Smartphones powered by Qualcomm technology will be able to deliver more secure Wi-Fi connections thanks to the rollout of the latest Wi-Fi Protected Access3 (WPA3) technology across the company’s mobile and networking infrastructure portfolio.

WPA3 is more secure than the widely-used WPA2 standard thanks to the use of stronger cryptography and network protections that mean it can even be used with confidence in industries that handle sensitive information like health and finance.

Specifically, it makes it harder for passwords to be guessed via a brute force attack, and also makes public Wi-Fi hotspots safer to use thanks to Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE).

Qualcomm WPA3 security

Qualcomm hopes that WPA3 will make attacks such as the KRACK exploit, which targeted vulnerabilities in WPA2 and exposed unencrypted network traffic, less likely when it arrives with the Snapdragon 845 System on a Chip (SoC), first in the OnePlus 6.

“At Qualcomm Technologies, we’re committed to working closely with industry bodies like the Wi-Fi Alliance to develop security standards to best protect data traffic across networks and devices, especially as security threats and attacks continue to become increasingly sophisticated,” said Rahul Patel, head of connectivity and networking at Qualcomm.

“By adopting the latest in encryption technology to protect Wi-Fi connected products from security attacks, Qualcomm Technologies helps customers build products that not only deliver the industry’s latest technologies to the market, but adopt the most advanced security standard available.”

WPA3 is set to become as widely adopted as its predecessor, with carrier equipment also using the standard to protect connections. It also expected to improve security for the Internet of Things (IoT), which has been the subject of numerous warnings from the cybersecurity community.

http://www.techradar.com/news/qualcomm-looks-to-make-wi-fi-safer-with-wpa3

Some Netflix shows have intro sequences that are works of art, carefully constructed montages set to beautiful music, with visuals that make your eyes water. Other Netflix shows have intros that you’re itching to skip within the first few seconds.

Well, Netflix just made binge-watching your favorite shows a little bit easier on a Chromecast – you can now skip the intro on a lot of shows to get straight to the main meat of an episode. A skip button has shown up on the controller screen for the Android app, according to reports.

You’ve been able to skip intros for a while if you’re watching Netflix on the web or inside an app, so it makes sense that the feature would eventually roll out to Chromecast as well. As yet it doesn’t appear to have shown up in the Netflix app for iOS.

Give it a go

This is something users have spotted rather than something that’s been officially announced by Netflix, so we don’t have any more details than that – it’s unlikely but not impossible that this is a small-scale trial run of the feature for the time being.

Update your Netflix app to the latest version on your phone and beam a show over to a Chromecast to see if the option is available for you yet: once a new episode starts, you should see a Skip Intro button underneath the other playback controls on the app.

New features continue to get pushed out to Netflix all the time of course, and many don’t get an official announcement attached. Most recently, the mobile app for Android got an update to enable HDR playback on new phones from Huawei and Sony.

Via Android Police

http://www.techradar.com/news/you-can-now-skip-netflix-intros-on-your-chromecast

A popular app that helps parents keep tabs on their kids’ phone activity has at least one leaky server, according to ZDNet, with tens of thousands of user account details breached.

Called TeenSafe, the app touts itself as a “secure” monitoring app available on both Android and iOS, and lets parents check their kids’ messages, call and search history, as well as keep tabs on their location.

ZDNet reports that the app’s servers, hosted on Amazon’s Web Services cloud platform, were left unprotected, giving anyone access to the app’s user database without a password.

“We have taken action to close one of our servers to the public and begun alerting customers that could potentially be impacted,” a TeenSafe spokesperson told ZDNet over the weekend.

Exposed

First discovered by UK-based security researcher Robert Wiggins, the data breach includes email addresses of parents with TeenSafe accounts, alongside Apple IDs and passwords – stored in plaintext – of the children.

The server also stored the names and the unique identification numbers (IMEI) for each device. However, no app content (such as photos or messages) was stored on the servers.

Ironically, for the app to work, TeenSafe requires two-factor authentication to be disabled — meaning anyone with ill intentions can access those Apple ID accounts with just the login credentials easily available from the leaky servers. 

Although the offending servers have been shut down, there were reportedly “at least 10,200 records from the past three months containing customers data – but some are duplicates” stored on the server.

Invasion of privacy

Apps like TeenSafe collect a huge amount of data from users, making privacy advocates question their legitimacy. Many believe that phone monitoring apps are intrusive and an invasion of privacy, even if the person in question is a child.

TeenSafe has a YouTube channel that shows parents how to block individual apps as well as how to shut down a child’s device altogether, giving the impression that the developers of the app don’t seem to have much faith in the ability of today’s youth to use their phone in a “safe” manner.

http://www.techradar.com/news/teensafe-phone-monitoring-app-leaks-thousands-of-apple-id-account-logins