Security, Spoken

If, like most people, you thought Google stopped tracking your location once you turned off Location History in your account settings, you were wrong. According to an AP investigation published Monday, even if you disable Location History, the search giant still tracks you every time you open Google Maps, get certain automatic weather updates, or search for things in your browser. There's a way to stop it—but it takes some digging.

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One way operating system developers try to protect a computers's secrets from probing hackers is with an appeal to the human at the keyboard. By giving the user a choice to “allow” or “deny” a program’s access to sensitive data or features, the operating system can create a checkpoint that halts malware while letting innocent applications through.

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It's tempting to think of fax machines as a relic, every bit as relevant as an eight-track tape. But fields like health care and government still rely on faxes every day. Even your all-in-one printer probably has a fax component. And new research shows that vulnerabilities in that very old tech could expose entire corporate networks to attack.

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An Android app has two choices for where to put its data on a device: internal storage, where it’s safe and snug, isolated by the operating system’s sandbox, and external storage, where data can move between apps but isn't as protected. Most of the time, that setup works just fine. But when developers use the latter incorrectly, they could give hackers a crucial foothold.

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It’s Black Hat and DefCon conference time again, when the world’s top security researchers descend on the den of iniquity that is Las Vegas in August and try to scare the bejeezus out of people with new research into ominous hacks. Hooray! WIRED’s been there for a few days already. Lily Hay Newman discovered that several mobile credit card readers are rife with bugs, potentially leaving you exposed.

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Security meltdowns on your smartphone are often self-inflicted: You clicked the wrong link, or installed the wrong app. But for millions of Android devices, the vulnerabilities have been baked in ahead of time, deep in the firmware, just waiting to be exploited. Who put them there? Some combination of the manufacturer that made it, and the carrier that sold it to you.

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The tiny, portable credit card readers you use to pay at farmer's markets, bake sales, and smoothie shops are convenient for consumers and merchants alike. But while more and more transactions are passing through them, devices from four of the leading companies in the space—Square, SumUp, iZettle, and PayPal—turn out to have a variety of concerning security flaws.

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Apple's supply chain is one of the most closely monitored and analyzed in the world, both because of the control the company exerts and keen interest from third parties. But there's still never a guarantee that a mass-produced product will come out of the box totally pristine. In fact, it's possible to remotely compromise a brand new Mac the first time it connects to Wi-Fi.

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At this point, it seems like every so-called consumer smart device—from routers and baby monitors to connected thermostats and garage door openers—has been shown to have vulnerabilities. But that same security crisis has also played out on a macro scale, exposing municipal works and public safety sensors to manipulation that could destabilize traffic lights, undermine radiation sensors, or even create a calamity like causing a dam to overflow because of tainted water level data.

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It’s never been easier to trade stocks; just a few taps or clicks will do the trick. But most of the platforms that millions of market participants rely on to move their money suffer from cybersecurity shortcomings, new research warns. As if stocks weren’t risky enough already. A new report from Alejandro Hernández, a security consultant at IOActive, found that nearly all of the 40 major online trading platforms he investigated had at least some form of vulnerability.

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