The EU’s proposed Data Protection Regulation includes a difficult concept known as the ‘right to be forgotten’. It proposes that individuals should be able to remove personal data that they no longer wish to be public – but it is fraught with difficult…
INSIDE Secure buys Apple’s left-overs
In July Apple announced its intention to acquire security firm AuthenTec. This deal was completed on 4 October. Yesterday, French security firm INSIDE Secure announced its intention to acquire ESS. ESS is owned by AuthenTec.
The legal implications of botnet disruptions
The best defense against a botnet is to get rid of it – to infiltrate it, to learn all about it, and to take it down. While the takedown is usually done by or with law enforcement and any necessary court orders, the initial infiltration, often by indiv…
Proof-of-concept malware takes over USB smartcards
As if malware weren’t becoming pervasive already, a new proof-of-concept has been developed by a team of researchers that takes over smart cards plugged into an infected computer’s USB port, putting them and all of the information contained on them in …
ENISA and the privacy considerations of online behavioral tracking
With advertisers still claiming that ‘do not track’ will destroy the free internet, and a European Commission proposal for privacy-by-design and by default – enforced by sanctions – ENISA has published ‘a technical perspective on behavioral tracking.’…
Opera users urged to check for malware
Browsers come ready-configured with their own start-up home page; but the default Opera home page (portal.opera.com) was compromised with an obfuscated redirect leading to the blackhole exploit kit.
Hacking-as-a-service offers access to Fortune 500 servers for a few bucks
Call it a hacking-as-a-service (HaaS): a group renting network server access for a variety of Fortune 500 companies, including Cisco Systems, is taking advantage of weak passwords to offer logins for cheap. Despite its discovery three weeks ago, the se…
Google: government user info requests spike sharply in 2012
No doubt eagerly awaited by online privacy experts, Google has updated its biennial Transparency Report, revealing that governments around the world made nearly 21,000 requests for access to Google data in the first six months of 2012 – a sharp increas…
Adobe shuts Connectusers.com following data breach
On Tuesday a hacker calling himself ViruS_HimA and claiming to be Egyptian announced that he had hacked an Adobe server and dumped over 150,000 emails. Associated passwords were also leaked.
NASA laptop with unencrypted data stolen from vehicle
“On October 31, 2012, a NASA laptop and official NASA documents issued to a Headquarters employee were stolen from the employee’s locked vehicle,” says a 13 November email to all NASA employees. It warns that the laptop contains unencrypted personally …