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Wed
18
Jun
John Lister's picture

US Government to Auction Virtual Currency

US Marshals are to auction off almost 30,000 Bitcoins, a controversial "virtual currency." The coins have a current market value of around $18 million dollars. The government confiscated the virtual currency when it raided an underground online ... trading site named Silk Road. Silk Road was not part of the ordinary World Wide Web, and could only be accessed using special web browser software. That made it extremely difficult to trace anyone using the site and their activity. The site was well known in the digital underground community for buying and selling services of both a legal and ... (view more)

Wed
21
May
John Lister's picture

Password Study: Most Sites Inadequate On Security

A new study reviewed security among leading online companies following the Heartbleed bug scare, in which a commonly used encryption technique for secure websites had the capability to expose highly confidential data. The study comes from Dashlane, ... a password management firm. The study evaluated 80 web sites and examined 6 factors with regard to the way passwords and login processes are handled. Using these details, Dashlane ranked each site between +100 and minus -100. Based on a range of security issues, the study suggests Apple and Microsoft have the securest policies for passwords, while ... (view more)

Mon
17
Feb
John Lister's picture

Kickstarter Site Hacked, Passwords Stolen

Kickstarter, a popular site for raising money for technology and art projects, has been hit by hackers. The site says no credit card information was compromised but warns users to review their passwords. Kickstarter is a popular "crowdfunding" web ... site. It lets members of the public pledge money towards a project, usually as a pre-order for a finished product; the pledgers only have to hand over the cash if the project reaches a set funding target. The most successful such project was Pebble, a wristwatch device that used Kindle-style electronic ink to display information from a ... (view more)

Fri
14
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

New Infopackets Website Relaunch - FAQs

I have received many frequently asked questions since the new site went live. I'll answer a few questions below. "Why haven't I received any newsletters since December 28?" There have been no newsletters published since the old server was ... discontinued, the new server went live, and all major bugs have been resolved. We expect more bugs to appear in the coming days as users come back to the site and after we send out our first newsletter on the new newsletter delivery system (after making this announcement), so please be patient. Going forward, newsletter delivery will most ... (view more)

Fri
14
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

New Infopackets Website Relaunch - Complete

Dear Infopackets Readers, I'm pleased to announce that our website relaunch is now complete. Unfortunately, the transition did not go as smoothly as anticipated. Shortly after the new site went live, the server was maliciously attacked and the ... databases became corrupted. There were also 185 (or so) documented bugs I needed to correct over the last month, before giving this official 'go ahead' announcement. This is described below. A Bit of History This project officially began shortly after April 2011, coinciding with Google's algorithm change which dropped our web traffic and ... (view more)

Sat
28
Dec
Dennis Faas's picture

New Infopackets Website Relaunch

Update 2014/02/08: we have resolved most of the major technical issues that have plagued our web site / new server since re-launch and expect to resume operations next week. Please note that all email newsletter subscriber data has been ported and ... it is not necessary to re-subscribe. All email newsletter subscribers will receive the newsletter on schedule when it becomes available. Thank you for your patience. -- Dear Infopackets Readers, We have a major announcement to make concerning our website, Infopackets. This article is a bit long, but it's really important -- so please read it ... (view more)

Tue
05
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

Facebook Changing Privacy Rules For Younger Users

Facebook is loosening its controls on teenaged users. The social networking site says it will now allow the 13- to 17-year-old crowd to do most everything their older counterparts can, including sharing photos, updates, and comments with the general ... public. Teenagers will also be able to enable the 'Follow' feature, which allows friends and non-friends to track their Facebook activity. The changes also mean third parties, including advertisers, can track these young users' Facebook activity. Facebook says it has already initiated the change. But Facebook isn't dismissing all controls on its ... (view more)

Mon
07
Oct
Dennis Faas's picture

FBI Shuts Down Billion-Dollar Online Drug Market

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested and charged a man accused of running a notorious Internet "underground market" that let users trade illegal drugs and weapons. The "Silk Road" site combined a range of technologies to offer users ... greater secrecy. The site was part of the so-called "dark Internet": the collection of sites that were part of the Internet but were not reachable through ordinary links. Users could only visit the site by using software known as TOR, or The Onion Router. The name came from the way that data sent through the software was redirected through thousands of ... (view more)

Tue
17
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Most Hacktivists Just Looking For Attention: Report

A new security report reveals that most 'hacktivists' (or politically-motivated hackers) aren't looking to inflict long-term damage on their victims through cyberattacks. Instead, their primary goal is to draw attention to their own cause. But ... that's not necessarily a good thing -- in fact, experts say it makes devising a foolproof security strategy extremely difficult. "What we have seen with hacktivists is that attacking a website tends to be more about generating media coverage about their cause than it is about which site they targeted or what the impact was," says Michael Smith, incident ... (view more)

Mon
02
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Facebook Insists It Can Use Your Pictures in Ads

Facebook is planning to use profile pictures to automatically recognize users when they appear in photos taken by somebody else. The firm has also made it clear to users that it has every right to use members' pictures in its own advertisements ... without compensating them in any way. The proposed changes are detailed in a Facebook post that, following a court order, more clearly explains how the site uses data from its users. Facebook already uses facial recognition software but in a more limited manner. Once you have been "tagged" in a photograph (that is, somebody has labeled you as being one ... (view more)

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