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Professor Uses Online, Offline Data to Connect the Dots Of Your Digital Life

Posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2012 by Elaine Rigoli

Even before its $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, Facebook was home to more than 60 billion photos and was adding about 250 million more each day.

But what if those photos — even your photos — could lead people to identity you offline?

Last year, a Carnegie Mellon University researcher conducted an experiment by “connecting the dots” in people’s digital lives via off-the-shelf facial-recognition software. The researcher, Alessandro Acquisiti, was able to match subjects whose photos were posted on a dating site to their profile photos on Facebook. Read More

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Head to Facebook for 50% off Private WiFi and an iPad Giveaway

Posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 by Jillian Ryan

PRIVATE WiF  is proud to announce a 50% off deal and iPad giveaway on its Facebook Page. Read More

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Head’s Up, Mac Users: Apple Patches Major OS X Security Errors

Posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 by Elaine Rigoli

Well, that was close. It seems that Apple — after scrambling to patch 36 major security vulnerabilities in Mac OS X — fixed big leaks that revealed passwords used to encrypt folders with an older version of FileVault.

Apple’s latest update to Mac OS X Lion allegedly contained an error that revealed the passwords for material stored in the first version of FileVault, the company’s encryption technology. Read More

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The Shady World of Data Brokers: How to Remove Your Sensitive Information From Their Databases

Posted on Monday, May 14th, 2012 by Kent Lawson

Did you know that there is an entire industry devoted to buying and selling your personal information?

This includes your current and past addresses, your age, the names of your neighbors, and your purchase history, among other things.

The companies that compile and sell this information are called data brokers. It is a huge industry, but most people don’t even know that it exists. And data brokers would like to keep it that way. Read More

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Hacked at a Hotspot in Less Than 600 Seconds

Posted on Friday, May 11th, 2012 by Jan Legnitto

Do you think your personal information is safe if you limit your public Wifi  use to a few minutes? Two women named Erika and Ashleigh thought so, too, until they were hacked in less than 600 seconds.  Find out why online privacy is an oxymoron on public Wifi.  And what you can do to protect yourself.

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Microsoft Researchers On Passwords and Cybercrime

Posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2012 by Elaine Rigoli

When it comes to password security, two Microsoft researchers ask whether everything we know about password stealing is wrong.

They offer somewhat provocative thoughts, such as:

“Getting in and getting out with money is a far harder problem than simply causing destruction. If the goal were mayhem and destruction rather than money-making we might be a great deal worse off.”

Read More

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Questions about Facebook and Parenting – ITRC Social Media Survey 2012

Posted on Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 by Nikki Junker

The Identity Theft Resource Center recently launched a survey in order to understand what parents are doing to monitor their children’s social media and mobile activities.  To enter the contest just visit the ITRC’s website and click on the Do You Have Children Who Use Social Media? link or click here to take the survey directly. The contest will run through May 31, 2012.  Five $100 prize winners will be announced and contacted on June 1, 2012.  The survey results will be released on the ITRC website shortly thereafter.

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The Hacking Threat You Don’t Know About On NYC’s Subways

Posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 by Elaine Rigoli

It’s not entirely free, but wireless Internet access is finally coming to NYC transit!

The wireless access is part of a gradual rollout, to be managed by Boingo, over the next five years at stations throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens.

One-click WiFi access (read: for a fee, probably $8 a month) will be available to Boingo subscribers on limited routes, as well as Boingo’s WiFi roaming partners, including Skype, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon (read: free access within your subscription plan).

But what this really means is that more than 1.6 billion annual subway riders who connect to the Internet using their smartphones, e-readers, tablets, and other wireless devices while waiting for a train are potentially compromising their identities and online security. Read More

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Ask the Expert: Are ‘Secure’ Websites Really As Secure As We Think?

Posted on Monday, May 7th, 2012 by Kent Lawson

Q: “All of my important websites (email account, financial accounts, and social media) use HTTPS, so this means that they are totally secure, right? That’s what I have always been told and I just want to make sure that I have nothing to worry about.”

A: Most of us assume that if a website uses HTTPS, it’s completely secure. The reality is that sites that use HTTPS are not as safe as most people think.

In fact, new information from SSL Pulse has highlighted just how insecure HTTPS really is. Read More

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In Sweden, Personal VPN Use Explodes Amid Personal Privacy Concerns

Posted on Friday, May 4th, 2012 by Elaine Rigoli

There’s a big demand for virtual private networks in Sweden, according to this article.

Due to rising levels of cyber surveillance in Sweden, the number of Swedes who have started using personal VPNs has jumped 40% in the past few years. In an attempt to anonymize their data and shield their online behavior, the number of Swedes using paid VPNs has risen from 500,000 to 700,000. Read More

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