USAToday stories
Corporate security shattered by use of personal mobile devices
May 30, 2011
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY, 30May2011, P1B
Companies are grappling with unforeseen security, privacy and legal conundrums introduced by a host of cool mobile devices flooding into the workplace.
Executives eager to sport the hottest tech gear and workers accustomed to mixing social and work activities on the go are multitasking on personally owned mobile devices in record numbers.
Workers are bringing mobile devices to work at such a scale …More
PR stunt to taint Gmail shows how eroding privacy can pay big
May 10, 2011
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY, 10May2010, P1B
It’s not as if Google lacks privacy controversies to quell.
Yet Burson-Marsteller, a top-five public relations firm, is attempting to pile more on.
Burson last week stepped up a whisper campaign to get top-tier media outlets, including USA TODAY, to run news stories and editorials about how an obscure Google Gmail feature —Social Circle— ostensibly tramples the privacy of millions of Americans and violates …More
How social networks foster persistent intrusions of corporate networks
March 30, 2011
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY 31Mar2011, p1B
Not long after airstrikes began in Libya earlier this month, certain attorneys at four U.S. law firms, known for having high-profile clients in the oil industry, each received a personally addressed e-mail message.
Each message carried an Adobe PDF attachment, purportedly an analyst report describing the impact of Libya’s uprising on oil futures. Each lawyer clicked on the attachment.
But the PDF was …More
Carbon registries heist: part digital con-game, part digital burglary
February 22, 2011
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY, p.6A, 22 Feb. 2011
An Eastern European cybergang has perfected an emerging form of digital theft to steal $50 million from Europe’s carbon registries.
Elite cybergangs are gaining deep access to corporate networks and carrying out Ocean’s 11-like capers that are equal parts digital con game and digital burglary.
Another such gang, for instance, gained recent media attention for its deep access to Nasdaq’s Directors …More
Most Facebook, Google users worry about privacy and security
February 9, 2011
By Byron Acohido USA TODAY P1B 09Feb2011
Most Americans are worried about privacy and viruses when using Facebook or Google (GOOG), according to results of a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released Tuesday.
Nearly seven out of 10 Facebook members surveyed — and 52% of Google users — say they are either “somewhat” or “very concerned” about their privacy while using the world’s most popular social network and dominant search engine.
Even …More
Privacy implications of ubiquitous digital sensors
January 26, 2011
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY, 26Jan2011, P1B
Odds are you will be monitored today — many times over.
Surveillance cameras at airports, subways, banks and other public venues are not the only devices tracking you. Inexpensive, ever-watchful digital sensors are now ubiquitous.
They are in laptop webcams, video-game motion sensors, smartphone cameras, utility meters, passports and employee ID cards. Step out your front door and you could be captured in …More
Protesters, botnet gangs accelerate DDoS attacks against corporations
January 5, 2011
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY, 05Jan2010, P1B
It will be much harder this year for companies to deflect the rising onslaught of cyberattacks orchestrated to knock them off the Internet.
Hundreds of times each day, attackers use a technique called distributed denial of service, or DDoS, that involves coordinating home PCs to flood targeted websites with nuisance requests — to the point where no one else can access the …More
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