Category Archives: Security News
House committee approves bill to end NSA phone records program
A U.S. Congress committee has overwhelmingly approved legislation designed to stop the bulk collection of U.S. phone records by the National Security Agency.
The 25-2 vote in the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee sends the USA Freedom Act to the House floor for a vote. The two votes against the bill came from lawmakers who had argued for stronger protections for civil liberties.
Project Fi will help Google amass even more data about you
As Google dives into the Wi-Fi and cellular network services business, some are wondering just where the company is headed.
Google, known for its dominant search engine and Android operating system, has been stretching boundaries with newer projects like autonomous cars and robotics. Now it’s competing with the likes of wireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T in the data and cellular market.
Camio turns your spare phone or tablet into Dropcam
For all their out-of-the-box convenience, advanced features and constant improvements, cloud cameras such as Dropcam and Netcam HD aren’t exactly the cheapest home-surveillance option. In addition to the upfront cost of the unit itself, there’s usually a recurring fee for cloud storage. But what if you could get your webcam or a spare iOS or Android device to work like Dropcam?
Key management is the biggest pain of encryption
Most IT professionals rate the pain of managing encryption keys as severe, according to a new global survey by the Ponemon Institute.
On a scale of 1 to 10, respondents said that the risk and cost associated with managing keys or certificates was 7 or above, and cited unclear ownership of keys as the main reason.
“There’s a growing awareness of the security benefits of encryption really accrue from the keys,” said Richard Moulds, vice president of product strategy at Thales e-Security, the sponsor of this report. “The algorithms that encrypt the data are all the same — what makes it secure is the keys.”
With ransomware on the rise, cryptographers take it personally
Some of the world’s leading cryptographers are concerned about the increasing number of malicious programs that hold computers and mobile phones to ransom, in many cases by abusing the encryption algorithms they designed.
Despite law enforcement efforts to disrupt ransomware operations, the prevalence of such programs continued to grow last year, according to a report published Thursday by antivirus vendor F-Secure.
