T-Mobile’s announcement came after an anonymous hacker claimed to have sensitive personal information on more than 100 million people including 30 million unique SSNs that had never been sold to anyone before. 

The stolen data includes social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, unique IMEI numbers, and driver’s licenses information, the seller said in an underground forum as reported by Motherboard.

T-Mobile said in a statement Monday afternoon, “We have determined that unauthorized access to some T-Mobile data occurred, however, we have not yet determined that there is any personal customer data involved,” 

“We have been working around the clock to investigate claims being made that T-Mobile data may have been illegally accessed,”

The company added, “We are confident that the entry point used to gain access has been closed, and we are continuing our deep technical review of the situation across our systems to identify the nature of any data that was illegally accessed,” the company said in a news release.

This is not the first time T-Mobile has been targeted in a data breach. In December 2020, phone numbers and call-related information of T-Mobile customers have been illegally accessed but no sensitive information such as names and Social Security numbers were included.

The post Data of 100 Million People Being Sold for 6 Bitcoins and T-Mobile Says it is investigating a data breach! appeared first on VPNanswers.com.

The CG model of Jensen in a CG replica of his kitchen

The Graphics Technology Conference (GTC) Keynote, which took place last April, was nearly 100% fake, and no one noticed! 

Deepfakes are not something new and over the past few years, deepfakes improved and got a lot better. It became more difficult to tell the difference between the real thing and a fake one, and Nvidia with its GTC 2021, proved that it can be almost identical.

Well, the entire keynote was not a fake but during a section in the keynote, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and his famous kitchen were totally CG models. In the same kitchen last year, Huang pulled the RTX 3090 out of his oven during the Nvidia Ampere reveal.

The surprise or should we call it the shock took everyone in the industry because the keynote was in April with more than 2 million views on YouTube and no one from the industry or the press noticed a thing until Nvidia released a documentary on the making of The GTC keynote and revealed in a blog post.

“The computer-generated model of Jensen was brought into a computer-generated replica of his kitchen that was deconstructed to reveal the Omniverse,” Nvidia said.

Nvidia used its own Omniverse Platform to make the keynote, It is a powerful multi-GPU real-time simulation and collaboration platform for 3D production. Omniverse enables universal interoperability across different applications and 3D ecosystem vendors. It provides efficient real-time scene updates and is based on open-standards and protocols. The Omniverse Platform is designed to act as a hub, enabling new capabilities to be exposed as microservices to any connected clients and applications.

Indeed, this is exciting and great news for the CGI professionals and the industry as a whole but it comes with some serious and worrying concerns. It seems that nothing is real and at the same time, anything is possible!

The post In The Rise of Deepfakes! GTC Keynote was a CGI, Nvidia Reveals appeared first on VPNanswers.com.

This order follows a ban issued by a Moscow court on Friday April 13th 2018 on Telegram messenger, due to app’s developers’ repeated refusal to give up encryption keys to the authorities that would let them gain access to messages being sent through it.

First launched in 2013, Telegram has gained the trust of 200 million monthly active users due to many reasons. Most importantly, it is more privacy focused than WhatsApp. Although both applications use end-to-end encryption, Telegram, unlike WhatsApp, does not share users’ data with Facebook. Telegram can be accessed via desktop browsers as well as smartphones and it’s available in 14 languages.

In Russia, in particular, there are many channels which deliver current events, analysis and dirt on politicians and officials anonymously.

Process of Blocking

Many local ISPs commenced blocking Telegram by blocking more than 15 million IPs used by the messaging service which resulted in taking down many of the world’s top used websites and internet services such as Amazon, Google, Viber, Twitch and Spotify as well as major malfunctions in online banking and retail services across the country.

 In parallel procedures, Russia’s telecommunications regulator has urged top app stores; iTunes and Google Play to take down Telegram, requested that APK Mirror also quit serving Telegram (which would be the primary alternate for Android users, in case Google caves and removes Telegram from its app store), and even demanded VPN providers to halt Telegram messages.

Using VPN to Unblock Telegram in Russia

“Despite the ban, we haven’t seen a significant drop in user engagement so far, since Russians tend to bypass the ban with VPNs and proxies,” Pavel Durov, the app’s founder and CEO wrote on Telegram. “We also have been relying on third-party cloud services to remain partly available for our users there.”

But as mentioned above and as we discussed before, VPNs have been facing restrictions in Russia. So, is it guaranteed for VPN users to be able to unblock Telegram in Russia? It seems that what is needed here is a VPN provider that implements some unorthodox technologies to maintain its users’ privacy in countries like Russia.

b.VPN’s SMOKE Tunnel

SMOKE tunnel was primarily developed by b.VPN as an anti-detection technology in order to avoid the Great Firewall of China which is known for its fierce DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) allowing it to identify VPN connection and disrupt it.

For the past two years, b.VPN has become one of the most stable, top used VPN providers by netizens in China. Read more on the subject here

https://www.bvpn.technology/en/smoketunnel/

And one of SMOKE tunnel’s major advantages is that it is embedded in b.VPN’s OpenVPN clients for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS meaning that it can be used to unblock Telegram on any device.

Getting a b.VPN account will allow you up to 6 simultaneous connections, unlimited access to express speed servers in over 30 geographic locations and unlimited bandwidth.

Free full featured trial is available as well as money back guarantee. Wide variety of payment methods are accepted such as credit cards, PayPal, Webmoney, Mint and Bitcoin.

24/ 7 technical support is reachable via live chat widget on the website and the website is translated into many languages; Russian included.

To sum up

We are very aware of the war against internet freedom not only in Russia but in many other countries. Telegram is not the first and certainly won’t be the last and using VPN is becoming more vital than ever.

The post Russia Bans Telegram and Accidently Takes Down Other Websites appeared first on VPNanswers.com.

Last Monday, Apple has sealed the deal and acquired Shazam for$400 million. Shazam is an extremely popular application that helps its users identify songs, commercials, movies and TV shows through short audio clips. Apple’s spokesperson made an official statement to The Verge expressing the company’s excitement over this deal:

“We are thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple […] Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our users. We have exciting plans in store, and we look forward to combining with Shazam upon approval of today’s agreement.”

The feelings is obviously mutual between the two companies according to Shazam’s official statement to The Verge as well:

“We are excited to announce that Shazam has entered into an agreement to become part of Apple […] Shazam is one of the highest rated apps in the world and loved by hundreds of millions of users and we can’t imagine a better home for Shazam to enable us to continue innovating and delivering magic for our users.”

So why is this deal one of the biggest and successful deals this year? The acquisition of Shazam will improve Apple’s sound and music recognition technologies. Not only that, but it will also save Apple money spent on commissions to Shazam when it sends Apple users to iTunes store to buy media content. This is not all, if Apple ever decides to shut down Shazam, it will negatively impact other music streaming businesses, such as: Spotify and Google Play Music which Shazam helped by directing more than 1 million clicks per day.

If you think about it, the real benefit to Apple from this deal is Shazam’s newly implemented augmented reality tech. Based on visual recognition tech, the augmented reality platform was launched by Shazam to allow users scan ads, books, posters, magazines and any physical object that could then be turned into 360 degrees videos or 3D animations. This is a kickstart for Apple if they consider launching a similar technology to Google lens.

The post Apple’s Acquisition of Shazam Is A Knockout to Spotify appeared first on VPNanswers.com.

It looks like that Amazon is losing the long ongoing war with Google. If you have missed the latest internet quake the shook up the online entertainment world, here is a quick recap. Long story short, it all started when Amazon refused to cooperate with Google to carry its products, including: Chromecast, Nest E Thermostat, Nest’s Camera IQ as well as the Nest Secure alarm system. As a result, Google responded with a vicious blow by pulling out the world’s most popular video platform, “Youtube” not only from Amazon’s Echo Show device, but also from its best selling Fire TV streaming devices effective from January 1st, 2018. This was released by a Youtube spokesperson in an official statement confirming the withdrawal of the giant media platform from Amazon’s Echo Show together with Amazon Fire TV devices:

“We’ve been trying to reach agreement with Amazon to give consumers access to each other’s products and services. But Amazon doesn’t carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home, doesn’t make Prime Video available for Google Cast users, and last month stopped selling some of Nest’s latest products. Given this lack of reciprocity, we are no longer supporting YouTube on Echo Show and FireTV. We hope we can reach an agreement to resolve these issues soon.”

Even though Amazon had it coming by pushing Google too far, it tried to work around this brutal blow by directing its users to a web version where they can stream Youtube on their Amazon Echo Show. However, this will definitely not last long due to that official statement. On the other hand, Google will not suffer because it provides ways to stream Amazon Prime Video content through its devices.

How Is Roku Going to Save Youtube?

On the other hand, it is the consumers who are being grinded under the wheels of corporate feud. Those who already own Amazon Echo Show and Fire TV devices will no longer be able to enjoy streaming Youtube. For this reason, it is better to look for an alternative away from this corporate madness such as investing into a non-partisan company, such as: the Roku ecosystem.

Being a non-partisan means that the company does not have certain allegiance towards a specific corporation. For example, if you have a Roku device, you will be able to stream both Amazon Prime Video content and Google’s video content (including: Youtube) regardless to any feud any of those company have with each other or with any other company. 

The post Google and Amazon Youtube Feud Is The Reason Why You Need to Buy Roku appeared first on VPNanswers.com.

A new version of Android has been finally unveiled by Google. It comes in the form of Android 8.1 Oreo and it includes some new upgrades for features, bug fixes as well as some minor optimisations.

According to Google, Android8.1 is a minor release in AOSP and will be available for Nexus and Pixel devices next week. So what exactly is new? Let’s see:

1- Autofill Enhancements

In the new 8.1 version, Google has improved how applications and password managers use the autofill framework.

2- Shared Memory API

This is a new API which allows applications to gather and allocate shared memory giving them a faster access to common data. In this way, Android8.1 applications will be able to manage protection control and also pin down anonymous shared memory.

3- Revamped Settings

The Android8.1 settings menu is packed with noticeable tweaks. For example, instead of the known search icon, a full search bar at the top through which users can easily look up what they want. In addition, in the “Language & Input” section, the “Moves” menu has been replaced with “Gestures”. Last but not least, the “Ringtones” section got pimped up to fill your screen instead of showing up as a pop-up message.

4- Notification and Quick Settings Updates

In the Quick Settings, you will be able to see battery levels of any connected bluetooth devices right away instead of expanding the toggle to see the battery level. It does not stop there, the notification shade has become semi-transparent in version 8.1 instead of the usual solid colour that hides the screen behind it.

5- On-Screen Navigation Buttons

When not in use, Oreo 8.1 will automatically dim its navigation buttons to avoid any distractions users may come across.

6- Wallpaper Colours API

In the new version (Android8.1) application get to have access to the wallpaper colour set by users in order to modify how their elements appear on the device.

Moreover, developers will be able to see updates related to Safe Browsing and Edit Texts in thumbnail video extractor, fingerprint management, fingerprint and in webview as well.

7- Goodbye “Keep Wifi On during Sleep”

Now we do not understand why this change in the new Android8.1 version, but the feature to allow Wifi kept on even during sleep is no longer available in the new version. How would this change impact the battery life of a user’s device? That remains a mystery.

The post Android8.1 Finally Released – What’s Under the Hood? appeared first on VPNanswers.com.

Today is a glorious day for all Apple iPhone users. The company has invented a new built-in person-to-person feature to send cash through a text message, called “Apple Pay Cash”. First announced last June at a conference, “Apple Pay Cash” was unleashed on Monday allowing Apple users with the latest iPhone update in the US to send other iPhone users money via text messages.

This is a huge and bold step by Apple which critically threatens digital cash applications, such as: Venmo, Paypal and Square. Paypal spokesperson, said:

“As the world’s leading open digital payments platform, we welcome any developments that help people move away from the awkwardness of cash.”

While PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said: “We have seen a lot of services come into the market and Venmo continues to exhibit very strong growth — I think we will become increasingly differentiated.”

Unlike Venmo, for example, Apple Pay Cash is not a peer to peer payment method. It is a digital form of payment making it much more practical when it comes to sharing money with friends and family. Users can send or receive money via Apple imessage or by telling Siri to send money to someone. Users can receive payments on their “Apple Pay Cash Account” which they can use to make purchases or transfer it to their bank account. It is the quickest and most efficient way to send or receive money. Another attractive feature is that there does not seem to be any additional credit card or bank transaction fees with “Apple Pay Cash”.

While companies like Square and Paypal (from Venmo) have been trying so hard to make money by imposing extra charges on merchants to be able to use the service to receive payments, Apple is not concerned about making more money. In 2016, Apple made around $215 billion revenue by selling its products, so why Apple Pay Cash then?

According to fortune.com, “For Apple, payments are just another way to make its messaging app more useful, not more social. As Gerald Granovsky, senior vice president for financial firm Moody’s explained, Apple is playing catch up to PayPal. “But its real goal is to cement loyal users for life,” he said. [Monday’s] introductions will add a lot more stickiness to Apple’s loyal base.”

So how does it work exactly? Simple, from your home screen, tap on the App Store icon. Next, tap on the black Apple Pay icon in the dock.

The post Apple’s “Pay Cash” Unleashed to Kill Venmo appeared first on VPNanswers.com.

On November 1st in Russia, a new law came into force regulating the use of tools and technologies that are responsible for the anonymous access of the internet. Many internet users are concerned that this law will make it more difficult for them to bypass online restrictions. The law was signed by the President of Russia, Vladmir Putin on July 1st and was intended to place restrictions on online restrictions bypassing tools including virtual private networks (VPN) and proxy servers. In other words, VPN providers would be required to cooperate with the  media watchdog of Russia Roskomnadzor and agree to its requests.

The law does not allow the use of VPNs and anonymizers as a form of protecting users’ online privacy or online security. It only restricts the access to banned websites with the help of these online tools.the bank.ru banking portal reported that VPN providers will get access to Roskomnadzor’s blacklist of banned websites and will be entitled to provide the use of their servers “within the legal framework”.

According to business daily RBC, Leonid Levin, the head of the Russian State Duma’s information policy committee, previously stated that the law is only meant for restricting any “unlawful content” online and is not meant to impose any restrictions on law-abiding citizens.

Will this law work?

Roskomnadzor has been developing measures and ways to identify and block suspect websites, however it is not as easy as it seems and it could have a few unwanted consequences. For example, Roskomnadzor has a single register of banned domain names.

Due to the ban, the search engine, Google.ru, was blocked for several hours in June because one of its web pages contained a redirect to a blocked  online gambling domain.

IT experts in Russia stated that corporate VPNs are exempted from the law. However, it is still unclear on how Roskomnadzor will be able to distinguish between corporate and public VPNs.

Up to this moment it is still impossible to fully differentiate between corporate VPNs and publicly used VPNs according to what Leonid Yevdokimov said who is an expert at the Tor Project – a US-based team that creates software that allows people to visit websites anonymously and access otherwise hidden parts of the internet.

What’s next?

Internet and social media users in Russia are extremely worried about if the watchdog will be able to block access to the internet altogether from home for those users who search for banned websites. All IT experts are agreeing that it will not.

It is the full responsibility of the search engine operators in Russia, such as Google.ru and Yandex, to prevent their users from accessing the banned websites. If they fail to do so, they will be held accountable and not the users. This is what bank.ru said.

The communications director at media holding Rambler&Co., Matvei Alexeyev told the BBC that most lay internet users in Russia would not notice any changes once the new VPN law came into force. In his point of view, it is a step towards greater transparency of VPN servers.

The post New VPN Law of Russia Explained appeared first on VPNanswers.com.

Earlier this month, a new strain of the Ransomware malware that goes by the name “Tyrant Ransomware” was discovered by G Data security researcher Karsten Hahn. Part of the DUMB ransomware family, Tyrant has spread across Iran through versions of Psiphon VPN to extort infected users of the popular VPN app.

Iran CERTCC (Iran Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center) released a security alert about Tyrant ransomware that has been widely distributed across the country.

“Attackers use whatever bait may lead users to install their malware, and are known to customize their attacks to make them more effective against specific groups or niches. So, it’s not surprising that users looking for security and privacy software are targeted; several years ago we observed similar attacks (on a much larger scale than this specific incident) in the form of malware pretending to be anti-virus tools. As always, users should be careful to obtain software they install from legitimate sources. This is especially critical when installing security software, which often runs with high privileges and has access to all data on a system,” said Marco Cova, Senior Security Researcher at Lastline.

How It Works

Tyrant Ransomware is created to target Iran in particular. The ransom note is released  in Farsi only and it demands the victim to pay $15 within 24 hours  through exchanging.ir and webmoney724.ir. Two contact email addresses are also given; Telegram username @Ttyperns and rastakhiz@protonmail.com to communicate with the infected users.

Tyrant Is DUMB

According to MalwareHunter, a security expert, Tyrant ransomware is decryptable as it is a DUMB-based malware. “A joke ransomware, without any protection (I mean obfuscation, pack, etc) used in live attack? Made my day,” MalwareHunter jokingly said to Bleeping Computer today.

This has also been confirmed by the Iran CERTCC. In a statement the Iran CERTCC said that the “Initial analysis suggests that this is the first version, or trial, of a larger attack because despite the encryption operation, sometimes the [ransomware] does not succeed in encrypting victim files, and moreover, despite the fact that there are many changes in the victim’s system registry, it is not able to maintain its functionality after rebooting the system”.

The Iran CERTCC also warned about the excess use of RDP connections especially those with weak credentials to download ransomware.

The post Tyrant Ransomware Hits Iran Cloaked as A Popular VPN appeared first on VPNanswers.com.

If you are living in Canada and thinking to get your hands on your most loved motion picture, book or diversion through torrenting; at that point reconsider! Canada is not the perfect place to download free. You won’t not know when you get got that will bring about getting a copyright encroachment see comfortable doorstep.

Be that as it may, there is as yet a route by which downloading deluges in Canada without getting a copyright encroachment see is conceivable. That path is to utilize a dependable VPN administration and after that download downpours in Canada.

Now Vpnanswers will discuss how you will be sheltered from the peddle eye of government; which continues viewing your online exercises.

The VPN courses your web information activity through a passage; that is ensured with end-to-end encryption; and associated with a remote server from the flip side. The VPN utilizes the abnormal state of military review encryption; which is difficult to catch not even by your ISP.

Fundamentally, VPN stops the ISP snoop your web action; that at last shields the clients from getting got while torrenting. It is on account of the legislature has made all the ISPs of Canada essential to send copyright encroachment see if there should arise an occurrence of downloading deluges in Canada. Thus, if the ISP can not snoop you; as a result of VPN encryption; how might they become more acquainted with that you are downloading downpours in Canada.

Why Should I Download Torrents In Canada With A VPN?

Downloading in Canada is not in the slightest degree safe; since Canada is one of those nations of the world; where you can not download deluge documents unreservedly. Along these lines, it is constantly prescribed to utilize a VPN; that ensures your web association and spares you from getting copyright encroachment take note.

Additionally, it likewise enables you to get to each one of those blocked deluge sites which you can not get to in view of your Canadian IP. It is on the grounds that some downpour destinations are hindered in Canada as it is an against deluge country, yet VPN enables you to change your IP deliver to a virtual IP address of any nation of the world. In this way, with a specific end goal to get to blocked deluge locales, you have to pick the IP of any downpour benevolent server area like New Zealand or Holland.

Torrenting A Crime ?

Torrenting is not frightful anyplace; but rather downloading copyright ensured content like films, diversions or books can be guaranteed by the copyright holders of that specific downpour; that you have downloaded. This may bring about getting a legitimate notice; that could cost you a fortune and can even land you in the correctional facility. Thus, torrenting is not a wrongdoing in Canada; but rather downloading pilfered stuff through deluge is considered as a culpable wrongdoing in Canada.

Conclusion:

To finish up, the strict laws against copyright encroachment in Canada are a remark with; however in the event that you are downloading deluges in Canada with a VPN close by; at that point you don’t have to stress over any law. It is on the grounds that VPN lets you to utilize the web openly without anybody viewing over you round the clock.

The post Torenting is now not allowed in Canada by means of law appeared first on VPNanswers.com.