security

The White House today backed an Internet petition asking the Library of Congress to change its stance on the legality of smartphone unlocking.

In a post on the We The People blog, R. David Edelman, the White House senior adviser for Internet, innovation and privacy, said the administration agrees with those who signed the petition, and aims to support any legislation that would remedy the issue.

"The White House agrees with the 114,000 plus of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties," Edelman wrote. "… Read more

HANNOVER, Germany--In today's James Bond world, smartphones get you instant access to top-secret information. In the real world, security constraints mean mobile phones generally aren't nearly so clever or convenient.

BlackBerry and Secusmart hope to change that through a partnership that at least has won over the German federal government. It has authorized purchases of phones with the BlackBerry 10 operating system augmented with Secusmart's SD card-mounted security chips for classified communications, said Hans-Christoph Quelle, Secusmart managing director, speaking here at the CeBit technology show.

The approach uses a feature in BlackBerry 10 called Balance, which partitions … Read more

Hackers can get past the Galaxy Note 2's lock screen -- if their fingers are fast enough.

A minor security vulnerability has been found in Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Note 2 smartphone-tablet hybrid, which leaves the door open to fast-fingered ne'er-do-wells.

The flaw, first discovered by Terence Eden, finds that certain apps and widgets can be briefly accessed with a few taps from the lock screen. Somewhat tricky to accomplish, it requires the user to press the "Emergency Call" icon, then the ICE (in case of emergency) button, and then hold down the home button. With success, … Read more

Avast has become a household name when it comes to desktop anti-virus software. Now, you can have the same free, high-end security on you smartphone or tablet. Avast Mobile Security can protect you from dangerous apps, inform you about their permissions, and even help you find your lost phone. It's the best antivirus package for Android.

The app makes you sign up with an e-mail, password, and phone number before you can get started. Once you've done that, you'll breeze right through the rest of the setup process. It won't even spam your e-mail or mobile … Read more

They're arguing now about who let it happen, but happen it did, with entertaining consequences.

Somehow Nicholas Webber found himself in an IT class while in jail. He's serving five years for creating a site called GhostMarket, which allowed those interested in creating computer viruses, partaking of stolen IDs and enjoying private credit card data to congregate.

He was caught using hacked personal information to buy everything from iPods to luxury hotel stays.

One might have thought that an IT class would have been quite dull for him. One might also have thought that inviting him to an … Read more

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has customized its Predator drones, originally built for overseas military operations, to carry out at-home surveillance tasks that have civil libertarians worried: identifying civilians carrying guns and tracking their cell phones, government documents show.

The documents provide more details about the surveillance capabilities of the department's unmanned Predator B drones, which are primarily used to patrol the United States' northern and southern borders but have been pressed into service on behalf of a growing number of law enforcement agencies including the FBI, the Secret Service, the Texas Rangers, and local police. … Read more

Apple has tightened up security in its Safari Web browser following recent patches to Adobe's Flash technology.

As part of an update that went out yesterday, OS X will now block older and thus vulnerable versions of Flash, forcing users to update to the latest version if they wish to view Flash-based content. In order to block older versions of the software, Apple is using its Xprotect malware scanner, which is built into Mac OS X and can spot and quarantine known malware.

The move comes roughly a month after Apple began blocking older versions of Oracle-owned Java on … Read more

The new version of the Avast security suite focuses on repairing the past mistakes of Windows. Debuting today exclusively with CNET's Download.com, Avast 8 addresses some of today's most pressing security concerns but leaves at least one other growing problem unresolved.

All told, Avast Free Antivirus 8 (download), Avast Pro Antivirus 8 (download), Avast Internet Security 8 (download) and the new top-tier suite, Avast Premier 8 (download) command upwards of 170 million active users, making Avast the most popular consumer security suite by a long shot.

Although the suite leaves privacy in the cold, the rest of … Read more

A new attack is targeting European governments through flaws exploited in Adobe's Reader software, according to security researchers.

Kaspersky Lab and CrySys Lab today detailed a new malicious program in the wild, called "MiniDuke," that has been attacking government entities and institutions across Europe. Government entities in the Ukraine, Portugal, Romania, and others have been targeted, according to the security researcher.

MiniDuke finds its way to infected computers through PDFs. The malicious hackers -- who Kaspersky believes might have been dormant for some time because of the technique's similarity to those from the late-1990s -- have … Read more