Social Networking Security — News

How to Protect Your Privacy on Google+

The founder of the social network decided to get a little antisocial on another service. Facebook CEO <a href="https://plus.google.com/106274577860630658862/posts">Mark Zuckerberg</a> and Google's <a href="https://plus.google.com/106189723444098348646/posts">Larry Page</a> and <a href="https://plus.google.com/109813896768294978296/posts">Sergey Brin</a> all elected to up their privacy settings on Google+.

Paul Suarez | 14 Jul | Read more

Google Voice Spam Filter Blocks Unwanted Calls

A new feature from Google for Google Voice takes the power of the "Report Spam" button and multiplies it exponentially. Google is applying the collected data from thousands of <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/204220/gmail_voice_promises_affordable_calling.html">Google Voice users</a> to automatically identify telemarketers and other unwanted calls and send them directly into the spam folder.

Tony Bradley | 14 Jul | Read more

Lulzsec: the rise and fall of a hacking collective

The curtain has fallen on the 50 day performance by hacker group LulzSec. Its campaign of mayhem and destruction, peppered with witty commentary captivated the world. In an alternate universe where Lulzcats reign and anti-security is the norm, it might have even earned a spot on its first target, The X-Factor. But on this earth its members may still be captured by its later targets: the CIA, US law enforcement and the FBI.

Liam Tung | 12 Jul | Read more

Google+ privacy

While Google's new social network, Google+, is barely a week old, it's already received a lot of attention from tech pundits and the social media community. And as with any new online service, understanding how to control your information is essential.

Kristin Burnham | 07 Jul | Read more

Fox News Twitter Account Hacked, Reports President's Death

An official Fox News Twitter account falsely reported that President Barack Obama had been assassinated after hackers gained access to the account early Monday. The phony messages were posted to the Fox News Politics Twitter account sometime before 2:30 a.m. Eastern Monday and were still live more than five hours later. The account has more than 33,000 followers. A group calling itself the Script Kiddies claimed responsibility for the hack, according to <a href="http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/07/04/hackers-claim-fox-news-twitter-account-report-fake-obama-shooting/">The Next Web</a>.

Ian Paul | 06 Jul | Read more

Mobile payments, PCI DSS compliance: Some clarity

Mobile payments technology is a loud sonic boom thundering through the payments industry. But are all -- or any -- of these payment schemes compliant with the <a href="http://www.csoonline.com/article/519563/the-great-pci-security-debate-of-2010-transcribed">Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS?)</a>

George V. Hulme | 05 Jul | Read more

Worm hits popular Chinese Twitter-like service

A popular Twitter-like service in China with <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/227714/chinaand8217s_sina_benefits_from_surge_in_microblogging.html">140 million users</a> was hit by a worm earlier this week that resembles past attacks that infected Twitter and MySpace, according to a security analyst.

Michael Kan | 30 Jun | Read more

Researchers Look at New Ways to Keep Your Information Safe

Since 1997 identity theft and fraud has affected more than 5.4 million people in the United States. And that number is on the rise with, more than 1.3 million complaints to the <a href="http://www.ftc.gov/sentinel/">Consumer Sentinel Network</a> (CSN) between January and December of 2009 alone. <a href="http://www.ftc.gov/sentinel/reports/sentinel-annual-reports/sentinel-cy2009.pdf">According to the Federal Trade Commission</a> (PDF), of the 721,418 fraud-related complaints to the CSN in 2009, this has cost customers [of various products and services] more than 1.7 billion dollars at a median payout of $399. But what can companies do to prevent fraud and identity theft?

James Mulroy | 30 Jun | Read more

DDoS attacks bolster cloud website optimiser

Enterprise product in the making and ‘loved’ by disbanded hacker group LulzSec. The constant and very real threat of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks aimed at headline grabbing “hacker” groups, such as Lulz Security and Anonymous, have helped one tech start-up pick up new business.

Liam Tung | 28 Jun | Read more