Intel's year isn't getting off to a very good start.   Just after the discovery of a pair of critical vulnerabilities that have been in their chipsets for more than a decade comes the discovery of yet another serious flaw that could impact millions of laptops around the world.

Normally, Google's robust series of checks and audits are pretty good at catching malicious code and preventing it from making its way to the Play Store.  Sometimes, however, something slips through anyway despite the company's best efforts. This latest one is particularly bad.

Do you use any of the following Chrome browser extensions?

Change HTTP Request Header
Nyoogle - (a custom logo for Google)
Stickies - (a Post-It note for Chrome)
Lite Bookmarks

If so, you're not alone.  These four extensions have a combined user base of more than half a million.

Does your company utilize either RackSwitch or BladeCenter networking switches?  Are those switches running ENOS (the Enterprise Network Operating System)?  If so, there's a backdoor in your network you weren't aware of.  Even worse, it's been there since 2004.

Engineers at Lenovo recently discovered the backdoor in the firmware when they conducted an internal security audit.

A duo of researchers stumbled across a series of vulnerabilities in literally hundreds of GPS services that leave sensitive GPS tracking data open to hackers.  Dubbed "Trackmageddon" by the researchers, the vulnerabilities span a range of weaknesses that include default or easy-to-guess passwords, IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference) issues, insecure API endpoints, and data collection folders that are entirely unsecured.

There's a constant tug of war playing out on the national stage.  On one side, privacy advocates are pushing for greater autonomy for end users, and hard limits to the types of searches that law enforcement agencies are allowed to conduct.

On the other side are the government agencies themselves, which often cite national security concerns as the justification for more and easier access to the sensitive data contained on personal devices like laptops and smartphones.

Remember the KRACK WiFi (WPA2) vulnerability, discovered by Mathy Vanhoef?  It turns out that his discovery was a catalyst for action.  Recently, the WiFi Alliance, which is the industry's standards organization, released details about its new WPA3 protocol.

What's an HDD manufacturer to do when faced with competition by faster, more efficient SSD drives?

Go big, and go faster.  At least that's the strategy that both Seagate and Western Digital are adopting.

SSDs tend to get prohibitively expensive as their size crosses the 1TB threshold, which creates an opportunity for HDD manufacturers.

Recently, a group of investors wrote an open letter to Apple, urging the company to do more in regards to offering better and more robust parental controls on the devices the company makes.  Although the group of investors control some $2 billion in Apple stock, this is a drop in the proverbial bucket, given the company's $900 billion market cap.

Did you purchase an HP laptop between December of 2015 and December of 2017?  If so, then you may have problems.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has been made aware of eight instances where HP battery packs overheated, charred, or melted, creating a worrisome fire hazard that has gotten the attention of user groups scattered all over the internet.