Security

Facebook Home: Brilliant Stroke or Desperate Measure?
April 08, 2013

Political and economic news from around the globe may bombard us with annoying regularity here in the tech community, and as most of us know, the news is almost always bad. That, of course, is why it's such a good thing we have Facebook to filter out what we don't want to hear. It's also why we all waited in rapt attention for the Facebook Home announcement.

Google Searches for a Fight on National Security Letters
April 05, 2013

Google is reportedly challenging a government request for private information on its users, just weeks after it became the first major tech company to release information about the security probes it receives from the FBI. The tech giant is mounting a court challenge against a National Security Letter (NSL), a highly secretive demand issued by the FBI that asks Google to provide private information on certain users.

iTwin Connect Doubles the Pleasure of Remote PC Access
April 05, 2013

I am going out of town. And what do I do? I copy all my crucial files over to a high-capacity USB drive so I can have access to my documents on the road. That works to a degree. However, nothing beats having access to my desktop when I'm away from my PC. Fortunately, there is a device that gives you secure access to your desktop or another designated computer from remote locations.

DEA Can't Get Around iMessage Encryption Roadblocks
April 05, 2013

Agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency aren't happy with Apple. They're complaining about not being able to decipher text messages sent through the company's iMessage app because of encryption, according to a published report. A DEA document noted that it's impossible to intercept messages from the app even if the agency could obtain a court order to do so.

Anonymous Taunts North Korea
April 04, 2013

The hactivist group Anonymous has taken on North Korea, hacking into the country's official Twitter and Flickr accounts on Wednesday. It reportedly sent out tweets ridiculing the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, and used its Flickr account to portray him in an unflattering light, to put it mildly. It appears that North Korea has regained control of its social media channels since the hack.

6 Euro Nations Scream at Google Over Privacy
April 03, 2013

The six leading European markets -- France, Spain, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany -- announced on Tuesday that they will take joint legal action against Google over its privacy policies. The action will involve an investigation and possible fines. This follows the company's decision last year to consolidate more than 70 privacy policies for products and services into one policy.

Russian Clampdown on Web Content Raises Red Flags
April 01, 2013

The Russian government is using a law passed last year to restrict online content, and three major social networks have removed content authorities deemed objectionable. The Russian law created a blacklist of sites containing child pornography, drug-related and extremist material, and other illegal content.

Tibet-Documentary Filmmakers Draw Ire of Chinese Hackers
April 01, 2013

Members of a film crew working on State of Control, a documentary about Tibet, are convinced that the Chinese government is behind cyberattacks on their computers. They've been faced with unknown parties taking external control over a computer's cursor; abrupt log-offs; at least one fried operating system; and DDoS attacks.

Scant Brain Power Behind Massive DDoS Attack
April 01, 2013

One of the largest denial of service attacks in the history of the Internet didn't take rocket science to execute. The offensive was conducted over several days last week after the anti-spam group Spamhaus placed a Dutch hosting service, located in a former NATO bunker, on a blacklist reserved for spammers.

Microsoft's Pain in Spain Lies Mainly in Secure Boot
April 01, 2013

It's not exactly any secret that Microsoft has had its fair share of legal troubles over the years, many of them arising from its pesky little habit of finding ways to shut the door on competitors. So when Secure Boot came along in Windows 8, many considered it just a matter of time before a formal complaint was made.

Dutch Spam Fight Boils Over Into Largest-Ever DDoS Attack
March 27, 2013

A week-old squabble between two Dutch groups -- the spamfighting Spamhaus Project and Web hosting service Cyberbunker -- has resulted in what has been called the largest distributed denial of service attack in Web history. The cyberfight reportedly has spilled over onto the global Internet and slowed down some data communications, especially in Europe.

North Korea's 3G Experiment Might Be Over
March 27, 2013

North Korea's Internet liberation has hit a snag -- it's still North Korea. One month after announcing that it would grant tourists and visitors 3G Internet access, North Korea appears to have revoked its 3G services. Tourists reportedly no longer have 3G access. There is a chance that the 3G service is merely busted, but given North Korea's history, the consensus at the moment is that the plug has been pulled.

Cyberattackers Brewed Special Malware Cocktail for South Korea
March 25, 2013

Cybersecurity news had a distinctive international flavor last week. In South Korea, a cyberattack from unknown sources disrupted portions of the nation's banking and broadcast industries. During the attacks, a North Korean Human Rights website based in Washington, D.C. was also defaced.

Pentagon Shoots Down Dump-BlackBerry Rumor
March 23, 2013

BlackBerry has denied a report that the U.S. Department of Defense has dropped BlackBerry 10 devices from its purchase list. However, the BlackBerry used to be the exclusive mobile device at the Pentagon, and defense officials are sticking with plans to include other commercial devices.

Holy Spirit, Batman! Superhero Story on Vatican Website Not a Hack
March 22, 2013

No, this isn't the Catholic Church's way of appealing to comic book fans. On Thursday, the website of the Vatican communications office and Vatican Twitter account ran stories on Batman. While some initially suspected hacking, Vatican officials are instead saying that there was an "internal system failure" caused by a non-native English speaker -- and apparent Batman enthusiast -- who posted the story.

Microsoft Pulls Back the Curtain on Law Enforcement Requests for Data
March 22, 2013

Microsoft on Thursday released its first transparency report, detailing what information was sought from the company last year by governments and law enforcement agencies around the world -- and what information Microsoft gave up to those authorities. The 2012 Law Enforcement Requests Report covers all the company's major online services.

Yontoo Trojan Unleashes Adware Assault on Mac Browsers
March 21, 2013

New malware is making the rounds with Mac users in its sights: Yontoo.1 can download and install an adware browser plug-in to an infected system. Adware for Mac OS X has been increasing since the beginning of this year, according to Doctor Web, the antivirus company that identified Yontoo.1, but so far it is the most prominent of them all.

Seoul: Use of China Server in Cyberattack Fits Pyongyang M.O.
March 21, 2013

North Korea is the suspected perpetrator of a hacking attack that knocked out a trio of South Korean broadcasters and two major banks on Wednesday. South Korean officials in the capital of Seoul traced the attack to a server in China, something that meshes with previous attacks by North Korea.

Cyberattack Hammers Korean Banks, Broadcast Nets
March 21, 2013

Three banks and three broadcast networks in South Korea were hit Wednesday by a virus that froze their computers and shut down a related website. Seoul is looking into the attacks, but has declined to blame North Korea until investigations prove otherwise. It has boosted vigilance in the public and private sector, as well as in the military, against possible future cyberattacks.

How to Close Gaping UPnP Router Security Holes
March 21, 2013

The year 2013 is quickly turning into the year of cyberattack awareness, and a common router protocol is one of the latest security holes that urgently demands your attention. The UPnP, or Universal Plug n Play, protocol is designed to let networked devices find each other easily. The idea is that you should be able to plug a networked device into a router, and the router will easily discover the device.