We've been hearing a lot about technical problems with the Federal government's Affordable Care Act (ACA) Web site. But slow downloads and 404 errors aren’t the worst of what could plague the Obamacare site. According to white-hat hacker David Kennedy, the site can be easily hacked, allowing criminals to compromise computers and steal people's private information.
Indonesian hackers are targeting Australian police and other government agencies' websites as payback for spying on their president but no critical police information has been compromised.
The hacking group called BlackSinChan is reportedly acquiring and publishing encrypted passcodes of some Australian websites, leaving a message on one site "This is the payback for Spying Indonesia!"
Vermont state officials have confirmed a privacy breach on the state's health care exchange web site.
The exchange, named Vermont Health Connect, offers a health care insurance market under the federal Affordable Care Act.
According to a report filed with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) by state officials, on October 17 a consumer who had signed up on the web site received a copy of his application in the mail. On the back of the application was a handwritten note: "VERMONT HEALTH CONNECT IS NOT A SECURE WEBSITE!"
Cupid Media has been caught up in a security scandal that suggests that 42 million user credentials have been compromised.
The discovery was made by security researcher Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security. He found the data on the same server that contained data gained from hacking attacks on other well known organisations, including Adobe and PR Newswire.
The US Supreme Court today denied a motion by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) for a court order against the National Security Agency (NSA)'s blanket collection of telephone records.
According to the New York Times, while the Court gave no reasons for the rejection, the reason was likely procedural: In its response to the EPIC petition, the government had argued that the petition did not meet the requirements for a writ of mandamus, and that the proper procedure for EPIC would be "...to file an action in federal district court, as other parties have done."
Ever get the feeling all those smart devices you own are talking about you behind your back? There was a time when you'd be considered paranoid if not wholly delusional. Now you're just part of the so-called Internet of things.
Like it or not, the IoT is already here. You can either get on the IoT bus, or you can have the bus update its Facebook status talking about what a Luddite you are after it runs you over. Tomorrow, the FTC is holding a workshop to discuss the Internet of things featuring Google's Vint Cerf as the keynote speaker. There's a lot to discuss.
Despite being discovered in iOS 5 last year, a possible caching bug in Apple's iOS 7 Photos app still allows thumbnails of deleted pictures to be "resurrected" by saving a transparent PNG file to the album.
The thumbnail restoration issue as applicable to the latest iOS 7.0.4 was spotted by AppleInsider reader Mike, while a quick check confirms that the small previews associated with deleted pictures do indeed reappear when a transparent image is saved to the Camera Roll. Full size pictures are not restored.
Microsoft has confirmed to SCMagazineUK.com that it is considering encrypting customers' personal data which it sends over the internet, in the wake of the allegations of mass electronic surveillance by the NSA.
The revelation that Microsoft is “evaluating additional changes that may be beneficial to further protect our customers' data” came after its EMEA vice president of legal and corporate affairs, Dorothee Belz, faced tough questioning on Monday from a Committee of European MEPs.
A new analysis of the Snowden papers by German magazine Der Spiegel shows GCHQ–the English counterpart to the US’s NSA–served false copies of LinkedIn and Slashdot pages to install malware on a few target individuals’ computers. This latest revelation is not a mass spying program, but a server-heavy, speed-dependent initiative to spy on key individuals deemed to be assets by the GCHQ. Targets included employees of GRX providers Comfon, Mach (now owned by Syniverse), and nine members of OPEC, the global oil cartel.
AT&T is paid $10 million annually by the CIA to share call data, reports The Times. Such deals are likely to complicate a Vodafone acquisition.
AT&T is paid more than $10 million a year to help the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with its "overseas counterterrorism investigations," The New York Times reported Nov. 7. AT&T has a voluntary contract with the CIA, and is "not under subpoenas or court orders compelling the company to participate," said the report, citing government officials.
