Security

In yet another instance of top intelligence officials in U.S. agencies having their personal details revealed to the world, director of national intelligence, James Clapper has had his phone hacked, with calls redirected to the Free Palestine Movement. Those involved also purportedly accessed his wife's personal email account too. “We …

Independent public data rights authority, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), has attacked plans by the government to push through the Investigatory Powers Bill, often called the Snooper's Charter. It claims that there is little justification for some of the measures it wishes to push through and claims that it weakens …

The recent power outages in Ukraine which saw upwards of 80,000 people left without electricity, are now said to have been caused by hackers. The BlackEnergy malware is thought to have been used in the attack, with a coordinated effort made to shut down the power, hinder its repair and …

Edward Snowden has made an appearance at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Not, as you might expect, in person, but on a display with its own locomotion, looking rather like the meeting room in Demolition Man. The technology was really important, Snowden said, because it allowed him to talk at …

Last year saw the launch of the Blackphone, a smartphone designed and built for the super security/privacy conscious. However, even a device built to be secure can run into problems as independent researchers revealed that the device had a pretty severe vulnerability that could allow hackers to send and receive …

The second largest TV and broadband provider in the U.S., Time Warner Cable, has released a statement saying that around a third of a million of its customers may have had their email and passwords copied away by hackers. At this early stage in the investigation however, it was keen …

Although stopping game-pirates has seen developers get creative with their methods, it often seems about as futile as copyright protections on movies and music. That may not be the case for much longer though, as a Chinese cracking group has warned that if DRM protections continue to increase in complexity, …

If Microsoft thinks that intelligence agencies or governments from around the world are attempting to gain access to one of their user's email accounts, it has promised to issue a warning to that person to let them know it's happening. This move follows similar announcements by other major tech firms like …

It has taken a few days but Valve has finally explained exactly what went wrong with Steam on Christmas day, when a caching error allowed users to see someone else's account while visiting the Steam store. This meant that information like a user's address, phone number, and email address were …

A group claiming responsibility for the leak of several high-profile movies, some pre-release, has apologised to director of The Hateful Eight, Quentin Tarantino. It didn't mean to hurt anyone it said, though did add the caveat that it believed the hype generated from the pre-release leak of the movie has now …

Passwords are problematic for many reasons. You know that, I know that, and John McAfee certainly knows it; digital security has been a major part of his presidential campaign after all. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising then that he wants to kill them off: with EveryKey, a BlueTooth connected device that decrypts …

The British government's Department of Education, has called for new filtering and content control systems for school computers accessing the internet. Not only does it want better monitoring to make sure that no one is looking at things they shouldn't, but it wants more content blocked at the source, in …

Apple has once again raised concerns about the British government's plans to introduce the Investigatory Powers Bill, waiting until the final moments of the public consultation to submit its eight page brief on its problems with the snooping act. It joins a number of consumer groups and other tech firms …

Last year over the course of Christmas day, a group of cyber criminals launched a series of DDOS attacks on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. Some involved claimed it was to force kids to appreciate family time over the holiday, others claimed it was due to poor security on …

The person allegedly behind the recent hack of several million children's accounts on the VTech Innotab tablet has been arrested. The 21 year old from the UK was said to have exposed information, pictures and audio recordings of as many as 6.4 million children and their parents after cracking the …

The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, is set to be questioned by Swedish authorities at the Ecuadorian embassy where he has been living for the past three years. This was given the go ahead by the Ecuadorian government but is not set to take place until the New Year. The …

If you thought Valve was being dramatic in its implementation of three-day-waits for loss-making item trades on Steam, think again. In a long-form blog explaining just why it pushed for two factor authentication and new protective measures for trades between Steam accounts, Valve revealed that as many as 77,000 people …

A former member of the United States' State Department working at the embassy in London, has pleaded guilty to attempting to extort hundreds of women to send him sexually explicit images. He used data and pictures he copied from various email and social networking accounts, after phishing login details from …

With the way the media loves to pump fear into everyday citizens, it's no wonder that guidelines for ‘how to spot your teen doing X' are a common bit of advice dished out by various organisations. The latest advice guide from the National Crime Agency (NCA) however, has such loose …

The Investigatory Powers Bill is being rushed to a parliamentary debate/vote in January following the recent attacks in Paris, because the government believes internet history logs can prevent terrorism. However the Labour party may stall the bill's progression, as it's demanding the government reveal information on the Shrewsbury 24 as …

Yet another site has suffered a security breach, putting user information at risk. This time, the popular modding site, Nexus Mods, has been affected, with the site admins now advising users to change their passwords. Several popular mods were altered during the breach, with a new a new file called …

In the wake of several attacks linked to extremist terrorist groups, social networking firms like Twitter, Google and Facebook are being asked by many governments and intelligence agencies to step up their fight against those that would incite violence against others. They will now attempt to take down anything they …

Although the United States and China have been covertly trying to hack each other's digital systems for a long time at this point, it looks like the two cyber-super-powers are now going to be working together; a little. Following weeks of joint meetings, the countries are going to conduct what …

Hong Kong based toy-company, VTech, has admitted that the details of more than six million children and their parents were revealed in a recent hack of its Innotab child-friendly tablet. The hack revealed not only names and addresses, but often photos that the children had taken, as well as messages …

In the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations, obfuscating systems like encryption, the Tor browser and virtual private networks (VPN) have been championed by privacy advocates the world over as the best ways to protect your data online. However, that latter step may not be as useful as initially thought, …

As much as the modern world is all about doing things as instantaneously as possible, there are always a few who ruin it for the rest of us. That's why Valve is soon set to instigate a mandatory three day wait for trades made on Steam, to help prevent those that …

One of the interesting legislative challenges facing politicians the world over right now is how to deal with drones. The manned and unmanned quad-copters are taking to the skies in ever increasing numbers, and keeping track of them all is nearly impossible. However it could be that old 2G mobile …

Cloud based voice recognition is a relatively recent addition to many a child's toy line, but some security researchers are warning that the listening tech could open up dangerous avenues for hackers to exploit. The worry is that they may use the toys to listen in to a household, or …

Arrests are still being made as the police continue to investigate exactly what went down in the TalkTalk hack, which saw customer details accessed, presumably to then be used as part of a mass phishing scam or sold on to others. The fifth arrest was made this week in connection …

As the debate rages on whether the UK should spend upwards of £31 billion on a replacement for its current fleet of Trident-equipped nuclear submarines, ex-Defence Secretary Desmond Browne, has warned that any future solution would be vulnerable to attack by hackers, if certain “weak spots,” were not protected. It …