Year: 2013

Originally published in ZDnet. Snapchat, a popular app for the iPhone and Android devices Image: CNET Hackers have made sure that popular photo sharing app Snapchat got a hearty lump of coal for Christmas. Read this Facebook's Snapchat offer all about youth vote, marketing budget that goes with it After having its security disclosure go… Read more…

Originally published in ZDnet. The world's oldest and largest global hacker organization The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) has announced it will open next week's conference, the 30th Chaos Communication Congress (30c3), with a December 27 opening keynote by Glenn Greenwald. Glenn Greenwald's keynote tops our list of must-see talks at the legendary event. 30C3's schedule shows that the compelling keynote won't be the… Read more…

Originally published in ZDnet. Dell SecureWorks estimates that CryptoLocker has infected 250,000 victims. The average payout is $300 each, and millions in laundered Bitcoin have been tracked and traced to the ransomware's money runners. Spreading like wildfire from offices to homes, it arrives in email attachments (or over infected networks) to aggressively encrypt all files on a… Read more…

Originally published in ZDnet. In an unprecedented redesign rollback, Yahoo is slowly restoring Tabs to its Mail users. It's great news for the hundred-thousand-plus Mail users who found the service unusable after its Gmail-clone redesign on October 8. However, the users who've lost email since the fateful redesign's implementation may be out of luck for… Read more…

Originally published in ZDnet. Despite promising to restore Yahoo Mail service to its customers by 5pm EST, an unknown number of users are still unable to log in, and remain without email service. An unknown number of users have been affected by Yahoo's as-yet-unnamed problem, spanning at least two and a half weeks – a… Read more…

Originally published in ZDnet. While Microsoft's recent move to encrypt user data made the most headlines, the reasoning underlying its new data protection strategies classify the US government in the same category as a cyber-criminal group. Brad Smith, Microsoft's EVP of Legal and Corporate Affairs, labeled the American government as an "advanced persistent threat" in a… Read more…

Originally published in ZDnet. Since the source code for the Pony Botnet Controller was leaked, Trustwave's SpiderLabs has been tracking the beast with much fascination. Interest turned to stunned surprise when the researchers uncovered a Pony Botnet server stabling over two million account credentials and passwords for Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Twitter, Linkedin, Odnoklassniki (the second largest… Read more…

Originally published in ZDnet. Image: Wikimedia Commons The United Nations on Wednesday approved 18 draft resolutions, notably "The right to privacy in the digital age," despite opposition from the U.S. government.  It is the first such document to establish privacy rights and human rights in the digital sphere. Sponsored by Germany and Brazil, it is specifically… Read more…