Rob Waugh

Ex-employees often still have full access to the network of their previous employer, leaving the company open to “revenge attacks” - or just practical jokes.

Music streaming service Spotify has urged its Android users to upgrade to a new version of the app after “unauthorized access to our systems and internal company data” - but only one, unnamed person fell victim.

Pirates who have downloaded one of the most popular torrent files of this week's big game release Watch Dogs - ironically, themed around computer hacking - found malware pilfering their virtual gold (well, Bitcoins).

Android users beware: a loophole in the mobile OS allows apps to take pictures without users knowing and upload them to the internet, a researcher has found.

Pentagon officials showed off a virtual reality battlefield, using the Oculus Rift motion-sensing 3D VR headset, which turns cyber attacks into 3D visions where defenders can “look around” using the gadgets’s built in accelerometers.

Cybercriminals always look for the weakest link when planning their attacks – and failings in home routers can allow another "way in". A few simple adjustments will keep yours safe.

Fernando Corbato, the MIT computer scientist widely credited with inventing the computer password, says that he and his colleagues could not foresee the World Wide Web from the early Sixties - and passwords have now become “kind of a nightmare.”

Activision Blizzard - makers of game hits such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft - have taken “aggressive” legal moves against gamers who use illegal software to cheat in games - in particular, the hit strategy title Starcraft 2.

The leader of a gang who attacked 24 websites in search of personally identifiable information – from the unlikely confines of an aircraft carrier – has pleaded guilty.