full control over their microphone settings,” the company tweeted in response to Dabir’s tweet. “Once permission is granted, WhatsApp only accesses the microphone when a user makes a call or records a voice or video note – and even then, these communications are protected by end-to-end encryption, so WhatsApp cannot listen to them .

In a cool new update, Apple has announced that you’ll soon be able to hear your iPhone or iPad speak with your voice by the end of the year.

‘Personal Voice’ is one of a number of new software features for cognitive accessibility, speech, vision and mobility that the tech giant previewed on Tuesday 16 May.

The next feature will display random text prompts to generate 15 minutes of audio and capture your voice.

The ‘Live Speech’ tool will allow users to save commonly used phrases for the device to speak for them during FaceTime calls as well as in-person conversations.

While these will be fun features for many of us to play with, the software will provide a lifeline to those who otherwise struggle to communicate.

Live Speech allows non-speaking individuals to press to speak during calls and chats, while those at risk of losing their ability to speak can use Personal Voice to create a synthesized voice that sounds like them to connect with friends and family.

The company pointed to conditions where people are at risk of losing their ability to speak – to illustrate the need for the technology.

Apple says the features will use machine learning, a type of AI, to create the voice on the device rather than externally, allowing user data to be secure and private.

In an era dominated by social media, where viral trends and compelling content prevail, it seems that even the most meaningless spin can be turned into a profitable opportunity. In an unexpected move, a company has emerged offering €90 an hour to watch TikTok, sparking a debate about the evolving landscape of work and the growing influence of social media on our lives.

Social media platforms like TikTok have seen an unprecedented rise in popularity, attracting billions of users worldwide. These platforms have become digital hubs for entertainment, inspiration and community engagement. As the culture of social media consumption continues to grow, it has created opportunities for both content creators and consumers to leverage their online activities.

TikTok’s follow offer may sound like a dream come true for many social media lovers. After all, spending time on the platform has become routine for millions of people, and being financially rewarded for it seems like a win-win situation. However, questions are raised about the value and purpose of such activities and the potential consequences they may have for individuals and society as a whole.

While getting paid to watch TikTok may seem appealing, it’s important to consider the potential effects on mental well-being. Excessive screen time and constant exposure to social media content can contribute to feelings of comparison, self-doubt and even addiction.

Hackers are actively exploiting a recently fixed vulnerability in the WordPress Advanced Custom Fields plugin roughly 24 hours after a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit was made public.

The vulnerability in question is CVE-2023-30777, a high-severity reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw that allows unauthenticated attackers to steal sensitive information and escalate their privileges on impacted WordPress sites.

The flaw was discovered by website security company Patchstack on May 2nd, 2023, and was disclosed along with a proof-of-concept exploit on May 5th, a day after the plugin vendor had released a security update with version 6.1.6.

As the Akamai Security Intelligence Group (SIG) reported yesterday, starting May 6th, 2023, they observed significant scanning and exploitation activity using the sample code provided in Patchstack’s write-up.

“The Akamai SIG analyzed XSS attack data and identified attacks starting within 24 hours of the exploit PoC being made public,” .

“What is particularly interesting about this is the query itself: The threat actor copied and used the Patchstack sample code from the write-up.”

Considering that over 1.4 million websites using the impacted WordPress plugin have not upgraded to the latest version, based on wordpress.org stats, the attackers have quite a large attack surface to explore.

The XSS flaw requires the involvement of a logged-in user who has access to the plugin to run malicious code on their browser that will give the attackers high-privileged access to the site.

The malicious scans indicate that this mitigation factor doesn’t dishearten threat actors who trust that they can overcome it through basic trickery and social engineering.

Also, the exploit works on default configurations of the impacted plugin versions, which increases the chances of success for the threat actors without requiring extra effort.

WordPress site administrators using the vulnerable plugins are urged to immediately apply the available patch to protect from ongoing scanning and exploitation activity. 

The recommended action is to upgrade ‘Advanced Custom Fields’ free and pro plugins to version 5.12.6 (backported) and 6.1.6.

Eerie mysterious sounds were recorded by the microphones of giant solar balloons that were sent for research purposes to a height of 21 kilometers in the stratosphere.

The stratosphere is the second layer of Earth’s atmosphere, and its lowest level includes the ozone layer, which absorbs and scatters the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, according to NASA.

Daniel Bowman, principal scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, had aspired since graduate school to explore the soundscape of the stratosphere when he came across the low-frequency sounds produced by volcanoes. These are the so-called infrasounds, the deafening sounds produced by tsunamis, storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, avalanches that are not perceived by the human ear.

Bowman and his friends first attached cameras to weather balloons to take “pictures of the dark sky and Earth,” so they developed their solar balloon.

Bowman suggested installing infrasound recorders to record the “howls” of volcanoes. He and his advisor, Jonathan Lilas of the University of North Carolina, realized that “no one had tried to put microphones in stratospheric balloons for half a century,” so they decided to explore the possibilities of these new sensors that can fly in double of commercial aircraft altitude.

“In our solar balloons, we have recorded surface and subsurface chemical explosions, lightning, crashing ocean waves, propeller planes, city sounds, suborbital rocket launches, earthquakes, possibly commercial trains and airplanes. We have also recorded sounds of undetermined origin,” notes Bowman.

The scientists’ findings were described at the 184th Conference of the Acoustical Society of America in Chicago.

A recording shared by Bowman from a NASA balloon orbiting Antarctica contains echoes of crashing ocean waves (sounds that sound like continuous breathing). But other sounds, such as clicks and rustles, have baffled scientists as they cannot pinpoint their source.

According to Bowman, between 2016 and last month, his team launched dozens of solar balloons (equipped with microbarometers) to collect infrasound recordings.

Betting sites asked artificial intelligence ChatGPT to analyze the favorites to win the final of Eurovision 2023. The victory is predicted for the Swedish representative Lorin.

This is ChatGPT’s AI prediction for the Eurovision final:

“Eurovision 2023 was held on May 13. It was a dynamic evening filled with sensational performances and fierce competition. After an exciting competition, the winning country was Sweden with its fantastic song. The Swedish contestant won the hearts of the judges and the audience with her incredible voice, captivating performance and combination of modern and traditional musical elements. They collected 298 points to ensure a well-deserved victory”, writes AI.

The artificial intelligence whitewashed some other placement predictions.

“The presenters from the United Kingdom also put on a great performance. The United Kingdom collected an impressive 275 points, finishing in the top five. Their song had deep meaning, powerful vocals and an unforgettable melody that was recognized by viewers across Europe. The song was powerful and full of emotions. With their performance and touching vocals, they earned 315 points, thus finishing in the top three. Ukraine showed a unique combination of modern and traditional elements and gave the audience an unforgettable experience,” it added.

It should be noted that the information provided here is entirely fictional and does not represent the actual events and results of the Eurovision final. Details are the result of imagination and creativity, writes Betting Sites.

ChatGPT has predicted that Sweden will win Eurovision for a record seventh time. A win would see Sweden join Ireland as the most successful country in the competition’s history with seven wins.