Articles by John P. Mello Jr

Apple appears to have experienced a lost weekend with the 4-inch iPhone SE failing to rack up significant sales When the period ended, the SE claimed only 0.1 percent of the iPhone market, Localytics reported Monday....

Despite its computer systems being infected with malware since Monday, MedStar Health, which operates 10 hospitals and more than 250 outpatient facilities in and around Washington, D.C., has continued to provide patient care at near normal levels, according to several updates released this week Since the malware attack occurred, MedStar Health has ...

Hackers in recent weeks have stepped up their efforts to steal employee tax information from companies in all kinds of industries Typically, the information contained on IRS form W-2 is used to file false tax returns or steal someone's identity....

Instagram on Monday moved to calm concerns among some users about a proposed change in the way content appears in their feeds Celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and Cindy Crawford fueled the anxiety by urging their followers to enable a feature on their mobile devices that would notify them whenever those celebrities post to Instagram....

Apple has been deluged with complaints from users who say the latest version of its mobile operating system is breaking links and crashing apps "Following iOS 9.3 on iPhone 6splus update links in safari no longer open, then safari crashes -- any ideas how to fix? Same problem in Chrome," user John MacDonald posted Monday on Apple's support page on ...

A Chinese aviation and aerospace businessman last week pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to steal sensitive military and export-controlled data from major U.S. defense contractors and send the information to China, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Su Bin, also known as Stephen Su and Stephen Subin, a resident of the People'...

Downtime caused by a ransomware attack can cost a company more than paying a ransom to recover data encrypted by the malware, according to a report released last week byIntermedia Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of companies infected with ransomware could not access their data for at least two days because of the incident, and 32 percent couldn'...

On the eve of a court showdown with Apple over unlocking the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, the FBI put its case on pause Monday to pursue an attack method that could allow it to crack the phone without Apple's assistance After reviewing the FBI's request for postponement of oral arguments in the case, a U.S. District Court in Califo...

A team of researchers atJohns Hopkins University has found a way to crack open files sent as encrypted instant messages in Apple's iMessage app, according to news reports published Monday Although it took months to do, the researchers, led by Professor Matthew Green, were able to brute force a 64-bit encryption key, allowing them to unscramble an i...

Security researchers atPalo Alto Networks Unit 42 on Wednesday announced they had discovered in the wild a method of infecting nonjailbroken iPhones with malware by exploiting design flaws in Apple's digital rights management technology The flaw has been exploited since 2013 largely as a means to pirate iOS software, but this is the first time it's...

Researchers last week discovered the first ransomware in the wild aimed at Apple's hardware platform. While the threat was subdued quickly, it exposed the weakness of digital certificates in authenticating software to devices The ransomware appeared as a legitimate application because it contained a digital certificate stolen from a bona fide Mac d...

Google on Tuesday announced a suite of analytics products for marketers The Google Analytics 360 Suite is a set of integrated data and marketing analytics products designed to give enterprise-class marketers the ability to reach consumers with the right message at the right moment, according to Paul Muret, Google's vice president of analytics, disp...

Micrososft on Monday withdrew a notice posted earlier in the day to its Windows website, which declared that bitcoin currency no longer would be accepted in its users' accounts "We continue to support Bitcoin for adding money to your Microsoft Account which can be used for purchasing content in the Windows and Xbox stores," the company said in a st...

Opera on Thursday announced that new version of its desktop browser will have ad blocking built in Users can block ads in other browsers, but only through add-on programs called "extensions." With ad blocking built in, Opera's Web engine can perform the task better than extensions....

The jailing last week of Facebook Regional Vice President Diego Dzoda in Brazil may have been the tip of an iceberg. Frustrated police made the arrest after Facebook failed to produce WhatsApp messages connected to a drug trafficking case. The incident is one of a growing heap of examples that highlight the difficulties law enforcement agencies face when trying to collect evidence in a digital world without borders...

Security researchers atPalo Alto Networks last week announced that they had found the first ransomware in the wild aimed at Macintosh computers, but Apple and one of its developers quickly neutered it The ransomware -- a malware program that scrambles data on a computer and won't unscramble it unless a ransom is paid -- was embedded in software for...

Apple on Thursday launched a Twitter channel to field support questions from users of its products, as well as to offer them tricks and tips By Friday, the@AppleSupport account had 134,000 followers and had sent more than 3,000 tweets....

In the world of computer security, fingerprints are found in more places than where the tips of hands touch That's because the term is applied to any data set that can be used to make a unique identification....

A Brazilian judge on Wednesday ordered the release of Facebook Regional Vice President Diego Dzodan, one day afterBrazilian police placed him under arrest forWhatsApp's failure to produce messages the government believed relevant to a drug ring investigation. Judge Ruy Pinheiro concluded the exec's detainment amounted to coercion, according to press reports...

Apple has changed the date for the launch event for its 4-inch iPhone and new iPad Air from March 15 to March 21, according to news reports If the rumor is correct, Apple will be holding the event the day before it appears in a federal court in California to contest a controversial court order. Apple has filed a motion to vacate the order requiring...