Security

Foiling facial recognition systems that identify people based on photographs may be as simple as wearing a special set of glasses equipped with near-infrared LEDs powered by a battery pack. The LEDs are arranged around the nose and eyes. The human eye can't pick up the near-infrared, but a camera sees it as bright light, enough to obscure the face and confuse facial recognition software.

Researchers with the National Institute of Informatics and Kogakuin University in Japan developed the special privacy visor to counteract photographs and facial recognition software that could invade privacy. Details on the glasses were released late last year, but a prototype got a public showing at a recent open house.… Read more

If you have regularly used iTunes to purchase music and movies, then you may have a significant collection of titles that are tied to your specific iTunes account. However, if you have used more than one iTunes account, then you may run into trouble if you cannot remember the account ID you used to purchase the items.

At the very least, if the songs are DRM-protected and you have not authorized your system to play them, then iTunes will present you with a notice to log in to your account before it will play them.

While Apple offers a quick … Read more

Your Google account is responsible for giving you access to more than just your e-mail nowadays. Your Google account provides you with access to a wide range of Google services, including Google Music, Google Drive, and Google+. It also allows you to log in and set up devices, like Android smartphones, tablets, and Chromebooks.

To help you keep an eye on your Google account, Google tracks your recent account activity and allows you to review them from your Google Dashboard. It's similar to the Gmail "Last account activity," but includes more than just your Gmail activities. To … Read more

On Tuesday, Qihoo launched two major security products: 360 Internet Security and 360 Mobile Security.

360 Internet Security (32-bit / 64-bit) is a light weight security program that provides real time scanning, automatic updates, and some basic tools to protect your PC from viruses, malware, and other potentially unwanted or suspicious applications.

360 Mobile Security is the younger Android cousin, designed to provide malware protection for your mobile device and comes with a slew of useful system management tools to give you control over what apps have access to your sensitive data. Grab them both over on Download for an exclusive … Read more

Apple may not be able to do anything to stop a mugger from stealing your iPhone, but changes in iOS 7 will prevent the thief from trying to sell the phone as new.

At its Worldwide Developers Conference here on Monday, Apple unveiled several security enhancements. Activation Lock is the most interesting. Though the company didn't go deep into detail on the new feature, Apple's head of Mac software engineering, Craig Federighi, said the feature prevents unauthorized resetting of an iPhone or iPad.

Basically, if the Find My Phone tracking utility has been deactivated, or if the phone … Read more

The crowd has Edward Snowden's back, but will it be a big enough posse to keep him out of hot water with the federal government?

With revelations this past week that the National Security Agency has been surveying all sorts of electronic communications in a sort of involuntary crowdsourcing campaign, perhaps it's not surprising that the crowd is now coming to the aid of the whistleblower who revealed the NSA's classified surveillance program called PRISM.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper insists that PRISM, which allegedly gives the NSA some degree of access to data passing though Internet companies in the U.S., is lawful and authorized by Congress. He called the leak "reckless."… Read more

You're sitting in the living room. You're wondering if the Mother-in-Law's Tongue growing in a pot in the back room needs to be watered. You could get up and stick your finger in the dirt, or you could check your smartphone and see what the plant's personal sensor says.

The Motes Indiegogo project offers several different flavors of remote sensors that work with iOS devices (Android and Surface coming soon). Each sensor costs $39. That price point and the variety of sensors available has attracted plenty of interest. The Motes project has already doubled its $22,000 goal with 35 days of fundraising left.… Read more

Windows 8.1 will have a couple of tricks up its sleeve for people who use fingerprint readers.

One of Monday's sessions at Microsoft's TechEd conference highlighted the support that Windows 8.1 will offer for fingerprint recognition, as described by The Verge. Prior versions of Windows handled fingerprint readers through third-party software. But Windows 8.1 will be the first edition of Windows to natively support the technology.

Users will be able to log into their PCs via a Microsoft Account, purchase apps, and open different programs with a swipe of the finger. They'll even be … Read more

Once or twice a week a phishing scam eludes my mail services' filters and lands in one of my inboxes. Usually a familiar name appears in the From field and something like "Take a look" or "What do you think of this?" is in the Subject line. In the body of the message is a strange link. (Don't click it!)

In one of the phishing messages I received recently, my sister's name is listed in the From and "Reply to" fields, but when I hover over the name, two unknown addresses appear.… Read more