Dropbox hack includes 70 million stolen passwords: How to find out if you were affected
Dropbox has announced that it was hacked in 2012 and that the personal data of nearly 70 millions users was stolen.
The breach includes the passwords and email addresses of 68.7 million account holders. Dropbox confirmed the credentials were stolen years ago when hackers used stolen employee login details to access a document that contained the email address and passwords of users. There is no indication that Dropbox user accounts have been improperly accessed, according to the cloud storage service’s head of trust and security.
Still, in response, Dropbox is asking users who may have been affected by the hack to reset their passwords. If you signed up to Dropbox before mid 2012 and have not changed your password since then, you should do so now. Here’s everything you need to know.
Were you affected by the breach?
It’s hard to tell. The quickest way to determine if you were affected is to sign into Dropbox and see if the service prompts you to update your credentials. Dropbox said it had “hashed” and “salted” the stolen details, meaning they were scrambled and had a random string added so hackers would need a cryptographic key to decipher them. It’s also updated how it stores passwords.
However, Dropbox recommended on Wednesday that all users reset their passwords, because if their stolen password is somehow cracked, a password reset would still prevent any hacker from accessing their Dropbox accounts. But that doesn’t mean the cracked password can’t be used to access other online accounts with the same login details. You should therefore reset any account that uses your Dropbox password.
How do you reset your Dropbox password?
It’s simple. This Dropbox support page explains how to reset your password. You have to sign into your account from the web, click your name at the top of the screen, then click Settings, and click the Security tab. From there, click Forgot password, and then enter the email address you used to create the account. From there, check your email inbox, and click the link in the email you received to reset your password.
Should you use two-step verification?
Yes. After changing your passwords, turn on two-step verification for any online account that offers the security measure. This Dropbox support page explains how to sign up for two-step verification. You basically have to sign into your account from the web, click your name in the upper-right, then click Settings, and click enable under the Two-step verification. From there, click Get Started and follow the on-screen instructions.
Two-factor authentication adds a second step to your basic log-in process (that’s when you enter your username and password). The password is your single factor of authentication, and adding a second factor simply makes your account a bit more secure or harder to hack.
So, with a second factor, you must have two types of credentials. The second credential can be your fingerprint, phone, or a variety of other things. If it’s a phone, you will get code sent to your phone via SMS, and then you’ll need enter that code with your login credential when logging in.
Is there anything else you should know?
The breach also includes usernames – not just passwords. Hackers could use this data in spam and phishing attacks, so you should pay attention to any suspicious emails (emails with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, for instance). Don’t click on any links, call any phone numbers, respond, or provide the sender with any sensitive information in these emails. And always type in Dropbox’s site manually into your browser.
If you click a link, you may be directed to a fake version of the site, where you’ll ultimately enter your login credentials, and then your password – which now doesn’t need to be cracked – can easily be stolen. You should also never use the same password more than once, and passwords should contain both letters and numbers to make it harder for hackers to crack your passwords.
MIT gives pesticides an electric charge to improve stickiness
There are plenty of problems with pesticides — making bees dumb, anyone? — but the biggest is probably how much is wasted while it’s being sprayed onto crops. Because of how certain leaves naturally repel water, it means that hardly any anti-bug treatments actually, you know, stick to them. In fact, only two percent of the spray stays in place, according to MIT News. So, to change that, a team of researchers have devised a way to increase the amount of liquid a leaf’s surface retains.
It involves dividing a given spray into two portions and adding a different polymer to each. One polymer gives one half of the spray a positive electric charge, while another gives the opposite half a negative electric charge. When they meet on the surface of a leaf, they form what MIT calls a “water attracting defect” that causes the spray to collect and stick to the plant.
The resulting bump in efficiency could be massive. Researchers say this method could reduce overall pesticide use by 90 percent. Benefits of that include lower pesticide costs (naturally), a decrease in ground-water pollution and the amount of chemicals farmers are exposed to during application. What’s more, MIT says that the polymers are “extracted from low-cost materials that could be produced locally.”
Apparently, this wouldn’t require much in terms of investment for farmers, nor would it change their workflow. From here, the team will carry out tests on small farms in India over the next year to see how the experiment works outside of the lab. MIT News says that the same approach could be used to prevent frost damage to citrus crops in Florida as well.
Source: MIT News
NVIDIA’s ‘Vault 1080’ is a gloomy ‘Fallout 4’ mod
NVIDIA and LightSpeed Studio have teamed up to create Vault 1080, a special add-on level mod for Fallout 4.
The mod, which is free to download and play, will add on a side quest that offers an extra hour of gameplay within the confines of Vault 1080, sending players through an area described as a “foggy, murky marsh” to the ruins of an old church where previously the congregation embraced “darkness and sickness” to survive.
There’s no telling what kind of twisted goings-on happened within, but it’s up to you to uncover it in this horror-based mod that took over 6 months to develop. It’ll require the same system requirements as Fallout 4 and utilizes the same NVIDIA GameWorks tech like volumetric lighting and FleX-powered weapon debris. Sounds perfect for the gloomy Vault 1080, doesn’t it?
If you’re interested in trying it out, you can grab the mod via Bethesda or read about it further at the official NVIDIA blog.
Source: NVIDIA
Live from Samsung’s IFA 2016 press conference!
Samsung’s already announced the Note 7, so there’s clearly nothing else for the company to reveal, right? Nope, since the Korean conglomerate is here at IFA with a glitzy pre-show press conference that’s got something to do with time. Given that it was around this period last year that the firm unveiled the Gear S2, it’s reasonable to assume a follow-up is coming. If you’re curious for what’s ahead, join us here live at 12:00pm ET and we’ll take you by the hand and lead you through the quagmire.
Samsung’s Gear S3 watches are more elegant (and rugged) than ever
Samsung’s Gear S2 was far from perfect, but it was still a big step forward for the company’s smartwatch ambitions. At last: a Tizen-powered wearable with a decent selection of apps and a control scheme focused on a rotating bezel that bordered on brilliant. Samsung couldn’t just let that progress go untouched, so it just pulled back the curtain on two new neat-looking wearables: the Gear S3 Classic and the Gear S3 Frontier.
As you might have guessed by their names, the Classic and the Frontier are two nearly identical watches separated mostly by their styles. The former sports a clean, unmarked rotating bezel — there’s just a little texture around the bezel’s edge to help you hang on while you’re spinning it. Beyond that, it’s all clean, elegant lines swirling around a 316L stainless steel body. The Frontier, meanwhile, has hour and minute marks etched into its bezel, and its Back and Home buttons are nicely knurled for both utility and look. It’s definitely the more masculine of the two, the sort of smartwatch you could imagine on the wrist of a technologically obsessed lumberjack.
You’d think the Frontier would be dramatically more resilient, but it’s not really. Both versions of the S3 are IP68 rated for water resistance and their 1.3-inch screens are covered with panes of super scratch resistant Gorilla Glass SR+. The list of similarities just go on from there: they share the same dual-core Exynos chipsets, 786MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, standalone GPS radios and 380mAh batteries. Speaking of batteries, Samsung claims both S3 versions should last between three and four days on a single charge, but we’ll see about that.
Not every similarity will be celebrated, though. Here’s the rub: both S3s have bodies that are 46mm wide (like the big 2015 Moto 360), meaning they’ll just be too big for some people’s wrists. In fairness, neither was heavy enough to strain my wimpy arms and neither felt too big either, but that won’t fly for everyone. Motorola got around this by offering a smaller version of the Moto 360 — not to mention one specifically for women. Not so with Samsung. You’ll be able to attach a standard 22mm band to the Frontier or Classic but there aren’t any (publicly acknowledged) plans to make a smaller S3. As a result, Samsung won’t discontinue the existing S2 and S2 Classic. In fact, it plans to issue a software update that will bring them up to date in terms of features shortly.
Design aside, there’s only one area where the Classic and Frontier differ: connectivity. The Frontier has a built-in LTE radio to accompany its Bluetooth and WiFi transmitters; the Classic only has Bluetooth and WiFi. The move makes sense and all — a mobile SOS sent from a Frontier watch in the wilderness could save lives — but it’s a little odd to see the Classic model get skipped like this. The Frontier also has a microphone and speaker to make HD voice calls over whatever LTE network they’re connected to. Lumberjacks get all the cool stuff.
This time around, Samsung paid more attention to building stronger software partnerships. Team-ups with Spotify (for streaming over LTE or WiFi), Nest (to control thermostats via the watch), Western Union (for payments) and BMW (for… well, it’s a secret) could be game-changers for some, and at least the first two examples worked pretty well. The biggest addition, though, has to be Samsung Pay. Once it’s all set up, the Classic and the Frontier can use that MST tech Samsung acquired to pay for coffees and corned beef sandwiches just about anywhere.
Meanwhile, the S3s have picked up a few tricks from the Gear Fit 2 like automatically tracking workouts, and Samsung has tuned the watches to use that sweet, sweet rotating bezel more intelligently. Turning it can now pick up a phone call or silence an alarm, for example — you had to paw at the S2’s screen if you wanted to do the same.
The Classic and the Frontier won’t launch until later this year, so there’s plenty that could change between now and then. Still, the two Gear S3s come off as handsome timepieces that fix some of the issues that made their predecessor feel a little lacking. Who knows? This might be the year Samsung make a must-have smartwatch (or two). I’m still pretty skeptical, but with any luck, these things could exceed expectations just like the S2 did.
We’re live all week from Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
Google’s OnHub routers can now control Phillips Hue lighting
It’s been just about a year since Google launched OnHub, a series of routers designed to make setting up and dealing with WiFi a lot easier. Our experience with OnHub found that it did exactly that, and Google has added a handful of features over the last year to make its routers even more unique. Today, Google’s announcing its latest OnHub integration: support for the Phillips Hue series of smart LED lighting.
Google says its the first connected home device that connects with OnHub, and it works as follows: once you have your Hue lights connected to your OnHub’s WiFi network and go through a basic setup process, any other device that’s connected to the OnHub can control the lights without needing to use the Hue app. You just type “on.here” into any web browser and you’ll see the option to tweak out the Hue lights to your heart’s content. On.here already worked as a portal to see what devices were connected to your OnHub’s guest network; this is just the latest feature.
The one downside to the OnHub routers is that they aren’t cheap, but Google’s giving potential buyers some cash back right now — from now until September 30th, you can get $20 off either the TP-Link or Asus OnHub. The deal is available on both Google’s own store as well as Amazon. Given Google’s commitment to its routers over the last year, there’s a good chance they’ll continue to gain features in the coming months. They might not always be game-changers, but there’s a good chance they’ll be things other router manufacturers aren’t doing.
Source: Google
Airbnb rentals can play havoc with your mortgage
Renting out your home on a service like Airbnb is supposed to be good for your bottom line, but it’s now clear that it can create some headaches if you’re a homeowner. The Wall Street Journal is warning that banks may turn down your attempt to refinance your mortgage if they learn that you’ve rented your home on Airbnb. Simply speaking, banks tend to see homes as either personal residences or investments and don’t like the risk associated with the latter. While some banks may allow a gray area between the two, others won’t be so kind — Bank of America, for example, won’t give you a home equity line of credit if there’s a “material amount” of commerce in your home.
Airbnb tells the newspaper that rejections are “incredibly rare,” although it doesn’t have statistics. It’s believable, though. Only some hosts rent their homes frequently enough that it could make up a large chunk of their income, and a mere fraction of those people would both want to refinance their mortgages and run into trouble doing it. Still, this is a useful heads-up: you may have to either live with your existing mortgage terms or deal with the higher interest rates that come with treating your home as an investment.
Via: Consumerist
Source: Wall Street Journal
Monster’s lawsuit against Beats gets thrown out
Many would tell you that Monster’s lawsuit against Beats and HTC faced long odds from the get-go… and sure enough, it’s falling flat. A Los Angeles court has summarily dismissed the case, which accused Beats of making sketchy deals in order to both end its alliance with Monster (in the wake of HTC’s investment in Beats) and stiff Monster founder Noel Lee on share value ahead of Apple’s Beats acquisition. The judge doesn’t beat around the bush in explaining why. He says that the agreement between Monster and Beats explicitly allowed Beats to sever ties without requiring Monster’s permission or ideal conditions.
The court is rubbing salt in the wound, too. The previously scheduled trial will still go ahead in early September, but it’s now limited to Beats’ bid to recoup legal costs. In a sense, Monster’s sue-happy nature is coming back to haunt the company. It’s learning the hard way that it has to live with the consequences of its business decisions, no matter how unfortunate they may be.
Via: Business Insider
Source: Associated Press
CBS All Access commercial-free option costs $4 more a month
CBS announced that its All Access streaming service was making the leap to Xbox One last week and now the network has another subscription option. If you like to watch the likes of Madam Secretary, Blue Bloods and more without the interruptions of commercials, you can pay more to get rid of them. CBS now offers a $10 monthly subscription that will allow you to stream all of that on-demand content commercial-free. That’s $4 a month more than the regular option that has been available since late 2014.
While paying monthly for a single over-the-air network’s shows may not be too enticing, there are a couple of originals that may get you to bite. The upcoming Star Trek: Discovery series will only be available on All Access alongside an unnamed The Good Wife spinoff. However, both of those shows won’t debut until next year. In addition to Xbox One, the CBS streaming service is available through Android, iOS and Windows apps or in your living room via Roku, Apple TV, Xbox 360, Chromecast, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and the Fire TV Stick.
Source: CBS All Access
ASUS’ ZenWatch 3 brings fast charging to your wrist
If there was ever any doubt about Asus’ commitment to Android Wear, squash it now. Earlier today the company peeled the shrink wrap off its third ZenWatch (that’s the ZenWatch 3, if you weren’t sure), and it’s the maturest timepiece from the company yet. The first thing you’ll notice is that ASUS has dropped the squircle design that the first two watches have, opting for the ever-popular round display. It’s not just about cosmetic appeal (though there is plenty of that going on). The ZenWatch 3 has solid fitness credentials — claiming some of the highest accuracy on the market — and there are some important power saving features which aim to solve one of the biggest anxieties faced by smartwatch owners — battery drain.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but ASUS thinks customizing your smartwatch is the key to your heart. To wriggle its way into your affection/wardrobe, the ZenWatch 3 will be available in three familiar colors: rose gold, gunmetal and silver. So, it’s fair to say the company is hoping to mop up a few iPhone users, along with the Android faithful.
Whichever color you go for, it’ll come with a rose gold bezel which, in marketing speak, is inspired by the annular solar eclipse. I’m not sure that’s what I first thought of, but it looks pretty enough. All three hues look nice enough, and the round display is definitely going to win favor with those less fond of the original blocky design of previous ASUS smartwatches. That display has a 400 by 400 resolution, about 287ppi if you’re keeping count, and at first glance, it’s going to be nice, bright and vivid. You’ll also get a choice of leather or rubber straps. I tried the rubber one on, and it didn’t feel all that great, but durable and no sign of itchiness. The rubber will be the better choice for sporty types no doubt.
That’s a pertinent point, too, as ASUS made the bold claim that the ZenWatch 3 has “market leading” fitness tracking abilities, including sport-specific activities. So, if running’s not your thing, but you bang out 100 situps every morning, the ZenWatch 3 will log that for you (if you’re not bragging about it already). We’ll have to wait and see how well that actually works when we review it. Which should give us a little time to dust off the ab cruncher.
While I can tell you how smart it looked (fairly smart), and how comfortable it was (go for the leather strap), we weren’t able to try out the app that lets you customize the watch faces, or take it for a run, or jump in the shower (it’s waterproof) or give it a good old battery run down test. But, it what ASUS claims is true, that last point should be worth waiting for.
The ZenWatch 3 sports the latest Snapdragon 2100 Wear processor, which promises a 25 percent efficiency boost. There’s fast charging, ASUS’s calling it “HyperCharge” and it’s no joke. The claim is that 15 minutes of charge will give you 60 percent battery… or about enough for a whole day. Not bad. If that’s true, then you won’t need to rely on overnight charges. If you do, the magnetic cable will make that less painful, and there’s even a (slightly goofy) battery pack accessory that will give you an on-the-go 40 percent top up. We’re not sure how practical that is, but full marks for effort.
Over all, the ZenWatch 3 seems to be a worthy successor to the previous, generally well received Android Wear watch family from ASUS. If this has piqued your interest, you’ll be able to pick one up for 229 euros (expect a similar dollar price, or £200) when it becomes available this fall.
