cybersecurity
Lifelock Dinged $12 Million for Deceptive Business Practices
The CEO of Lifelock, Todd Davis, became famous for advertising his Social Security number on television ads and billboards promising his $10 monthly service would protect consumers from identity theft. The company also offered a $1 million guarantee to compensate customers for losses incurred if they became a victim of identity theft after signing up for the service. But the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that the claims were bogus (.pdf) and accused Lifelock, based in Arizona, of operating a scam and con operation.
Continue reading »Hackers Steal Millions in Carbon Credits
Credit card numbers are so passe. Today’s hackers know the real powerhouse data to steal is emission certificates. That’s exactly what hackers went after last week when they obtained unauthorized access to online accounts where companies maintain their carbon credits, according to the German newspaper Der Spiegel .
Continue reading »Google Hackers Targeted Source Code of More Than 30 Companies
A hack attack that targeted Google in December also hit 33 other companies, including financial institutions and defense contractors, and was aimed at stealing source code from the companies, say security researchers at iDefense. The hackers used a zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Reader to deliver malware to the companies and were in many cases successful at siphoning the source code they sought, according to a statement distributed Tuesday by iDefense, a division of VeriSign. The attack was similar to an attack that targeted other companies last July, the company said.
Continue reading »Body Scanners Might Violate U.K. Child Protection Laws
The deployment of body scanning x-ray machines could violate child protection laws in the United Kingdom and prevent their implementation, according to the Guardian . British officials were forced to exempt the scanning of anyone under 18 during a year-long test of the machines at Manchester airport until legal questions could be worked out, the newspaper said. There are also concerns that images of nude celebrities could be posted online or sold to tabloids.
Continue reading »Lawmakers Want to Bar Sites From Posting Sensitive Government Docs
Three Republican lawmakers have asked the Department of Homeland Security what can be done to bar or criminally penalize whistleblower sites that reposted a sensitive airport-screening manual that was published on the internet by a government worker. They also asked about enacting regulations that would bar such publication in the future. The congressmen are outraged that sites like Cryptome and Wikileaks republished the manual after it was posted online by a government contractor working for the Transportation Security Administration.
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