As legislators grapple with increasingly vocal smartphone owners concerned with privacy, a new Bill before the U.S. House of Representatives aims to require mandatory consumer consent prior to allowing the collection or transfer of data on such devices. You may recall that a company called CarrierIQ recently became the center of attention after a user
Awhile back we noted a case where Ramona Fricosu, a woman accused of involvement in a mortgage scam, was asked, following a law enforcement raid in which her laptop was seized, to decrypt data on the device for use as evidence, potentially incriminating her. She pleaded the 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination and refused to
In an escalation of the tendency to require companies to be forthright with their users following a breach, a European Union proposed bill intended to overhaul a 17-year old law is making progress. This week EU will outline the overhaul to the existing rules, hoping to encourage more expedient communication efforts following a breach, in
As increasing sectors of the internet migrate to Facebook as a deployment platform (Zygna, etc.), a new effort aims to spread the preference aggregation features to include things users either own or would like to own. By allowing users to add Own and Want buttons to their profile, users can highlight both a Wishlist and
We read that Zappos.com was breached on Sunday, to the tune of 24+ million users’ worth of information. But it seems at first blush they responded well. Of course, a company would hope to never have a breach at all, but when it happened at Zappos.com, here are some of the things they appear to
National Security Agency’s (NSA) SE Linux team, citing critical gaps in the security of Android , is building a Security Enhanced (SE) version of the publicly available source code for the Android project. This is a variant of the SE Linux project co-developed by NSA and RedHat, which gives (among other things) a more granular
You just got a new wireless router for Christmas, but when you set it up it asks about wireless security. Do you want WEP, WPA, WPA2 or any of the other alphabet soup options they give? While it’s easiest to just pick the default setting, are you setting yourself up for trouble from aspiring hackers?
Recently we noted that unencrypted credit card storage was on the rise in 2011, and also highlighted the expense involved to the company in the event of a credit card breach. Now we see personal data – including unencrypted credit card information – being paraded out as a part of the recent Stratfor hack. Also,
We’ve noted recently that many companies store credit card information in an unencrypted form, sometimes several years' worth. So what happens if your systems get hacked before you get around to securing that credit card data? Sure, there’s the embarrassment of telling your customers their data has been exposed–a legal requirement in more than 40
In 2011 we saw an increase concern about, and scrutiny of, what exactly social networking sites do with the data you input, both internally as well as what gets shared with third parties. But in 2012 some of that scrutiny will shift to those third parties as more people ask: What are they doing with
More websites stored unencrypted credit card payment information than ever this year, according to a recent report. I thought we had this figured out? Obviously this is a direct violation of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements. But seriously, this stuff is simple for the developers to fix, so why don’t they?
Recently we see allegations that CarrierIQ is quietly collecting more information than Android users bargained for. In one case, Trevor Eckhart thinks he proved that they register users’ keystrokes without the users’ knowledge for reasons subject to ongoing speculation. We certainly had no trouble finding the CarrierIQ software on an HTC phone, where it possessed
Well, okay, if you happen to be an extremely fast reader. The Association of Anti Virus Asia Researcher’s (AVAR) 14th AVAR Conference just wrapped up in Hong Kong on Friday. This year, the focus was on security issues in and around the emerging Asian security market, and how to rise to the challenge. As one
ESET's Threat Reports for September and October include some quality articles on Facebook, safety online, and backup strategy.
Awhile back we posted findings of a Harris poll showing public perception of Internet security, with some interesting results. This time we take a look at whether respondents perceive the Government and/or their schools have an implicit responsibility, or whether it lands squarely on their shoulders in the end (or should). Both schools and government
We see yet another breach hitting the headlines from a Massachusetts Healthcare Service provider, Spectrum Health Services. It seems during a break-in a hard drive was stolen, which contained names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, diagnostic codes and medical insurance numbers. It is interesting because, unlike other states, Massachusetts law requires
A recent report from Commtouch finds about one third of Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and Facebook users even noticed when they were hacked, and more than half found out later after friends alerted them. This lag time provides a wide open window for scammers to use social engineering techniques to target more valuable targets, and harvest
In Europe, a user can make a request to an online company for all personal data they may have stored about them. One user did just that, and found 880 PAGES of data stored about him by Facebook! Other users listed on the Europe vs. Facebook website had even more. They include the usual data
Actually $26, according to a study conducted by Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, which was able to hack a Diebold voting machine with “about $26 and an 8th-grade science education.” In light of the rapidly approaching 2012 U.S. Presidential Election, it seems there may be a need to give serious attention to securing our election
Unless you specifically cancel the 2-way communication aspect, the default setting will be to continue a communication link to OnStar once the subscription expires, raising the ire of customers who wonder what the company does with the data. OnStar says that data is anonymized, but customers fear data showing current vehicle location doesn’t seem very
