As we reported on late last week, the world's largest SIM card maker was broken into digitally as part of a joint operation between the United States' NSA and United Kingdom's GCHQ. The attack, which began back in 2010, gave these agencies unparalleled access to the global smartphone network, ultimately enabling them...
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Microsoft no longer needs to feel singled out by Google and its Project Zero team for disclosing multiple unpatched vulnerabilities in Windows. It wasn't personal, just an inflexible policy on the part of Project Zero to give companies a 90-day window to patch any vulnerabilities it finds before making them public...
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It's as if Google is looking to start a digital war -- or at least get back at Microsoft for using its minor patents to battle Android. Earlier this month, we reported on a significant Windows bug that Google, through its Project Zero site, exposed to the world after Microsoft failed to patch it up within Google's...
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An accountability board overseen by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) cleared the spy agency of any wrongdoing after investigating the search of Senate computers that were used to review the agency's alleged use of torture tactics during Bush's presidency period. That might be fine and dandy under different...
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Well, this isn't something we see everyday. With Project Zero, Google monitors the discovery of software vulnerabilities, and in the event that one is found, the vendor responsible for it will be contacted. As per Google's own ruling, if a bug is not patched in 90 days from the date it's disclosed, it'll become...
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Google is on a mission to make end-to-end encryption more accessible for less savvy users than existing tools like PGP and GnuPG. The way it intends to do this is through its End-to-End tool, a work in progress that's currently in alpha form, albeit recently updated and in the process of being migrated to GitHub in...
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Sometimes it feels like it would be easier to translate hieroglyphics than try and determine what garbled text lies in a CAPTCHA box. We've all been annoyed by it, yet the reason it exists is to keep the spam bots from ruining our online playgrounds. Still, does it have to be so difficult? Perhaps not -- Google is...
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Here's a not-so-fun fact for your Friday workday -- there are 9 incidents per million users per day involving "manual hijacking," which is when professional attackers spend considerable time exploiting a single victim's account, often causing financial losses, Google says. Though they're not the most prominent types...
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Events of the past year or so have really highlighted the importance of both our security and privacy, but the sad fact of the matter is, the majority of people don't take simple precautions to vastly improve either of those things. Take two-step authentication, for example. It's widely available, but not widely used...
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Our innocence lost, we now know that the National Security Agency (NSA) effectively strong arms technology companies far and wide into dishing out our personal information. It's a bum rap, and it may make you think twice about firing off that email to a friend or family member criticizing one of the government's...
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As soon as Google announced its Glass digital eyewear, the world went nuts with speculation; pros and cons simply flooded the Web. Since then, a lot of people have been left without a solid conclusion, no doubt thanks to the number of walls Glass has hit. We've learned of bars that have banned the device from being...
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For all the ire the NSA’s spying practices have fomented among users and Internet companies alike, the revelations are prompting some positive changes. For Gmail users, those changes are coming in the form of better encryption on Google’s part. Although it’s been the default option since 2010, Google...
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Google's known for a lot of things, but where privacy's concerned, those things are not too kosher for a lot of people. In fact, Google mines so much data on us - sometimes even if we're nameless - that some would rather avoid anything that has to do with the company. Of course, pulling that off is easier said than...
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Here's something you're probably aware of: privacy is a major issue, and it's becoming bigger by the day. Just this week, Kickstarter's servers were infiltrated, just months after Target suffered one of the world's most serious data exploits. Companies are flowing out of the blue with a myriad methods to solve all of...
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Google’s quest to purchase Nest, maker of smart, connected thermostats and smoke detectors, is complete. The search giant’s $3.2 acquisition has been approved, per a Google regulatory filing. The move brings Nest and all of its human resources, most notably former Apple senior VP Tony Fadell, under the...
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Last summer, and not too long after Edward Snowden exposed the extent of NSA's spying tactics, The Guardian newspaper in the UK was forced to destroy all of the data that had been provided to it. At the time, I don't remember this news gaining much traction, but it's an important blip on the timeline to note. No...
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Google is putting up a ton of cash for the taking as part of this year's Pwnium hacking competition at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver in March. More than $2.7 million is up for grabs, which will be doled out in chunks to hackers who discover security vulnerabilities in Google's Chrome operating...
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When the NSA forced several major tech companies including Facebook, Google, and Yahoo to cough up data on their users, one got the sense that it was a situation of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. The first round of that battle went to the NSA because it had (some shadily-acquired) court documents...
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You can make a fair bit of coin diving into code and rooting out vulnerabilities. In some instances, Microsoft will pay up to $100,000 for a single bug report, and Google's Vulnerability Reward Program routinely pays out thousands of dollars. It's a win-win situation, except when dealing with services that have only a...
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Solutions that enable access to remote devices for security purposes are far from uncommon, but what is uncommon is having the functionality built right into the device, and especially with a solution that's simple to take advantage of. With a recent update to its Android Device Manager, Google has added the ability to remote lock, and remote...
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If you’ve been avoiding signing up for Google’s two-token authentication system because you thought the inconvenience outweighed the extra security for your Google account, you’re probably feeling pretty smug about now. An update today for the Google Authenticator iPhone app wiped out user data for...
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Cyber criminals are always on the hunt for ways to disrupt your digital life, and with mobile devices playing an increasingly important role in our day-to-day operations, you can bet they'll be paying attention to your tablet and smartphone. Speaking to the latter, a German security guru discovered a frightening flaw...
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