In the global war on terror, governments are looking for any and every way to take down terrorist networks and interrupt their communications. In the most recent one of these attacks/communication interruptions, an unknown group of hackers launched a cyber attack on al-Qaida’s main website, temporarily taking away their main protected mode of communication, leaving them with the option of potentially exposing their identities or not communicating at all. [...]
Over the past few months there has been much heated discussion over the government’s ability to track whomever they wish without a warrant, or if this is a major impunity on personal privacy. The debate is set to be settled this October, with the Supreme Court issuing a landmark ruling on the topic. [...]
A recent IT security survey shows that a shocking 90% of businesses have been hacked at least once in the last year. The study was carried out by Ponemon Research and polled 583 U.S. companies from a wide variety of businesses, both private and government, and ranging from small businesses with under 500 employees all the way to enterprises with more than 75,000 employees. [...]
With so much of our society relying on the Internet to get through the day, we can easily see how much chaos and brain-ache a virus or cyber attack can cause. For example, a cyber attack aimed at an individual can not only wreak havoc on their social and personal life, but it can also bankrupt them financially as their bank accounts can be hacked and debt piled up under their name. As for large companies, those that are attacked by cyber criminals can not only lose millions of dollars due to downtime, but they can also have their most important trade secrets stolen and shared with their top competitors. [...]
With Facebook being such a simple website to create an online identity, it’s no wonder that people abuse the social networking platform by creating false online identities and pretending to be someone else. Sometimes the fake identities are created just for fun, to make a profit by promoting a product or service, or even for malicious purposes getting back at a person or bullying them online. In the case of Angela Voelkert, she created a fake Facebook profile for tricking her ex-husband, David Voelkert, into acting in a way that would make him look like a bad parent in the custody battle for their children. [...]
When you download smartphone apps from an official app store, iPhone or Android, you usually expect that the applications are monitored and virus free. Unlike iPhone’s app store, however, the Android platform does not actively pre-screen all of their apps, and sometimes malicious viruses sneak through, including phenominally popular apps like Angry Birds. [...]
When traveling through an airport, you sometimes see baggage handlers throwing around luggage as if they’re actively trying to destroy all the stuff inside. But are they really? Or are they just taking an extra step to prevent the theft of your possessions? Apparently in Spain, the harder they throw your luggage, the safer it might be from theft; reason being – there might be a thief hiding in that luggage, waiting to steal other people’s goods. [...]
Seeing as the current method of airport security screening is effective at the price of being a time-consuming hassle for travelers, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is looking into a way to modernize the security checkpoint. But how can they speed up this screening process while simultaneously ensuring its effectiveness? The IATA will attempt to screen people as individuals as opposed to just random travelers; meaning, it matters more who they are as opposed to what they are carrying or whether or not they take off their shoes. [...]
Out of all the ridiculous laws passed in the Internet age, this one might be the most absurd. The law, which only applies to Tennessee at the moment, may have originated with the good intentions of fighting cyber-bullying; but it not only makes nearly every citizen a criminal, but would also send them to jail for almost a year and fine them up to $2,500 if convicted. So what is this dangerous action that the Tennessee government finds so threatening? Nothing other than sending an offensive picture online… to anyone. [...]
MI6, the legendary British Secret Intelligence Service, and GCHQ, the British intelligence agency responsible for monitoring communications, proved that though they’re serious about security, they still have a sense of humour. When plans for the release of a web-circulated magazine that would include instructions on how to make a bomb were uncovered last year, they could have taken action in several ways. The cheeky choice of response from the home of the fictional James Bond? [...]
