Apple will reportedly introduce a new privacy update for the iPhone that will prevent installed iOS apps from seeing which other apps have been downloaded to the device.
The post New iPhone update blocks apps from seeing other apps you’ve installed appeared first on We Live Security.
A proposed change to the way that registrars treat the private contact details for domain owners could make it easier for anyone to get information on people who use proxy services.
Facebook have added the ability for organizations to detect if their OS X system is being exploited by XARA with their framework osquery.
An ingenious team of Israeli security researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered a way to steal secret encryption keys using a gadget so small it can be hidden inside some pita bread.
The post How to steal PGP encryption keys (using radio waves and pita bread) appeared first on We Live Security.
Popular meme site Reddit has announced that it will soon encrypt all traffic with HTTPS by default.
The post Reddit goes HTTPS, joins Wikipedia at security table appeared first on We Live Security.
I recently published a blog about the data breach at the Office of Personal Management (OPM) and the Interior Department which is being blamed on China.
In the last week, there have been a number of experts giving more detail on the depth of the stolen data. The concern is about Standard Form 86 which is used to collect data on potential federal employees applying for positions in National Security.
As you can imagine, this form probes into areas of someone’s background, family and friends that not even those close to the person may know. There are 127 pages of the form and the collection of information includes citizenship, passport, residence schools, military service, employment, financial records, alcohol and drug use, criminal records, psychological and emotional health, groups that may have been associated with, foreign travel, associates including relatives and friends.
The data is extremely valuable to any foreign government or intelligence agency, knowing your enemy in this much detail is a definite advantage. Some observers are suggesting that the data may even be used to blackmail people. While there is of course this possibility, I doubt anyone who successfully got a position in the NSA would be susceptible to blackmail…
However, there is the risk of an unsuccessful applicant being blackmailed with the data on their Standard Form 86. Naturally, this is bad news for them and they need protection as they are not in positions of national security.
Any breach that affects the people responsible for our security is extremely serious and there needs be a robust plan to assist current and past employees, and even those who simply filled out the form.
Personal data is becoming the primary target for many cyber criminals, foreign powers and governments and the holders of the data need to take precautions to secure it. We are all potential victims of data theft and it’s our responsibility to understand the dangers of handing over our data.
While in this case there is no alternative for national security employees, in many of the data breach cases recently there are ways that we can limit our exposure by sharing less.
On Wednesday the EFF published their yearly report called “Who Has Your Back? 2015: Protecting Your Data From Government Requests”. It answers important questions like which companies follow industry-accepted best practices, tell their users about government data demands, disclose policies on data retention or government content removal request, and oppose backdoors.
For the EFF report 24 companies are evaluated and being awarded (or not awarded, depending on the outcome) stars in the five categories mentioned above. Nine companies managed to get stars in all of them: Adobe, Apple, CREDO, Dropbox, Sonic, Wickr, Wikimedia, WordPress.com, and Yahoo.
Facebook and Twitter received four out of five stars, with Facebook “not providing transparency into ways it cooperates with the U.S. government to block content and remove accounts” and Twitter „not providing notice after an emergency has ended or a gag has been lifted”.
The worst rating with only one star went to WhatsApp who at least opposes backdoors but seems lacking in all other privacy regards. The EFF recommends WhatsApp to “publicly require a warrant before turning over user content, publish a law enforcement guide and transparency report, have a stronger policy of informing users of government requests, and disclose its data retention policies.”
Take a look at the full report to find out more.
The post EFF Privacy Report 2015: Which Companies Have Your Back? appeared first on Avira Blog.
Major telecoms like AT&T and Verizon continue to lag behind in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s annual “Who Has Your Back” report.
In the two years since the details of the NSA’s deep penetration of the Internet infrastructure began to emerge, there has been a major movement afoot among Web companies to encrypt more and more of their resources and services. The latest large property to make this move is Reddit, which by the end of the […]
Privacy search engine DuckDuckGo has seen traffic rocket after recent widely publicised privacy scares, according the the company.
The post DuckDuckGo traffic up after Apple integration and privacy issues appeared first on We Live Security.
