Chrome Can Be Default on Win Now; Jailbreaking a John Deere; Android Malware-Banking; Zoom Important Mac Update

Starting with something good today. In the latest Dev version of Chrome, you can make Chrome your default browser on Windows 11 with a single click, instead of having to dig through and picking default on every type of file it opens. 9to5google.com reports that you can make the selection right inside chrome. If all goes smoothly, this should be released into the world in a few weeks.

Ok, so you never thought about needing to jailbreak a tractor before…well, neither did I! We have reported here before on the high degree of automation that John Deere has been building into its tractors and implements….like how they can plow a field driverless (no other vehicles to hit, normally.) Now, according to arstechnica.com, if appears farmers have turned to hacking to get around the digital locks that Deer puts on their tractors. This allows the farmers and ranchers to modify and repair the expensive equipment they use (as most farmers have ALWAYS done with their equipment for decades.) At DefCon in Las Vegas over the weekend, a hacker that goes by Sick Codes released a new jailbreak for John Deere tractors. It allows controlling multiple models via their touch screens. No reply from Deer on this, but the battle over ‘right to repair’ is way beyond that smartphone in your hand!

Well, we’ve worked our way down to the bad news portion of this fine blog. Sova malware already had malware on the underground market that functioned as a banking trojan on Android devices. Now, zdnet.com says they have added ransomware to the mix. The banking trojan can harvest usernames and passwords via key logging, and can steal cookies and show false overlays over a whole range of apps. They say in the update it can mimic over 200 banking and payment apps, plus target crypto wallets. Now, with a ransomware feature, it’s even more terrible. Stick with official app stores, and read the reviews before downloading one!

Ok, there was the terrible Android news…now equal time for iOS. Zoom just pushed out a patch for a bug on macOS that allowed a hacker to take control of a user’s operating system. Theverge.com reports that you need to get version 5.11.5 of the app. A word to the wise…I opened the Zoom app, and it downloaded an update right away…BUT it was 5.11.1! Go to the check for updates and click on that if you don’t get 5.11.1 right away. When I hit ‘check for updates,’ the app downloaded the latest bug patching version!