Safety Security & Privacy

A major spam botnet that inundated email inboxes around the world with emails promoting fake prescription drugs is gone. So says the security firm that helped kill it. “The Grum botnet has finally been knocked down. All the known command and control (CnC) servers are dead, leaving their zombies orphaned,” wrote Atif Mushtaq of FireEye Continue Reading →

Redmond’s console gaming network may not have suffered a breach of security comparable to last year’s PSN fumble, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t braced for impact. According to Xbox Live General Manager Alex Garden, Microsoft has made great strides in account security by taking legal action against sites who share phished usernames and passwords, Continue Reading →

Over the past day, Dropbox users have reported receiving spam in email accounts created exclusively for the service. The company has confirmed the reports and says it’s investigating. Are our Dropbox passwords safe? TechCrunch reports that users in the Dropbox forums pointed out the weird spam email about a day ago. The users, most of Continue Reading →

A Russian hacker appears to have defeated Apple’s in-app purchase security and processing checks, allowing iPhone and iPad owners to potentially rack up thousands of purchases within apps for no charge. 9to5mac reports that (via i-ekb.ru) that developer ‘ZonD80′ has developed a technique that uses an in-app proxy method to bypass the payment processing features Continue Reading →

Yahoo today confirmed that 450,000 unencrypted usernames and passwords were stolen Wednesday from one of its services, although it downplayed the threat. “We confirm that an older file from Yahoo! Contributor Network, previously Associated Content, containing approximately 450,000 Yahoo! and other company usernames and passwords was compromised yesterday, July 11,” Yahoo said in a statement Continue Reading →

The passwords to 432,000 email accounts were leaked earlier today. They were leaked from an older Yahoo file associated with the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Yahoo claims that only about 5 percent of the accounts had valid (current) passwords, but here’s how to check if your ancient account is one of them. Read the full story Continue Reading →

Yahoo has reportedly been hacked after the plaintext credentials for 400,000 logins were found to have been posted online, according to security expert Trusted Sec. The report — via Ars Technica — suggests that the user data is from the company’s Yahoo Voices content network, and the security firm has expressed its concern that it Continue Reading →

Price Waterhouse Coopers just released a report finding that cyber crime against businesses has soared in 2011.  While Cyber Monday might be over, the online shopping discounts will continue to get better and better as Christmas approaches.  In essence, the holiday ad bombardment won’t stop until the New Year bells have tolled. The press gives Continue Reading →

Cyber Monday — which for many stores begins Sunday — is almost upon us. That means that more than any other time of year, we’ll be bombarded with sales and deals and notices and ads. One study found 84 percent of retailers saying they would email consumers about holiday-shopping deals. Your email inbox will be Continue Reading →

We talk a lot about the impact of social media on commerce and human connections.  The social media platform has the ability to transfer news and ideas faster than news and ideas can even be generated.  Since the start of what the media is calling the ‘Arab Spring’, social media has literally become something quite Continue Reading →