Security

15 Technologies to Fortify Your House During the Holidays

You need your house to feel safe over the holidays, whether you’re heading out of town, or staying home to host family between turkey time and New Year’s Eve. That’s where technology can help. Here’s a look at the essential items to consider when you’re defending your castle this holiday season. 1. Affordable security camera.…

Breeze Through TSA Security During the Holidays

Airport security used to be simple—pack your own bags, keep them in your possession, board your flight. Easy, right? However, since 9/11, Americans have been treated to a complicated and confusing rendition of public security absurdity. It’s going to be a zoo at the airport this holiday season—and you don’t want to be the one…

Here’s How Easy Hacking an Apple ID Used to Be

As we learned when our friend Mat Honan got hacked earlier this year, Apple’s customer support line was dangerously susceptible to hackers. With a little coaxing, Apple representatives would hand over a customer account after a hacker offered very little information. Luckily, Apple has closed up this hole, but here’s a terrifying play-by-play of how…

Your Skype Account Can Be Hacked Using Just Your Email Address (Updated)

The Next Web is reporting that a security hole in Skype’s password recovery tool means that your account can be hacked using just your email address and username. A team of Russian hackers discovered the flaw and posted details online. Since, The Next Web has confirmed that the technique works. The five-step hack—not linked to…

How Gmail Took Down Philandering CIA Director David Petraeus

If you want to get away with something, don’t use Gmail. As David Petraeus and his sexytime lady friend Paula Broadwell learned, thanks to rich data that Google stores from every email, you will be found out. Here’s how it went down in this ironic case: The FBI was investigating Broadwell for some harassing emails…

Securities and Exchange Commission staff took unencrypted PCs full of secret data to a security conference. [Reuters]

Your Account Probably Wasn’t Hacked, Twitter Is Just Paranoid

If you got a password reset notice from Twitter last night or this morning, don’t worry, your account wasn’t hacked. When Twitter notices suspicious activity indicating that an account might have been compromised, it resets the password just to be on the safe side. That’s a good thing! But last night the system spazzed. According…

How Crypto Keys Can Be Stolen Across the Cloud

Most people are happy to give their neighbours a spare house key in case of emergencies, but you probably wouldn’t want to give them your digital passwords. Now security researchers have shown that you may not have a choice, at least when it comes to cloud computing. Cloud servers let users run simulations of an…

Anonymous Claims To Have Stolen 28,000 PayPal Passwords

Hacking collective Anonymous claims it’s stolen around 28,000 user details from a server used by PayPal, with what appears to be email addresses, names and associated passwords appearing on a selection of online sharing services. However, as with some other recent Anonymous claims, the hack is being disputed by the attacked party. PayPal says it…

The TSA Finds Weapons in the Darndest Places: Knives in Foot Powder, Knives in Lipstick and More

People, why do you hide weapons when you fly. You’re just asking for trouble! And seriously, is there a need to wrap knives in foil and then hide it in a bottle of foot powder? Or put a knife inside lipstick? Here are the weapons the TSA found in the weirdest places. People think they’re…

Soon Security Cameras Will Be Predicting Your Next Move

As if the prospect of being watched by security cameras wasn’t unsettling enough, they may not only be watching you. Computerized surveillance software currently under development will also let them predict what you’re about to do. The project, funded by the U.S. government and being worked on by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, ultimately aims…

Boarding Passes Can Be Scanned By Smartphones to Reveal Planned Security Checks

A security vulnerability in US domestic airline boarding passes means that travelers can scan the barcodes on their documents using a smartphone to reveals what kind of checks they are likely to face. The BBC is reporting that the barcodes are unencrypted and contain information about what airport checks a passenger will face. Theoretically that…

Some Guy Bought the Data of 1.1 Million Facebook Users for Just 5 Bucks

Bogomil Shopov, a Bulgarian blogger and digital rights activist, bought 1.1 million Facebook names, user IDs and e-mails for the ridiculously low price of 5 dollars. Yes, for a price of a Subway footlong, Shopov was able to get his hands on your personal data from Facebook. What a deal! Luckily, Shopov isn’t out to…

If You’ve Shopped at Barnes and Noble Recently, Your Credit Card Info Is at Risk

Barnes and Noble just posted a notice informing customers that PIN pads in 63 stores across the country have been tampered with. The compromised PIN pads could have recorded your PIN number. Not good. If you’ve shopped at a brick and mortar Barnes and Noble over the last couple of months, keep a closer watch…

The 25 Most Popular Passwords of 2012

Though I had hoped that we, as people, would have improved our passwords by now, it turns out that we, as people, are still unimaginative and so very lazy. Just take a look at the most popular (read: the worst) passwords of 2012. They’re terribly predictable. The rankings were created by SplashData who gathered the…

Researchers Reveal Massive Encryption Faults in Android Apps Used by Millions

A team of computer science researchers have revealed that Android apps used by as many as 185 million people can expose online banking and social network credentials, as well as emails and IM content. The researchers, from Germany’s Leibniz University of Hannover and Philipps University of Marburg, have identified 41 apps available on the Play…

Apple Update Removes Java From All OS X Browsers

In an attempt to distance itself still further from Java, Apple released a Mac update Wednesday which removes Java plugins from any web browser running on OS X. Users that choose to install the update will stumble across the warning above when they try and view web content that requires Java. One way around the…

White House: Huawei Wasn’t Spying for China

Reuters has inside Government sources telling them that Huawei hasn’t been spying on China’s behalf, but it’s still wary of the rapidly growing Chinese telecom. Last week a U.S. House Intelligence Committee report declared Huawei and ZTE national security risks after an 18-month probe. The White House is standing by that conclusion, but at the…

Someone Check on Grandpa: Mass Murder Via Pacemaker Hack Is Now Possible

If you’re an maniacal villain, please stop reading now. Apparently pacemaker transmitters can be reverse-engineered to deliver deadly shocks. A researcher named Barnaby Jack (that has to be a fake name) recently demonstrated this dubious capability with a video at a security conference in Australia. Basically, he showed there’s a secret function inside of the…

Facebook Just Made It Harder for Hackers to Jack Your Account

Facebook just announced it’s partnering with seven new anti-virus companies, in addition to the ones it already worked with. They’ll be offering software in the Facebook AV Marketplace, which lets users download antivirus security software. But the real benefit might be in how they affect Facebook at large. Here’s an excerpt from the release: Our…