Security

HTC Comes Clean on Its Massive Security Hole

Over the weekend it was revealed that some extremely popular HTC Android phones (including the EVO, EVO 3D and 4G, and the Thunderbolt) have a gaping security hole which would allow 3rd-party apps access to all of your info. Oops? Now HTC has come out with an official statement, acknowledging the problem: HTC takes claims…

Tech News Brent Rose

Facebook Now Scans All External Links to Keep Grandma Safe From Porn (and Viruses)

From today on, every link you click in Facebook will be scanned, in realtime, for viruses, phishing, botnets, and other nefarious internet badness. This is the best news ever for your hapless friends that are constantly duped. Facebook has hooked up with security firm Websense to make this all happen behind the scenes. Websense will…

Social Media Brent Rose

GM’s Latest Airbag Tech Is A Step Ahead

How many airbags can car manufacturers stuff into their vehicles? Trick question! When it comes to my safety during rare automobile accident, the only correct answer is “whatever it takes to produce an impervious airbag marshmallow around my person.” This latest airbag design manages to fit some extra protection into the driver side seat itself…

Privacy & Security Jack Loftus

How Microsoft and Kaspersky Labs Neutralized a Spam Botnet

Botnets are feared not only for what they can do, but also for their resiliant nature (they’re virtually impossible to completely disband). Still, Microsoft and Kaspersky Labs teamed up recently to foil a particularly malevolent botnet called Kelihos. Here’s how. https://gizmodo.com/theres-a-botnet-called-tdl-4-thats-virtually-indestruct-5817261 Kelihos is a botnet that, at its peak, was sending 4 billion spam messages…

Tech News Adrian Covert

The NSA Want Its Very Own Smartphone

The rest of the government has traditionally used Blackberries up to now. Hell, they even get PlayBooks now. Why should the NSA be relegated to ancient secure-phones? Troy Lange, the NSA’s mobility mission manager thinks that sucks. It’s time the NSA got their own smartphone. https://gizmodo.com/the-us-government-can-now-play-with-tablets-well-the-b-5823748 Lange’s idea essentially takes the utility of those old…

Privacy & Security Kwame Opam

How Facebook Uses Hackers to Keep Your Timeline Safe

Last week Mark Zukerberg showed off the new Facebook Timeline during the company’s f8 keynote. Announced as a new way of presenting yourself on Facebook, the Timeline is an autobiography of your Facebook-shared life. But how Facebook is securing that life could surprise you. https://gizmodo.com/what-is-facebook-timeline-only-your-whole-life-5843030 While hacking is usually looked upon as a means to…

Social Media Roberto Baldwin

“Stay Away” Says the 50,000-Strong Anti-Terrorism Wonder Protecting New York City

The 60 Minutes profile of New York City’s massive anti-terrorism network this evening was nothing short of amazing. 35,000 police. 15,000 civilians. Unattended bag-tracking artificial intelligence. Cameras, oh the cameras! One message for potential terrorists: “Stay away.” That’s the message, plain and simple, that New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly had for anyone thinking of…

Privacy & Security Jack Loftus

That Mysterious, Possibly Mafia-Connected Safe Has Been Opened But Only Oprah Knows What’s Inside

Do you remember that mysterious safe hidden behind a wall inside Bill’s Casino in Reno? Well, it’s been opened. Cool! Not really, since it was opened and filmed by Oprah’s people for a TV special. So no one knows what’s inside still. TV drama! https://gizmodo.com/a-man-found-a-mysterious-possibly-mafia-connected-safe-5833964 Remember, there was a slight possibility that the safe was…

Privacy & Security Casey Chan

How Did Scarlett Johansson’s Phone Get Hacked?

When naked pictures of Scarlett Johansson hit the internet, take notice—but not for that reason. If You Are Famous and Take Nude Photos of Yourself, They Will End Up on the Internet If the wave of other possible leaked pics obtained from “hacked phones” is any indication—Jessica Alba, Vanessa Hudgens and Blake Lively, among others-ScarJo…

Tech News Rachel Swaby

Researchers Break Browser Encryption that Protects Almost the Entire Internet

Do you use Gmail? How about Facebook? Maybe Amazon? All of these rely on SSL, an encryption technology that keeps what goes between you and a website. It’s the little lock icon. Now two guys say they’ve cracked the code. Thai Duong and Juliano Rizzo are these two guys. This week, The Register reports, they’ll…

Privacy & Security Sam Biddle

Mac OS X Lion Passwords Are Super-Easy to Hack (and Change) by Any Local User

You’re constantly hearing about how you need to make sure to use a secure password, but what are you supposed to do if a hacker can just change your password without even cracking it? That’s what users with physical access to your computer can do on OS X Lion right now. A similar issue in…

Tech News Kyle Wagner

Will Your Facebook Page Resemble These Antique Report Cards in 80 Years?

This is the 1930 report card of Marie Garaventa. It has her academic evaluations, performance, and even a detailed history of the places she worked after she graduated. It’s whimsical and nostalgic and wonderfully voyeuristic. And in another 80 years, it might resemble all the data you store (and that’s stored about you) online. The…

Privacy & Security Kyle Wagner

Will you be able to disappear off the grid in 10 years?

It used to be that you could just pick up and start over as a new person. You could get yourself a new identity, go off the grid, or just reinvent yourself completely. Even if you’ve never committed a crime, there’s something seductive about going missing. But new technology and a heightened security state are…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

BungeeAir Wireless Tether Keeps Your iPhone From Getting Jacked

This is the part of the day when I make fun of my sister. She has lost two, that’s right, two iPhones in the span of four months. She doesn’t use a computer so Find My iPhone makes no sense to her. Maybe being hassled by the BungeeAir security bubble will keep her next iPhone…

Tech News Roberto Baldwin

If You Are Famous and Take Nude Photos of Yourself, They Will End Up on the Internet

Attention celebrities, I have some shocking news: People really want to see you naked. So if you take a photograph of yourself in the buff, someone’s gonna find it. So put down that cameraphone. Or don’t! By now, you’ve probably heard that possibly genuine nude photographs of someone who may or may not be Scarlett…

Privacy & Security Joe Brown

The TSA Will Finally Stop Groping Kids…Kind of

The TSA will no longer require children 12 years or younger to remove their shoes while going through airport security. It’s part of a larger change that might even stop the nasty TSA from groping kids too. It sounds good but it’s really not. Specifically, Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano says that they’ve…

Privacy & Security Casey Chan

Japanese Air Traffic Controller Posts Air Force One Flight Plan to Personal Blog

As we learned over at the New York Times today, if you were perusing the personal blogs of Japanese air traffic controllers in November you might have come across detailed flight plans for Air Force One. Oops! The security lapse was the work of one currently unnamed Japanese air traffic controller, who reportedly posted the…

Privacy & Security Jack Loftus

How to Terror-Proof the New World Trade Center

Developers of the new World Trade Center learned a slew of lessons from the numerous attacks and eventual collapse of the original buildings—reexamining every aspect of the security and safety systems. Here’s what they’ve figured out. A Befitting Pedestal The September 11th attacks were not the first successful assault on the complex. In 1993, a…

Privacy & Security Andrew Tarantola

Real-Life Crime Victims Are Also More Likely to Be Victims of Online Crime

Norton put out a study on cybercrime, deducing that people who fall victim to acts of real-worl crime, such as burglary or robbery, are also more likely to have their identity stolen or fall victim to a phishing scheme. According to Lifehacker AU, the report, which canvassed 20,000 people, says that while there is an…

Privacy & Security Adrian Covert

How Researchers Stole 20GB of E-Mail from Fortune 500 Companies

Two researchers who set up doppelganger domains to mimic legitimate domains belonging to Fortune 500 companies say they managed to vacuum up 20 gigabytes of misaddressed e-mail over six months. The intercepted correspondence included employee usernames and passwords, sensitive security information about the configuration of corporate network architecture that would be useful to hackers, affidavits…

Privacy & Security Kim Zetter - Wired

HTC Comes Clean on Its Massive Security Hole

Facebook Now Scans All External Links to Keep Grandma Safe From Porn (and Viruses)

GM’s Latest Airbag Tech Is A Step Ahead

How Microsoft and Kaspersky Labs Neutralized a Spam Botnet

The NSA Want Its Very Own Smartphone

How Facebook Uses Hackers to Keep Your Timeline Safe

“Stay Away” Says the 50,000-Strong Anti-Terrorism Wonder Protecting New York City

That Mysterious, Possibly Mafia-Connected Safe Has Been Opened But Only Oprah Knows What’s Inside

How Did Scarlett Johansson’s Phone Get Hacked?

Researchers Break Browser Encryption that Protects Almost the Entire Internet

Mac OS X Lion Passwords Are Super-Easy to Hack (and Change) by Any Local User

Will Your Facebook Page Resemble These Antique Report Cards in 80 Years?

Will you be able to disappear off the grid in 10 years?

BungeeAir Wireless Tether Keeps Your iPhone From Getting Jacked

If You Are Famous and Take Nude Photos of Yourself, They Will End Up on the Internet

The TSA Will Finally Stop Groping Kids…Kind of

Japanese Air Traffic Controller Posts Air Force One Flight Plan to Personal Blog

How to Terror-Proof the New World Trade Center

Real-Life Crime Victims Are Also More Likely to Be Victims of Online Crime

How Researchers Stole 20GB of E-Mail from Fortune 500 Companies

Sonos Roam 2 Speaker Turns the Amazon Spring Sale into a Black Friday Moment, Now at Its Lowest Price

What Do You Mean Glen Powell Is Fox McCloud in the ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ Movie

This Winter Fly Is Doing Something Scientists Didn’t Think Was Possible

Acer’s Mac Mini M4 Docking Station Drops to an All-Time Low, Supporting Up to 8TB Storage

Sony Is Hiking PS5 Prices for the Second Time in Less Than a Year

This Amazon Smart Plug Deal in the Spring Sale Makes Alexa Smart Home Setup Almost Too Easy and Cheap

Ryan Coogler’s ‘X-Files’ Reboot Has Found Its Other Big Star

Anker’s 100W Power Bank Hits Its Lowest Price of the Year on Amazon, Packing 25,000mAh and 3 Ports

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

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