Hashtag Trending – Mozilla to make Firefox more secure; Russia to disconnect itself from the internet; iOS update breaking iPhone signals

Mozilla adds more safety features to Firefox browser, Russia to disconnect itself from the internet in security test; new iOS update continues to break iPhones.

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Trending on Google, Mozilla is looking to make the Firefox browser safer by blocking browser mining and fingerprinters. The new security features, which were first announced in May 2018, would block sites that would secretly use your computer for mining or lifting your fingerprints. In addition to hampering your PC’s performance, browser mining could also drive up energy use. And since more and more devices now use biometric authentication, keeping your fingerprint safe has never been more important.

Trending on Reddit, Russia will be disconnecting the entire country from the internet for a planned experiment. The experiment will test Russia’s ability to isolate itself digitally from the rest of the world in case of cyber attacks from other nations. All external traffic would be routed to proxy locations managed by Russian telecom watchdogs. In addition, the test would also provide insights as to how the network could react in a sudden shutdown. The goal is no secret, Russian officials say they plan on keeping 95 per cent of all internet traffic local by 2020. It has also built a local version of its domain name system to keep its web services alive.

Trending on Google, Apple’s latest update seems to be breaking iPhones again.  iOS version 12.1.4 fixes several key security flaws, including the infamous FaceTime bug that allowed the initiator to cause the recipient to answer. The new update is marked as a recommended upgrade for all iPhones since the 5s. After upgrading, however, many users have been experiencing signal issues on their iPhones. Troubles range from spotty wifi connections to terrible cell reception. While many users have been dealing with these issues in earlier versions of iOS, the update seems to have only added to the problem.

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Please also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. I’m your host Tom Li. Thanks for listening!

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Tom Li
Tom Li
Telecommunication and consumer hardware are Tom's main beats at IT World Canada. He loves to talk about Canada's network infrastructure, semiconductor products, and of course, anything hot and new in the consumer technology space. You'll also occasionally see his name appended to articles on cloud, security, and SaaS-related news. If you're ever up for a lengthy discussion about the nuances of each of the above sectors or have an upcoming product that people will love, feel free to drop him a line at tli@itwc.ca.

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