security

I am currently on a psychiatrist-imposed company retreat in Miami.

I have been told not to engage strangers, nor those from or to whom I would like to become either estranged or engaged.

Sitting quietly at my beloved News Cafe this morning (yes, where Gianni Versace had his last coffee), I detected an increase in traffic but a block away.

There was the slamming of truck doors. There was a flurry of fetching TV presenters, pressing down their beige trousers by hand.

Not being an investigative reporter, I sidled over and asked a burly cameraman what was going on.

"It's John McAfee," he replied. "He's in there." … Read more

Microsoft Security Essentials may not have done well in recent independent tests, but it's now the global leader in security suite market share for the first time since it debuted in 2009, says Opswat's latest study.

Opswat gauges usage by looking at the software installed on computers running their AppRemover program. The data came from more than 150,000 computers.

When asked about the differences between Opswat's numbers and research and analysis firm NPD, Opswat marketing manager Elisse Lockhart wrote in an e-mail, "Our data looks at all applications installed on machines and aggregates various versions … Read more

A Nokia engineer has posted an explanation on how to hack Windows 8 games.

Justin Angel, who currently works on Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 implementation in Nokia Lumia devices, recently posted the step-by-step guide on his blog, where he explained that the "use of innate Windows 8 security attack vectors" can allow a person with admittedly advanced knowledge to "compromise Windows 8 games revenue stream."

The issue is potentially major (and worrisome) for developers who have delivered titles to Microsoft's Windows Store. As Angel points out, games account for "51 percent … Read more

Your really, really strong password just became a little bit easier to break.

Jeremi Gosney, founder and CEO of Stricture Consulting Group, a company that handles password-cracking, has unveiled a computer cluster boasting 25 AMD Radeon graphics cards. The cluster's horsepower allows it to make 350 billion password guesses per second against the NT Lan Manager (NTLM) security protocol Microsoft has used in Windows Server since 2003.

Ars Technica was first to report on the cluster.

Speaking to Ars in an e-mailed statement, Gosney said that his company's technology "can attack hashes approximately four times faster" … Read more

When my doorbell goes ding dong and the dogs go crazy, the last thing I want to do (aside from shushing my beasts) is actually talk to the person at the door who I probably didn't even want to talk to in the first place. Unless it's the pizza guy.

Fortunately, a Wi-Fi-enabled doorbell called DoorBot could make the mystery of a random household visitor a thing of the past. The $169 high-tech door device features a built-in camera (with infrared for nighttime support) that captures live video of the person who presses the button. From there, a notification pops up on the owner's device that gives the option to display the video feed on the app (works with iOS and Android tablets and smartphones).… Read more

The bottom line: Bitdefender Total Security 2013 remains one of the best high-end security suites around. This update gives you a fully isolated Web browser for secure financial transactions.

Review: Bitdefender Total Security 2013 presents a convincing alternative to its better-known competitors. It's a strong program, with all the major tools that users expect, and some additional useful tricks in its arsenal. When it comes to efficacy, Bitdefender isn't the best in every area, but it's definitely competitive.

Editors' note: Portions of this review are based on CNET's review of Bitdefender Total Security 2012.

Installation Bitdefender … Read more

Two years after Trend Micro's big consumer suite overhaul, Titanium continues to improve. This year, there's a big change to which features are available in the different suites to make the suite structure easier to understand.

All "basic" security features have been moved to the entry-level Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus Plus ($39.95 for one computer), while multiple computer and multiple device support, as well as some extra features, are available only in the significantly more expensive Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security ($79.95), Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security ($89.95), and Trend Micro Titanium Premium … Read more

Windows 8 and RT are set to receive their second lineup of bug fixes when next week's Patch Tuesday rolls around.

The patches are also aimed at the other current versions of Windows, including XP, Vista, and Windows 7, as well as Server 2003 and 2008.

Five of the patches are rated critical, while two are deemed important. The critical ones are designed to shore up holes in the OS that could allow an attacker to infect a PC with malicious code.

Assuming Windows Update is set to automatic, critical patches are automatically installed, while those considered important can … Read more

Congrats to Jonathan P. of Lawton, Okla., for winning an Element Case Sector 5 for the iPhone and a Joule II for the iPad in last week's giveaway. Now, some good news and some bad news. First, the bad: It's getting to be that time of year when online holiday-related scams proliferate faster than big-box deals. The good? This week's giveaway is here to help.

We're giving away a copy of Symantec's new Norton 360 Multi-Device security suite. A couple of months back, CNET highly recommended Norton 360. The Multi-Device version of the software simultaneously … Read more