Archive

The Tor Project is working to remedy a vulnerability in its anonymity software following the sudden cancellation of a talk at next month's Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas that would have revealed it. The planned talk, entitled "You Don't Have to be the NSA to Break Tor: Deanonymizing User...

The long-held belief that Android is the least secure of mobile OSes was shattered by security researcher and expert iOS hacker Jonathan Zdziarski over the weekend. He unveiled a host of iOS vulnerabilities, the scope of which was staggering: undocumented services that bypass backup encryption and c...

Startup GoTenna has launched its eponymously named device, which lets users communicate without the need for a cell tower. "This is an interesting concept," said tech analyst Jim McGregor. "It's like a walkie-talkie on steroids." The device uses BlueTooth LE to pair with a user's smartphone. It can ...

Concerns about overly broad searches of digital data by law enforcement once again have emerged after a federal judge ruled that officials armed with a warrant can seize and hold a suspect's entire email account. Such an action would not violate the suspect's rights under the Fourth Amendment of the...

OPINION

Layoffs: There's a Right Way

Microsoft last week announced a large staff reduction tied to the acquisition of Nokia. There is actually a science to how to make layoffs, but much of that appears to have been lost over the last couple of decades. I have some theories as to why -- I blame the Democrats and financial analysts -- bu...

It may not be a marriage made in heaven, but the cloud is pretty close. Just hours after IBM and Apple announced their strategic partnership, speculation began to spread about two of their most well-known products: What if Siri and Watson were to hook up? Siri is Apple's voice-enabled digital person...

A crowdfunding campaign for Jibo, a little robot designed to become one of the family, kicked off Wednesday on Indiegogo, and with 29 days remaining, it already has raised more than $577,000 -- nearly six times its $100,000 target. The voice-controlled robot with a friendly face is a do-it-all perso...

Telecom regulators from each EU member state, together with the Article 29 Working Party -- a group comprised of a data protection authority representative from each state, the European Data Protection Supervisor, and the European Commission -- have invited search engines to a meeting next week, acc...

The Gameover botnet is back, more or less, only six weeks or so after the Justice Department announced that an FBI-led multinational effort had disrupted it. Still, the botnet's downtime was longer than expected -- the UK's National Crime Agency had warned that the people running it would regain con...

The news that Apple and IBM have joined forces sent a shockwave through the Apple-focused world this week, and I admit it, I was surprised. At first glance, the deal seems to be this big group hug with the two companies becoming inextricably entwined. Yeah, it's not that. In fact, this is the bigges...

Novartis' Alcon eye care division has entered an in-license agreement governing all ocular medical uses for Google's smart contact lenses, it announced Tuesday. Google unveiled a prototype of its glucose-monitoring lens in January. No financial details of the arrangement were released, and the deal ...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Windows XP Hacked, Supply Chain Poisoned

A supply chain compromise is a security pro's worst nightmare. The thought of malware being planted on computer devices before they leave the factory sends shivers down a cyberdefender's spine. A disturbing case of such poisoning was reported last week by researchers at TrapX. The researchers found ...

CROWDFUNDING SPOTLIGHT

Bet You Wish You'd Installed a Blender in a Cooler Lid

The hottest crowdsourced hit of the summer is the Coolest Cooler, an unassuming party cooler that features a built-in ice-crushing blender, a removable waterproof Bluetooth speaker, a USB charger, an LED lid light, a gear tie down, super wide wheels for dragging it over sand, a bottle opener, integr...

Google on Tuesday announced Project Zero, an effort to speed up the security bug-fixing process. A team of cybersecurity experts will go after vulnerabilities in any and all software, notify the vendors, and then file bug reports in a public database. The Project Zero team has promised to send bug r...


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