data

Yesterday we reported on the hacking of Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN), an online gaming platform for the company's PlayStation 3 (PS3) console. The hack affects 77 million user and has left the PlayStation network paralyzed. When the security ... breach was first announced, Sony remained quiet on the extent of the damage. New details are starting to emerge, with the tech company admitting that some of the personal data available to the hackers was in no way encrypted. This means that data thieves can do as they please with the information they've stolen from the electronics giant. Doubts ... (view more)

Toshiba has announced the successful completion of the first set of self-encrypting hard disk drives (HDDs) in the world. The popular Japanese consumer electronics firm has engineered these HDDs to automatically invalidate confidential data when ... connected to an unknown host. The 2.5-type MK6461GSYG family of hard disk drives is featured in five different models, ranging from 160GB to 640GB. All models allow the original manufacturers to configure different data invalidation options. Their main purpose in doing so is to assist IT departments in helping their companies comply with ever-changing ... (view more)

An unspecified number of email users may be indirect victims of a recent data breach at a major marketing company. The breach was at Epsilon, which operates online mailing lists for many major companies, including seven of the ten largest firms in ... America. It's rumored that "millions" of email addresses may have been compromised in the attack. (Source: forbes.com ) The data theft means users should be on high alert for so-called email " phishing " attempts. Massive Data Breach a Gold Harvest for Online Scammers Epsilon says the breach involved the data relating to 2 per cent of its ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced that Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) supports two separate technologies for restricting access to information related to a user's online activity. One of the privacy features was recently prompted by the Federal Trade Commission ... (FTC). Both technologies involve the way websites share data with third-parties. The most prominent example is with advertisements that appear on a page; for example, rather than simply linking ads to the page content (such as a newspaper site running golf equipment ads alongside a golf match report), a site might pass on details of all the pages a ... (view more)

AT&T is imposing a maximum monthly download limit for its broadband customers. It's a move more reminiscent of smartphone data plans, where bandwidth is more restricted. Under the new policy, which begins in May, DSL users will be allowed to ... download up to 150GB of data per month, a cap that's raised to 250GB for those on the U-Verse service which delivers fiber optic cable right to the customer's home. The company estimates that around 2 per cent of customers will be affected by the limit. (Source: dslreports.com ) $10 for 50GB Overage Fee to Apply Those who exceed the limits won't face ... (view more)

A New York senator has called for major US Internet sites to offer all of their web pages in secure mode. Charles Schumer says the move would help protect against theft of data through public WiFi networks. The request involves the hypertext ... transfer protocol, which is the technical system used for transferring data between a website and a user, and vice versa. The protocol is available in two forms: standard (in which page addresses begin with http://) and secure (in which page addresses begin with https://). Secure Browser Sessions Encrypted, Denoted by Padlock In a secure connection, which ... (view more)

Despite only a having a marginal impact on the data storage market in the past, Microsoft has revealed their desire to help improve flash memory. Current plans call for the creation of software that uses solid-state storage (such as a solid state ... drive, or "SSD") in conjunction with RAM and hard disk, while eliminating random writes and other wasteful operations. Calling the program "FlashStore," Microsoft will be able to use flash storage as a bridge between RAM (primary storage) and hard drives (secondary storage). The current software would essentially fit between a hard drive ... (view more)

When Microsoft first announced it had discovered a third party was responsible for mysterious data use on some Windows Phone 7 handsets, it didn't confirm rumors that Yahoo was to blame. Now, it's firmly pointing the finger at Yahoo -- which is in ... turn passing the blame back to Microsoft. The problem emerged last month when some users noticed particularly high levels of data use even when their phones weren't being used. That led to complaints that some users risked unintentionally going over monthly data limits and facing blocks or excess use fees. Microsoft later said that the problem ... (view more)

Google claims that Microsoft (via the Bing search engine) has been copying search results and presenting them as their own. The accusation comes after Google hosted a "sting" operation that caught Microsoft in the act of "borrowing" Google-hosted ... data. The covert plan saw the implementation of 100 obscure queries (that served as decoys) within Google search algorithms. For example, Google named one particular code "mbzrygiys" and linked it to smartphone maker Research in Motion (RIM). Interestingly enough, this same code (and a few others) appeared in Bing search results, proving that the ... (view more)

Hard drive manufacturer ioSafe has produced what it calls the ultimate range of "disaster proof" external hard drives. It promises the drives can withstand anything short of fire or bullets, though recent testing demonstrated the latter won't ... necessarily destroy data. The drives, which ioSafe says meet "military specifications," serve two main purposes: one is to be able to stand up to extreme environments such as Arctic cold or hot, dusty deserts. The second is for corporate users who want to take every practical step to protect their critical data. Disaster Proof Hard Drives Offer ... (view more)