information

Tue
06
Jan
Dennis Faas's picture

British Government Wants Private Firm To Monitor Super Database Of Every Person In Britain

The British Government is contemplating the third-party construction of a super database containing the identities and location of every person in Britain. The 'super database,' which comes at the hefty cost of 12 billion British pounds, would be ... run by one or a number of private companies and would track every citizen's Internet usage, every phone call, every text message, as well as many other transactions. The government claims the database is necessary to fight terrorism and serious crime. Of course, the government also claims it would come with stringent safeguards to protect a user's ... (view more)

Wed
24
Dec
Dennis Faas's picture

Major Web Browsers Fail Password Protection Testing

The password management feature in your favorite web browser could be helping identity thieves steal your personal data, according to a survey recently conducted by Chapin Information Services (CIS). Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari and ... Chrome are vulnerable to a total of 20 vulnerabilities that could result in exposing your password-related information. Three problems are among those that, when combined, allow password thieves to steal your password without your knowledge: The destination where passwords are sent is not checked. The location where passwords are requested is not ... (view more)

Wed
10
Dec
Dennis Faas's picture

Using Document Inspector in MS Word 2007

Your documents contain a lot more information that you realize, such as tracked changes, comments, and hidden text, etc. If you distribute your documents containing this information you may find yourself quite embarrassed. To make sure that you are ... not going to embarrass yourself or your company, there is a great feature in MS Word 2007 called Document Inspector. Follow the steps below to learn how to use it: Click on the Office button. Select Prepare. From the resulting menu, click Inspect Document. MS Word 2003 does not have the same equivalent but you can try to keep your face becoming red ... (view more)

Wed
12
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

Crimeware Trojan Steals Bank Info

Details of more than 500,000 online bank accounts and credit and debit cards have reportedly been stolen by a virus described as "one of the most advanced pieces of crimeware ever created." (Source: bbc.co.uk ) The RSA Fraud Action Research Lab, ... part of EMC's security unit, discovered log-in information on more than 270,000 banking accounts and 240,000 credit and debit card accounts that had been compromised from hundreds of thousands of financial institution in countries including the U.S. the U.K., Australia and Poland by a cybercrime gang using the Sinowal Trojan, first detected in ... (view more)

Wed
03
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Online Acts of War Tracked By New Breed Of Hackers

In the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, a new breed of hacker-investigators monitoring how traffic is routed through countries where web sites are blocked and why it is happening are reportedly conducting digital espionage --- turning their ... attention to a new weapon of international warfare: cyber attacks. "Hacktivists," led by Ronald J. Deibert, director of Citizen Lab, referred to as the "NSA of operations," set out to help residents in countries that censor online content, but have ended up tracking wars. Citizen Lab researchers created a software tool called Psiphon that helps ... (view more)

Thu
07
Aug
Dennis Faas's picture

Laptops and Electronic Devices Subject To Detainment at U.S. Borders

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reportedly decided that the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol reserves the right to seize -- for an indefinite amount of time and without probable cause -- documents and electronic media or copies ... thereof for further review, as well as make copies of, and "analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, re-enter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States." The documents and electronic media may be detained for further review, either on-site at the place of detention or at an off-site location. Translated, ... (view more)

Tue
29
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

Most Bank Sites Insecure, Says Recent Study

Online banking makes life easier, at least for those of us comfortable with the idea of transacting money from the home or office. Like most people, I assume that my bank's website is an extremely secure site, rigorously monitored to protect my ... money. Along with many other people, I may have been wrong. A University of Michigan study released last week suggests that, of 214 financial institutions' websites, every one had design flaws and over three-quarters contained at least one flaw that could potentially put customers at risk. (Source: cnet.com ) One of the larger problems seems to be the ... (view more)

Fri
23
May
Dennis Faas's picture

Phishing a High Stakes Game

More than three dozen people around the world have been charged with stealing personal information from Internet users through a 'phishing' scam. That's where criminals trick people into revealing information by posing as staff from online banks or ... other organisations, usually sending emails asking customers to confirm details for 'security reasons'. The arrests come following a Justice Department investigation that wound up in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Of the 38 people busted, more than half were Romanian, with the rest hailing from the United States, Canada, Portugal and Pakistan. ... (view more)

Mon
12
May
Dennis Faas's picture

Apple Slammed by Environment Watchdog

Apple products may be fantastically marketed and look great, but according to a recent study by environmental watchdog Climate Counts, the company is a serious environmental offender. Although its website states that the company "recognizes its ... responsibility as a global citizen," Apple scored a pithy 11 out of 100 points on Climate Counts' 2008 survey of the environmental policies of large companies. Through attempts to identify problem areas, the Apple jumped up 9 points from last year's survey . However, the company lost huge marks for not acknowledging the extent of its carbon footprint. ... (view more)

Wed
09
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

Reading the Fine Print Always a Good Idea

Sometimes, there's a good reason that the "privacy policy" has been placed almost invisibly at the bottom of the page, and that when you click on the link, it presents you with a mountain of microscopic legal-like gobbledygook in a document 24-pages ... long. The reason the policy is placed in a small, out-of-the-way location is simple: the site owners don't really want you to realize that you've just agreed to allow any information they collect about you or your PC to be distributed across the Internet for the rest of your life. But you'll miss that because you won't bother to read beyond the ... (view more)

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