Taking the measure of the computer warranty scam
161534
Blog: For too long, technology companies have been living large by making the rest of us pay for their shoddy workmanship. Worst of all, we consumers keep playing along.
114781
A computer security researcher figures out exactly how a high-tech scammer
523782
Watch out, watch out there's a scammer about...
195221
Windows XP Service Pack 2 promises to raise the security bar for the sometimes beleaguered operating system. Unfortunately, one of the new features could be spoofed so that it reports misleading information
18534
Boeing's announcement that a laptop theft exposed information on 382,000 current and former employees nudges the total number of exposed records in the United States past the 100 million mark. Since last year. In 27B Stroke 6.
426803
Regulators are trying to prevent scams caused by software that computer users may not even know is on their PCs.
742067
The company's antipiracy software adds a "yellow state" for times when it just can't tell if software is genuine.Image: A 'maybe pirate'
665260
For some security researchers who uncover flaws in leading computer programs, a nod of appreciation from software companies is no longer enough. Now they want money.
230530
By Kelly Proctor, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.  Feb. 12--Computer users take note: Here comes another cyber glitch  threatening to confound your PC.
238483
For some, replying to Internet scams is a rewarding hobby. They call themselves scam-baiters, and they have started taking justice into their own hands.
191059
A serious flaw in Google's desktop software could be used to wreak havoc on a victim's PC.
312429
You can't cheat an honest person, they say. Like generations of scammers before them, some malware writers are taking that "advice" to heart, releasing their Trojan software and keyloggers as "cracked" versions of Vista oon peer-to-peer service. Who's going to turn them in, after all -- a would-be pirate?
708807
Blog: Researcher finds a basic cookie-handling error that could compromise Windows PCs.
232877
Protecting your computer doesn&#39;t have to be a life-changing experience. But you do need to be more careful now than ever before.
769408
In 1980, I signed a deal with a company to market a product I was developing. The contract required me to turn over the source code, which I did. One day I went to a meeting at the office of the company, and there on the product manager's desk, right next to a door that opened to the outside, was a floppy labeled "Dave Winer's source code" in big letters.  If you own a Mac you may soon find out what that felt like. It's amazing to me that the tech blogosphere doesn't treat Apple's policy re broken hard disks as the huge gaping security hole that it is.  Think about it. We worry about bad people getting their hands on little pieces of data that, when added together, give them the power to be you in banking and credit transactions.  Think about what you would do if your laptop was stolen. Well, if you own a Mac and its hard disk goes bad, and you make the mistake of bringing it to Apple for service, you will turn over all that data to Apple. Not "may" or "might" but "will." What Apple in turn does with that data is none of your affair. They don't sign anything or offer any guarantees that they won't sell the disk to a data miner. Think it can't happen or that it's unlikely? I don't gain much comfort from your feeling of security. I've been writing about this issue since December 22. Usually when I write something critical of Apple, the results are mixed. Some people are supportive, but far more people attack. This time the ratio is very different. Almost everyone who has commented gets that there's a huge problem here. Can we solve this problem? Of course we can.  Some say that other vendors do this too. That gives me less comfort, not more. That means there's no escaping this crazy way of treating user's confidentiality. Ultimately it hurts the vendors because people can't use their computers for things the manufacturers say we can.  Further, it's got to be an issue for the banks, brokerage firms, credit agencies. If you are a newspaper and you employ reporters and they use a computer, how exactly are you guarding the confidentiality of your sources? If you're a confidential source, don't you have an interest when the reporter gives their computer manufacturer all their data to do with as they please? Imagine what you would do if it turned out there was a bug in a Netgear or Linksys router that allowed, under special circumstances, a mailicous person to gain access to the full content of your hard disk at any time. Would you have a problem with that? This is worse than Microsoft's neglect of malware that got me to stop using their computers. In that case it was Microsoft being neglegent. This time Apple itself is the cause of the problem. It's as if they planted a virus in their operating system that entitled them, under special circumstances, completely out of the user's control, to gain access to everything on your disk, with as much time as they want, with no way for you to prevent or even detect the intrusion.  See also: My letter to Steve Jobs.
478435
How to wreck an IT giant for under $1m Recovering stolen laptops from Italy - $9,668. Consulting an investigative reporter - $7,312. Having a spy scandal erase decades of hard work building up your reputation, while eroding your board of directors and forcing your CEO to testify in front of Congress - priceless. Or rather about $375,000.â¦
215125
If you took your laptop in for repairs to a well-known big-box store only to discover the store's tech contractor had lost the machine, lied to you about it, manufactured fake documentation and finally offered you a "We're sorry" gift card -- you'd be steamed.