Security

Over the past year, the world has become much more aware of the way government's sniff out data on potential criminals: in short, everything is recorded. Edward Snowden's revelations about this have helped create a growing tide of disquiet with regards to overly intrusive surveillance and especially when it comes …

Late last week, the world learned that it isn't just celebrities that have been victim of a photo hacking scandal, but the public too. A large number of Snapchat users are said to have been affected, with some 100,000 images dumped online for all to see. Snapchat's statement on the matter …

Twitter has filed a lawsuit against the US government, alleging that its First Amendment rights to free speech are being violated by rules that prevent the company from disclosing the amount of national security requests it receives. Twitter is currently able to publish the amount of national security letters and …

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US, has charged four individuals with hacking into gaming companies like Microsoft, Epic Games and Zombie Studios, as well as the US army, and stealing trade secrets about unreleased software, financial information and other confidential data. The quartet of young men involved …

Ever since the Bash bug became public knowledge, companies have been scrambling to patch it up, plenty of Linux distros already have fixes and now Apple has promised to get a fix out for OS X soon. However, the company also states that Macs are “safe by default” from the …

A new exploit has been discovered for Unix-based systems that some experts are claiming could be more harmful than the SSL bug, Heartbleed, which was discovered earlier this year. This new exploit is called ‘the bash bug' and allows users to take control of Bourne Again Shell (Bash), the software used …

eBay hasn't been entirely upfront with its users this year when it comes to site attacks and information being stolen. Some eBay listings have been found to automatically redirect users to malicious websites via cross-site scripting on listing pages using Javascript, a problem that has existed and been consistently reported to the …

Startups are a great thing for any industry, as they bring in new people, new ideas and often that leads to innovation. However when it comes to smartphone apps, it can also lead to vulnerabilities and stolen data, as the developers don't quite cover the bases in terms of security. …

In what is being described as one of the worst ever breaches of customer data, Home Depot, the US DIY supplies chain has announced that over a five month period, beginning in April this year, the details of over 56 million customers may have been exposed, including their credit card …

Earlier this week five million Gmail username and password combinations were posted on to a Russian forum site, 60 per cent of which were reportedly still active. It's bad but you don't necessarily need to panic as Google has stated that this was not the result of an attack on Gmail …

Kickasstorrents, one of the world's largest torrent search sites, has announced that it is now forcing SSL encryption for all visitors, meaning that it's now much, much harder for internet service providers, copyright lobby groups and any government agencies to snoop on the downloading habits of visitors. There are other …

Once upon a time, protecting your home with security cameras was a pipe dream for the paranoid. It was not just seen as unnecessary, but impractical, ungodly expensive and even if you did set up a network, where would you store the low quality recorded footage? Today, with the advent …

It turns out that an Android Smartphone's gyroscope can be transformed into a microphone capable of listening in on you without your express permission. The discovery was made by security researchers at Stanford University in conjunction with defense firm, Rafael, which developed a new app called ‘Gyrophone'. While apps have …

Edward Snowden is back in the news again today, after detailing to Wired during an extensive interview, that the NSA is working on a system that will not only be able to pinpoint DDOS and other more nefarious attacks against the US and shut them down automatically, but potentially even launch …

British children of the future could be far more digital security concious than they are today, as a new scheme by American global aerospace and defence technology developer, Northrop Grumman, in cooperation with the UK, will see children aged between 12 and 18 at schools, scouts, cadets and other organisations, given …

Yahoo has announced that along with search giant Google, it plans to develop an entirely secure, encrypted email service that will prevent hackers, governments or even themselves, from being able to read them – something that Mega founder, Kim Dotcom, has also pledged to create in the last year. As …

According to US digital security firm Hold Security, a Russian criminal group has perpetrated the biggest hack in living history, stealing over 1.2 billion usernames and password combinations from over 400,000 different websites, many of them high profile. As it stands, Hold is unwilling to divulge which sites were affected, …

Back in June, security researcher, Joshua Rogers,  discovered a bug in Paypal's two factor authentication system, allowing it to be completely bypassed by logging in through a ‘special' page. Despite Rogers reporting the bypass several times, the company has yet to patch it up or even acknowledge the problem and as a …

China has continued its general consolidation inward when it comes to the internet and has announced that both Symantec and Kapersky anti-virus are no longer approved vendors. Instead, it's promoting the use of Chinese anti-malware companies, adding five to its list of recommended software providers. The news comes out of …

Less than two weeks after Apple and IBM agreed to offer enterprise-tailored services with sophisticated security, BlackBerry, whose main customers are enterprises, governments and other organizations requiring advanced security, announced a plan to acquire Secusmart GmbH. The take-over enriches BlackBerry’s extensive security technologies with high-security voice and data encryption and …

Around 50,000 websites are currently vulnerable to malware and backdoor access thanks to a security hole found in a Word Press plugin, according to researcher, Daniel Cid. Security firm, Sucuri, says that new malware can infect any site that resides on the same server as a hacked Word Press site. The flawed plugin …

Whistleblower Edward Snowden spoke at a New York based hacking conference, Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) this weekend. Broadcasting himseelf via a video feed from Moscow where he currently resides under threat of extradition to the US, he called on those assembled and other hackers and technology leaders around the …

One of the biggest problems I had  with the recent Robocop remake, was that while the technology was impressive, it was so much less so than the original from back in the day. Sure robotics that can keep a person's brain, face and spine alive without anything else is beyond what …

Google has decided that enough is enough. Hackers, be they government sponsored security experts or bedroom nerds with a gift for social engineering, are the latest target of Google investment, as it has announced the creation of a new team of researchers called Project Zero, which is designed to find …

EA might not have been this year's most hated company, but it looks like it might be gearing up to win next time around, as some redditors have discovered what appears to be covert snooping by the company's Origin client, as it looks through programs you've been running recently. EA …

I'm not breaking any ground when I saw that a lot of people download media illegally. You've told us for one, but it's a widespread thing that continually shows up in the headlines when a new movie is released as the producers complain, or when Game of Thrones is on …

The business of blocking websites relating to The Pirate Bay has become old hat in the past year or so. We've seen the original blocked in countries all over Europe and proxies getting the same treatment every few weeks since, but that hasn't made it much harder to get on …

Breaking into places and getting caught doesn't usually land you a job, but that's exactly what happened to UN hacker Matthew Beddoes, who last year was sentenced to three years for trying to digitally steal carbon credits from the United Nations. Released late last year however, he was in Liverpool …

Steam accounts are under attack from a new phishing scam that tricks users in to downloading malicious software that bypasses Valve's Steam Guard system, according to Malwarebytes Unpacked. Valve launched Steam Guard in 2011 and has since made it mandatory for all Steam trades. Steam Guard works by placing an SSFN …

More than 300,000 servers are still vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug as websites aren't bothering to patch it up. So far, only 9000 servers were patched last month, leaving behind plenty of vulnerable servers. We've known about Heartbleed for a while now, since security researcher, Robert David Graham, warned the Internet …