Privacy

A teenage German hacker says he's sorry for stealing pop songs from Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson and other singers - some previously unreleased - and selling them online.

Deniz A. - whose last name has not been released - told Bild newspaper in an interview that he and a friend hadn't set out to do anything wrong. The 18-year-old says: "I'm sorry for everything I've done - I never thought it would go so far... we were only interested in the music."

Christina Aguilera wasn't trying to be "Dirrty" when she bared her private parts for a few photos. That's what her rep insists after a handful of pics hit the web this morning; the shots feature the singer (and two strategically placed pasties) posing provocatively in her closet.

And of course, no one was ever supposed to see them. Well, almost no one... "The photos of Christina Aguilera being leaked to the press were illegally obtained by a hacker who tapped into Christina's personal stylist's account," a rep for the pop star tells E! News.

Security watchers have warned that Facebook's latest revamp will create the tendency to expose more user information.

The redesigned profile, launched earlier this week and due to be rolled out gradually over coming weeks, is designed to encourage punters to expose even more information about their day to day lives to the dominant social networking site, net security firm Sophos cautions.

NASA failed to delete sensitive data on computers and hard drives before selling the equipment as part of its plan to end the Space Shuttle program, an audit released on Tuesday shows. NASA is getting rid of thousands of surplus items as it prepares to end the space shuttle program next year.

The FBI is warning law agencies that the new Barbie "Video Girl" doll could be used as a tool by pedophiles to make child pornography.

In an alert entitled "Barbie 'Video Girl' a Possible Child Pornography Production Method," the FBI said the doll has a built-in hidden camera in the chest and a small LCD screen for video display in her back. The FBI "cyber crime alert" doesn't cite any misuse of the doll, which has been on the market since July, but talks about the possibility.

The mandatory stop at the U.S. Customs counter when returning from an international trip usually just involves answering a few questions and getting a stamp on your passport.

But recently, we've seen incidents of computer security experts with ties to WikiLeaks and white hat hackers being stopped by government agents and having their laptops and phones thoroughly inspected.

The well-known whitehat hacker and security researcher that goes by the handle Moxie Marlinspike has recently experienced firsthand the electronical device search that travelers are sometimes submitted to by border agents when entering the country.

He was returning from the Dominican Republic by plane, and when he landed at JFK airport, he was greeted by two U.S. Customs officials and taken to a detention room where they kept him for almost five hours, took his laptop and two cell phones and asked for the passwords needed to access the encrypted material on them.

"Everyone who has a Google account should visit their Dashboard once a year," Google product manager Jonathan McPhie told me in a meeting room at Google's Chicago office. "It's like Google's way of showing you our hand—let you see what info we have on you—and allow you to change it."

Radio frequency identity has revolutionized the ski industry. Instead of fumbling with frozen fingers, skiers and snowboarders can now move through scanners, letting RFID chips embedded in lift passes open gates before them.

But are there consequences to this convenience? Ski instructor, identity theft expert and former Vail Resorts employee Jon Lawson says yes, and he's invented a product called Ski Pass Defender to protect snow-riders' privacy.

The National Intelligence Service is investigating hacker attacks on the e-mail accounts of an assistant to Grand National Party Rep. Won Yoo-chul, who chairs the National Assembly Defense Committee, and a Democratic Party staffer of the committee. The NIS believes the attacks were launched by China-based North Korean hackers.

According to a committee staffer, the NIS has told National Assembly offices it is keeping close watch on some IP addresses in China since recent hacker attacks were carried out through one of them which is on a blacklist.