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European Court of Justice Privacy Rule Could Ruffle American Tech Companies

September 25, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

A top European lawyer made a decision this morning that could prove a massive headache for American tech companies in Europe. Advocate General Yves Bot, an advisor to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said the “safe harbour” agreement for transferring data between the US and EU is “invalid,” because of concerns over US spying. Bot’s opinion isn’t legally binding, and the ECJ judges will make a formal ruling in the coming months. But as The Irish Times notes, the judges follow such opinions “in most cases.” But if…

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ICANN Hacked! Resets encrypted passwords after user profile database breach

August 6, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

The overseer of the Internet’s addressing system said Wednesday that someone obtained information related to user accounts for its public website, although no financial information was divulged. ICANN, short for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said user names, email addresses, encrypted passwords and other data, such as bios, interests and newsletter subscriptions, were contained in the accounts. Despite the breach, the accounts as well as internal ICANN systems do not appear to have been accessed, the organization said in a post on its website. Although an investigation…

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U.S. Senators introduce DHS Cybersecurity Bill to Protect ‘Dot-Gov’ Domain after breach

July 24, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced legislation on Wednesday to give the Department of Homeland Security more authority to protect government Internet addresses in Cybersecurity bid. The goal is to prevent more cyberattacks like recent massive breaches at the government’s hiring office. Hacks targeting the Office of Personnel Management put the personal data of some 22 million Americans at risk and prompted the resignation of OPM chief Katherine Archuleta earlier this month. The cyberattacks prompted calls in Congress for huge improvements in monitoring and protection of government systems. Reports…

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Data Breaches: First half of 2015 saw venture firms invest $1.2 billion in cybersecurity startups

July 17, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

Data Breaches Boost Funding for Cybersecurity Startups Extract: In the 2015 first half, venture firms invested $1.2 billion in cybersecurity startups, according to researcher CB Insights. That is down slightly from $1.4 billion a year earlier but up sharply from $771 million in 2013’s first half. The shift is particularly notable at Andreessen Horowitz, which used to view security companies as necessary for Internet safety but less lucrative than other technology niches. One reason is that cybersecurity startups were often acquired prior to an initial public offering, says Scott Weiss,…

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Drill-Down Report Finds Global Financial Services Businesses 300% More Susceptible To Cybercrime

June 24, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

Global financial services businesses encounter security incidents 300% more frequently than other industries, according to a report released on Tuesday by Raytheon | Websense, a company that helps protect organizations from cyber attacks and data theft. The 2015 Financial Services Drill-Down Report found “a high degree of specialization among criminals attacking financial services, a huge investment in the lure attack phase and the specific and anomalous Cybercrime attacks pointed at global targets dealing in finance.” “For years, this industry has been under attack by highly specialized groups of criminals,” said…

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Big Market Research: Internet Security Market Expected to Grow Positively Despite a Rise in Hacks

April 15, 2015February 16, 2016

PORTLAND, Oregon, April 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Big Market Research adds a report titled “Global Internet Security Market – Size, Industry Analysis, Trends, Opportunities, Growth and Forecast, 2013 – 2020.” The report states that the market would attain a value of $42.8 billion by 2020 with a CAGR of 8.1% during the year 2014 – 2020. As of now, software solution dominates the market. However it is mentioned in the report that the cloud based system would register more growth during the forecast period. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141014/710132 ) The widespread application of…

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Cybercriminals Are Misappropriating Businesses’ Web Addresses

March 12, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

As a Result, Customers Can’t Find the Real Companies on the Web Cybercriminals targeting businesses are stealing more than customer passwords and credit-card numbers these days. Some are misappropriating the very Web addresses—or domain names—of the businesses themselves. When Pablo Palatnik of Miami glanced at a Google analytics report showing Web traffic on his office TV monitor one day last month, he was alarmed to discover that traffic to his business website, Shadesdaddy.com, had plunged 80% from its usual level of as many as 10,000 visitors a day. At first,…

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IDC 2015 Top 10 Predictions of China ICT Market: 3rd Platform Pursuit of New Growth During Economic Adjustment Period

January 8, 2015February 17, 2016 Staff Writer

Beijing, January 7, 2015 – In 2014, China’s macro economy maintained growth even under enormous pressure. The year also witnessed continuous industrial restructuring, feeble growth of overall real economy, recession of real estate market, and single digit growth of exports. Meanwhile, anti-corruption measures have also affected government spending. China’s GDP growth rate in 2014 was 7.3%, the lowest level in 24 years. Nonetheless, considering the sheer volume of China’s GDP which is the second largest in the world, the growth rate of 7.3% is still substantial compared with those developed…

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Privacy under attack: the NSA files revealed new threats to democracy

May 28, 2014March 3, 2016

In the third chapter of his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon gave two reasons why the slavery into which the Romans had tumbled under Augustus and his successors left them more wretched than any previous human slavery. In the first place, Gibbon said, the Romans had carried with them into slavery the culture of a free people: their language and their conception of themselves as human beings presupposed freedom. And thus, says Gibbon, for a long time the Romans preserved the sentiments –…

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Facebook’s shot at WhatsApp data gets both companies an FTC complaint

March 7, 2014 Staff Writer

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Facebook’s $16 billion acquisition of WhatsApp based on privacy concerns, according to a document released Thursday. EPIC and CDD’s problems with the acquisition center around the fact that WhatsApp staked its reputation on—that it’s a company keeping a reasonable distance from its customers’ data. Now that it will fall under the aegis of Facebook, its users stand to lose those privacy guarantees, even though WhatsApp told its users nothing…

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