How much free time do government employees have at work? Well Michael C. Ford a former State Department civilian employee had too much time. From his desk at the embassy in London between January 2013 and May 2015 Ford used a government computer to hack 450 private email accounts and sextort 75 women. Ford has…
The D.O.J. versus Encryption; this may have been the biggest case regarding personal privacy in the digital age, and it went undecided. Rather than force the court to make a ruling the D.O.J. withdrew their petition because the F.B.I. found a way to hack the iPhone. But in the tech industry the fall out is…
Sextortionists and fake antivirus software are not the only ones who hijack webcams anymore. Now the FBI is doing it. Only they have a method which does not turn on the indicator light that let’s you know the webcam is on. Of course, as long they are in your computer recording live feed, they also download files, photos,…
Version 3.0 of the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) goes into effect on January 1, 2014. That is only 45 days from today. The PCI SSC published the 3.0 standards in their document library on Thursday. The changes are suppose to allow for more flexibility, with an increased focus…
“The Godfather”, the user handle of a Silk Road user, claims to have started up a new Silk Road website. He has also assumed the handle of the previous owner, Dread Pirate Roberts. As in the movie “Princess Bride”, The Godfather is treating Dread Pirate Roberts is a title and not an identity. He said…
After email the most common source of Malware infections is through your internet browser. So securing your browser is a great way to defend against Malware and protect your privacy. This is the first in a series of tips to help our readers protect themselves. This first tip will focus on general practices. Subsequent tips…
After stealing $1.4 million using the TorRat Trojan 4 men were arrested by the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit. The criminals used the Trojan to steal money from over 150 accounts. TorRat is designed to steal online banking credentials. The bank robbers were able to hide their activities by putting their command and control server on…
NSS Labs Inc. Put together their 2013 Browser Security Comparitive Analisys in the categories of Phishing Protection, Privacy and Socially Engineeres Malware. Tha analisys compares Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. NSSLabs rated Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as providing the best protection against malware and phishing attacks.They also determined that reputation technology of Google’s Chrome…
No one knows for sure. The iMessage app communicates to the Apple servers over SSL, using encryption keys controlled by Apple. This means Apple has the ability, and the according to their EULA, the authority to look at iMessages and the corresponding meta data. To compound matters your AppleID and password are communicated in clear…
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