Showing headlines posted by penguinist

Making users change their passwords frequently could actually make systems less secure, the UK's information security agency has warned.

In a disappointing turn of events, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 241 to 173 to pass H.R. 2666, the No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act, a bill that would undermine the FCC’s ability to enforce key net neutrality protections... As the bill moves to the Senate this session, it’s crucial that senators reject it. Fortunately, President Obama has said that he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk.

While Apple recently fought the US Department of Justice in court over an order to create new software to help unlock a terror suspect’s phone—and has pledged to continue to do so—Canada’s police and device manufacturers have been comparatively silent on the issue. Now, for the first time, Canadians have a clearer picture of how digital surveillance in this country works, at least when it comes to BlackBerry phones...

In the aftermath of Apple and the FBI's high-profile battle over an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooter suspects, observers on Capitol Hill have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of new Congressional bill that would force tech companies to provide assistance... Now a leaked draft reportedly obtained by The Hill has provided our very first glimpse at that bill... The bill "would be embarrassing if it weren’t so frightening"

Open source software is software that is distributed freely. Now, this may sound like a terrible idea. People are altruistic — but only to a certain point. Why would people contribute to software for no reward? The key is that open source software is not only free, the process behind making it is transparent. You can change it. Open source projects start when people share code they wrote for their individual needs. Many times making this software publicly available is more cost effective than selling it.

"I would obviously love for Linux to take over that world too, but it turns out it's a really hard area to enter. I'm still working on it. It's been 25 years. I can do this for another 25. I'll wear them down."

It’s been one of the worst-kept secrets for years: the identity of the person the government was investigating in 2013 when it served the secure email firm Lavabit with a court order demanding help spying on a particular customer...

Companies can encrypt data so that what is stolen remains useless to the attacker. However, right now, most forms of cryptography can be broken with the right tools — but what if there were a development in the works that could change the game completely?

In the face of widespread Internet surveillance, we need a secure and practical means of talking to each other from our phones and computers. Many companies offer “secure messaging” products—but are these systems actually secure? We decided to find out, in the first phase of a new EFF Campaign for Secure & Usable Crypto.

The US government has made numerous attempts to obtain source code from tech companies in an effort to find security flaws that could be used for surveillance or investigations.

Newspapers have reported that a “zero-day” vulnerability was used to accomplish the hacking of Bangladesh Bank, which has so far cost the country about $100 million -- a colossal amount.

Snowden says we can't trust government with our secrets, and we don't have to. You might as well pass a law telling glaciers not to melt. We all want our privacy and security. West Coast Law says the only way you get it is if everyone does.

Before purchasing a new Smart TV, make sure that its operating system suits your everyday needs. To help you choose wisely, here’s our handy guide to what each one looks like, and what features it packs.

Mozilla has been clarifying some of its plans to convert the Firefox OS project into four IoT based projects.

Following FREAK and Logjam, DROWN is the third attack resulting from encryption algorithms that were deliberately weakened by the government

The idea of making end-to-end encryption breakable is “so misguided as to boggle the mind,” according to Amit Yoran, the president of RSA. He says it will “catastrophically weaken” security for those using it for legitimate purposes without accomplishing the goals for which it is sought – catching terrorists and the worst criminals. “It is solely for the ease and convenience of law enforcement when pursuing petty criminals,” he says, while the toughest adversaries would be unaffected.

The Odroid-C2 64-bit quad-core single board computer is now released. The C2 features 2GB memory, Gigabit ethernet, infrared receiver, 40-pin GPIO connector, OpenGL Mali-450 GPU and with AVE support for H264/H265 HDMI 2.0 4K/60Hz display.

Details of the next member of the successful Raspberry Pi family have become available as part of FCC testing documents. The Pi 3 finally includes WiFi and Bluetooth LE.

The Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition will be showcased for the very first time at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona... As VP at Meizu, Li Nan, puts it “We have some interesting plans and so we’re looking forward to further deepening our partnership with Canonical in the future.” We look forward to an exciting future together.

Ubuntu is to work on adding support for a new fingerprint authentication API in mobile builds