Security

Google's Schmidt: The Internet needs a delete button

NEW YORK--The Internet needs a delete button, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said Monday.

Actions someone takes when young can haunt the person forever, Schmidt said, because the information will always be on the Internet. He used the example of a young person who committed a crime that could be expunged from his record when he's an adult. But information about that crime could remain online, preventing the person from finding a job.

"In America, there's a sense of fairness that's culturally true for all of us," Schmidt said. "The lack of a delete … Read more

Samsung Galaxy S4 earns Pentagon security nod

Samsung is now clear to start pitching its new flagship phone to the government.

The handset maker announced Friday that its Knox-enabled mobile devices have been approved by the Pentagon for government use. Samsung's Knox software offers high-level encryption, a VPN feature, and a way to separate personal data from work data. The software also enables IT administrators to manage a mobile device through specific policies.

For now, the Galaxy S4 is the only Samsung device equipped with Knox. But the company promises that other smartphones as well as tablets will receive the security software.

The thumb's up … Read more

How to prepare for your last log-off

Technology doesn't just complicate our lives, it also does a number on our deaths.

Imagine the challenge of accounting for all of your digital assets once you've shuffled off to Buffalo. Even if you consider your e-mail, text messages, and social-media posts disposable, you've probably stored photos, videos, and very personal documents on one or more Web services. You probably want to bequeath some or all of these items to family and friends.

If you run an online business, ensuring a smooth transition in the event of your demise becomes even more important. To ease the burden … Read more

Airbnb starts verifying user profiles

Airbnb, which helps people find vacation rentals all around the world, today will start verifying the identity of all users by asking for their real-life papers, the company announced on Tuesday.

Airbnb is asking both travelers and those who have property listings to provide two forms of identification for a new verification process. The company will take people's IDs from Airbnb reviews and social media sites, like LinkedIn or Facebook, and will ask users to fill in information only they would know or scan a photo ID to confirm a match.

For now, the company plans to require 25 … Read more

See how beautiful a DDoS attack can look

We've all heard of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack and know what it is: when a person or people attempt to take down a Web site by flooding it with connection requests. These max out the site's bandwidth, making it unable to accept new requests. The attacks are usually automated and can be accomplished in a variety of ways. The loss of traffic during the attack itself, and the recovery afterward, can end up costing Web sites quite a lot.

But what does that actually look like? Well, nothing by itself; but thanks to a Web site traffic visualization tool called Logstalgia, Ludovic Fauvet, developer of the Web site VideoLAN (which created and distributes the free multimedia player VLC), managed to capture an April 23 DDoS attack on his site. … Read more

Google: No, app makers, you can't skip the Play Store

A change to the Google Play Store policy corrects a security loophole and forces all apps installed through the store to update through the store, too.

DroidLife is reporting the security fix puts the kibosh to apps that had been installed via the Play Store, but had been asking users to install updates outside of the marketplace workflow.

The change to the Content Policy, apparently shown to developers when they log in to the Play Store, admonishes them to not coerce their users into skipping the store. "An app downloaded from Google Play may not modify, replace or update … Read more

Google joins FIDO's crusade to replace passwords

A group of tech companies looking to replace passwords for online identity authentication gained a powerful ally Tuesday in the form of Google.

The consortium, called the Fast IDentity Online Alliance (FIDO), is working to develop standards-based alternatives for verifying a user's identity when trying to login to Web sites and online accounts. Formed in 2012, the group proposes specifications that will support a variety of authentication technologies, including biometrics such as fingerprint scanners and voice and facial recognition, as well as security tokens, near field communication, and one-time passwords.

The Web giant joins founding members Lenovo, PayPal, Nok … Read more

Cyberattacks triple in 2012, Akamai says

Cyberwarfare incidences jumped sharply in 2012, Akamai said, with the number of distributed denial of service attacks more than tripling from the previous year.

Akamai, one of the world's largest globally distributed networks, said its customers reported being targeted by 768 DDoS attacks last year, more than three times as many as in 2011. The company's State of the Internet report released Tuesday also found that more than a third of those attacks targeted the commerce sector, while another 20 percent targeted enterprise customers.

"In many ways, DDoS has become the weapon of choice for multiple types … Read more

Security certificate problem trips up Bing Web site

A security certificate problem triggered warnings not to use Bing over a secure Web connection Friday, and Microsoft said an issue with network service provider Akamai is to blame.

Browsers displayed prominent error messages and warnings at about 9 a.m. PT when visiting https://bing.com.

The HTTPS standard governs how Web browsers and Web servers set up encrypted communications, for example so that others can't eavesdrop on network activity to find out what you're searching for, but valid and up-to-date security certificates are required for such communications.

"An attacker on your network could be trying … Read more

Boston bombings: How facial recognition can cut investigation time to seconds

After the Boston Marathon bombings, police in the city made a plea for people with cell phone video and pictures to turn over their footage, adding to the hours of surveillance video from nearby businesses. But what would normally take investigators hundreds of hours to review can now take minutes or even seconds, thanks to technology like facial recognition. The software, which can help pick a person out of crowd, looks for differentiating features -- from the shape of a mouth to the ridge on a nose to the distance between a pair of eyes.

3VR in San Francisco has … Read more