Privacy

The Times’ editor-in-chief Bill Keller has published a mini-memoir about the Times’ rocky six month relationship with WikiLeaks in upcoming issue of the New York Times Magazine. Like the earlier front-page profile of Assange, it paints an unflattering portrait of the group’s frontman as egotistical, thin-skinned and naive. (Though he adds that Assange possesses a certain “Peter Pan” innocence.)

More substantive is that Keller joins the recent string of accusers who claim (or at least, imply) that WikiLeaks staffers are active hackers:

Since version 4 of the iOS operating system, Apple's iPhones, iPads and iPods have been capable of handling IPv6, and most Android devices have been capable since version 2.1. However, the operating systems transfer an ID that discloses information about their users: devices usually determine half of their IPv6 address (the "interface identifier") themselves. On a wireless network, the smartphones don't appear to be careful enough with this task; they simply add the same two bytes to their globally unique MAC address and use it as their identifier.

Members of a credit union that serves active-duty military personnel and others connected to the Pentagon are at risk for identity theft after a laptop was hacked, exposing the personal and financial records of an undisclosed number of troops and their families.

The Pentagon Federal Credit Union, or PenFed, the Alexandria-based institution that serves the military and other government agencies, mailed a letter to customers in early January alerting them to the security breach, which was discovered Dec. 12. PenFed would not comment on how many customers were notified.

acebook has temporarily shelved plans to share members' home addresses and mobile numbers with app developers, following a strong backlash over privacy and safety concerns.

The social networking giant had announced late last Friday that it would make this information accessible to developers through its User Graph object, subject to certain restrictions. However, warnings were raised that this could further endanger Facebook users.

The personal information of thousands of South Carolina state employees may have been stolen by hackers.

How many victims? 5,600.

What type of personal information? Names, addresses, Social Security numbers and birth dates.

What happened? A computer containing the sensitive data of thousands of state employees, retirees, dependents and survivors who were covered by the state's Employee Insurance Program was infected by a virus that may have permitted hacker access. The breach was discovered Nov. 18, about 10 days after it began.

A security expert is warning users of Facebook to remove their home addresses and mobile phone numbers from their profiles as the website now gives third parties access to that information.

The social networking site announced in a blog post at the weekend that it would give developers of applications access to the contact information of users who install their apps.

Online dating company Gotham Dating Partners has announced plans to create profiles for non-registered individuals based on publicly available information on social networking sites.

The company operates several dating sites, including: Dons and Divas, Faithful Lover, Marry Me First, Prison Hookup, and Ugly People Date. Incorporated in New York in January 2010 by Aaron Fraser, it is the parent of online footwear startup LeBron Jordan, which came under fire from Nike this month for potential trademark infringement.

A computer hacker may have obtained Social Security numbers and other personal information of more than 4,300 current and former Omaha Public Schools employees.

An investigation into the attack on the Omaha School Employees Retirement System website, detected Dec. 21, was unable to determine whether information was stolen, Michael Smith, executive director of the system, said Thursday.

Three employees at Tucson's University Medical Center have been fired for improperly accessing the medical records of some of the victims in last Saturday's shooting spree outside an area mall that killed six people and wounded 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

A nurse working under contract for the hospital has also been terminated by her employer, the medical center said in a brief statement on its Web site. Many of the victims, including Giffords, are being treated at the hospital. One person, Jared Loughner, is in custody in connection with the shootings.

An online retail site at University of Connecticut is warning thousands of customers that their billing information may have been hacked.

The information was exposed when a hacker managed to breach the HuskeyDirect.com database, which has billing information for about 18,000 customers who use the site to buy Husky-branded sports items from the UConn Co-op. The Co-op acts as the university's bookstore but is a run as a separate, member-owned non-profit group.