Invasion of the Data Snatchers
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Think your PC is safe? Think again. A new study indicates your home computer is likely bogged down with spyware, viruses and other scourges wrought by hackers and PC pranksters.
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Copycats are keeping busy. Security researcher says the Net threat's source code is "hot stuff."
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Sneaky program takes a different tack to capture people's passwords and potentially steal money.
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Memory space on components such as graphics cards, DVD drives and batteries can be used by miscreants to load malicious code onto PCs.
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Malicious hackers tout a site with an strip show download to entice victims to download malware.
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InfoWorld - A new hacking method is causing concern for the lengths it goes to avoid detection by security software and researchers.
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Beta search app creates vulnerabilities that may threaten your data's security.
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Some members discover itâs tough to erase all their information from the site.
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A new hacking method is causing concern for the lengths it goes to avoid detection by security software and researchers.
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Thousands of credit card numbers and other personal data may have been compromised.
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A newly identified malicious program not only messes up its victims' computers, it taunts them too.
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GNUCitizen is describing an apparent vulnerability that could trick people into revealing personal data.
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(InfoWorld) - Hard drives full of confidential data are still turning up on the second-hand market, researchers have reported. Investigations carried out on behalf of BT by the University of Glamorgan in the U.K., Edith Cowan University in Australia, and Longwood University in the U.S., found that 37 percent of drives surveyed had traces of personal data on them. Damningly, this figure is much the same as it was for the same surveys undertaken by the universities in each of the last two years, suggesting that either companies are ignoring the issue or simply lack the tools to adequately wipe data before resale. Sensitive information retrieved included salary details, financial data of specific companies, credit card numbers, medical data, visa applications, details of online purchases, and inevitably, online pornography. The sample totalled 350 hard drives acquired in online auctions. "Given the level of exposure that the subjects of security and identity theft has received in recent times, and the availability of suitable tools to ensure the safe disposal of information, it is difficult to understand why disks are still not being effectively cleaned before they are disposed off," said BT's security research head, Dr Andy Jones. "When organizations dispose off surplus and obsolete computers and hard disks, they must ensure that adequate procedures are in place to destroy any data and also to check that the procedures that are in place are effective -- whether they are handled by internal resources or through a third party contractor," he said. The full report -- which has yet to be made publically available -- reveals that buying second-hand disks is an unreliable way to get hold of storage. Of the 133 disks bought in the U.K., 44 percent of them didn't even work. But of those that did, 19 percent had enough information on them to identify the organization from which they had come, 65 percent had enough data to identify named people, and 17 percent contained "illicit" data. Techworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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InfoWorld - It's hard to argue against data portability. After all, who could oppose giving people control over the data they load, publish, and store on Web sites?
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Plus: File sharing growing like a Weed. [News.com Extra]
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Unprecedented amounts of data will need to be secured in new, untested ways. What's the best course to pursue in such uncharted territory?
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Online crooks are constantly switching tactics in an attempt to invade your PC. Be on guard for these latest sneaky tricks.