Weekend hack attack headed off by Sony?
A group of hackers that planned an attack against Sony’s servers this weekend was unable to execute its plan. CNET has learned that our publication of the group’s plan may have caused Sony to secure the remaining servers this group claims it had access to, shutting off any avenues for another attack. Wrote one of [...]
Does Facebook Show Contempt for User Privacy?
By Troy Wolverton It’s astonishing how much data Facebook considers “public.” Facebook considers itself free to share with marketing partners not just your name and picture, but your city, gender, networks, complete list of friends, likes and interests, and profile information such as where you grew up, where you went to school and where you’ve [...]
Symantec Will Centralize Encryption with Acquisitions
By Mark Long Symantec will be able to offer a complete encryption security package with its acquisition of PGP and GuardianEdge Technologies. CEO Enrique Salem said the acquisition of PGP and GuardianEdge will let Symantec expand its market. The PGP products will be integrated into the Symantec Protection Center to give Symantec a competitive edge. [...]
Taxpayer data at risk from IRS security flaws
by Elinor Mills The Internal Revenue Service’s failure to use strong passwords, install patches quickly, and adequately control access to computer systems and information makes the system vulnerable to insider threats and attacks from outside, a new government report concludes. The IRS has failed to fix almost 70 percent of control weaknesses and program deficiencies [...]
Who’s the Boss in Cloud Land?
By Richard Adhikari Cloud computing — certainly a hot topic at the RSA conference held earlier this month in San Francisco — is in some ways being eclipsed by security and accountability concerns. Who owns the data? Who is answerable if the cloud fails? Who is responsible if a virtual machine holding data from a [...]