Security

Am I An Idiot for Still Using a Password Manager? 

Hackers broke into popular password manager LastPass this week, which raises some obvious questions: If the service you use to protect your passwords from getting compromised gets compromised, should you still use it? Is it really wise to store all our passwords in the cloud? You’re not an idiot First off, no, you aren’t an…

It’s Time to Enable Two-Step Authentication on Everything. Here’s How.

If you don’t already have two-step authentication enabled on your all your accounts, you really need to turn it on for anything sensitive. Here’s how. If you’re not worried about the security of your accounts, you’re ignoring a serious threat that’s confirmed by a neverending deluge of security breaches. Two-step authentication is one of the…

Emoji Passwords are Coming: Harder to Hack and Easier to Remember

A UK company claims to have invented the idea of using a set of emoji to replace a PIN number, suggesting that our stupid brains find it easier to remember the silly drawing people face things — and that the increased complexity of the emoji character set makes brute-forcing into our bank accounts substantially harder.…

Can the Power Grid Survive a Cyberattack?

It’s very hard to overstate how important the US power grid is to American society and its economy. Every critical infrastructure, from communications to water, is built on it and every important business function from banking to milking cows is completely dependent on it. And the dependence on the grid continues to grow as more…

The U.S. Navy Wants to Buy Zero-Day Security Flaws From You

Identified a security hole in a piece of well-known software? You could alert the maker to keep everyone safe — or you could sell it to the U.S. Navy, which will buy the information from you in order to build software to exploit the hole. Noted eagle eye and EFF Investigative Researcher Dave Maass happened…

Snapchat Is Adding Two-Factor Authentication, Finally

Snapchat’s security problems — and the company’s rather laid-back approach to fixing them — are infamous. But as of the latest version of the app, everyone’s favorite sexting app is making a big step in the right direction, thanks to the addition of an SMS log-in verification. The two-factor system works exactly as you’d expect,…

AP: Hackers Stole Documents About Spies Taking Drugs and Going Bankrupt

This is a bad week to be a federal employee, and it just got worse. The AP is reporting on a second brutal cyberattack on the federal government revealed this week, carried out by the same hackers who reported accessed the records of every single federal employee. This second hack focused on grabbing extremely personal…

The FCC Wants all Phones to Feature Theft Prevention Features

The Federal Communications Commission’s head Tom Wheeler has issued a challenge to the smartphone industry: he wants them to roll out a range of theft prevention features across the board at “no cost to the consumer.” In a statement issued yesterday, Wheeler explained that he wants the industry to make services such as remote-locking, remote-data-wiping…

9 Misconceptions About Drones That Engineers Wish You’d Shut Up About

They’re robots. They fly. They’re watching you. And they’re increasingly found everywhere: Yup, they’re drones. You may think you know exactly what they are and what they do. You don’t. Like lots of emerging technologies, drones are often misunderstood, especially early in their existence. To help you navigate our brave new world filled with swooping,…

Report: Hackers Stole Social Security Numbers of Every Federal Employee

The largest government hack in history is even larger than officials have admitted, with some sources saying every single federal employee had personal information stolen, including social security numbers. In a letterobtained by the AP, American Federal of Government Employees president J. David Cox alleged that the data breach of the government’s civil service human…

Apple’s New Selling Point Is Privacy

Apple got caught up in a game of “me too” during this year’s WWDC keynote address, but if you listen closely, you notice that it’s starting to pitch products not just on their design or their power, but on how they protect a user’s privacy. Meet Apple’s new competitive point of difference. If you go…

Fox Issues WARNING About Wearable Technology and Scary Hackers

One Big List of the New Privacy and Security Features in iOS 9

As Apple had its annual celebration of its own awesomeness, I tuned in to see how Apple’s new operating system will provide better security and privacy to its users. Apple “cares about privacy” During the Keynote, Craig Federighi has made it really clear that Apple “seriously don’t want to know [your personal information]”. This has…

Start Memorizing Your Six-Digit iPhone Passcode

If you have an Apple device new enough to have TouchID, you’ll need to start thinking of new passcodes for iOS 9. Apple is getting rid of the four-digit passcode* in its upcoming software upgrade. *Correction: I didn’t look through the options closely enough before hitting publish. While the new default is six-digits, you can…

Hackers Could Cause Fatal Overdoses By Hijacking Hospital Drug Pumps

Not that anyone needed another reason to fear hospitals, but here’s a good one: Security researcher Billy Rios has discovered vulnerabilitiesin popular hospital drug pumps that allow hackers to remotely change drug dosages. Rios found a way to remotely change drug pump firmware that would give hackers control over the devices by accessing the hospital’s…

Startup Helps Companies Trawl the Dark Web to Catch Data Leaks Sooner

Remember when Target got hacked and tons of customer credit card information was leaked two years ago? Target didn’t detect that breach until weeks later, long after sensitive data had been disseminated across the internet. The incident ended up costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars outright, not to mention the lasting damage to…

Air Force Uses ‘Moronic’ Selfie to Bomb ISIS Headquarters

Many of us know the feeling of posting a regrettable pic or two online. But while your thoughtless photos might be an embarrassment, they (typically) aren’t offensive enough to merit a US Air Force strike. If you’re a terrorist, on the other hand, a wee bit more discretion is probably advised. ISIS didn’t post dick…

Chinese Hackers Accused of Two More Huge Security Breaches

Remember when hackersaccessed files from US health insurance firms Anthem and Premera last year? According to the New York Times, it wasthe same Chinese hackers suspected of breaching the US Office of Personnel Management’s files. These data breaches yielded an enormous amount of personal information. For the OPM, at least 4 million former and current…

You Can Hack a Children’s Toy to Open Random Garage Doors

Do you value what’s in your garage? Then you’d better make sure your garage door opener uses a secure wireless system, because it is frightfully easy to hack the more basic ones. Security researcher Samy Kamkarjust proved as much when he turned an old Mattel toy into a scary universal garage door opener. The toy…

IRS Failed to Update Security Systems Making Recent Hack More Likely

Reports issued to the Senate Finance Committee by a governmental watchdog reveal that the Internal Revenue Service has failed to upgrade its systems to fend off digital attacks, making the recent theft of 104,000 taxpayer details more straightforward than it should have been. On Tuesday, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George…