Facebook Hardens Authentication

facebookFacebook recently announced an improvement to it’s logon system.  Login security seems to be taking a position from and center lately.  Wednesday we wrote about Yahoo’s new authentication system, and today we will move on to Facebook’s Login Approvals.

Previously, Facebook users were able to get Login Notifications. When you entered your user name (usually your email address) and password from a new location, browser, or device, Facebook Notifications would send users an ...

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20
NOV
0

authentication, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Facebook

New Yahoo Email Needs No Password

YahooYahoo is introducing some enhancements to its email service, including actively replacing the traditional password with something more secure that a password alone, and easier than two factor authentication a la Google Authenticator.  The new Yahoo feature is called Yahoo Account Key and use a push notification to an email customer’s cell phone or smart watch to verify a user’s identity.

This feature ...

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18
NOV
0

General

Anonymous Declares War on ISIS

anonymous-isis-550Can we stop calling this terrorism, and call it what it is – warfare!

The day after ISIS claimed responsibility for the acts of war carried out in Paris by trained members of the ISIS military, members of the hacker collective Anonymous declared war on ISIS.

“On Friday 13 November our country France was attacked in Paris for two hours, by multiple ...

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17
NOV
0

hacktivism, News and politics

Google Apps Features Single Sign-On

google-logoIf you are having trouble managing “all those passwords” for your online resources, one solution would be to use a password manager like LastPass or Dashlane.  Google has come up with a single sign-on (SSO) product that not only will log you into all your Google apps (Gmail, Voice, Blogger, YouTube, Apps, Drive, Analytics, AdWords, etc) but  also integrates access into 17 ...

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16
NOV
0

authentication, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, passwords

Sunday Funnies: Smart Toaster Disrupts Internet of Things Keynote

burned-toastI’ve been warning about the dangers of self-aware machines for some time.

Here is a story about how a toaster disrupted a keynote address by ARM CEO Simon Segars at the annual ARM TechCon Conference.  It seems that the toaster was toasting a bagel which got stuck, and started burning.  The smoke caused the fire alarms to go of in the ...

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15
NOV
0

artificial intellegence, Computers and Internet, Sunday Funnies

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Comcast Subscribers: Change Your Password

comcastAccording to a post on Sophos, Comcast has reset the passwords on 200,000 customers after a security researcher discovered an advertisement on the Dark Web offering to sell 500,000 Comcast passwords in pain text for $1000 in BitCoin.  Investigation by Comcast found that “only” 200,000 of there accounts were active and proactively reset the passwords on all the affected accounts. ...

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13
NOV
0

authentication, cybersecurity, Dark Web, Identity Theft, passwords, Security

Buy Your Password From 11-Year Old Girl?

Would you buy your password from an 11-year old girl?  I would, and maybe you should, too.  Mira Modi, an 11-year old New Yorker, has very very cool service called Diceware.  Using a technique developed by Arnold Reinhold, Mira uses dice to come up with a unique 6 word passphrase, which she will send to you in the US Mail.  Her fee is two bucks.

Understanding that passwords are cracked by cyber-criminals one of two ways, either ...

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13
NOV
0

authentication, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, passwords, Security

How Secure Is Your Smartphone?

smartphone-securityI read an article recently on Dark Matters, by Bob Monroe, that talked about smartphones from the perspective on an attacker – just how good of an attack surface is your average smartphone?  Pretty good, as it turns out, which is not so good for you and me.

The first problem is that these little computers are very chatty.  If they are turned on, they are talking to the nearest ...

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11
NOV
0

cybersecurity, Security, smartphones, surveillance

What To Do When Your Personal Information Is Breached

penetration_test_436x270We recently learned that credit report service Experian had a breach of T-Mobile customer information.  This is just another addition to the pile of Personally Identifying Information (PII) that has been exfiltrated from sundry organizations including the Office of Personnel Management, various BlueCross BlueShield organizations, and Harvard University.

So what to do when this happens to you?  When you are notified by the ...

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9
NOV
0

cybersecurity, Identity Theft

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