Facebook, attorneys general kick off online safety campaign

Facebook and the National Association of Attorneys General for the U.S. have signed a deal that will see the world's largest social network educate both kids and parents on Internet safety.

Facebook has been the subject of much debate among attorneys general around the U.S. who have been concerned about children's safety on the social network. Facebook has said for years that it has worked on ensuring the protection of children, and has aided attorneys general from time to time with cases or issues they're working on.

This agreement, the latest between the parties, is … Read more

McAfee, NIST partner to boost U.S. cyberdefenses

Security firm McAfee is working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to try to shore up America's defenses against cyberthreats.

McAfee announced today that the company is now part of the the National Cybersecurity Excellence Partnership and will join cybersecurity professionals from both the private and public sector to tackle the escalating problem of computer-based threats.

The partnership is part of the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, which is hosted by NIST in collaboration with the state of Maryland and Maryland's Montgomery County.

Launched in February 2012, the center has a particular slant toward sharing technology … Read more

Anonymous again hacks into North Korean Web sites

Anonymous is once again trying to raise the hackles of North Korea by hacking into one of the country's official news sites.

For the second time this month, the North Korean news and information site Uriminzokkiri.com has been taken down. Trying to access the site today delivers an eventual timeout error. In the official Twitter account for Uriminzokkiri, which Anonymous took over earlier this month, the group tweeted that "more of North Korean websites are in our hand. They will be brought down."

North Korean Web sites minjok.com, jajusasang.com, and paekdu-hanna.com had also … Read more

Microsoft pulls security update over software conflicts

A security update issued by Microsoft on Tuesday isn't playing nicely with other software, prompting Microsoft to pull it from its download center.

Dustin Childs, group manager of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, revealed the problem in a blog post late yesterday:

We are aware that some of our customers may be experiencing difficulties after applying security update 2823324, which we provided in security bulletin MS13-036 on Tuesday, April 9. We've determined that the update, when paired with certain third-party software, can cause system errors. As a precaution, we stopped pushing 2823324 as an update when we began investigating the … Read more

Guantanamo legal files mysteriously disappear from PCs

In an institution already cloaked in mystery, puzzling happenings seem to be afoot at Guantanamo Bay prison.

Not only have many legal files suddenly disappeared from the defense team's computers, but also hundreds of thousands their documents have landed on the prosecution's computers, according to Reuters. This debacle has caused several pretrial hearings in the prison's military tribunals to be delayed.

It's not clear how the files vanished or if there was any illegal action behind the disappearance. It could have been a simple computer blip, IT issues, a security breach, hackers, or one of the … Read more

Man traces stolen laptop to Iran, blogs photos of new owners

It's a sad occasion when a laptop is stolen. All that money, time, and personal data just disappear into the night. This is the Tumblr story of a boy and his stolen laptop. Dom Deltorto lives in London. In early February, he says, someone broke into his flat and made off with his MacBook Pro and his iPad.

Deltorto was prepared for just such an incident. He had installed Hidden App on his laptop, a program that tracks the laptop's location and sends back images of the thief. However, Hidden App still needs to be connected to the Internet to work. After more than a month of radio silence, Deltorto reports that his MacBook suddenly came online, but it wasn't in a place where he could just call the London police and have them recover it.… Read more

Reddit co-founder sharpens knife for CISPA fight

As Congress readies for what's sure to be a heated debate over the controversial cybersecurity bill CISPA, leaders in the tech community are speaking out.

Unsurprisingly, a known activist for Internet freedom and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is one of those leading the charge. In a comical video released today in conjunction with digital rights advocate group Fight for the Future, Ohanian calls on tech CEOs to join his cause (see below).

"I'm hoping all of these tech companies take the stand that their privacy policies matter. Their users' privacy matters," Ohanian said in the video. &… Read more

Data broker Acxiom to reveal what it knows about you

Consumer data broker Acxiom plans to introduce a service that will reveal to people what it knows about them, according to a Financial Times report.

The company, which is based in Little Rock, Ark., bills itself as an enterprise data, analytics, and software-as-a-service company. It serves 47 of the Fortune 100 companies, more than 7,000 in all, and counts more than a trillion data transactions each week from 700 million consumers worldwide.

Even though the company probably has a file on you, that data has never before been available to you. The FT's Emily Steel reports that, in … Read more

Samsung HQ raided over alleged theft of OLED technology

Samsung found itself the target of a police raid in South Korea on Monday over the alleged theft of OLED display panel technology.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency investigated Samsung's headquarters in Asan, South Korea, in an attempt to find documents related to OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology, Bloomberg reported late yesterday.

Police are trying to determine whether Samsung is tangled up in an alleged leak of OLED technology documents by partners of LG Display, a Samsung spokesman told Bloomberg. No details were revealed as to who called the police, but LG said it didn't contact them.

"… Read more