A billion stolen passwords sounds like a lot, but it’s no cause for alarm. After all, you knew passwords weren’t keeping your money or information safe, right? Back in 2005…yes, nearly 10 years ago…the FFIEC (government banking regulators) said passwords were inadequate protection for financial institutions. What does the [Keep reading]
Russian hackers who hijacked 1,600 StubHub user accounts and stole $1 million worth of tickets were indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney Wednesday, a case that brings to light another frontier in fraud fighting — and another systematic weakness exposed by cyber criminals. The hackers’ scheme was ingenious. They impersonated [Keep reading]
It’s a question I think about a lot: Are we moving towards a world that’s safer or more dangerous? More or less secure? This week, the “less secure” side scored another goal. Light bulbs can be hacked. Doing so seems like a rather silly science fair project until you think [Keep reading]
The Electronic Information Privacy Center has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over Facebook’s now-infamous research project, alleging the social media giant “purposefully messed with people’s minds.” The complaint raises interesting legal issues. Because Facebook was already operating under a consent decree with the FTC for a [Keep reading]
What does the nation’s leading privacy researcher, and a frequent but even-handed Facebook critic, think of the Facebook mood manipulation study controversy? It’s a case of “shooting the messenger,” he told me. It’s also a rare peek “through the looking-glass” at the future of privacy. Alessandro Acquisti’s name might be [Keep reading]
There was another round of confused Facebook outrage this weekend when a story in the Atlantic revealed the social media giant had intentionally toyed with users’ mood — allegedly for science, but in reality, for money. FB turned up the sadness dial on some users’ news feeds, and found out [Keep reading]
We live in a time of too many words. Remember Bruce Springsteen’s song “57 Channels (And Nothings On)?” Seems quaint now, doesn’t it? Today we have 100 million websites and often, nothing’s on. This phenomenon gives rise to one of my favorite phrases about our times: “Words without content.” Our [Keep reading]
Rarely does a U.S. Supreme Court ruling have an immediate impact on the everyday lives of Americans, but this one might. The U.S. Supreme Court pushed American law into the 21st Century a bit on Wednesday, ruling that cops can’t search through the contents of suspects’ cell phones before obtaining [Keep reading]
John Oliver finally woke up the sleeping masses to the boring but incredibly important net neutrality discussion a few weeks ago with his brilliant, closing-argument style summation of the issue. Well, now that we’re awake, we might as well understand what’s really going on. Fortunately, Wired today began a series [Keep reading]
When 140 characters is too much, there is Yo. In one sense, Yo is a new app that lets you send two characters to anyone in your contact list — bet you can guess what those two characters are. In another sense, Yo is another sign of the apocalypse. Yo [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan