John Lister

Target, a popular US discount retail outlet, has confirmed that cyber-thieves have stolen debit and credit card data from 40 million people who've shopped at the store since Thanksgiving. The store is still investigating whether it was the work of ... hackers or an inside job. The information stolen covers 19 of the busiest shopping days of the year. One security expert noted that the potential haul of stolen data covers one in seven of all the credit cards in the United States. (Source: today.com ) Target learned of the attacks when credit card firms reported a dramatic increase in ... (view more)

Google has bought up a firm that makes animal-like robots for the US military. It's all part of Google's plan to become more involved in the robotics industry. The company in question is Boston Dynamics, a contractor for the Pentagon. The company ... has worked with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a government organization that works on some outlandish projects -- such as making a robot that can outrun Olympic champion Usain Bolt. In the past Boston Dynamics has focused on producing technology that assists military officials fighting in harsh territory against enemies who ... (view more)

A Swedish man has been fined more than $600,000 for sharing a single movie online. However, the case is somewhat more complicated than it appears. The man, whose name is being kept secret by Sweden's Vastmanlands District Court, recently faced both ... criminal and civil charges. He was convicted of criminal copyright offenses for sharing a total of 517 movies on a site called 'Swebit'. Swebit is a file-sharing site. However, unlike many high-profile rivals -- such as The Pirate Bay -- Swebit requires users to register as members before they can share files. The court sentenced the man to 160 ... (view more)

Amazon is offering would-be buyers of its Kindle Fire HDX tablet the option to pay in four installments. The plan doesn't include any interest or added fees. The plan only applies to the Kindle Fire HDX , the most expensive version of the Kindle. ... Ordinarily it costs $229 for the 7-inch version or $379 for the 8.9-inch version. Under the terms of the deal, you pay 25 per cent of the purchase price up-front. That's $57.25 for the 7-inch version and $94.75 for the 8.9-inch version. You'll also pay any applicable sales taxes and shipping. At the time of writing, the deal was only available to US ... (view more)

Microsoft has joined a group determined to ditch the traditional password as a security measure. The group wants to develop alternatives that are more capable of protecting our favorite devices and most sensitive data. The group is called the FIDO ... (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance, which is based around the idea that passwords, although widely used and easy to understand, are an inherently flawed security measure because they can be guessed or stolen. Although many new authentication measures -- such as fingerprint scans -- have emerged and are more secure from a technical perspective, FIDO ... (view more)

Microsoft has withdrawn a deadline that would have blocked retailers from selling new Windows 7 computers. But it's sticking to another key deadline: that ending support for the Windows XP operating system (OS). Last week Microsoft posted a note on ... its website saying that computer manufacturers would no longer be able to ship computers running Windows 7 after October 2014. The statement is consistent with previous release schedules for Windows. In the past, retail copies of earlier editions of the OS (like Vista) were sold for one year after a new system was released. Meanwhile, OEMs (or ... (view more)

Dell has announced plans to launch its first 'Chromebook', a laptop using Google's Chrome operating system (OS). Dell's Chromebook will offer unique online storage features, including access to Wyse PocketCloud. Chromebooks are budget-priced laptops ... designed for people who mainly use their computers for working and surfing online. The devices run an OS that's effectively an enhanced version of the Chrome Internet browser. Because most of the actual processing work is done on Google computers, the hardware requirements of the Chromebook, and in turn its price, are much lower. Not having a full ... (view more)

Several major technology firms have reached a deal that could make it easier for people to connect ordinary household gadgets to the Internet. That could make life easier for consumers, but it also raises concerns about security. For many years tech ... experts have talked about "the Internet of things," or the idea that it's limiting to think of the web as simply a bunch of computers connected to one another. Instead, we now have numerous devices that can use an Internet connection: from televisions that can access on-demand services such as Netflix, to heating systems that can check weather ... (view more)

Microsoft says it has significantly disrupted, though perhaps not destroyed, a major network of infected computers (also known as a 'botnet'). It's estimated those behind the scheme have generated $2.7 million a month in revenue. The ZeroAccess ... botnet is thought to involve more than two million computers infected with a kind of malware that allows cybercriminals to remotely control these systems. Rather than try to steal personal data from the computers, the operators used this control to run a major advertising scam. In effect, the operators set up websites to sell pay-per-click advertising ... (view more)