It’s Chet Chat time! Here’s this week’s episode of our news-you-can-use security podcast…
Monthly Archives: September 2014
Is Facebook building a “Moments” app for ultra-private sharing?
The company’s reportedly putting the finishing touches on a separate app for composing intimate updates, designed to be an entirely different experience than what we have now: the kludgy toggling of the sharing settings on one composer interface in order to create both intimate content and blasted-out-to-the-universe Newsfeed updates. 
Facebook meets with LGBT community over real-name policy
Facebook’s recently been cracking down on stage names, locking drag queens and transgenders out of their accounts until they switch accounts to their legal names. After mounting protests, Facebook reps scheduled a meeting with San Francisco activists and city officials over its real-name policy, which many say discriminates against the LGBT community.
New Google transparency report details hike in government user data requests
Governments around the world are demanding increasingly larger amounts of user data from search giant Google, according to the company’s latest Transparency Report.
Apple questioned on Watch privacy by state attorney general
Apple calls the gadget its “most personal device ever”. Attorney General George Jepsen would like to know how Apple’s planning to protect all that data, which will include things as intimate as our heartbeats. 
California passes “landmark bill” to protect students’ personal data
There’s a lot at stake: think student records that cover attendance, grades, discipline, health, academics, intimate details about family members, parent and student contact information, biometrics, and sometimes even a child’s geolocation. 
Apple adds two-step verification for iCloud, effective immediately
Apple has listened, and extended its two-step verification system to iCloud. It’s a great start…but does it go far enough? 
From the Labs: VBA is definitely not dead – in fact, it’s undergoing a resurgence
Our most recent detection statistics show that using Visual Basic code in malicious documents is a trend on the rise. So why have malware authors turned to Visual Basic to do their bidding? 
Apple relents, lets you “depurchase” that U2 album you never bought in the first place
Apple has listened! The company has come up with a free Album Removal Tool that allows you to “unbuy” the U2 album that recently showed up in your iTunes account…
“Shocking” Android browser bug could be a “privacy disaster”: here’s how to fix it
The Metasploit crew is calling this Android Browser bug a “privacy disaster.” Here’s what you can do to avoid trouble…