Security

This week, a Pastebin post containing hundreds of Spotify account credentials popped up online, leading many to believe that the music streaming service had fallen victim to some kind of hack. Information released included usernames, passwords, emails amongst other details but no payment information was leaked. However, it seems that …

Bill Gates drew some condemnation when he voiced support for the FBI's desire to break into the iPhone of the San Bernardino attacker. However he has now clarified his position, saying nobody is in just one camp when it comes to privacy vs. security and that if the government ever …

Microsoft is set to take on the US Justice Department in court claiming that it is “unconstitutional” to stop a company from informing its customers when their cloud data is being searched by the authorities. Microsoft's stance is that a customer has the right to know when a government obtains …

If you tried to play a Battle.net game this morning, whether it was Overwatch, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm of something else, you might have run into a few difficulties. That's because some nefarious individuals launched a DDOS attack on the service. Fortunately Blizzard's response was swift and exact and …

The Obama administration will not be backing legislation that would allow judges to force companies like Apple to weaken the security of their hardware and software in order to facilitate snooping. While President Obama's personal opinion seems to still be in favour of this sort of bill, clearly there is …

Phishing emails are still one of the most effective methods of capturing people's personal details without them realising it. It was how the Fappening came about and countless leaks and hacks have been possible purely because people were tricked. So make sure you're extra vigilant in the future, as a …

Although he might have tried to brush it aside as merely a “private matter,” British Prime Minister, David Cameron's involvement in the Panama Papers leak seems unlikely to go away quickly. Adding fuel to the fire is ostracised whistle blower, Edward Snowden, who has now started poking the PM over …

The Whatsapp messaging service has confirmed that as of Tuesday 6th April, all communications on its platform are encrypted from end to end, meaning that even if it was given a court order, it wouldn't be able to read its users' messages or images. Only the sender and receiver will be …

The big argument from the FBI and its proponents in its case vs. Apple in recent months, was that it was ‘just one iPhone,' and that weakening its security wouldn't affect any others. Just days after it cracked the phone without Apple's help, it's now set to aid the Arkansas …

Often it seems that politicians are either wilfully ignorant, or unconsciously so, about encryption, with the legislative changes they propose almost always railing against the obfuscating technology. Not so with all of them though, as U.S. senator Ron Wyden has promised to protect it by fighting against a push to …

The FBI has been trying to force Apple to do something it doesn't want to for the past few months and now the shoe is on the other foot. Following the FBI calling off its legal demands and announcing it had used a third party to break into the San …

Despite making claims for months that it required Apple's help to crack open the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino attackers, the FBI has now managed to get into it using a third party's help. Although it hasn't come forward to say how it was done, it has now …

It didn't take long for politicians to jump on the recent attacks in Brussels, as further evidence that the Theresa May driven Investigatory Powers Bill, more colloquially known as the Snooper's Charter, is needed. This despite many of the world's major tech firms claiming otherwise and now Apple has joined the likes …

Earlier this week, we got news that the FBI had filed a motion to delay its court hearing with Apple . The FBI was hoping to force Apple into assisting with the unlocking of an iPhone owned by a criminal but now, it looks like the Bureau won't need Apple …

Google has issued a warning to Android users this week after it discovered a bug present in the software that could allow hackers to gain root access to your smartphone through a certain application. The flaw itself isn't particularly new and was originally discovered two years ago in the Linux …

Apple and the FBI were set to start hashing things out in court today after the company refused to comply with an order to help the FBI access an iPhone owned by a criminal. This sparked quite a debate over encryption but it looks like the FBI may no longer …

Google has been battling the Stagefright bug for a while now on Android and while it seemed to dip back into the shadows for a while, it seems to have jumped back into the spotlight this week thanks to a new exploit. According to security firm, Northbit, a new attack …

As the case of the FBI against Apple continues to draw eyeballs and backing for both camps from various parties, Facebook and its WhatsApp service may have their own clash with the U.S. legal system. The Department of Justice is struggling with a case where a wiretap cannot be performed …

Some hackers recently attempted to steal close to $1 billion from several banks only to lose most of it over a spelling error. The hacking group took over systems at a bank in Bangladesh and began their scheme by transferring money from accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New …

This is becoming a very common occurrence. Today, Adobe has issued a new patch for Flash and is urging users to update their version of the software as yet another security flaw has been discovered. The patch fixes “critical vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of …

Edward Snowden has made quite a name for himself over the last couple of years after turning into an NSA whistleblower. As you would expect, he is pretty interested in the on-goings with the US government these days so this week, Snowden took the opportunity to weigh in on the …

Once upon-a-time encrypted email service, Lavabit, has thrown its lot in to support Apple in its ongoing legal dispute with the FBI and American government over weakening iPhone security. Although not called on by the court to do so, it submitted an amicus brief, explaining just why it believes the authorities should …

Even if the idea that Macs don't get viruses is one that lived and died with Justin Long, OS X still skates when it comes to the majority of malware out there. Not always though and a new piece of nasty ransomware that seals up files and folders with demands …

Being a pirate in the modern world is much less fun than Johnny Depp ever made it look. There's a lot less rum for one, but it's also much harder to get away with stealing an entire ship – you can't just sail off into the sunset any more. So targeting …

Back over Christmas, Valve's Steam Store suffered from a bug that allowed users on the Steam Store to see the details of other user accounts. During this, those affected had their personal emails, names, addresses, phone numbers and more revealed to total strangers and now, months later, Valve has finally …

We may never know how many real people had their details leaked to the world as part of the Ashley Madison hack that took place last year, but we do know its effects are far reaching. In the latest follow up scandal, someone is sending letters to the wives of …

Late last year Valve implemented a trade hold system for the Steam marketplace with the aim of providing better security for users and help minimize the amount of trading scams taking place. A three-day hold was placed on all trades between nonlong-term Steam friends to allow potential scam victims to …

In the case of Apple vs the FBI over hacking the San Bernardino attacker's iPhone, the authorities have made the case that this is about one device. However countering that claim, the FBI and the Manhattan district attorney, have now both admitted that they would use an Apple back door …

A judge has ruled that the American government is not legally entitled to force Apple to unlock an iPhone in a drug case, currently taking place in New York. Although entirely unrelated to the ongoing FBI demands of Apple with regards to the San Bernardino attacker's phone, this case is …

Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) have become fairly common these days and are often thrown at outspoken news sites. However, Google wants to help protect against that and has released ‘Project Shield' which is designed to prevent DDOS attacks from affecting your network by rerouting traffic through Google's web infrastructure. …