• Majority of Americans willing to use biometric scanners

    A recent survey revealed that a majority of Americans are willing to provide their biometric data at airport security checkpoints, during banking transactions, and when receiving government benefits or other services

  • Americans anxious about identity theft

    Americans will go to great lengths to avoid identity theft, and many say they would take legal action against government or private organizations that compromise their personal data; more than half of surveyed Americans are willing to provide biometric data to secure their identities

  • Stuxnet-clones easily created

    Initial reports regarding Stuxnet suggested that the code was developed by elite computer experts with the help of state support and highly secretive military intelligence, but security experts working in a laboratory setting have been able to recreate key elements of the worm in a short time frame with limited resources

  • Anonymous targets child porn sites, releases names of 1,500 members

    Last week hackers from the hacktivist movement Anonymous took down more than forty child pornography websites and leaked the names of more than 1,500 members that belonged to one of the sites Law enforcement officials may have a surprising new ally in the fight against child pornography and those who distribute it

  • Privacy flaws can reveal users’ identities, locations, and digital files

    Researchers will soon notify Internet scholars of flaws in Skype and other Internet-based phone systems that could potentially disclose the identities, locations, and even digital files of the hundreds of millions of users of these systems

  • Google making search more secure

    Google is enhancing its default search service for signed-in users; over the next few weeks, many users will find themselves redirected to https://www.google.com (note the extra “s”) when they are signed in to their Google account; this change encrypts their search queries and Google’s results page

  • GAO report: DHS data mining puts personal information at risk

    A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that DHS and its sub-agencies do not properly protect personal information when conducting counterterrorism investigations

  • Civil rights groups urge Supreme Court to rule against GPS tracking

    In advance of the Supreme Court hearing on the use of GPS tracking by law enforcement agencies, several civil liberties groups are urging the court to rule in favor of privacy rights

  • Sony hit by hackers again, 93,000 accounts compromised

    Once again Sony has been the victim of a major cyberattack. This time as many as 93,000 accounts have been compromised from Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network, and Sony Online Entertainment

  • Major breakthroughs in facial recognition, cause for concern?

    Technological advances could soon make identifying an individual in a crowd as simple as taking a photo with a smartphone; researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College have developed PittPatt, a software tool that can take a snapshot of a person and track down their real identity in a matter of minutes

  • GAO: poor security procedures put sensitive government data at risk

    A recently released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that poor information security practices at U.S. government agencies have put sensitive data and servers at risk

  • Can citizens legally -- and secretly -- record police officers in action?

    Technological advances have raised questions concerning the constitutionality of new police methods (for example, attaching a GPS device to a suspect car without the police first obtaining a warrant to do so); there are legal issues on the other side of the equation — that is, whether or not citizens are constitutionally protected when doing video or audio recording of police officers in action

  • Supreme Court to rule on age of "Big Brother" surveillance

    This November the Supreme Court is gearing up to hear a landmark case which will decide how far law enforcement agencies can pry into an individual’s private life; federal judges argue that the use of GPS surveillance by law enforcement is an “Orwellian intrusion” into private life and violate the Fourth Amendment; meanwhile police say GPS tracking is simply a more efficient way to tail a suspect’s car or track their movements, things they can currently do without a warrant

  • Facebook could mean the end of undercover ops

    Law enforcement officials have begun using Facebook to identify criminals and gather information about their habits, but the technology has the potential to be a double edged sword; an undercover officer could successfully infiltrate a gang only to have their cover blown after their photo is recognized and their Facebook profile carefully scrutinized

  • Judge dismisses parts of lawsuit filed by partially naked man at airport

    On Tuesday a federal judge dismissed most of the constitutional claims of a lawsuit filed by a man who was arrested at an airport after he stripped at a security checkpoint in protest of enhanced screening measures