Hacking

Last year's breach of unclassified White House computer systems reportedly was far more intrusive than initially thought and included the theft of some presidential correspondence. No classified systems were compromised, including the servers that control the message traffic from President Obama's...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Breach Outbreaks Fuel Encryption Adoption

As data breaches make headlines around the world, more companies are turning to encryption to protect their information jewels. That is one of the findings in a study released Monday, conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Thales E-Security. "Mega breaches and cyber attacks have incre...

The CIA has been trying to hack into iOS for years. British and American agencies reportedly have collaborated to create a map of the Internet and Web users. The United States National Security Agency has, together with the UK's GCHQ, reportedly stolen SIM card encryption keys from Gemalto. The FBI ...

The U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, part of the U.S. 10th Fleet, reportedly is developing a strategy for modernizing its cyberoperations and transforming the Navy's network into a cyberwarfare platform. The strategy will seek to advance five key goals: operating the Navy network as a warfighting platform;...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Heartbleed Threat Won't Fade Away

This week marks the first anniversary of the Heartbleed vulnerability that caused a panic across the Internet last year. While the flaw appears to have faded from the recollections of Net denizens, it still poses danger at many sites in cyberspace. Heartbleed was discovered in April 2014 in an ope...

The White House in January proposed updates to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that have stirred controversy within the cybersecurity industry. The proposals would allow prosecution under the CFAA of insiders who abuse their ability to access information, while setting aside insignificant conduct.

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Compliance Mindset Can Lead to Epic Security Fail

The recent data breach at Premera Blue Cross -- in which the personal information of some 11 million customers was compromised -- raises questions about how effective government regulators are at ensuring that healthcare providers adequately protect their patients' data. There have been abundant war...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

CAPTCHAs May Do More Harm Than Good

If an annoyance contest were held between passwords and CAPTCHAs, passwords would probably win, but not by much. CAPTCHA -- Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart -- was created to foil bots attempting to mass-create accounts at websites. Once created, those accou...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

How Secure Is the Apple Watch?

Apple typically has impeccable timing for its new product introductions, but that may not be the case with its new smartwatch. In a gala event last week, the company announced model and pricing details for its Apple Watch. That came just six days after questions were raised about the security of its...

Microsoft on Tuesday announced Windows Hello, a feature that allows users to access computers and devices running Windows 10 via face recognition, iris identification or fingerprint matching. In addition, the company raised the curtain on Microsoft Passport, a programming system that IT managers, so...

Apple earlier this week announced ResearchKit, an open source framework that will let medical and health researchers gather data through iPhone apps. ResearchKit will be released in April. Apps to monitor asthma patients and for studies on breast cancer survivors, cardiovascular health and Parkinson...

The United States' Central Intelligence Agency for years has been working to break iOS security, according to a report published Tuesday. The allegations are based on documents provided by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Researchers working with the CIA have presented their tactics and achievemen...

The United States Federal Aviation Administration should implement cybersecurity upgrades recommended by the U.S. Government Accountability Office immediately, or risk hackers taking over its computer systems, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has warned. The GAO last week released a report that found s...

Microsoft on Thursday issued a security advisory acknowledging a vulnerability in all versions of Windows that could allow FREAK exploits. Windows systems previously were thought to be immune to FREAK attacks. "The vulnerability could allow an attacker to force the downgrading of the cipher suites u...

Almost 17,000 malware alerts surface every week, the Ponemon Institute recently found. Only 4 percent of alerts were investigated, and traditional antivirus products missed nearly 70 percent of malware in the first hour, researchers discovered in a recent Damballa study. Rescanning led to identifi...

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