Apple's New MacBook Disconnects Microphone "Physically" When Lid is Closed

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 October 31, 2018  Mohit Kumar Apple introduces a new privacy feature for all new MacBooks that "at some extent" will prevent hackers and malicious applications from eavesdropping on your conversations. Apple's custom T2 security chip in the latest MacBooks includes a new hardware feature that physically disconnects the MacBook's built-in microphone whenever the user closes the lid, the company revealed yesterday at its event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. Though the new T2 chip is already present in the 2018 MacBook Pro models launched earlier this year, this new feature got unveiled when Apple launched the new Retina MacBook Air and published a full security guide for T2 Chip yesterday. "This disconnect is implemented in hardware alone, and therefore prevents any software, even with root or kernel privileges in macOS, and even the software on the T2 chip, from engaging the microphone when the lid is closed,...

Firefox 63 Released with Enhanced Tracking Protection and Fixes 14 Security Vulnerabilities

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Firefox 63 
Firefox 63 released with Fix for Security Vulnerabilities and enhanced tracking protection that lets to you block cookies and storage access from third-party trackers.
The feature more surgically targets the problem of cross-site tracking without the breakage and wide-scale ad blocking which occurred with our initial Tracking Protection implementation reads Mozilla blog post.
Firefox 63
Starting from the Firefox version 65 these protections to be enabled for all users by default.
The newly developed Enhanced Tracking Protection works by blocking the trackers based on the tracking protection list maintained by the disconnect. The classified trackers in the list are not able to access or set cookies, local storage, and other site data when loaded in a third-party context.
Firefox 63
Still, the tracking protection is available for the user who wants to opt-in to block all tracking loads.

Other Notable Improvements with Firefox 63 and Firefox ESR 60.3

Build an infrastructure of Firefox on Windows moved to Clang toolchain to improve performance.
New Theme based on Windows 10 OS Dark and Light modes
Improved reactivity and Faster tab switching for mac users
WebExtensions now run in their own process on Linux
Firefox now warns about having multiple windows and tabs open when quitting
Refreshed visual style of Developer Tools

Security Updates with Firefox 63

A number of security bugs in Firefox and Firefox ESR.

Firefox 63

CVE-2018-12390: Memory safety bugs fixed in Firefox 63
CVE-2018-12388: Memory safety bugs fixed in Firefox 63
CVE-2018-12391: HTTP Live Stream audio data is accessible cross-origin
CVE-2018-12392: Crash with nested event loops
CVE-2018-12393: Integer overflow during Unicode conversion while loading JavaScript
CVE-2018-12395: WebExtension bypass of domain restrictions through header rewriting
CVE-2018-12396: WebExtension content scripts can execute in disallowed contexts
CVE-2018-12397: Request access to local files without the warning prompt
CVE-2018-12398: CSP bypass through stylesheet injection in resource URIs
CVE-2018-12399: Spoofing of protocol registration notification bar
CVE-2018-12400: Favicons are cached in private browsing mode on Firefox for Android
CVE-2018-12401: DOS attack through special resource URI parsing
CVE-2018-12402: SameSite cookies leak when pages are explicitly saved
CVE-2018-12403: the Mixed content warning is not displayed when HTTPS page loads a favicon over HTTP

Firefox ESR 60.3

CVE-2018-12390: Memory safety bugs fixed in Firefox 63 and Firefox ESR 60.3
CVE-2018-12391: HTTP Live Stream audio data is accessible cross-origin
CVE-2018-12392: Crash with nested event loops
CVE-2018-12393: Integer overflow during Unicode conversion while loading JavaScript
CVE-2018-12395: WebExtension bypass of domain restrictions through header rewriting
CVE-2018-12396: WebExtension content scripts can execute in disallowed contexts
CVE-2018-12397: Request access to local files without the warning prompt
CVE-2018-12389: Memory safety bugs fixed in Firefox ESR 60.3
CVE-2018-12389: Memory safety bugs fixed in Firefox ESR 60.3