The potential path to having your mobile infected with malware has just taken a tricky turn, as we’ve detected bogus Facebook apps that illegitimately redirect mobile traffic towards Android apps. Two legitimate apps like “Lista de Verificación del Amante Ideal” and “Lista de Verificare pentru Iubit(a)” (that’s Spanish and Romanian for “Girlfriend Checklist”) have been duplicated and used to promote Android...

Law enforcement has quite an arsenal to access personal data to chase suspects, but installing remote access Trojans to pry on users’ online activity or simply sending a subpoena to the ISP is so out of fashion. According to the official announcement issued by Radio Tactics, a company that specializes in forensic software, 16 London boroughs have been equipped with the ACESO mobile device data extraction so...

Total connectivity with household appliances is a goal that only the tech-savvy or the inhabitants of futuristic houses have managed to achieve so far, but start-up Electric Imp promises to deliver it to the masses for about $25 per device. Founded by former iPhone engineering manager Hugo Fiennes, ex-Gmail designer Kevin Fox, and firmware designer Peter Hartley, the startup aims at bringing Internet connec...

Last year wasn’t called “The Year of the Hack” for nothing. Companies lost untold sums of money because of cyber attacks. In 2012, businesses still face many online threats and continue to be exploited because of lax security measures. Hackers targeted major companies including Sony, RSA Security, and Citigroup, but also governmental websites and smaller firms. Many companies could have prevented the attack...

21 year-old Gareth Crosskey has been sentenced to 12 months in jail after logging into a Facebook account without authorization. The sentence, pronounced yesterday at the Southwark Crown Court in the UK, concludes an investigation started in mid-July by the Metropolitan Police Service's Police Central e-Crime Unit. Crosskey accessed the Facebook and the private e-mail account of a US-based individual on Jan...

Mobile marketing is nothing new, given that SMS advertising and Bluetooth proximity broadcasts have been around for years, but tracking companies still have great plans for handset owners. A new startup called Euclid Elements plans to track retail shoppers by monitoring the MAC addresses their Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones broadcast usually and identify returning customers while keeping their privacy a priority...

Get your [colors of the rainbow] Facebook and its kin back in business, parallel legitimate “Timeline removal” movement just a matter of perspective Ever since the Timeline entered the social media scene, plenty of angry voices clamored for their Old Facebook in high pitched diatribes against the blasphemous Facebook account makeovers. Scammers exploited protesters’ arduous cries and went about their busine...

Smartphone battery life is a sensitive issue when OEM manufacturers start throwing hardware specs at customers, because the number of hours your device is juiced up often depends on personal usage rather than overall benchmark tests. Having a state of the art smartphone doesn’t mean it’ll stay powered up for days. It actually may mean that it comes with a lot more features to drain your battery. From tablet...

Cyber criminals are deliberately targeting small and medium businesses because lower security measures make them easier to breach. While large companies can afford to invest in state of the art security systems, small business are often exposed to hacking attacks because of their inability to invest in such assets. A study conducted in collaboration with law enforcement agencies around the world has reveale...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 26-year old Nichole Michelle Merzi from California, who was convicted of participating in a phishing scheme. As part of an official U.S.-Egyptian operation codenamed Operation Phish Phry, the woman has been identified as a member of a Los Angeles cyber-gang that caused more than $1 million in bank frauds. The six-week trial for Nichole Michelle Merzi’s conviction...