March 4, 2010 | 2 Comments
USA TODAY P. 1A 04Mar2010
SAN FRANCISCO — “Hey Alice, look at the pics I took of us last weekend at the picnic. Bob”
That Facebook message, sent last fall between co-workers at a large U.S. financial firm, rang true enough. Alice had, in fact, attended a picnic with Bob, who mentioned the outing on his …more
February 16, 2010 | Comment on this post
More bad buzz about Google Buzz seems certain to play out in coming weeks. That’s because privacy and security can’t be separated. And despite two rounds of privacy-setting revisions, the search giant’s new social network, in its current configuration, markedly lowers privacy and security.
Coming on the heels of Facebook’s controversial privacy-setting revamp, the launch of Buzz …more
February 5, 2010 | Comment on this post
Wanted: Inside sales rep to hawk online services to U.S. spy agencies.
Perks: Employer has search monopoly — and warm leads at top spy organizations.
That’s one takeaway of reports that Google has asked the secretive National Security Agency to help track down the cyberattackers who recently breached its network. More on this below.
Reporter Ellen Nakashima’s front …more
March 4, 2010 | Comment on this post
By Byron Acohido
March 4, 2010 p2A, USA TODAY
The Koobface worm is a case study of how swiftly cybercriminals react to emerging trends. Koobface first appeared in the fall of 2008 just as social networks were getting hot. Its creators initially sent Facebook users friendly messages asking them to click on a link to see a video.
Doing so called up another message asking the recipient to click on …more
February 22, 2010 | Comment on this post
The Federal Trade Commission today finally voiced concern about the long-known problem of data leaking into criminal hands via LimeWire, BearShare, Kazaa and dozens of other peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks.
The FTC put nearly 100 companies and agencies on notice that their employees appear to be regularly leaking large amounts of sensitive customer and employee data on popular P2P networks
The FTC did not name names, either of …more
February 19, 2010 | 5 Comments
The disclosure of Operation Aurora last month and the outing of the Kneber botnet gang’s stolen booty this week have much in common.
Both involved nothing-out-of-the-ordinary cyberattacks that quixotically rose above the din to grab international headlines.
The mainstream attention is welcomed. It helps to underscore how the Internet underground has advanced to the point where a plethora of powerful hacking tools and services is readily available to …more
February 1, 2010 | 1 Comment
Steve Ragan, security editor at The Tech Herald, has conducted an extensive examination of how Google and dozens of other tech, financial and media corporations got breached via the latest Windows Internet Explorer flaw. Ragan discusses his findings in a lengthy blog post that reads like Sherlock Holmes in the early stages of connecting the dots for a befuddled Mr. Watson, in this case …more
