data

Google has revealed the full details of its cellphone network. It will use a combination of space leased from existing cellphone firms, as well as WiFi hotspots to create the network. The service will be dubbed Project Fi. Initially it will only be ... available to users of Google's Nexus 6 phone, but that will only be used short term as an experiment. If all goes well, it's likely to be expanded to other Android phones. Project Fi Consists of WiFi, Sprint and T-Mobile Google will act as a mobile virtual network operator, meaning it leases space on existing networks. In this case, the leased ... (view more)

Four police departments in Maine have paid $300 to cybercriminals after being hit by so-called " ransomware ". Officials say they weighed up their response and decided they had no real choice but to pay up. Ransomware is a form of malicious software ... which restricts access to certain parts of a computer it infects. Victims then see on-screen messages stating that a ransom must be paid to regain access . In most cases, cybersecurity experts warn against paying such ransoms for three reasons. Firstly, it may mean getting added to a "suckers list" that can be sold on to other ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Eric H. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just read your article on ' Why You Should Install KB3000850? ', in which you mentioned doing daily operating system backups. I have a question about disk images. I have used Norton Ghost (disk ... image backups) on my old Windows XP system many years ago and I stored my backups on a 250GB external drive. Now I have a 250GB Samsung Solid State Hard Drive (SSD) and a 2TB hard drive for my other data. My question is, how much space do I need for my backups? As I understand it, incremental backups will only copy over any changes that it finds are ... (view more)

AT&T will pay a $25 million fine after regulators held it responsible for thieves taking personal details of 280,000 customers. The breaches were said to have occurred around November 2013 and April 2014, with the FCC beginning its investigation ... around May of 2014. It's the biggest ever such fine in the communications industry. The stolen information included the customers' names, part or all of their social security numbers, and some details about their account. On its own, the data wouldn't be enough for criminals to immediately steal money from customer's bank accounts, but could ... (view more)

Microsoft has joined Apple and Google in releasing browser security updates to patch a bug dubbed FREAK. The bug could make it easier for hackers to decrypt data that intercept from website users. The vulnerability of FREAK doesn't allow hackers to ... see data in plain sight. Instead, it allows them to remotely change what's meant to be a secure website connection into an unsecure one, meaning that previously encrypted data would then travel without any encryption. To be of any use, a hacker would need to combine the FREAK exploit with another vulnerability that let them intercept data, ... (view more)

Apple is making its technology available to medical researchers to conduct mass studies. Participation is entirely voluntary, and the company insists user privacy will be protected. The technology is called ResearchKit, and it's a set of tools ... available to researchers to make use of data gathered by smartphones that could relate to health and medicine. As well as collecting data from Apple products such as the iPhone, ResearchKit will be able to use data from fitness gadgets from other firms such as Fitbit. Using ResearchKit, researchers will be able to develop iPhone apps, even if they don ... (view more)

Microsoft has signed up to an international standard for protecting customer privacy with online data. Among other measures, Microsoft promises to tell customers when the government demands access to their data. The company has followed ISO standard ... number 27018, which are guidelines set forth by the International Organization for Standardization. It's an attempt to set internationally recognized rules and regulations for the way "personally identifiable information" is handled in cloud services, and where data is stored or processed online rather than on the user's own computer ... (view more)

Samsung has caused outrage after careful examination of its Smart TV terms and conditions suggest it might listen in on conversations and then pass on details to a data collection agency. The company insists any chat that the television does ... overhear would be treated with the utmost confidence. The controversy involves Samsung's range of televisions that include an Internet connection for features, such as online video access. Some models also include the ability for users to control the television using voice commands, rather than by remote control. Samsung says it may transmit the audio ... (view more)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned that the boom in Internet-connected home gadgets could increase security risks significantly. It's put together consumer advice and says it will work on applying the law to this new area of tech. The FTC ... has published a report on the " Internet of Things ". That's something of a vague term, but the commission defines it as any physical object that can connect to the Internet. Today, the Internet of Things doesn't simply apply to computer and smart phones -- it also applies to billions of other objects, including cameras, home ... (view more)

To many, the use of fingerprint readers as a way of password protection may represent the future of high-tech security. But a hacker has recently demonstrated that it's really not that difficult to bypass the security system -- all it takes, in ... fact, is a high-quality digital image. There's no denying that fingerprint passwords are becoming more and more common. They can be used to access PCs and thumb drives, but are becoming most prevalent in the smartphone world, where a quick dab of the finger gives one access to their mobile device. It seems like the perfect security system; ... (view more)