We all know companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook and others, have been sharing information with the authorities in the US for quite some time, but now it's come to light that Microsoft even allowed the NSA to record video conversations people were having using the VOIP service, Skype. This …
Read More »Personal information exposed in ARMA website attack
ARMA I, II and III, developer Bohemia Interactive, has announced that its website was hit by hackers and that some personal information may have been copied out from its user database. As a safety precaution, it has announced that all passwords will be reset. “We have unfortunately discovered that an …
Read More »Peter Sunde wants your help to build a NSA proof messenger
While it's less of a hot topic now than it was a couple of weeks ago, the NSA's PRISM scheme (and to a lesser extent, the UK's Tempora) freaked people out. Cloud providers in the US and UK saw their business fleeing to more privacy protected Europe and articles have …
Read More »Another US federal agency destroys modern tech
While there have been a lot of relatively unbelievable stories about United States federal authorities as of late, with the revelation of PRISM's tech privacy destroying policies, today we have a similarly ridiculous tale to tell, though this time it's more about costing the tax payer money than it is …
Read More »Switzerland is cloud backup du jour in wake of PRISM
The US has been leading the way with regards to data backup and remote computing for some time now, but in the wake of recent allegations and revelations over the PRISM controversy, Switzerland has seen a big upsurge in people taking out cloud backup services with companies from its nationality. …
Read More »Malware goes global, with a local feel
We're all pretty good at spotting a phishing scam, a fake page, a phony form to fill in. KitGuru readers and many internet users are pretty well versed in keeping their PCs secure and not giving anyone their details unless they're a legitimate source – and have good reason to …
Read More »Blizzard releases statement on recent WoW account hacks
We talked yesterday about the problems Blizzard was having with its World of Warcraft Mobile Armoury app causing account hacks and gold thievery, with only a couple of tweets from the publisher acknowledging it. Today though, Blizzard has come right out and said it: there's a lot of unauthorized account …
Read More »If we dropped used games, which publishers would drop prices?
There's been a lot of talk recently about used games, about loaning games, renting games, borrowing games, trading games – the whole second hand game market has been up for scrutiny. You've had Microsoft looking to kill it then backpedaling, you've had developers discussing aggressive GameStop tactics, reams and reams …
Read More »WoW Mobile Auction House still down
Update: Blizzard has now released a further statement, updating the situation: “The Mobile Auction House is still in maintenance mode. We're working to restore full service as soon as possible. #WoW #BlizzCS” World of Warcraft's Mobile Auction House, the smartphone tool that lets residents of Azeroth check out stats from …
Read More »Secure storage gravitates to Swiss data banks
Since the Middle Ages, Swiss Banks have had a reputation for keeping your most valuable assets safe. The country also has a ton of secrecy laws enshrined into its national identity. Cue the 21st Century. KitGuru gets Bourne again. The Cypriot government decided to snatch money directly from bank customer's …
Read More »How Russia and the US are avoiding a digital cold war
Russia and the USA spent a large part of the 20th century in a stand off of global proportions. Posturing went back and forth, spies and information wars were won and lost but ultimately there was no out and out conflict, most likely because neither party really wanted to go …
Read More »Looking for a job? Watch out for Zeus malware
Money launderers and account thieves have been using money mules for years to help clean up their cash and make it difficult for authorities to trace and a common method for recruitment in the past was job sites. Now though, security teams at those firms are beginning to crack down …
Read More »Kim Dotcom’s Mega hit by DDOS attack
Kim Dotcom's file locker website, Mega.co.nz, was hit earlier this morning by a denial of service (DoS) attack and no one has yet to claim responsibility. Perhaps more surprisingly though, internet mogul Kim Dotcom, has yet to point the finger or even mention the attack on his oft-used Twitter account …
Read More »How about replacing your password with a bio-tattoo?
Password strength and account security have been a hot topic for a long time, as it always seems like those making the security are one step behind those breaking it. Now though, Motorola is proposing a jump in an entirely different direction – bio-tattoos. Discussed by the head of the …
Read More »Kim Dotcom has tech giants by the patented balls
I write about Kim Dotcom quite often. He's an interesting man with an interesting story, but he's usually portrayed by journalists as one of two things: either the hard done by entrepreneur, used as a scapegoat by governments and police authorities for international media piracy, or he's a criminal who's guilty …
Read More »Mega launches event notifications and zipped downloads
Kim Dotcom's cloud based file locker, Mega, has launched a new feature called Event Notifications, which informs you of all “relevant activities” of your cloud partners, meaning you can keep an eye on what everyone's doing when they access your files and folders. On top of that, you can also …
Read More »EA Games is ditching online passes
Thank god. EA Games has announced that due to its player base not really taking it up on the offer of paying for games' multiplayer content, after they bought the game second hand or borrowed it from a friend, that it was dropping the much hated Online Pass system. “We're …
Read More »Norton costs more than 3TB storage solution
The are plenty of ways to measure value in a given market – and each industry has its own quirks – but two offers landed in the KitGuru spam-sack this morning that, side-by-side, gave us pause. Even with the constant improvements to hard drive production cost efficiency, does this pairing …
Read More »Dotcom’s Mega is developing a secure messaging protocol
Kim Dotcom's Mega has been a big news item for us tech journos in the past year. We've got to bring up his legal issues and the relaunching of a cloud platform backed by the internet mogul, speculating whether it would last with his extradition still up in the air. …
Read More »Dutch cyber police could be the most dangerous in the world
While the Netherlands is known for a lot of things: waterways, windmills, clogs and some sort of plant material, it's not often that it makes a splash in the realm of internet security. However the Dutch government is keen to rectify that, with the potential implementation of a law that …
Read More »Galaxy S4 security approved for US government use
US government officials could be the next poster boys and girls for the Samsung Galaxy S4, after the Pentagon gave the nod of approval for its Knox security software – meaning the S4 handset will soon be getting access to some of the world's most secretive information. Approval from the …
Read More »ESEA is now blaming unnamed employee for bitcoin mining
Yesterday we reported on how the anti-cheat, esports organisation, ESEA, had somehow managed to setup GPU bitcoin mining processes alongside its server software. Initially they blamed a server restart for implementing what they claimed was an “April fools” gag, but now they're pointing the finger at an unnamed employee. The …
Read More »ESEA server client is infected with Bitcoin mining malware
The ESEA server client is designed to prevent cheaters, hackers and griefers in competitive online games like Counter Strike and Team Fortress 2. However recently it was discovered that for the past couple of weeks, the software had actually been home to a Bitcoin mining piece of malware too. The …
Read More »Gamers complain about piracy in their pirated game
Most people would agree at this point, that piracy doesn't equal stealing. We also know, that packaging your game up with DRM doesn't really stop piracy. What serves far better, is reminding gamers that by not paying for a game you make it harder for the developers (especially the smaller …
Read More »Cyberattack suspect had van capable of hacking networks
Spain have issued a news report to say that they have arrested a Dutch citizen. The authorities say that the suspect may have launched the biggest cyberattack from a bunker, and that he had a van capable of hacking into networks anywhere in the country. The hacker apparently traveled in …
Read More »Kaspersky say more money needs invested in stopping cyber attacks
Eugene Kaspersky, chief executive of security firm Kaspersky lab has spoken out to say that all businesses are victims or cyber attacks ‘whether they know it or not'. Kaspersky made a speech at the Infosecurity Europe 2013 conference in London. He said that organisations should be doing everything they can …
Read More »BitTorrent Sync goes head to head with the cloud
We've all heard about the cloud at this point, we're all using it – or should be if you don't want to lose all your data in freak, digital accidents – but it isn't the only remote service out there. BitTorrent Inc. is pioneering something a little different, torrent based …
Read More »Info Security Europe kicks off in London
As technology permeates every corner of the planet, so the threat of significant security attacks grows. Articles that run on world famous newspapers like the New York Times, result in massive hacks into every PC owned by that organisation – within 24 hours. It's a very serious world and security …
Read More »World of Tanks user information possibly compromised
If you play World of Tanks, listen up. Developer Wargaming is urging everyone to change their passwords, after a possible breach of security, “may have compromised,” user information. It's unknown at this point what if any information was taken by those responsible for the breach, but it's better to be …
Read More »Ubisoft CEO thinks the world is ready for always-on consoles
Yannis Mallat , the CEO of Ubisoft Montreal has thrown his two cents into the always-on argument flames that have raged across the internet in recent weeks thanks to comments by both ex-Microsoft creative director Adam Orth and Epic Games alumni, Cliff Blezinski, suggesting that a lot of people are …
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