Cyber Security

The hardware hacker Bunnie Huang gave a talk at the Chaos Compute Club Congress where he offered some good news and some bad news. The good news? SD cards contain powerful, handy micro controllers that are useful to hackers and hobbyists. The bad news? SD cards are woefully insecure. In a detailed and readable post, Continue Reading →

Snapchat now has to deal with yet another potentially large security vulnerability as Gibson Security released a new report reiterating that it is possible for hackers to obtain Snapchat users’ phone numbers. They initially revealed this hack four months ago and it went ignored by Snapchat. Now, after multiple app updates, Gibson Security says the Continue Reading →

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. on Saturday put in place daily limits on use for debit-card holders who shopped at Target stores during a 20-day security breach, a move showing how banks may try to contain their exposure to the massive data theft. In a letter to debit card holders posted on its website, Chase Continue Reading →

The familiar voice on the hotel room phone did not waste words. “What time does your clock say, exactly?” he asked. He checked the reply against his watch and described a place to meet. “I’ll see you there,” he said. Edward Joseph Snowden emerged at the appointed hour, alone, blending into a light crowd of Continue Reading →

This is not exactly the merriest of times for Target. Last week the retailer revealed that credit card data from 40 million customers had been stolen. Now it looks like the giant retailer could be liable for up to $3.6 billion. Target could face a $90 fine for each cardholder’s data compromised, which translates to Continue Reading →

In light of the recent, massive breach that saw the store lose data for 40 million customer credit cards, Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel took to the Web on Friday to offer updates, apologies, and special discounts. Steinhafel said “the issue has been identified and eliminated” and that shoppers’ PINs, birth dates, and Social Security numbers Continue Reading →

As a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used computer products, the U.S. National Security Agency arranged a secret $10 million contract with RSA, one of the most influential firms in the computer security industry, Reuters has learned. Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden Continue Reading →

Earlier this year, the French independent administrative authority CNIL advised six European countries to take action over Google’s privacy policies. Now Spain has become the first of the six to fine the search giant, demanding €900,000 ($1.24 million) for breaching the nation’s privacy laws. The Wall Street Journal reports that the fine, administered by the Continue Reading →

Hackers broke into The Washington Post’s servers and gained access to employee user names and passwords, marking at least the third intrusion over the past three years, company officials said Wednesday. The extent of the loss of company data was not immediately clear, although officials planned to ask all employees to change their user names Continue Reading →

On Thursday, retailer Target announced that between November 27 and December 15 its point-of-sale systems – the cash registers mounted at the check-out areas of its stores – suffered an attack that exposed an estimated 40 million credit and debit card numbers. The company announced that it has “alerted authorities and financial institutions immediately after Continue Reading →