privacy-and-security
Facebook's 'Shadow Profile' Bug Proves We've Lost Control Of Our Data
What can Facebook do with your data? Or the government? Or a hacker?
Two New Ways to See Through Walls
Imagine what it must feel like to be a member of SWAT huddled outside the apartment of a hostage-taker, or a soldier crouched near the door of a terrorist compound, or a firefighter preparing to run into a burning building -- would you want to be the...
Government Requests for Google User Data Have Skyrocketed
Google's latest Transparency Report is out, and guess what. It's troubling! Google senior policy analyst Dorothy Chou breaks the bad news rather concisely in an official Google blog post: "Government surveillance is on the rise."
It's Impossible to Keep a Secret These Days
Let's have a little talk about secrets. There are all kinds of secrets out there in the world: personal secrets, state secrets, secret recipes, secret sauces, top secrets, secret levels in video games, Victoria's Secret. The list goes on. But as we're...
"We Turned Science Fiction Into Reality": The Military's Drone-Mounted Microwave Guns
Good news for everybody out there who's been paralyzed by fear of a robot takeover in the not too distant future. You know that last resort weapon in _The Matrix_, the one that Keanu Reeves or whoever activates when those stingray-looking robots are...
With "Public Access Me," Jonas Lund Wants To Show You Everything He Does Ever Online
Right now, at 11:19 a.m. EST, artist Jonas Lund does not appear to be at his computer. Perhaps he's gone to the bathroom or to get a snack or maybe he's still asleep. Open in his browser is just one page, a pile of code at Github. You can look for...
It's Official, Hacker Gary McKinnon Isn't Coming to America
After a decade of hearings and British court appeals per Gary Mckinnon's extradition to the United States to be tried for the biggest military hacking incident the U.S. Justice Department had ever seen.
The Navy's New Super Warship Looks Like a Tiny Fishing Boat on Radar
Remember _The Hunt for the Red October_, that terrific movie from the 1990s starring Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery running around on submarines? The Red October was this new Soviet super sub that was virtually undetectable by radar and rigged up with...
A Cyber 'Pearl Harbor' Is Coming, Says Leon Panetta
If you didn't already know it, the United States is in terrible trouble of being hit by a horrible, crippling cyberattack. _The New York Times_ calls it a "dire threat." Defense Secretary Leon Panetta calls it the impending "cyber Pearl Harbor." We don...
How to Figure Out If Somebody's Spying on You
There are a lot of upsides to living in our always on, ever connected world.
Rent-to-Own Laptops Recorded Keystrokes, Filmed Sex Acts
Renting things is always a bit of a gamble. What if you rent a car and the previous renter left an ounce of weed in the glovebox? That's not going to go over too well when you're reaching for the registration at a routine traffic stop. And how about a...
Why Hasn't Congress Stopped Your Boss From Asking for Your Passwords?
In the past five years, I have had some pretty terrible haircuts. All of them have been documented on Facebook. All of them would get me fired from my current job. Now think about all the pictures of me and my imbecilic friends playing air cello, air...