hacked

Massive Android Exploit Lets Hackers Control Your Camera, Affects ‘Hundreds of Millions’ of Users

A security firm has discovered a major Android exploit that would allow hackers to take control of your smartphone's camera in the background and use it to take pictures or record video while the phone is locked. The security report reveals that the exploit affects Google and Samsung smartphones, bringing the tally of affected users into the "hundreds of millions."

My Facebook Photography Page was Hacked and Used to Scam Hundreds of People

Two months ago, popular photographer and digital artist John Wilhelm's Facebook was hacked. Below, he shares the step-by-step story of how the hack happened, and how the hacker used his very popular Facebook page to scam hundreds of his followers out of their hard-earned money.

PSA: Canon DSLRs are Vulnerable to Ransomware, Update Yours Now

Canon has issued an official security advisory for its WiFi-connected DSLRs after a security company showed that they could remotely hack into and install ransomware on a Canon 80D. The findings, which were shared with Canon ahead of the public reveal, have left Canon scrambling to patch a serious security flaw.

An Instax Camera with a Leica M Lens

Good photos have become commonplace. Smartphones have demystified camera technicalities in the past decade, and its pervasive adoption has democratized photography for mass consumers. Since the first known photograph was made in 1820, camera functions evolved significantly to compensate for human error.

This Modified Polaroid Camera Prints Photos on Thermal Paper

Polaroid cameras are fun to use, but shooting high numbers of instant photos can get very expensive very quickly. Tim Alex Jacobs, known as mitxela online, recently solved this problem by modifying a standard Polaroid camera into an instant camera that prints photos on thermal paper (the kind used for receipts).

Using a Rolleiflex to Make Tintypes and Daguerreotypes

Those who have known me long enough are aware of my passion for Rolleiflex cameras. Back before I got deeper and deeper into alternative photography I used to shoot my TLRs all the time.

Hacking a 19th Century Lens Onto a Sony a7S

When beautiful vintage photographic technology meets state-of-the-art photo equipment, the results are almost always interesting. Case in point, check out this frankencamera created by graphic designer Arber Marra using his Sony a7S and a 19th century lens he found at a flea market.

10-Year-Old Kid Wins $10,000 for Successfully Hacking Instagram

There are a bunch of ways to make money through Instagram: you can sell prints, attract potential clients, you can even set up an account for your pooch. But one 10-year-old in Finnish kid squeezed $10K out of Instagram without having to post a single photo... he hacked the platform instead.

DIY: How to Make Your Own Flash Diffuser for Macro Photography

When it comes to macro photography, DIY solutions for would-be macro shooters looking to get better results without emptying their wallets abound—from reverse lensing, to DIY macro tubes, to full-blown light boxes. Today, we'll add to that list by showing you how to make a simple DIY flash diffuser.

Experimental Underwater Scanner Makes for Beautiful Happy Accidents

If you enjoy strange and experimental photography, Nathaniel Stern's work should delight you.

For the past ten years, Stern has been creating experimental image-capturing devices using a conglomeration of hacked-together desktop scanners, battery packs and other various computer components. Once created, he straps these machines to his body and takes them from location to location capturing images unlike any other camera out there.

Malware Disguised as Night Vision Camera App Empties Your Wallet

With 98% of mobile malware being directed towards the Android operating system, it's no surprise that the Google Play Store contains more than a few insidious applications that intend to do you harm.

The most recent of these to make headlines is an app uncovered by AVAST, which hides behind the thin facade of a night vision camera app and does its best to empty out your wallet.

Getty Embed Tool Already Subverted: You Can Crop Out the Credit Line

Update: It looks like it's already been fixed. Kudos to Getty for the quick response.

Getty's embed tool has been live for less than 24 hours and ALREADY somebody has figured out how it can be taken advantage of. It turns out that all it takes is some extremely simple code to remove attribution entirely.

Number of Adobe Accounts Hacked Now Up to 150M, Check Yours

News about the Adobe account hack just keeps getting worse and worse. First, 2.9 million users had supposedly been hacked. Then, the number skyrocketed to a much more staggering 38 million. The number is now climbing yet again, and it seems that many of the people who have been hacked have not been notified by Adobe.

Adobe Admits to Being Hacked, 2.9M User Accounts Compromised

Adobe users who have purchased a product or signed up for Creative Cloud recently beware. According to Adobe's website, the company's servers were hacked "very recently," and the attackers made away with customer information from 2.9 million Adobe accounts, as well as source code for a few Adobe products.

Beware of Fruit: Instagram Experiences a Massive Fruit Diet Spam Attack

It was only a matter of time until spammers got ahold of Instagram, and yesterday it finally happened. Even though the Facebook-owned company hasn't yet made any moves into advertising, you may have noticed an awful lot of pictures of fruit on your feed this weekend.

That's because some spammers managed to hack many an Instagram account Saturday, posting random photos of fruit and singing the praises of a "miracle fruit diet."

Rechip Old Sigma Lens So That It Plays Nicely with Your New Canon DSLR

Older Sigma lenses that were designed for Canon EOS film cameras often don't work correctly when mounted onto a new EOS digital SLR, even though the newer bodies still use Canon's EF mount. If you're an owner of such a lens, you might have heard that you can send it in to Sigma's service center for them to rechip it in order to make it compatible again.

Did you know that those of you who are handy with electronics can actually do the rechipping yourself at home? Photographer Martin Melchior recently did this with his Sigma 70-210 f/2.8 APO lens, and says that anyone with basic soldering skills can do the same.

Sigma DP Cameras Hacked to Play Nicely with Leica M Lenses

Sigma's DP1, DP2, and DP3 cameras are known for the fact that they're compact cameras with beastly APS-C Foveon sensors inside. With such novel sensor technology at their core, comparatively less is said about the f/2.8 lenses on the front of each camera.

Some folks over in China decided that they wanted the glass of the camera to be just as hardcore as the sensor within, so they figured out how to modify DP cameras to offer an Leica M mount, turning the bodies into interchangeable cameras (and proper mirrorless cameras).

Focus Stacking Macro Photographs with a Hacked Flatbed Scanner

Focus stacking is when you combine multiple photographs of different focus distances in order to obtain a single photo with a much greater depth of field than any of the individual shots. This can be done by turning the zoom ring on your lens, but this can be difficult to control (especially for highly magnified photos). It can also be done using special rigs designed for the purpose, but those are generally quite pricey.

Photographer and software engineer David Hunt recently came up with the brilliant idea of turning an old flatbed scanner into a macro rail for shooting focus-stacking photos.

Canon EOS M Hacked by Magic Lantern, Firmware Boosts on the Way

Back in October, Roger Cicala shared some first impressions of the Canon EOS M with us, and stated that he believes the camera is "a firmware update and a price drop away from being a great camera." While we haven't seen any major price cuts to the camera so far, a firmware update may be on the near horizon.

By "update," we mean "third-party firmware enhancement." Magic Lantern has announced that its firmware add-on will indeed work with Canon's mirrorless camera, and that they've begun the process of porting it.

Hacker Gets Nikon WU-1a Wireless Mobile Adapter to Play Nice with the D800

Hardware security guru Joe Fitz has successfully hacked the WU-1a wireless mobile adapter to be compatible with the Nikon D800. "Why would anyone want to do this?" you might ask. Well, to get the same features, you could also buy a Nikon UT-1 Communication Unit for $470 and Nikon WT-5A Wireless Transmitter for $580 -- a combined total of $1050. The Nikon WU-1a, designed for the entry-level D3200, costs just $58!

Hacker Reportedly Finds Hidden Features in the Olympus OM-D EM-5

The Olympus OM-D EM-5 is a powerful little camera, but what owners are using these days many only be a portion of what the camera is fully capable of. 43 Rumors writes that an anonymous hacker is claiming to have hacked the camera using some firmware update trickery. What he or she found was quite interesting: hidden and locked features such as clean HDMI 4:2:2 output and focus peaking!