Techshots' Weekly Cybersecurity Newsletter

Hello readers,

Phew! What a week it has been. A new iPhone is here, India is at loggerheads with Canada and the women's quota bill has been passed in the Parliament. Like every week, before we deep dive into cybersecurity, it's imperative to give you a rundown of all the major events that impact us. Let's get started.

India and Canada are new foes

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has accused the Indian government of having a hand in the killing of a designated Khalistani terrorist, Hardeep Nijjar. India has denied the allegations and asked Canada to take action against Khalistan sympathisers flourishing on its soil. But why did Canada level such accusations? Reportedly, the US provided Canada with intelligence leading it to believe India was involved. Due to this development, India has suspended visa services for Canadians.

A new iPhone is here

Apple launched the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus last week. So what sets it apart from the previous series? Apple has included its A16 Bionic processor in its latest phone, which gives the user a faster everyday performance, better graphics performance while gaming and improved efficiency. The battery life is also expected to be better. With much pomp and show, Apple also presented the USB-C port as a new feature in the iPhone 15 series. But the USB-C port isn't that new after all.

Last week, India's MPs passed the women's reservation bill, which seeks to give 33% reservation to women in Lok Sabha and Assemblies. However, this Bill will only be enforced after delimitation is done, which could take years. So while history has been made, it has been kept waiting.

Moving to cybersecurity now.

iOS17 has new security features

In iOS17 the Lockdown mode has been expanded to Apple Watch, alongside iPhones, iPads, and Macs. This mode disables specific iPhone and Apple Watch features that have been exploited by spyware creators, like iMessage and HomeKit. Moreover, it automatically omits geolocation data from shared photos, reinforcing user privacy. Elevating privacy further, iOS17 removes tracking information from web addresses. It prevents unique device identification and tracking across websites. This is meant to obstruct websites and advertisers from tracking users' online activities.

Cyberattack affected the personal details of UK police officers

A firm in the UK, which makes ID cards for Greater Manchester Police (GMP), was targeted in a ransomware attack last month. It was anticipated that more than 20,000 details - including police officers' names and photos - were "potentially at risk" after a data breach. "It doesn't have financial details or specific details, but obviously, it does pertain to some officers' names and in some cases photo identification," an officer said.

GitHub launched its passkey support into general availability

Two months after launching it for the beta version, GitHub formally launched its passkeys security feature into general availability. In May last year, Google, Apple, GitHub’s parent Microsoft and the FIDO Alliance teamed up to make passwordless logins a reality across devices, browsers and operating systems. The idea was to stop users from re-enrolling themselves meaning that users won’t have to re-enroll multiple times.

One of the FBI's most wanted hackers is back in the news

Russian hacker Mikhail Matveev, whom the US accused of carrying out attacks affecting companies that are critical to the US infrastructure, took a dig at the FBI by making a T-shirt with his own most wanted poster. There's more. He asked his Twitter followers if they wanted the merch.

Google asked to pay ₹93 million over 'deceptive location tracking'

Due to a settlement in California, Google has been ordered to pay $93 million. The settlement stems from a lawsuit brought by the California attorney general, that concluded the tech giant misled consumers into believing they had more control over their location information than they actually did. "Our investigation revealed that Google was telling its users one thing – that it would no longer track their location once they opted out – but doing the opposite and continuing to track its users’ movements for its own commercial gain," the attorney general said.

That's all for now! Our newsletter will be published again next week to tell you about the happenings in the world of cybersecurity. If there's a particular topic that interests you and you'd like to read about it, do get in touch with me at shalini@techshotsapp.com.