The week in security: Wearable tech shaking up security, privacy concerns

If you're not concerned about the privacy implications of wearable technology, consider how you feel knowing that fitness-bracelet provider Jawbone was able to publish a graph showing how its San Francisco customers felt the impact of the recent earthquake, based on when their bracelets said they woke up. On a similar note, a survey found that consumers are concerned about online security threats but do little to protect themselves.

California took a step towards helping consumers protect themselves by mandating the inclusion of a 'kill switch' in smartphones that lets their users lock and wipe their data if they are lost or stolen. On a smaller scale, Firefox was said to be preparing highly-granular security controls that would allow far tighter security controls than Android. And retailers were being urged to defend against 'Backoff' point of sale malware.

Finnish security vendor F-Secure was offering a new way of unlocking files locked with the SynoLocker ransomware, while HyTrust and Intel teamed up to lock down VMware virtual machines. And, in an interesting change of tack, online-video firm Netflix decided to open-source the tools it uses to monitor threats from online hackers.

Symantec opened a new Security Operations Centre in Sydney that will help it secure local security talent, while Trend Micro shared the news that a range of Chinese routers have a hardcoded password that would allow hackers to monitor a user's Internet traffic; security experts, in turn, recommended the devices be thrown out. Government security specialists were warning about malicious 'Google dorking' hackers, while electric-car giant Tesla was recruiting hackers to boost the security of its vehicles.

Sony's PlayStation and Entertainment networks were downed by what the company called 'high traffic', with the networks brought back online quickly. Mozilla suffered its own user data leak while, on a similar note but at much larger scale, South Korean authorities revealed the details of a massive data breach impacting 27 million people. And, reaffirming the threats we all face, a new 'malvertising' campaign hit visitors to several high-profile Web sites.

This article is brought to you by Enex TestLab, content directors for CSO Australia.