Facebook Sets Up Tor Address

Facebook has made its site available to users of the Tor network, creating an odd mix of anonymity and accountability. On the face of it, Facebook over Tor doesn’t seem to make much sense: if you feel the need to obscure your Internet connection, it doesn’t seem likely you’d want to post publicly under your […]



Google Offers Physical ‘Key’ For Two-Factor Authentication

Google has beefed up its two-factor authentication by offering a physical key in the form of a USB stick. It’s designed to cut down some of the loopholes exploited by phishing scams. To date, the “something you know” (login details) in Google’s two-factor authentication has been accompanied by the “something you have” of a cellphone, […]

Cops Complain Criminals Wiping Seized Phones

Five British police forces have confirmed that phones and tablets seized as evidence have been remotely wiped while in their custody. Responding to enquiries by the BBC, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Durham and Nottingham police all reported one wiping incident, while Dorset said it had suffered six such incidents in the space of a year. A sixth […]



Digital Regulator: Celebrity Hacking Victims “Stupid”

The man who’ll almost certainly be Europe’s next head of digital issues appears to be standing by his comments that victims of the recent celebrity photo leak were “stupid” and can’t be protected. Gunther Oettinger introduced the statement by saying that it was impossible for lawmakers and regulators to mitigate all risks. He then gave […]

No Need To Panic Over Alleged Gmail Breach

Claims that Gmail has been hacked and five million passwords stolen appear to be overstated at best. The scare follows the publication by what appears to be a Russian user of a message board discussing Bitcoin security. The file contains around 4.9 million Google user names and passwords, with the original poster claiming more than […]

Cyborg Unplug: Network Blocker Tackles Google Glass & Spy Tools

The maker of a new gadget claims it can knock any unwanted device off a local network. But Julian Oliver concedes that some features of Cyborg Unplug may be illegal depending on your location. Oliver previously developed a web script named glasshole.sh that is specifically designed for finding and blocking Google Glass connections on a […]

Online Banking Uses Vein Pattern As Login

A British bank is introducing finger scanners that work by recognizing a pattern of veins rather than a fingerprint. It’s taken from a trial of the technology on ATMs in Poland. The idea of Barclays Bank is for the machines to be plugged into computers and replace the need for passwords or PIN codes. At […]

California Makes Smartphone Killswitch Mandatory

Californian politicians have passed a law mandating a “killswitch” in all smartphones, allowing users to remotely disable the phone if it’s lost or stolen. It’s the first such law to require such a feature to be enabled by default. Bill 962 says all phones that are manufactured after 1 July 2015 and then sold in […]