Cyber Security

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 →

You might have just found out that your credit card number may be compromised. Target reports that up to 40 million customers may have had their names, card numbers, expiration date and security code stolen via hacked credit card checkout scanners. Here’s how to find out if you’re one of them, and what to do Continue Reading →

It’s not just online transaction databases that are susceptible to attacks. The retailer Target is reportedly looking into the theft of millions of in-store credit card and debit card records from its databases. Customers all over the United States were victimized, reported Brian Krebs, who cited people at two of the top 10 credit card Continue Reading →

Microsoft has joined the FIDO Alliance, an industry group attempting to craft industry standards that reduce reliance on passwords, long regarded as a weak point in Web security. Launched in July 2012, FIDO, which stands for Fast IDentity Online, is hoping its specifications for security devices and browser plugins will be widely adopted across the Continue Reading →

The cellphone encryption technology used most widely across the world can be easily defeated by the National Security Agency, an internal document shows, giving the agency the means to decode most of the billions of calls and texts that travel over public airwaves every day. While the military and law enforcement agencies long have been Continue Reading →

We spend a lot of time thinking about what to post on Facebook. Should you argue that political point your high school friend made? Do your friends really want to see yet another photo of your cat (or baby)? Most of us have, at one time or another, started writing something and then, probably wisely, Continue Reading →

The fast and easy answer is yes. The privacy our parents and grandparents had is no longer. The privacy we still have in pockets of our lives will not be available to our children and grandchildren. The historical definition of privacy that has existed for centuries no longer exists. In the last seven years I Continue Reading →