Fahmida Y. Rashid

Facebook will be rolling out a number of new security and privacy features that will make the social networking site more like Google+. The social networking giant announced a “bunch of improvements that make it easier to share posts, photos, tags and other content with exactly the people you want,” according to an Aug. 23 […]

Google’s Android has overtaken Java Micro Edition as the most attacked mobile platform, McAfee said in its latest quarterly threat report. Out of about 1,200 mobile malware samples that McAfee Labs collected and analyzed in the second quarter of 2011, about 60 percent were aimed at Android, McAfee said in its 2011 Threats Report for […]

Researchers have uncovered the first malware using the “Gingerbreak” root exploit for Android 2.3, code-named “Gingerbread.” GingerMaster, a variant of the DroidKungFu malware that appeared earlier this year, has a root exploit that gives the attacker control of the infected device, Xuxian Jiang, an associate professor at North Carolina State University’s department of computer science, […]

A military documentary broadcast in China appears to have some screenshots of what may be software designed for cyber-warfare attacking a server in the United States. The Epoch Times, a publication founded by members of the Falun Gong, a religious organization banned in China, first noticed the software in the video clip. The software has […]

Apple has told software developers to stop using the unique identifier that would allow companies to track users and their behavior when developing iPhone and iPad apps. The Apple Website for iOS developers said the use of the Unique Device Identifier will be “deprecated” in iOS 5, TechCrunch reported on Aug. 19. Apple just released […]

Microsoft has removed the tracking cookie from MSN.com that could stealthily track users on the site even after the user deleted all cookies from the Web browser. The code used on MSN.com that was responsible for the “supercookies” had already been slated for removal, Mike Hintze, Microsoft’s associate general counsel for regulatory affairs, said Aug. […]

Banks and other enterprises aren’t the only organizations worrying about former employees stealing or destroying data when they leave the company. A former employee for the whistleblower site WikiLeaks said he “shredded” documents when he left the company earlier this year. Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a sometime spokesperson for WikiLeaks in Germany, destroyed more than 3,500 documents […]

After the recent crackdown around the world on companies allegedly distributing scareware programs, the fake security business seems to be in full retreat, according to a recent report. The number of new fake antivirus, scareware and other rogue software incidents have declined 60 percent since June, Alvin Estevez, CEO of Enigma Software said Aug. 18. […]

It’s becoming quite a routine event with the Anonymous hacker’s group welcoming Mondays with a fresh data dump of personal information belonging to innocent people. This time, the targeted Website was myBART.org, the trip planning and services portal for the San Francisco region’s Bay Area Rapid Transit. Anonymous supposedly breached the site using a SQL […]

Internet users are overly complacent about posting personal or potentially sensitive data online, providing cyber-criminals with a wealth of information that could be used for identity theft or hijacking accounts, according to a recent BullGuard survey. In a survey of 2,000 British Internet users, approximately 42 percent posted their date of birth and 18 percent […]

Facebook has a simple tip for its users to stay safe online: “Friend” only people you know. In a 13-page guide titled “Own Your Space,” Facebook advised users on how to secure their accounts on the social networking site and provided some general tips on computer security. The tips explain some of the advanced security […]

Kevin Mitnick, one of the individuals included in eWEEK’s Top Hackers slideshow, appeared on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report on Aug. 18. Mitnick, on a press tour for his book, “Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker,” appeared on the show for an interview with the host, Stephen Colbert. Mitnick spent […]