If you care about online privacy, you need to be familiar with the Tor Browser. It was originally invented by the U.S. government for the purpose of keeping online communications hidden from foreign spies. The government no longer maintains it but the software is public domain and various civilian programmers have taken over the task of maintaining the Tor Browser and adding new functionality to it as needed. You can […]
Here is still another article about Facebook claiming to offer privacy when, in fact, the company steals, saves, and resells the private information of all its users. According to Canada’s independent Competition Bureau, Facebook “made false or misleading claims about the privacy of Canadians’ personal information on Facebook and Messenger” and improperly shared data with third-party developers. According to the article, Facebook said it “did not agree” with the finding, […]
Cyber criminals are still attempting to exploit the coronavirus pandemic for their own gain and they’re being helped by website templates that allow them to mimic government agencies and companies. Researchers at cybersecurity company Proofpoint have identified over 300 phishing campaigns designed to steal personal information and bank details from victims – and many are using sites that are indistinguishable from the real thing, complete with authentic imagery and user […]
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is warning people about a scam targeting Roku users. Complaints about CaliGeeks, Inc. have been filed in 25 states. Customers told BBB that CaliGeeks misled them into paying unnecessary fees to activate their Roku devices. Customers said they were charged an unnecessary activation fee ranging from $79.99 – $249.99 and were led to believe that this fee was required to enable their Roku device. You […]
On March 17, 2020, the federal government relaxed a number of telehealth-related regulatory requirements due to COVID-19. On April 3, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-43-20 (the Order), which relaxes various telehealth reporting requirements, penalties, and enforcements otherwise imposed under state laws, including those associated with unauthorized access and disclosure of personal information through telehealth mediums.
As privacy concerns grow about the data collected through contact tracing apps to monitor the spread of the coronavirus, a group of Democratic lawmakers is introducing a bill Thursday that aims to ensure that the data collected is protected from over-surveillance and abuse, according to a copy of the legislation seen by Morning Consult. The Public Health Emergency Privacy Act — which is being introduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and […]
A new set of flaws discovered in the Intel Thunderbolt port has put millions of machines at risk of local hacking. This new research by Eindhoven University‘s Björn Ruytenberg suggests that if a hacker gains access to a machine for just five minutes, they could bypass login methods to gain full data access. Thunderbolt ports are present in machines with Windows, Linux, and macOS. So, that covers a lot of […]
In a recent article, I briefly mentioned Zoom, a very popular teleconferencing product that allows for one-on-one video conversations, groups of people participating in a group video meeting, or even online webinars with up to 10,000 people in the audience. A reader questioned the use of Zoom by asking, “I’ve been concerned about security issues that have been reported with regards to Zoom. Yet it is being used by large […]
NetMarketShare is a company that keeps track of what operating systems people on the internet are using. The company reported the use of Microsoft Windows 10 dropped slightly in April, 2020 from 57.34% in March to 56.08% in April. Obviously, Microsoft still dominates the operating system marketplace but any drop, even a drop of only 1.26%, still represents many thousands of operating system changes. Windows 7’s market share dropped as […]
Here is still another instance of governments wanting to spy on the personal communications of their own citizens as well as all the communications of everyone else in the world. Even worse, these governments plan to share the information with other governments, all without informing the people being spied upon. An article by Asha Barbaschow in the ZDnet News web site details the latest efforts by the Australian Security Intelligence […]
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