Security

The Washington Post reports that at least 8.3 million personal and financial records of consumers were potentially compromised by data spills or breaches at businesses, universities and government agencies in the first quarter of 2008, according to ... a report released from the Identity Theft Resource Center. The Identity Theft Resource Center ( ITRC ), based in San Diego tracked public reports of 167 data breaches in the first three months of 2008. 448 data breaches were recorded in 2007 by the ITRC. Detailed breakdowns from the first quarter of 2008 are available from the ITRC here (PDF) and ... (view more)

There's a time and place for malware. Well, ideally there's never a time and place for it, but there certainly are places we'd expect it to strike over others. For one, few of us would link the average supermarket with the latest in technology, let ... alone its breach. Surprisingly enough, malware is being blamed for a remarkable security hack of the Massachusetts-based Hannaford supermarket chain in early March. The Boston Globe recently cited a letter sent from the grocery chain to state regulators, announcing that the breach was the direct result of malicious software meant to intercept ... (view more)

With all of the hysteria surrounding viral and spyware attacks or the hacking of government agencies, sometimes we lose sight of those truly vulnerable on the Internet: our kids. A Saskatchewan mother recently felt the sting when her 14-year-old ... daughter fled with a 41-year-old man who she met online. Last Tuesday, the girl snuck out of her parents' home to meet a man old enough to be her father. However, she didn't expect it to be that way; up until their meeting, the girl was under the impression her new friend would be much younger. When they finally did meet, Daniel George Nickolson ... (view more)

Not that it should come as any surprise, but Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), Microsoft's first update to (the never ending nightmare known as) Windows Vista, has reportedly been causing more problems for users. When Windows Vista was ... released to the public over a year ago, a plethora of users found out that it was riddled with speed and compatibility issues. So much so that even Microsoft executives complained, as revealed by a pending class action lawsuit. As reported by our own John Lister, Microsoft recently released Windows Vista SP1 as a means to improve performance and ... (view more)

Gotta get your Milwaukee Bucks score every morning? Apparently, so do hackers. MSNBC Sports' web page was recently the victim of a major hack attack, compromising more than 26,000 pages. It's set off alarm bells for legitimate web sites, and ... highlights a new trend being forged by the web's most elite hackers. The MSNBC attack was reported this past Tuesday by San Diego-based Websense Inc. The security company has been tracking the exploit for about a month, stumbling upon the MSNBC invasion while performing one of their many web scans. Other major sites that appear to be hit include TV.com, ... (view more)

The first major update for Windows Vista is now available for download. Service Pack 1 can be manually downloaded from Microsoft's web site, or through Vista's built-in update facility. The download is between 434MB and 726MB depending on the type ... of computer, so many users will prefer to download it overnight. Those who choose not to install Service Pack 1 now will likely receive it through an automatic update in mid-April. Amazon will be stocking boxed copies of Vista with Service Pack 1 already installed after this week, though it's not clear when retail stores will do the same. Microsoft ... (view more)

Reports are now suggesting that Microsoft's highly-anticipated series of updates for Windows Vista, called Service Pack 1 (SP1), will be available for download and shipping, today and tomorrow, respectively. The news keeps with previous estimates ... that the company would be releasing a series of fixes by the middle of March. First word of the release comes to us via Amazon.com, whose web site recently revealed that users can begin downloading the free SP1 upgrade Tuesday. By Wednesday, Amazon will begin shipping boxed copies of Windows SP1. Preorders can be made now. In a statement sent to the ... (view more)

A startling report from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently revealed details on what appears to be a domestic-spying program that was banned by Congress in 2003 known as the 'Total Information Awareness' (TIA) program. As noted by the American ... Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Orwellian program was shut down by Congress because it represented a massive and unjustified governmental intrusion into the personal lives of citizens. Despite the fact that Congress shut down the program, security agencies under the Bush administration pushed ahead anyway. The National Security Agency (NSA) has ... (view more)

Hackers have already found a way into the newest iPhone software, just three months before it's officially launched to the public. The new edition of the software is officially titled version 1.2, though will get the snazzier sounding '2.0' tag on ... its formal launch. Hackers got hold of the software because it's included in Apple's new Software Development Kit (SDK). The main gripe between Apple and the hackers is that, while the firm encourages independent development of features to run on the phone, it wants tight control over how this is done. Apple is demanding they become the exclusive ... (view more)

When you're king-of-the-hill, everybody wants to knock you off. Google has opened a new assault on Microsoft by going after the software giant's SharePoint program, an application that provides a collaboration platform for groups of workers. ... Google's new application, labeled Google Sites, will be added to the existing suite of Google Apps. It was originally developed by start-up JotSpot, which was acquired by Google in late 2006. A key difference between Google Sites and Microsoft SharePoint is that the Google service will be free. (Source: nytimes.com ) Essentially, Google Sites is a "wiki" ... (view more)