"Apparently security cameras are even less secure than we thought. Eighteen popular brands of cameras have been found to have serious flaws in their own security, leaving at least 58,000 unsecured, open-to-basically-anyone security cams out there. In short, the flaw allows anyone connected to a specific port full access to the DVR functions of the cameras." Continue reading →
"Cyber-attacks on Iran are turning it into a 'force to be reckoned with' America's top cyber-soldier has warned. Since 2010, Iran has come under attack many times by malicious viruses written specifically to target key industrial installations in the country. The repeated attacks have provoked Iran to improve its cyber-capabilities, said Gen William Shelton who oversees US cyber-operations. That improved capability had helped it protect itself against subsequent attacks on oil terminals and other manufacturing plants. Its capability might well be turned against Iran's enemies in the coming years, he said." Continue reading →
"Florida's driver-and-vehicle database, the system that can help law enforcement identify victims of fatal crashes and decipher the identity of a suspect, can be a useful tool for cops. But at least 74 law enforcers were suspected of misusing D.A.V.I.D. in 2012, a nearly 400 percent increase from 2011, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Officers who needlessly pull information or photographs from D.A.V.I.D. that would otherwise be private could face criminal charges, sanctions or disciplinary action. And yet the temptation of looking up a relative, a celebrity's address or a romantic interest is too great for some law enforcers." Continue reading →
"As more and more of our personal data — and those of the people we know and are related to — gets posted online, the anonymity promised by the remove of a computer screen gets more and more elusive. That’s what a team of scientists uncovered when they started playing Sherlock with a batch of genetic data posted online for researchers to use. The data was anonymous: the participants’ names were not published. But using the information that was provided, including age and where they live, along with freely available Internet resources, the researchers were able to identify nearly 50 of the individuals in the genomic database." Continue reading →
"Google on Wednesday reported a 'steady increase' in government requests to hand over data from Internet users in the second half of 2012. The Web giant’s semiannual 'transparency report' showed the most requests came from the the United States, with 8,438 requests for information about 14,868 users. In releasing details of requests in the United States, Google said 68 percent of the requests it received from government entities were through subpoenas, which 'are the easiest to get because they typically don’t involve judges,' according to Salgado." Continue reading →
"Google has pushed out an update that blocks an intermediate digital certificate for *.google.com after discovering that a Turkish certificate authority had mistakenly issued intermediate certificates to two organizations that should only have gotten normal SSL certificates. That error gave those two organizations the power to issue certificates that carried the same authority as the CA itself. One of the groups that obtained the intermediate certificate is a Turkish government agency and at least one of the major browser vendors said there was evidence the ceritificates had been used in an active attack." Continue reading →
"Nokia has confirmed reports that its Xpress Browser decrypts data that flows through HTTPS connections – that includes the connections set up for banking sessions, encrypted email and more. However, it insists that there’s no need for users to panic because it would never access customers’ encrypted data." Continue reading →
"What makes Bitcoin so interesting is that it flies in the face of payment models that we’re used to today; it’s a push model rather than a pull one. When you give a website your credit card and billing information to buy something, the company is pulling money out of your account. Giving up that personal information isn’t the safest thing, and Bitcoin allows you to 'push' the money to a company to buy something. This means that no personally identifiable information goes with it, making eventual identity theft and fraud nearly impossible during the transaction." Continue reading →
"A mountain in which are hundreds of meters deep into the rock top-secret data stored? What sounds like a spy thriller, is located in the Bernese Oberland reality: A team of 20 minutes online, paid a visit to one of the most protected places in Switzerland." Continue reading →
"About 13,000 California home healthcare workers had their Social Security numbers exposed online for nine days after being mistakenly posted on a website for Medi-Cal, KCRA-TV reported on Tuesday. The California Department of Health Care Services (DHS) confirmed that the leak happened last month, the second security problem involving health care workers in the past five months, before the information was removed from public view." Continue reading →