Cyber Security

Can your mobile phone become a replacement for manually typing in a password? That’s the promise of a new application called Knock, which launched on Tuesday, which uses an iPhone paired with a Mac desktop or laptop computer to log you in to your locked machine. The system takes advantage of the newer low-energy Bluetooth Continue Reading →

Microsoft again put the scare into Windows XP users, telling them that after April 8, 2014, the chance that malware will infect their PCs could jump by two-thirds. The claim, made by Tim Rains, director of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group, came on the heels of the release of the company’s twice-annual Security Intelligence Report. Following Continue Reading →

Having come under fire over its relaxed attitude towards saved passwords in Chrome earlier in the year, Google is finally looking to do something about it. In a post to his Google+ page, Chrome tinkerer François Beaufort notes that the company will now ask users to authenticate themselves using a system password before they can Continue Reading →

On Friday morning, a coder turned up a surprising feature in OS Mavericks, a chunk of code that seemed to reset idle time whenever the computer sensed movement. Immediately, the concern spread to Twitter. Did that mean the iSight camera was always on, opening up the same privacy concerns that have dogged the next-generation Kinect? Continue Reading →

Facebook is testing technology that would greatly expand the scope of data that it collects about its users, the head of the company’s analytics group said Tuesday. The social network may start collecting data on minute user interactions with its content, such as how long a user’s cursor hovers over a certain part of its Continue Reading →

The National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world, according to documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and interviews with knowledgeable officials. By tapping those links, the agency has positioned itself to collect at will from among hundreds of millions Continue Reading →

The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its “customer” departments, such the White House, State and Continue Reading →

Google is introducing the ability to control what its Chrome browser will show with a new feature called supervised users. Like Windows Phone 8’s Kid’s Corner, the feature’s aimed at families, and allows the owner of a device to block websites and set permissions in Chrome that determine the parts of the internet other users Continue Reading →

Touting its commitment to user privacy in the wake of the NSA surveillance scandal earlier this year, Apple said that the end-to-end encryption protecting its iMessage instant-messenger service is so secure that even the company itself cannot decrypt it. But, on Thursday, security outfit QuarksLab disputed that claim, arguing that Apple could intercept iMessage communications Continue Reading →

Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor could extend its reach beyond the iPhone 5S and into future iPad and MacBook computers, according to a newly published patent. The company’s filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office includes language that opens the door to adding the biometric technology to its tablets, computers and “beyond,” discovered Patently Continue Reading →