John Lister

A judge has refused Mozilla's request that the FBI be forced to hand over details of a potential security bug in its Firefox browser. Mozilla argued there was a risk of the bug becoming public, which would then put anyone using its browser(s) at ... risk of an online attack. The request follows a separate criminal case involving a website engaged in indecent content depicting children. The site isn't available through ordinary web browsers such as Firefox, but instead runs through the Tor network. The Tor network works using the world wide web, but data is sent on a different channel (so ... (view more)

A major website used by hackers to exchange stolen data has itself been hacked. The breach has exposed hundreds of thousands of user accounts. The site called "Nulled" hosted discussion forums for users to exchange tips on how to hack into websites. ... It also included a section for buying and selling data such as stolen account information. Ironically, given the new development, the site had the slogan "Expect the unexpected." At the time of writing, the site was offline for "temporary unscheduled maintenance," with its database leaked onto other websites for ... (view more)

Google will reportedly face a fine of more than $3 billion for a series of alleged breaches of European competition laws. The penalty would be one-sixth of the maximum that could be imposed, but would still dwarf previous records. The penalty would ... come from the European Commission. Among many other roles, the commission oversees competition rules which apply to firms doing business across 28 European countries. For the record, this is a separate case launched last month , which the European Commission formally accused Google of using unfair rules in the way it pressures Android device ... (view more)

Google is to refuse to carry advertising for payday loans companies. It's the biggest such ban for something other than illegal activity or matters of taste. The ban will apply to all Google's advertising systems. That includes both the ads that ... appear alongside search results and the ads that are placed by Google for clients on third party websites. The move however will not stop payday loan companies showing up in search results. Google has defined the affected ads as ones for loans where the repayment is due within 60 days of taking out the loan. While this will apply worldwide, a ... (view more)

Facebook has rejected claims that its staff manually 'suppressed' conservative-slanted news stories in its trending topics feature. That hasn't satisfied a Senate committee which has now demanded more information about how the feature works. The ... feature is the list of news articles that appears on the Facebook web page when users are logged in. It's presented as a list of the news topics and stories that users are most sharing and talking about on the site, with the impression being that its a purely objective ranking based on raw numbers. Trending Topics is separate to the ... (view more)

Two government agencies are investigating the way smartphone manufacturers and wireless carriers issue security updates for devices. They say they are particularly worried about older devices being left unpatched. It's a rare joint probe by both the ... Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). While the FCC usually handles issues relating to the Internet and smartphones, the FTC usually only gets involved in cases of misleading advertising or unfair contracts. That may suggest officials are exploring whether companies have overstated the security their ... (view more)

Stolen usernames and passwords from Yahoo, Google and Microsoft's webmail services are reportedly being traded by Russian criminals. They are said to be among a batch of 272.3 million accounts, though most are from a popular Russian service. The ... trade has been revealed by Hold Security in a discussion with Reuters. Hold's founder says his staff uncovered the batch when trawling an online forum used by hackers. The person who provided the information claimed he had a total of 1.17 billion records, but agreed to hand over a portion of them. It seems that while many criminals buy and ... (view more)

Google has been granted access to millions of patient medical records in the United Kingdom. It plans to use it to develop a way to spot patients at risk of developing serious kidney conditions. Although officials say personally identifying details ... will remain encrypted, the move has raised controversy with questions about the scope of the data involved. The records cover every patient who had dealings in the past five years with one of three specific hospitals in London overseen by the same NHS Trust. That's the local organizational body that delivers government-funded healthcare. ' ... (view more)

A federal court has ordered a woman to use her finger to unlock her iPhone. It's the latest legal tussle in the ongoing debate pitting security and law enforcement against constitutional rights. The case involved a Los Angeles woman who had been ... arrested for identity theft. The FBI wanted to access the contents of her phone, which was protected by a fingerprint lock. Officials have not publicly revealed exactly why they wanted to access the data, or whether it directly related to the identity theft charges. Court documents show she was the girlfriend of a known member of a major LA ... (view more)

Microsoft has detailed the intricate and carefully crafted attack techniques of a longstanding group of online spies. They include taking advantage of a now-retired Windows feature for easier updates. Thankfully for home users, the attacks from the ... group Microsoft dubs "Platinum" have been highly targeted at government, defense, communications and intelligence agencies and organizations. That's promoted speculation a government may be behind the attacks. The details come in a report by Microsoft's Windows Defender Advanced Threat Hunting. It notes that while some attacks are ... (view more)