data

Toy manufacturer VTech has been the victim of a hack that exposed details of five million customers. The compromised data included some details, albeit limited, of the children who use the products. As its name suggests, VTech's product range ... includes many electronic toys that have increased in sophistication over the years. These include several tablet computers which don't allow web access, but do let children share messages with friends and family and download child-friendly apps through a system known as the "Learning Lodge." No Financial Data Compromised The company has ... (view more)

Microsoft says its customers in Europe can now store data online in a way US security services can't access. It's a surprising and potentially controversial move from an American technology giant. The move follows a recent European ruling which ... means US firms can no longer ignore local regulations on data privacy. According to Microsoft, this affects data customers in 32 European countries connected to Internet-based Microsoft applications, including Office 365. Data Accessed Only In Specific Circumstances The data will be stored in two data centers in Germany, controlled by local ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Steve H. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a RAID 1 set up with 4 hard drives in a mirrored array. Recently my RAID software reported that one of the drives was dropped from the array and has since been marked as 'rebuilding', ... however, during the rebuild process I keep receiving RAID controller errors that data could not be synced / written to the drive. I'm not sure what to do from here. Is there any way for me to independently check the drive for errors? I understand that if the drive is bad I should replace it, but I'm not even sure which drive is which. " My response: This ... (view more)

Some media outlets have accused Microsoft of building creepy keylogger spyware into Windows 10. That's a somewhat overblown interpretation, but some users may want to take the option to turn off the relevant setting. Traditionally references to " ... keyloggers " are about unauthorized programs installed on computers, often without the owner's knowledge and often through trickery. Such programs are designed to track everything the user types, then relay the data over the Internet to criminals who then look for passwords, credit card numbers, and bank account information. In this ... (view more)

Hackers who stole data from a website promoting extra-marital affairs say they did so to promote misleading claims. The Ashley Madison site has responded by dropping a controversial fee to delete user accounts. The site openly promotes itself as ... appealing to people who want to arrange dates online where at least one party is already in a relationship. Not surprisingly, that setup brings added interest in keeping client details confidential. Earlier this week attackers claimed to have breached security and got access to the records of a supposed 33 million members around the world. They've ... (view more)

A business which makes spying software for governments and police has been hit by a major hacking attack. The company has recommended customers temporarily stop using its products in case the attack compromises security. The business is named ... "Hacking Team," and is based in Italy. It specializes in software that can monitor the online activities of computer users and even retrieve data from their computers. Critics claim the software often uses the same tactics as malware created by cyber criminals. The firm says its situation is different as it only sells its products to public ... (view more)

All US government websites accessible by the public must use secure connections by then end of next year. The new rules should protect the public, particularly "whistleblowers." New rules laid down this week mandate the change for all public sites ... that are wholly or partly maintained by the federal government. This applies even if the site is operated by a contractor. The rules apply whether or not the site requires a user to log-in. (Source: cio.gov ) Under the rules, sites must use the most secure protection that is widely available. The initial implementation of the rule ... (view more)

President Obama has signed a law that will limit the government's power to collect data from the public's online and telephone activities. The USA Freedom Act should make it harder for officials to simply collect data in bulk. The Act replaces the ... measures in the 2001 Patriot Act , which extended the government's surveillance powers as a response to the September 11 attacks . That led to the National Security Agency launching a program by which it effectively collected as much data as possible and held on to it so that it could then look back for details on particular individuals ... (view more)

Some of the largest tech firms are urging President Obama to drop plans to make it easier for law enforcement and security agencies to access Internet communications. They say the President should resist any idea for such firms to implement ... mandatory "backdoors." The proposal means that firms are only allowed to use encryption if they also build in a way that makes it possible for law enforcement groups to access the data in an unencrypted form. The "key" to unlock the data would effectively be split into two parts: one held by the Internet firm, and the other by the ... (view more)

Tech giant Cisco has warned that a new strain of malware is designed to render a Windows computer virtually useless if it's discovered by security software - effectively executing a boobytrap payload that eventually destroys all user data on the ... hard drive. Cisco says that Rombertik has "multiple layers of obfuscation and anti-analysis functionality" meaning that it is hard to discover and hard to examine. It's able to hide itself from both static and dynamic analysis, which respectively scan a computer's files and its currently active applications. (Source: cisco.com ) ... (view more)