Apple bans cryptocurrency mining on iPhone

Phone maker Apple has updated its developer guidelines to explicitly ban “mining” cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The new rules restrict apps that drain battery, generate excessive heat, or put unnecessary strain on device resources — all of which take place in bitcoin mining. “Apps, including any third party advertisements displayed within them, may not run unrelated …

Eventbrite-owned Ticketfly cyberattack exposed data from 27 million accounts

Ticketfly says that a cyberattack has exposed information belonging to roughly 27 million accounts. The Eventbrite-owned ticket sales platform took its website offline one week ago. The company said it believed it was the “target of a cyber incident,” and this has turned out to be true. The company said it believed it was the …

Microsoft could be acquiring GitHub and this is scary news to the coding industry

Microsoft has reportedly acquired GitHub, and could announce the deal as early as Monday. GitHub is a large code repository that has become popular with developers and companies hosting their projects, documentation, and code. Apple, Amazon, Google, and many other big tech companies use GitHub. Bloomberg reports that the software giant has agreed to acquire …

Uganda passes strange law to impose a controversial tax on WhatsApp and Facebook ‘to stop gossip’

Uganda’s parliament has passed a law to impose a controversial tax on people using social media platforms. The new Excise Duty (Amendment) Bill will also impose various other taxes, including a 1% levy on the total value of mobile money transactions – which civil society groups complain will affect poorer Ugandans who rarely use banking …

Facebook culled 583m fake accounts in first quarter 2018

Facebook took moderation action against almost 1.5bn accounts and posts which violated its community standards in the first three months of 2018, the company has revealed. In its first quarterly Community Standards Enforcement Report, Facebook said the overwhelming majority of moderation action was against spam posts and fake accounts: it took action on 837m pieces …

New vicious crypto mining malware crashes computer when discovered

A new form of cryptominer has been discovered which crashes systems the moment antivirus products attempt to remove the malware. The malware, dubbed WinstarNssmMiner by 360 Total Security researchers, has been used in half a million attempted attacks leveraged at PCs in only three days. On Wednesday, the cybersecurity firm said the cryptomining malware aims …

Chili’s restaurant chain involved in data breach compromising customer credit card details

Texas-based Brinker International — which operates over 1,600 Chili’s outlets worldwide — said that some of the chain’s restaurants have been involved in the incident, which is believed to have taken place between March and April this year. In a statement, the company said that the data breach was first discovered on 11 May and …