Health care providers – repositories of critical patient data – have relinquished millions of sensitive records and billions of dollars to hackers in the past few years. And there is no end in sight as the industry expands to largely-unsecured mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms. Your personal information is the main reason why […]
Without Legislation, Your Health Care Data Is Up for Grabs
Posted June 10th, 2016 at 10:38 am (UTC-5)
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Millions of Twitter Accounts Hacked; Malware Plagues Cloud Apps
Posted June 9th, 2016 at 12:21 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Russian Hacker Claims to Be Selling Millions of Twitter Accounts A Russian hacker known as Tessa88 allegedly is in possession of the email addresses, passwords and usernames of 379 million Twitter accounts – more than 10 percent of Twitter’s monthly active users. Breach notification website LeakedSource received the database from the seller. […]
Passenger Drone Tests Begin This Year; Apps Put Wildlife at Risk
Posted June 8th, 2016 at 1:08 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: China’s Ehang Will Test World’s First Passenger Drone This Year Ehang – the Chinese company that unveiled an electric passenger drone in January – now has clearance to begin testing it in Nevada sometime this year. The permissions were secured through a partnership with the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems and the […]
India Tops World Smartphone Growth; The Most Hackable Nations
Posted June 7th, 2016 at 10:52 am (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Ericsson: India Will Have 810 Million Smartphone Users by 2021 India already has the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market, and that’s likely to continue. According to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, India’s mobile subscriptions will grow to 1.37 billion by 2021. In the first quarter of 2016, India added 21 million new mobile subscribers, compared […]
Cash-for-Grades App Pays Students to Learn, but Should It?
Posted June 2nd, 2016 at 2:05 pm (UTC-5)
A new app currently in development aims to motivate children to study and excel. But some critics say the controversial cash-for-grades model is ineffective. Launching first in the U.S. in December, the cash-for-grades e-learning app Incentify is based on the premise that children will be willing to study or do homework chores they don’t want […]
Musk: We’re Probably Living in a Video Game; the Future With AI
Posted June 2nd, 2016 at 12:09 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Elon Musk: We’re Probably Living in a Video Game Speaking at California’s Code Conference, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk warned that the lines between the real world and increasingly-sophisticated simulated environments could become so blurred that it will be hard to distinguish reality from simulation. The scenario is not […]
Android’s Location Data Jackpot; Google Search Adds Privacy Controls
Posted June 1st, 2016 at 11:20 am (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Police Filing Warrants for Android’s Vast Store of Location Data If you use Google Maps on your Android device, you should know the software has a feature that builds a comprehensive history of the places you visit. Google’s Location History system collects the information, which is then used in Maps. The resulting […]
Stolen Tumblr Data Up for Sale; US, Vietnam World’s Biggest Spammers
Posted May 31st, 2016 at 12:00 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: 65 Million Tumblr Account Records Up for sale on Underground Market A few week after Tumblr notified users it suffered a data breach, 65 million records showed up for sale on the dark web. The information is on offer on a dark market site called TheRealDeal, owned by the same person who […]
Selfies for Security? Just Don’t Blink on Facebook
Posted May 27th, 2016 at 10:30 am (UTC-5)
Selfies – those digital expressions of self-infatuation and keepers of memories – are slowly emerging as a potential replacement for passwords. But cybersecurity experts caution that they can only be an effective deterrent as part of a multi-layered security defense. Some companies are already experimenting with selfies to authenticate credit card users for financial transactions, […]
Floppy Disks Control US Nukes; Microsoft Retracts Malware-like Ploys
Posted May 26th, 2016 at 12:15 pm (UTC-5)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Floppy Disks Control US Nukes and Missiles? An IBM Series/1 computer introduced in 1976 controls some of the United States’ ballistic missiles and nuclear bombers, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). The 40-year-old machine, which sends and receives emergency action alerts, still stores data on nearly-obsolete […]