Robert Lemos

On Sept. 9, Yahoo became the latest online-services company to release a report on the number of times that governments requested information on the company’s users, following Facebook’s release of its own transparency report in August. The report shows that Yahoo fielded 12,444 requests from the U.S. government in the first half of 2013, releasing […]

Before a company or individual borrows money, they have to undergo a credit check as proof of their financial security. In the future, companies that want to do business with each other may have to show a similar rating that grades their information security. On Sept. 10, security startup BitSight Technologies launched a service that […]

Apple added two new iPhones to its lineup Sept. 10: the iPhone 5C, a colorful consumer device with a lower price tag, and the iPhone 5S, its typical aluminum-body top-of-the line model. But two new security features have garnered the attention of experts. The high-end iPhone 5S includes a fingerprint reader, TouchID, that can unlock […]

The National Security Agency, the U.S. government organization tasked with gathering intelligence from adversaries’ communications and protecting domestic communications, has the capability to peer into far more Internet communications than previously thought, according to a report published on Sept. 6 and based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Using a variety of […]

Cyber-criminals developing malicious software commonly target the Windows operating system, only occasionally aim for Apple’s Mac OS X, and very rarely look to compromise desktop systems running Linux. Yet one developer is doing just that, according to an analysis published by security firm RSA on Sept. 3. The “Hand of Thief” Trojan aims to allow […]

Fueled by protectionism and worries over U.S. surveillance, companies in other nations may spurn American cloud services and could shrink the U.S. industry’s revenues by up to one-quarter, according to two worst-case analyses of the impact of recent revelations of rampant data collection by the National Security Agency. The analyses—conducted by the Information Technology and […]

As a Google Explorer, Anthony Pettenon wears his enthusiasm for technology on his face. A member of Google’s program to expose its always-on Glass devices to the real world, the sophomore at the University of Tampa in Florida regularly wears the devices to class and out around the city. People are not worried about being […]

Businesses that process and store credit- and debit-card information got a preview of the latest planned requirements when the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) released a draft of the third edition of its security rules. The new PCI Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) focus on improving worker education, strengthening passwords by allowing […]

In the second major acquisition of a technology that combats Web fraud, IBM announced on Aug. 15 that the company had agreed to buy Trusteer, a provider of anti-fraud services for online banking. The acquisition, whose terms were not disclosed but reportedly approached $1 billion, gives IBM a business that brought in $50 million in […]

With all the focus on convincing users to strengthen their passwords, brute-force guessing attacks should no longer be effective. Yet, recently, a discovered botnet has been able to build a stable of approximately 6,000 servers just by guessing 10 to 100 passwords per site, researchers from Arbor Networks said Aug. 7. The Fort Disco campaign […]

Fresh information on the latest online threats can enable companies to respond more quickly to attacks and prevent compromises, but the intelligence grows stale quickly and becomes less useful within 4 to 12 minutes, according to a recent survey of security professionals. The survey, conducted by the Ponemon Institute and funded by threat-intelligence provider Norse, […]

An Asian espionage network consisting of more than 5,000 bots—or “chickens” in the region’s parlance—has infected government agencies in the United States, Europe, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and other nations, according to research presented at the Black Hat security conference by Taiwanese researchers. While the researchers had identified more than two dozen groups operating different “chicken […]