By 2017, the mobile OS market had effectively become a duopoly: Google versus Apple, with Android firmly outpacing iOS across most markets. But just a few years earlier, things looked different. Microsoft’s Windows Phone was doing reasonably…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 Author: Oleg Afonin
What Hackers Can Do with Your iPhone Passcode: Data Theft,…
Over the past few months, we’ve written a lot about what’s new in iOS 11. “Now we’re really set!” we thought. We were wrong. With iOS 11, Apple not only introduced new security mechanisms but also weakened…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 
Root Access on Recent Android Versions: What You Need to…
We cataloged the most common ways to get superuser access on current Android builds; unpacked the differences between SuperSU, phh SuperUser, Magisk, KingRoot, and KingoRoot; tested various methods of hiding root; examined Android 7’s security model and…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 
A Practical Guide to Stable Diffusion XL: Choosing Models, Refiners,…
If you decide to run generative image models on your own machine, you’ll quickly hit a tough choice: there are many of them, and while their outputs are similar, they’re all a bit different. In this article,…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 
Beyond the App Store: Installing Third-Party Apps on iOS Without…
Apple tightly controls what users can and can’t do with their devices. On iOS and iPadOS, that control borders on the absurd, to the point where a device’s rightful owner can’t freely install apps. In this article,…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 
Which Operating System Is Most Vulnerable? Security Comparison of iOS,…
We often write about mobile OS security—publishing details on newly discovered vulnerabilities, outlining defensive weak spots, and explaining methods of compromise. We’ve covered surveillance of Android users, malicious apps baked right into firmware, and the uncontrolled exfiltration…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 
TrueNAS CORE vs TrueNAS SCALE vs OpenMediaVault: Choosing the Right…
Despite the abundance of off‑the‑shelf NAS devices from major vendors, the urge to build and tune your own NAS shows no sign of fading. The options are dizzying: TrueNAS Core, TrueNAS Scale, openmediavault, specialized setups with Unraid…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 
Unmasking Shingled Magnetic Recording in Western Digital and Seagate HDDs
Until recently, the savvy user—the kind who doesn’t mind spending a few days on forums—knew this as gospel: Seagate’s consumer drives use SMR (shingled magnetic recording), which is bad, and Western Digital’s don’t. Lots of people based…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 
Why iPhone Performance Beats Android—Now and in the Future
Why is the iPhone 7 faster than the Samsung Galaxy S7, and the iPhone 8 faster than the Galaxy S8? What’s the “Apple magic”? Setting aside fanboy takes like “Android is better!”, let’s break down the factors…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 
How Everyday Users Try to Hide Digital Evidence—and Why It…
Most criminals are anything but professionals, so the data-hiding methods they use are pretty crude. Yet these methods often work—simply because the investigator may not have the time or expertise to run a thorough analysis. So what…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 
Stable Diffusion XL: Generate AI Images Locally on Your Computer
You’ve probably heard of Stable Diffusion—a neural network that generates images locally on your computer, with no cloud services or paid tokens. A new version just dropped: SDXL, short for “Extra Large.” In this article, we’ll install…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 
How Phone Makers Ruin Android with Bloatware, Heavy Skins, and…
In one of our previous pieces, we took a deep dive into why iPhones have been—and will continue to be—faster than current Android flagships. The article sparked heated debate and mixed reactions. So we decided to expand…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 
Unlocking and Accessing Data on iOS Devices
In this article, we will delve into what happens to an iPhone in a forensic lab. We will explore the feasibility of bypassing iOS security across different versions and what tools or methods might be needed in…
CONTINUE READING 🡒 
Effective Erasure: Ensuring Fast and Irrevocable Data Destruction
Destroying evidence and covering tracks is typically reserved for the less law-abiding individuals. However, today we’ll discuss how to securely erase data from various devices when you plan to sell, give away, or simply dispose of a disk, phone, or computer.
CONTINUE READING 🡒