Security & Privacy

Privacy policies, with disclosures about what kind of information Internet services collect about you and how to manage your online profile, are notoriously obtuse, incomplete, and difficult to master.

They aren't as obtuse as the National Security Agency is about its data collection policies, but the vast majority of online users have little interest in trying to parse the language or even in trying to actively manage their profiles with the tools offered today.

The companies that collect data, of course, want to assure you that whatever they collect is in pursuit of creating a better experience for you … Read more

South Korean news agencies and security officials say that cybercriminals have leaked the personal data of members of the U.S. military.

On Tuesday, South Korea suffered its latest round of cyberattacks on the day that marked the beginning of the Korean war 63 years ago. The South Korean Science Ministry confirmed that multiple government and private sites were affected. The Central News Agency, party newspaper Rodong Sinmun, national airline Air Koryo, and the presidential Blue House site were among those that experienced service outages.

Following the attack, Reuters reported that the cybercriminals involved claim to have publicly released the … Read more

Adware has become a somewhat concerning issue on Android, a new study from security firm Lookout has discovered.

According to the security company, over the last year alone, over 1 million American Android users have unknowingly downloaded adware. What's worse, 6.5 percent of the free applications available in the Google Play marketplace now contain adware of some sort.

Adware isn't exactly the easiest topic to define, since there's a gray area between what's proper ad practice and what's not. However, Lookout says that there are a few key hallmarks that turn seemingly innocuous ads … Read more

The Interactive Advertising Bureau, a group that represents hundreds of Internet advertisers, has attacked Mozilla's involvement in a Stanford Law School privacy project to judge whether individual Web sites can be trusted to set behavior-tracking browser cookies.

The IAB doesn't like the Cookie Clearninghouse, which Stanford's Center for Internet and Society and Mozilla announced on June 19. The project aims to rate individual to bring privacy ratings for browser cookies -- the small text files that Web site operators can store on people's computers. Cookies can be useful for remembering that you're logged into a … Read more

Mobile malware creators and smartphone makers seem to be in a neck-and-neck software race, but new data shows that the malware creators could be taking the lead.

Juniper Networks released its third annual Mobile Threat Report on Tuesday and the findings aren't pretty. Mobile malware grew at a rate of 614 percent from March 2012 to March 2013 -- that's equal to 276,259 malicious apps floating around out there. Last year, the increase was a mere 155 percent.

The report is based on an analysis of more than 1.85 million mobile apps and vulnerabilities across major … Read more

Web sites you think are safe but have been compromised to distribute malicious software are far more prevalent than sites that are intentionally dangerous, according to a new Transparency Report from Google released on Tuesday.

The new Safe Browsing section of the report reveals some of the security trends that Google has been seeing. While Google reiterated that its Safe Browsing program flags up to 10,000 sites a day, the report showed that hacked sites remain a major problem -- with about 60 percent hosting malware and 40 percent being used for phishing attacks.

Dedicated attack sites numbered in … Read more

China's government-friendly media outlets have taken aim at Cisco and other U.S. companies after NSA leaker Edward Snowden revealed sensitive information on alleged spying on Chinese networks.

According to IB Times, which earlier reported on the claims, Chinese daily Sina cited eight companies, including Cisco, IBM, Google, and Apple, as the firms that are used by the U.S. government to spy on China. Another news outlet, Global Times, said that the country should reduce its reliance on American companies, adding that they pose a "terrible security threat."

The U.S. companies, of course, have never … Read more

South Korea has suffered its latest cyberattack, and one that marked the 63rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War.

The country's science ministry said that multiple government and private sites were hit in Tuesday's hacking, the Associated Press has reported. Included in the attack were the site for the country's presidential Blue House and several media servers.

The South Korean government said that it's investigating further and has urged officials and citizens to secure their computer systems, the AP added.

No potential suspects were named in the attack. But North Korea would likely top … Read more

Australian Attorney General Mark Dreyfus has said that the government will not pursue a proposal to require Internet service providers (ISPs) to retain customer data for up to two years.

The parliamentary committee investigating the data retention proposal and a number of other proposed legislative changes to telecommunications and national security legislation today issued its report, and put the decision on whether to progress with a mandatory data retention scheme back on the government.

Law enforcement agencies have pushed for the scheme, as they have said that much of the so-called metadata — such as information about when a call is … Read more