Privacy groups claim FBI hacking operation went too far

Privacy advocates are claiming in court that an FBI hacking operation to take down a child pornography site was unconstitutional and violated international law. That’s because the operation involved the FBI hacking 8,700 computers in 120 countries, based on a single warrant, they said.

Tor Browser Patches Start Being Uplifted into Firefox

The Tor (The Onion Router) team and Mozilla are working together to implement Tor browser patches directly into Firefox and tighten their collaboration. The Tor browser is built almost entirely on Firefox, with 95% of its code coming from Mozilla’s browser. However, it still needs a series of changes, which the team refers to as…

Privacy groups complain to FTC over Google’s ‘deceptive’ policy change

Privacy groups have complained to the Federal Trade Commission that Google is encroaching on user privacy through a policy change in June that allows it to combine personally-identifiable information with browsing data collected by its DoubleClick digital advertising service. The complaint by Consumer Watchdog and Privacy Rights Clearing House alleged that Google has created “super-profiles”…

IDG Contributor Network: Putting the privacy into cybersecurity at DHS

Security and privacy have an awful lot in common; both disciplines care deeply about the confidentiality of personally identifiable information. Attend a cyber-security conference or a privacy conference, you are likely to hear the same catch phrases “[Security/privacy] is best addressed at the earliest stages of system development, not at the end when retrofitting requirements…

Internet freedom around the world keeps decreasing

For the sixth year in a row, Internet freedom is declining. According to the latest Freedom on the Net report, 67 percent of all Internet users now live in countries where online criticism of the government, ruling family or the military is subjected to censorship, and such activity can result in individuals getting arrested.

Trapped in social networks

A recent survey of 4,831 active social network users, conducted by Kaspersky Lab in 12 countries, reveals that an overwhelming majority (78%) of respondents considered quitting their social networks — but chose to stay. They wanted to leave for a variety of reasons: 39% of users complained they were wasting too much time, the top…

Breaking down New York’s new cyber regulations

In late September, the New York Department of Financial Services (NY DFS) and Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a series of new rules strengthening cybersecurity requirements for financial firms in the state of New York. Financial firms are treasure troves of private client data and one of the most sought after targets for attackers. In the…

IoT Default Passwords: Just Don’t Do It

Earlier this month, an underground forum released the code for the Mirai malware, which lets attackers hijack the thousands (and counting) of Internet of Things devices that are used to carry out distributed denial-of-service attacks. Panic ensued. Of course it did. This hack means that everyone can now view the code that allowed someone using…