Microsoft has changed its mind and decided it will issue a fix for a serious Internet Explorer bug for Windows XP users, despite officially ending support for the system last month. It was the first real test of Microsoft’s resolve to abandon XP, though it seemed inevitable it would face such a dilemma. At first […]
Boeing is to produce a smartphone that (from a software perspective at least) self-destructs if somebody tries to tamper with it. The Boeing Black is aimed at government contractors, the military and security agencies. Its existence had been rumoured for a couple of years, but it’s now been publicly confirmed thanks to a regulatory filing […]
Google has bought a company that specializes in using sound as a security authentication method. It could make two-step verification a quicker process. Israel-based SlickLogin uses a signal of soundwaves created uniquely for each individual verification. The sound is too quiet for the human ear to own and the user needs to place a smartphone […]
Determined hackers who fail to crack a password will simply try again until they succeed. But an ongoing security project aims to tackle that by not letting the hacker know they’ve failed. The idea is simple: instead of simply informing the unsuccessful hacker that they’ve been denied access, the system will give the hacker what […]
The tech media is once again reporting on a list of the world’s “worst” passwords. And once again, the list has some serious inherent limitations. This particular list comes from SplashData, which not so coincidentally develops password management software. It’s put together a list of the 25 worst passwords, the criteria being how frequently they […]
The makers of a smartphone launching next month claim it offers complete security from snooping on all forms of communication. But full details of the Blackphone and how it maintains privacy haven’t yet been published. The Blackphone is a joint project of Geeksphone, a Spanish smartphone manufacturer, and Silent Circle, a US firm which already […]
Nearly one in three visits to a website is from a computer up to no good according to a newly-published study. The figures come from Incapsula, a website security firm. It gathered statistics from 90 days’ worth of visits to 20,000 sites belonging to its clients, with the relevant traffic including visits from every country […]
The owner of an LG Smart TV says he’s got evidence that the TV is sending details about his viewing habits and the names of some video files he watched on the TV back to LG, against his instructions. The British blogger Dr Beet (who the BBC names as IT consultant Jason Huntley) says he […]
A Romanian security researcher has created a machine that can take advantage of rounding errors to make money at the expense of banks. Yes, that’s a key plot point in Office Space (among other movies), and no, it wouldn’t exactly be as profitable as in the movie. Adrian Furtuna is a penetration tester for KPMG […]
Google has unveiled three tools expressly designed to aid people whose internet communication is threatened by oppressive regimes. It could create an awkward ethical debate about which side is “right” in both political and legal conflicts. The tools debuted as part of Google Ideas, a conference in New York looking at how tech can play […]