Our readers ranked Target’s data breach ahead of Adobe, Snapchat, Google Glass, and Talking Angela for the biggest privacy failure of the past year.
Monthly Archives: September 2014
Serial hacker pleads guilty to bank bitcoin blackmail
A 22-year-old with a lengthy history of convictions pleaded guilty last week to charges of blackmail and fraud, after threatening to reveal details of thousands of phished bank accounts if the bank involved refused to pay up.
US government “threatened” Yahoo with daily $250,000 fines over user data
In the post-Snowden era many web firms came in for criticism over their apparent willingness to bend over for the NSA as the agency went on a massive data grab. Now, however, Yahoo has revealed how much it would have cost the company to disregard government data requests – a cool quarter of a million dollars per day.
‘Yelp Bill’ protects Californians from getting pants sued off over reviews
California has passed a bill that protects customers from getting penalized by companies after writing bad reviews. Yelp’s response: Yippee!
Facebook tests Snapchat-like vanishing act for posts
Faceboook’s going Mission: Impossible, ephemeral-message on us, having confirmed that it’s testing an auto-delete feature that will let users schedule their posts’ demise. 
85% of apps not up to scratch on privacy, study finds
A coordinated study of apps run by a group of national privacy and data protection bodies from around the world has found that the majority are failing to provide adequate information on the privacy implications of using the app.
SSCC 164 – Spend Bitcoins using Apple Pay? *NOW* you’ve got me interested! [PODCAST]
Here’s this week’s Sophos Security Chet Chat for your listening pleasure. Our weekly computer security podcast with the News You Can Use…
Twitter, Netflix, Reddit, Foursquare et al. protest end to net neutrality
Those sites and many more simulated a slowdown of their sites and services by doing things such as posting the dreaded spinning wheel of death. The internet didn’t really slow down; the companies were, rather, trying to illustrate what the internet would be like if the US passes rules proposed by ISPs. 
Microsoft held in contempt while it appeals court decision in customer email case
Microsoft and the US government have agreed that the company will be held in contempt for its refusal to hand over email stored in the cloud at its Dublin data center but won’t be fined or punished, giving it a chance to appeal a court order to cough up a customer’s communications.
Apple Pay – just how safe is it going to be?
Apple Live 2014 saw the announcement of the iWatch, a free U2 album for all iTunes users, and the iPhone 6/6 Plus. But perhaps of most interest to security watchers was “Apple Pay”, Cupertino’s guns-blazing answer to Google Wallet…