online security

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Horrifying Predator Groups Target Kids on Popular Apps
Horrifying Predator Groups
Target Kids on Popular Apps
investigation
Mar 17, 2024 8:59 AM CDT

Horrifying Predator Groups Target Kids on Popular Apps

After grooming and coercing minors, members force them to livestream self-harm

(Newser) - This isn't an easy story to stomach, so read with caution. Reporters from the Washington Post , Wired , Germany's Der Spiegel, and Romania's Recorder worked together to uncover the dark underworld of a new type of predator group targeting children on the web. And while online abusers are...

Here Are the 10 Worst Passwords of 2020
Want to Make
a Hacker's Day?
Use One of These
Passwords
in case you missed it
Nov 22, 2020 6:43 AM CST

Want to Make a Hacker's Day? Use One of These Passwords

NordPass has released its worst candidates for 2020

(Newser) - We get how brain-melting it can be to remember all of your various passwords—really, we honestly, truly get it. But you've got to try harder than the people whose passwords popped up on NordPass' 2020 ranking of the 200 most common passwords, which, as Suzanne Humphries succinctly puts...

NSA to Microsoft: You Really Need to Patch This

And there's news for Windows 7 users

(Newser) - The National Security Agency has discovered a major security flaw in Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system that could let hackers intercept seemingly secure communications, the AP reports. But rather than exploit the flaw for its own intelligence needs, the NSA tipped off Microsoft so that it can fix the...

Twitter Wants You to Change Your Password

Company says it's precautionary

(Newser) - Twitter is advising all users to change their passwords, the AP reports. The company said Thursday that it recently discovered a bug that stored passwords in an internal log in an unprotected form. Twitter says there's no indication that there was a breach or that any of the passwords...

Experts Issue Warning on Facebook Concert Craze

Listing concerts you've attended could compromise online security

(Newser) - An alluring game on Facebook is coming under intense scrutiny—even though its original intent seems pretty harmless. People are posting lists of the top 10 concerts they've ever attended, including one that they actually didn't attend, to compare and see who can spot the lie. But Facebook...

Google Hands Out $6,006.13 Reward, an Inside Joke

Sanmay Ved actually bought Google.com for $12 in September—for a minute

(Newser) - Google handed out more than $2 million to more than 300 people in 2015 who spotted bugs and security issues, but one award in particular stands out, reports Beta News . The odd sum of $6,006.13 went to Sanmay Ved, a former Google employee and current MBA candidate at...

Facebook Will Let You Know If Kim Jong Un Hacks Your Page

Site says users will be warned if it suspects hacking by a nation-state

(Newser) - Chances are slim that North Korea's operatives are trying to hack a peek into your Facebook photos, but if they were, the site would let you know ASAP, Ars Technica reports. "Starting today, we will notify you if we believe your account has been targeted or compromised by...

Your Password Speaks Volumes About You

Ian Urbina explores these modern 'keepsakes' and why we pick them

(Newser) - You know that password you keep using over and over, or some version of it? The one you know you're not supposed to keep using because it's personal but you do anyway because you can remember it? Right, that one. That's the one Ian Urbina is writing...

JPMorgan Hack Was Huge: 76M Households

Bank reveals numbers involved with summer breach

(Newser) - News surfaced in August that hackers had gotten into customer data at JPMorgan Chase, but a regulatory filing today reveals that the hack was way bigger than originally thought: The nation's largest bank says the accounts of 76 million households and 7 million small businesses were compromised, reports Bloomberg...

You Might Want to Change Your Gmail Password

5M are posted on Russian forum

(Newser) - Today's adventure in online security comes via the Daily Dot , which reports that 5 million Gmail user names and passwords were posted on a Russian Bitcoin forum called BTCsec. Forum administrators removed the post, but it was up long enough for screen shots. The person who posted it claims...

Home Depot Breach May Be Bigger Than Target's

Chain looks into 'unusual activity' of credit card data

(Newser) - If you shrugged off the recent celebrity hack of private photos, along with the massive Target breach last year, here's one more punch: Home Depot is investigating a potential breach of customer data from credit and debit cards, reports Reuters . The scoop originally came from Brian Krebs of Krebs...

Microsoft Issues Fix for Internet Explorer

Patch covers XP users, too

(Newser) - Microsoft released a fix today for a security glitch related to Internet Explorer, a flaw so serious that the Homeland Security department had warned people to use a different browser in the interim. Those using IE should get the fix automatically assuming they've got updates enabled. "If you...

Tech Titans Throw $3.6M at Preventing New Heartbleed

Google, Microsoft, Amazon among firms backing effort

(Newser) - Competing tech giants don't want to see another Heartbleed, and they're putting their money where their mouth is to ensure that they don't. Some of tech's biggest names—Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and Dell, to name a few—are now jointly funding an effort to support...

More Heartbleed Fallout: 'Major' Internet Disruptions

Security-certificate issue may seriously slow down browsing

(Newser) - The Heartbleed security flaw could pose a major nuisance even if your data isn't compromised, as hundreds of thousands of websites scramble to fix the problem—causing what the Washington Post predicts will be "major disruptions" to Internet service. At issue are sites' security certificates, or identification information...

Report: NSA Knew of Heartbleed Flaw for 2 Years

Bloomberg says the agency chose to exploit it rather than fix it

(Newser) - Bloomberg is out with a report likely to anger all those who have changed their passwords, or plan to, because of the massive Internet security breach called Heartbleed . The story says the NSA discovered the flaw almost as soon as it was introduced in the open-source protocol OpenSSL two...

Massive Security Flaw Left Much of Internet Exposed

'Heartbleed' bug has affected OpenSSL protocol for 2 years

(Newser) - A major flaw in one of the Internet's chief security methods has exposed users' confidential information to hackers for the last two years, security researchers revealed Monday night. The "Heartbleed" bug affects the OpenSSL security protocol used by some two-thirds of websites to protect sensitive data as it...

US Government Also Uses 'Password' for Password

Report slams lazy cybersecurity measures in place at federal agencies

(Newser) - Yes, ordinary and lazy humans often use "password" as a computer password , but a new report complains that the same thing applies to sensitive government agencies, reports Mashable . The Senate cybersecurity report finds that agencies ranging from Homeland Security to the IRS use weak security measures that leave their...

Guessing Worst Online Password as Easy as 123

'Password' no longer most common password

(Newser) - If your password is "123456" it's time for a change—it has been named as the worst password of 2013, overtaking "password" as the most common password for the first time, reports the San Francisco Chronicle . Others in the list of least secure passwords released by security...

Hackers Post 2M Facebook, Google, Yahoo Passwords

Most common one? '123456'

(Newser) - Some 2 million user credentials for Facebook and other top services have appeared on a Russian-language website, likely thanks to malware installed on users' computers, experts tell the BBC . They believe a crime ring was probably behind the dump, which claimed to include 318,121 Facebook usernames and passwords, along...

Journo Asks Hackers to Spy on Him—With Scary Results

Took control of his wife's computer, got into his bank account, cracked all his passwords

(Newser) - Some 14 years ago, journalist Adam Penenberg wrote an article for Forbes in which he paid a private detective to investigate him, starting with nothing but his name. This year, he decided to repeat the experiment for the 21st Century, asking an "ethical hacking team" to do the same...

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