It was only a matter of time before one hacktivist group or another would react to the UK court-ordered ISP block on The Pirate Bay.
The UK Protection of Freedoms Bill this week; telecommunications surveillance next week?
A major plank of both the Conservative and LibDem election campaigns was to ‘roll back the database state’ and curtail invasive bureaucratic surveillance. But has the Coalition achieved this? And what about the proposed communications monitoring bill?…
LOIC DDoS tool – is it ‘safe’ for the user?
The DDoS weapon of choice for Anonymous activists, the Low Orbit Ion Canon (LOIC), was downloaded from the internet 381,961 times during 2011. That number has already been exceeded in 2012, with daily downloads averaging more than 3400.
Security firm finds dodgy Android apps that offer “free” stuff to get information
GFI Software researchers have identified 20 Android applications on the Google Play marketplace that lure users with offers of “free” products or money to fill out surveys.
New NIST protocol enables secure biometric data access
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a new protocol for securely communicating with biometric sensors over wired and wireless networks using web services.
SOCA knocked off the web by DDoS – again
The UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency has today confirmed that a DDoS attack forced it take its website off-line at 22:00 Wednesday. As of writing, 14:30 Thursday, it is still down.
The evolving role of the CISO – new study by IBM
A study by IBM’s Center for Applied Insights concludes that there are now three ‘types’ of CISO: influencers, protectors and responders. Evolution towards the ‘influencer’ role is necessary, and happening.
Hackers levy an ‘idiot tax’ on Belgian bank
“While this could be called ‘blackmail,’ we prefer to think of it as an ‘idiot tax’ for leaving confidential data unprotected on a Web server,” announces an unidentified hacker group in a news statement on Pastebin.
Google releases security update for Chrome 18 web browser
Google has updated its Chrome 18 web browser with fixes for five vulnerabilities, including three high-risk flaws.
Al-Qaeda uses steganography – documents hidden in porn videos found on memory stick
Steganography is the science of hiding data. Its most common digital use is to hide data within graphics – text hidden in a picture. Al-Qaeda apparently hid documents within porn videos on a memory stick.