Category: What’s On

Hackers are threatening to post online a large collection of photos, including nude images, sent by Snapchat users and apparently intercepted via third-party apps, Business Insider is reporting. The number of photos in question -- at least 100,000 -- is much larger than number of the nude celebrity photos stolen from Apple's iCloud earlier this year. Many images are likely to be of users under the age of 17. Snapchat's photo messaging app lets users send and receive photos, videos and

Fast food chain Dairy Queen is pushing out a security story and it's anything but sweet. The international firm on Thursday confirmed cyber criminals hit systems at some of its DQ locations and one Orange Julius location in the United States. Dairy Queen blamed the Backoff point-of-sale malware that has been infiltrating retail systems around the country. This is the same malware that invaded Target’s systems last year, costing shareholders about $148 million.“We are committed to working with and supporting our

A decline in sales is leading Apple to make an attempt at revitalizing its iPad tablet -- possibly by introducing new models. The company plans an event Thursday, just a month after the company debuted the iPhone 6. Apple is preparing for an event near its Cupertino, California, headquarters. It will reportedly then show off new models of the iPad, as well as its Mac computers, as well as providing updates on the release of Yosemite, the next upgrade to the

For the second time since June, AT&T has acknowledged that it has been hit by an insider data breach. The telecom giant is warning consumers that an employee, who has since been fired, illegally accessed the personal information of some of its users, making off with Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers. In a letter sent to the Vermont attorney general earlier this month, AT&T officials said that employee breached its systems in August and was able to access the

Remember BadUSB? If you use a USB device to move digital files from one machine to another, you need to know the latest news on this flaw in design specs that could put your computers at risk. Attack code for this flaw, which is impossible to patch, is now public. Security researchers Brandon Wilson and Adam Caudill released two patches to existing firmware for the Phison 2251-03, and a minimal custom firmware for that same chip.But let’s back up a minute.

A hidden-away feature on Facebook Messenger appears to be ready enable users to take advantage of peer-to-peer (P2P) payments whenever Facebook decides to implement the service. Screenshots and videos of the feature were taken by Stanford computer science student Andrew Aude following a heads-up last month by digital forensic expert Jonathan Zdziarski. We reached out to Aude to learn more about how close to implementation the Messenger payment system appears to be. "It's ready to go," Aude told us. "However Facebook

If you need to handle massive amounts of computational data faster than you are now, IBM has rolled out new systems just for you. Big Blue’s Power8 portfolio now offers systems that claim to deal with data at nearly 20 percent better price for performance metrics than comparable Intel Xeon v3 processor-based systems. To be sure, IBM is pushing toward the big data computational brink in response to rising market demand. With 2.5 quintillion bytes of data generated every day, there’s

Over the past three years, Google's Android operating system has grabbed a major share of the global smartphone market. But there's more than one flavor of Android out there, and Google is increasingly finding one flavor being pitted against the other. In one corner is the truly open-source Android, which falls under the purview of Google's Android Open Source Project (AOSP). When Google launched the project in November 2007, it had no foothold in the emerging smartphone market, so anything it

People frequently use Facebook to update friends and loved ones about health issues. Now Facebook is looking for a way to make health care an integral part of the social media site. Following on the heels of Samsung and Apple, Facebook is planning to create a group of online support communities that would connect Facebook users that suffer with various afflictions. However, the online support communities are still in the conceptual stage, according to a Reuters report. During the past several

Security experts are keeping an eye on the Shellshock vulnerability, also known as the Bash (Bourne-Again Shell) bug, as a focus for malicious scanning and at least one botnet. They warn, though, that hackers haven’t even begun to test the limits of the vulnerability. The Shellshock vulnerability, also called the Bash (Bourne-Again Shell) bug, could be even an even greater threat than the Heartbleed bug. Disclosed in April, Heartbleed threw a scare into Internet users by exploiting OpenSSL cryptography vulnerabilities to

While Microsoft has had retail stores across the U.S. for many years now, it has not had a prestigious address that could compete with rival Apple's store on New York's Fifth Avenue. That will soon change.Microsoft said Monday it had signed a lease to open a flagship store at 677 Fifth Avenue. That will put it just blocks away from Apple's famed location beneath the giant, iconic glass cube sitting in front of the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth

Cisco is adding some muscle and money to its Intercloud skeleton, signing over 30 new partners to its worldwide network of interconnected clouds. The new alliances add 250 data centers in 50 countries to Intercloud. Cisco Capital,a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco, has also earmarked $1 billion in financing to the effort, providing the money so Cisco customers and partners can more quickly adopt the Cisco technologies needed to transition to Cisco-powered clouds.Deutsche Telekom, BT, NTT DATA, and Equinix are among

Apple Products May Be Scarce Around the L.A. ClippersThe Los Angeles Clippers have a new rival under [basketball team] owner Steve Ballmer, one that cannot fluster them with cheap shots on the court or end their season in heartbreaking fashion. Of course, that doesn't make Apple products such as the iPad and iPhone any less vexing to Ballmer, the longtime former Microsoft executive who famously bars his own family from using the devices of his primary technological competitor. Ballmer told Reuters on

Since the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus hit stores on September 19, the highs of Apple's record-breaking sales have been quickly overtaken by a number of lows. Just three days after Apple announced that it had sold a record 10 million new iPhones over the opening weekend, buyers soon discovered the new phones' operating system -- iOS 8 -- featured multiple bugs. A few even found a flaw in the physical phone, reporting that their devices showed signs of bending

Riding high on a backlash against Facebook, following the company’s decision to bar drag performers from registering using their stage personas, social networking startup Ello is aiming to be a giant killer. Ello, which launched in July, is promoting itself as a less exploitive version of the world’s largest social networking site. “Your social network is owned by advertisers,” Ello said in the first line of its corporate manifesto. “Every post you share, every friend you make, and every link you

In a move to tap into the vast opportunities in China's technology industry, Intel plans to invest as much as $1.5 billion for a minority stake in a holding company there. Intel is acquiring 20 percent of a Tsinghua Holdings operating subsidiary to execute its mission. Tsinghua is a solely state-owned limited liability corporation funded by Tsinghua University in China. By partnering with Tsinghua, Intel aims to expand the product offerings and adoption for Intel-based mobile devices in China and around

While security researchers are still talking about the Home Depot breach -- Jimmy John’s is reporting a possible security breach at the popular submarine sandwich chain. Recently, Home Depot confirmed that a data breach put about 56 million customer credit and debit cards at risk. In its official statement, Jimmy John's revealed its breach involved both credit and debit card data captured at some of its corporate-owned and franchised stores. Specifically, about 216 stores appear to be affected by the event.“We

Hackers have already launched attacks aimed at exploiting the Shellshock Bash bug, according to Security researchers at AusCERT and MalwareMustDie. That means administrators should patch vulnerable systems as soon as possible. Shellshock is the name given to a vulnerability that exists in GNU Bash (Bourne-Again Shell) versions 1.14 through 4.3. Unix and Linux systems -- as well as the Mac OS X (which also uses bash) -- are at risk from the bug in Bash, a commonly used command interpreter, according

As Google Chairman Eric Schmidt hit the interview trail this week to promote his new book, he addressed a number of contentious topics including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the ever-escalating battle between his company and Apple. Schmidt was on Bloomberg TV Wednesday to talk about "How Google Works: The Rules for Success in the Internet Century," a book he co-wrote with Jonathan Rosenberg. When mention was made of how customers are lining up for blocks to get Apple's new iPhone

When Apple’s new operating system debuted, some were wondering whether they should upgrade to iOS 8 right away or wait a little while to make sure the mobile operating system was stable. Others were confident the upgrade would be flawless. Now, Crittercism, a mobile analytics firm, is showing why some had pause. When Crittercism analyzed data across iOS users from September 17 to September 22, the firm discovered something rather troubling: app crashes across all devices were at 3.56 percent.That may

Call it a case of "now you see it, now you don't." Apple on Wednesday released iOS 8.0.1, hoping to appease users encountering problems after downloading iOS 8, including fast-draining batteries, Wi-Fi connection problems and crashing apps. But the tech giant quickly pulled the update after users reported even more glitches such as non-working SIM cards, i.e., not being able to connect to cellular networks, and broken Touch IDs, so they are unable to unlock their phones with their fingerprints.What exactly

How do you take sales away from a dominant company like Apple? One way might be to beat Apple’s signature product to market with one of your own. That seems to be the thinking by Samsung as it prepares to launch its new Galaxy Note 4 "phablet" ahead of schedule in China and South Korea this week. With early sales success by Apple with its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung has responded by getting its new product out in

Just when you thought the drama was over. Apple is taking the iCloud hack that revealed naked selfies of celebrities seriously, adding new security tools to keep its cloud safe. But there’s still fallout from the early-September iCloud hack. Indeed, headlines report a new wave of naked photographs of celebrities leaked online. This wave includes movie star Gabrielle Union, pop star Rihanna, Disney Channel star Vanessa Hudgens, reality TV show personality Kim Kardashian, U.S. Olympic soccer team goalie Hope Solo and

The new smartphone being introduced this week by BlackBerry will be cheaper than both the Apple iPhone 6 and the newest Samsung Galaxy edition. But will anyone notice? The BlackBerry Passport will sell for $599 without a wireless carrier contract in the U.S. Compared to various models of the iPhone 6 and Samsung's Galaxy S4 currently on sale, that’s a price cut of about $50 to $250. Prices outside the United States haven’t yet been released.One of the Passport’s distinctive features

Google has reportedly turned to HTC to develop its next Nexus tablet, the 9-inch Nexus 9. According to an article Monday in The Wall Street Journal, HTC engineers have been visiting Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, "in recent months." If true, the report is noteworthy because HTC currently focuses largely on smartphones and accessories. Its last foray into the tablet market ended in disappointment: The Android-based HTC Flyer was released in spring 2011 and was discontinued in December that same

Apple's latest additions to the iPhone family -- the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus -- went on sale in stores Friday amid reports of lines stretching 10 blocks long at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York. In addition to many other new features, the two new devices sport larger screen sizes than previous models, including the 4-inch iPhone 5 (shown above, left). The iPhone 6 offers a 4.7-inch Retina HD display (middle), while the iPhone 6 Plus

Do U.S. Internet users want the so-called "right to be forgotten" that’s been a hot topic in Europe? And is such a scenario plausible stateside? It appears those questions have very different answers.Europe’s highest court ruled last spring that individuals had the right to ask that certain online data deleted so that third parties could no longer trace them. Despite the ruling, several questions on the subject remain fuzzy, such as the fairness of holding search engines responsible for irrelevant

In an effort to make open source security tools more user friendly, Google and Dropbox announced Thursday that they have teamed up with the Open Technology Fund to form “Simply Secure." The goal of the new non-profit organization is to “help craft usably secure technologies and make them available for everyone.” This is the second time this week a major technology company has launched an open source initiative. On Monday, Facebook announced its new TODO initiative, which is focused on developing

The next generation of Google's Android operating system will have data encryption turned on by default, according to The Washington Post. This move puts Google in the same company as Apple, which this week unveiled a new privacy strategy that makes it harder for anyone but an iPhone's owner to access content on such devices. Default encryption for Android and iOS essentially takes Google and Apple out of the equation when it comes to law enforcement and government agencies' efforts to

Consumer tech firm Logitech is bringing its universal remote talents to the home control market with new home automation compatibility and a quartet of new products. Dubbed the Harmony Living Home lineup, the company is promising easy access and control over a library of both entertainment and home automation devices -- all from one central control system.Harmony Living Home lets you use your remote, tablet or smartphone to control your TV, set-top box, speakers, lighting, thermostat, door locks, window shades

Worried about the privacy of your calls and text messages to friends and family? Well, BitTorrent is publicly releasing a version of Bleep, its new peer-to-peer messaging system aimed at eliminating any potential snooping middlemen.BitTorrent, the San Francisco-based company behind the peer-to-peer protocol of the same name, began pre-alpha, invite-only testing of Bleep in late July. On Wednesday, senior product manager Jaehee Lee announced in a blog post that the company is now rolling out alpha versions of the chat

With iOS 8 now available as a free upgrade for many iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch owners, here are a few tips to keep in mind before you take the plunge. First, make sure your device is eligible for the update. Here's of the list of devices covered: iPhone 4s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPod Touch 5th generation, iPad 2, iPad with Retina display, iPad Air, iPad mini and iPad mini with Retina display.Second, back up your data, preferably using

In a move to beef up its Intercloud strategy, Cisco is acquiring a privately-held company called Metacloud. The firm deploys and operates private clouds for global organizations with an OpenStack-as-a-service model.Metacloud’s model stands out in the industry because it both delivers and remotely operates production-ready private clouds in a customer’s data center. Cisco figures the platform will accelerate its strategy to build the world’s largest Intercloud. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.InterCloud is Cisco’s relatively new hybrid cloud

As PayPal girds up to go after a big new rival in the online payment arena, it’s doing so by taking shots at that competitor’s security track record. Not long after Apple unveiled Apple Pay, its new contactless payment system, PayPal took out a newspaper advertisement slamming the new service.Apple Pay, suggests the ad, is no more safe than a selfie in the iCloud, making reference to the service's recent security breach that enabled hackers to leak nude celebrity photos.PayPal