Where damage to human welfare or national security is deemed serious enough, the proposed amendment to the UK’s Computer Misuse Act 1990 could mean life in jail for hackers, and some experts believe the changes could be used to target whistleblowers.
Daily Archives: October 24, 2014
Has the “Sandworm” zero-day exploit burrowed back to the surface?
You may have noticed that Microsoft recently published a Security Advisory that sounds a lot like the “Sandworm” vulnerability all over again. Paul Ducklin explains…
Twitter invites us to say goodbye to passwords, use Digits instead
Twitter’s new credentials handling scheme is called Digits, and it’s hoping that mobile app developers use it to enable their users to sign in with their phone numbers as identifiers, along with one-time passwords SMSed to the phones. 
How to kill a troll
A new Pew study confirms what we already know: online harassment is a widespread disease afflicting the internet. Ignoring trolls and hoping they’ll go away is actually quite effective, survey respondents said. Then again, how about fighting back, instead? Change is possible, be it enabled by troll-blocking software, societal shift that sees trolling evolve into a stigma, or, if all else fails, calling their mothers. 
Do we really need strong passwords?
The idea that computer users should use long, complex passwords is one of computer security’s sacred cows. But is is really necessary? Mark Stockley investigates…