ACLU joins call for FTC probe of Facebook tracking apps
September 30, 2011
Facebook has touched a nerve with a broad range of critics upset about the social network’s latest batch of online sharing technology.
Ten U.S. consumer and privacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, today joined Reps. Ed Markey, D- Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Tex., in calling on the Federal Trade Commission to launch a formal investigation of Facebook’s practice …More
Stolen digital certificates exacerbate erosion of trust
September 29, 2011
Cybercriminals are not just forging digital certificates, the keys to what you can trust on the Internet. They are also stealing valid digital certificates issued to legit companies and using them to do bad things on the Web.
Hackers this summer have pioneered ways to forge the digital certificates intended to assure the authenticity of Web pages where you type sensitive data into forms, as highlighted by the recent …More
Trust in the Internet falters after DigiNotar, Comodo hacked
September 28, 2011
The keepers of the Internet have become acutely concerned about the Web’s core trustworthiness.
A hacker cracked into digital certificate supplier DigiNotar this summer and began issuing forged digital certificates for hundreds of web pages published by dozens of marquee companies.
Unable to cope with the fallout, the Dutch firm, a division of Vasco, filed for bankruptcy on 20Sept2011 and abruptly closed up shop. Two other digital certificate …More
ISACA issues tips for safe use of geolocation apps
September 27, 2011
ISACA today weighed in on how geolocation apps are catching on with mobile device users. The respected global IT professionals association also outlined how location-based services are posing new threats to businesses and consumers.
Some 28 percent of U.S. adults use location-based mobile apps from Facebook, Groupon, Google and others and that number is expected to grow significantly, according to ISACA’s new white paper, “Geolocation: Risk, Issues and Strategies.”
Geolocation …More
ID theft scams spreading to smartphones
September 22, 2011
Credit bureau TransUnion has issued a warning to cell phone and smartphone users to be on high alert for a scam spreading through SMS text messages and voicemails.
The scam revolves around phone users receiving a text messages or voicemail stating that their credit card has been deactivated and then they are asked to call a number. When the consumers call this number, a recorded message asks the caller …More
Mobile security offerings multiply
September 19, 2011
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY, p.1B, 19Sept2011
Losing one’s smartphone or touch tablet has become a nightmare scenario for many.
The prospect of consumers and employees physically losing their information-packed mobile devices, or getting them hacked, has become the driver for a red-hot sector of the tech industry: supplying mobile security.
Research firm IDC says global spending on mobile security is on track to balloon to $1.9 billion by 2015, …More
Critics say House do-not-track hearing skewed against consumers
September 14, 2011
Consumer and privacy advocacy groups in the U.S. and Europe today sent this letter to Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., citing concerns that a privacy hearing Mack will convene on Thursday is being staged to give short shrift to how Europe has championed privacy rights for individual citizens.
The hearing, titled “Internet Privacy: The Impact and Burden of EU Regulation,” will be …More
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