Researchers from the Israeli security firm Armis have discovered a new security flaw in BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) chips that expose millions of access points and networking devices around the world. This opened the door to a new hack.

The flaw has been dubbed "BleedingBit" and is actually two separate vulnerabilities that could allow a hacker to execute code or take complete control over a vulnerable device without the need of a password.

Bots make up a shocking percentage of internet traffic.  In fact, in some industries, there are far more bots trolling sites than there are humans.  Keeping bots from interfering with a website's functionality and impacting human user experiences is an ongoing challenge that Google and many other companies are struggling to address.

The Radisson Hotel Group joins the ranks of globally-recognized brands to be on the receiving end of a successful hack.  According to the company, a small percentage of their loyalty club members had some of their personal information accessed by an unauthorized and as yet unknown third party.

A research team has found an exploit that allows hackers to decrypt and view encrypted files on a number of well-known SSD drives.

They include:

Samsung T5 Portable
Samsung T3 Portable
Samsung 850 EVO
Samsung 840 EVO
Crucial MX 300
Crucial MX 200
Crucial MX 100

According to the research team:

"We have analyzed the hardware full-disk encryption of several SSDs by reverse engineering their firmware.

In recent months, hackers around the world have been finding new ways to invade people's privacy, hijacking an increasing number of cameras and microphones attached to smartphones and PCs.  Apple is responding to the evolving threat by introducing a new layer of physical security to their latest MacBooks.

Intel just can't seem to catch a break.  By now, almost everyone has heard about the dreaded Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities which have been plaguing the chip maker since they were first discovered.  Now, it seems there's a new chip-based threat.

Researchers have discovered a security flaw in MS Office 2016 and older versions that leave the door open to hackers who can take advantage of it to run malicious code on a target computer.

This latest hack exploits a flaw in the software's online video option, which allows users to embed a YouTube video via link inside the document.

If you own Apple devices that use iOS, watchOS, tvOS, or macOS, there's good news.  The company just released major updates for all of those.

They're available right now, and here are a few of the highlights:

For iOS 12.1, the big changes are as follows:

Group Face Time, with support for audio and video calls with up to 32 participants simultaneously
End-to-End encryption for your Face Time/Group Face Time conversations
A "Start Group Face Time" option from inside Group Messages
More than 70 new emoji's
Dual SIM support
Improved camera functionality
A variety of performance and battery life enhancements
And more

The big additions for watchOS are:

Automatic contact of emergency services if you are immobile for more than a minute after the device detects a hard fall.

Earlier this year, Google introduced a new and improved Gmail that gave users virtually unlimited customization options. In addition to that, it included some exciting new AI-based features that cut down on repetitive tasks and made email management significantly easier.

Yahoo has the dubious honor of having been on the receiving end of the largest data breach in history. As a consequence, the company has recently agreed to pay $50 million in damages and provide free credit monitoring services to its impacted users.

The company actually suffered a pair of breaches in 2013 and in 2014, although this information was not disclosed by the company until 2016.  All of the company's 3 billion users were impacted, and more than 200 million of them saw losses arising from that breach.