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Today’s topics include the improvements to Apple’s App Store, the new threats from the Crysis malware, the auction of 3,000 Yahoo patents and the release of security enhancements to Intel’s Unite conferencing product.
Apple is making changes to its App Store to help increase the earnings potential of the developers who create apps for Apple’s 1 billion users so they stick around to create additional innovative and profitable products for the company’s customers. The changes include ads for their apps appearing in the listings when users perform searches in the App Store, as well as new capabilities for developers to offer renewable annual subscriptions for their apps in all categories so they can get recurring revenue for their work.
When the Crysis malware first came to light, it was a fairly typical, if annoying, form of ransomware. It would encrypt some files and then demand ransom, ostensibly offering to decrypt those files if you paid. Things have changed.
Following a series of monthly updates, this malware is now able to exfiltrate critical files and user information, gain administrator rights to the computer it’s infecting and take over as an admin user. According to a study by Symantec, the malware is inserted using a Java applet dropper. Once installed on a machine, the Crysis malware can use a variety of self-running files to spread to other machines, including Windows Phone devices and other computers on the same network.
Yahoo is auctioning off some 3,000 of its technology patents, even as it continues to review bids to sell off its key Web businesses, as the search company apparently works to find a new identity in the marketplace. The patent auction, expected to bring in as much as $1 billion for the company, has been accepting bids for several weeks and is approaching a mid-June deadline, according to a June 7 article by The Wall Street Journal. The auction was confirmed by a Yahoo spokeswoman who said it involves some 3,000 patents and pending patent applications, the article said.
Internal technology that was developed by Intel engineers to help them better collaborate hit the market last year and it’s putting the chip maker into an unusual market for it. Intel introduced the Unite conferencing technology a year ago during the Computex 2015 show, and now the company is adding a new range of features that brings new security enhancements and broadens the systems it can run on.
The new capabilities include a feature that “locks” a conference call or video meeting to ensure that additional attendees can’t join in, which is important for conferences in which sensitive topics are being discussed. In addition, Intel is offering a native mobile app for Apple’s iPad tablet.